Ofsted Inspection at De Lisle

Please keep in your prayers all the staff and pupils at our secondary school, De Lisle College, on the 11th & 12th of December as they have their Ofsted Inspection. It's a great opportunity to show the wider community just how excellent they are so we'll be praying especially hard for them today and tomorrow in our parish Masses. If you're a parent, do click here to find out more about how you can offer your views to the inspection team. Click here to keep updated via the De Lisle website as to how they got on... Go De Lisle!

Hot off the Press: The Latest 'You Are Living Stones' Update

Click here to read, reflect & pray about all the latest updates following the meeting at De Lisle on Tuesday 26th November 2013.

Evangelii Gaudium - ‘The Joy of the Gospel’ by Pope Francis

To mark the close of the Year of Faith, Pope Francis has written an Apostolic Exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world. Called Evangelii Gaudium, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, the Exhortation invites us all to become missionaries, playing our part in bringing Jesus to the world in which we live. Click here to read it via the Nottingham Diocesan Website.

Bishop Malcolm's Advent Pastoral Letter

Click here to read his letter.

Newsletter 7/8 Dec - Advent 2(A)

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Newsletter for 30 Nov/1 Dec - Advent 1(A)

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Thank you...

...for all your kindness today and over the last four years, and indeed before that.

Today's Mass and the celebration afterwards were beautiful. It was a great joy to have our young people so involved on Youth Sunday, and to welcome Charlie into the Church. Priests come and go. The parish community goes on.

Thank you for the miner's lamp, the cup, the tea bags, the very generous cheque and the numerous individual gifts and cards.

Please welcome Father David warmly and go forward with him to advance God's kingdom of justice, love, and peace.

Let us pray for each other.

Father Colin

Newsletter for 23/24 November - Christ the King

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Apologies for the mistakes on the back page of the newsletter. Please note: There is no RCIA or Prayer Group this Monday, but there will be Cherubs on Wednesday. There are two other mistakes on the back page - but they don't make any difference to the programme of events. No prizes for spotting them! I think my mind must have been on other things. I wonder why!

Extraordinary Synod on the Family 2014

You will have heard on the news and read in the Catholic Press that there will be an Extraordinary Synod on the Family in Rome in 2014. The Church is listening widely to people's experience of family life to help prepare for the Synod. Because of my imminent change of parish I have not been able to spend the time I would have wished talking to people about this.

I would like to draw your attention to this which tells you more about the whole process. You can also access the relevant questionnaire through the page to which the link takes you. If you respond to the questionnaire you will find that some of the questions are rather daunting.  Don't panic! There is no obligation to answer every question. Feel free to respond to the questions where you feel that you have something important to share, and simply leave the rest.

May God bless us as we work with his Church to enrich the sort of family life which will bring healing and hope to our society.

Newsletter for 16/17 November - Sunday 33(C)

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You will see from the newsletter that there will be a collection for the Philippines after the Typhoon. You can also give to this via CAFOD by credit card by phoning 0500 858885, or online here.

Pray for the Philippines

Let us respond to the call of the Holy Father:

I ask all of you to join me in prayer for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda especially those in the beloved islands of the Philippines
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) November 9, 2013

Let us pray, too, for those of our parishioners who are anxious for loved ones whose lives have been affected by the typhoon.

Newsletter for 9/10 November - Sunday 32(C)

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Newsletter for 2/3 November - Sunday 31(C)

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All Saints Day...

... is tomorrow, Friday. It is a Holy Day of Obligation and we should all be at Holy Mass. Mass will be celebrated at St Wilfrid's at 9.45am, and 7.30pm. Let's leave the ugliness of much contemporary 'celebration' of Hallowe'en behind and celebrate the beauty of heaven, as we....

... keep the festival of Your holy city,
the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother.
Around Your throne the saints,
our brothers and sisters,
sing Your praise for ever.
Their glory fills us with joy,
and their communion with us in Your Church
gives us inspiration and strength
as we hasten on our pilgrimage of faith,
eager to meet them.
Preface of All Saints

As it is Solemnity, there is no Friday abstinence tomorrow. Happy feast!

The task of the priest

As I prepare for a new chapter in my priestly ministry, I am moved and challenged by words that Pope Benedict spoke to students of the Venerable English College in Rome last December:

Your first task, then, is to come to know Christ yourselves.... Learn to pray daily, especially in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, listening attentively to the word of God and allowing heart to speak to heart, as Blessed John Henry Newman would say. Remember the two disciples from the first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, who followed Jesus and asked to know where he was staying, and, like them, respond eagerly to his invitation to "come and see" (1:37-39). Allow the fascination of his person to capture your imagination and warm your heart. He has chosen you to be his friends, not his servants, and he invites you to share in his priestly work of bringing about the salvation of the world. Place yourselves completely at his disposal and allow him to form you for whatever task it may be that he has in mind for you.