St. Bede's Catholic Church

Newcastle upon Tyne

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• Document Downloads

• NEW 20.08.2006 - Journey In Faith 2006/2007

• NEW 28.07.2006 - "The Desert Will Bloom": Justice and Peace Conference at Swanick (21st to 23rd July 2006)

• Message from Pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2006

• Parish Visitation 12th February 2006

• Agenda Parish Visitation Meeting - 3/11/2005

• Daniel Jopling in India

• Live 8 St Mary's Cathedral -  (Reflection prepared by Fr Jim O'Keefe)

• Pope Benedict XVI

• Pope John Paul II

• Election of Popes

• Lent 2005

• The Passion Story

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• Sunday 27th August 2006 - 21st Sunday of the Year

• Sunday 20th August 2006 - 20th Sunday of the Year

• Sunday 13th August 2006 - 19th Sunday of the Year

• Sunday 6th August 2006 - The Transfiguration

• Archives

Congratulations to Lucy who was baptised in July. Her older brother and sister wondered why little Lucy hadn’t been mentioned in the Newsletter! Well, it has now, and I wonder if they’ll tell me that she’s got a bigger mention than they have?! She’s more than welcome—and just in case

Walsingham Association Mass

There will be a Mass in honour of Our Lady of Walsingham on Saturday 16 September at 12 noon at St Mary’s Cathedral. This will be celebrated by Bishop Kevin Dunn

CAFOD

Many thanks for the £196 which was collected for CAFOD

Dates for your Diary

Annual Day of Recollection for Eucharistic Ministers and Readers: This will be held at St Cuthbert’s Primary School Kenton on  Saturday 9th September between 11am –4pm and will be given by Fr John Farrell OP.  Coffee will be served at 10.30am, please bring your own packed lunch.  There will be a collection on the day towards expenses.

There is a notice at the back of the Church giving more details.

Day of Reflection—Prepare the Place: Gateshead: St Joseph’s Parish Centre Tuesday 12 September 10.30am—4.00pm. This will be held by Father John Coyle.  There will be a charge of £5.00. Please bring your own packed lunch

Altar Servers Training: Gateshead: St Joseph’s Church, High West Street Saturday 23 September 10.00am—12.00.  This will be a morning programme to train young people to serve at Mass.  Two courses will be offered to explore the basics.  If there is a good response there will be an other morning offered elsewhere in the diocese as well as a lengthier session next year to help prepare for Lent and Holy Week.  At the end of the session participants will be presented with a certificate.

Sacristans: Gateshead St Joseph’s Parish Centre, High West Street Tuesday 17 October 10.30am—4.00pm. This will be a day for those who are new to sacristy work or who would like to review the practicalities of the ministry. It will finish with a Celebration of Dedication and participants will be presented with a certificate. Please bring a packed lunch
If anyone is interested in attending any of these days please let me know.

Please let me know if you are interested in any of the programmes— it is important for our parish community that more people do become involved in these different kinds of ministry in the Church. The interesting question is: What happens in the future if people don’t become more involved???

Journey in Faith

I have mentioned on a couple of occasions our desire to set up a ‘Journey in Faith’ for people in St Bede’s and St Joseph’s who are interested in exploring whether they want to become members of the Catholic community. I enclose a leaflet today giving all the dates and headings for the coming year beginning in October.

As I mentioned earlier, it is initially for people who are interested in becoming members of the Church community, though I know that some of those who joined the Church in recent years are also interested in coming back to accompany and help with the programme. There is certainly room for people who are already ‘well versed’ in what they think the Church is about to come along and support, encourage, befriend and maybe even hear some new things.

Please keep the enclosed leaflet spelling out the dates and subjects being explored over the weeks. [Details are also available by following this link: Journey in Faith 2006/2007 or the link on the left of the page.] The programme will take place in the Meeting Room here at St Bede’s between 7.00—8.00pm. Please let either Sr Patricia or myself know if you are interested. Once again, many thanks to Sr. Patricia from St Bede’s along with John and Audrey Marshall and Tony Hutchinson from St Joseph’s. The couple of months between the beginning of October and the end of November seem to be the ‘Confirmation’ season in Newcastle and North Tyneside, so I might well be there less often than I’d like. Please let anyone know who might be interested. Very many thanks.

