St Martin of Tours Catholic Church s2

ST MARTIN OF TOURS CATHOLIC CHURCH Fr James Smith Tel. 01875 610232 Parish Priest Email:[email protected] St Martin of Tours Catholic Church High Street, Tranent, EH33 1HJ 26th April 2015

St Martin’s is a parish of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, a charity registered in Scotland – number SC008540

Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B)

Church Services Mass Times Intentions

10.00am St Gabriel’s Eucharistic Service Monday 27th 9.00am St Martin’s Eucharistic Service

10.00am St Gabriel’s Eucharistic Service Tuesday 28th 5.00pm St Martin’s Reception of Body – Mr Jimmy Archibald 7.00pm St Martin’s Mass Alan Doran

Feast of St Catherine of Siena Wednesday 29th 10.00am St Gabriel’s Eucharistic Service 10.00am St Martin’s Funeral Mass for Mr Jimmy Archibald

10.00am St Martin’s Mass Marie Quigley Thursday 30th 10.00am St Gabriel’s Eucharistic Service

Friday May 1st 10.00am St Martin’s Eucharistic Service 10.00am St Gabriel’s Mass with Special Intention Children from St Gabriel’s School

Memorial of St Athanasius 10.00am St Gabriel’s Eucharistic Service Saturday 2nd 6.00pm St Gabriel’s Vigil Mass Thomas Tracy

Fifth Sunday of Easter Sunday 3rd 9.30 am St Martin’s Mass People of the Parish 11.30 am St Gabriel’s Mass People of the Parish

There will be confessions in St Gabriel’s before the Saturday Vigil Mass from 5.15pm – 5.45pm

There will be also be confessions before Sunday Mass in St Martin’s from 8.45 am - 9.15 am

Parish Announcements

Offertory Collection -587.70. Your kind generosity is very much appreciated. Today there will be a Second Collection in aid of Ecclesiastical Students. Please also return any SCIAF “Wee boxes” by next weekend. To ensure your donations to SCIAF are doubled by the UK Government donations require to be with them by the beginning of May. Thank you. SACRAMENTS - Please give plenty of notice for the Celebration of Marriage------6 months usually. Baptism ------3 months

PRIMARY 4 - Congratulations to the children of the Parish who received the Sacrament of Confirmation last Tuesday.

There will be a meeting for Primary 4 Parents of children making their First Holy Communion on Tuesday 19th May after 7pm Mass.

Primary 4's First Holy Communion Day will be on 31 May at 9.30am Mass (Feast of the Holy Trinity)

POT OF GOLD – Congratulations to J. Mathieson who won £34.00 (No. 29).

ST GABRIEL’S PRIMARY SCHOOL – This Monday (27th) evening at 7pm in St Gabriel’s Church a planning meeting with Primary School Teachers, Parents and Fr. Jim to organise Children’s First Holy Communion on 7 June at 11.30am Mass.

CHILDREN’S LITURGY – is on today.

RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS (RCIA) - In our third session of this period of Mystogogy, we look at ‘Liturgy in the Parish’. We will take time to remember what Liturgy is about. To help us understand more fully individual Liturgical Ministries, we will hear from those who proclaim the word of God, those who assist in the distribution of Holy Communion as well as those who lead Children’s Liturgy. We meet in the Side Chapel on Thursday 30th April at 7pm. We thank ‘Justice & Peace for the informative input into the debate last Thursday. In our world, too many people are victims of social injustice and inequality, where there is a deep divide between those who are deprived and those who are oppressing. This can also be seen in our own country. We as Christians are called to challenge this social injustice and fight for the welfare of all. We put working for justice and peace at the forefront of everything we do as a Church. The evening helped the group realise just how much local people can make a global difference.

ARCHWAY CONFIDENTIAL COUNSELLING SERVICE - Newly set up in the Diocese for anyone (individuals or couples) who face personal issues of relationship, bereavement, stress, sexual or family problems. Phone: 07476509903 for information or appointment.

WOMEN’S GUILD – would like to thank all the helpers and guests who made their Daffodil Afternoon Tea such a wonderful success. The sum of £971.45 was raised. A marvellous amount.

THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER - This is a series of workshops being run by the Jesuit Fathers at Lauriston Edinburgh on key themes of Ignatian Spirituality on

Monday 27th April 7.30pm Gero McLoughlin sj- Artistic Imagination and Prayer Monday 4th May 7.30pm Cath McManus- Prayer and being called: Discernment

CO-OP CLOSURE -Asda are providing free buses to their store. Leaving from the Co-op on Wednesdays and Fridays at 9.30 am and every hour thereafter.

