18TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
(YEAR C)
WEEK: AUGUST 3RD - 9TH 2025
“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions”
YOUR CHARITABLE PRAYERS are requested for our parishioners and friends, especially those whose names appear below.
SICK: John Green, Joan Killeen, Christine Clarke, Tony Kenny, Luke Burke, Dominic Boardman, Connie Marrone, Alexander Loughlin, Surya Duval, Margaret Lawless, Peter Barlow, Jean Barlow, Terry Cummins, Elizabeth Flanagan, Margaret Emsis, Francis Doyle, Linda Solan, Fred Kibblewhite, Daniel Keane, Ethel Keenihan, Peter Bradbury, June Mills LATELY DEAD: Sean Hussey, Janice Santos ANNIVERSARIES: John Reuben Banborough, Joseph McDermott, Mary Drinkhill, William John McArdle, Jimmy Howe, Eileen McGinn
LAST WEEK'S COLLECTION: £1,064.70; CAFOD £10.00 Caritas (Homeless) £20.00
Standing Order: £572.00 a month
Many thanks for your kind generosity.
If anyone needs the Bank account details to set up Direct Debit payments, please contact Father Phil.
THIS SUNDAY'S MISSALETTE & HYMNS 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Missalette 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Hymns
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NOTICES:
All Masses will continue to be live streamed. A link is provided on the Parish website: www.smwsp.org.uk or via the Twitter App (@PhilipSumner13).
PARISH WEBSITE
We are currently in the process of changing our website. This is because I need to be able to access the website to update it when Steve Owen is away. The only way that I could do that is if we change to a new website altogether. Steve is in the process of building this new site, but you can access it even now on https://www.olasp.uk.
Sometimes, this comes up with Our Lady and St. Philomena’s primary school, but it should work if you type this into the website address bar rather than google.
FAITH MINISTER VISITS CARITAS SALFORD |
PARISH TEAM MEETING
The next Parish Team Meeting will be on Thursday 14th August at 7pm. If anyone has any items for the team to discuss, you can approach me or any of the team members (Sharon Teefy, Christine Wilson, Margaret Larad, Janet Hirst, Tina Nufable, David Daka, Jim Taylor, or Frank Wisniewski). Plans seem to be being set in motion for a potential Christmas Fayre at Werneth Cricket Club.
CARITAS SOCIAL ACTION - Saturday 20 September 2025. |
YCW RETREAT IN WALES
On Friday 1st August, 43 young people from our YCW group and six older adults set off for a week’s retreat at Tynrhyd Retreat Centre, Aberystwyth. This is the fourth such retreat over four consecutive years. The aim of the retreat is to develop our young people spiritually and socially and they seem to be events that are thoroughly enjoyed. Fr. John Marsland, from St Edward’s, Lees, has accompanied them, as always, as their chaplain.
SPECIAL DAYS THIS WEEK |
THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
The first reading today comes from that famous section of Ecclesiastes where the rather melancholy preacher proclaims, “Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity!” He then goes on to describe different aspects of human activity that, in fact, are worth nothing. Here, he describes the situation where people work all the hours available to them, and, even at night, worry about what they still must do. He says that this is mere vanity (the word translated by ‘vanity’ means ‘a mere fleeting breath’ – something of so little consequence and utterly ephemeral). In the Gospel, we are presented with a story of someone who has been blessed with a great harvest, but he sees the harvest as the result of his work, and it is his to own and to live off. He tells us what he will do next to ensure that his possessions are protected. Catholic Social teaching reminds us of the universal destination of goods. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states: “the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone". The principle of the universal destination of goods is an affirmation that the goods of creation remain ever destined to the development of the whole person and of all humanity. The philosopher, Michael Sandell suggests that, for the past three decades, we have been moving from a market economy (where the market is a tool to be used) to a market society (where everything is up for sale). He suggests that our possessions are beginning to own us. There’s an example of two poets coming across a flower at different times. One of these poets, Tennyson, writes: “Flower in a crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies. I hold you here, root and all, in my hand.” The Japanese poet, called Basho, similarly comes across a flower and is moved simply to say ‘Ahhh!’ Tennyson wanted to possess the flower whereas Basho is moved simply to appreciate it where it has blossomed. There is the temptation for all of us to think that we are nothing unless we possess much. The supreme goal is to have more. We become more and more covetous. The second reading, however, from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, describes covetousness as a type of idolatry. The readings today are therefore challenging us to find our identity, or our metric of success, not in what we own or in how much we earn, nor even in the amount of work we do, but in our ability to appreciate God’s gifts and to recognise that these gifts are not just for me.