Parish Newsletter 15/16 January 2022
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our Lady and St Peter, Aldeburgh
Parish Priest: Fr Tony Rogers tonybrucerogers@gmail.com
Website: catholicsinaldeburghandleiston.org
Tel: 07778 221509
Masses during the Week
All Masses from Aldeburgh are live-streamed*
Sunday: 0915 Leiston
1100 Aldeburgh*
First Week in Ordinary Time (Year 2)
Monday 09:00 Aldeburgh
Tuesday 09.00 Leiston
Wednesday No Mass today
Thursday 09.00 Leiston
Friday 09.00 Aldeburgh*
Saturday 18.00 Aldeburgh*
Next Sunday 09.15 Leiston
11.00 Aldeburgh *(people of parish)
Hospital Stays: the contact number for Fr Bineesh, who is the Catholic chaplain at Ipswich Hospital is 075496 95648. Please phone him directly, if you would like a visit during your stay, or ask a family member or friend to do so. This is obviously subject to hospital regulations..
Livestreamlink for Mass
https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC-GsEOvS0m19a_jvjwgLRDw/livestreaming
Welcome to anyone who is visiting us this weekend. Please feel at home among the people of this corner of the Lord’s vineyard.
Feasts of the Week: Monday – St Anthony, Abbot; Wednesday – St Wulstan; Friday – St Agnes
This week, there won’t be mass on Wednesday morning, but I will celebrate on Monday instead. I shall be away overnight at Ministry to Priests support group at Clare Priory.
Money Matters: Thank you for your generosity in the collection last Sunday when you kindly gave £226.90. In the meantime, we continue to be grateful and rely on all who pay by standing order and we still encourage you to set up one, if you haven’t yet done so. In these days when not everyone has returned to mass, it is all the more necessary that we can be assured of a regular income, irrespective of Mass attendance The only details you need are these: Sort Code 20-98-07: a/c number: 90777048. And for Gift Aid purposes, the Charity number for the diocese is 278742. Thank you for your continued generosity. The parish account is: St Peter’s Catholic Church Parish Account’: Registered Charity: No 278742’. If you have a problem when you try to set up a direct debit, please get in touch.
Today – Peace Sunday, there will be a retiring collection at all masses for Pax Christi
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins on Tuesday. Although there are no scheduled services for the churches of the locality this year, we pray, as the Lord did, for the unity of all his followers.
Please Keep In Your Prayers Patrick Wilson, Liz O’Connor, Liz Sanders, Paul & Bernie McComish, Alex Vachell, William Leigh, Giovanna Cimenti, Luisa Bessey, Margaret Stubbs, Heather Mabey, Maureen Dawson, Anne Smith, Brigid Simpson, Fr Don Coleman, Dominic Dobson, Fr Chris Dobson, Annie Morris, Kate Hoare, Helen McGuire, Una Blissett, and all who are sick or in isolation. Pray for all who died recently; also John Mannion, Hannah Smit, William Mckinley Redpath and all whose anniversaries occur at this time. Please pray also for anyone you know who may be suffering from COVID at the moment.
Catholic Climate Change: This week – why not Try making-your-own... jam, clothes, treehouse, poem.
The Synodal Pathway and our parish
Just a reminder this week of our plans for the next few weeks:
On the weekend of 22/23 after the homily, Rhona, Chris and Hugh will speak about the ‘Synodal Pathway’
On the three following weekends, after each mass, you will be invited to stay behind to keep a prayerful silence and then speak and listen to one another about your concerns and hopes for the Church. There will also be an opportunity to look at the ten topics which form the questionnaire. We hope you will participate in person for these three weeks, and whether you do or not, we also hope that you will fill in the questionnaires. The outcome of the discussions and the responses to the questionnaire will be collated and forwarded to the diocese.
We felt that, rather than asking people to turn out on other occasions, to stay behind after mass would maximise our potential, and hope that you will join in as best you can.
