Download Bulletin 14th August 2022

DEACON GEORGE’S HOMILY FOR THE ASSUMPTION
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
For the first 400 years, the Church concentrated on the complex question of …who is Jesus? In 413 AD, the Council of Ephesus spent much of its time discussing Jesus’ divinity and humanity, and how the Son of God came into being. The council agreed that the Son of God had a human birth. They agreed that Mary bore Jesus in her womb, and gave birth to him, just like any other mother.  The next question was … who is Mary? After much discussion, the Council affirmed that Mary had carried the Son of God in her womb, and thus they proclaimed Mary as the “Theotokos”…“God-bearer”.  After being proclaimed as the “Theotokos”, Mary was then commemorated, along with all the saints and martyrs. However, the Eastern Church celebrated feasts for her Conception, for her Birth, for her Presentation in the Temple and for the Annunciation.  But the most important feast was her Assumption…..

Complete Homily for The Assumption

Readings for Week 20

Daily Prayers Week 20

Download Bulletin 7th August 2022

ABRAHAM – FATHER OF FAITH

Readings for 19th Sunday OT

Daily Prayers 19th Sunday OT

Download Bulletin 31st July 2022

 Working for those we love…What are our priorities in life?  This is the question today’s readings ask of us.  Well, as a start at a physical level, we work hard for those we love in order to provide for them.  We want – both for them and for ourselves – a decent way of life etc. so we can care for one another.  We want to provide for our children’s futures and our own.  Spiritually too, we seek lasting goals that will provide a home filled with love; a place reflecting the sacrificial love of the Lord.  Growing in the love of the Lord must be a lasting goal for each of us: along with the desire to express that love in the way we live our lives in mutual love and respect.  It is too easy for us to forget our priorities in life and so put our energies into seeking those things that are not lasting goals.  As Christians our lives are entwined with the person of Jesus; He is in us.  Being at one with Him is our fulfilment; that fulfilment is the goal of our Christian life.  We achieve fulfilment when every aspect of life reflects the person of Jesus Christ in what we say and do.  Jesus’ love for us makes this fulfilment achievable because it lets us live in His grace….reflects Jesus’ love for us!

Readings for 18th Sunday

Daily Prayers 18th Sunday OT

Download Parish Magazine Issue 17 Summer 2022

Download Bulletin 24th July 2022

Lord teach us to pray…  Today’s Gospel gives us St Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer.  The more familiar version comes from St Matthew’s Gospel.  So, why the difference?   The Holy Spirit, the ultimate author of Sacred Scripture, used the Gospel writers, to present the teachings of Jesus to various groups of people and to incorporate into their presentations an inspired understanding of the Jesus’ own words.  St Matthew wrote for Christians of Jewish origin while St Luke audience was of Christians of Gentile origin.  St Matthew emphasised that Jesus was the fulfilment of the Jewish Scriptures whereas St Luke wrote for people who knew very little or even nothing of the Jewish scriptures, but who had a deep understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit.  They all believed that the Holy Spirit called them to faith and sustained them just as He had called the people of so many nations to faith on Pentecost Sunday.   St Luke’s version recognises that true power is not to be found in an earthly empire and that true happiness is not to be found in possessions.  Let us pray that we might take steps away from materialism and into love, away from possessions into God’s Kingdom.   …ask and it will be given to you!

Readings for 17th Sunday

Daily Prayers 17th Sunday

VARIATION ON WEEKEND MASS TIMES

Please note that on the weekends of 23^rd / 24^th July and 6^th / 7^th August there will be NO masses at Sedbergh and NO 6pm Sunday evening.

On 30^th / 31^st July we welcome the Spiritans who will cover ALL masses at the usual times.

Please refer to the weekly bulletin for any further updates.  Thank you.

