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WEEKEND MASSES
Saturday 30th August - 4.15pm Confession, 5pm Mass
Sunday 31st August - 9.15am Family Mass, 11.15am Mass, 5pm Youth Mass
WEEK OF 1st September
Monday 1st September - 11am Mass
Tuesday 2nd September - 11am Mass, 7.30pm Rosary
Wednesday 3rd September - Church Closed
Thursday 4th September - Church Closed
Friday 5th September - Church Closed
WEEKEND MASSES
Saturday 6th September - 4.15pm Confession, 5pm Mass
Sunday 7th September - 9.15am Family Mass, 11.15am Mass, 5pm Youth Mass
Fr Simon's Reflections for week of 1st September - 6th September
RAISE THE ROOF
The entire roof of the church, presbytery and bell tower will have to be stripped and recovered. The cost of the work will be about £300,000. CLICK HERE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
CHARITY BRIDGE GAME - IN AID OF RAISE THE ROOF - WED 3rd SEPT
You are invited to a Charity bridge Game on Wed 3rd Sept at 1:30pm in St Joan's Centre. The charge is £20 per person. Contact Christina McKeating(christinamckeating@hotmail.com) (mobile 07755 2226004) to book a place. CLICK HERE FOR THE FLYER.
Choral Concert Raises the Roof and Kicks off Fundraising Appeal
First Holy Communion Programme 2026
For Catholic children in School Year 3 and above, the 2026 sign up takes place after Mass on Sunday 14th September at 10:20 & 12:20. If you & your child are not currently attending Sunday Mass, you may need to defer your application until you have made the Sunday Mass the source and summit of your life.
Preparation for First Confession / Holy Communion is: Sunday Mass (with weekly sign-in), a course starting in January, and a course book to do at home.
Ordinarily, applications for the sacraments are made in the parish in which you live. As such:
Those registered here and who live within the parish boundary and who attend St Joan’s each week may apply for the St Joan of Arc 2026 First Holy CommunionProgramme.
URGENT PETITION: Assisted Suicide Bill Threatens Vulnerable People
RAISE THE ROOF - DEVELOPMENT PLAN
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
CAN YOU HELP?
Parish Charity ARCAID
Parish Pastoral Plan
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C.
The Songs of the Angels
We continue to consider aspects of the Holy Mass, exploring the two hymns of praise sung by the Angels - the Gloria and Sanctus. Imagine going to a birthday party and standing round the cake, ‘saying’ to the birthday boy or girl, ‘Happy Birthday to you’ as if we were bored to be there! No, joy is expressed in song, as we sing: ‘Glory to God’ and ‘Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts’.
The Gloria was added to the Roman Liturgy in 130AD, originally reserved to the Papal Christmas Mass, then to all Masses with a Bishop, and finally to Masses with priests but only on Sundays and Feast Days. Luke says that when the angel announced to the Shepherds the Saviour’s Birth, one angel sung out “Gloria in excelsis Deo” and then a great multitude of the heavenly hosts praised God. And so, at Mass, the celebrant intones “Gloria in execelsis Deo...” before the choir & people take up ‘et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis’, and so on.
From the Saviour’s birth, the angels once again sung God’s praises, having been silenced after the ‘fall of man’. The 2010 translation of the Missal restored the missing chunk of the Gloria omitted in the hurried 1972 translation. We sing of the dignity and honour due to God: may praise, blessing, adoration and glory and thanksgiving be always on our lips! The Gloria cries out our joy, hope and confidence in the deliverance of the Saviour’s birth.
The Sanctus is the hymn of victory sung by the angels and saints who sing the praises of the Thrice Holy God, inspiring us to enter fully into the remembrance, consecration and praise found in the Eucharistic Prayer, the moment when heaven and earth are intimately connected. ‘Hosanna’ is both an acclamation of praise and a plea for salvation. Therefore, as the offerings we present are taken by the angels to the altar of God, they are transformed into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ so he may feed and nourish us, as we await his coming.
Fr Simon
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Many thanks.
