Times and intentions for Holy Mass
Public Masses are indicated in bold print. The 12.00 noon Mass on Tuesday in the Extraordinary Form will be live streamed only.
(E)= Evesham (B)= Broadway
Sat 26th 4.00pm(B) Joan Kay
Sun 27th 8.45am(E) People of the Parish
10.00am(E) Robert & Margaret Armstrong
Mon 28th 10.00am(E) Albert Harrell
Holy Innocents
Tues 29th 10.00am(B) Rex Evans
St Thomas Becket 12.00noon(E) John Dudley
Wed 30th 10.00am(E) Alina Ostrynska
Thur 31st 10.00am(B) Jacquie & Dennis Hackett
Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God
Fri 1st 10.00am(E) Ian Hartley
12.00noon(B) Holy Souls
Sat 2nd 10.00am(E) Joyce & Melvyn Heath
Sts Basil & Gregory
Second Sunday of Christmas
Sat 2nd 4.00pm(B) Sheila Berry
Sun 3rd 8.45am(E) People of the Parish
10.00am(E) Philip & Mavis Draycott
Confessions. Confessions after Mass (not Wednesday) or please contact the presbytery
Private Prayer in Broadway
Broadway): Sunday and Wednesday 10;00-11.00am
Private prayer and Public Masses single household capacity (Evesham : 58 Broadway : 30)
Attending the Churches
Everyone must stand or sit and not kneel. Wear a mask unless exempt. Remain 1 metre + apart Sanitise hands on entering and leaving. Complete the track and trace slips or use your phone to scan the QR number Place your offering in the receptacles by the door.
Evesham Food Bank
Please phone 07721559387 in order to discover how and when to take any contributions
Please pray
For the sick and housebound of our parishes
Of your charity
Pray for Nicolo Salvatore Marco(Nick) Barone, Joan Kay and all who have died in recent days and for Matteo Bonanno Albert Harrell Brian McNulty Maud Fitzgerald Phyllis E. FitzGerald Catherine Mather (Kitty) Margaret Varney whose anniversary of death falls at about this time.
Catechism points and themes
Holy Family ( CCC numbers indicate paragraph number):
CCC 531-534: the Holy Family
CCC 1655-1658, 2204-2206: the Christian family, a domestic Church
CCC 2214-2233: duties of family members
CCC 529, 583, 695: the Presentation in the Temple
CCC 144-146, 165, 489, 2572, 2676: Abraham and Sarah as models of faith
Volunteers
In order to have our Churches open for public Masses, it is essential that we have sufficient volunteers to act as stewards, cleaners and helpers. Those wishing to volunteer should. Contact Dominique in Broadway or in Evesham email your contact details to [email protected]
We need as many volunteers as possible, as the current situation will continue for some time yet. Please help us keep our Churches open.
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From Fr Christopher
“The Gospel on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, Feast of the Holy Family, is about Jesus’ childhood and the other readings are about the virtues of family life”. The Evangelists relate practically nothing about the life of Jesus from his birth until the beginning of his public ministry; what little they have passed on to us makes up the selection of Gospel passages for this feast. The portents surrounding the birth of the Saviour fade away, and the Holy Family lives a very ordinary domestic life. As such, they can provide a model for families to imitate, as the prayers for this celebration suggest.
The institution of the family faces great challenges in various parts of the world today, and it is entirely appropriate to consider these challenges . However, rather than simply giving a moral exhortation on family values, we should perhaps should take our cue from the Scripture readings of this day and consider the Christian family as a school of discipleship. Christ, whose birth we are celebrating, came into the world to do the will of his Father, such an obedience that is docile towards the movements of the Holy Spirit has a place in the life of every Christian family. Mary and Joseph obey the Law by presenting their Baby in the Temple Jesus for his part is obedient to his earthly parents. As Christians, we are also members of another family, which gathers around the altar to be fed on the sacrifice that came about because Christ was obedient unto death. We should see our own families as a domestic Church in which we put into practice the pattern of self-sacrificing love we encounter in the Eucharist. Thus all Christian families open outward to become part of Jesus’ new and larger family: “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mk 3:35). This understanding of the Christian meaning of family life assists us in thinking about the reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians.
The Apostle’s instruction that wives should be subordinate to their husbands can be and usually is disturbing to people of our day; However, the difficult passages of Scripture often have the most to teach us, and this reading provides an opportunity to address a theme that may be uncongenial to modern ears, but which in fact does make a valuable and necessary point when properly understood. We can gain insight into the meaning of this text by consulting a similar one, Ephesians 5:21-6:4. Where we read Saint Paul speaking about the mutual responsibilities of family life. The key sentence is this: “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21). The originality of the Apostle’s teaching is not that wives should be submissive to their husbands; that was simply presumed in the culture of his day. What is new, and distinctively Christian, is, first, that such submission should be mutual: if the wife is to obey her husband, the husband in turn should, like Christ, lay down his very life for his wife. Secondly, the motive for this mutual subordination is not simply for the sake of harmony in the family or the good of society: rather it is made out of reverence for Christ. In other words, mutual submission in the family is an expression of Christian discipleship; the family home is, or should be, a place where we manifest our love for God by laying down our lives for one another. In this time of Pandemic through which we are going with all the challenges it presents; how are we to make real in our own relationships that self-sacrificial love which is at the heart of Christ’s life and mission, and which we celebrate in The celebration of the Holy Mass?
“The home should be the principal place of catechesis. The home of Nazareth, in addition to the local synagogue, would have been the place of instruction for the Christ Child. The Holy Family taught Jesus how to read, and at the start of his public ministry Jesus would read from the scroll and declare the passage to be fulfilled in their hearing (see Lk 4:21). Mary and Joseph would have taught the Christ Child how to pray, especially the Shema, and years later Jesus would teach his disciples how to pray with the Our Father. Joseph would have handed on his trade to his son, who later would die on the wood of a cross. Jesus had a great concern for the poor and the marginalized. In the home of Nazareth he learned generosity and kindness. The home of Nazareth reminds us that families have the responsibility of teaching their children the Faith and to model the virtues. Jesus had most excellent parents; Mary was without sin and Joseph is described as a just and prudent man. Parents can learn from Joseph and Mary about how to teach their children”. Pope Francis
Thanks
Christmas provides the opportunity to thank all who prepared our churches for the Christmas Solemnity- Whether by cleaning, preparing the sanctuaries, the preparation floral arrangements which in our Catholic tradition always enhance the beauty of our worship for the great solemnities. It is also an opportunity to thank all who assist in any way with the celebration of the sacred Liturgy and all who continue to contribute to the smooth running of our parishes throughout the year. This year we also have a special word of thanks for all our volunteers through whose willingness to give of their time it is possible to maintain the public worship which is so necessary for our lives as Christians. The people involved do not do these things in order to be thanked but nonetheless Christmas provides the opportunity to do so.
On a personal note, many thanks for your cards gifts and Christmas offering
Many thanks
Christopher Draycott
Parish Priest
Friday Abstinence
The law of abstinence is d on January 1st.
Christmas offering
Envelopes available by the doors for those who wish to use them
Facebook The fact that we have been fortunate to receive some part funding for the Celebration of Pugin and Pugin and thus refurbishment for the church building also involves the establishment of a Facebook page which will ensure greater publicity. The details are as follows. https://www.facebook.com/The-Church-of-the-Immaculate-Conception-and-St-Egwin-Evesham-113814183806139/
Track and Trace Slip
(This may be used in Broadway and Evesham
Name:
Contact Number:
Size of Group
Date attended