Download Bulletin 10th & 17th July 2022

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Pope is a political realist, he has said about politicians that ‘they can spread fear and disillusion for their own purposes and to enable them or their party or group to take control,’ after all he has lived through dictatorships and civil unrest in Argentina and knows the harshest things politicians and others in power can get up to.   But he is also always hopeful.  Hopeful about humanity.  In his letter Fratelli Tutti, he talks about ‘Political Love or Charity’ which is possibly not what we have been watching on our TVs this week.  What he says about a politician’s duty is : “It is an equally indispensable act of love to  organise and structure society so that one’s neighbour will never  find himself in poverty.  “To be a politician and to have this ideal is to a person who builds bridges rather than causes divisions to be created.”  (Again not a lot of that being seen just now.)……..

Complete Homily for 15th Sunday

Readings for 15th Sunday

Daily Prayers 15th Sunday OT

There will be no website post next weekend so please find attached Daily Prayers for 17th July:

Daily Prayers 16th Sunday OT

Download Bulletin 26th June 2022

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

On a trip to London I went off to the National Maritime Museum to see an exhibition of Canaletto’s paintings, but while I was there spent a bit of time in the main museum and as ever wandered into the shop, and bought a book there on Sextants (used for navigation in the old days) and about maritime, sea, exploration.  Sometimes by chance you pick up a great book  just to fill in the time while you are having a coffee.  At the end of the book there is a quote from John Ruskin, who used to live by Coniston in the 19th century.  This is what he said about travelling:

“All travel becomes boring in exact relationship to its speed.  Going by railroad I do not consider travelling at all; it is merely ‘being sent’ to a place, and very little different from being a parcel…But if, going forward…slowly, after some days we approach some interesting scenery this is one of the most exquisite enjoyments possible to a healthy mind, and real knowledge is acquired here regardless of the purpose of travel, getting a true sense of the space we are passing through, a true sense of our world and its breadth.”…..

Complete Homily for 13th Sunday

Readings for 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Daily Prayers 13th Sunday OT

Read the Catholic Voice here

There will be no website post next weekend so please find attached Daily Prayers for  3rd July:

Daily Prayers 14th Sunday OT

Download Bulletin 19th June 2022

Fr Hugh’s Homily for Corpus Christi

Let’s just take a look at the cross hanging above the altar.  Why is it there and not, for example, on a back wall?  Simply because when Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” and when I say that today, he is not talking about just the supper, but about what the Last Supper and this Holy Communion we share in today is all about. And it is about his death and resurrection, offered for us.  The most important thing about our Mass is not some isolated idea about transubstantiation and the bread and wine becoming his body and blood, though that is a major part of it, it is that through that and all else in the Mass, we are sharing in, participating in Jesus’ very death and resurrection.  His death 2000 years ago is an historical event, but what we have to grasp, to understand, is that it is not limited by history, our idea of time.  Every time we share in this Mass we are sharing in his death, or to put it better, in his offering himself out of love for us….

Complete Homily for Corpus Christi

Readings for Corpus Christi

Daily Prayers Corpus Christi

Download Bulletin 12th June 2022

Deacon George’s Homily for The Most Holy Trinity

For two weeks I pondered today’s readings, and the words of St Paul came to the fore, “the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.”. Then I remembered these words from the mystics, “I am the host of the Guest within, in whose name I was baptised”. These words remained central in my thoughts. I will expound.  For me to understand a little of the Blessed Trinity, I first read Genesis 18 then I pray to the Father through the Son. and then pray for the Holy Spirit to teach me, and then I ponder the icon of the Trinity.  In Rublev’s icon, of Genesis Chapter 18. we see the hospitality of Abraham to the three strangers, at the oak of Mamre. But we also see the three persons of the Trinity. Hence that is why it is known as the icon of the Trinity.     I see on the left, the gold and blue of God the Father, and on the right the blue and green of God the Holy Spirit, and in the centre, the red and blue of Jesus, looking at his Father. And then I see, their open arms inviting me to join them in their circle of love. And then I listen with my heart…..

Complete Homily for Trinity Sunday

Readings for The Most Holy Trinity

Daily Prayers Most Holy Trinity