The Parish of Our Lady and St Patrick Oldham

16TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
(YEAR C)
WEEK: JULY 20TH - 26TH 2025

16th Sunday or Ordinary Time

“Remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2)

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, LATELY DEAD: Josephine O’Connor, Norma Hill, Fe Jardell, Christopher Duju, Roy Lee, Sister Phonesy HF ANNIVERSARIES: Rosemary Guilfoyle, John Wilson, Cheri Mulryan, Antonietta Hordynski

CONGRATULATIONS
Amal Joy graduated this week from Manchester Metropolitan University. Congratulations! This is just one week after the death of his great aunt in India.

LAST WEEK'S COLLECTION: £1,138.21

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

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Missalette

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Hymns

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).

POPE LEO XIV HAS RENEWED HIS CALLS FOR “AN IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE” IN GAZA following a military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Parish. In a telegram signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State on his behalf, the Holy Father expresses deep sorrow for the loss of life and for the injuries caused by the attack.

VISIT OF CARDINAL STEPHEN CHOW FROM HONG KONG
The Sunday Examiner, reporting on news from Asia, Europe, Hong Kong and other nations, published a report. The article states: “In a spirit of pastoral care and unity, Cardinal Stephen Chow SJ, bishop of Hong Kong, made a pastoral visit to Manchester, the United Kingdom, on July 14 to support and encourage the city’s growing Chinese-speaking Catholic community….Father Sumner, who has long ministered to the community, said the visit was a tremendous privilege and evidence of Cardinal Stephen’s ongoing concern for Hong Kong migrants.”
(For the whole article; click here

YCW IMPACT GROUP
Last week, several of our parishioners represented this country at a YCW international meeting in Paris. Anna, Famous and Liane met with European representatives at an ‘in person’ meeting, at which other representatives from around the world joined them ‘on-line.’ All three of our parishioners have taken on leadership roles in YCW at a regional and a national level. They have worked hard in the last year, as part of a wider team, to organise a recent ‘Day of Hope.’ We should be proud of our young people. You might also be interested in the magazine at the back of church called YCW Impact, Action. There you can read about several of the events our young people have been involved in over the last year. On page 2 you will see a photograph of Famous, Cesar, Liane, Nicole Harry Carla and Anna with the International President of the YCW. Then, on page 5, there’s another report about our YCW group making some money to help with the Terence O’Grady Social Club for adults with learning disabilities. There’s another feature about our group on the bottom of page 7 where there’s a brief report of their annual retreat, which, this year was in Yorkshire. On page 8, there’s a report of the previous international conference in Turin, Italy, that several of our group attended and. on page 9 there’s a report of the visit of the international president of the YCW here at St. Patrick’s.

THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE NEWSLETTER AND ON THE WEBSITE Two weeks ago, I received an email demanding compensation for the use of a photograph on our website on the Third Sunday of Lent this year. Steve has since removed the offending photograph, but we will probably still have to pay some ‘compensation’ even though we clearly made no money through its use! This will mean that, from now on, I will have to be far more circumspect about using photographs from the internet. It’s not always clear which are images that can be used free, and which are not. So, bear with us on this one. Different people have suggested using ChatGTP. One of our parishioners even sent me the photograph I have used today which was generated by Chat GPT. I’ll have to experiment with this myself, but I haven’t got around to it yet!

SPECIAL DAYS THIS WEEK
Monday 21st July – St. Laurence of Brindisi – He was born in 1559 and entered the Capuchin Order where he taught theology and became a renowned preacher, travelling through Europe and writing many works to explain the faith. He died at Lisbon in 1619.
Tuesday 22nd July – St. Mary Magdalene - She was one of Jesus’ disciples, present at his death and the first to witness the risen Christ.
Wednesday 23rd July – St Bridget of Sweden - She was born in Sweden in 1303. She was married and had eight children. Then, after the death of her husband, she formed the Bridgettine Order. She died in Rome in 1373 Thursday 24th July – St Sharbel Makhlouf Friday 25th July – St. James; Saturday 26th July – Ss. Joachim and Anne

THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
The theme of today’s readings is very much about hospitality. In the first of the readings, we hear about the hospitality of Abraham for three strangers, who’d simply arrived at his tent in the heat of the day. He showed them amazing hospitality, demonstrating the values he had inherited from the people of his culture. He was rewarded, some time later, with the birth of a son, which had seemed impossible, given his and his wife’s ages. The Gospel portrays two types of hospitality in the same story. We hear of Martha, the older of the two sisters, rushing around to make sure that Jesus and his friends had all they needed. Her younger sister, on the other hand, simply sat at Jesus’ feet and listened intently to what he had to say. She was breaking cultural norms. In Jesus’ day, the women would gather in the kitchen, or a room nearby, but the main room of the house would be kept for the men. But she was breaking yet another cultural norm because the places at the foot of a teacher were, normally, for the disciples who hoped to become teachers themselves, and it was only men who were seen to be able to fulfil that role. Martha perhaps reminds us of the seed that fell among thorns, a seed that grew but was choked by the cares and the worries of this world. Her form of hospitality was important, but she had allowed herself to become too distracted and worried about it. However, it’s clear that Jesus understands what Mary is doing as another, and perhaps even greater, form of hospitality. We can get hospitality very wrong. We can rush around to provide what we think our guests need but, perhaps, we don’t listen enough first to see what they need or seek. There’s a message for us in these readings as to how we make people, who arrive in our community, welcome. It’s not just a matter of us rushing around to provide things that we think they might need. There must be so much listening to and understanding of their inevitably different needs, according to their culture or background. True hospitality lies in two things: first the welcome, encouraging the stranger to enter the house (or the church) and be at home there: secondly, the gift, not just of food or drink, but of time, listening to the stranger, and giving of ourselves to them. This is what makes hospitality costly, but holy, and a true service of Jesus Christ.

MESSAGE FROM ST. PATRICK’S PRIMARY SCHOOL
St Patrick's RC Primary would like to share with the whole community how proud we are of our wonderful children. Our EYFS results are higher than ever at 69% (GLD) and these children are ready to continue their journey into Key Stage 1. Our year 1 performed fantastically in their phonics test as did Year 4 in their multiplication table test. Our year 2s have worked really hard and been really successful and our Year 6, well what can we say! They not only performed amazingly in their end of year show but also achieved the best End of Key Stage 2 results we have had in a very long time with 87% of our children achieving in reading, 80% in their Grammar, punctuation and spelling, 80% in our maths and 70% in their writing. Thank you to all our children for working so hard, for all our staff and our parents for all their hard work and we wish them a lovely summer.

WEEKLY SERVICES
SUNDAY:	10.00am. 12.30pm (Polish Mass) 6.00pm
MONDAY:	12 noon Mass
TUESDAY:	12 noon Mass
WEDNESDAY:	12 noon Mass
THURSDAY:	12 noon Mass
FRIDAY:	12 noon Eucharistic Service
SATURDAY:	12 noon Mass