Cluster News

26/27 March

Next deadline  Wed 30 March

Please note the new Cluster contact number:   0131 563 8391

Our Weekend Masses

For details see the section in this week's news and go to our dedicated page.

Brothers and sisters,

Last week it was the fig tree and today it is the prodigal son who is given a second chance. He returns not expecting forgiveness but what he got was welcome in abundance. Whilst the younger son tells his father he was not worthy, the elder son complained of unfair treatment and only saw what he thought were the implications for himself.  How often is our response to people based on how it affects us? How often is it based on judgement rather than love?

Fr Alex

Prayer Resources:

4th Sunday of Lent C

Children's Resources:

4th Sunday of Lent C

Communion Services will resume at St Gregory's every Wednesday at 9.30 am. Details will be taken for Test & Protect.

Ukraine Emergency Appeal

Watch the short video for details on SCIAF's emergency appeal. SCIAF will use any funds raised by parishes to react quickly to the needs of the Ukrainian people. As part of the global Caritas network, they are providing vital emergency food, water, safe accommodation, hygiene kits, transport and child support services, in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. You can donate here and don't forget to gift-aid it to add 25% to your donation at no cost to yourself. 

The Scottish Government has given £500,000 to SCIAF's Ukraine Appeal.

Cluster Reconciliation Service

There will be a Reconciliation Service for the cluster on Tuesday 5th April at 6 pm in St Catherine's.

Parishioners from all three parishes are warmly invited to participate in this service.

Prayer for Peace in the World

As part of the diocesan 40 hours' devotion in the Cluster, we will pray especially for our sisters and brothers caught up in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the effects on the surrounding countries. The Rabbi in Ukraine requested that Christians and Jews unite in praying Psalm 31. You are warmly invited to join us for however long you can manage.

Sat 2 April 2-5pm @ St Gregory's

We will have 3 hours of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for peace in the world, starting our prayer time together reciting Psalm 31. There will be a prayer or poem intermittently for you to reflect on if you so wish with 6 x 30 minute intervals of silent prayer.

Sun 3 April 1.30-4.30pm @ St Catherine's

We will have the usual Prayer Foundation format of (8 x 20 minute slots of silent prayer). Psalms of protection and safeguarding will be read at 20 minute intervals, including Psalm 31.

St John Vianney’s

Parishioners are warmly invited to participate in the prayer afternoons at St Gregory’s and St Catherine’s.

Covid-19 Update

You may have heard or read the Scottish Government Covid-19 update on 15 March.  During it the First Minister confirmed that from Monday 21 March - with one temporary, precautionary exception - the remaining domestic legal measures would be lifted and replaced with appropriate guidance.  The one temporary, precautionary exception was the wearing of face coverings on public transport and in certain indoor settings.  This requirement remains in place “for a further short period.”  The Scottish Government have signalled that, even when the legal requirement is lifted, the wearing of face coverings will convert to guidance.

You will have noticed over past weeks that some of the restrictions in church that we operated with have been eased and elements of our celebration of Mass have been reintroduced.  This will continue.

Going forward we will, however, ask everybody attending Mass in all of our three parishes to continue to wear a face covering.  Additionally, we would ask everybody to continue to please respect the space of fellow parishioners where possible. We will continue to make hand sanitiser available.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to everybody who has made it possible for us to continue to gather, when permitted, during the past two years to celebrate Mass in as safe an environment as possible.  This includes our Parish Covid Coordinators, those who developed and manged the booking system, the teams of stewards who welcomed people and took contact details, those who ensured that our churches were cleaned and sanitised after Mass, and those who monitored Scottish Government and Archdiocesan publications and communications to ensure that we were compliant with the current requirements and guidance.  As with so many of the varied ways in which countless people selflessly serve our communities, much of this happened unseen in the background. Gerry Mulvenna, on behalf of the Strategy Group

A Lectio Divina Prayer for Ukraine

We invite you to engage in the practice of lectio divina with “It Can’t Be Carried Alone,” a poem from Father Richard Rohr written in response to the suffering of the Ukrainian people and as a meditation on the experience of watching those events.

