3rd August, 2013 – (Eighteenth Sunday) Sunday Vigil Mass

WELCOME

Times of Mass and Devotions

Sat     3 Aug  5.30pm HA  Sunday Vigil Mass Special Intentions of Arthur and Angela Barge
Sun    4 Aug   9.15am HF  Eighteenth Sunday Ken Parker (RIP)
  11.00am HA   Special Intentions of the people of the Parish
Mon   5 Aug     NO MASS NO MASS
Tue   6 Aug  9.30am  HF The Transfiguration of the Lord Adrian Sollom (RIP) November List
Wed  7 Aug 9.30am HA Liturgy of the Word  
Thu   8 Aug     NO MASS NO MASS
Fri     9 Aug   12.00pm HA St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Baby Oliver McCrow and family
Sat  10 Aug 5.30pm HA Sunday Vigil Mass Eric Gorniok (RIP)
Sun 11 Aug 9.15am HF Nineteenth Sunday Available
  11.00am HA   Special Intentions of the people of the Parish

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

18th Sunday of Year C
Theme:  True Values in Life

Entrance:          HA: 920     HF:  4 A new commandment
Offertory:
         HA: 910     HF:  106 Christ be beside me
Final Hymn:
       HA: 721     HF:  568 O Lord my God

 

First Holy Communion Programme –  2013-2014

Application forms are now available at the back of each church for the First Holy Communion Programme 2013 -2014. Your child must be in YEAR 3 or above to be considered for the programme and as a family you must be registered with the parish and forms are available at the back of both churches. Location of class’s alternates between Holy Angels, Ash and Holy Family, Heath End and all the children must attend all lessons (you will find the dates on the sheet attached to the application form). For information please contact Amanda Watson (amandawatty@sky.com).

 

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

Thank you!  Mike and Fatima James would like to thank all those Parishioners who helped them celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary last after Mass last Sunday and were grateful for your generous contributions towards Water Aid which raised £22.30 for this worthwhile cause.

 

An Urgent Appeal for Help

While the Building work was taking place it was difficult to give any attention to the garden, especially the Rose Walkway which has in the past been such a beautiful and much admired feature of HolyFamilyChurch.  Some parishioners and local residents have said how sad it is to see the rose walkway in its present condition – over grown with weeds and a number of the Rose Bushes now missing.

We have a choice to restore it to its former glory (which I hope we will do) or to recognise that the days when people valued it and kept it looking beautiful have now gone and take the easy maintenance option of removing what rose bushes are left and grassing over the rose beds.  The decision is yours as parishioners; if we have sufficient interest and volunteers in restoring it we can keep it and appreciate it for many years to come.  If we don’t have any response we will very sadly have to let it go and replace it with easy maintenance grass.  If you would like to join a group, perhaps call it “The Friends of the Holy Family Rose Walkway” or something similar.

To help maintain the Rose Walkway, please see Father David or contact the Parish Office as soon as you can.  We will need to make a decision before the autumn.

Hoping that this lovely feature can and will be lovingly maintained.    Father David

 

Presentation of Guild of St. Stephen Gold Medal

Sunday, 1st September at the 9.15am Mass Peter Davies will be presented with a Gold Medal in recognition of his 60 years as MC at HolyFamilyChurch.  This is a time when we thank Peter for his loyal and dedicated service to our Church for which we are all grateful. May God Bless him and his family on this special day.

 

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

 

Holy Angels  Catholic Parish for Ash, Nr. Aldershot,  Ash Vale, Tongham & Normandy

Today’s Mass:  is offered for Arthur and Angela Barge Parishioners at Holy Angels who sadly are leaving the Parish to move to Monmouthshire.  Please pray for them and may the Lord be with them in their new home.

 

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

Two Parishes Prayer Group for both Holy Angels and Holy Family Churches takes place once a month on a Tuesday. The next Prayer Group meetings are as follows:  10th September, 8th October and 5th November at 7.45pm in Parish Office at Holy Angels.

 

Today’s Gospel

Possessions exercise a big hold on our hearts.  The result is that we forget the more important things in life.  Jesus said our main concern should be to ‘make ourselves rich in the sight of God’.  In truth, all of us are poor before God.  Let us reflect on that for a moment. ..

It is only God who can truly enrich us.

Lord, we are rich when we place all our trust in you.  Lord, have mercy.
We are rich when we place all our hope in you.  Christ have mercy.
We are rich when we love others as you love us. Lord have mercy.

Wealth is not possession but enjoyment

Once there was a miser who accumulated a large amount of money, and was looking forward to years of happy living.  However, before he could make up his mind as to how best to spend his money, the Angel of Death appeared before him to take his life away.

The miser pleased with the angel to be allowed to live a little longer“Give me three days of life and I’ll give you half my fortune,” he begged.  But the angel wouldn’t hear of it and began to tug at his cloak.  “Give me just one day, I beg of you,” said the miser, “and you can have everything I accumulated through so much sweat and toil.”  But the angel refused his request.

The miser managed to wring just one small concession from the angel – a few moments in which to write down this note:  “Oh you, whoever you are that happen to find this note, if you have enough to live on, don’t waste your life accumulating fortunes.  Live! My fortune couldn’t buy me a single hour of life.”

It’s not how many possessions we have but how we enjoy the ones we have that matters.  Wealth is not in possession but in enjoyment.  Many people have lost their capacity for enjoyment, especially those in affluent countries.  They have to have more and more expensive gadgets.  They can’t enjoy the simple things of life, the way a child can.

It’s not the amount of money we have, but our capacity for enjoyment that makes us rich.  We can become possessed by things.  Many are so busy adding to their possessions they have no time to enjoy life.

Money and power can imprison and inhibit just as effectively as barred windows and iron chains.  ‘Set a bird’s wings with gold and it will never fly.’

 ‘People don’t know what they are striving for.  They exhaust themselves in the senseless pursuit of material things, and die without realising their spiritual greatness.’

‘People rush about, but they do not know what they are looking for.  They raise ten thousand roses in the same garden, and they still do not know what they are looking for.  Yet what they are looking for could be found in a single rose.’  When we distinguish between our needs and our wants, we will be surprised to realise how little is enough.

‘Vanity of vanities.  All is vanity.  What does a man gain for all his toil and strain that he had undergone under the sun?’ – the words of Ecclesiastes.  They paint a pessimistic view of life, but they are meant to make us ask:  What is the purpose of life?  Certainly it is not about accumulating possession – possessions which in any case have to be left behind.

Earthly things can never satisfy the human heart.  Only God can give us the kind of happiness our hearts long for.  Hence, St. Paul says, ‘Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth.’  And Jesus urges us not to store up treasures on earth but to make ourselves rich in the sight of God.  What makes us rich in the sight of God is not what we own, or even what we have done, but what we are.