The Power of Prayer

A classic Jewish story: a learned rabbi and a taxi driver depart this world at the same time and arrive at the gates of Heaven. The angel at the gate signals to the taxi driver to enter, then turns to the rabbi and sadly shakes his head, “What is this?” asks the rabbi. “I am a learned rabbi and he is only a taxi driver, who not to put too fine a point on it, drove like a lunatic. “Exactly so”, replies the angel. “When you spoke, people slept, but when they got into his taxi, believe me, they prayed!”

Please remember in your prayers:

Those who were baptised here at St Bede’s on Sunday 13 August.

The following thought is from a Hindu poet:

The moment a child is born,
the Mother is also born.
She never existed before.
the woman existed,
but the Mother, never.
A new Mother is something absolutely new

CAFOD Middle East Appeal...Thank God the Cease-Fire, or ‘cessation of violence’ seems to be holding at the present moment (i.e. very late on Thursday night…). I am sure that we will have seen the devastation brought about by rockets and air-strikes on Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon. There will need to be years of rebuilding. Very many thanks for your concern and generosity.

Catherine Brayson

Would like to thank most sincerely all friends and parishioners for the lovely cards, flowers and gifts she received during her recent operation.
God Bless you all. I’m delighted to say that she certainly appears to be ‘on the mend’.

City Library

The City Library closes (prior to demolition) 1st September 2006 and the new Library plans to re-open early 2009. This obviously affects all the services that the Library now provides. A leaflet giving details about where the facilities are now available is at the back of Church

The Famous Red Boxes — there are two or three new boxes available for those who might like to take one and be part of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith Appeal. If you would like to take one and collect spare cash for the Church abroad, please let Anne Maughan know. Many thanks.

I know the time is getting near for GCSE results—24th August if my informant is correct, and I reckon she probably is….Just thought you’d like to see some further exam questions and answers. I can’t for one moment believe that they were provided by anyone in the West End of Newcastle.

Question & Answer

Q: Name the four seasons
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar

Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large
pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow

Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight

Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs

Q: What happens to your body as you age?

A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental

Journey in Faith….As I mentioned last week, plans are certainly now in place for a 25 week programme beginning mid October this year. If you are interested in learning something about the Catholic Church, or would like to accompany those who are beginning to explore what it means, please give you name to Sr Patricia here at St Bede’s, or Audrey Marshall at St Joseph’s. Many thanks.

I remember once meeting a friend of Martin Luther King in a coffee bar in New Orleans (honestly, you can’t really make that kind of thing up…). He told me he’d written an article for the rather post ‘America’ magazine, entitled: ‘Things I discovered while looking for something else’. I came across the following while looking for something else in a filing cabinet:

• 40% of the world population (2.5 billion people) has no electricity

• 47% of the world lives on less that $2.00 a day (almost £1.00)

• 33% of children under 5 suffer from malnutrition

• 1 adult in 4 is illiterate

• 1 person in 5 in the world has no access to modern health care

• 95% of people living with HIV/AIDS lives in the developing world

I also discovered yesterday (Thursday—the day of the total disruption at Heathrow and other Airports) that teenagers preparing to board a flight to France for a Sports Holiday were horrified at the prospects of an hour and a half without being plugged into an i-pod. If you’re not sure what one of them is, ask someone under 25—or Pope Benedict XVI (if you get the chance, because he has one…). I’m not too good on these bits of things. I just wondered how folk coped until about 3 years ago when these things suddenly hit the streets….

Enjoy your holidays and God bless Jim O’K.
 

The Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults: Procedures….Many thanks to Deidre Grzebalski for her work in relation to procedures to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are protected as well as they can be here in St Bede’s. Many of the forms have been returned to either Deidre or myself, and thank you to all who have overcome the form-filling. It is a nuisance, but a necessary nuisance if we are to ensure the safety of those who need protection. We now have a form at the back of the Church giving information about various services available for those who feel they need any extra help.

