Parish Activities and Events
Parish banking details.
HSBC St Anne & St Bernard’s (104) Parish account 40-29-12 No. 51543911.
Programme January and February 2024. with details overleaf (2).docxtablet synod.docxAlpha course. Alpha will start on Tuesday at 6.00 p.m., and I invite everyone to bring someone who you believe will benefit from being exposed to a presentation of what is important to us in life. A family member! Great. A friend, neighbour, colleague. Be prepared to be amazed at the answers you will get. Alpha responds to the question - there must be more to life than this? After a simple meal there is presented a very carefully thought out video on a basic theme. It throws up issues and raises questions which after the film we sit down together and come up with some answers. Then the next week a different theme. While its primary intention is to help form new Christians it acts also to enrich and deepen the faith of established Christians. Tuesday, 10th. October at 6.00 p.m.
Parish Assembly - advance notice. On Saturday, 23rd. September at 10.00 a.m. a vital meeting, reporting on various consultations and agreements, and planning future programmes. We need everyone there. The mission is God’s. We are not just by-standers.. The parish assembly is not just about making the parish tick over, but how we can use the great resources we have, our people, to help open people’s minds and hearts to the joy that we share. To thrive is to grow. To stay still is to retreat.
Three of Liverpool’s historic Catholic Churches will be open to visitors on the second weekend of National Heritage week. St Anne’s Church, the Church of St Vincent de Paul and St Patrick’s Church will all be open on Saturday 16th September and St Anne’s will also be open on Sunday 17th. Visitors will be able to take a guided tour round each of these churches. For more information visit www.heritageopendays.org.uk
Fr. Ferdinand, very sadly, our friend and neighbour from St Vincent de Paul parish, is leaving Liverpool. He belongs to a religious congregation the Missionaries to Africa, known as the White Fathers, and he has been elected by his colleagues to become Vice Provincial for Europe, i.e. second in command. I see it as a very lonely job, travelling, mainly alone, to visit all the White Fathers Houses throughout Europe. I will miss him as will many people. He had replaced me as Chaplain at the Womens’ Hospital.
Fr. Ferdinand will leave Liverpool on Saturday 24th June. We are invited to gather to bid him Farewell on Friday evening, 23rd June, at 6.00 p.m. Following Mass there will be refreshments with the chance to say Goodbye.
Sisters of St. Mary
Summer sessions 55 Swanside Road L14 7NJ:
'Evening stillness' 6 Thursday evening prayer sessions 7 - 8.30 (short introduction/ time of prayer in chapel or garden concluding with Compline)June 15th, 22nd and 29th, July 6th, 27th, Aug 3rd
'Space for the unimaginable' (Ladies) 6 Monday evening sessions 7-8.15. Finding ways into movement, silence, stillness and hearing one's own voice. exploring creativity, insight and purpose.
June 12th, 19th and 26th. August 7th, 14th and 21st
For more information please text ( 07598756557) or email Sr. Bridget (srbridget.folkard@googlemail.com)
Any of the summer sessions may be attended as one-off/ or taster
Together to live our faith
in Jesus Christ
and to share it
Some pictures from Holy Night 2023
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and ask him more directly to give you joy, peace and a pure heart. Purity of heart means a heart where God is the centre of your attention. Take a simple sentence like, “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want”, and repeat that quietly during the day until the truth of it enters the centre of your being. You will always continue to have feelings of depression, anger and restlessness, but when God dwells in the centre of the storm, the storm is less frightening and you can live with trust that in the midst of all of the darkness you will be led to a place of joy and peace. (H.Nouwen)
The Prayer Group continues on Wednesday at 7.00 p.m. in the Parish Rooms. All welcome.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Saturday 4.00-5.00 p.m.
Confessions will be heard during this time.
SACRED RESONANCE.docxDiscerning through breath, stillness and movement.docxPastoral Care. Needed – there are already wonderful people doing wonderful work around the church and parish. We desperately need new helpers, people who have not previously offered their services, to take the responsibility of taking Holy Communion
weekly to one of three care homes within the parish. I must confess I find myself increasingly lacking the energy to carry out this ministry and feel very guilty about the neglect of these very vulnerable people. This is really a personal plea for help and it offers people the great privilege to do God’s work where it is urgently needed.
Our church tower is in great need of repair. We are applying for a grant from the Heritage Fund. We have now completed our application for our church buildings to be included in Heritage Week (9th-18th September). The church will be open for visitors between 12.00 pm and 4.00 pm on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September. Details can be found on the Visit section of the website https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/
Prayer for Ukraine
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.
Lord Jesus, born under the bombs of Kyiv, have mercy on us.
Lord Jesus, who died in his mother’s arms in a bunker in Kharkiv, have mercy on us.