Read the following passage slowly four times. With the first reading (perhaps aloud), listen with your heart’s ear for a phrase or word that stands out for you. During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps speaking that phrase or word aloud or writing it in a journal. Third, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced and to what you are called. Fourth, rest in silence after the reading.

It Can’t Be Carried Alone

How can we not feel shock or rage at what is happening

to the people of Ukraine—

As we watch their suffering unfold in real time

from an unfair distance?

Who of us does not feel inept or powerless

before such manifest evil? In this, at least, we are united.

Our partisan divisions now appear small and trivial.


Remember what we teach: both evil and goodness are,

first of all, social phenomena.

The Body of Christ is crucified and resurrected

at the same time. May we stand faithfully

Inside both these mysteries (contemplation).


In loving solidarity, we each bear what is ours to carry,

the unjust weight of crucifixion,

in expectant hope for God’s transformation.

May we be led to do what we can on any level (action)

to create resurrection! The people of Ukraine

have much to teach the world.

Fr Richard Rohr  (For his Daily Meditations go here.)

The poem was suggested by Eileen Lewis

Lectio Divina and other forms of prayer

A small prayer group in the cluster has been meeting on Saturday mornings for 2 hours to share how they pray and to learn other forms of prayer. It has been wonderful to see people grow in confidence over the weeks. Some now feel able to pray out loud and everyone’s sharing is always sincere and thoughtful.

In the meantime, they have committed to a 10 minute daily prayer and they receive a "Weekly Companionship" email as well as keeping a prayer journal.

After Easter however they will resume face to face meetings and will start to look at different ways of praying e.g Lectio Divina - an example of which you can see above.

Mary Morrison

SCIAF

Wee Box Appeal: Malawi

In January, Cyclone Ana hit Malawi and caused widespread devastation, affecting almost one million people and killing 46. Crops and animals were washed away in an instant, destroying livelihoods.

This Lent we need your love and generosity, to prevent families from going hungry, help people grow more food, and heal their local environment. Families urgently need your help today.

Read Bishop Toal's letter and watch the short prayer video. You can donate online, by phone 0141 354 5555, or send a cheque to SCIAF, 7 West Nile St, Glasgow, G1 2PR. 

SCIAF Lenten Challenge

Remember in Hope

As the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine dominates the headlines, let us also remember the many other parts of the world that are devastated by war, genocide and climate change. Read Bishop Toal's letter and help cylone-hit Malawi families by donating to this year's Wee Box appeal.

Offer up Acts of Hope as part of your Lenten practice. These are any actions to show your solidarity with those living at the forefront of the Climate Emergency, and protect our Common Home here in Scotland. 

Earth Hour 26 March @ 8.30pm

Tonight at 8.30pm join in by switching off your lights for one Earth Hour. Every year, at 8.30pm on the last Saturday of March, supporters in over 190 countries and territories unite, taking action on and raising awareness of the issues facing the one home we all share. Here are some fun ideas of how to spend the Hour! (And remember that the clocks go forward tonight, too!)

Stations of the Cross

Tue 5 April @ 6.30pm by Zoom. Led by Fr John Convery sx, chaplain of Pax Christi Scotland and Dr Arianna Andreangeli-Clark, Senior Lecturer in European Law at Edinburgh University. Register here.

Go here for a recording of last week's conference on the 40th anniversary of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference statement on weapons of mass destruction which asks ‘What next?'. Speakers are Archbishop Nolan and Daniel Högsta, Campaign Coordinator of the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons.

Cluster Stations of the Cross

There are two opportunities each week to make the Stations of the Cross:

* each Monday at St Catherine's Church at 2pm

* each Tuesday at St Gregory's Church at 7pm. 

All are welcome.

Cluster Holy Week services

Holy Thursday : St John Vianney's at 7pm

Good Friday     : St Catherine's at 7pm

Holy Saturday : St  Gregory's at 8.30pm, time to be confirmed

Easter Sunday   : SJV 9am, SC at 11am. 

SEECAT Holy Week Events 

Monday 11 April

Passover Meal at Liberton Kirk halls at 7pm. Tickets are £5 and will be available from your church’s SEECAT Rep. Admission to the meal will be by ticket only.

Wednesday 13 April     Ecumenical ‘Stations of the Cross’ at St John Vianney’s at 7:30pm. The script will be based on environmental issues.