Journeying in the Faith...You may remember that nine people were baptised or joined the Catholic Community during the Easter Vigil last year. We are beginning to look at how to provide a formation programme for those who are interested in learning more about the Faith in the months to come.

This programme will be available from Thursday 12 October, from 7.00-8.00 here in St Bede’s meeting room. It is primarily for those who want to explore whether they will feel at home in the Catholic Church.
Secondly, I know that some of those who joined the community last year are also interested in coming along to continue their exploration about what it means to be a Catholic, and to assist the ‘seekers’ in their search.
Thirdly, there may well be some who have been part of the Community for a long time who might well be interested in accompanying new members or those who are looking for the first time.

There will be a small team of people helping to prepare the programme, including Sr Patricia from St Bede’s, John and Audrey Marshal and Tony Hutchinson from St Joseph’s. I am happy to help (as they say in Tesco’s) when I am available.

If you are interested yourself in joining this journey in faith, please let me know. Would you also mention this programme to others who might well be interested in finding out more about the Faith—many thanks.

Just a reminder about:

IT’S COMING…..the gathering of ‘young Catholics’ in Birmingham over the weekend 14-15 October—take a card and let me know.

The gathering at Ushaw for ‘Key Parish Workers’ on Saturday 30th September. It would be a pity if no one attended.

Word of Life….A Scriptural reflection, free at the back of the Church.

You might just notice the large thermometer at the back of the Church…..C’mon Raise the Roof….It is just on two years ago since St Bede’s began to tackle the debt of £44,000 which was incurred as a result of the new roof on the Church. Once again, eternal thanks to Peter Stott for getting that sorted before he moved on to North Shields, he’ll go to heaven for that alone.

The thing is, we have repaid £19,000 over these last two years. This is a magnificent achievement for the parish. I know there was an initial flurry of activity to help repay the debt, and we all know that with an increase in Gift Aid and one substantial event each year (a Fayre for e.g.), we will be able to repay what we owe within the next 7 years. I also know that many people don’t like the idea of the parish being in debt, so this is simply a gentle reminder and statement of where we are at the present time.

Lebanon Appeal….as I write this newsletter, I am listening to the 10.00 news on the radio, the first item begins….Israeli jets have once again fired on the villages in southern Lebanon…..The next item mentions the katusha rockets being fired by Hezbullah into northern Israel. Over 400,000 people have fled their homes in Beirut and seek shelter in schools, bomb shelters and other villages in the country. There is a dreadful shortage of food, medicine and other supplies.

The desperate thing is that it is non-military civilians who are being killed and injured, the elderly and children to a large extent. It is very difficult for humanitarian help to get into southern Lebanon, but CAFOD is in a position to work with Islamic Relief and the Caritas network that is already in place in Lebanon. I enclose an envelope for anyone who wants to contribute to CAFOD’s Middle East Appeal. Thanks to CAFOD North East for the extra envelopes—the usual Gift Aid rules apply. Please return the envelope next weekend—12-13 August. CAFOD has a FREEPHONE number for credit card donations: 0500 85 88 85

It may look a bit strange suggesting an Appeal after mentioning our own financial responsibility….however, we can’t neglect our sisters and brothers elsewhere. As someone once said: Charity begins at home….I want to add...BUT IT CANNOT STAY THERE.

God of peace, bearer of hope.
We seek your help
for the people of the Middle East.
Quiet the clamour of war
and guide us in the way of peace.

Where there is hatred and division
sow seeds of calm and openness.
Where there is destruction
help us to rebuild.
Where children are crying
bring an end to tears.

Shelter your peoples and protect them.
Guide them and keep them from harm.
Show us how to break down the barriers of history and fear
and breath whispers of hope.

One night at 11.30 pm an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the net car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a great hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man’s door. To his surprise, a giant console colour TV was delivered to his home. A note was attached. It read:

‘Thank you for assisting me on the highway the other night.
The rain drenched not only my clothes but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you I was able to make it to my dying husband’s bedside just before he passed away—God bless you for helping me and unselfishly helping others….Sincerely…

Mrs Nat King Cole.