OUR LADY & ST EDWARD'S

Marlborough Drive, Fulwood, Preston, PR2 9UE

ALL SAINTS    2 November 2008

My Dear Parishioners,

Many thanks to all who celebrated Mass last Sunday 478 (189,147,142). Thank you for your Sunday offerings £960

Thank you for recent offerings Bishop's Administration Fund £156; Missions £236

LITURGICAL EVENTS

Remembrance Sunday 9 Nov

Youth Sunday (Christ the King) 23 Nov

First Sunday of Advent (with Jesse Tree) 30 Nov

Reconciliation Mass 6 Dec 6.00pm Sat

Gaudete Sunday (Children-led Mass) 14 Dec 10.30am

Christmas Eve 5.00pm (carols 4.30pm)

8.00pm (carols 7.30pm)

Christmas Morning 8.30am, 10.30am

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY   We will remember the victims of war at all three Masses 8/9 November. We will lay a wreath at each Mass and observe the silence.

SR MARY LUCY visited us on Sunday and spoke at all Masses. We appreciated her inspiring words and her account of how our offerings are so conscientiously used to improve the lives of many people in the Diocese of Kalomo in Zambia. We are grateful to Barbara Ryan for extending excellent hospitality to her.

'THE CATHOLIC HERALD'  has been sending free copies, (available in porch) hoping that you will order some from your newsagents. Recent reports include -

Vatican approves new Mass Endings At present, we have the Dismissals 'The Mass is ended, go in peace'. 'Go in peace to love and serve the Lord' and 'Go in the peace of Christ.'

New options will be 'The Mass is ended, go in peace', 'Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord' and 'Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life.'

Saint's parents beatified The parents of St Teresa of Lisieux, Louis & Zelie Martin were beatified by Cardinal Saraiva Martins in the town of Lisieux during Mass attended by 15,000 people on Sunday 17 October, 83 years after the canonisation of Therese. The couple had nine children - seven girls and two boys. The boys and a two daughters died in childhood. The other five daughters entered the religious life. Therese was the youngest.

Letter from a Scottish reader. 'I was interested to hear that Mary, Queen of Scots had her dog with her at her execution. She said, "I want to take it for a walk around the block."

HALLOWEEN 'Eve of Hallows', 'Eve of the Hallowed', 'Evening before All Saints'.

Many may feel that ancient Halloween celebrations associated with witches, masks, trick or treat, and other practices, have been 'stolen' from the Christian Calendar. However, when Christianity was spreading throughout Britain, it was the Christians who 'borrowed' the festivities that were already being used by Pagan Druids in celebrating 'Samhain, Lord of the Dead' on 1 November. It was believed that, at this time of year, the barriers between life and death came down, and that evil spirits roamed freely. Bonfires were lit to keep the spirits away. Despite the efforts of Popes, Bishops and many others, to maintain the Feast of All Saints as a religious festival, the pagan elements of Halloween still remain.

The Christian celebration of All Hallows, with its message that good people passed to another life where they were rewarded, was celebrated with greater confidence by Christians because of their belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

While Halloween is, for most, no longer a religious festival, the Church cannot choose to ignore it. Apart from the fact that we would be seen as boring killjoys, we can show that we are clear about what is dangerous or unwholesome.

We can show that we regard Halloween and All Saints as the celebration of good over evil, light over darkness, and the happy gathering of Jesus surrounded by his followers 'who have done his will throughout the ages.'

With that in mind, we can all come to church on this Saturday and Sunday and sing, with gusto, 'Oh when the saints go marching in.....

