Sunday: January 30th
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
The Angelus will be said two minutes before Mass
MASS (OLHoC): 6.00pm (Saturday 29th Jan.) (Ann Harrison RIP)
MASS (OLHoC): 9.00am (Pro Populo)
X Unfortunately, there are NO Refreshments after
Mass
MASS (OLHoC): 11.00am (John William Wrigley RIP)
X Unfortunately, there are NO Refreshments after
Mass
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• MONDAY, January 31st – St John Bosco
MASS (OLHoC):
9.00am (Mr & Mrs Sadler RIP)
• TUESDAY, February
1st - Feria
NO MASS TODAY
• WEDNESDAY, February 2nd
THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD
MASS (OLHoC): 10.00am (Well-being
of Margaret Woolley)
X Blessing of
the candles at end of Mass
X UCM AGM and refreshments (OLHoC
Hall) after Mass
• THURSDAY, February 3rd – St Blaise
MASS
followed by blessing of throats
(OLHoC): 9.00 am (Mary Wheaton RIP)
X Cremation of
Mary Wheaton (Hawkinge): 3.30pm
• FRIDAY, February 4th – Feria
FIRST FRIDAY DEVOTION TO THE SACRED
HEART OF JESUS
Holy Rosary and Exposition
(OLHoC): 9:00am
MASS (OLHoC): 9.30am (Fr Edward Richer)
• SATURDAY, February 5th – St Agatha
MASS (OLHoC) 10.00am (Blessings for a London family)
Confessions & Exposition (OLHoC):
11.00am to 12 noon
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Following Sunday: February 6th
FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
MASS (OLHoC): 6.00pm (Saturday 5th Feb.) (Dr Chris Vickery RIP)
MASS (St Joseph’s): 9.00am (Pro Populo)
X Unfortunately, there are NO Refreshments after
Mass
MASS (OLHoC): 11.00am (Timothy Cronin RIP)
X Unfortunately, there are NO Refreshments after
Mass
THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY IN OUR PARISH – this week we enter a new month, February. As we begin it, we will celebrate Jesus, the light of the world, with the feast of The Presentation of the Lord on Wednesday. Yes, Jesus the light of the world has come to shine in our darkness, above all, he has come to make us light.
We then turn to God our healer with the feast of St Blaise on Thursday 3rd February.
The 11th February is the World Day of Prayer for the Sick. We will turn to Our Lady of Lourdes and ask her to pray for us, and with us, that the Lord might take away all our illness and make us all whole. As a parish, we will mark our faith in God who heals us in Christ with a day of Prayer, Penance, Stations of the Cross and a Mass during which the sacrament of the sick will be administered to those who wish to receive it.
X CANDLEMAS (The Presentation of the Lord) We’ll celebrate Candlemas at 10.00am at OLHoC on Wednesday. The parish’s stock of candles will be blessed, and we’ll sing hymns! Why not have the candles from your own homes to be blessed, too - bring them with you get them blessed along with our stock of candles.
X ST BLAISE – the individual blessing of throats will take place at the end of Mass on Thursday.
X NO MASS ON TUESDAYS – please note that for the foreseeable future, there will be no Mass on Tuesdays in the Parish. However, the church at OLHoC in Guildhall Street will continue to open for private prayer on Tuesday mornings.
X UCM AGM will be held this Wednesday in OLHoC Hall after morning Mass for the Presentation of the Lord which is at 10.00am. All members of the UCM are invited to attend and there will be refreshments before the meeting.
X PLEASE PRAY FOR THOSE WHO ARE SICK OR IN HOSPITAL including Margaret Woolley, who has had a serious fall and is in hospital; for Margaret Foster who is undergoing treatment for cancer; and for Peter Collins who is terminally ill with cancer and too old for further treatment to be administered.
X FILM SHOW of Charlie
Chaplin in 'The Great Dictator' on Monday 7th February at 7.30pm in St Joseph's
Hall. Entry is free, bring your own snacks, coffee and tea will be
provided.
X REFURBISHMENT OF OUR CHURCHES – work is still continuing and we are in discussion with heating engineers, consulting engineers, architects, roofers and building surveyors about the work needed at St Joseph’s. The work is almost finished at Our Lady, Help of Christians, but there is still much more to be done like window replacements in the hall toilets and new carpets required. We are still nearly £20,000 shy of the money needed to pay the bills for work already carried out at both churches and desperately need your support. When we set out on this journey, we were transparent with the costs, however, there have been unexpected problems along the way like trees growing in drains under St Joseph’s church and extensive damp in the back wall at Our Lady, Help of Christians. All have needed urgent and expensive work to put it right.
The work also included the cost of the new replacement lights, with which we are able to produce a multitude of colours in the church at Our Lady. The lights, which are LED, come with the colours at no extra cost and were desperately needed. The old obsolete lights were gradually failing and we had less than two-thirds working, two on their last legs and one flickering causing discomfort to those with conditions such as epilepsy. The new lights, although expensive, have a lifetime of around 25 years and use considerably less energy, thereby saving money and our planet by reducing our carbon footprint.
