Monday 7th
December 2020
Second Week of Advent
Dear brothers and sisters,
If I asked you to name a celebrity chef what would your
answer be? Delia Smith? Jamie Oliver? Fanny Cradock? Nigella Lawson or Rick
Stein? My favourites were the Two Fat Ladies – Clarissa Dickson Wright and
Jennifer Patterson.
I was fascinated by their witty dialogue, extravagant dishes
and most of all their unashamed witness to the Catholic faith. From the
Crucifix and picture of Our Lady in the kitchen through to the retelling of
personal stories about their First Communion experiences, from the Pope to
their saintly devotions and of course Jennifer’s red papal slippers! No matter
who our favourite television chef is they all have one phrase in common:
‘Here’s on I
made earlier!’
For the show to run smoothly the TV chef has to be prepared.
Very prepared! They have a limited amount of time to demonstrate the cooking of
a dish from start to finish which may take over an hour and the BBC can only
give them 30mins on air to present it all. Ingredients have to be prepared
beforehand and examples of the dish, at various stages of the cooking process,
have to be ready to show the audience in an instant.
The readings at Mass during this season of Advent, have all
so far, called us to prepare. Prepare for what? The Second Coming when Jesus will
return again as he promised. Like the cookery programme time slot which is
limited, so is this world. We are familiar with the Gospel sayings, ‘You
do not know the hour’ or ‘..like a thief in the night...’,
they remind us that there are many things in the future that we cannot predict
when, where and how they will happen but that does not mean we can’t be ready
for when they do come.
‘And what I say
to you I say to all: Stay awake!’ (Mk. 13:37)
‘It is not those
who say to me, “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the
person who does the will of my Father in heaven.’ (Mt. 7:21)
‘Therefore,
everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a
sensible man who built his house on rock.’ (Mt. 7:24)
‘All Judaea and
all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by
him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.’ (Mk. 1:5)
As we continue on our Advent journey let us take heed of the
word of God and prepare ourselves for when Christ will come again. Let us be
ready, alert and awake. Let us not only hear the words of Jesus but act on them.
Let us have the humility and courage to come to the Sacrament of Confession and
prepare our hearts to receive the Lord. For when the Master does return will we
be able to show him the fruits of our faith ripened by our lives of holiness or
will we have the weak excuse – I wasn’t ready!
Confessions
Advent is a time of preparing to meet Our Lord and an
important part of this is Confession. This sacrament was instituted by Christ
so that we could tangibly feel and truly receive his mercy and forgiveness.
There will be the opportunity for Confession at St. Mary’s on the following
dates:
Saturday 12th
December 9am – 10am
Saturday 19th
December 9am – 10am
Our Dean, Fr. Stamp at St. Anne’s in Accrington, is also
kindly offering Confession by appointment and can be contacted at
simon.stamp@dioceseofsalford.org.uk
Stewards & Cleaners
If you would like to serve Our Lord as a volunteer steward
then please email Jennifer Pickles (St. Mary’s Steward Co-ordinator) at:
jennifer.pickles@virginmedia.com or to volunteer as a cleaner please contact
Karen Beard (Parish Housekeeper) at jakey9998@aol.com
Temporary Booking for the Holy Mass during the Covid-19
Pandemic
Ursula Heyes will be available on Wednesdays and Fridays,
from 5pm – 6pm on (01254) 232 433 to take telephone bookings. The parish
website www.saintmarysoswaldtwistle.co.uk
has a link for online bookings. Sadly, some volunteers have had to return to
work and therefore you will only be able to book online during the week (Monday
to Friday). On behalf of the parish I would like to say thank you to all those
involved with our parish booking system.
Sacramental Programme: Confession and Holy Communion
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed a lot of our usual routine
events and this includes the sacramental programme. I feel very strongly that
those young people who are actively engaged with the parish should be able to
receive Our Lord and therefore, adapting to new circumstances, I’m beginning the
new programme. If you live in the parish of St. Mary’s and have a baptised
Roman Catholic child who is seven years old + and you believe that they are
ready to begin preparation for the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion
then please do contact me before the end of December. The sacramental programme
at St. Mary’s is through the parish and not the schools. Mass attendance and
full active participation in the life of the parish is just automatically
assumed because Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is both the ‘object and
means of our faith’ (St. Peter Julian Eymard). Without an active
relationship with Our Lord, without regularly being in His Presence before the
Blessed Sacrament, our faith can never grow nor can we truly know Him and Jesus
wants us to know Him. Why? Because he has Good News for us!
God Bless and keep praying.
Our Lady of Oswaldtwistle, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Fr. O’Brien
