21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Note from Fr Joe
A couple of changes to the timetable:

ADORATION – FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST
There won’t be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Friday 28th August after the 10am Mass as there is a Funeral Mass taking place at 12 noon; this is to allow time for preparing the Church for Mass.

THURSDAY MORNING MASSES
As you know, we haven’t been having Mass on Thursdays since the re-opening of the church. The reason for this is our excellent team of cleaners spend quite a long time on Thursday mornings deep cleaning the church for us. However, may parishioners--including the cleaners-- have requested we resume the Thursday morning Mass which we are happy to do. So, continuing on from previous weeks, there will also be Mass on Thursday mornings at 10am. Because the cleaners won’t then be starting the deep clean until after the Mass, it means they will be giving most of their Thursday to working in the church. May I take the opportunity on behalf of the whole parish to thank the cleaners as well as all the stewards and everyone else who is working so generously to enable us to have the church open for Masses and services. Without this small army of volunteers, our church would have to remain closed. Please consider joining the cleaning group or becoming a steward—the more, the better!! The only condition is that you have no major underlying health problems which would make you more susceptible to the Coronavirus e.g. if you have been shielding, etc.
If interested, have a word with Fr Joe or Fr Jonathan.

CHURCH OPENING TIMES
Please note the church will be open ONLY during the publicised timetabled slots. There have been a few requests to leave the church open longer but sadly we cannot do so. Remember, to be open we have to have stewards on duty and proper sanitising of those entering as well as the building. It is not possible to simply leave the doors open as in the past for anyone to pay a visit whenever they like. Please God, those days will return soon but in the meantime, we have to be very careful to maintain the highest standards of hygiene and keep all those visiting the church as safe as possible.
So our parish church is open every weekday for morning Mass at 10am and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays there will be Exposition and Private Prayer from 10:30am until 1pm.
On Sundays it is the normal timetable for Masses, including Saturday Vigil.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please remember in your prayers all those in civic authority as we navigate these challenging times; may they be given a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Also please pray for those who are in need or are sick or dying.
We also remember all those who died recently, Paul Gillan, Pat Donelly, Mary McKenna,
And the anniversaries James Cannon, Jacqueline O’Neill, Tommy & Maisie McCafferty, Teddy Boyland, Patrick Conafray, Agnes Geddes, John Delaney, Eamon Delaney, Sacramenta Coelho, John Hughes, Jean Millar, James & Elizabeth Canberry, James Canberry Jr, Raymond & Patricia Canberry and Jean Fenn.
May the Lord hear and answer all our prayers, according to his will for us. Lord, hear us.


Reflection on this weekend’s Scripture Readings

‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ – The great C.S. Lewis once said “the person of Jesus Christ demands a choice from each of us”; in His presence we simply cannot remain neutral. Either He is truly the Son of God, and therefore, worthy of all our love and devotion or he is an imposter, and we must flee from him; but what we can never do is avoid Him entirely! In our gospel reading this weekend, Our Lord turns to His disciples, looks them straight In the eye and asks them this all important question “who do you say I am?”. Pope St. John Paul II said “we all know this moment, In which, it is no longer sufficient to speak about Jesus by repeating what others have said. You must say what you think, and not quote an opinion. You must bear witness, feel committed by the witness you have borne and carry this commitment to its extreme consequences. The best friends, followers and apostles of Christ have always been those who heard within them one day the definitive, inescapable question, before which all others become secondary and derivative: ‘For you, who am I?’. A person’s life, his whole future, depends on the clear, sincere and unequivocal answer, without rhetoric or subterfuge, that he gives to this question.” Jesus now turns to His disciples in this age, you and I, and once more asks that all important question “For you, whom am I?”. Let us pray that our response will be that of St. Peter, filled with faith and love, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”