MESSAGE ON ‘THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD’ SUNDAY (YR B)
Friday 10th May 2024
My dear people,
Our Parish Town Hall for 2024 took place yesterday. A big thank you to all those who were present. It was good to be able to report to you the financial situation of the parish, and to give an update of what has happened in terms of the activities in our parish. I also reiterated the importance of the path of missionary renewal the parish is on to do all we can to give everyone the opportunity to have an encounter with Our Lord. The material presented will be made available as part of the next monthly update from the PLT.
Yesterday was the Feast of St George Preca. All the students from St George Preca Catholic Primary School were here for Mass at 12pm. It is not possible to articulate how wonderful it is to have the whole school here for Mass. One of my greatest desires is that every one of our students in our primary schools has a deep and meaningful relationship with Our Lord and seeing them here to worship our awesome God together really brings me immense joy. As mentioned before, we had the privilege of having the community of Christ the Priest Catholic Primary School on 26th April, which brought me the same joy.
There is a wonderful team of parishioners who hand deliver all the thanksgiving envelopes which are not collected at the time of distribution and letters for those on direct debit. I would like to sincerely thank you on behalf of the whole parish for this important work that you do. I am very grateful for your generosity in giving your time to do this. Also, many of you have returned your Project Compassion boxes and I thank you for that. Those of you who have requested a receipt, please be advised that these are available for collection in the sacristy. You simply need to ask me for them.
Our Evangelisation Coordinator, Ann O’Brien, has requested to reduce her working hours at the parish, from 20 to 8 hours per week commencing 20th May. She will remain our Evangelisation Coordinator. Ann and I have discussed her role with the reduced hours and she will concentrate solely on evangelisation and missionary renewal. How the rest of her role will be managed will be discerned by the PLT in the next few weeks. As usual, we welcome input from parishioners.
When we first discussed the Marian Pilgrimage to Europe, it seemed quite a long while away. Time has passed very quickly and it is now eleven days away. On 21st May, 29 pilgrims and I will “set sail” for Europe. Since we will spend time at Marian Shrines and in Siena, the place where our Patron Saint lived, we have a prayer petition box next to the statue of Our Lady. You are invited to place your petitions in the box and I will take the box with me throughout our pilgrimage and pray for your intentions daily.
I take this opportunity to wish all the mothers in our community a very Happy Mother’s Day. Mothers have received a truly marvellous vocation from God and for that we need to thank him. We continue to pray that he will give them, and indeed others who take on motherhood, the strength and courage to continue with their vocation at times when being a mother is trying but also rewarding. Let us also pray that God provides them with more times of joy and solace. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers.
Finally, our next Leadership Summit for 2024 will take place next Thursday 16th May. As I have mentioned on other occasions, the purpose of our Leadership Summits is to help grow our ministry coordinators as leaders and raise up future leaders aligned to missionary renewal. We ask for your prayers, that through our summits, our current and future leaders will continue to hear and respond to God’s call and their role in continuing to grow a vibrant, vital and faithful parish community.
We continue turning to our patron saint and we ask for her intercession.
St Catherine of Siena, Pray for us.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr Richard Rosse PP