Parish News

SUPPORTING THE LITTLE SISTERS REBUILD APPEAL: Clothes Sales are at St Urban's Saturday the 27th of June from 11:30am to 4pm. Refreshments will be available to quench the thirst after all that buying!

Please remember in your prayers Cardinal Heenan students who are taking their GCSE exams at this time. To read the school’s newsletter visit https://tinyurl.com/3vcm3puu or www.cardinalheenan.com and search for 'newsletter'. 36 Year 10 students are heading out to Lourdes to help on the Diocesan Pilgrimage in July. They have kindly offered to leave any intentions for our parishioners at the Grotto. If you would like them to do this please let me know. Fr Chris

The Knights of St. Columba (KSC) offer every Catholic man a place to live out his vocation through charity, fraternity, and the defence of our faith. Parishes, our priests, and our communities need men who are ready to stand up and serve with humility and purpose. If you feel called to deepen your faith, support the mission of the Church, and make a real difference in the lives of others, the Knights of St. Columba are ready to welcome you. It is possible to establish a group or chapter of members in our parish. If you are interested, please contact Jason Aldiss Grand Knight, Leeds Council 11 email Jason.Aldiss@lumbhall.co.uk Telephone no. O7789088685. More information is at the back of our churches.

I have been approached by a few parishioners about having a choir/s in the parish (one in each church would be good). We don’t need may people for a choir, four or five voices in each perhaps. A small number of Mass settings could be learnt, including some Latin plainchant for occasional use, perhaps for the 10.30 St Urban’s Mass. You do not be able to read music as Mass settings and plainchant are not difficult to learn. What do you think? Personally, I very much like the idea. The singing at 8.45 and 10.30 is very good and can be built on. Feel free to let me know and, hopefully, express an interest in joining. Remember those who sing are said to pray twice!  Fr Chris

The next meeting is on Monday 15th June , at 7.00pm, at St. Urban's. New members are welcome. The SVP does great work in supporting people who need help. Please consider joining them, also remember that you can contribute food and other useful things such as hygiene products in the boxes at the back of our churches. Fr Chris

Thinking about this Sunday's gospel take a moment to think about those times in your life when you have felt harried and dejected, we have all had them. Times when you feel besieged with no one to help you, to shepherd you along. As an older child there were problems of illness at home; eventually a social worker got involved. We got on and he believed in me and gave me a feeling of belief in myself. Many years later I managed to track him down to thank him and tell him something of what I had done with my life. He was delighted to hear from me and told me that he always wondered what had happened to me. Just one example of shepherds in my life. Most of us will have experienced this in some way, good people – women and men – who see us, care for us, and put us on the right path. Who was yours? Thank God for them today. Just look around you in the world, we can see the world’s harried and dejected on the faces of so many people. One translation for harried and dejected is “torn and thrown down”. Just a stone’s throw from the street of the presbytery, every day on my walks here and there, I see and experience people who have taken drugs or alcohol, some sit still wrap in their intoxication, some shout and swear, at each other or to no one, perhaps just shouting their despair into the wind. Jesus sees this through our eyes. Jesus wants to respond. Today in the gospel we hear of the commission of Jesus to his disciples. Prior to this passage Matthew tells his listeners about mission of Jesus in Jesus’ words and His actions. Today we hear of how this is extended to His disciples, their ministry – casting out unclean spirits and curing diseases and sickness – is parallel to, and derived from, the ministry of Jesus. This authority given to His disciples was not merely a set of actions, but at the time, and still are, seen as signs of the arrival of the God's Kingdom. In Sunday's gospel the 12 are named. What are the criteria for the selection of the 12? We know something about them, Matthew, the ex-Roman collaborator, Simon, the religious zealot, Peter, who later denies even knowing Jesus, and Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, and the others. The group shows the breadth and scope of the appeal of Jesus. At first glance it’s not a world beating, or world converting, team. In one leap they move from disciples – literally “follower”, to apostles – one who is "sent". Jesus sharing His ministry with his friends must have both pleased and excited them, but also disturbed them too. They were a long way from receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and perhaps they were confused, scared, and a bit frightened as they were probably uncertain about what to do let alone just how to do it. Through our baptism we too are named, literally by Jesus in the person of the priest or deacon. All of us are called to discipleship, all of us are called to “shepherdship”. All of us are in different ways are tasked to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. What does this proclamation look like? Maybe it’s the tin of beans for the foodbank, maybe it’s returning the smile of the stranger in the street, maybe it’s just a hello to the person slumped in the doorway. Perhaps Mother Theresa put it best, “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. With every blessing and the assurance of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions. Fr Chris

THE 200 CLUB: for those of you who do not know, the 200 Club is a prize draw in the parish that takes place over 10 weeks. There are 200 numbers available which means that the odds of winning are extremely good. We have plenty of spare numbers for new members. The price is £10 for a 10 week session, the object is to raise money for church funds whilst half the money is paid to members. There are 9 draws of £30 and £20, and a final draw of £100 and two of £50. Peter Craggs will be at the back of the church on Sunday to collect subscriptions; payment can also be made by the Dona card machines or the QR code.

We are invited to join Bishop Marcus with his prayer for vocations for men and women:  “Our Lady of Unfailing Help! Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send labourers into His harvest and that He will grant an abundance of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life within the Diocese of Leeds, and throughout the world. Amen.”

Our repository could do with items to sell. It may be that you have unwanted religious images or statues that someone else would love to have. If you have anything that you no longer need, feel free to leave them in the sacristy in either of our churches. Thank you.