Our Lady Queen of Heaven
Catholic Church, Harwich, Essex

Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B) 2 May 2020

For Catholics on the Tendring Peninsula….

SPECIAL NEWSLETTER LII – keeping in touch.

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (YEAR B)                                                                               1/2 May 2021

 

CATHOLIC PARISHES OF:

Our Lady Queen of Heaven, Dovercourt:             01255 503383

email                       Harwich@dioceseofbrentwood.org

website                   www.harwichcatholics.org.uk

Sacred Heart and St Francis of Assisi, Frinton-on-Sea:         01255 674475

email                       Frinton@dioceseofbrentwood.org

website:                  www.frintoncatholicchurch.wordpress.com

 

Masses to be celebrated in our churches this week:

Monday (3rd)        (Dovercourt)         9.30am                 Alice McCarthy RIP

Tuesday (4th)        (Frinton)                11.00am Betty Bachelor

Thursday (6th)      (Frinton)                11.00am Patrick Carey

Friday (7th)            (Dovercourt)         9.30am                 Mary & Larry Key RIP (Pat & George Chowney)

Saturday (8th)       (Frinton)                6.00pm                 Bridget White (Sr Teresa)

Sunday (9th)          (Frinton)                8.30am                 Philomena Mulvany (Sherwood Family)

(Dovercourt)         10.45am All Parishioners

 

In addition to these Masses, Fr Bill will continue to celebrate Mass in The Presbytery.  His Mass intentions are:

Racial Justice

The Sick and those who care for them

The homeless

Migrants & Refugees

Private Intentions

 

Fr Frank writes:

 

My Dear Friends,

For many outside the Church, Easter has been and gone. But it is not so for us.  We are still in that Holy Season and the first reading today, as is the case throughout Eastertide, is taken from the Acts of the Apostles.  This reading is about the Apostle Paul. Remembering how he used to persecute Christians it is not surprising that the disciples in Jerusalem mistrusted him.  But we know that his life had been transformed as a result of encountering Christ on the road to Damascus.

There is a nice little sentence at the end of the reading:  because of their faithfulness “the churches throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit”.

How I pray that we could be ‘building ourselves up’.  Sadly the situation can so often seem bleak as we read of falling Mass attendance and vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

But, let us not despair, but rather let us pray that, like Paul on the road to Damascus and like the gathered Apostles in Jerusalem, our lives and the lives of those around us may be transformed, and that the Church and the world may be conformed through His grace into a world which more and more closely resembles its calling to become the Kingdom of God.

May Our Risen, Ascended and Glorified Lord bless you now and always.

 

Frank OFS

 

 

Sunday Mass attendance, May 2021: 8/9 May surnames E-K; 15/16 May L-R; 22/23 May S-Z; 29/30 May A-D.  Please note that there are no alphabetical restrictions applied to weekday Masses.

 

Sunday Smile:  On his way to a funeral the minister leaned forward and tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him a question.  When the driver visibly jumped, the minister apologized for startling him.  “That’s all right, sir,” the driver replied.  “It’s just that I usually drive the hearse.”