CORPUS CHRISTI
Parish Priest – Father David B Barrett – email – olneyparishpriest@icloud.com
Parish Deacon – Rev Peter Griffin – Tel 07850499414 – email – pfgriffin@hotmail.co.uk
Parish
Administrator – Denise Wallinger Tel 01234 711212
email: ourladysolney@btconnect.com
SVP Contact – Tel 07925 125206
Parish Website: www.ourladysolney.co.uk
THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (CORPUS CHRISTI)
YEAR A
Saturday 13th June
6.30pm Vigil Mass For the people of the parish
Sunday 14th June
Sun 10.30am Mass Jack Doyle RIP
Sun 5.00pm Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Evening Prayer and Benediction
Monday 15th June: 11th Week of Ordinary Time
10.00am Mass Michael Geraghty RIP
Tuesday16th June: St Richard of Chichester, Bishop
10.00am Mass Maura Ryan Int. (In thanksgiving)
Wednesday 17th June: 11th Week of Ordinary Time
10.00am Mass Brian & Eileen Barrett Int (Wedding Anniv.)
Thursday 18th June: FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF THE CATHEDRAL
10.00am Mass Sherine Winters RIP
Friday 19th June: SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS
10.00am Mass Fr Bernard Barrett Int.
5.00pm Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Rosary & Benediction
Saturday 20th June: The Immaculate Heart of Mary
10.00am Mass Bruce Kelly RIP (4th Anniv.)
Sat 6.30pm Mass For the people of the parish
Sunday 21st June: 12th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Sun 10.30am Mass Michael Geraghty RIP
To watch the parish Liturgy on the internet, either ask Denise to email you the daily link, or go to our parish website and press the link button that reads TAKE ME THERE. Live Masses have the word LIVE printed on the picture on the screen: you click on that and you should be there. Just make sure that it is the correct Mass.
EXPOSITION, ROSARY AND BENEDICTION – every Friday at 5.00pm. We will continue to pray the Rosary after Mass each weekday.
RE-OPENING OUR CHURCH – We are hoping to open the church for private prayer for the first time on Thursday 25th June – subject to the approval of the Bishop. We will begin with opening it from 11.00am to 1.00pm on Thursdays and from 4.00pm to 6.00pm on Sundays. We wanted to begin gently to make sure that we get everything right, rather than rush into committing the parish to times we could not sustain.
The Re-opening Guidelines for our Parishioners are now available on the parish website: they are a guide to what each parishioner needs to do when they visit the church – and we ask that each visitor will comply with them. The stewards will be present to give any assistance or guidance necessary.
I am very grateful to Denise and Deacon Peter for their hard work in getting this together. Denise has been ensuring that we have all the hygiene materials and signage that we will need to comply with guidelines and she has co-ordinated the deep cleaning of the church. Deacon Peter has been organising the stewarding and will guide the stewards as to their responsibilities. A big thank you to all who have volunteered for the cleaning and stewarding. If you have any questions, please contact Denise on the parish office email or Deacon Peter on pfgriffin@hotmail.co.uk
MASS IN THE FUTURE – At present, we do not know what will be required of us when we meet again for Mass. We have some hints, but things could change. We are presuming that, if social distancing measures are still being enforced as at present, we may have to limit the numbers of those who attend each Mass and so an extra Mass on Sundays may become part of the picture for a while. If this is the case, then we might need some system for “booking people in”. We may therefore need your address details and your email address. Please do contact Denise to ensure that we have them on the system. Your details will only be used in connection with parish matters and will never be passed to any third party. Again, this scenario is only a possibility at the moment and we do not know for definite what we will be required to do. However, it is good to be reasonably prepared.
Finally, if you are aware of parishioners who do not have internet access or have no email address, please could you let us know so that we can contact them by post. The email to contact us on is: ourladysolney@btconnect.com
ANGELUS – Now that we have returned to Ordinary Time after Eastertide, we return to praying the Angelus. Traditionally the prayer is said first thing in the morning, and then at midday and finally at 6.00pm. We will pray it at the end of Mass every day.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNION – Even if you are not attending Mass, you can make a Spiritual Communion every day. It is an expressed heartfelt desire to receive Our Lord even when we are unable. In making the prayer, we receive the Lord spiritually. Here is one prayer to make a Spiritual Communion:
My Jesus, I believe that You are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as being already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
St Alphonsus Liguori
FOODBANK – Many thanks to all of you who have been supporting the Food Bank. Last week they told me that before the Coronavirus, they were packing 250 food parcels a week. Presently they are doing around 200 a day! That’s a great deal. They are very grateful for the support of people from Olney – Catholics, Anglicans and others. The donation box remains outside the presbytery door every day and is checked often. The Food Bank needs donations of goods such as
- Long Life Juice
- Long Life Milk
- Tinned Rice Pudding / Custard
- Tinned Meat
- Tinned Vegetables
- Tinned Tomatoes
- Pasta Sauce
- Spreads
PARISH SUPPORT – If
you would like to contribute, you can either put the offering through the door
of the Presbytery when you are out for a legitimate trip – if you didn’t collect
your new envelopes, just put down your old envelope number on an envelope with
your initials. If
you would prefer to set up a standing order for donations to your parish using
either your on-line bank account or in your branch, please contact Denise for
the relevant details. Any cheques should be made payable to Our
Lady Help of Christians.
