Parishioners have been very generous in supporting the work of CAFOD. Each Family Fast day the response has be fantastic. We wonder now if we could be supportive in other ways too. There are so many opportunities for volunteering, fundraising and prayer, that we could be involved in throughout the year. This would be an impactful way of putting faith in action. You can find out about the work of CAFOD at www.CAFOD.org.uk Please think about taking up this opportunity. If we can gather a few interested parishioners to start with this would get activities underway and hopefully in time, others will join in. If you are interested or would like more information, please speak to Fr Chris or drop an email to the parish office and we will get back to you.
GETTING READY FOR EASTER (1): 'We Dare To Ask', a resource for small group faith-sharing and for individual meditation, is underway. The sessions include scripture, prayers and a reflection with questions. The second of five sessions will take place next Tuesday beginning at 5.30pm in St Urban’s meeting room. GETTING READY FOR EASTER (2): There are Stations of the Cross every Sunday during Lent at Our Lady of Lourdes starting at 3.00pm . GETTING READY FOR EASTER (3): This year we are hosting a Lent Lunch on Friday the 13th of March in the St Urban’s meeting room. It is a “bring and share” event with a talk from me (as though you don’t hear enough from me with homilies!). If you can help with hosting, please let me know. Fr Chris GETTING READY FOR EASTER (4): the 3 pillars of Lent are prayer, abstinence and charity. The Society of St Vincent de Paul do great charitable work in our parish . Why not consider getting involved? Their next meeting is Monday the 16th of March at 7.00pm , the meeting room St Urbans. GETTING READY FOR EASTER (5): CAFOD FAMILY FAST DAY There will be a retiring collection this week for last week’s Family Fast Day. It is an excellent way to support our brothers and sisters living in poverty. You can gift aid your donation by using the envelopes to be found at the back of the church.
Preparation of children not in our schools for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (year 3) is well underway. The next session for the Sacrament of Reconciliation is on the 28th of February at 3.00pm at St Urban’s. For First Holy Communion, please look out for a future date after the Reconciliation sessions have concluded. Children must always be accompanied by a parent.
This winter St Urban’s meeting room will be open on the first Wednesday of each month from 7pm to 8.30pm as a warm and welcome space for anyone who has suffered loss, however long ago, and who would like an opportunity to talk about it. This is not counselling, it is just a warm and welcome space where your experience of loss can be shared, if you wish. The dates are: 4th February and the 4th of March . No booking is needed, just turn up. Also we need volunteers to provide cake, to help prepare the room, to welcome people, to make and serve hot drinks and to clean the room afterwards. It is a wonderful ministry to others and if you feel called to offer any help at all please contact Breda on 07858517163.
The winning numbers for the 1st draw are: £30 (58); and £20 (89). Congratulations to our winners! N
The next baptism preparation session will take place on Saturday the 28th of February commencing at 2.00pm in the meeting room at St Urban’s . Lasting about an hour it will cover the scriptural context of baptism, what the church teaches about the sacrament and what the church requires for a baptism to take place, there will also be an opportunity to agree a date. Baptism registration forms are available from the parish office and on the day.
Parishioners have been very generous in supporting the work of CAFOD. Each Family Fast day the response has be fantastic. We wonder now if we could be supportive in other ways too. There are so many opportunities for volunteering, fundraising and prayer, that we could be involved in throughout the year. This would be an impactful way of putting faith in action. You can find out about the work of CAFOD at www.CAFOD.org.uk Please think about taking up this opportunity. If we can gather a few interested parishioners to start with this would get activities underway and hopefully in time, others will join in. If you are interested or would like more information, please speak to Fr Chris or drop an email to the parish office and we will get back to you.
Preparation of children not in our schools for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (year 3) is well underway. The next session for the Sacrament of Reconciliation is on the 28th of February at 3.00pm at St Urban’s. For First Holy Communion, please look out for a future date after the Reconciliation sessions have concluded. Children must always be accompanied by a parent.
