Sunday, August 5th 2012 Eighteenth Sunday of the Year
THE FAMILY OF HOLY CROSS
3 CARRINGTON AVENUE, COTTINGHAM, EAST YORKSHIRE HU16 4DU
Twinned with Star of the Sea Parish: Juba, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Tel: 01482 847763 Fax: 01482 845225 email: fatherpat@holycrosscottingham.org.uk Website: holycrosscottingham.org.uk
Parish Priest: Father Pat Day BA BD
Masses: Vigil Mass: Sat 6.30 pm; Sun: 10 am; Requiem Mass: Fri: 11 am; Mon to Sat: 9 am, except Tues: 7 pm
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: Saturday after the 9 am Mass until Benediction at 6 pm
Holy Cross is open all day from dawn till dusk. Tea and coffee are served in the Garden Room after the 10 am Mass on Sunday.
Sunday, August 5th 2012 Eighteenth Sunday of the Year
Every kind of relationship goes through a number of stages of development irrespective of whether it’s a personal relationship or a professional one. We begin by meeting the other, we decide fairly quickly whether or not we like them, we try to get to know a little about them by asking non-threatening questions, and as time goes by we develop a level of trust and deepen the relationship or else we bring it to an end. If there is no trust, if we never arrive at that stage, then there will be no real relationship at all. And I think that what is at the very core of the Gospel today is an invitation to trust. In recent weeks in the Gospels at Mass, Jesus has been attempting to establish a relationship with the people. He has been teaching them, then he fed them miraculously and now today he is inviting them to put their trust in him. The people wanted hard and fast rules; they wanted black and white answers as to how they were to relate to God. They wanted to be able to tick all the boxes and say: ‘I’ve done all that so therefore my relationship with God is a healthy one.’ What Jesus wants them to do, however, is to believe in him and trust that through him they will develop their relationship with God. Looking back on their history, as we can see from today’s First Reading, they could see that in times past God was close to the people and always provided what they needed and in particular God saw to it that they always had enough to eat each day no matter how much they collected and attempted to store the previous day. Here we are, so many generations later, and through the Liturgy of the Word at this celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus is inviting us into a deeper relationship with him now – and trust is the element of that relationship he is asking us to focus on today.
Mass Intentions for the coming week:
Sat 6.30 pm Keith Brown Fri 9 am Norah Ledger (RIP)
Sun 10 am Mrs Middleton 11 am Requiem Mass for Nick Norton
Mon 9 am May and Herbert Green (A) Sat 9 am The Parishioners
Tues 7 pm Gwyneth Thomson (Stinson) RIP 6.30 pm Dominic and Sheilagh Priest
Wed 9 am George and Lily Smith and family Sun 10 am Gladys Rait-Warren (RIP)
Thurs 9 am Geoff and Anne Land in Thanksgiving (Malcolm Stout’s mother)
Anniversaries: Sat: Eily Flanagan; Sun: Edna Fowlston, Michael F McKeown; Tues: Louisa Courtenay; Wed: Sarah Jane Clarke, George Dyas, Mary Alice Stock, Ethel Cundy; Fri: Winifred Armitstead, Felix (Phil) Donald Milsom;
Sun: Patsy (Patricia) Smith.
Next Sunday counters: Teresa Ulyatt and John Gray Next Sunday tea/coffee: Louise and Sandra
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ From Father Pat_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
“Rest in peace: Nick Norton, (66), brother of Steve and John, and cousin of Jim, passed away suddenly in Castle Hill Hospital on Monday afternoon. Margaret his wife had passed away a few years ago and recently Nick had been fighting against cancer. Nick’s Requiem Mass will be at 11 am this coming Friday followed by cremation at Haltemprice.
Parish People: Where to start? What about with Anne Duckles who celebrated a Big Birthday last Saturday and who went to Mass somewhere else? There’s no escape Anne! Congratulations from us all especially your Saturday evening friends. Her niece Kate Marsden, a staff nurse on Ward 22, owned up to Anne and confessed that she had let the secret out of the bag. It wasn’t Maureen! Another birthday last Sunday: Ben Anderson, son of Victoria and Mike, celebrated his 8th Birthday. Tony Corcoran had his 65th birthday last week also. Lauren Burns celebrates her 21st birthday this coming weekend. This weekend sees Anne and Keith (Sunday morning Mass attenders) celebrate their 44th Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations from us all. Keep in your prayers Doctor James, Clare and Abbie; Clare goes into hospital on Monday for a c-section and another addition to the family. Remember, the birth of a child is God’s way of saying that he believes the world should go on. And what a lovely photograph of Dominic Ward, head of shipping and transport at Andrew Jackson, in Tuesday’s Mail! Not to be outdone, I starred in The Mail along with several parishioners, on Wednesday! Our sympathy goes to Margrit Healy whose cousin Moira Banks died in York during the week, just three weeks short of her 100th birthday! Finally, we welcome back all our Olympians from their exertions in London. I managed a bit of the Beach Volley Ball on TV but wasn’t too impressed. Not too sorry I didn’t get a ticket, unlike Martin, Anthony, Fr John, Malcolm, Alex and Chris et alia!
Back to Church Sunday: By now you know all about it. There are packs of invitation cards in the porch if you’d like to try. We’ll have the precise dates of the various “services” next week. And remember what Rev Nick said: “The best measure of ‘success’ would be if even one parishioner felt more confident about being able to offer an invitation. The confidence to offer such an invitation is – in a very real sense – more important than the response which that invitation receives.”