MASS OFFERINGS (STIPENDS) – If you have any Mass intentions to be offered, please contact Fr David, Deacon Peter or Denise. Please do include the full name of the person for whom you want the Mass to be offered, whether they are alive or deceased.
REFLECTION ON THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI
This weekend sees the celebration of the great Solemnity of Corpus Christi. We recall Christ’s gift to the Church of His Body and Blood at the Last Supper and at every Mass. He told His apostles and all believers, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it.” However, for the past few months that is one thing that only the clergy have been able to do. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown and closure of our churches have left the people not just without Holy Communion, but without even access to our churches and chapels to pray before the Lord in the tabernacle.
We are longing for the situation to change – as clergy, to be able to celebrate Mass with our people and to distribute to them the Living Body of Christ; as lay people and religious, to receive the Lord who said that He is the Living Bread come down from heaven, without whom we cannot be truly and fully alive. Whatever we might think of the closure of the churches, the very fact that many are longing to receive Holy Communion is a sign of love for Christ, of devotion to the Eucharist.
But there is someone else who is longing for this. Jesus said as He and the apostles began the Last Supper, “I have longed to eat this Passover with you.” In the RSV translation of the Bible, it reads, “I have earnestly desired.” We may be longing for the Eucharist, but Jesus also longs for us and desires us – He longs to be received by us. One of my teachers, Fr Holloway, taught that the giving that Christ makes of Himself in the Eucharist, whereby the bread and wine truly become the Lord Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, is ultimately the goal of Christ’s human nature – His human nature alone, inseparably united to His Divinity, was predestined to be the food of full and abundant life for all mankind. To put it more simply, when Christ was born, becoming our food and drink in the Eucharist one of His chief aims. And this is shown by where He was born – Bethlehem means House of Bread; and He was laid in a manger – basically a kind of stall where food would be placed for animals to eat. The town where He was born, His first bed as a baby are symbols that Jesus is our Bread of Life.
When we return to pray in our churches, and eventually to receiving the Lord in Holy Communion, we can become more conscious that our longing for the Lord is met and surpassed by His longing for us. In John’s Gospel, we are told that Jesus does not just say but cries out, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who believes in me” (Jn 7:37-38). This longing is not because of any lack in Himself. Through Him and for Him we were created in love: His all-consuming love is what provokes this desire to be our Food; He wants to ensure that we are not lacking the Food we need for eternal life. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). Through the Divine Eucharist He continues to do this and serves us with Himself.
When we pray again before the Blessed Sacrament, either in the tabernacle or at Exposition, we can be aware not just that we are looking at the Lord: He is also looking at us, gazing at us, in His Risen humanity present at the altar. He sees us as we truly are. He longs to heal us and to feed us with Himself. He knows us from the outside in and the inside out. He cries out, “Come to me!” He is our Teacher, our Lord, our true Master – but He still wants our love for Him to be intimate. “I shall not call you servants any more… I call you friends” (Jn 15:15). His eyes and our eyes should meet and our hearts be enfolded in His Heart.
This profound intimacy and love means that, in receiving Him, we do not just accept Him into ourselves; we are also received by Him into Himself. The goal of the Incarnation was a real Communion with Jesus Christ. At Holy Communion, we are really membered to the one who is the Head of all creation. He enters our little bit of creation when we receive him; but, at the same time, we also enter into heaven, into Him who is the Temple of the New Jerusalem. We are still within the limits of history and so cannot enter there fully – but Holy Communion is the real beginning of the fullness which will be brought to consummation when God is all in all at the end of time.
May we soon be able to receive our Saviour again together.
May Our Lady, Help of Christians, St Joseph, St Lawrence and St Rita pray for us all.
With my love and prayers,
Fr David B Barrett
Parish Priest