FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT 2023

PARISH COFFEE MORNING

Please join us on the First Sunday of the Month after the 10am Mass, for coffee, a chat and maybe make new friends.   Money raised at the coffee morning is donated to a charity nominated by the helpers .   

If you would like to help at future events please email the Parish Office  ()  Thankyou

NEVER ON A SUNDAY

We sit here, next to the radiator,

Having shed our winter coats,

Glad of our cosy refuge

From the bitingly cold wind -

Full of grace, or so we hope,

Having fulfilled our Sunday Obligation!

Just one other table is occupied.

Over the last few months,

It has become our ritual,

So, soon we sit sipping our very hot coffees -

One flat white, one cappuccino.

Frankie smiles, even more broadly

As his quota of biscuits is doubled,

By our usual exchange.

We sit enjoying inconsequential chatter

About the events of the past week.

The blast of marauding wind

Signals the entrance of disparate groups

Who come for their regular Sunday Breakfasts -

All tastes being catered for.

For a moment we sit in companionable silence

And for no reason - unless it is a caffeine high! -

I recall the Sundays of my childhood.

Morning Mass, loving familial camaraderie,

Closed shops, empty streets:

Fleeting, fragmentary memories disperse

Yet nostalgically activated

By the aroma emanating from a Full English Breakfast -

In all its modern glory!

Not for us,

But the Hungry Hopefuls, who, as the years turn,

Will look back, perhaps wistfully, 

On their Sunday Rituals.

Eileen Murray © February 2023

FEEDING LIVERPOOL – QUEEN OF GREENS

The Queen of Greens bus is a new mobile greengrocer bringing affordable fresh fruit and vegetables to communities across Liverpool and Knowsley to boost access to healthy food and tackle health inequalities. Some areas visited on the route are classed as ‘food deserts’, where residents currently have to travel a kilometre or more to reach a supermarket selling ‘green’ produce, 800 metres to a convenience store, or 500 metres to a fresh market stall. The new Queen of Greens bus will visit 29 stops each week including schools, hospitals, health and community centres, providing people with better opportunities to shop for nutritious food closer to their home or workplace. The project is a partnership between charities Feeding Liverpool, which is leading the city’s Good Food Plan to create a city where ‘everyone can eat good food’, and Feedback project Alchemic Kitchen, with funding from Feeding Britain. Healthy Start cards and Alexandra Rose vouchers are accepted.

Find out more about the Queen of Greens here and the timetable is available here

THANK YOU FROM BROTHER BENJAMIN

Brother Benjamin has sent a ‘Thank you’ letter, in appreciation for all your support; a copy can be found at the back of Church.

CARDINAL NICHOLS REFLECTS ON THE LIFE OF POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT RIP

Cardinal Nichols reflects on the life of Pope Emeritus Benedict RIP, and the legacy of his visit to the UK

OTHER EVENTS

For information about additional events, please see the Posters in the Porch.

BROTHER BENJAMIN FEEDING PROJECT:

THANK YOU to all who have supported the feeding project this year.

We have raised approximately £2500 so far. Please remember the three Novices from Zimbabwe who died on Christmas Day last year. ‘Together we can make a Difference’. We have lots of plans for 2023, watch this space...

THANK YOU FROM THE SVP

From Bishop Eton SVP Group: Thank you to all those parishioners and families from the primary school who contributed to our Christmas food bank collection which was very successful. It will make a big difference to many families in our city.

Please note, our next regular monthly collection will be on Sunday 8 January as the first Sunday is New Years Day.

DECEMBER'S POEM - HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

"How long, Lord?

How long, Lord, before we see The Messiah?"

Plaintive words echoing through past millenia.

And now, over two thousand years later,

We still wait-

Quite often in childlike expectation -

For the magical story

Of a tiring journey, made by a husband and wife,

Obeying laws and decrees,

To ancestral homeland where a baby was born

In a humble place.

A miraculous star and angelic voices

Led shepherds and even Magi,

To pay their homage to the Christ Child,

 The Messiah, The Redeemer of our world,

Lord of the creatures who kept him warm -

Lying in a manger.

Now, fly swiftly through the intervening centuries.

December 2022,

Our World, sorely in need of Redemption.

Yet, in the midst of downturns and turmoil,

Hope still shines -

Perhaps less brightly than in times gone by -

That The Child of Bethlehem

 Can still bring solace, even happiness,

Love and Peace

Into our homes and hearts.      

Eileen Murray © December 2022