4th Sunday in Ordinary Time 30.01.2022
MASS TIMES AND INTENTIONS
Sun 30th Jan
8.30 am People of the Parish
10 am Susan Wren, RIP
12 noon Joseph Brennan, intentions
Mon 31st Jan St John Bosco, Priest
10 am Nora Madden, intentions
Tues 1st Feb Feria
10 am Susan Wren, RIP
Weds 2nd Feb NO MASS
Thurs 3rd Feb Ss Laurence, Dunstan and Theodore, Archbisops of Canterbury
10 am Peter Sartori, RIP
Fri 4th Feb Feria
10 am Mary Brennan, intentions
Sat 5th Feb 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
5 pm Virginia Goldswain, 20th anniversary
10am – 11am; 4:30pm – 5pm: Confessions and Exposition
Your Prayers:
Let us keep in our prayers: Frank Kilbride, Kathleen Lancaster, John O’Shea, Rekha, Bina, Gale Yates, Jose Luis Pérez, Alice, Michael O Boy, Lilian Murphy, Karina McKiernan and Izabela Lissowska – all unwell at this time. Please add the Dixon family to your intentions. We also pray for Hugh Daniel Doherty, Fr Dominic Byrne, Peter Sartori, Arthur Palmer, Noel Ryan, Donato Merola, Aurora Lobo–Buckland, Larry Tuohy, Elizabeth O’Sullivan, Monica Thomson, Christine Pavlou, Tom Lohan, Dennis Lennane, Vincenzo Gagliardi, Verna Duffy, Susan Wren and Albertina Alves who have all died recently. May they Rest in Peace.
Offertory Collection
Fr Peter writes: “The ordinary offertory collection in church for week ending 23rd January £ 839.52. All contributions, every penny, is greatly received and I am very grateful for your continued support at this difficult time. Please do not forget, that arranging a standing order is the easiest way to support St Mary’s.
Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School N12 - Applications for Nursery
Applications are invited for the Nursery for the Academic Year starting September 2022. This is for children born between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2020. The deadline to return this to the school office is 31st January 2022. Please contact the office or visit the school website for an application pack
Nursery Application Forms:
Fr Peter writes: “If your child needs their Catholic Certificates of Practice” stamped and signed, please attend one of the Sunday Masses with your child, bringing their nursery school application forms. Please make sure you have completed address and dates of birth before coming to see me.”
Save the Date!
On Sunday 15th May 2022, Cardinal Vincent Nichols is coming to St Mary’s to celebrate a special Mass in commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the blessing of the church foundation stone. Please reserve the date in your diary.
Were you there?
70 years is not that long ago. Were you or a member of your family at St Mary’s in 1952 when its foundation stone was blessed? Please make contact with Fr Peter so he can gather first hand reflections for St Mary’s 70th anniversary year.
The return of Lectio Divina:
Zoomed “Lectio Divina” will return on Monday 31st January from 7:30pm – 8:30pm. “Lectio” involves reading, reflecting and discussing the gospel passage used each Sunday at Mass. Please email Fr Peter if you want to be part of the “Lectio Team” and take part in the zoom.
Volunteering…
Fr Peter writes: “Nothing happens at St Mary’s without the support and hard work of volunteers. If you have a skill (a singer, a musician, have an eye for decoration etc) please let me know and I can add you to the list of wonderful people who provide St Mary’s with terrific practical support.
With the advent of Wall repairs I am looking for a parishioner who has experience completing and submitting grant applications.
Confirmations at St Mary’s:
Bishop John will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on 18 of our young adults at the 5pm Mass on Saturday 12th February. If this is your normal Sunday Mass, you may like to choose another on the weekend of the 12th/13th February. Let us keep the confirmation candidates, their families, their sponsors and their catechists in our prayers over the next month.
The return of the Monday Senior Citizens Club:
Now that the latest Covid variant seems to have peaked in London, the senior citizens can return to the well ventilated “small hall” for teas and coffees after the Monday morning 10am Mass…. from 31st January. Donations of cakes and biscuits are very welcome.
.St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School – Applications for Sixth Form Entry in September 2022 open until 28 February
St Michael’s is a place of intellectual exploration and achievement and every year our students achieve outstanding A Level results which enable them to open doors to the most prestigious universities and courses. St Michael’s has a large and vibrant Sixth Form which welcomes significant numbers of new students who have studied their GCSEs elsewhere. It is an academic school which offers A Level courses only in the Sixth Form. If you are interested in applying for a Sixth Form place at St Michael’s please take a look at the virtual open evening on our website https://www.st-michaels.barnet.sch.uk/new-sixth-form-page/virtual -sixth-form-open-evening/
Applications can be made online through the APPLY NOW button.
Pope’s Prayer Intention for February…..
…..for religious sisters and consecrated women; thanking them for their mission and their courage; that they continue to find new responses to the challenges of our times.
Mission Appeal
The Mission Appeal due to take place at all Masses this weekend has been cancelled.
Inconsequential thoughts…
In the Mediterranean world of antiquity everyone had a proper place that was established by birth. No one was ever expected to become something better than or to improve on the lot of the parents.
This fact is the basic foundation of honour, the public claim to worth, and the public acknowledgement of that worth by others. Each child inherits, carries on, and is expected to safeguard the family’s honour. In today’s reading Jesus is perceived by others in his village to be stepping shamefully beyond his family boundaries. The event as Luke reports it reflects the tensions this kind of behaviour would raise in any tiny Mediterranean village. It is customary in the Mediterranean for a son to carry on his father’s trade and his grandfather’s name.
Jesus stirs controversy at the very least because he does not seem to be carrying on Joseph’s trade. He is doing something different. This is a breach of family honour not readily countenanced in the Mediterranean world.
Rubbing salt into the wound opened by his insulting behaviour (preaching in his hometown, healing elsewhere), Jesus inserts himself into the prophetic line of Elijah and Elisha.
Like them he preaches to Gentiles, non-Judeans, people not of his own kind.
To direct his healing activities to such rather than to those of his hometown (very likely blood relatives) is to transgress very seriously against family honour.
It is small wonder that these townspeople became filled with rage and wanted to kill him. Honour in the Mediterranean world is a matter of life and death.
The shocking behaviour of the adult Jesus is difficult for some of us to appreciate. In our culture children are expected to do better than their parents and live as independent human beings.
Jesus is fearless and upends convention for the good of God and of others.
How often do we do that?