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Fr Hugh’s Homily for 18th Sunday

I don’t know how many of you have done some teaching, but there are definite pro’s and con’s.  On Tuesday nights at the Education Centre down in Lancaster I used to be part of the team teaching teachers, students and qualified, and others, the Catholic Certificate. Tuesday evening after a day’s teaching or studying was not the best time, but there it was.  I was probably not the best of teachers myself, but used to give it my all, hoping that some of those undoubted gems of wisdom would land on fertile ground, which is the teacher’s perennial hope.  I don’t know if you have done any teaching but if you have spent half an hour say, explaining something, very clearly you think, and then ask for questions.  And then a hand goes up and asks something which shows they have understood nothing of what you have said, it is rather disappointing.  (I used to wonder sometimes whether they did it deliberately to show they hated being there.)  I did not leave exactly crushed, but sort of dispirited much of the time, and vowed never to try teaching teachers again…..

Complete Homily for 18th Sunday

Readings for 18th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 18

From Monday 26th July the church will be open to the public all day

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Deacon Philip’s Homily for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Impressed by the signs, a large crowd followed him.”  John’s Gospel overflows with symbols, images and signs that whisper, hint, or glimpse at a reality that is so real we cannot always understand, these signs are in order to deepen our awareness and widen our experiences.  Today’s miracle story has characteristics to other miracles in John’s Gospel, like the Wedding at Cana.  It shows the unlimited divine abundance of God’s power.  At the wedding feast Jesus did not change one, but six stone water jars into wine, which was more than enough, and it was the best wine the people had tasted.  In today’s gospel five loaves and two fish where a little boy sacrificed his meal were shared abundantly between 5000 men, which is not even counting the women and children.  And all were completely satisfied, and all had their fill….

Complete Homily for 17th Sunday

Readings for 17th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 17

Download Bulletin 18th July 2021

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 16th Sunday

I turned up at my sister’s house down in London at about midday last Monday only to be greeted by my nephew in his pyjamas with what looked like a serious rash all over his face.  The table in the kitchen was full of late breakfasters recovering from the night before with bacon sandwiches, and his rash was not a rash but the result of a friend painting on his red cross with her lipstick.  It does not come off that easily.  Regardless of the result, everyone had had a good night.  London like elsewhere had been full of crowds going from the exultation of a goal on the first minutes to the doubt of a poor second half to the dismay that penalty shoot-outs always bring us.  That is the nature of crowds.  They are volatile.  But when crowds gather it is usually in hope.  Hope of success, or change, of expressing an intent that will make a difference.  Hope that begins in celebration, like the Notting Hill Carnival, or even the very lively, film full of song and dance, I saw ‘In the heights’ which is subtitled, ‘hope of a dream – suanito.’ Or they can begin in anger, demanding change or justice, or simple hope of a victory like last Sunday night…….

Complete Homily for 16th Sunday

Readings for 16th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 16

The patron saint of those with cancer is St Peregrine.  Our Novena Prayer below is for cancer sufferers, those caring for them and those researching a remedy.  Each day we have a gospel, novena prayer and the same prayers repeated each day at the end.

Novena about Cancer

Download Bulletin 11th July 2021

SEA SUNDAY:  Sometimes the Apostleship of the Sea can seem very distant to us as most of us live on land however the diocese has a long coastline.  The fishermen in port have always been looked after by the Apostleship of the Sea especially in times of crisis and of course Fleetwood is our best known port for this.  More recently in many of the smaller ports the question of human trafficking has sadly become an important part of their work, as has the abuse of poorly paid sailors, especially during this year of Covid when many sailors have found themselves unable to reach home and have been stranded offshore for months at a time.  Again, the Apostleship of the Sea has been helpful both with immediate supplies, arranging services and enabling them to contact their families.

Read the Summer Parish Magazine here

Readings for 15th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 15 OT

St Peter and St Paul

Holy Day of Obligation on Tuesday 29th June

7pm Mass Livestream on YouTube

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Fr Hugh’s Homily for Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The film ‘Fatherland’ is not a romcom, but a sort of tragi-comedy in that the wife of Kevin Hart, the American comedian, who is the central character, dies giving birth to their child and then he is left looking after the baby.  At one point in desperation he bursts into a mother and baby meeting (and they do not want him there as a man), and begs someone to tell him how to get the baby to stop crying.  ‘Skin to skin’ is the answer, ‘she needs to feel you with her.’  So we see him next in the office with no shirt and the baby in a sling.  Skin to skin is important to Jesus too.  Touch is vital to his healing ministry.  Making contact.  (And after this year we know how important it is.)  For most of us, even in ordinary times, we are pretty particular as to who we touch.  Even in church people have been known to back away from people at the ‘sign of peace’ not sure they want to touch them.  But touch often means acceptance.  So in today’s gospel we have two very different characters coming before Jesus both of whom he would be very wary of touching. ….

Complete Homily for Thirteenth Sunday

Readings for Thirteenth Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 13

Read the JULY Catholic Voice here

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Fr Hugh’s Homily for 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Some years ago the kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee at Gennesaret dug an ancient fishing boat out of the mud, and you could see from the design how Jesus could have been sleeping while all this took place, with his head tucked under some planking at one end.  All day he had been teaching and meeting people in the sun and the heat so it is not surprising that he was fast asleep.  As we know from last week, he had been talking about faith and how the disciples needed to trust in it.  So today’s story is going to test just how far they had taken the message in.  Before we look at that though, we need to look at a few points……

Complete Homily for 12th Sunday

Readings for 12th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 12  

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Fr Hugh’s Homily for Eleventh Sunday Ordinary Time

The fact that the G7 government leaders are meeting in Cornwall may not impinge much on our lives, unless you had booked a ‘staycation’ in St. Ives just now and everything is blocked off or booked up. There are plenty of pictures of Boris and Biden bumping elbows and protestors doing odd things, though I did like the image of the seven leaders made out of electronic gadget waste called ‘Mt. Recyclemore’ after Mt Rushmore. But by the time it is finished and everyone gets bogged down again in the politics of Northern Ireland (which are important, I am not belittling them) we may well prefer to turn to the Euros or whatever other escapism we like if you have not already.  However what those leaders do is important, but the results may never be clear. The two parables in today’s gospel have something to say about this, just as they do about the kingdom of God….

Complete Homily for 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings for Eleventh Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 11

Download Bulletin 6th June 2021

Read the Catholic Bishop’s Statement on the Assisted Dying Bill

Fr Hugh’s Homily for Corpus Christi

I was talking to a Methodist friend at the Chaplaincy in Lancaster one day as we were planning a joint service which we held alternately in each other’s chapels on occasions.  He asked me one day why when we were in the Catholic chapel it always had to be Mass.   Could we not do something different?  (Sr. Ella, who worked with me, once said to me (jokingly I might add), ‘The Methodist chaplain really has to work at his sermons, all you have to do is say Mass.’ But getting back to our discussion, I explained to him that for Catholics Mass was more than just a service, or even a memorial as we say at the consecration.  We believe we are taking a very real part in the event of the cross, of the sacrifice, that Jesus made himself.  At each Mass we join him in this offering of himself and ourselves together to the Father…..

Complete Homily for Corpus Christi

Readings for Corpus Christi

Daily Prayers Corpus Christi