SUNDAY 5TH DECEMBER 2021

 

Sunday: December 5th

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Second collection: Christmas Flowers

 

MASS (OLHoC): 6.00pm (Sat.) (Vera Pickering RIP)

  

MASS (St Joseph’s): 9.00am (Pro Populo)

 X Refreshments in the Parish Hall after Mass

 

 MASS (OLHoC): 11.00am (Well-being and recovery of Fr Stephen Bould)

X Refreshments in the Parish Hall after Mass

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MONDAY, December 6th - Feria

 MASS (OLHoC) 9.00am (Agata Borza RIP)

X Christmas Flower Demonstration (OLHoC Hall): 2.00pm

X Journey in Faith/RCIA Class (OLHoC Hall): 7.00pm

 

TUESDAY, December 7th – St Ambrose

NO MASS TODAY

 

WEDNESDAY, December 8th

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

MASS (OLHoC): 9.00am (Geraldine Loader RIP)

X No tea/coffee in the hall after Mass today

 

STELLA MARIS SCHOOL MASS (OLHoC): 10.30am

X Folkestone Winter Shelter (OLHoC night)

 

THURSDAY, December 9th - Feria

MASS (OLHoC) 9.00am (For deceased members of the McPartlin Family RIP)

 

FRIDAY, December 10th – Feria

MASS (OLHoC): 9.00am (For deceased members of the Weekes family RIP)

 

SATURDAY, December 11th – St Damascus I

MASS (St Joseph’s): 10.00am (Intentions of Catherine Meehan)

X Confessions and Exposition (OLHoC) 11.00am – noon

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X RECEPTION OF COMMUNION AT MASS

– those not in Full Communion with the Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholics not able to receive Holy Communion are welcome to come forward to receive a blessing. 

Those wishing to receive a blessing are asked to approach the Priest with their arms crossed over their chest.

X CHRISTMAS FLOWER DEMONSTRATION

- a Christmas Flower Demonstration will be held on the Monday 6th December at 2.00pm, entrance is £3 and includes tea/coffee and a mince pie. Arrangements will be raffled, and proceeds from this will go to the SVP. All are welcome. 

X CAROL SERVICE – Sunday, 12th December at 4.30pm at St Joseph’s Church. There will be anthems and carols from the choir and you are all encouraged to attend, with all of the children of our parish, and join in with traditional favourites such as Once in Royal in David’s City; The Angel Gabriel from heaven came; Little Donkey, Silent night; While shepherds watched their flocks; Away in a Manger; The Rocking carol; O little town of Bethlehem; In the deep midwinter; O come all ye faithful before finishing with a rendition of Hark the herald angels sing.   

The carol service will be followed by refreshments in the hall including mince pies, mulled wine and a Prize Draw organised by the St. Josephs team and the UCM. There will also be a special gift for all the children. Thank you to all involved for putting this together especially Cecilia Wells-Tilling who has kindly taken the lead this year. 

X CHRISTMAS FLOWERS: please note that the second collection on Sunday 5th December is for the Christmas flowers. If you miss this opportunity and you’d like to contribute, please put your donation in an envelope marked “Christmas Flowers” and put it through the Presbytery letter box at 41 Guildhall Street. 

X CHRISTMAS FAYRE - SATURDAY 18TH DECEMBER – Are you able to assist with the Christmas Fayre this year? We are planning a raffle, lots of goodies for sale, plus tea, coffee and cake. Thank you to those who have offered to help including Maria who will be decorating the hall, Karen who will be providing a craft stall, Sara and the SVP who will be doing a Christmas grocery tombola (mince pies, cranberry sauce, packets of stuffing, sweets, tea, tinned goods, biscuits, sugar etc. Groceries can be individual prizes or put together in little hampers – so if you are able to give a small item for the tombola, please put in a bag marked Christmas Fayre in the porch or hand it to Dylan), Anne who will be doing the raffle, Ira who will be doing the cake stall, Bernie selling books and toys, Kathy and others for doing the tea, coffee and bacon rolls and Cecilia and John for just being there to support everything happening and coming together.

The Fayre will be held from 12.00 noon until 3.00pm in the Parish Hall at OLHoC. Please give any prizes or donations to Dylan or those running the stalls. 

X CATHOLIC CHRISTMAS CARDS, POSTING DATES AND MORE – from your very own Catholic Shop in our parish. Open every day after Mass at OLHoC (times are in the shop window) for all your cards, gifts, statues, rosaries and more, and every penny you spend will be supporting the work of our Parish, so please support our work. The last posting dates this year for Christmas cards (parcels are different dates) are as follows: 

·       Mon 6th December for Australia, Greece, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal

·       Weds 8th December for Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Far and Middle East

·       Fri 10th Dec. for Cyprus, Malta and Sweden

·       Sat 11th December for Eastern Europe

·       Monday 13th December for Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and USA

·       Sat 18th December for 2nd class UK

·       Tues 21st December for 1st class UK 

X PLEASE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS for the recently deceased and their families including Vera Pickering, Mick Kearney, Angela Diwell, Thomas Gilheaney and Agata Borza. May they rest in peace and rise in glory along with all those whose anniversaries fall at this time, including amongst them: Francis O’Brien, John Dobbin, Gertrude Grundy, John Pattarini, Margaret Light, Frederick Buller (5th Dec); Geraldine Loader, Christopher Shields, Marjorie Burdett, Ann Brooks (8th Dec); Gwendoline Hughes, Marie Richmond, Ivy Ives (9th Dec); Dorothy Butkus, Maurice Brivio, Joan Bradwell, Patrick Maher, Margaret Bloe, Philip Brivio (10th Dec); Archibald Henderson, Helena Walter, Kate Bellamy, Ronald Whiteman (11th Dec)

