Author: Gloria Benson

WELCOME

Times of Mass and Devotions
Sat    10 Aug	5.30pm	HA	First Mass	Eric Gorniok (RIP)
Sun   11 Aug	9.15am	HF	Nineteenth Sunday	Special Intentions of the people of the Parish
	11.00am	HA		Special Intentions of Marie Faul
Mon   12 Aug			NO MASS	NO MASS
Tue   13 Aug	9.30am	HF	Week 19 in Ordinary Time	Mark Sackwood (RIP) November List
Wed  14 Aug	9.30am	HA	NO MASS (Transferred to PM)
	7.30pm	HA	Eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary	Special Intentions of Peter & Brenda Sawyer
Thu   15 Aug	12.00pm	HF	Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary	Gloria Craven (RIP)
	7.30pm	HA		Mary Dzwig (RIP)
Fri      16 Aug	12.00pm	HA	Week 19 in Ordinary Time	Deceased members of the Watkins family (RIP)
Sat     17 Aug	5.30pm	HA	First Mass	Special Intentions of the people of the Parish
Sun     18 Aug	9.15am	HF	Twentieth Sunday	Special Intentions for Francesca
	11.00am	HA	(Father Paul Dzwig’s last Mass)	Special Intentions of Father Paul Dzwig

Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confessions)
Holy Angels, Ash: First Friday of month after 12pm Lunchtime Mass
Holy Family, Farnham:  First Thursday of month after 7.30pm Evening Mass
Special Services with Confessions at both Churches for Advent and Lent

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will commence on Wed. 4th Sept at Holy Family @ 7.00pm (in Church Hall)

 (Parish Office Hours: 9.30am – 1.30pm)

                        Please note:  HF = Holy Family, Heath End, Farnham and HA = Holy Angels, Ash

 

Liturgy

19^th Sunday of Year C
Theme:  Our Faith prepares us for life’s challenges

Entrance:          HA:  456    HF:  109 Christ is made our sure foundation
Offertory:          HA:  970    HF:  74  Be though my vision
Final Hymn:       HA:  960    HF:  233 Guide me O ..

 

Holy Family Church Catholic Parish Farnham, Hale, Weybourne & Badshot Lea

Rose Walk

In last weeks newsletter an appeal was made for help with the Rose Walk at HolyFamilyChurch.  Unfortunately there has been no response or interest shown so far, so it sadly looks as if we are likely to loose the Rose Walk which has been a much loved feature of the Church.

If anyone knows of a reasonably priced contractor who would remove the old rose bushes, weeds and grass over the flower beds, please let Father David or Rita in the Parish Office know.

There are no plans to start work immediately – we will continue to appeal for help for another two weeks just in case there is someone who is away on holiday who may wish to help keep the Rose Walk.

 

Mother and Toddler Group – Thursday morning from 9.30am until 11.30am in the Church Hall during school term times.

 

Mother and Toddler Group – St. Mary’s Room on a Tuesday, from 10.30am until 12.00pm. 

 

 Baptisms

Please make an appointment to see the Priest/Deacon to discuss what you need to do to prepare for your child’s baptism. If you are new to the Parish, please complete pink Registration Form and make yourself known to Father David or Deacon John after Mass.

 

Prayer Requests

If you have someone you would like prayers for, please first check with that person that they are happy for their name to be mentioned in our Prayer Requests. Please remember in your prayers all those who are sick in our two Parishes and for any family members or friends in need of our prayers. Thank you.

 

Information

The Triangle Christian Book Shop and Café, Farnborough (www.thetriangle.org.uk) is appealing for help.  Please take a look at their web site and see if there is anything you can do to help support this joint Christian venture which has representatives of all the main Christian Denominations.  A copy of their latest Newsletter is available on the information table at the back of both Churches.

Big Issue Article

by Paul McNamee

A photo went viral last week.  An arresting image, it was picked up and galloped around twitter.  It featured a young boy, may be six or seven, curled in a foetal position against a chalk drawing on the floor of a darkened room.  This image, said the tweets, was of a boy who lost his mother in an attack in Iraq.  He missed her so much that he drew a simple picture of her and lay down beside it.

You can see why it gained so much purchase.

The genesis of the image is unclear.  It appears to have emerged around November 2011 and may indeed have been taken in Iraq.  It may be that the child did, in fact, lose his mother.  The rest has been filled in.

Context is everything – and it draws some interesting questions.  If that image is stripped of the life-and-death context, does it have the same emotional punch?  If we came to it without any history, would tears still prickle thinking of the horror that leads a child to behave in such a way?

Maybe, maybe not – there is an air to it that, like a great painting, speaks of loss.  However, the fact that for a time it made people stop and think of what is happening in some desperate place, that it made them empathise and yearn to reach out and make a grieving child feel better, might be enough.  Because it reminds us of what observers tell us constantly.  This is happening. This is happening in Palestine, it is happening in Syria, it happened massively in Iraq and it may be happening in the Central African Republic and dozens more nations.

If this picture tells a human and horrific narrative in a simple, quiet way, then it has done a job.

We have voices and we can make our voices heard.

 

Today’s Gospel

Death is the greatest event of life, yet it catches many people unawares.  To some it comes literally like a thief in the night.  It may come early on in the night, or in the middle, or towards the end.  However, this unexpectedness can be a grace – it keeps us on our toes, it forces us to be prepared at all times.

To be prepared doesn’t mean to have accomplished everything one wants to accomplish.  It means to be true to one’s responsibilities in the present moment.  One day a monk was sweeping a floor in the monastery when someone asked him what he would do if he knew he was going to die within the hour.  “I’d go on sweeping the floor”, was his reply.  In other words, he would go on attending to the duty of the moment.

Many people believe that happiness lies in having no commitments, no one to answer to, no one whose needs or problems will ever tie them down.  But this is not so.  In fact, the opposite is the case.  A person’s happiness and fulfilment lie, not in freedom, but in the acceptance of duty.  But it has to be a duty, not grimly accepted, but lovingly accepted.

Whoever performs only his duty is not doing his duty.  The more difficult the task to which we devote ourselves out of love, the more it will exalt us.  The greatest grace in life, the greatest freedom, is when what we have to do is what we love to do. 

It would be nice if when death comes all our work was done, all our tasks were completed and neatly bound together like a sheaf of wheat.  But we can’t be sure if this will be the case because the moment of death is hidden from us.  However, we might remember this:  it’s not how or when we die that matters, but how we live.  We should strive to live fully and intensely, and not wait for illness or disaster to bring home the fleeting nature of human life.

Reflection – Beatitudes of life

Blessed are the faithful:
they are like safe anchors in a world of broken moorings.
Blessed are the just:
they are to society what leaven is to bread.
Blessed are the generous:
they keep alive our faith in the essential goodness of people.
Blessed are the caring:
they shine like beacons in a world darkened by indifference.
Blessed are the genuine:
they glow like gems in a world of falseness.
Blessed are those who are not afraid of sacrifice:
on the day of the harvest they will sing for joy.
And blessed are those who refuse to look back:
they will be found worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.