EIGHTH SUNDAY OF YEAR A:
(Day for the Unemployed)
25th/26th February 2017


Dear Parishioners,

THE EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (Year A)

MATTHEW 6: 24 - 34

God's love for his people is like the steadfast love of a mother for her child - only greater (Isaiah 49: 14 - 15). In the Gospel Jesus reminds us that we are God's precious children. The knowledge of this should free us from fretting and worrying. Worry is essentially distrust in God. Such distrust may be understandable in a heathen who believes in a jealous, capricious, unpredictable god; but not in one who has learned to call God by the name of the Father. The Christian must put his future in the hands of and pray only for the modest needs of today.

Have a very happy and Holy Lent. I offer my support and prayers to you all.

God bless

Deacon Kevin

THE HOLY FATHER'S PRAYER INTENTION for March,
Support for Persecuted Christians, 'That persecuted Christians may be supported by the prayers and material help of the whole Church.'

Thoughts for Lent:

Lent is a season of Christian Year where Christians focus on simple living, prayer and fasting in order to grow close to God. It is the forty days before Easter. Lent excludes Sundays because every Sunday is like a little Easter.

At the Ash Wednesday service the Priest or the Deacon marks the sign of the cross on a person's forehead with ashes. In Jewish and Christian history, ashes are a sign of mortality and repentance. Mortality, because when we die, our bodies eventually decompose and we become dust. Repentance, because long ago, when people felt remorse for something they did, they put ashes on their head and wore "sackcloth" to remind them that sin is pretty uncomfortable and leads to a sort of death of the spirit. This was their way of confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness. The ashes we use come from on what we now call Palm Sunday. Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem while people waved palms and cheered him on. Less than a week later, Jesus was killed. The palms that were waved in joy became ashes of sorrows. We get ashes for Ash Wednesday by saving the palms from Palm Sunday, burning them, and mixing them with a little oil. During Lent we shall have a reconciliation service in the parish and visiting priests available for the sacrament of Confession.

Some suggestions for Lent:


Notices:

Please remember to pray for:

The sick and housebound

Those who have recently died: George Fardell

Years Mind:
Sunday: Fr Jules van Meenen, Fr Clifford Beecroft
Monday: Fr David Chapman
Tuesday: Fr John Wall
Saturday: Fr Patrick O'Donnell, Fr Brian Galvin, Fr Francis Hastings
Sunday: Fr Malachy Kelly


Next Sunday - First Sunday of Lent Year A

First Reading Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
The creation and sin of our first parents.

Second Reading Romans 5:12-19
However great the number of sins committed, grace was even greater.

Gospel Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus fasts for forty days and is tempted.