4th Sunday of Advent 2014

ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST
59 THE AVENUE
TADWORTH
SURREY KT20 5AB
Tel 01737 813102
Parish Priest: Father Martin Breen
E-mail [email protected]
Parish Secretary: Margaret Tickner
E-mail [email protected]
Website:www.stjohnstadworth.org.uk
The Arundel & Brighton Trust is a
Registered Charity No 25287
Hall Booking: 07824725681
[email protected]
Gift Aid Contact –
Dick Shelley – 01737 817930
REFLECTION
A New Job?
Fourth Sunday of Advent
21st December 2014
Sat 20th Dec.
First Mass of Sunday
5.30-5.50pm Confessions
6.00pm Maria Shanley’s Intentions
Sun 21st Dec.
Fourth Sunday of Advent
8.30am Mary Getting RIP (N & M Getting)
10.30am Doris & Patrick Kelly RIP (E Burke)
3pm Christmas Carol Service followed by
mince pies and mulled wine in the hall.
Mon 22nd Dec Mass for 22nd December
9.00am Simon Vanstone RIP (M & J Pattison)
Tues 23rd Dec Mass for 23rd December
9.00am Edward Reardon RIP (N & M getting)
Christmas Coffee Club in the hall until 10.30.
10.30am Prayer Group in the Lady Chapel
Wed 24th Dec
Christmas Eve
11.30-12 Noon Confessions
6.30pm Carols with St John’s Folk Group
Vigil Mass of the Nativity of the Lord
7.00pm Mai & John Breen RIP
Thurs 25th Dec The Nativity of the Lord
8.30am Fr. Martin’s well-being (N & M Getting)
10.30am Yvonne Bevington (Bev) RIP (J
Robinson)
Fri 26th Dec St Stephen
No Mass today
Sat 27th Dec First Mass of Sunday
5.30-5.50pm Confessions
6.00pm Catherine Balfe RIP (K Pearce)
Sun 28th Dec The Holy Family of Jesus
Mary and Joseph
8.30am Sean Breen RIP (J Robinson)
10.30am Yvonne Bevington (Bev) RIP
(A & P Wilkinson)
12 Noon Baptism for Ceira & Cian Gleeson
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you …. Do
not be afraid, for you have found favour with
God.” In that moment Mary knew that God
had great plans for her. How must she have
felt? It probably wasn’t a calling that many of
us envy. Mary was called not only to a life of
great joy, but of great difficulty and
heartache. ‘Calling’ is a two sided coin. On the
one hand a calling can bring great fulfilment,
but on the other it brings inescapable
responsibility. Mary didn’t choose a
comfortable option. Once Mary had said ‘yes’
to God’s plan there was no going back.
It would be easy to sit back and see this
gospel as ‘Mary’s story’, but it’s our story too.
Today we are prompted to look at our calling
in life. How do we recognise it, and how do we
respond to it? It is frighteningly easy to use
up all the days of our lives on day to day
chores and jobs that leave us with nothing of
value to show at the end. It is all too tempting
to spend our lives chasing pleasures that
ultimately leave us empty and dissatisfied.
Understanding our calling in life comes with
knowing ourselves inside out and appreciating
the value of our talents. Only when we have
identified a calling that is all consuming and
insistent, can we fill our lives with new energy
and meaning.
God’s call to Mary is what we refer to today as
the “Annunciation” which means an
announcement or a calling. There are other
places in the Bible where we see people called
unexpectedly from the normality of their humdrum lives to serve God. The calling is always
a two-way thing. God requires a response. Of
course we don’t have to respond to God’s call
if we don’t want to. Mary didn’t have to say
‘yes’ to God’s plan. She could have declined
and lived out her years in comfort.
Advent is a time in which we can look for the
ways in which God is calling us …… a time in
which we can choose that special new job for
the New Year.
