The church is open all day from dawn till dusk. Tea and coffee are served after the 10.00 a.m. Mass on Sunday. "In those days, ten people of nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say: 'We want to go with you since we have learned that God is with you.'" SUNDAY JANUARY 28TH 2007 FOURTH WEEK OF THE YEAR | |||||||||
Rest in Peace: It came as a great shock to learn of the sudden death of John Bottery on Tuesday night. He had been in Hull Royal for a couple of weeks, very poorly but we were all hoping for the best. Sadly it was not to be. John and Margaret married fifty-three years ago and then came to live in Cottingham. Our thoughts today are with Margaret and their two daughters, Susan and Tina and their husbands, Gary and Ol and the four grandchildren, Daniel, Joe, Anna and Ilona. Please also keep in your prayers Ron and Joan Bottery's grandson Matthew who died suddenly in Scotland this past week, aged 24. His funeral was on Friday. John will be received into Holy Cross on Tuesday at the 7.00 p.m. Mass and his Requiem Mass will be at 11.00 a.m. on Wednesday. We also heard this week that Fr. Peter Konteh's mother in Sierra Leone has died. We assure him of our prayers at this sad time. Peter runs the orphanage at Bo and it's fitting that Margaret has asked for donations to the Orphanage in lieu of flowers. John had a great love of children.
TWELVE days to go! My arms are like pincushions with the numbers of inoculations I've had recently (but thanks to parishioner Sr. Margaret at the practice I never felt a thing!). And look what I read in The Lonely Planet Guide to healthy travel in Africa! Listing the hospitals where you'd find good treatment in every African country, this is what it has to say about Sierra Leone (and I quote) – "For anything serious, you'll need to go out of the country." Makes you feel confident! Elizabeth Rodgers writes: "Dear Fr. Pat, just letting you know that the £200 profit from the Repository Stall (from 15/12/2004 – 21/12/06 has been donated to the Bo Orphanage in Sierra Leone." We will deliver it personally, Elizabeth!
Rest in Peace: Fr. Jim Hughes who often said Mass for us whilst I'd be away, died suddenly on Sunday night in Hull Royal. He was 78 and retired from full-time parish ministry ten years ago due to ill health. He told me that these past ten years had been the most fruitful and enjoyable of his priesthood as he was finally able to do what he had been ordained to do – say Mass and administer the sacraments (with none of the administration to get in the way). Most of Jim's priesthood was spent in the Hull area starting at St. Bede's as a curate, then Sacred Heart, Ss. Peter and Paul's, Our Lady of Lourdes, Hessle and finally Pocklington where he was from 1986 – 1995. He retired back to Hessle and from there he helped out in many of the Hull parishes, active every weekend. In fact I had thought of asking him to step in here for our trip to Sierra Leone! Jim had a great sense of humour and was a very gentle, kind man and I never heard him say a bad word about anybody (not usual for priests!). Jim's remains will be received into Hessle Church on Monday at 7.00 p.m. and his Requiem Mass will be at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Sick and Housebound Parishioners and Carers: Michael and Sallie Pinder (haven't forgotten you!), Mary Wood in St. Catherine's, Pat and Mary Falvey, Betty Eagan, Willy Parker, Chris Leech, Fr. Tony, Jean Rowlands, Sister Teresa Brittain
"He even did a role play of how they should behave; he poured water into a bowl and, tying a towel around his waist, he went round and washed his disciples' feet. What was he saying, with this dramatic symbolism...? He was showing us that loving is inseparable from service and that we must not stand on our dignity, but must humble ourselves and do menial, earthy, bodily tasks for our brothers. To put it bluntly, he was saying we must feed the hungry and clothe the naked – and not only that: we must clear the drunkard's throat of vomit and turn him on his side so that he does not choke and we must clear up the foul excreta of those whose bodies are so ravaged by disease that they cannot care for themselves. By this shall people know we are his disciples, not by veils or dog collars, cathedrals or statues to the Virgin." (Sheila Cassidy – Good Friday People 1991)
Gifts: Many, many thanks to the person who this week gave me a cheque for one hundred pounds "to dispose of on a project of your choice in Freetown. Please do not acknowledge."
