Fifth Sunday of Lent

St John the Evangelist Parish
Aurs Rd., Barrhead, G78 2RW.
 
5th Sunday of Lent
22nd March 2026
 
Rev Monsignor John Canon Tormey: Parish Priest
Rev Fr Joseph J McGill: Curate
Rev Denis Murphy:  Deacon
Email: [email protected]  Tel: 0141 881 0769
Website: www.stjohns-barrhead.org
 
Mary Hallan: Safeguarding Co-Ordinator: [email protected]
Times of Holy Mass:
Sunday: 4pm (Vigil), 10:00am, 11:30am and 5:00pm.
Weekday Mass: Monday-Saturday 10:00am.
Workers’ Mass: Wednesday 7:30am.
Holy Days of Obligation: Vigil 7:00pm, 8:00am and 10:00am.

Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession):
Saturday 10:30am-11:00am, 3:15pm-3:45pm.
Monday-Friday 9:30am-9:50am​.
 
Stations of the Cross:
Every Friday during Lent at 7pm.
 
Last Week’s Collections:
First Collection GA: £333.00 NGA: £1,010.25
SCIAF GA: £833.50 NGA: £1,144.45
 
Response to Psalm:
‘With the Lord there is mercy, in him is plentiful redemption.’
 
St Vincent de Paul Society: 
The SSVP provide spiritual, social and financial support to anyone in need. We visit parishioners of St John’s at their homes or in local care homes. If you know of anyone who might benefit from this offer from the members of the SVdP, please get in touch by calling: 075123 02877 or speak to one of our members after Mass who will be collecting for the Society in the porch.
 
Invitation to Join Eucharistic Adoration in the Parish Oratory:
We would like to invite more people to join in Eucharistic Adoration. It would be particularly helpful between 2:00pm-3:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm on Mondays and 4:00-5:00pm on Wednesdays. But you are always welcome to visting the Parish Oratory for Adoration any Monday, Wednesday or Friday.
 
Prayer to St Michael:
St Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of Battle; Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
We pray for those who have died recently:
David Cassidy, John M. De Souza, Josephine Hannan and John Welsh.
 
We pray for the anniversaries of:
Shaun Carlin, John Coelho, Lizzie Crossan, Louisa De Souza, Winnie Devlin, John Graham, Charles Henry, Margaret Miller, Margaret Wallis and the three month’s mind of Joseph Gribbon and Jim McGauley and the six month’s mind of Marlyn McEwan
 
Legion of Mary Acies Ceremony (St Mirin's Cathedral, Saturday 28th March 12:30pm):
All active and auxiliary members of the Legion of Mary are invited to attend and renew their individual and collective consecration to Our Lady, Queen of the Legion, and from Her to receive strength and blessing for the coming year. Refreshments will be served in the cathedral hall afterwards. A coach will leave St John’s carpark at 12:00 noon, returning to St John’s at approximately 3:00pm. Members of the Legion (Active and Auxiliary) who would like to travel by coach, please add your name to the list in the porch.
 
Gift Aid Boxes:
Gift Aid boxes are now available at the back of the church for the start of the new tax year. If you donate by standing order there are boxes for the Special Collection only. Many people who donate by standing order have asked for these for the second collections only.
If you donate through gift aid and do not have a standing order, please pick up a full set of envelopes at the back of the church.
There are lists with names and the envelope number.
 
Full Boxed Envelopes run from 1 to 90. Special Collection Boxed Envelopes Only, are numbered from 91 to 220. We ran out of Special Collection Boxed Envelopes – those after 180 on the list may have to wait a week longer for the newly ordered ones to arrive.
Thank you to all our parishioners who donate regularly, whether with Gift Aid or not. Our Annual Collections increased by 7% last year, and our Special Collections (including the Building Fund collection) increased by 24%. Thank you to everyone for your generosity. May God reward you.
 
