Read the Bishop‘s piece on Cumbrian Coal Mine

Download Bulletin 14th February 2021

Fr Hugh’s Homily for Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

There are two Ben Hur films, both usually on the TV at Christmas and I much prefer the old one with Charlton Heston even if they say that if you watch the chariot race carefully you can see a red Fiat in the corner.  But at one point he goes off to find his mother and daughter who have been exiled to the leper caves (his sister somehow still managing to look very beautiful), and much to their horror he goes in and carries his Mum to Jesus for healing.   It is hard for us to imagine the fear that leprosy instilled in people.  Today’s fear of Covid is nothing like the terror leprosy provoked in people.  So any one showing symptoms was immediately chased out of the community.  They rang bells as we know shouting, unclean, unclean, giving people time to avoid them.  In the church at St. Michael’s-on-Wyre there is a leper’s squint in one corner where communion or simply food could be left for lepers to collect. This was and is nothing new.  500 years before Jesus, possibly more, the same instructions to leave the community are being given in the first reading, and for reasonable medical reasons at the time.  So when the leper approaches Jesus, and he would still be kneeling at a distance, when he asks, ‘Do you want to heal me,’ it is not just about does Jesus want to but will he actually do it.  Will he get close enough even if it makes him unclean and may infect him? ……

Complete Homily for 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

SUNDAY MASS LIVESTREAM IS AT 10AM ON 14TH FEBRUARY FROM HOLY TRINITY AND ST GEORGE YOU CAN WATCH THE LIVESTREAM FROM THE PARISH WEBSITE BY GOING TO: CLICK HERE FOR LIVESTREAM ON YOUTUBE

Readings for 6th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 6