Priests meet to discuss reform: More than 70 Catholic priests gathered in London last week to call for reform of the Church in England and Wales. The group met at an Anglican church to call for a greater role for the laity, a theology of sexuality rooted in “experiences of the faithful” and to discuss their concern about the bypassing of the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on collegiality by the Roman Curia. Organisers decided to call the meeting following the volume of responses they received to a letter published in The Tablet on June 2, signed by seven priests. The meeting, entitled “A Call to Action”, heard from theologian Mary Gray, a visiting professor at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, who said a culture of fear in the Curia had meant the euphoria generated by Vatican II had ebbed away. “There has been a slow death of hope and the bleeding away of faith,” she said. “Today, Catholics loyal to the spirit of Vatican II experience their faith as famine and not feast. I have experienced a near despair at the loss of a generation of young Catholics, and particularly women.” Other speakers included Sr Moya Poole SND and Fr Gerry Burke, a retired priest in the Archdiocese of Westminster. He likened problems with the Church to those of the banking industry; both had cultures that were hostile to shared governance. “How do you have a conversation with people who are living on a different planet?” he asked. “As it is, we feel like voices in the wilderness.” Organisers hope to hold a larger conference, involving the laity, in October.
Wedding Bells: Congratulations to Robert Wright and Heidi Malton who were married here on Friday at 1 pm with the reception afterwards at the Lazaat Hotel. They leave on Tuesday for two weeks in Mexico. Robert is the son of Maggie and Peter and brother of Helen. He’s been part of the parish all his life and we all wish them the best for the future. The only downside is that he’s going to miss City’s opening game, he’s gutted!
Why is it, Lord? ‘Why is it, Lord, that parents see puddles and think wellies, and our children see magic mirrors waiting for a pebble-plop to ripple into smiles? Why is it, Lord, that parents see snow and think gloves, and our children see sleds and slides and the tingle of snowflake’s farewell kiss upon the palm? Why is it, Lord, that parents see toys and think tidy, and our children see the endless possibilities for fantasy and play?’ Sometimes circumstances can leave us blinded to life’s beauty, magic or meaning. Where we see only practicalities, others see possibilities. The people who speak to Jesus in today’s Gospel are finding it difficult to see beyond the physical. Jesus accuses them of failing to look for anything deeper; they are really only there because they have been fed! They will only be convinced if Jesus can give them some physical sigh. ‘Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert,’ they remind him. But Jesus offers something more: bread from heaven; food that endures to eternal life. The disciples need to look beyond the obvious.
Ronnie and Bryan Milsted hosted a Garden Party last Saturday as an early celebration of their 40th. Wedding Anniversary (Sunday October 21st) and also to raise funds for the Young Persons’ Cancer Unit at Castle Hill Hospital, which has been my chosen charity this year as President of the Hull Irish Association. We had our own Garden Party on Sunday here at the church, the Mail photographer came, and we hope to present around £5,000 to the Unit. Quite a lot of that came from Gerry Doherty’s funeral, both Betty and Gerry being long-term members of the Association. Ronnie and Bryan gave me a cheque for £330 which was raised at the party. The sun shone, the people came (and ate well, maybe even too well!), Joe Rawcliffe and Friends supplied the music all afternoon and a great time was had by all! Their prospective son-in-law Aaron Cryan, who died suddenly a few months ago, had chosen the day, and funnily, his obituary appeared in The Guardian on Saturday as well. Strange! Ronnie and Bryan asked for this message to be put in the newsletter. “We would like to thank everyone for the many cards, presents and best wishes offered to us on our special day. On behalf of Aaron Cryan, we were able to present Fr. Pat with a cheque for £330 towards his fund for the Young Persons Cancer Unit at CHH. Thank you all.”
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Please pray for those who are not well: Ivy Ward, Harry Maughan, Terry Young, Elizabeth Joseph, Peggy Knowles, Ann Lamb, Cassie Griffith, Eileen Watts, Paul Larney, Agnes Pidd, Eileen Stout, Mary Davidson, Barbara’s friend Elena, Pat Whincop, Pauline’s friend Joe Buckley, David Langley, Edward Peacock, Helen Malone, Peter Dyas, Regina Ofoegbu, Jean Campbell, Joe Rawcliffe, Dorothy Hought, Anthony Stokoe, Joan Williams, Tony Tordoff, Win Murphy, Kathleen & Arthur Burgan, Joan & Peter Watts, Margaret Price, Shirley and Tony Woods-McConville, Mrs Scrivener, Peter Fowlston and Jean Longhorn.
The CWL would like to thank everyone for supporting their Cake Stall (July 10th). £112.65 has been sent to the SVP.
Congratulations to Lizzie Simmonds, who on Thursday got into the Friday final for the Women’s 200m back-stroke!
Church Cleaning after Mass on Monday morning (Aug 6th).
Reminder: Study Day for Eucharistic Ministers on Sat, Sept 22nd, at the Spa, Scarborough. A list for signing is on the long table in the church porch and a poster with details is on the notice-board. Closing date: Sunday, Aug 26th (10 am Mass).
The latest collection for Diana and the twins realised £99.47. Diana sends her warmest thanks and says the twins are really enjoying school, despite the fact that it rains every day in Cameroon!
Finally, A Catholic was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking place. Looking up towards heaven, he said “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place, I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of my life and I’ll give up alcohol too.” As he finished, a parking place appeared. He looked up again and said “Never mind, Lord, I’ve found one.”
Items to me for the next newsletter by Thursday, please john@mcnicholas.karoo.co.uk 876812