And also for the many other things you've donated recently for us to bring with us. It will be so lovely to see the faces of the people when we give them to them. Much of the sports equipment will be packed and shipped out when we return. We'll take many of the individual shirts etc. as gifts for the moment. But do keep the 'stuff' coming in. It will al get there sooner or later.
Gorgeous Georg's Priestly Chic inspires a new Versace show:
Priestly chic has hit the catwalk in Milan, with Pope Benedict's pin-up personal secretary inspiring the latest collection by Donatella Versace. Fr. Georg Ganswein, or Gorgeous Georg to his admirers, represents a triumph of 'more brain and less muscle', according to Miss Versace, who sent blond models down the catwalk with clerical black jackets and priestly white shirts. "I was certainly inspired by him," she said. "I find his austerity very elegant. It is the right moment to show an ethical and spiritual man, free from all those pointless details. I also like the Gregorian garb." She said her ideal man has biceps but "looks for his inside quality and trains it up, the muscles of the soul." A female journalist at La Stampa gushed "he is simply beautiful. He is the best news to come out of the Vatican." The austere and conservative priest, whose hair is now raffishly flecked with grey (like mine!), fanned the flames of his female fans, who call themselves the Georgiste, by admitting that he had crushes on girls when he was younger. (Georgeous Georg versus Pretty Pat?). Could there be a story there? Maybe not!
Candlemas Day: This coming Friday and the last day of the Christmas Season! (Will we have the lights down by then?). Traditionally we bless the candles that we will use in the church during the coming year and then on the following day, the Feast of St. Blaise, we have the traditional Blessing of the Throats, still carried on here. Candlemas marks the Feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple and also the Purification of Mary.
HHARP Donation: I sent off to the Hull Homeless and Rootless Project the sum of £1051.56, made up from the £886 you gave at the two Christmas Masses and the rest from the envelopes in the porch. Especially at this time of the year they are most appreciative of any help we can offer. And can I thank Gerry Baker for doing the 'food run' every fortnight with the groceries etc. you bring to Mass.
Book Sale after Sunday morning Mass in The Garden Room. You can leave any unwanted books in the porch. Gwendoline Percival runs a small Internet Book Agency and she can get most things you'd not be able to find elsewhere.
The Amnesty Concert is this Tuesday in The Ferens Art Gallery at 7.30 p.m. You can still get a ticket costing £15 from either Marian Hall on 843948 or Fr. Tony on 447893. The programme ranges from Gershwin, Faure, Elgar, Donizetti and Bach. (Get the joke?)
The Importance of Scripture: A priest went visiting one afternoon. He knocked on the door several times but no-one answered. He could see through the window that the TV was on, so he took one of his cards and wrote "Rev. 3:20 – Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open I will come in." – on it and put it through the letterbox. The following Sunday, a woman handed him a card with her name on it and the following message. "Genesis 3:20 – "I heard thy voice and I was naked – so I hid myself."
Next Week's Readings:
First Reading: Isaiah 6: 1 – 8
Psalm: 137
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15: 1 – 11
Gospel: Luke 5: 1 – 11
Counters next week: Betty and Dennis Gilson
Next week: Teresa and Les Ulyatt
Quilts for the Orphanage at Bo: I hardly believe it but they're nearly all done! We're having the last push this week. So if you've time to help (and no experience necessary) come along to The Garden Room on Tuesday from 1 – 4 p.m. and/or Friday from 10 – 1 p.m. A huge thank you to everyone who has helped in any way! The finished ones are vacuum-packed and what a difference it makes when packing them!
A Memorable Put-down: "I never go to church," a member of the gentry once boasted to the Bishop of Durham. "Perhaps you've noticed that, Bishop?" "Yes, I have noticed," the Bishop replied. "I don't go because there are so many hypocrites who do," the man continued. "You shouldn't let them keep you away," the Bishop assured him. "There's always room for one more."