Good Friday morning     Prayer Walk. This will, as on previous years, start from St Catherine’s at 10am and walk the usual route to outside Morrison’s.

Open Air Service     This will take place outside Morrison’s and will commence at 11am

Good Friday afternoon      A service will be held at Gracemount High School at 3pm. The Very Revd Dr Susan Brown (a former Moderator of the Church of Scotland), will give the talk.

On 13th Feb we were asked by the Social Work Dept through Sr Jeannette if we could help with a small bed and mattress for a young child of a Ghanian lady.

I'm delighted to report that one of our parishioners offered to pay for it and the bed and mattress has been delivered. So many big hearts in this cluster.

 The winning number for the February 200 Club draw was 17. The winner received £71. Numbers still available......"    Ann Callaghan

Justice Matters: Empathy, not violence

As you have noticed, a lot is going on in the Church at present! We have had the initial synodality meetings, seeking to establish a new way of being church.  Pope Francis has also, especially since Laudato Si was published, been calling us to attend to the linked cries of the Earth and of the poor, a call that we have been echoing in this column, so often.

See

We also see the evil of Putin imposing death, poverty, anguish and destruction in Ukraine – and we hear Putin claim a spiritual inspiration for his actions!   Religion is yet again being distorted and inverted beyond any recognition to “justify” evil at a horrendous scale.  Not the gentle “suffer little children to come unto me” addressed by Jesus to the disciples (Mt 19:14), but in Putin’s hands, without the Holy Spirit of God’s love for all, it’s just “suffer, little children – and everyone else.”

Reflect

In the cluster’s Lenten series on Monday we had an experience  of synodality, of listening to the Spirit in us all.  Superb commentaries on the gospel of the Prodigal Son reminded us that the son who had stayed at home was angry, perhaps wanting the father to prioritise him in an exclusive relationship, and so was resentful of the returning prodigal.  (The reminder was in poetry and artistry and commentary, all with a beauty I cannot capture. See the video!)

What connects all the above ideas for you? 

Synodality, Laudato Si and Jesus’ call to life in Him….. don’t  all these demand our empathy be expanded, that all people be considered our neighbours, part of the Earth like us, and made equally in the image of God?

Is the following true? Religion that asserts superiority of one class, one race, one colour, one religion over another is heretical – that is, it leads away from God.  There is no winner in polarised struggles of racism, ethnocentrism, even clericalism – only losers. We work together, grow in humanity together or we lose together. 

Act

The Orthodox church issued a powerful letter on these themes. Perhaps we can reflect on this letter and pray for the world.  We are in a spiritual crisis in which the power-obsessed – Trump (yes, still, sadly) and Putin among them, each with the backing of “religious” extremists - undermine the progress that Pope Francis recognises that we need. That would be towards a new world order with empathy for all, in which we prioritise the poor and cherish the Earth.

You are held in prayer

Those who are unwell

and in need of our prayers:

Carolyn Larter, Christine Knox, Ellen Salvona,

Adele Hyndman, Patrick Phelan, Fiona Scott,

Sheila Ross, Roberto Rivero, Nilsa de Rodriguez, Rudy Deras, Dawn Adams, Aileen Paulin,

Helen Haddow, Bill and Marlene Bonnar,

Stevie Donald, Kathy Duffy, Mary,

Verdiana and Donati Kweka (Tanzania),

Mary Thomson, Eammon McKelvey, Nancy Barta, Alex McGinnity, Belén Rodriguez, Patricia Simmons, Elizabeth Napier, George Pringle, Angela Mcintosh, Jorge Rodriguez, Sr. Veronica, Katharine, John, Jennifer, Christopher Mackinnon, Maureen Lawson, Bailey Bruce McCann, Betty Dickinson, Annette, Catherine Hart, Karen Devlin, Scott Fraser,

Thea Maung, Anne Doig, Sr May Lewis,

Jessie & George Ritchie, John Skinner, Fr Eugen, James Duffy, Ronan Boyle, Hazel Martin, Mary Boyle, Mary Dias, Catriona McAuley, Elaine Hepburn, Marie, Roney Fernandes, Christopher Browne,

Xaverina Rodrigues, Anne and Helen,

Sacred Heart sisters in Uganda.

