Message From Fr. Vin
30th October 2011
The Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time - 30th October 2011
If it is Sunday and you are wondering where everyone else is: you must have forgotten to put your clock back one hour at 2.00am this morning!
In the readings today, the Lord criticises the authorities for laying the law upon the shoulders of others but not keeping it themselves. We have a responsibility to ensure that there is no hypocrisy in the way in which we present ourselves as examples of his disciples.
Practice what you preach!
We preach the Gospel not only by what we say but also by what we do. The two must be the same.
On Friday 28th October 1911 (as recorded on p15 of the Archdiocesan Directory) the fourth bishop of Liverpool, Bishop Thomas Whiteside, became the first Archbishop of Liverpool, and the Roman Catholic diocese of Liverpool became the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Liverpool; one hundred years ago this past week.
The month of November is a time when we traditionally turn our minds to the faithful departed., remembering all those who have gone before us ‘marked with a sign of the faith’ During November I will offer one weekend Mass and two of my weekday Masses for all the names on the November Lists. If you would like me to include your intentions in these Masses, then simply write them down on the sheet provided in the porch from today and place them in an envelope along with whatever offering you may wish to make. A box containing the intentions will be placed on the sanctuary area throughout the month of November.
We will begin to use “The Parish Book” from the First Sunday of Advent. These books will contain all the prayers and readings for the three year cycle. We will need to order 400 sets of six books at a cost of about £25.00 each set. Those wishing to donate this amount may have the name of a deceased relative or a prayer intention: i.e. “Please pray for Vocations” or “Please pray for the intentions of…” in all six books in the set which means someone will see your intention at every weekend Mass over the three year cycle. Please make cheques payable to “Parish of St John Vianney” and enclose the intention you wish to be inscribed in the books.
Carolyn and I are working on producing a Parish Directory for January. Could we ask the leader/co-coordinators of our various groups and rotas to provide us with a list of people and their contact details, ASAP please? Who do people contact if they want to be a catechist? Receive a home visit? Clean the church? Visit the piety shop etc. etc.
It will also be useful to have prayers for the dying etc. in the Directory for when families cannot get a priest at short notice.
Any other ideas for the Directory, or other items for discussion, will be welcome for the next parish Council meeting which is on Tuesday 10th November at 6.00pm in the annex.
I'm pleased to be able to tell you that work has finally begun on updating the web site and we have someone to edit it on a regular basis.