Kevin Morgan, Helena Knott (12th Dec); Maria Dyball, Hilda Grealey (13th Dec); Catherine Kershaw-Landy (14th Dec); Theresa Sharp, Richard Ellis (15th Dec); Theresa Castle, Danny Oakes, Howard Smith, Yvonne Louvet, Teresa Uden, Lesley Jones (16th Dec); Darren Gibson, Mary Eltham, Terrance Colquhoun-Flannery, Jozef Jozefaciuk, Grace Heaps, Claudina Gray, Dieudonne Trefousse, Francis O’Brien (17th Dec); Cynthia Misquita, Margaret Keown, Patrick McDaid (18th Dec); Madeline Cranney, Mark Fairley (19th Dec). 

CHRISTMAS MASS SERVICES IN THE PARISH OF OUR LADY AND ST JOSEPH

PLEASE NOTE THE TIMES BELOW:

 YYYYYYY

CHRISTMAS EVE,

FRIDAY 24TH DECEMBER, 2021

YYYYYYY

 CHRISTMAS VIGIL MASS: 4.30pm (St Joseph’s)

 

CHRISTMAS VIGIL MASS (OLHoC): 6.30pm

 

CHRISTMAS MIDNIGHT MASS (OLHoC): 11.00pm

   

Y

YYYYYY

CHRISTMAS DAY,

SATURDAY 25TH DECEMBER, 2021

YYYYYY

Y

 CHRISTMAS DAWN MASS

(OLHoC): 9.00am

and

(St Joseph’s): 9.00am

 

CHRISTMAS DAY MASS (OLHoC): 11.00am

 

There will be no Saturday night evening Mass

Y

 

THE HOLY FAMILY of JESUS, MARY and JOSEPH

SUNDAY 26TH DECEMBER, 2021

 

Sunday (OLHoC): 9.00am

 Sunday (OLHoC): 11.00am  


X REFLECTION FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT YEAR C

We have reached the second week of the four weeks of our journey to Christmas. Today the message is not about Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but it is about John the Baptist. The man who according to the synoptic gospels is the voice that cries in the wildness, a voice Isaiah mentioned in his prophecy. The voice proclaiming the promise of the universal salvation. The mission of the person behind the voice is to give a new form of baptism, that of repentance and metanoia, meaning the conversion of heart and spirit, thus bringing to fulfilment another prophecy, the one of Prophet Ezekiel, who in chapter 36 prophesied that the Lord will purify his people and give them a new heart and a new spirit. 

Here, John the Baptist is challenging us to seek out a life that finds its fulfilment and completion in God and Him alone by filling in the valleys. We go through the new week by acknowledging the valleys that we need to fill to create a pathway for the God of mercy, peace and justice. 

The key to filling the valleys is the ongoing cooperation with what the Lord Our God has begun in us. Indeed, our cooperation will enable the Lord to bring to fulfilment what he has begun. This week offers us the example of Mary Our Mother who cooperated with what the Lord began in from her Immaculate Conception to the end of her earthly existence. As we draw inspiration from her, we seek for her motherly assistance as we invoke her Our Lady Help of Christians Pray for us. 

Wednesday is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary, a Solemnity in our Archdiocese because of the fact that Mary is the Principal Patron of Our Archdiocese. We shall mark this feast with two Masses, the 9am is open to all the people of our Parish, while the 10.30am is reserved for the children of Stella Maris as the whole school will be attending, so please do not come to that Mass, as we are observing the new restriction. 

Sunday the 12th December at St Joseph we will have our Parish Carol Service in the afternoon. To which after honouring the Sunday Obligations, I am inviting parents, Grand - parents and their children to attend and all the parishioners with their children and Grand- parents at this important Parish Celebration. 

Another important parish celebration is the Christmas Fayre which brings people living within our parish and outside it. Our support here is also very important. 

The ‘Reflection for the Third Sunday of Advent’ will be available in the parish churches for the weekend of 11th/12th December. 

X PRAY FOR THOSE IN THE PARISH WHO ARE SICK or in hospital including Kathleen O’Hagan, Margaret Foster, Francis Dunn and Mary Wheaton.

X NEW READER’S TRAINING ON MONDAY 13TH DECEMBER AT 7.00PM – thank you to all those people who have put themselves forward to join the Ministry of Readers in our Parish. There will be a training session for new readers, that is those who have not yet received training, for reading at Masses in our Parish and preparing the Bidding Prayers. If you have not yet attended the training and would like to be one of our readers, please come along to Our Lady. Help of Christians on Monday 13th December at 7.00pm.


PARISH INFORMATION

 

Presbytery and Parish Office:

41 Guildhall Street, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1EF

Tel: 01303 252823  e-mail: folkestone@rcaos.org.uk

 

Parish Secretary: Mr Dylan Jeffrey BA, PGCE, MSc

 

Clergy

Parish Priest: Fr Alex Saba MA, MSLR, MCL, JCL

 

Priest: Fr Francis Capener MA

Deacon: Rev. Dr Gehad Homsey MB, BCh

 

Our Lady Help of Christians Hall Bookings: 

Dylan Jeffrey (Tel:01303 252823)

 

St Joseph’s Church Hall Bookings:

Mrs M. Irving (Tel: 01303 278435)

  

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