Welcome to our parish website. All newsletters and other updates are posted on the home page. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @stwilfholycross. We are beginning the amalgamation process with Holy Cross, Whitwick so you can find information on new Mass times here.

29 January 2011

This week's homily - further reading.

In this weekend's homily I am looking at the Beatitudes as the fulfilment of the Law given by Moses. On the front cover of the Newsletter you will find an extract from a Homily Pope John Paul II gave on the Mount of the Beatitudes in 2000. You can read the full text of that homily here.
I am linking thoughts about the way of life set out in the Commandments and the Beatitudes to the present Pope's Message for World Communications Day which was issued on January 24th. You can read the full text here.

27 January 2011

Newsleter for 29/30 January - Sunday 4(A)

Click here to read this week's newsletter.

If you would like to receive an advance copy of the newsletter each week, please click here, and simply send the resulting email.

25 January 2011

Some Definite Purpose

We do not forget the wonderful visit from Pope Benedict last year. We need to let the themes of the visit continue to challenge and lead us. There is a new national programme drawing on the legacy of the visit called "Some definite purpose". Do we all remember where that title comes from? There are six themes for prayer, reflection and action: ‘To know our purpose’, ‘To grow in confidence’, ‘To witness to our faith’, ‘To serve others’, ‘To seek and engage in dialogue’ and ‘To point to the transcendent’.
More about this initiative can be found here and here.

24 January 2011

Visit to the Birmingham Oratory

For a long time I have wanted to visit the Oratory Church in Birmingham which was built as a memorial to Blessed John Henry Newman at the beginning of last century. It is situated next to the house where he lived for most of his life as a Catholic priest. I managed to get there today and to pray for our parish at the shrine of Blessed John Henry.

21 January 2011

Wise words - why Sunday Mass is so important

Sunday Mass is usually seen just as a constraint on our freedom, a rule that must be obeyed, imposed from above by "the authorities" It is seen as typical of Catholic legalism and of a culture of control, which is always telling people what they must do.
Might we not see it rather as a sign of our stable belonging in this liquid and mobile world? .... It is not an external obligation, like not being allowed to drive at more than 30mph in built-up areas. It is an expression of who one is .... Obligations express the ways in which we are rooted in abiding relationships with other people. They are signs of those enduring fidelities which give us strength and identity.
Father Timothy Radcliffe OP
What is the Point of Being a Christian?

18 January 2011

New translation of the Missal - dates confirmed

It has now been confirmed that the new translation of the Order of Mass will be used in parishes in England & Wales from September this year. The Order of Mass contains those texts of both priest and people which are constant at each celebration of Mass.
The full Missal, which includes the parts of the Mass which vary with the feast or season, is to be published, at the earliest, in Advent this year.
All parishes are asked to have a period of study on the Mass and the new translation in the autumn of this year, though obviously we shall need to start our preparation before then.
Today's press release which sets this out in more detail can be read here.

15 January 2011

The Ordinariate

People may well have questions in their minds as a result of the media coverage of the ordination of three former Anglican bishops as Catholic priests today. There is some very good information from the Catholic Church in England and Wales website here.
In case anybody is wondering, your own priest-in-charge, who was received into the Catholic Church in 1994 after twenty years in Anglican ministry, and was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Nottingham in 1998, remains under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Nottingham.
Please pray for the Ordinariate, and for those ordained today.

11 January 2011

New translation of the Missal FAQs



There are some helpful questions and answers about the new translation of the Missal here. Some refer specifically to the United States, but most are helpful for us.