sunday masses:

weekday masses:

• This week's bulletin is available for download here.
• Heating System
  . Work continues beneath the floor. Due to be completed end of February.
• Congratulation
  . John and Rachel Philp – a little boy born Thursday 26th Jan.
• “Boys’ Sacristy”
  . This is the anteroom before the newly refurbished Old Sacristy (= choir rehearsal room and audio-visual meeting room). On historical architect’s drawings of St Mary’s this anteroom is usually referred to as the “Boys’ Sacristy”. It now serves as the actual sacristy, but until last week had no light, no ceiling, and very little plaster left on the walls. The Eucharistic Minsters have been heroic in making do. This is now, at last, being rectified.
• Exhibition
  . See Narthex/CC centre for latest exhibition of Music at St Mary’s.
• Question of the Week
  . Who was the youngest man ever to be elected Pope?
• Development Projects 2012
  .
  
  Heating
  The installation of our new heating system. Design has already been developed by our heating consultant (Ashmount). Installation begins Monday 16th Jan.
  
  Memorial Chapel
  Glass screen and door shortly to be installed. Plastering, decorating and tile fixing will be done in due course. A new oak confessional screen is part of the project to facilitate the option of “blind” or face-to-face confession.
  
  Cloister
  New roof, installation of WC and kitchenette, and new social area due this year, pending approval from the WBC planning authority and conservation officer. St Mary’s Development Fund is currently dedicated to this project.
  
  Our Lady of Lourdes
  Candle stand and new lighting to be re-instated early this year. Plastering and decorating around this area all to be done in due course.
  
  Plaza and West End door
  Redevelopment of the Plaza is also planned for this year. This to include a new West End door and porch into the Narthex. Still pending approval from WBC planning authority and conservation officer.
  
  
• Benedictine Yearbook 2012
  . Now on sale in the Narthex. Includes information and news about all our Benedictine monasteries. Also an exclusive article on the Downside Abbey Church: an architectural expression of the Downside community at the various moments in its history, and the dazzling succession of architects that have worked on this architectural masterpiece over the last two centuries.
• Church cleaning
  . Volunteers are always welcome, and really needed, to join the church cleaning team. If you’re free any morning of the week and would like to help, please contact Fr William.
• Refreshments
  . Everybody welcome for refreshments in the cloister after the 1100 Mass.
• Junior Choir
  . St Mary’s junior choir is open to young people aged 7 to 13 or thereabouts. This is your chance to get free singing lessons, and also to serve the Holy Mass with your voices. Come and join us! Contact Fr William or Michael Wynne if you’d like to join.
• Morning Prayer
  . Morning Prayer is sung every morning Monday to Saturday here at St Mary’s. You might consider taking this up as an Advent devotion. All welcome. 7.30am in the chancel. The main door will be locked so come in the side door.
• Flame Congress Wembly Arena March 2012
  . Flame Congress, Wembley Arena, 24th March 2012. Thousands of young Catholics will gather to reflect, celebrate and pray, as some of the best speakers in Britain share insights about faith and sport, including witness from Catholic Olympians and Paralympians. Flame Congress is the first event of its kind in England & Wales, and will link Olympic values and faith experience in dynamic and powerful ways. CYMFed – the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation – is running the event. Full details are at www.cymfed.org/flame. The organisers are hoping that there will be two representatives from each parish who will take part in the Flame Congress. Please contact Fr Simon Gore 01744 740467 s.gore@animateyouth.co.uk.
• ‘With You Always’
  . It’s the name given to the new way in which we prepare people for the sacraments, and the restored order of the sacraments in the Liverpool Archdiocese. For more information, visit www.withyoualways.org.uk.
• Latest News By Email
  . If you would like to recieve email every week with the latest parish news, please sign up to the mailing list here.
• St Mary's Welfare Team
  .We would like to build up a team of people in St Mary’s with different gifts or know-how to offer help to people with different kinds of need. Eg. a listening ear, an occasional social visit, help with getting benefits, help with getting other kinds of welfare. If you would be willing to be on call for such a service contact Fr William eg by email. If Yes, you should also feel free at any point to say No if you’ve got enough on.
• Adoration
  . “The worship of the Eucharist outside the Sacrifice of the Mass is a tribute of inestimable value in the life of the Church. Such worship is closely linked to the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.” Therefore both public and private devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist even outside Mass should be vigorously promoted, for by means of it the faithful give adoration to Christ, truly and really present, the “High Priest of the good things to come” and Redeemer of the whole world. “It is the responsibility of sacred Pastors, even by the witness of their life, to support the practice of Eucharistic worship and especially exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament, as well as prayer of adoration before Christ present under the eucharistic species.”
  Redemptionis Sacramentum 134
• Papal Visit Legacy
  . In the papal visit to the UK last year, Pope Benedict presented to the people of Britain ‘Some Definite Purpose’ which can be summarised under six Mission Priorities:
  * To know our purpose
  * To grow in confidence
  * To witness to our faith
  * To serve others
  * To seek and engage in dialogue
  * To point to the transcendent
  
  During the next 12 months a number of resources will be made available to support Catholic parishes and individuals to take up the task that the Holy Father has left us with. This month’s resource is called ‘Some Definite Purpose’. Please help yourself to a copy from the parish priest’s table at the back of the church, or download from www.thepapalvisit.org.uk/legacy.
• Liturgy of the Hours
  . In his recent exhortation, Verbum Domini (30th September 2010) Pope Benedict writes:
  Among the forms of prayer which emphasize sacred Scripture, the Liturgy of the Hours has an undoubted place... All who take part in this prayer not only fulfil a duty of the Church, but also share in the high honour of the spouse of Christ; for by celebrating the praises of God, they stand before his throne in the name of the Church. The Liturgy of the Hours, as the public prayer of the Church, sets forth the Christian ideal of the sanctification of the entire day, marked by the rhythm of hearing the word of God and praying the Psalms; in this way every activity can find its point of reference in the praises offered to God.
• Everybody is always welcome for refreshments in the cloister after the 11am Mass.

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