You can donate to the parish via cheque payable to “The Parish of Our Lady and St Joseph, Folkestone” and placed an envelope marked ‘Renovation Appeal’ and posted through the Parish Office door at the Presbytery at 41 Guildhall Street on any day or via bank transfer to The Parish of Our Lady and St Joseph Folkestone, Sort Code 52-41-42 and Account Number 08605556 with the reference ‘Renovation’. Alternatively, you can use our Just Giving page online, a link is on our parish website, which allows for payments to be made by credit/ debit card or by PayPal with no fees at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/olsj-folkestone
X SHEPWAY FOOD BANK – Thank you for all those who continue to give so generously to our food bank donation points. Please do continue to make your donations, either through the orange bin in the porch at OLHoC, the box at St Joseph’s, at Stella Maris School or in cash via the poor box located at the back of the church at OLHoC in Guildhall Street, where the money collected over the next month, until the end of February, will be split with the Winter Shelter.
X PAX CHRISTI APPEAL – thank you to everyone
who gave so generously to last week’s retiring collection which raised a total
of £47.32.
X CATECHISM CLASSES will resume on Monday 21st February at 7.30pm in the OLHoC Hall.
X TEA AND COFFEE IN THE HALL AFTER SUNDAY MASS – will resume on Sunday 13th February. Refreshments after Wednesday morning’s Mass will resume from this week.
X RAINBOW CENTRE UPDATE ON THE WORK OF THE WINTER SHELTER FROM MARY STREDWICK, CEO. “Happy New Year and Greetings from the Rainbow Centre! Once again we thank you for your prayers and support. The Winter Shelter is going well. Thank you and your congregation for providing meals to our guests and volunteering at the Breakfast/Social Club during weekdays at the Rainbow centre. We are pleased to report we secured additional funding from the government via our local Council, which allowed us to pre-book three more rooms from 24 December. We now have 13 rooms on offer in a local B&B and will be extending the Winter Shelter to the end of March. At this week’s Venue Coordinators meeting, we got the assurance that cooks and volunteers are pleased to continue offering meals during March and have a couple more churches ready to assist. We are grateful for this support.
All 13 rooms are occupied with 16 guests, including couples; 4 guests were evicted because of anti-social behaviour, 2 chose to leave, and we have found move on options for 7 guests. Sadly, we currently have a waiting list for the shelter and are experiencing an unprecedented demand for homeless support and debt management services due to the lifting of evictions which were suspended during the pandemic plus the loss in the £20 a week [Universal Credit] uplift for those on low incomes and benefits. Because the Council Housing Team is remote working, many come to the Centre to get help with form filling and other support. Thankfully, we have sufficient food stock to give to those who need it, and the club continues to offer a space for people to be listened to and feel supported.
Please keep us in your prayers to remain safe and well and pray for the clients to find hope and meaning in their lives.
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
X PLEASE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS of Mary Wheaton, whose funeral is on Thursday in Hawkinge at 3.30pm, and Ann Craggill who died recently, and for all those whose anniversaries fall at this time, including: Sister Martina [Winifred Parsons], Michael Galvin, Margery Ridler, Rafaela Morris (30th Jan). Dorothy O’Clee, Denise Del Signore (1st Feb); Rosemary Cocking, Jeannie Flavin, Charles Newman, Cora Thornely, Margaret Harrison (2nd Feb); Jeanne Russell-Maguire, Leslie Eede, Wlada Studzinski (3rd Feb); Thomas Horsfall; Sister Beatrice [Hawkins], George Vincent, Patrick Eccles, Irene Murphy, Kathleen Jones (4th Feb), Sister Jordana [Paula Pohl], Thomas Terrell (5th Feb); Margaret Walsh, Anthony Noonan (6th Feb).
THE ANGELUS
V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, etc...
V. Behold the handmaid of the
Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to Your Word.
Hail Mary, etc...
V. And the Word was made
flesh,
R. And dwelt among us. Hail Mary, etc...
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother
of God.
R. That we
may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord,
Your Grace into our hearts;
that as we have known the incarnation of Christ,
your Son by the message of an angel,
so by His passion and cross we may be brought to
the glory of His Resurrection.
Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.
WE FLY TO THY PROTECTION
We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God.
Do not despise our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.
HAIL HOLY QUEEN
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.
PRAYER TO ST MICHAEL
Saint
Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our
protection 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, thrust into hell
Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.
Amen.
X YOU CAN HELP YOUR MARRIAGE – Do you feel alone? Are you frustrated or angry with each other? Do you argue … or have you just stopped talking to each other? Does talking about it only make it worse? Retrouvaille (pronounced retro-vi with a long i) helps couples through difficult times in their marriages. There is no group therapy or group work. This programme has helped 10s of 1000s of couples experiencing difficulties in their marriage.
