SUNDAY MASSES
Our parish will continue to operate present (Covid) Mass times until all restrictions of numbers are lifted (hopefully early August). We continue to suspend Sunday Mass bookings by the parish mobile phone due to difficulties in cover. When you arrive at Mass we ask our parishioners to indicate to our parish stewards your preferred Mass for next Sunday weekend (31st July/1st August).
Bookings for next weekend’s Masses can also be made by phoning the Church house – 0141 959 1308 – any day this week – please leave your name, telephone number, and preferred Mass.
Thank you
POPE FRANCIS ON WONDER
In a homily earlier this year, Pope Francis said: ‘Wonder is the essential religious state of mind. It is a receptivity to the mysterious presence of God in our lives and a movement towards that mystery. Jesus is the ultimate source of our wonder as Christians.’ Time and again in the Gospels those who encounter Jesus at the closest quarters wonder the most. The Three Wise Men undertake a journey of faith that is guided by wonder. Those who encounter Jesus in his ministry (and later, the travelers on the road to Emmaus) are struck with wonder at the authority with which Jesus speaks. It is the authority of the one who is ‘truly the son of God’. Holy Week is where our wonder in Jesus finds its summit.
In Holy Week, as Pope Francis brilliantly clarified, our sense of wonder must move beyond passive spectatorship. True Christian wonder is not just something you feel but something you act out.
Pope Francis distinguished between a passive ‘admiration’ of Jesus’ life and an overwhelming ‘amazement’ at Jesus that calls us out of ourselves to follow in his ways. ‘To admire Jesus is not enough’, he said. ‘We have to follow in his footsteps. Liturgy regularly leaves us amazed, especially the liturgies of the Passion, as we pass from the joy of welcoming Jesus as he enters Jerusalem to the sorrow of watching him condemned to death and then crucified’, he said. That sense of interior amazement, crucial to Holy Week, is to remain with us always.
‘Amazement is not the same as admiration’, he continued. ‘Admiration can be worldly since it follows its own tastes and expectations. Amazement, on the other hand, remains open to others and to the newness they bring’.
Even today, the Pope noted, there are many people who admire Jesus because ‘he said beautiful things – he was filled with love and forgiveness – his example changed history’. But ‘to admire Jesus is not enough’, he said. ‘We have to follow in his footsteps, to let ourselves be challenged by him, to pass from admiration to amazement’.
Pope Francis invited his global audience ‘to ask for the grace to be amazed’ saying that ‘a Christian life without amazement becomes drab and dreary. How can we talk about the joy of meeting Jesus, unless we are daily astonished and amazed by his love, which brings us forgiveness and the possibility of a new beginning? When faith no longer experiences amazement, it grows dull, it becomes blind to the wonders of grace, it can no longer taste the Bread of life and hear the Word, it can no longer perceive the beauty of our brothers and sisters and the gift of creation’.
The Pope encouraged believers worldwide to ‘gaze upon Jesus on the cross and say to him: ‘Lord, how much you love me! How precious I am to you!’ He encouraged them, ‘Let us be amazed by Jesus so that we can start living again, for the grandeur of life lies not in possessions and promotions, but in realising that we are loved and in experiencing the beauty of loving others.’
‘In the crucified Jesus,’ he said, ‘we see God humiliated, the Almighty dismissed and discarded. And with the grace of amazement, we come to realise that in welcoming the dismissed and discarded, in drawing close to those ill-treated by life, we are living Jesus. For that is where he is, in the least of our brothers and sisters, in the rejected and discarded’.
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CLEANING OF THE CHURCH
We ask for more volunteers to help with ‘deep cleaning’ and sanitising of the Church during the summer months – to help relieve the work of our present cleaners and perhaps offer them a rest.
Deep cleaning and sanitising takes place each Saturday morning from 10am to 11am – any length of time (given by volunteers during this hour) would be most appreciated.
Our grateful thanks to all our parish cleaners at weekends/weekdays and to our parish stewards and to all the parishioners who have organised our Sunday weekend Mass telephone bookings – again we are truly thankful for these and all services and sacrifices given by our parishioners for the benefit of us all.
WELCOME
We warmly welcome Fr John Clark – Comboni Missions/Verona Father (26th July – 8th August) and Fr Joseph McNulty (8th August – 15th August) to the parish. We offer our customary hospitality and thanks to them both.
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
We wish all our school children, their teachers and families a well-earned, safe and peaceful rest in the company of family, friends and loved ones.
BAPTISMS
Our congratulations and best wishes to the parents and family of :
Caleb Sonny Munro
Who was baptised last Sunday 4th July
– A warm welcome into our parish family –
FUNERAL MASS
The funeral masses took place recently for :
James Joseph Gallagher (Castlebank Gardens) – Monday 26th July at 10 am
Jean McKillop (Willoughby Drive) – Thursday 29th July at 10 am
The congregation was limited to family members only
Our deepest sympathies to their families
– May the Rest in Peace –
MONTHS MIND
Elizabeth Duncan (3)
– May she Rest in Peace –
PLEASE PRAY FOR THOSE WHO DIED RECENTLY
Irene Henson
Jean McKillop (Willoughby Drive)
Alex Cameron
Bobby Sommerville
Pat Cassidy
Rose Kudirka (Balmanno House)
James Joseph Gallagher (Castlebank Gardens)
Edward Casey
– May they Rest in Peace –
PLEASE PRAY FOR WHOSE ANNIVERSARIES OCCUR ABOUT NOW
Sadie Quinn
John A. Curry
John T. Currie
Bernard Curry
Margaret Flynn
Annie Flynn
Jean Vivra Gray
– May they Rest in Peace –