Notices & Mass Times

21st February 2010. The First Sunday in Lent. Year C2

Mass Times and other Liturgies

Date		Services	Notes
20th February	Saturday	5:00 pm Mass 1st Mass of Sunday
21st	Sunday	11:00 am Sung Family Mass
22nd	Monday	9:30 am Mass	The Chair of St Peter
23rd	Tuesday	No Mass in Shaftesbury 8:00 am Marnhull
24th	Wednesday	No Mass in Shaftesbury 10:00 am in Gillingham
25th	Thursday	9:30 am Mass
26th	Friday	9:30 am Mass 3:00 pm Holy Hour & Benediction 7:00 pm Stations of the Cross
27th	Saturday	9:30 am Mass
28th	Sunday	11:00 am Sung Family Mass
Confessions - Confessions - Confessions - Confessions - Confessions
Shaftesbury	Saturdays	10:00 am	For the Infirm: on the first Saturday of each month confessions are heard in the Sacristy, on seats.
Tisbury	Saturdays	10:30 - 11:00 am 7:00 - 7:30 pm
Marnhull	Saturdays	10:30 am

 

Times of other nearby Sunday masses are on the board outside the church and will appear on the website soon.

Coffee after Mass  
Stay for a coffee and a chat after 11am Mass this weekend.

Stations of the Cross
During Lent we'll be having stations every week at 7pm on Fridays.  Please join us for this important way of focusing our hearts and minds on what our Lord has done for us.

Giving Something up for Lent
The practice of ‘giving something up for Lent’ is an important way of fasting.  Fasting is good for us for four reasons:
First, at a human level, like dieting, fasting disciplines our desires.   The things of this world are good, but we frequently want them in a way that is bad for us, or we want the wrong things at the wrong time.  We need to discipline our desires, and this is what fasting does.  This doesn’t mean we fast continually: Christians have feast days as well as fast days, but fasting enables discipline.

Second, at a supernatural level, more than mere dieting, fasting is a prayer.  It thus needs to be offered to God; ‘offer your very bodies as a living sacrifice acceptable to God’ (Rom 12:1).  In particular, fasting is something we can offer for our sins: in atonement and reparation for past sins, by uniting them to Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.  In general, fasting is something we can offer as a prayer for matters of great importance, as Christ told his disciples that some things can only be achieved by ‘prayer and fasting’ (Mk 9:29).  Also, during Lent, uniting prayer and fasting imitates our Lord who both prayed and fasted in his 40 days in the Desert.  Fasting without praying can sometimes just make us grumpy and disagreeable!

Third, fasting (and any form of penance) is also a means of detachment: when we deny ourselves some form of pleasure we help to detach ourselves from it; this helps to orient ourselves more on God and less on earthly things.
Fourth, fasting can change the way we act towards others.  If we’re purifying and detaching ourselves, then we should be more free to love.  One way we do this is by the traditional Lenten practice of giving to the poor. 
Finally, this can be summed up by noting the Church’s threefold Lenten remedy for sin: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (giving to the poor).  These three should all go together, not in opposition, i.e. it’s not enough to say, ‘Oh, I’m not giving up things, I’m doing something positive!’  Each of us would do well to add a small part of each of these three to our Lenten season: add a small prayer to your usual daily or weekly routine, give something up for Lent, and give some money to a good charity.

Crucifix and Candles on the Altar
You may have noted that the crucifix and candles have been moved onto the altar.  This follows the example of Pope Benedict and seeks to enable both the priest and people to together focus on Christ by together focusing on the same crucifix - the Eucharistic prayer is not about the priest talking to the people but about the priest and people talking to God.

