Saturday 11th March– Saturday 18h March 2023
- jonathonrouth
- Mar 11, 2023
- 3 min read
MARCH IS THE MONTH OF ST. JOSEPH
The Third Week of Lent
Dear parishioners,
“Tired by his journey, Jesus sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.” John 4, 6.
Jesus is weary, tired out by his journey. He sits down on the edge of a well. It is midday, and he sits there exhausted. All these details are meant to signify something. They capture our attention, persuading us to ask questions. That’s good: as Jesus said ‘ask and it will be given to you’
It was for our sake that Jesus was tired by his journey. In Jesus we meet divine power together with human weakness. He is strong and weak at one and the same time: strong, because ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’. As the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God was present with God from the beginning. For ‘All things were made through him, and apart from him nothing came into being.’ Could any greater power exist than the power of one who created the entire universe? When we call to God with the words ‘Almighty God’, this is what we mean. Nothing is impossible for him. The word ‘strength’ hardly comes into it, so how is it that the Son of God is tired after a journey?
In a sermon on this passage of St John’s Gospel, St Augustine tells us that THE JOURNEY of Jesus undertaken for us, was his Incarnation. How could he otherwise journey when he is present everywhere, and absent from nowhere? To what place or from what place could he travel? In only one way could he come to us, and that was by assuming our visible human flesh. ‘The Word became flesh’ and so the taking of our human nature was his journey. It was the journey from Eternal Life to earthly mortality, from heavenly light to the darkness of the sin of the world, from divine glory to the Cross. On the other hand, St Augustine says, THE TIREDNESS of Jesus caused by his journey, was the tiredness Jesus experienced in our human nature. In his human body he was weak, but that does not mean we should be weak and just give in to sin and embrace the ways of this world. Just because Christian Faith and Morals are constantly assaulted by the world both in and out of the church, we little people must keep the faith by holding on to the Cross of Jesus. It is The Cross which is our strength. Jesus said ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted’. We shall be strong in the weakness of Christ and keep going for “there is more power in divine weakness than in human strength.” and St Paul said ‘when I am weak, then I am strong’.
Being strong when we are weak may sound like a contradiction, but St Paul knew what it meant to take up the Cross and was killed in the end for doing so and not conforming to the ways of Rome. It is because Jesus has been on this journey through this vale of tears for us. It is when we are weak, we no longer rely on ourselves but must turn to God for our strength. We can know that if we have taken up the Cross and follow Christ that the morality of the world, the secularisation of all that we have held sacred, the suppression of sacred custom, the celebration of false teaching loudly proclaimed and the cancelling and restricting of worship for faithful Catholics in many places, will not prevail against God’s church and never has. The strength and power of tyranny has never prevailed against the weakness of True Devotion to The Sacred Heart of Jesus among God’s faithful. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you! We will proclaim from our hearts, day after day. ‘For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (St Paul again, to the Romans 8, 38 -39)
With Christ on our side, who can be against us? The Son of God was tired by his journey so that we may find courage and strength to continue through the Lenten wilderness on ours and with our trust placed in his Sacred Heart, we will face down any temptation to give up the faith and despair of The Catholic Church which may lie ahead for many of her people.
God bless,
Fr Jonathon
LENT NOTICES
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
We are doing the traditional Stations of the Cross of St Alphonsus Liguori at 7. 30 p.m.every Friday in Lent concluding on Good Friday .There will also be a Children’s Stations of the Cross on Good Friday at 10.30 a.m.
WALK WITH ME Pick up your ‘Walk with Me’. Daily Reflections through Lent. £1.00 donation asked. Some junior versions may still be available, also available is the excellent ‘Day by Day’ for juniors and infants.
FRIDAY LENTEN REFLECTIONS. Join Patricia in the presbytery after mass on Friday mornings in reading the Sunday scriptures and sharing your thoughts with one another with Tea, coffee and even a biscuit.
PARISH NOTICES
CAFOD Syria-Turkey Earthquake Appeal
CAFOD is responding with support of provision of food, water, shelter, medical assistance and winter kits for survivors. Your donations in recent months have made that quick response possible. Let us join CAFOD in praying for our sisters and brothers affected by the earthquakes and the winter weather. Your support for CAFOD throughout the year allows our Catholic agency to act quickly when disasters strike. For more details visit CAFOD’s Syria Turkey Emergency Appeal online at https://cafod.org.uk/give.
SUNDAY 19th MARCH
SECOND COLLECTION FOR POOR PARISHES.
This collection enables the Archbishop to make grants to some of the poorer parishes in the diocese.
BAR STAFF NEEDED a few hours a month for the parish social club bar. Please contact Mr Tony Brook 07833 707016
FOOD BANK.
Bexley food bank are very grateful for the goodwill and support generously given by the Parishioners of St Thomas More. The food bank regularly updates its donation requirements, and it is not always food.
The current list of urgently required items is:-
Custard, Noodles, Squash, Long Life Fruit Juice, Long Life Milk, Deodorant, Shampoo, Toilet Paper, Shower Gel, Tinned Spaghetti, Washing Pods, and Sugar.
[The Food bank would also like to point out that currently they do not require any of the following:- Baby Formula or Baby Food, Tampons, Pulses - Chickpeas Lentils Bulgur Rice, Butter Beans, Tea, Cereal]
Please follow the link below to view the food donations page of the Bexley food bank website. https://bexley.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/
Notice from Marriage and Family Life South East
Planning a catholic marriage? Marriage preparation courses are available by emailing mflse@rcaos.org.uk.