This winter St Urban’s meeting room will be open on the first Wednesday of each month from 7pm to 8.30pm as a warm and welcome space for anyone who has suffered loss, however long ago, and who would like an opportunity to talk about it. This is not counselling, it is just a warm and welcome space where your experience of loss can be shared, if you wish. The dates are: 4th February and the 4th of March . No booking is needed, just turn up. Also we need volunteers to provide cake, to help prepare the room, to welcome people, to make and serve hot drinks and to clean the room afterwards. It is a wonderful ministry to others and if you feel called to offer any help at all please contact Breda on 07858517163.
GETTING READY FOR EASTER (1): 'We Dare To Ask', a resource for small group faith-sharing and for individual meditation, is underway. The sessions include scripture, prayers and a reflection with questions. The second of five sessions will take place next Tuesday beginning at 5.30pm in St Urban’s meeting room. GETTING READY FOR EASTER (2): There are Stations of the Cross every Sunday during Lent at Our Lady of Lourdes starting at 3.00pm . GETTING READY FOR EASTER (3): This year we are hosting a Lent Lunch on Friday the 13th of March in the St Urban’s meeting room. It is a “bring and share” event with a talk from me (as though you don’t hear enough from me with homilies!). If you can help with hosting, please let me know. Fr Chris GETTING READY FOR EASTER (4): the 3 pillars of Lent are prayer, abstinence and charity. The Society of St Vincent de Paul do great charitable work in our parish . Why not consider getting involved? Their next meeting is Monday the 16th of March at 7.00pm , the meeting room St Urbans. GETTING READY FOR EASTER (5): CAFOD FAMILY FAST DAY There will be a retiring collection this week for last week’s Family Fast Day. It is an excellent way to support our brothers and sisters living in poverty. You can gift aid your donation by using the envelopes to be found at the back of the church.
The Oratory of St Joseph, for young Catholic or other interested laymen aged between 21 & 35. Monthly meetings at Hinsley Hall LS6 2BX, for prayer, Adoration, talks, social time & free supper. Inaugural meeting Thursday 26th February , 6.30-8.30pm. Contact: benjamin.hilton@dioceseofleeds.org.uk
This continues to meet every Wednesday at 10:30am to 12.00 in the meeting room at St Urban’s and is supported by Catholic Care. It is a wonderful opportunity for people to meet each other over tea, coffee and cake.
A phrase we often hear is “seeing is believing”. Human beings are a complex mix of senses, emotions and perceptions. Normally we are most comfortable to rely on our senses allied to our experience in making sense of the world. We know that an apple is an apple by what we see, what we taste, what we smell and the fact that someone at some point has told us what it is, as distinct from an orange being an orange. However one thing that makes us unique in creation is our ability to step outside the realm of the senses; we are able to look deeper than the things we see and sense around us. The examination of the nature of reality is part of the study of philosophy and its various branches, something that challenged my poor brain in the seminary for two years. In Sunday's gospel, which features the Transfiguration of Jesus, Peter, John and James have their experience of reality challenged in a fundamental way. In an instant Jesus is transformed, transfigured, from the human Jesus they know into a cosmic force – the cosmic force, the Word though which all things came into being. This takes place after the episode in Matthew’s gospel where Peter says that Jesus is the messiah. It’s as though Jesus is confirming what Peter has declared by giving his closest associates a glimpse of his divine nature. But it’s not only Jesus and the disciples who are there. The disciples see Moses and Elijah there too – Moses representing the Law and Elijah the prophetic tradition of the Jewish religion both of which are now directly associated with Jesus. But it’s not only about Jesus and the prophets. The medieval philosopher and Saint Thomas Aquinas says that the Holy Trinity is there too – the Father is the voice, the son is obviously Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is the shining cloud. It is not surprising that Jesus’ friends are overwhelmed by the experience and struggle to know what to say. One account says they were terrified, who wouldn’t be (we would be too), their experience of reality had been totally bent out of shape. They don’t know what to make of it and at the time they keep silence. But they could not forget it. It is no accident that the account of the transfiguration is found in three of the four gospels, it was that significant to Peter, James and John, a truly unforgettable experience. At every Mass we experience a transfiguration for ourselves. At every Mass, the altar is the mountain, and the bread and wine is "transfigured" into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. At every Mass Heaven is truly joined to earth. At every Mass we have the opportunity to experience the awe of the disciples for ourselves and to offer our very selves as a tent, a dwelling for God in Jesus when we receive the Eucharist. We need to ask ourselves are we in a fit state to be this dwelling place for God, a God who always desires to come to us and to be with us, the voice that says to us in our hearts and souls, this is my child, my chosen one. How prepared are we to be transfigured by God’s grace in our lives not only during Lent but our entire lives? I hope and pray that Lent is going well for you. God bless and keep you all. Fr Chris
The next baptism preparation session will take place on Saturday the 28th of February commencing at 2.00pm in the meeting room at St Urban’s . Lasting about an hour it will cover the scriptural context of baptism, what the church teaches about the sacrament and what the church requires for a baptism to take place, there will also be an opportunity to agree a date. Baptism registration forms are available from the parish office and on the day.