Mgr Marini, the Pope's Master of Ceremonies, has recently summed up the Pope's thinking on this with these words: concerning "the reason for the proposal made by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, and presently reaffirmed during the course of his pontificate, to place the Crucifix on the centre of the altar, in order that all, during the celebration of the liturgy, may concretely face and look upon Lord, in such a way as to orient also their prayer and hearts, let us listen to the words of his Holiness, Benedict XVI: 'The idea that the priest and people should stare at one another during prayer is completely alien to the ancient Church. The priest and people most certainly do not pray one to the other, but to the one Lord. Therefore, they stare in the same direction during prayer: either towards the east as a cosmic symbol of the Lord who comes, or, where this is not possible, towards the image of Christ in the apse, towards a crucifix, or simply towards the heavens, as our Lord Himself did in his priestly prayer the night before His Passion (John 17.1) ...the proposal made by me at the end of the chapter treating this question in my work ‘The Spirit of the Liturgy’ is fortunately becoming more and more common: ...simply to place the crucifix at the centre of the altar, which both priest and the faithful can face and be lead in this way towards the Lord, whom everyone addresses in prayer together.' ”

The candles have been moved onto the altar because this is also the practice of Pope Benedict, as it was the practice of Pope John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI, John XXIII, and those before them. 

Lent Daily Reading
The "Day by Day" Lenten booklets are for sale in the porch, £1.  Please note the difference between the adult, child, and infant versions. 

Bible Course: Matthew's Gospel
Our Bible course is still continuing to meet on Thursday at 7pm.  Our pre-Easter sessions will be Feb 25th on Mt 3, Mar 4th on Mt 4, Mar 11th on Mt 5, Mar 18th on Mt 6, and Mar 25th on Mt 7.  We can lend you the DVD of a session if you miss any particular week.  Feel free to come to all or part of the course or even to just one week: each week there is a DVD presentation on the chapters we are looking at that week, followed by group discussion.

Children's Lenten Daily Booklet
Thanks to a donation we have free copies of the child and infant versions of the "Day by Day" booklets for Lent.  Please collect these from the porch.  Look at the content to see whether the child or infant version better suits.

Children’s Easter Party - Sunday 21st March 2010
To be held at the Royal British Legion Hall, Shaftesbury, 4pm - 6pm.  It would be lovely to see as many children from the Parish at the party as possible.  There will be a disco with games and lots of delicious party food!  Any questions, please call Mary-Clare Fearn (  01258 820912  01258 820912 ) or Sam Allhusen (  01747 812720  01747 812720 ).  There will be a list at the back of the church for names nearer the time.

SVP Society
We are supporting the Alabare’s Welfare Box Appeal during this cold weather. They require items that will help the homeless and vulnerable people who use their drop-in centre based in Salisbury. If you have items which you could donate such as gloves, hats, scarves, thick socks and personal hygiene items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap etc please place them in the box at the back of the church.  Thank you.

Prayer Intentions
Please pray for Fr Tony Cornish of our diocese who is undergoing a second course of extensive chemotherapy.  Please keep Shelagh Caulfield; Sheila Humphreys; Christine Burton; Fr Bernard Jaffa of our diocese; Flora Barsby; Di Bradbury; Hilary Evening; Simone Rossano, and Jill Butler in your prayers.  If you fall ill and need Holy Communion brought to you please let Fr Dylan know (Tel. 852125).  Similarly, please let us know the names of sick people we should be praying for – please ask their permission for us to mention their names publicly.  Thanks.

Thank you for your prayers and for the work of the Church.  The collection last week came to £577.37.

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LAST WEEK'S NOTICES - If you missed something that was in last week or have lost your copy of the Newsletter, please click here to see last week's.

Pope Benedict XVI’s Intentions for February 2010

General: Young people and Social Media That by means of sincere search for the truth scholars and intellectuals may arrive at an understanding of the one true God." His missionary intention is: "That the Church, aware of her own missionary identity, may strive to follow Christ faithfully and to proclaim His Gospel to all peoples.     Mission: Christian Unity That in the mission territories where the struggle against disease is most urgent, Christian communities may witness to the presence of Christ to those who suffer.