First Communion Children: It was lovely to see them last Sunday as they presented their prayer companions to us. And they are:
Honour Wilbourne – Auntie Jackie; Ben Shortland – Grandma Anne; Daniel Maughan – Jean Dex; Catherine Kilkenny – Dad Paul; Imogen Barber – Vanessa Wilbourne and Philip Croft – Rachel Synott, his Godmother (not grandmother!).
"If one sees a man struggling in the bottom of a well, one's natural impulse is to pull him out. If a man is starving, one's natural inclination is to share one's food with him. Surely it is only on second thoughts that we don't do these things? Society seems to me to be like an organised system of rather second thoughts." (LM Myers – "The Pool of Vishnu")
Mass Intentions for the coming week:
Saturday – 6.30 – Angela Jones (RIP)
Sunday – 10.00 – Johannes Schlosser (20th Anniv.)
Monday – 9.00 – Stuart Buchan (RIP)
Tuesday – 7.00 – John Bottery (Reception of John's body).
Wednesday – 11.00 a.m. – Requiem Mass for John.
Thursday – 9.00 – Madge Wheelhouse (RIP)
Friday – 9.00 – Dorothy Hall
Saturday – 9.00 – The Parishioners
Saturday – 6.30 – Williams Family Intentions
Sunday – 10.00 – Ken Long
Anniversaries this coming week:
Saturday – Alfred Haughey (Mike's father) and Agnes Spaven.
Sunday – Phyllis Wackett.
Monday – Maureen Woods-McConville (Tony's sister).
Tuesday – Harry Park (J Gray's father), Mona Ulyatt (Les's mother) and Margaret Howdle.
Wednesday – Elizabeth Parker-Gott (Ray's grandmother) and Kath Frank.
Thursday – Peter McNicholas (John's brother) and Francis Kedward (Ros Durkin's father).
Friday – Ernest Taylor, George Sallis (Monica Cook's father) and William Barron.
Saturday – Robert Jackson (Phil's father) and Margaret Brittain (Patrick's mother).
Sunday – Fulgenci Navarro (Carmen's father) and Muriel Wilson (Elsie Murphy's sister).
Sister Wendy (The Arty Nun) on Prayer: "Prayer is prayer if we want it to be. At a practical level this requires us to make a slice of time available each day. Not seven hours, but most of us can manage a 10-minute silence. It may have to be in the lavatory, or the bath, or the car, or standing at the station, or when the baby's just gone to sleep. If you can spent it sitting quietly, I rejoice with you. Perhaps too we may have developed a romantic idea of what 'peace' means for nuns or monks who dedicate their lives to prayer. They are still human, troubled by sickness and nagging worries. Your prayer may be tormented by the thoughts of your mortgage, of your child's problems at school. All too often people say, 'I was too sick to pray,' or 'I was too worried to pray.' Rather we should say, 'My prayer today is of a sick and worried person.' You bring these tensions to your prayer and turn away from them to God. That may mean a turning away at every second. It will not be a restful prayer, but it's peaceful prayer, because that is your choice. The essential you – what makes you tick - wants only him, and will never be damaged." Sr. Wendy insists that we should come to prayer having taken some interest in God between times. That must mean reading about him, and remembering him during the day. And it would be madness not to make use of things such as verbal prayers or a psalm read thoughtfully, or a meditation on a scene such as the child Jesus in the crib, if they bring us before God in a recollected way. But everyone is different, and what Sr. Wendy insists on is the importance of choosing to pray. "Not to pray, not to be a true Christian, is to declare a reluctance to live life to the full. It is the choice of a small, warm, selfish life. It would be like Rembrandt refusing to paint because he could live on his wife's money."
Sr. Wendy started to live alone in a small caravan in the grounds of the Carmelite Convent at Quidenham in Norfolk in 1971. She spends seven hours a day in prayer, starting at 1.30 a.m. She does not mix with the nuns who have kindly given her the quiet she needs. Her life is regular; each day she has the same meals of cold vegetables. As a nun she taught children for 20 years before that.
(Sister Wendy on Prayer [Continuum] £12.99)
