Third Sunday of Advent

Download Bulletin 14th December 2025

Gaudete Sunday

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 3rd Sunday of Advent

Three characters are searching in the Wizard of Oz.  The tin man, the lion and the scarecrow.  Where they are headed is the wizard as they think they will find the answer there.  But until they have someone to help them they are lost.  What they do not realise is that to truly search they need to find their real selves first.  And then arrives Dorothy, all the way from Kansas in her red shoes.  So they set off on the yellow brick road.  Two things they need help to do.  The first is to discover who they really are, either what they have lost, or never found.  Once they do this then they will be able to face what they are looking for, though they do not know what that is yet.  All they know is they have to set out to do it.  So off they go, they have Dorothy for their guide, and strength, and they have the yellow brick road to follow….

Complete Homily for 3rd Sunday of Advent 

Daily Prayers Advent 3

 

 

Second Sunday of Advent

Download Bulletin 7th December 2025

DEACON GEORGE’S HOMILY FOR SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

In Israel, the great sequence of Prophets, had come to an end.  For 450 years, the people were without a messenger from God.  The people lamented that the spirit of their God had become silent.  And now, God only spoke through the echo of his voice.  But then along came John the Baptist, the last of the great prophets.  The emergence of John was like a sudden sounding of the voice of God.  He was the one who marked the end of their time of waiting.  Because, in John the Baptist, the people could see an end to God’s silence.  About thirty years earlier, an angel announced to Zechariah a priest of the Temple, that he would have a son, even though his wife Elizabeth was barren and advanced in years.  And that his son was destined to be the Precursor, who would announce the arrival of the long-expected Messiah……

Complete Homily for 2nd Sunday of Advent

Daily Prayers Advent 2

RECENT ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO ‘DILEXI TE’

 

First Sunday of Advent

Download Bulletin 30th November 2025

A PASTORAL LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF LANCASTER 

My dear people, as we begin the Holy Season of Advent my thoughts turn to Mary, our Blessed Lady, beginning the final month of her pregnancy. She is carrying Life. For eight months she has sensed this child growing within her, this child given to her, and taking from her. As unborn children we feed on our mother’s blood, warmth, nourishment. It is as though the mother says to her child, ‘Take and eat, this is my body for you. Take and drink, this is my blood for you, that you may have life from me.’ In her case of course this nourishment is of a created type. Many years ahead, she would receive food given her by her Son, food of a different type, giving her eternal Life….

Read the Complete Pastoral Letter here

Daily Prayers Advent 1

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Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Download Bulletin 16th November 2025

DEACON GEORGE’S HOMILY FOR  33rd SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

It is easy for us to love God, and praise God, when life is great, when we are healthy, wealthy, and our work is easy.  But how is our praise?  when we are seriously ill, or our finances take a tumble, or we lose our jobs.  Is our faith deep enough to get us through these difficult times.  These difficulties may not be ours.  They may be someone else’s, someone who is very close to us.  However, we still have the same feelings inside.  So, in the midst of these difficulties can we still love and praise God?  Because, today, that is what Jesus is asking of us.  Many good people lose their faith when they see all the evil and suffering in the world.  They lose faith because they find it impossible to look into the eyes of a starving child, or the faces of those bombed by their own people and yet still praise God.  They lose faith because they cannot be a witness, to all the atrocities perpetrated by man upon man and yet still believe that God cares for them…..

Complete Homily for 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time 

Daily Prayers Week 33

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Download Bulletin 9th November 2025

Remembrance sunday

FR HUGH’S HOMILY FOR THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA

It was on a trip to Rome in the 70s that I first saw the Lateran Basilica.  I was thinking of a quick walk round but when I got there the whole square in front of it was filled with people for a Communist demonstration and listening to their leader Berlinguer.  The basilica has always sat in the middle of Rome surrounded by whatever was happening in the city, even featured in Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck and Godfather III, and today we celebrate its dedication, its birthday you might say….

Complete Homily for The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Daily Prayers Week 32

 

All Saints

Download Bulletin 2nd November 2025

FR HUGH’S HOMILY FOR ALL SAINTS

The picture in the first reading is of the Saints being those who have survived persecution.  For many years here in England that has seemed more like ancient news than relevant to today.  But if we take a look at the news from Aid to the Church in Need, we realise how this is something that is happening today.  There are persecuted saints surviving, or indeed not surviving but already in heaven, all over our world…..

Complete Homily for All Saints

Daily Prayers Week 31

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Download Bulletin 26th October 2025

FEAST DAY OCTOBER 28TH

Deacon George’s Homily for 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The good and the bad go up to the temple to pray, one is a Pharisee who leads a decent, religious life.  The other, is a tax collector who is a crook, and up to his neck in corruption.     However, only one of them actually prays.  The Pharisee addresses his prayer to himself.  And the topic of his prayer is his own achievements.  He fasts twice a week and gives 10% of his earnings to the poor.  This is certainly good, because if all Christians gave 10% of their earnings, the world would be a much better place.  But, for all his giving, the Pharisee does not give the most important thing and that is, himself….

Complete Homily for 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Daily Prayers Week 30

Read the Autumn Parish Magazine here