Newsletter: Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

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Newsletter: 24th August 2025

Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

24th August 2025

16.30 No Confessions
17.30 VIGIL MASS

9.00 MASS
10.30 MASS (& Coffee)
12.00 Baptisms

10.00 Mass (with Canon McBride)
10.30 Coffee Morning
11.30 Burial of Ashes, Anne Kiernan

11.00 Requiem Mass for Susan Graham

10.00 Requiem Mass for Phylis Sutton

No Service in Church

16.30 No Confessions
17.30 VIGIL MASS

9.00 MASS
10.30 MASS (& Coffee)
12.00 Baptisms

The Office will be closed this week.

NO CONFESSIONS

Please note there will be No Confessions on Saturday 23rd August and Saturday 30th August. Thank you.

UCM

The next meeting for the UCM will be on Wednesday 27th August at 7.30pm.

DONA CARD MACHINE

The Dona Card machine has now been repaired. This machine lets parishioners donate money straight into the Parish Bank account using a bank card, phone or smart watch.

You can use it to give a one-off donation or make a regular donation. The benefit is that it helps when fewer people carry cash, and it can automatically process Gift Aid after your first donation.

It’s quick, secure and helps support the mission and upkeep of our parish. Thank you for your generosity and for supporting our parish community.

200 CLUB

There will be a new 200 Club beginning in September. There will be a weekly draw of £20 . The first draw will be 5th October and run until the week before Christmas. The end prizes will be: 1st £400, 2nd £250 and 3rd £150.

The cost of a number will be £1. £10 in total. Speak to Stacy Wheildon or Jose Morris for more information.

Tickets are on sale from this weekend.

SVP SUMMER RAFFLE

The SVP 2025 Summer Raffle. Tickets are £1 each (or in books of 5 at £5) . The draw takes place 25th September 2025. Tickets can be purchased from Chris & Steph of the SVP.

More details are on the noticeboard.

BOOK OF THE DEAD

If you have a relative that has died since 2019 and would like them including in the Book of the Dead displayed in Church, please email the parish office with their name and date and year of death.

Thank you.

DBS

If you do a voluntary role in Church There is a form in the Atrium for you to complete.

Please speak to Claire if you need advice.

CEMETERY MASS AT ST. MARY’S, WARDLEY

A Mass to remember loved ones will be taking place at 11am on Monday 25th August at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Wardley.

LOCAL HOSPICE SHOP

We encourage all parishioners to support our local hospice shop facing Radcliffe Times Office. By donating quality items or making a purchase, you are helping to provide essential care for those in need in our community. Thank you for your continued generosity.

FEAST OF SAINT MONICA

The parish of St. Mary’s Oswaldtwistle
invites you to a special Votive Mass for the feast of St. Monica on Wednesday 27th August at 7pm. The Mass will be followed with an opportunity to venerate a relic of St. Monica and invoke her intercession for our families and loved ones. All are invited to join.

SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION

Would the children in Year 8 who attend either St Monica’s or St Gabriel’s and have completed their Confirmation Catechesis with Sister Linda and been given a form to return to Father Brady, please hand it to the parish as soon as possible. Thank you. Confirmations will be celebrated at St. Bernadette’s Whitefield on Sunday 28th September at 2pm.

OUTDOOR MASS FOR SEASON OF CREATION

This September welcomes back the Season of Creation – a month long campaign that invites us to reflect on our call to be loving stewards of God’s creation. We invite you to join us in beginning this time of reflection with an outdoor Mass in the beautiful grounds of the Diocese of Salford’s Laudato Si’ Centre. Mass takes place on Monday 1st September at 9.30am. Email > to find out more or register.

ECOLOGICAL ROSARY AT THE LAUDATO SI’ CENTRE

Join us at the Diocese of Salford’s Laudato Si’ Centre on Wednesday 3rd September as we gather to pray the Rosary with ecological reflections. Email > to find out more and to register.