FILM NIGHT – St. Martin’s Hall at 7pm. “Joseph and his Technicoloured Dreamcoat” went down well last week. This Sunday: “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”. FORTHCOMING APRIL EVENTS in the ARCHDIOCESE

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 29th APRIL – Miriam McHardy, the diocesan Justice and Peace Coordinator will lead this evening on what has often been called the Church’s best kept secret. The session venue is the Sacred Heart Hall Lauriston beginning at 7pm. Open to all.

IPAC rehearsals for PENTECOST MASS – The Inter Parish Archdiocesan Choir will sing at the Mass for New Catholics which this year will take place on the 23rd May the Vigil of Pentecost at 5pm in St Patricks Cowgate. Rehearsals will take place on the following Tuesdays 28th April & 19th May at 7pm in St Patricks. New members are always welcome and there is NO audition, please come along if you want to sing. For all of the above events PLEASE REGISTER by emailing [email protected]

Catholic Education Commission Open Forum - The first Open Forum meeting of the Catholic Education Commission which will take place on Saturday 13th June at the Gillis Centre in Edinburgh. The theme of the morning is: “Developing Catholic Teachers and School Leaders: to ensure the future of Scotland’s Catholic schools”. Members of the Scottish Catholic community - parents, teachers, clergy - are invited to discuss issues such as: How are teachers being recruited, educated and supported to work in Catholic schools?

DETAILS FOR MEDJIGORIE PILGRIMAGE IN OCTOBER 2015

11 October to 18 October 2015 Flying from Edinburgh to Debrovnik £569.00 per person Price includes flights, transfers, accommodation, breakfast and evening meal and week guide. We have limited spaces. To secure a place a deposit of £150 is required. Cheques should be made payable to “Pilgrimage Account”. Please get in touch with Lee if you would like to go or you would like any further information. Lee Walls Mob No. 07703 610 571 [email protected]

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE NOW ONLY 2 SPACES LEFT

Reflection Working with love

All work is empty save when done with love. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. If you cannot work with love but only distaste, it is better that you should leave your work, and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms from those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half of man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. Work is love made visible. Kahlil Gibran Re-organisation of parishes in the archdiocese

The letter from Archbishop Cushley about the re-alignment of the parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Andrews & Edinburgh has been discussed at the parish pastoral council. The PPC have written to the Archdiocese, and that reply is printed below. If and when we get a reply from the Archdiocese we will let everyone know as soon as possible. We have all known for a long time that our shortage of priests will eventually mean one priest not serving just two, or even three, but sometimes four existing parishes. And that in turn raises the question of church building closures. The St. Martin’s parish pastoral council and Fr. Jim will be doing everything possible to make sure Tranent’s needs are recognised during the process.

Text of PPC letter to the Archbishop on parish re-organisation

Dear Archbishop,

Our parish priest, Fr. Jim Smith, has shared with the St. Martin's parish pastoral council your letter on the future provision of parishes in the Archdiocese. We would like to offer our full co-operation in this process, being one of the parishes which already has to share one priest with our friends of the neighbouring faith community in Prestonpans (St. Gabriel’s.)

Many people in our parish have struggled to re-adjust their thinking to one priest - two parishes, so it will be all the harder to reconcile them with the idea of one priest - three (or more?) parishes.

We will do everything in our power to resolve this difficult situation in a spirit of pastoral care, but it is only right to observe that we fear we have essentially been presented with a fait accompli, and not, in any meaningful sense, a true consultation with the church's people at parish level.

We hope that this fear will be laid to rest as we begin to engage with your representatives and those of our sister faith communities in the diocese on this vital process.

Sincerely yours,

Jim Fraser, Chair, Ann Smith , Parish Pastoral Council Secretary, Parish Pastoral Council

Joke of the Week: A man starts a new job at the Zoo and is given 3 tasks. The first is to clear the exotic fish pool of weeds. In doing this, a huge fish jumps up and bites his finger. To teach the others who is boss – he bashes it on the head with a spade and kills it. Realising his boss won’t be happy – he disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions – as lions will eat anything. Moving on to his second job of clearing out the chimp house, he is attacked by the chimps who pelt him with coconuts! He swings his trusty spade and takes out 2 of them. What is he to do now? Feed em to the lions he says to himself, because they will eat anything. He hurls the 2 corpses over the enclosure wall and they are duly scoffed. He moves on to his last task: collect honey from the South American Bees. As soon as he starts he is attacked by the bees – he grabs his spade and swats away at the bees smashing thousands to a pulp. By now he knows what to do – he throws them into the lions’ cage as lions will eat anything. Later that day ---- a new lion arrives at the Zoo. He wanders up to another lion and asks: “What’s the grub like here?” The lion says:” Absolutely brilliant----for instance, today we had fish and chimps with mushy bees.”