FOR THE SICK AND HOUSEBOUND;
Please continue to pray for all the sick and
housebound in the parish and for all those who
are finding life difficult to cope with at the
moment; Kay Fry, Lorna Murray, Joan
O’Connor, Ann Gilhooley, Rita Connolly,
Anthony Heath, Henry Marsh, Gabby
Henderson, Fr Martin, Fr Dominic, Christine
Cooper, Richard Randag, Bill Toulmin Allan
Read, Irena Pietruszko, Ron Harkness and
Bonnie Ralph
•
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DIARY DATES
Sunday 21st Dec 3pm –Christmas
Carol Service followed by mince pies
& mulled wine in the church hall.
Tuesday 23rd December –Christmas
Coffee Club in the hall after Mass
DECEMBER ANNIVERSARIES
Mark Bridgeman, Margarita Bright, Kieran Fry,
Ella Handley, Margaret McCarthy, Irene Faires,
William (Dave) Hooker, Gladys Bridgeman,
Norma Evans, Lillian Franking, Iris Philp,
Barbara York, June Abeyratne, Winifred Scott,
Fred Heath, Elizabeth Morgan, Winifred
Williams, Hugh Arnold
May they rest in peace
CHRISTMAS READERS; There is a list in the
church porch for readers for the Christmas
Masses. Please sign if you can help, there
is a lack of volunteers!
READERS ROTAS; The new rotas for readers
at 6pm Mass are now ready in the church
porch. Please make sure you pick them up as
they start this weekend.
CHRISTMAS COFFEE CLUB; The Christmas
Coffee Club celebration will be on Tuesday 23rd
December at the usual time after Mass.
EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS. If you are able
to help over the Christmas period, please
indicate on the list in the porch
YOUTH CLUB NEWS
Panto trip 10th January 2.15pm. Tickets £8;
sold on first come first served basis. Contact
Phyllis Flynn on 07884146865 or email
[email protected]
CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES
Wednesday 24th December
11.30am-12 Noon Confessions
6.30pm Christmas Carols with St. John’s Folk
Group
7.00pm Christmas Vigil Mass
Thursday 25th December
8.30am Mass
10.30am Family Mass
Friday 26th December
No Mass
Saturday 27th December
5.30-5.50pm Confessions
6.00pm Mass
Sunday 28th December
8.30am Mass
10.30am Mass
A BIG THANK YOU, to the many (about 12)
who turned up to clean the church on Monday.
We hope you enjoyed your coffee and mince
pies! Thank you all once again.
PARISH OFFICE; The office will close on
Tuesday 23rd December and re-open on
Monday 29th December.
Altar Servers
This is a special plea to Altar Servers and
their parents. Please, please do turn up if
you are on the rota and give yourselves 10
minutes to get ready, so that Father can
start Mass on time. Thank you.
The Week That Was
Not a good week. - very fatigued. I was
taken off the chemo for two days and it
did the trick. I am hoping to be able to
participate fully in the Christmas
liturgies.
How depraved one must be to target
young children.
It takes something unusually vile for the
world to pay much attention to a
terrorist outrage in Pakistan. Since 2007
the annual toll of murders by jihadists
has never dropped below 2,000 and in
2012 and 2013 it was not far off 4,000.
This year has actually seen the mayhem
decline by a third. But the horror of the
attack by the Pakistani Taliban, an
umbrella organisation of militant
groups officially known as Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP), on an army-run
school in Peshawar stands out for the
scale and nature of its brutality.
By the time army commandos regained
control of the compound 141 people, most
of them teenagers and younger children,
had been killed.
Then we had the siege at a café in
Sydney, when three people lost their lives.
Then there is a report that eight children,
ranging in age from 18 months to 15
years, were found dead inside a home in
the northern Australian city of Cairns on
Friday.
We seem to be quite helpless, but let us be
the source of peace to t hose whom we live
with and meet, and after all Christ is the
Prince of Peace.
Wishing you all the Blessings Of the Christmas Season God bless.
Fr. M.

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