<p> A warm welcome to all our visitors and to any new members of our parish who share with us today's Celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. St Mary’s Catholic Church Chorley We are pleased that you have come to join us in our community of faith. New Parishioners are invited to complete their contact details on the forms available in the FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT church porch and hand them in to the sacristy. 20th DECEMBER 2015 LITTLE CHURCH operates during 10.30 am Sunday Mass, for the benefit of the little Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill coun- children age 3 and upwards. For younger infants there is the crèche in the foyer with try of Judah. She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. play mats and toys. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her ST ANNE’S GUILD: Next Bingo 5th January 2016 at 7.45 pm in the Parish Centre. womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, "Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit REPOSITORY: Still some Christmas cards and a few 2016 diaries for sale. of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of CHORLEY HOSPITAL: Please contact St Joseph’s, Harper’s Lane (262713) if any my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in member of your family is admitted into the Hospital and needs the priest to visit. In an my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise emergency, the ward staff will call in the duty priest chaplain via the switchboard. made her by the Lord would be fulfilled." BAPTISMS: For baptisms would parents please contact Fr Marsden or Deacon MASSES, MASS INTENTIONS AND SERVICES Norman not by telephone, but in the sacristy after a weekend Mass and obtain a Baptism Application Form. Sun 20 Dec FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT (Mass bk. p. 90) CHRISTMAS LUNCH for those spending Christmas alone. “Pauline’s Angels” would Sat 6.15 pm Mass – Parishioners like to invite people with no-one to spend Christmas with to join them for lunch on 8.00 am Mass – Mary (Ann) & Joseph Baxendale (A) Christmas Day at Chorley Cricket Club; starting at 12.00 noon and until 3.00 pm. 10.30 am Mass – Harold Herbert (A) Lifts are available to the Cricket Club and home afterwards. To book a place, telephone 3.00 pm Advent Service of Reconciliation at St. Gregory’s Weld Bank Carrie on 07542 284016 or e-mail: [email protected]. 4.00-5.00 pm Holy Hour, Exposition, Evening Prayer (4.30) and Benediction ST MARY’S PRIMARY SCHOOL has now closed for the Christmas holiday and we Mon 21 Dec St Peter Canisius wish a Happy and Holy Christmas, and a successful New Year, to Mr Smyth and his 8.40 am Morning Prayer staff, and all the children and parents. 9.00 am Mass – LISCF </p><p>PRAYER OF BLESSING FOR A FAMILY CRIB 7.00 pm Advent Service of Reconciliation – Sacred Heart, Chorley O God, out of your love for us, You sent your dearly beloved Son to become man. You willed that He be born in a humble stable in order to give us an example of humility. We Tue 22 Dec pray you now to bless this crib, a representation of the scene of his birth; may it draw 9.30-11.45 am Morning Prayer (9.30) and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament us closer to Him. By imitating his humility may we become a worthy dwelling place for 12.00 noon Mass – Margaret Mary Walsh his rebirth, Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord. Amen. 7.00 pm Advent Service of Reconciliation – St Mary’s Chorley Wed 23 Dec St John of Kęty Fr. Francis Marsden, Bishop Hryhoriy Komar and Deacon Norman Arrowsmith would 8.40 am Morning Prayer like to wish you all every blessing for Christmas and the New Year 2016. We look 9.00 am Mass – Frank Soklick (LD) forward to seeing you at the above Masses. Please join us in putting Christ back into </p><p>Christmas. We would like to thank everybody who has assisted in any way in helping St Mary’s to function as a town centre church. We are grateful for all the support Thu 24 Dec CHRISTMAS EVE shown. God bless you all and your loved ones – whether near at home or far away. 12.00 noon Mass – Anne Colette Bury (A) 6.30-7.45 pm Confessions 7.30 pm Carols begin in preparation for….. Fr Francis Marsden 01257 262537 8.00 pm Night Mass of Christmas with blessing of the Crib (Mbk p. 97) – and Deacon Norman Arrowsmith dec. members Maher & McCrory family E-mail address: [email protected] Parish website: www.stmarys-chorley.org Fri 25 Dec THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST Parish Centre: 270122 or 0797 1025 985 (Manager – Heather Roscoe) 8.00 am Dawn Mass (Mass bk p.100) – Peter, Edmund & Ellen Whittle</p><p>LIVERPOOL ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESAN TRUSTEES INC. Registered Charity No. 232709 10.30 am Day Mass (with children’s tableau) (p.102) Parishioners 2.00 pm Msza Swięta po Polsku the reverse of Christ’s example because it breaks the bruised reed and quenches the smoking flax. We ought to instruct with meekness those whom heresy has made bitter Sat 26 Dec St Stephen the First Martyr and suspicious, and has estranged from orthodox Catholics, …Thus, by whole-hearted 11.30-11.45am Confessions N.B. note late start. charity and good will we may win them over to us in the Lord. Again, it is a mistaken 12.00 noon Mass – Mary Catherine Logue policy to behave in a contentious fashion and to start disputes about matters of belief Sun 27 Dec FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY with argumentative people who are disposed by their very natures to wrangling. Indeed, Sat 6.15 pm Mass – Thora Huddy the fact of their being so constituted is a reason the more why such people should be 8.00 am Mass – Parishioners attracted and won to the simplicity of the faith as much by example as by argument.” 