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
12TH SUNDAY OF YEAR A
Saturday 20th June
6.30pm Vigil Mass For the people of the parish
Sunday 21st June
Sun 10.30am Mass Michael Geraghty RIP
Monday 22nd June: Feast of Ss John Fisher & Thomas More, Martyrs
10.00am Mass Meg & Alan Briggs RIP
Tuesday23rd June: St Etheldreda, Abbess
10.00am Mass Breda Cunnine RIP
Wednesday 24th June: SOLEMNITY OF THE NATIVITY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
10.00am Mass Aileen Nesbitt RIP (Anniv.)
Thursday 25th June: 12th Week of Ordinary Time
10.00am Mass Tom Moore RIP (Anniv. 24/6/2013)
Friday 26th : 12th Week of Ordinary Time
10.00am Mass Patrick & Sarah Hannahan RIP (Anniv.)
5.00pm Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Rosary & Benediction
Saturday 27th June: St Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop & Doctor
10.00am Mass Throckmorton Family RIP
SOLEMNITY OF SS PETER & PAUL, APOSTLES
Sat 6.30pm Mass For the people of the parish
Sunday 28th June: SOLEMNITY OF SS PETER & PAUL, APOSTLES
Sun 10.30am Mass Jean Griffin 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 – Our church will be opening for private prayer for the first time this Thursday 25th June. 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: it has been a lot of work and I am deeply grateful. Deacon Peter has been organising the stewarding, explaining to the stewards as to their responsibilities: in the middle of his own loss in losing his mother, this has been deeply generous. 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 FOR THE FEAST OF SS JOHN FISHER & THOMAS MORE
This week I have taken the reflection from the beautiful letter that St Thomas More wrote to his daughter Meg while he was in prison. We celebrate his Feast Day, together with St John Fisher, this Monday 22nd June.
Although I know well, Margaret, that because of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by God, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness. His grace has strengthened me until now and made me content to lose goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience. God’s grace has given the king a gracious frame of mind towards me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God. Either he shall keep the king in that gracious frame of mind to continue to do me no harm, or else, if it be his pleasure that for my other sins I suffer in this case as I shall not deserve, then his grace shall give me the strength to bear it patiently, and perhaps even gladly.
By the merits of his bitter passion joined to mine and far surpassing in merit for me all that I can suffer myself, his bounteous goodness shall release me from the pains of purgatory and shall increase my reward in heaven besides.
I will not mistrust him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to him for help. And then I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning.
And if he permits me to play Saint Peter further and to fall to the ground and to swear and forswear, may God our Lord in his tender mercy keep me from this, and let me lose if it so happen, and never win thereby! Still, if this should happen, afterwards I trust that in his goodness he will look on me with pity as he did upon Saint Peter, and make me stand up again and confess the truth of my conscience afresh and endure here the shame and harm of my own fault.
And finally, Margaret, I know this well: that without my fault he will not let me be lost. I shall, therefore, with good hope commit myself wholly to him. And if he permits me to perish for my faults, then I shall serve as praise for his justice. But in good faith, Meg, I trust that his tender pity shall keep my poor soul safe and make me commend his mercy.
And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.
May Our Lady, Help of Christians, St Joseph, St Lawrence, Ss John Fisher and Thomas More and St Rita pray for us all.
With my love and prayers,
Fr David B Barrett
Parish Priest