Questionnaire for the Synodal Pathway is now available on-line. Just go our diocesan website. https://www.rcdea.org.uk/synodal-pathway/. You don’t have to give your name, and there are a number of language versions of the questionnaire. It won’t take long to complete, and I will make hard copies available as well. But please do not hurry to fill it in. There is plenty of time, we have until 8th March before our responses are to be submitted.
A Good Read. From time to time, I draw your attention to something which I have read which has been both helpful and interesting, and I have just finished reading a wonderful book by Mgr Rod Strange, former rector of the Beda College in Rome and currently Rector of Mater Ecclesiae College, the Pontifical Institute, based at St Mary’s University Twickenham. The book is called ‘Journey into Light’ and is a radical rewrite of a book about the Catholic Faith which he wrote twenty or more years ago. What is innovative about this publication – which is eminently readable is that Rod Strange takes the Liturgical Year as the basis for taking us through our faith and practice. I thoroughly recommend it. Published by Hodder and Stoughton it retails at £16.99 and is also available on Kindle.
Diocesan Year Book for 2022 is on sale in both of our churches, and excellent value at just £2
Readings for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5
About Zion I will not be silent,
about Jerusalem I will not grow weary,
until her integrity shines out like the dawn
and her salvation flames like a torch.
The nations then will see your integrity,
all the kings your glory,
and you will be called by a new name,
one which the mouth of the Lord will confer.
You are to be a crown of splendour
in the hand of the Lord,
a princely diadem in the hand of your God;
no longer are you to be named ‘Forsaken’,
nor your land ‘Abandoned’,
but you shall be called ‘My Delight’
and your land ‘The Wedded’;
for the Lord takes delight in you
and your land will have its wedding.
Like a young man marrying a virgin,
so will the one who built you wed you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride,
so will your God rejoice in you.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Psalm Response: Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name. Response
Proclaim his help day by day,
tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples. Response
Give the Lord, you families of peoples,
give the Lord glory and power,
give the Lord the glory of his name. Response
4. Worship the Lord in his temple.
O earth, tremble before him.
Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’
He will judge the peoples in fairness. Response
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:4-11
There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose. One may have the gift of preaching with wisdom given him by the Spirit; another may have the gift of preaching instruction given him by the same Spirit; and another the gift of faith given by the same Spirit; another again the gift of healing, through this one Spirit; one, the power of miracles; another, prophecy; another the gift of recognising spirits; another the gift of tongues and another the ability to interpret them.All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who distributes different gifts to different people just as he chooses.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation Jn 6: 63
Alleluia, alleluia! Your words are spirit and they are life:
you have the message of eternal life. Alleluia!
Gospel: John 2:1-11
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. When they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was all finished, the mother of Jesus said to him,
‘They have no wine‘.
Jesus said ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.’ His mother said to the servants,
‘Do whatever he tells you.’
There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants,
‘Fill the jars with water’, and they filled them to the brim.
‘Draw some out now’ he told them ‘and take it to the steward.’
They did this; the steward tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from – only the servants who had drawn the water knew – the steward called the bridegroom and said;
‘People generally serve the best wine first, and keep the cheaper sort till the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine till now’.
This was the first of the signs given by Jesus: it was given at Cana in Galilee. He let his glory be seen, and his disciples believed in him. The gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Sunday Reflection
This gospel shows our reluctance to leave the Christmas season behind. It tells of the third of the manifestations of Jesus associated with the Christmas season, the others being the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. They key to understanding the place of today’s gospel in the liturgy is the statement ‘he let his glory be seen’. The gospel of John contains seven major signs by which the true identity of Jesus, his glory, is made known.
The transformation of the water into wine tells us that Jesus brings a new time, a time of richness and fulfilment. An enormous amount of wine is provided. Although the ‘hour’ of Jesus, the hour of his death and resurrection, has not yet come, this sign is a pointer towards the ‘glory’ of Jesus.
The role of the Mother of Jesus, who is addressed by him as ‘Woman’ is significant. As in the stories of Jesus’ birth, so here in John, she collaborates with God’s ways in a humble and self-giving manner. She is the woman of the new covenant, as Eve was the woman of the old.
