Look and See! St Luke’s gospel is a gospel of compassion – the lowly being raised up. Today we are challenged by the parable of Dives and Lazarus. St Luke is not defaming those who have worked hard for their position in life, but rather challenging everyone to recognise the responsibilities their position in life demands. The Rich Man, now in hell, lifts his eyes and for the first time sees Lazarus as a person. Perhaps he’d noticed Lazarus in stinky, dirty clothes begging, as he opened his front door to welcome his dinner guest. He may have called the police to complain about the vagrant at his door. All he saw was a hungry man; and he didn’t even give him the scraps from his table. He’d never seen Lazarus because his possessions had blinded him to those around him. The first time he saw Lazarus it was too late. What do I do? Do my eyes look away if I meet someone who might be in need? Do I make rash judgments? Am I more concerned with what I have done and what they failed to do? Jesus calls us to see by having faith in Him not in our possessions or status. Today we ask Him to open our eyes.
Family Fast Day is Friday 4th October. On this day we fast, pray and give, so we can extend the hand of friendship to the world’s poorest people. Your donations and support will help give training, tools and resources to some of these people so they are empowered to build themselves a brighter future. We will be distributing envelopes for your donations this weekend and will be collecting them in on Sunday 6th October.
Dean Gibson School will be celebrating this Harvest Festival IN SCHOOL (not Church as previously advertised) at 3pm. Any non perishable food items that you may wish to leave for the Harvest will be donated to Kings Food Bank. Please take a flyer from church listing the items that they are most in need of. Thank you.
What was lost is now found, alleluia! Today’s Gospel is about joy: a lost sheep is found, a lost coin is found and a lost son is found. In all three cases, the sheep, coin or son could have been written off. After all, the shepherd had 99 other sheep, the woman had nine other coins, and the father had another son! He could have washed his hands of the son who had treated him so badly and offended everything the father stood for. He could have decided that he just needed to be happy with the son who was faithful to him. He couldn’t and he wouldn’t. People who care, don’t write other people off, rather they focus on them. God does not give up on us; He calls us by name, seeking us out individually. He never gives up on those who have been far from the faith or from morality. He calls us all into the joy of His Presence, the Joy of the Banquet of the Lord. The return of those who have had been away is a time for celebration. The cause of their leaving no longer matters. They have returned. The family is back together. Therefore we need to celebrate.
At the 10am Mass next Sunday 8th September we will be joined by Fr Charlie from the Montfort community in Malawi. Fr Charlie used to be a priest in Sitima parish, the parish that Marian and others have been to visit and worked in, but he still has close links with them. 
CLEATOR PILGRIMAGE TRANSPORT: SVP are kindly providing transport to this on Sunday 8th September, leaving church 12 noon, returning by 5.30pm approx. Please sign up on the sheet by Friday 30th August.
Thursday 15th August is a Holy Day for The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Masses are at 12.15pm and 7pm.
EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS: We are re-commissioning all our Eucharistic Ministers at the Masses this weekend and will be welcoming a couple of new ones too.
Holy Trinity and St George 