JOB VACANCIES

The Diocese of Salford is recruiting for a number of roles in the diocesan property team, as well as in our parish clubs. To find out more please visit >

Quote of the Week

‘The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and he helps me’
Psalm 28;7

STAY WITH US, LORD, ON OUR JOURNEY

THIS WEEK’S GOSPEL

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria

The Gospel reading makes a point which is directly opposite to one found in the first reading.

There the inhabitants of distant lands will come to draw salvation from Jerusalem.

This is repeated in the Gospel, but the daunting corollary is also given to those nearer home and who are expecting to find their way into the heavenly city easily: don’t sit back in complacent contentment that you have been called, or you may find the door slammed in your face.

Matthew 7:21-23 has the same warning: it is not enough to keep calling out, ‘Lord, Lord!’ without actually doing the will of the Father.

There is also the similar, more developed teaching in the parable of the wedding attendants – five who are wise with oil in their lamps, and five who are unprepared for the wedding feast.

They too vainly cry, ‘Lord, Lord!’ from outside the door.

Today’s Gospel almost forms the centre-piece of the instructions to the disciples as they make their way with Jesus up to Jerusalem and to his Passion and Death.

There is no cheap way to salvation: each disciple must take up the cross behind Jesus and follow to the end of the road.

This teaching is the more striking in Luke, who stresses that both Jews and Gentiles will take part in the festival.

PICTURED St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria.

BAPTISMS Please see Fr. Brady after Mass if you would like your child to be baptised. A baptismal certificate for one of the parents must be provided as evidence of baptism in a Roman Catholic Church before a baptism date can be given. We welcome parents and children and by attending Masses at the weekend on Saturday at 5.30pm, Sunday at 9.00am or 10.00am which fulfil the Sunday obligation. All Catholics are OBLIGED to celebrate Mass on EVERY Sunday.

BAPTISM CERTIFICATE COPIES REQUESTS For those requesting copies of baptism certificate the office can be contacted initially and the certificate can be collected at any of the weekend Masses. This is also to encourage people to come to Mass.

SICK AND HOUSEBOUND If you know of anybody who would like Fr Brady to visit, could you please give him their name and address with postcode and a contact telephone number. Thank you.

MASS INTENTIONS, OUR LADY’S LAMP AND THE SANCTUARY LAMP The practice of requesting a Mass to be offered for loved ones, living or deceased, is a beautiful and wonderful part of our Catholic Tradition. Continuing this long-standing practice, you can remember someone who has died recently or many years ago. The Mass can also make beautiful gifts for any special occasion: birthdays, anniversaries, in thanksgiving for a prayer answered etc. You can offer an intention for anybody who is struggling with a serious illness or other difficulties of life. There are Mass Intention Envelopes provided on the table in the Atrium. (Please ensure that you have the express consent of the sick or housebound person as the bulletin is posted on the parish website, therefore making that information available to the public at large. Please provide a contact number with Mass Intentions so that any discrepancies can be resolved. Our Lady’s Lamp and Sanctuary Lamp are £5.00 and burn for seven days. Please place any intentions in an envelope with your donation and give to Father Brady or place in the Mass offering Box in the Atrium. All newsletter items must be sent in by Thursday morning.

MASSES AND PRAYERS RECEIVED THIS WEEK

Lately Dead
Theresa Burton, Teresa Cooke, Kath O’Neill, Giovanni Taurasi, Bernadette Semple, Phylis Sutton, Darcie Hawkins, Susan Graham.

Anniversary
Father Chew.

Sick
Andy Watson, Mike Page, Noel Moore, Paul Moore.

Other
All Holy Souls in Purgatory, For all the Sick and Suffering in the Parish, In Thanksgiving for Successful Surgery & a Healthy Recovery for Rosetta Chiodo.

This week, the Sanctuary Lamp burns for:

Peace in the Middle East.

This week Our Lady’s Lamp burns for:

Helen Hyndman.

The Vatican

Please click on the red ‘Play’ button to watch Vatican Media Live.

Lourdes TV

Please click on the red ‘Play’ button to watch Lourdes TV.

Walsingham TV

Newsletter: 24th August 2025