If you wish to set up standing order instead of using church envelopes or the plate collection, you can fill out a standing order form at the back of the church and return it to Fr John. If  you pay tax on your income please consider signing a Gif Aid Form. ( you do not lose any money but the church benefits (this year Gift Aid income realised over £25,000) . Alternatively, you can set up regular faster payment to the parish via your online banking system. Parish bank details as follows:
St Johns Church
Sort Code 80-05-54
Account No 00761597
Alternatively, please scan the QR code below to give via our online giving page:
Church Restoration Work:
Fr John along with PPC member Michael Ward attended the Diocesan Finance and Property Meeting on Friday 13th March at 2:00pm. At this meeting, after hearing the reports on all five tenders by the Project Management Team, we (the parish) agreed, with the Diocesan and Finance Committee, to select Cairn Contracts, who won the deal with the lowest tender out of five tenders to the Corrected Tender Amount of £694,233.55 plus VAT and Fees; this was after a thorough investigation into their costings. (which was done for 3 of the 5 tenders.)
 
To help cover the overall restoration costs, the Diocesan Fabric and Finance Committee agreed at this meeting to a further increase of £24k to the original budget of £907K, in order to cover the VAT and Fees for the work that will now be carried out make our church wind and water tight.
 
Thank you so much, St Joseph. And thank you to all of you for your donations and fundraising. The Diocesan Finance and Property Committee were very impressed by the magnificent sums raised by your fundraising efforts. 
 
This restoration work will take at least 26 weeks, or longer if the walls need longer to dry out; then the newly plastered walls will be painted.
 
Once work permits and initial site works are in place we expect the work to commence after the Easter holiday, around 17 April. This now means we will have Holy Week and Easter in the church. There will be a public meeting with the Project Management Team before Easter to let the whole parish know what works are being done and to give you a more in-depth explanation of all the work that will be done.
It is finally happening, my dear parishioners. Deo Gratias.
 
A Message from Bishop Keenan:
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am sure by now that most of you are aware of the difficult news that has come from the High Court and Sheriff Court this week, concerning former priest of our diocese Vincent Cassidy and Canon Stephen Baillie. This news will be distressing for many in our diocesan family—laity, religious and clergy—and I ask you to remember in your prayers the people who reported these offences, recognising the courage involved in coming forward. As a diocese, we renew our commitment to fostering a culture of care and we will continue to learn, through a shared commitment, how we can better create safe church environments.  We also renew our commitment to offer shelter, support and compassion to anyone hurt by the Church and help them to healing. Bishop Keenan’s statement concerning Vincent Cassidy can be found at https://tinyurl.com/dop-v-cassidy. His statement concerning Canon Stephen Baillie can be found at https://tinyurl.com/dop-s-baillie.
 
Mission at St Peter’s Church, Paisley:
You are invited to a 3-day Mission in St Peter’s Church, Paisley which includes the celebration of Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and talks. Dates: March 24th, 25th, and 26th. Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm. Theme: Evangelisation.
 
40 Days of Life for Glasgow:
This is an anti-abortion campaign conducting 12-hour daily prayer vigils (8:00am – 8:00pm) on Hardgate Road, near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital running from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. The group aims to end abortion through prayer, fasting and community outreach, to advocate a culture of life and offer alternatives to abortion to those visiting the facility. There is an open invitation to join them at any day during this vigil. Please keep them in your prayers.
 
Holy Week Services:
(Holy Week Begins on Palm Sunday)
Palm Sunday: Masses as normal with distribution of palms.
 
Monday – Wednesday: Morning Masses and Confessions as normal.
 
Chrism Mass Wednesday Evening: 7:00pm St Mirin’s Cathedral with blessing of the oils for the sacraments and renewal of priestly vows.
 
Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday – Holy Saturday):
Morning Prayer 10:00am Thursday – Saturday.
 
Holy Thursday Evening: Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7:00pm
Night Prayer: 10:00pm.
 
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3:00pm and Stations of the Cross 7:00pm (With ecumenical presence of Barrhead churches).
 
Easter Vigil: 8:00pm (With the Baptism of five Catechumens).
Easter Sunday: 10:00am and 11:30am
No evening Mass on Easter Sunday.
 
ABC Holy Week Services:
The ABC (Action for Barrhead Churches) has compiled a list of services being held in several local churches during Holy Week, to which everyone is warmly invited. Posters are on display at the side entrance and in the porch, where leaflets are also available to take away.
St. John’s is hosting two services on Good Friday:
— the Walk of Witness, starting from the church at 10.30am
— Stations of the Cross, in the church at 7pm.

Prayers for Fr Joe McGill’s dad, Stephen:
Fr Joe’s dad was taken into hospital on Monday the 2nd of March after sustaining a head injury as a result of a fall. Stephen is making small steps in recovery. Please continue to keep Stephen, Fr Joe and his family in your prayers