10.30 am Mass – Christopher Geoffrey Brierley St John of Kęty was born near Oświęcim, Poland in 1390 and became a priest and 11.45 am Baptisms – Kacper Mariusz Buras and Krystian Piotr Galeza professor of Sacred Scripture at Kraków University. He taught his students: “Fight all 2.00 pm Msza Swięta po polsku error, but do it with good humour, kindness and love. Harshness will damage your own 4.00-5.00 pm Holy Hour, Exposition, Evening Prayer (4.30) and Benediction soul and spoil the best cause.” He was known for his generosity to the poor, especially Please pray for the sick and the housebound: Lelia Addy, Rita Almond, Frances needy students. Interested also in physics, he helped develop the theory of impetus (we Bond, Kevin McCarrick, Emily Atkins, Emma Beatty, Pauline Bennett, Brigid Cain, would now say inertia) of Jean Buridan, a French priest who died 1363, which paved the Marie Cannon, Michael Collins, Melville Coombes, Hughie Daly, Monica Donalds, Joan way for the Copernican revolution and the work of Galileo and Newton. Doran, Sister Frances, Yvonne Finlayson, Martin Henry, Simon Holcroft, Peggy St Stephen, one of the first seven deacons in Acts 6. His preaching was so successful Hughes, Audrey Jackson, John Johnson, Joan Jones, Doreen Lang, Julie Lowe, Tusia that the enemies of the Way charged him with blasphemy, convicted him and then Lynch, Debbie MacFarlane, Jude Mack, Frances McHale, Kathleen Mitchell, Veronica stoned him to death. Saul of Tarsus, later St Paul, witnessed and approved of his killing Mobbs, Canon Kevin Mullen, Catherine O’Donoghue, Anthony O’Malia, Kathleen Rae, (Acts 7:54-60). Stephen is the first Christian martyr of the New Testament. Kathleen Reynolds, Margaret Rice, Gerard Shaw, Paul Tiffin, Frank Waring, and parishioners in The Adelphi, The Gables, Westwood, Gillibrand Hall etc. INTERNATIONAL PEACELIGHT 2015: Now in its 29th year, the Peace Light from ANNIVERSARIES: Mary (Ann) & Joseph Baxendale, Harold Herbert, Anne Colette Bethlehem campaign was originally organised by the Austrian Broadcasting Company - Bury, John Gent, Peter Saunders. ORF (Linz) - and was part of a large charitable relief mission - Light into Darkness, for READERS : 19th/20th Dec: 6.15 pm Jeni Wilson, 8.00 am Anthony Calderbank, 10.30 children in need in Austria and abroad. Since 1986 there has been a great deal of co- am Hilary Carter. 24th Dec 8.00 pm Gillian Sharples & Caty Cross. 25th Dec 8.00 am operation between Scouts and Guides in many countries which has allowed the light to Molly Stazicker, 10.30 am Children 26th/27th Dec: 6.15 pm Ian McClelland, 8.00 am travel throughout Europe, such that the light is passed on to 30 European countries and Greta Fazakerley, 10.30 am John Daniels. for the past few years, on to North America, Mexico and Canada . Each year, a child from Upper Austria kindles a flame from the "Eternal Flame" WELCOME INTO GOD’S HOLY CHURCH: Penny Olivia Pedley who was baptized from the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem where Jesus was born. The light is then flown to here last Sunday. Austria from where it is distributed at a Service of Dedication to delegations from across OFFERTORY COLLECTION last week was £839 of which £404 was gift aided, and Europe who take it back, with a message of Peace, to their own countries for use at ec- the monthly collection for the Restoration Fund came to £347. The collections at umenical services throughout the Continent. Christmas are for Parish Funds. Many thanks for your support and generosity. Scouts and Guides can then take the light on to other churches, hospitals, old LITTLE CHURCH: This Sunday December 20th there is a rehearsal in Church after people homes, prisons, and places of public, cultural and political importance - to any- 10.30 am Mass, for children taking part in the Christmas Day Mass. Families are body that appreciates the significance of the "gift." In past years the light has been pre- invited to bring gifts to the Crib, for the Chorley Food Bank, on Christmas Day. sented to Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Mikhail Gorbachov, the former King Hussain of Jordan, former EU President Romano Prodi and other members SAINTS OF THE WEEK: Dutch Jesuit Fr Peter Canisius (1521-1597) led the Catholic of the European parliament in Strasbourg, the UN Troops in Kosovo and continues to be Reformation in Austria, Bavaria, and Bohemia. He is reckoned the second apostle of taken to Ground Zero, New York. Germany, after St. Boniface. With stupendous energy he preached and taught in May the kindly spirit of Christmas spread its radiance far and wide, parishes, conducted missions, taught at Ingolstadt and Augsburg universities, founded So all the world may feel the glow, of this Holy Christmastide. new colleges at Prague and Fribourg. In 1555 he published his famous Summary of So may this light of peace today that has travelled many miles, Christian Doctrine, during his lifetime translated into fifteen languages and reprinted Bring joy and hope to many, and fill each face with smiles. more than two hundred times. “If you have too much to do, with God’s help you will So may every heart and home continue through the year, find time to do it all,” he said. To feel the warmth and wonder of this season of good cheer. In an era when Catholics and Protestants were often openly hostile to each And may it bring us closer to God and to each other, other. Peter Canisius advised charity and moderation: “It is plainly wrong to meet non- With every stranger known as friend, whether Sister or a Brother Catholics with bitterness or to treat them with discourtesy. For this is nothing else than If families or individuals bring a large, protected candle or lamp, they will be able to take a light from the Bethlehem flame home after any one of the Christmas Masses. At your own risk, of course!</p>