Live streamed Masses here
Dear parishioner,
I hope this find you all well. Over the past few months we have had the opportunity, whether we have liked it or not, to take stock and think of how we are family, how we are Church, how we are community, indeed how we are Christian in this Pandemic.
Lots of challenges and strains as we look for light at the end of the tunnel. The Feast we Celebrate this weekend, the Feast of 'Christ the King',offers us the opportunity to reflect on how we are doing when it comes to ministering to the needy and recognising in them the face of Christ.
Jesus our brother himself identifies with the needy and his Kingship is based on and motivated by Service. Serving those in need.
As disciples of Jesus our brother, may we serve our sisters and brothers just as he did us, in the Service of Each Other.
Fr. Alex
Prayer resources for adults:
Christ the King Sunday A
Children's resources:
Christ the King Sunday A
Mass available in our three parishes
We would encourage you to make use of the phone option only if you are unable to book online. This will make things easier for those who are managing the booking system.
On-line and telephone bookings can be made from Monday mornings through to Wednesday at 5pm. You must receive a notice of confirmation in order to attend that weekend. We have prepared some guidelines about this and they can be found here.
We would encourage you to share this information with anyone you know or suspect may not have internet access. Let's stay connected!
Views from the pews
To all those generous people who are truly using their talents for the benefit of us all in the cluster parishes! A huge thank you for the beautiful, reflective weekly liturgies and the Bereavement and Remembrance services that were very moving. I feel so blessed to have the possibility to share in these prayerful times, and feel very much united with you all. Thank you for all your hard work and for sharing your talents with us.
May the words of the Celtic Blessing, used at end of this week's Liturgy ( it was amazing !) truly fill you these days and always.
Sr Jeannette
Thank you to the Prayer Foundation
As many of you will know, right at the start of us adopting "Divine Renovation” it soon became clear there was a need for a group of people who would commit to ongoing prayer for what we were undertaking. A small team was formed and from this more than 70 of our parishioners are now part of our Prayer Foundation (PF).
They have been described as the "engine room" for our faith journey together. We know that whatever we seek to achieve, it will only bear fruit with God's help. "Ask and you will receive", said Jesus, and the PF does just that: they pray for our sick (many remain anonymous to us but not to God); they meet in spirit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (see here); they pray for those doing Alpha; they pray continually that our cluster will realise its mission of "bringing Christ to others and together build God's kingdom".
We thank them most sincerely!
St Gregory’s traditional Christmas raffle
Hi, this has been a difficult year for all and we realise although some people haven’t managed to attend Masses yet, you want to continue to support the parishes in any way you can. We have kindly been donated a hamper to raffle for Christmas to help us raise some funds for the parish.
Due to the current restrictions and guidelines we will have to be inventive as to how to do it this year. Our thoughts are that if you want to join in we suggest you put a donation of what you can afford in an envelope marked St Gregory’s raffle, your name and contact number on it (you could be the winner).
Envelopes can be dropped of either at Mass, my address 59 Walter Scott Avenue just along the road from St Gregory’s (just pop it through the letterbox) or Fr Alex is happy to receive them also which we thank him for!
Community has always been at the heart of what we do in St Gregory’s and we thank you in advance for any donations you can afford. Help us keep the parish financially viable.
Draw will take place on the Saturday 19th December.
Jacinta - St Gregory’s
Next Level Steak & Ale Pie
Apple and Gin Cocktail
Each Monday evening in Advent at 7pm
we are going to host
a zoom gathering to prepare us for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
Jeff Bagnall (former RE lecturer at Craiglockhart) has agreed again this year to help us benefit from his extensive Scriptural knowledge. He will give a short talk and we'll go into breakout rooms for discussion. As well as this there will be input from parishioners about their favourite Advent prayers/reflections and their memorable pieces of art which relate to Advent. Each session will last about an hour. If you would like to take part, please reply to
cluster.alpha@outlook.com with the heading “Advent”. We look forward to seeing you!
Eileen Kelly reads her royal correspondence on her 100th birthday!
Hello from St John Vianney Primary School
This week is a very busy one for us at school. We have our P5 children making their First Holy Communion this coming Saturday 21st and the following one the 28th. They have been working hard to finish the preparation for this, that had started before schools closed. We wish them the very best and ask you all to join us in praying for them.
Next Wednesday 23rd November, our P4 pupils will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation in school with Fr Alex, we are looking forward to spending time with Fr Alex. We wish all these pupils the very best also and ask you to pray for them too.
This coming week, we will also be celebrating Catholic Education Week. The theme for this year is Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Pupils will be focusing on this as part of their RE lessons.
We hope all those in the Community are doing well. We miss having you into school for Masses and a cup of tea. We hope to welcome you all back once we are allowed to do so.
Justice matters: Feast of Christ the King
This feast celebrates that Christ’s kingdom is among us, not just in the future. When we look around, this can sometimes appear difficult to believe and the kingdom can feel a long way off. However there are examples of compassion and justice which get expressed or blocked by socio-political systems, commerce and culture as well as by our own choices and behaviour.
See: We live in a system where there is much inequality – the pandemic has made it clear that in education, many pupils are without digital resources, losing ground to their more well off peers and creating greater gaps. We see that money rather than need determines in the main what people or the earth receive. For example the UK are considering cuts to our foreign aid budget which will hit those in dire need.
