THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (YEAR C)
WEEK: MAY 18TH - 24TH 2025
“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
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, Nynna Carpio, Terry Cummins, Elizabeth Flanagan, Margaret Emsis, Francis Doyle, Linda Solan, Fred Kibblewhite, Daniel Keane
LATELY DEAD: Rosemary Guilfoyle, Nilda Chavez, Khanysile Mazibuko
ANNIVERSARIES, Ellie McDermott, Molly McDermott, Catherine Duddy, Mary Bowden, Martin Lucas, Franciszek Wisniewski, Joachim de Almeida, Maria Lourdes Barros
LAST WEEK'S COLLECTION: £1,119.13
Standing Order: £674.00 a month
CHURCH BOXES / DONATIONS
Caritas (Homeless) £20.00
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 AND HYMNS The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Missalette The Fifth Sunday of Easter - 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).
Congratulations to all the young people who will be making their First Communion this Sunday (18th May) at 3.00pm. Please keep them in your prayers that their faith might continue to grow and that they will know many blessings in their lives.
Remember too those who will be confirmed at the beginning of June.
DAY OF PRAYER FOR SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS OF ABUSE |
MAYOR’S APPRECIATION AWARD
Last Thursday I was given an award in the Council Chamber of Oldham Council by the Mayor of Oldham. The award citation reads: “in recognition of your services given to and on behalf of the people of Oldham”.
MASS TO CELEBRATE JUBILEE WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES |
PARISH TEAM MEETING
The next Parish Team meeting will be on Thursday 22nd May at 7.00pm. We will discuss how to nominate the individuals requested for the implementation of the synodal process, among other matters. If you have items that you want the team to discuss, please write down your suggestions and give them either to me or to one of the team members (Janet Hirst, Sharon Teefy, Margaret Larad, Christine Wilson, David Daka, Jim Taylor, Tina Nufable, Frank Wisniewski).
SPECIAL DAYS THIS WEEK |
THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
“Love and do what you want” is a phrase attributed to St. Augustine suggesting that if our actions are driven by love, they will be inherently good. You might remember the Beatles song too, “All you need is love”. But that song, to me, can sound so trite. It can be easy, when the word ‘love’ is mentioned, to think that we all know what it means, but there are several meanings of the word. What Jesus was suggesting and modelling to his followers was something different and much more elevated than mere friendship, or ‘falling in love’. He immediately, according to today’s Gospel, explains what he means by his ‘new’ commandment. “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
The image of Jesus on the cross is one that most captures the love of God in the form of a human being. There he shows amazing forgiveness when it is not deserved, he shows trust when everything seems utterly bleak, and he shows an incredible love to the very people who have failed him. This is a love of a very different category. We see it also expressed in Jesus’ action, at the Last Supper, to remove his outer garments and get down and wash the feet of his disciples. This was a task that the householder would usually give to foreign slaves, something seen to be so demeaning. But Jesus voluntarily takes on that role for his disciples.
There is some evidence that the Christians of the early Church were so moved by the love they had heard of in Jesus’ story that they were able to live his new commandment perhaps better than we do today. In the year 165 AD there was a great plague that ravaged the population of the Roman world, killing more than a quarter of the population. There are records that suggest that the pagans simply expelled their sick from their homes and left them to die in the streets, whereas many of the Christians were seen to care for their sick family members. Yes, many of those who did so were themselves infected and many died, but a much greater proportion of the Christians survived because of the care they had been given. Perhaps this played a part in the exponential growth of the Christian Church at that time.
Whenever we see something of the divine qualities of love, trust and forgiveness lived today, it is so moving. Back in 2005, Gee Walker, the mother of Anthony Walker, who had been murdered in a Merseyside park, simply for being black, spoke of her forgiveness for the two men responsible for the killing. She said that it was her Christian faith that enabled her to forgive, and she hoped that the murderers would eventually be able to forgive themselves. This was a powerful and moving response. This was surely something of the love called for in the ‘new’ commandment of Jesus.
DIOCESAN PILGRIMAGE TO LADYEWELL |
A FILIPINO CULTURAL EVENT
“Kulturang Pilipino”. On 7th June, from 2pm- 7pm at Heyside Parish Hall, Heyside, Royton, OL2 6NB. Cost of entry on the day will be £3.00. Anyone will be welcome.
VOCATIONS WEEKEND FOR WOMEN (20s and 30s) -Discerning God's Call in your life |