UPCOMING EVENTS
THURSDAY LUNCH CLUB.
Next lunch club on Thursday 16th March from 12.30 p.m.
St Thomas More Parish Club
Presents
St Patrick’s Evening
For all the family, everybody welcome
Music by Annie G
Friday 17th March 2023
8.00 pm till 11pm
Admission - Adults £3 at the door
At St Thomas More Hall
Long Lane Bexleyheath DA7 5JW
For more information please call
Jenny 07710 527692 or Mary 07369 252072
PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO WALSINGHAM.
We have now taken all the bookings and will be in touch soon.
PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES in October.
Please contact the parish office if you are interested in joining us.
A DAY WITH MARY
1. Sacred Heart Church, Knatchbull Rd, Camberwell. Saturday 11th March. From 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
2. St. Anselm’s, West Hill, Dartford. Saturday 25th March. From 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
3. St. Dunstan’s, London Rd, Southborough. Saturday 1st April. 9.45 a.m. to 5.05 p.m.
Bring your own packed lunch.
MARCH DEVOTIONS
To
ST. JOSEPH,
PATRON OF THE CHURCH
Sunday 19th March at 4.00 p.m. with The Parish Rosary, The Litany of St. Joseph, Prayer to St Joseph and Benediction.
FOCOLARE* AFTERNOON GET-TOGETHER
We invite children between 4 and 10 years old, together with their parents, to come join us for an afternoon filled with music. Focolare is an international movement that teaches us to love everyone as we love ourselves.
Date 19th March 2023 between 2-4 PM in the Parish Church Hall.
Please contact Elisa (elisapuzzolo@gmail.com phone 07565613867) or Leonara (07467366566) to let us know you are coming so we can plan logistics.
*The Focolare Movement is an international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood, and celebrating ‘Jesus in our midst’, God who is with us.
PARISH YOUTH NOTICES
CHILDREN’S CHURCH:
The ‘children’s liturgy’ takes place in the hall at the 9 o’clock mass this Sunday.
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION 2023.
Session 9 on Saturday 18th March, 10.30 a.m. in the hall.
CONFIRMATION 2023.
Next meetings: 1. Stations of the Cross 7.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. Friday 17th March. 2. Sunday 26th March 4.00 p.m. in the presbytery.
DEATHS
For all our brothers and sisters who ate the Body of Christ, the bread of Life, that they may be raised up on the Last Day. (Drawn from the intercession of the Funeral Mass)
Please pray for the soul of:
Thelma Ali, aged 84, who died on 22nd February and whose funeral was on Tuesday 7th March.
May the divine assistance remain with her always, and may her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
MASSES AND INTENTIONS FOR THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT
Instaurare Omnia in Christo: "to restore all things in Christ."
Saturday 11th March Lent Feria [T.C.]
9.00 a.m. Confessions
9.30 a.m. The Daily Rosary
+ 10.00 a.m. [Latin 1962]. Patrick Dillon R.I.P.
6.00 p.m. Confessions
+ 6.30 p.m. THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT (A) Hallet & Yeates deceased family (Wales) R.I.P.
Sunday 12th March
8.30 a.m. The Daily Rosary
+9.00 a.m. [SUNG] Ava Pereira TG on her 1st birthday.
+11.00 a.m. [SOLEMN. Latin with English. Missa in Dominicis Quadragesimae] William Hunter R.I.P.
Monday 13th March Lent feria
9.30 a.m. The Daily Rosary
+ 10.00 a.m. Angela Snashall P.I.
Tuesday 14h March Lent feria
The Daily Rosary at home.
NO PUBLIC MASS TODAY at STM. Funeral Requiem of Canon Michael Bunce at St. Thomas of Canterbury, Canterbury at 11.00 a.m.
Wednesday 15th March Lent feria
The Daily Rosary at home.
NO PUBLIC MASS TODAY
Thursday 16th March Lent feria
9.30 a.m. Daily Rosary
+10.00 a.m. Fr. James Hurley R.I.P.
Friday 17th March St. Patrick, bishop, patron of Ireland, feast.
9.30 a.m. The Daily Rosary
+ 10.00 a.m. The Marshall Family R.I.P. followed by Lenten Reflections in the House with coffee.
6.00 p.m. Parish Choir Practice. New members welcome.
7.30 p.m. Stations of the Cross.
Saturday 18th March Lent Feria with commemoration of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop & confessor [T.C.]
9.00 a.m. Confessions
9.30 a.m. The Daily Rosary
+ 10.00 a.m. [Latin 1962] Domnick Pacheco R.I.P.
6.00 p.m. Confessions
+ 6.30 p.m. FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (A) 'Laetare Sunday' Marshall Fernandes R.I.P. Second Collection for poor parishes in the Archdiocese.
MARCH PRAYER TO ST.JOSEPH
Prayer to the Sleeping St. Joseph
Oh Saint Joseph,
You are a man greatly favoured by the Most High. The angel of the Lord appeared to you in dreams, while you slept, to warn you and guide you as you cared for the Holy Family. You were both silent and strong, a loyal and courageous protector. Dear Saint Joseph, as you rest in the Lord, confident of His absolute power and goodness, look upon me. Please take my need… (mention your request here) … into your heart, dream of it, and present it to your Son. Help me then, good Saint Joseph, to hear the voice of God, to arise, and act with love. I praise and thank God with joy. Saint Joseph, I love you. Amen.