Lord Jesus, sent at 20 years old to the front, have mercy on us.
Lord Jesus, who still sees armed hands in the shadow of your Cross, have mercy on us!
Forgive us, Lord,
if, not content with the nails with which we pierced your hands, we continue to drink from the blood of the dead torn apart by weapons.
Forgive us, Lord, if these hands that you created for care have been transformed into instruments of death.
Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to kill our brother, if we continue like Cain to remove the stones from our field to kill Abel. Forgive us if we continue to justify cruelty with our toil, if with our pain we legitimize the cruelty of our actions.
Forgive us the war, Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore you: Stop the hand of Cain!
Enlighten our consciences,
let not our will be done,
do not abandon us to our own actions.
Stop us, Lord, stop us.
The Ascension.pdfCommunion to go.pdfPeter Morgan
Dear friends,
We have been together now for over three months, linked above all by the Faith which binds us together, and we have experienced in the remarkable shared prayer of our online Eucharist. Mass is celebrated in what, years ago, was a house keeper's bedroom, and is now a little chapel which has been my spiritual home for many a year. When lockdown was announced we priests were forbidden to have anyone present when we celebrated Mass. This went against everything most of us priests had ever understood Mass to be - the priest presiding at the Lord's table as part of and representing some fellow believers. I was taught we had no right to "say" Mass by ourselves. Covid did many things, including turning our understanding of the shared nature of Mass on its head. It did not seem right to me then and it does not now - I think if it were to occur again things would be different.
Happily, not once did I celebrate Mass by myself ! I am so grateful to God at the turn of events which resulted in us sharing in a world wide community of worshippers, visibly experiencing the Mass in our own homes, some, through illness, absent from Mass for many years. for so many people a source of great joy, of deepening faith, a prayerful experience. So many have spoken of the structure it gave to their day in the time of lockdown, and how it provided a discipline which provided a balanced routine to an otherwise frustrating sameness and disordered day. Believe you me, it would have been deadly to me not to have the strict order it gave to my day, and to pray and study to try to provide what was necessary to respond to the great need which was becoming increasingly evident to me every day.
Early on some one said - God has been preparing you all these years for this. I believe there is truth in that and I thank God every moment for this - and what the future will bring.
This week has seen the opening of our churches and there was great joy in St. Anne's on Monday when we had our first "physically present " community Mass for a long, long time and people received the sacramental presence of the risen Christ. I am very grateful that we opened on a Monday, enabling us to prepare for the weekend. The Archbishop has asked for people to come on a weekday rather than Sunday so as to avoid anyone being turned away on Sunday. This first Sunday will be very special. We have plenty of room at the daily Mass. There were fifty on Monday but only fourteen today.
While we will have an extra Mass on Sunday there is still the concern that many people may concentrate on one Mass, leaving some unable to come in. The rules imposed on us from Government sources are strict. I think all of us agree with them and believe they are for our common good.
Our Mass times are 5.30 p.m. on Saturday, and at 10.00 a.m,. and 11.30 a.m. on Sunday. That gives us 270 seats, which should be enough for all who wish to come, because many are still considered too vulnerable to leave their homes while others still do not want to take a risk. I would be grateful therefore, if by text or email you would let me know
which Mass you wish to attend. If one Mass is a very clear favourite I can then encourage people to attend one of the other two.
Coming into the church you will be greeted by the stewards., Please wear your mask, you will be asked to sanitize your hands and given the Mass sheet and newsletter. You will be shown to your seat. This may mean some queuing but we know well to keep our distance after all the queuing we have done outside supermarkets. There will not be a collection during Mass so please place your donation in the box/bag nearby.
Meanwhile we continue to live stream our Mass for the foreseeable future, uniting in our prayer so many other people from other parts. We have been bonded together by the Communion we share, an unbreakable bond of faith. I pray that God will continue to pour his grace into our hearts and MAY GOD KEEP YOU SAFE.
With love,
Peter
synod summary.docx
What is the PILGRIM group?
The Pilgrim group is a small group (8-10) of committed Christian women which has been meeting since 2012. What holds us together is a willingness to share, to encourage each other to live faithfully whatever is ours to live. Together we find strength in Christ, in the Bible, in holy women of all ages and in each other.
Each year the group may change slightly as some join, and others may have set off on new pathways, or have other commitments for the present.
Some of those who join the Pilgrims have been in one of the prayer groups and have found this a way to stay rooted and connected, giving and receiving life, blessing and encouragement.
Anyone wishing to connect with this group, join or visit for the January session would be very welcome.
For more details of this group and other sessions of ‘exploring faith and mission’ please contact:
Sister Bridget
Sisters of St. Mary
55 Swanside Road
L14 7NJ
You may prefer to e-mail: srbridget.folkard@googlemail.com
or text: 07598756557