PARISH OF THE SACRED HEART

Sunday Masses

Saturday 6:00pm (St.F) Int. For the People

Sunday 9:30am (St.F) Int.

11:00am (Con) Int.

Weekday Masses

Monday ST.THERESE OF LISIEUX

9:30am (St.F) Int. +Mary (Maisie) Symes

10.30am (Con) Int.

Tuesday HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS

No Mass today

Wednesday FERIA

9:30am (St.F) Int.

10:30am (Con) Int.

Thursday ST.FRANCIS OF ASSISI

9.30am (St.F) Int.

Friday FERIA

11:00am (St.F) Int. +Doug and Loris Squirell

5:00pm (Con) Int.

Saturday FERIA

9.00am (St.F) Int. For our young people

6:00pm (St.F) Int. +Stephanie O'Mahoney &

John (MF)

The Daily Office

Lauds (Morning Prayer) is said a quarter of an hour before the first Mass, except Saturday

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Saturday 5.15pm to 5.45pm or by Sunday 9.0am to 9.20am appointment.

The Rosary Friday at 10:15am

The Mass today The readings can be found

on p.138 of the Parish Mass Book, and on p.924 of The Sunday Missal.

At the 6.0pm Mass Eucharistic Prayer 3

Sanctus & Benedictus Parish Mass Book p.16 (Angelus) Hymn 600

At the 9.30am Mass Eucharistic Prayer 2

Gloria Sacred Heart

Sanctus & Benedictus Schubert

Hymns : 771, 765, 795, 652

At the 11.0am Mass Eucharistic Prayer 1

Hymns : 851, 721, 662

THIS WEEK

WEEKDAY ADORATION OF THE

BESSED SACRAMENT

in the Sacred Heart Chapel, 2.0pm-3.0pm

This week on Monday

Tuesday 10.30am FrJohn attends a meeting of the Council of Priests at Poringland. I'm afraid this means no Mass and Exposition this morning.

Wednesday 12.30pm The September Parish Lunch, in the Hall.

7.30pm The First Session of the CaFE Course on Our Lady, LET IT BE

Thursday 2.0pm-4.0pm The Together Club meets at the Convent. All welcome.

Saturday 9.0am Saturday Club resumes after the summer break, for young people of Primary School age. Childrens' Mass at 9.0am - all welcome.

PARISH NOTICEBOARD

Anniversaries this week Sr.Celestine Fogarty (2005), John Douglas (2001), Ellen Bayley (2000), and Jane Reid (2015). R.I.P.

Money Matters A week last Sunday £493.28 was given at the Offertory, and £97.25 to CAFOD. The retiring collection, for Home Missions, brought in £126. 67. Last Sunday the Offertory was £592.85, and £112.33 was given to CAFOD.

Next Sunday there will be a retiring collection for CAFOD, following the Family Fast Day on Friday. Please take an envelope for this today.

May they Rest in Peace We were all distressed to hear of the death of Stephanie O'Mahoney last Friday. She was a well-known and well-loved member of the Parish, whom we will greatly miss. Amongst other things she was a Reader at the 6.0pm Mass on Saturdays, and she managed the bookings for the Hall. We send our love and sympathy to John.

Mary Symes, known as Maisie, also died last week, having reached the age of ninety-eight. She had been a parishioner here since 1968. We send our sympathy and the assurance of our prayers to her daughter, Pauline.

CaFE Course on Mary Fiona writes 'We are running a CaFE Course on Our Lady called LET IT BE on Wednesday evenings during October, in the Hall, 7.30pm-9.30pm. The first session is this Wednesday, 3rd October, and thereafter on the 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st. Come along and learn more about the Mother of Jesus in a relaxed atmosphere'

Fr.John adds ' Some of you will remember

the CaFE course on the Saints which we held here a couple of years ago. These courses, in which a film is shown and then informally discussed over light refreshments, are all excellently produced and very enjoyable. As October is one of the two months in the year when we traditionally pay special honour to Our Lord's Mother, it's appropriate that the Course should be taking place now. I'm sure you will enjoy it. Do come along.'

On the Way On the way down to Cornwall for my recent summer holiday, I had tea with Tom Denny, the stained glass artist, and his wife at their cottage in the depths of the Dorset countryside. I didn't see the two windows which Tom has created for St.Felix;, as they were away being leaded, but I was shown the studio in which they had been designed and made. He hopes to bring them up to Felixstowe and install them in two or three weeks time ; the Bishop has promised to come and bless them on Sunday November 18th, at an 11.0am Mass.

CREMATION - I

So far this year we have had nine funerals in the parish : four concluded with burial, and five with cremation. I imagine that for Catholics the proportion is probably fifty-fifty pretty generally ; in non-Catholic circles there are probably considerably more cremations than there are earth-burials.

But despite cremation being so widespread (and being perfectly legitimate for Catholic use), it is still relatively new in our country, and I think there are certain areas in which Catholics could possibly benefit from some guidance. I would like this week, if I may, to mention an underlying consideration which is important to the Catholic in considering cremation, and then next week and the following week I would like to mention two practices which seem to be fairly prevalent these days, and which Catholics should avoid.

The underlying consideration is our distinctive Christian belief regarding the future of a person. We believe that as created by God, we are both body and soul, we have a foot in both the material and the material world. The non-Christian may well believe that the soul has a future, but not the body. For the non-believer the body is cast aside at death and that is the end of the matter. It is quite different as regards Christian belief. We believe that both soul and body have a future - that Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't come just to salvage one part of us, but to be the redeemer of whole persons - body as well as soul. Our distinctive Christian belief is The Resurrection of the Body : namely that on the Last Day God the Creator will take our dust and ashes, and from them will make our new resurrection body, to which our soul - which has been in his keeping - will be rejoined for life in heaven.

Now this belief is what makes our view of cremation as Christians quite different from that of the non-Christian. Those ashes which result from cremation ( we call them ashes, although truly they are calcinated bone) are not 'finished'. Rather they are the raw material from which God will make our new resurrection body. And so what happens to them matters. It is not so much what they have been, as to what they will become which concerns the Christian. And this has implications for what we do with them. To be continued.