For confidential information about Retrouvaille’, or to register for the next programme commencing with a ‘Virtual’ weekend on 3rd – 6th March 2022, call or text 0788 7296983 or Email retrouvailleukinfo@gmail.com – or visit www.retrouvaille.org.uk
X FUTURE DATES FOR THE DIARY
· Friday 11th February: Our Lady of Lourdes, Day
of Prayer for the Sick.
· Sunday 13th February: Racial Justice Day and
second collection for Catholic Association for Racial Justice
· Sunday 27th February: Second collection for the
Sick and Retired Priests Fund
· Sunday Wednesday 2nd March: Ash Wednesday
· Friday 4th March: Stations of the Cross at
OLHoC
· Sunday 6th March: Second collection for the
Poor Parishes
· Wednesday 9th March: Stations of the Cross at
St Joseph’s
· Friday 11th March: Stations of the Cross at
OLHoC
· Friday 11th March: CAFOD Fast Day for Lent
· Sunday 13th March: Parish Family Mass with
readings by Year 6 of Stella Maris
· Wednesday 16th March: Stations of the Cross at
St Joseph’s
· Friday 18th March: Stations of the Cross at
OLHoC
· Wednesday 22nd March: Stations of the Cross at
St Joseph’s
· Friday 25th March: Solemnity of the
Annunciation of the Lord
· Wednesday 30th March: Stations of the Cross at
St Joseph’s
· Friday 8th April: Stations of the Cross at
OLHoC
· Sunday 9th April: Palm Sunday of the Passion of
the Lord
· Wednesday 13th April: Stations of the Cross at
St Joseph’s
· Easter Triduum begins on Thursday 14th April.
X UPDATED GUIDANCE – Following the announcement by HM Government to lift Plan B restrictions, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference has issued new guidance for churches, which has been verified by officials from Public Health England.
Acts
of Worship
The main mitigation against serious health issues arising from covid infection is to be fully vaccinated; this means two doses plus a booster for anyone aged 16 or over. The vaccine programme in England and Wales has had a major impact in reducing death and serious illness from infection with Covid-19. The Church in England and Wales supports the vaccination programme and encourages people to be vaccinated.
The scientific consensus is that society is moving towards the stage where the virus is transitioning from the pandemic phase to the endemic phase, but as stated by HM Government, there is still a risk associated with gathering for sustained periods in enclosed spaces and therefore there needs to be continued caution by all against infection.
This, however, has to be balanced against the need to move forward safely towards a normal lifestyle and these two positions will always be held in tension. This holding in tension is the key to living safely with Covid-19, namely keeping infections from a virus that cannot be eliminated to levels which minimise disruption to people’s lives.
This guidance has been written with this principle in mind.
Alongside the positive effects of covid vaccination, it should be stressed that any people displaying symptoms of Covid-19 should stay at home and not participate in acts of worship in church. This is good practice for any transmissible illness. Medical advice should be sought as appropriate for those who are ill.
The main form of virus transmission is via personal oral or nasal aerosol. Those attending an act of worship may continue to wear a face covering (both nose and mouth) whilst in the church building. There is no need for formal social distancing in church buildings, although those present should be sensitive to the needs of others around them. Churches should continue to ensure there is good ventilation, balancing this against the need for church heating, especially at this time.
It is clear from scientific evidence that transmission from surfaces (touch transmission) is now minimal. Whilst it is still good practice to sanitise hands on entry and exit of churches, there is no need for readers (or other ministers) to sanitise their hands before reading or performing other ministries in the church. All ministers of Holy Communion (clergy and lay people) should still sanitise their hands for the distribution of Holy Communion. Holy water stoups may be refilled but care should be seen that the water is changed regularly (at a minimum of once a week). Usual forms of church cleaning are sufficient.
Regarding the liturgical action, there should be a return to the normal mode of celebrating Mass respecting the integrity of the Rite. This would include the reintroduction of the Prayer of the Faithful (where this has not been reinstated already), the Sign of Peace may be offered again if felt appropriate, and Holy Communion should be distributed at the usual place and in the usual mode (i.e. with the faithful approaching the minister in an orderly procession). For the time being, Holy Communion must continue to be given under one kind only (the Sacred Host).
Where there is physical touch as part of another Rite of the Church (for example, anointing of the sick, ashing of foreheads etc) the use of cotton buds is no longer mandated, but the hands should be cleaned well before and after the Rite.
Congregational singing may continue and there is a general encouragement to wear face coverings while singing. However, it is recognised that not everyone will feel able to do this.
Conclusion
Whilst this reduction of restrictions brings about a more normal
way of living, the Covid-19 virus is still in circulation, and this should be
in the mind of those participating in the life of the Church as time goes
forward holding in balance the need for personal safety and taking responsibility
for that safety.