Reflect: God will judge us with love and Mother Teresa says God doesn’t ask for success but asks that we try. What does that mean? Can we achieve a fairer system where goods are shared more equally? Where we move away from individualism to community, from an over-reliance on charity to justice? This Ted video talks about an alternative way of viewing the economy one which is being adopted in parts of the world.
Perhaps Helda Camara, an Archbishop of Brazil, who died in 1999 gives us food for our reflection: “when I give food to the poor they call me a saint when I ask why they are poor they call me a communist.”
Act: Fair trade is something that we could consider and in the past, has been on offer in the church setting. This could start again – if people are interested let me know and I can order things on line https://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/ for them and deliver if helpful. My telephone number is 0131 662 2013. There are FT goods in stores – banana, chocolate, coffee, tea. The more we buy the more will be on offer. It works the other way as well and there is a growing understanding that our purchases have power.
You are held in prayer
Please remember in your prayers those who are sick:
Hazel Martin
Paul Brennan
Maureen Phillips
Colin Johnston
Dermot Homan
Liz Price
Mary Boyle
Mary Dias
Catriona McAuley
Elaine Hepburn
Annette Sibbald
Lorraine
Roney Fernandes
Christopher Browne
Xaverina Rodrigues
Anne and Helen
I am the Resurrection and the Life
We remember in love:
Irene McKay
Maria O’Neil
Maureen McMahon
William (Billy) Alges
Frank Cronin
Rodger Leggatt
Sr Ethel
Carmel McKeever
Mary Meehan
Kathleen Jones
Anniversaries
St Gregory
Steven Gilhooly, (Mass Intention)
Sheila Herraghty, Grace O'Donnell,
Philip Lee, William Moir,
George Stewart.
St Catherine
Mary McMorrow, Ramsay Sibbald,
Tom Jones
St John Vianney
Mary Michaud, Cathie McKeen,
Betty Smith, Ellen McNulty,
Catherine Kelly, Agnes Warren,
George Stewart, Anastasia Valente,
John Tinney, Michael Terry,
James Hughes (Snr), Leonard Twist,
Michael Boylan, James Hughes.
For those without internet access
If you know a parishioner without internet access please tell them about our podcast. For the cost of a local call, 0131 357 6463 they can hear our Lockdown Liturgy (available on Sunday) and how to phone to make a booking to attend Mass.
United in prayer:
Tues 2.45 & Weds 7pm
Our Prayer Foundation invite us all to join in 30 min of silent prayer. For prayer requests email
clare.roller@icloud.com
An urgent request for prayer from Sr Christine
Today we received news that in our community in Avigliana Italy, one of our sisters has died of Covid, three are seriously ill with it and six are infected. One sister is a doctor and is looking after them and another Polish sister working in Italy has gone to help her.
Twelve out of 23 Sisters are affected in this community of elderly sisters.
Many thanks Christine.
The relevant food bank for the cluster is:
47 Southhouse Broadway EH17 8AS
Phone number 664 9353Email edinburghfoodbank@blythswood.org
Items needed this week
- Eggs, beans, rice, corned beef, fruit, jars of baby food,
pot noodles
- disposable nappies size 4,5,6 .
- Tinned items: Tuna , veg. , peas , carrots , mince, fruit, custard.
- Tubs/packets of Smash, chocolate spread .
- Jars of
jam any flavour , jars of mayonnaise, packets of super noodles, packets of pasta sauce, tomato ketchup, diluting juice (1 litre
) .
- Chocolate treats , crisps, snacks, biscuits, hot chocolate .
- Women's and men's shampoo, toothpaste, shower gel
Rosie and the team would like to thank the parishioners for the two cash donations.
Last Alpha theme this week
Our online Alpha cycle comes to an end on Monday. Please pray for our Alpha group as they discern the next step on their journey. Email or phone us 079 4766 0766.
Donation box at St Catherine's
There will be a box in the porch at St Catherine’s for donations for the Food Bank in Southhouse. This will be collected weekly and taken to the shop.
If anyone would like to give a gift then there are three ways this can be done:
- Use Online Banking:
Account name - R.Arch of St A St Cath 2
Account Number - 00693806
Sort Code - 80 02 73
Reference - Father Fallon
- Use a special collection offertory envelope and leave in collection box - marked, Father Fallon
- Use any envelope and leave in collection box - marked, Father Fallon
- If none of these are suitable for you then please contact Fred McConnell - fredmcconnell@btinternet.com or 07901 964 100 for alternatives.
Please make sure that it is clearly marked,
Father Fallon.
Double the love:
the government will match your donations!
From today until 31 Jan 2021 public donations made to our Double The Love appeal will be matched by the UK government, up to £2 million. A basket will be in the front porch or at the back of St Gregory's and St John Vianney's for this.
Sending Christmas cards this year? Here is the link to look at those from Mary's Meals.
SEECAT 'Quiet Morning'
Sat 28 Nov at 10:30am on Zoom. This will be led by Attie van Wyk, the minister at Liberton Northfield, and will last 45 minutes. Those who wish to attend should email Pat Thomas, for a Zoom link.
SEECAT Justice and Peace AGM
Wed 2 Dec at 7pm. By zoom. Details next weekend!
We will plan what we do in the next 12 months, All are invited!
Do send your ideas to jp.seecat@gmail.org
Click on picture for more information