Adapted from the Internet Originally, Christians celebrated the Anniversary of a martyr's death as the saint's 'birth day' by observing an All-Night Vigil and then celebrating the Eucharist over their tomb or the shrine at their place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighbouring dioceses began to transfer relics and started to celebrate the feast days of specific martyrs in common. Frequently, a number of Christians suffered martyrdom on the same day, which led to joint commemorations. During the persecution by Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. The Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed one day for all. A commemoration of 'All Martyrs' began to be celebrated as early as 270 although no specific month or date is mentioned in existing records. The first trace of a general celebration on a specific day is attested in Antioch - on the Sunday after Pentecost. There is mention of a common day in a sermon of St Ephrem the Syrian (373) and the custom is also referred to in a homily of St John Chrysostom (407) - 'a feast of martyrs of the whole world.' As early as 411 there is found among the Chaldean Christians a general commemoration of all Confessors celebrated on Easter Friday. In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The Pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the Pope intended that 'the memory of all the saints might in the future be honoured in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons.' The rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honour all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or just after Pentecost. How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on 1 November 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century. Finally The Feast of All Hallows first honoured martyrs, only. Later, when Christians were free to worship, the Church acknowledged other paths to sanctity. In the early centuries the only criterion was popular acclaim, even when the bishop's approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the calendar. The first papal canonisation occurred in 993; the lengthy process, now required to prove extraordinary sanctity, has taken form in the last 500 years. Today's feast honours the obscure as well as the famous - the saints each of us has known.

'HAVE MERCY ON US ALL; MAKE US WORTHY TO SHARE ETERNAL LIFE

WITH MARY THE VIRGIN MOTHER, THE APOSTLES AND ALL THE SAINTS

WHO HAVE DONE YOUR WILL THROUGHOUT THE AGES.'

Sat 6.30pm Thanksgiving 80th Birthday (Joe Fox) Sun 8.30am Parishioners 10.30am Holy Souls

M/S 9.00am xThurs (Tues Harry & Marie Mason) (Wed Walter Wearden) (Thurs 11.00am Requiem Mass Winifred Shorrock, who died on Mon 27 Oct)

Feasts Mon (All Souls) Tues (Charles Borromeo)

Parish Council 7.30pm Sunday 16 Nov

Spiritual Day 10.30am - 2.30pm Sat 1 Nov Parish Centre on Discipleship and Prayer led by Fr Tim Calvert, Dominican Prior, Edinburgh; Tim trained as a Deacon in this parish; all welcome; please put names on list in porch.

Little Sisters: 1 Autumn Fayre 2.00 - 5.00pm Sat 1 Nov £1. 2 A Night to Remember presented by St Leonard's Gilbert & Sullivan Society 7.30pm 6 Nov £5.

Parish Dance 8.00pm Sat 15 Nov Peter Wild; £3 for Derian House Children's Hospice

Holiday DVDs You are welcome to borrow my 3 DVD set of my adventures in Italy, June 2006 featuring Rome, Assisi, Riccione, Florence and Pisa;

Prayer Day Women Together Lancaster Diocese Advent Day of Prayer & Reflection 10.00am-4.00pm Sat 22 Nov Little Sisters; details and booking forms in porch

Fair Trade St Clare's 2.00 - 4.00pm Sat 8 Nov; bringing together fairly traded products from a variety of suppliers - Traidcraft, Tearcraft, Fairnecessities

Parish Walk Sunday 16 Nov Pendle - Barrowford area

Pantheon (see inside page): temple in Rome dedicated to 'All the Gods'; now dedicated to 'Mary and all Martyrs'; the most visited free tourist attraction in the world.

The Church guides our thoughts throughout November

so that our faith will lighten the burden of bereavement.

Like nature itself at this time of year, life appears to die

but it is renewed in the Spring of the Resurrection.

We remember the goodness of those we knew and treasured,

and resolve that the qualities we admired in them

will still exert a powerful influence on us.

May the saints, those who are canonised and those we have known, inspire us,

                                                                                                        Patrick McMahon

Website www.pat.fulwoodpreston.org   Email pat@fulwoodpreston.org

Parish Priest Patrick McMahon 01772 862437  Deacon Peter Williams 01772 863444

Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees - Charity Number: 234331