There are many forms of wilderness and different kinds of deserts. I have seen a few; from the mile after mile of rolling sand dunes of Arabia, to the vast empty plains of the desert American states with their shrubs and cacti. On the first Sunday of Lent we hear of Jesus being in the desert for 40 days and his encounter with the devil. We do not know the type of desert Jesus was in but I have seen for myself the blisteringly hot and dry deserts of the Holy Land. Why does Jesus feel the need to go to the desert? Before what we read in Sunday's gospel there is the baptism of Jesus in the Jorden by John the Baptist. It is in that moment that the Holy Trinity is revealed, the Son being baptised, the voice of the Father is heard, and the Holy Spirit descends. A momentous occasion, a moment of revelation. Jesus takes time out perhaps to reflect on this revelation of His unique identity; what intimacy with the Father and the Holy Spirit means for Him; and what happens next for His mission and ministry, including His death and resurrection. He knows that His life will never be the same again. He has a great deal to reflect on, to pray about. He needs space, He needs his wilderness. Today we also hear of the temptation of Jesus, but the word used in Matthew is not temptation but “test”, Jesus’ reaction to His vocation as the Messiah is tested. His time in the wilderness is a testing of the clarity of His relationship with God the Father through, and with, the Holy Spirit. The source of the account must have been Jesus Himself as He is on his own and He is the only person who knew what happened. The account is found in Matthew and Luke's gospels. But there is more to this test. The devil, Satan (a word meaning enemy), knows that in the person of Jesus his time of domination is up; he is directly threatened then, as now, by the inauguration of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is tempted. He is tempted to use His divinity for His own ends and then to worship the devil (who was originally created through the Word of God – Jesus himself). The devil offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world. Jesus stays faithful to the Father; He stays true to the Holy Spirit in the bond of love shared between them in the Holy Trinity. What does this mean for us? There are different wildernesses that we can and do occupy. Not all wildernesses are bad. There is the wilderness of time out for, and with, God. The retreat experience where, for hours or days, when we have time to listen for the still small voice of God; the opportunity to fuel the spark of divinity that we all carry within us, planted by God at the dawn of time. The wilderness that springs into flower with the dewfall of God’s grace. There is the wilderness of sin and alienation. The empty and lonely parts of our hearts and souls that we all sense are there. The place where our sin, our pain, and the hurt and the damage we have done to ourselves and others, are naked before us. A nakedness that we cannot bear to look at. Like God we have the knowledge of good and evil, but at times we behave less like God and more like the devil, Satan – the enemy. This knowledge is a curse rather than a blessing. We know when doing something is wrong as often as not but we do it anyway. Time and again we see images in the Bible of how God desires to transform the wilderness into a growing place, of place of rest and beauty. A place called Eden, a word that means “delight”. God desires make our hearts and souls gardens of delight both to Him and to us. Jesus is the gardener of our souls, He nurtures us to make us better people here, and He prepare us for eternal life. Jesus gives us the means for this, He cultivates us through His word and the sacraments. How we choose to live and how we grow is down to us. God bless and keep you all. Fr Chris
Pope Francis
If peoples are to remain brothers and sisters, prayer must rise unceasingly to Heaven, and one single word constantly echo on earth: peace.