I am the Resurrection and the Life

We remember in love

Those who have died recently:

Betty (Elisabeth) McNally,

Martin McGraw,

Bridie Sawyers,

Richie Ellis,

Mary Duffy.


Anniversaries


St John Vianney's:

Christine Marshall, Jane Boyle, Danny Boner, Patrick McDevitt, Mary Costello, Bill Jamieson, Peggy Scott, James Tracey, Andrew Millar, Catherine Millar, Bridget McDonald,

Francis Forsyth, Scott Kelly, Owen Prior,

Elizabeth McKelvey, Lilian Bull, Mr Ward,

Norman Stanley Watson, Pope John Paul II, Patrick Keenan Monaghan, Owen Donnelly, Josephine Marshall.


St Gregory's:

Josie Milne, Patrick McDevitt (jnr),

Kathleen O'Keefe, McCole Family,

McKelvey Family.

Our Remembrance Gallery  is in memory of the loved ones we have lost during the pandemic. If you wish a loved one to be included, go here to find out how. You will also find information on what help our Cluster Bereavement Group offer for anyone who has been bereaved.

Please join us in Contemplative prayer 

on Tuesday afternoons 2.40 to 3.45 at Liberton Northfield 280 Gilmerton Road EH16 5TT

Entrance through Red side door. Buses 3, 8, 29 stop right outside. The format is: 

  • short introduction followed by 
  • 30 minutes silent prayer
  • then 10 minutes of intercessory prayer.

If you prefer you can join us on Zoom or just pray with us while you are at home. Contact Clare Roller

Boxes for our local foodbank

Please bring items listed below to any of our church buildings or either of our Catholic Primary Schools for the foodbank - or take them to:

47 Southhouse Broadway EH17 8AS   

Phone number 664 9353     

Email: edinburghfoodbank@blythswood.org

Items requested for this week:

  • Tinned Fish,
  • Fruit,
  • Rice,
  • Custard,
  • Veg,
  • Sponge Puddings,
  • Jars of Pasta Bake,
  • Breakfast Cereal,
  • Instant Mash,
  • Tomato Ketchup,
  • Diluting Juice,
  • UHT Milk.


New opening hours for the Food Bank are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 10am until 1.30pm

Are you struggling? We are here to help


If you, or anyone you know, is in need of financial support or a friendly telephone chat, call our SSVP in the Cluster:

St John Vianney's 07922 675196, 

St Gregory's 07455 306607

St Catherine's 07539 266411. 

If you would like to make a donation go here

Entitlements Page

What help are you entitled to?

There are many benefits and grants to which people are entitled. Please check our entitlements page. Let us also know of others.

  • If anyone would like to give a gift then there are three ways this can be done:

    1. Use Online Banking:

    Account name - R.Arch of St A St Cath 2

    Account Number - 00693806

    Sort Code - 80 02 73

    Reference - Father Fallon

    2. 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

    3. 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.

SLN Lenten Journey

Sexuality and Spirituality

Thu 31 March @ 7pm. Diarmuid O’Murchu is a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, an internationally acclaimed facilitator of Adult Faith Development, and a prolific writer. Register here. A recording will be available - email SLN. 
Go here for the full SLN Lenten series of talks and Q&A, entitled The Body of Christ - Blessed, Broken, Excluded? The series has been posted as a Resource on the Vatican's Synod website.

Safeguarding Induction Training Part 2

(Duration approx. 90 mins) Online

  • Saturday 12 March at 10am with Julie Brechin
  • Thursday 24 March at 6pm with Julie Brechin

To register email julie.brechin@staned.org.uk, with your name, parish and role.

  • Saturday 26 March at 7pm with Margaret Andow

To register email margaret_andow@outlook.com, with your name, parish and role. 

  • Saturday 7 May at 10am with Scott MacKenzie

To register email Scott.Mackenzie@staned.org.uk, with your name, parish and role. 

Cluster Lenten Sessions

Our cluster Connect groups warmly invite you to a time of fellowship every Monday evening  at 7pm when we can listen to God’s Word, reflect, share and praise together. These sessions are produced by our own parishioners. If you would like to join us or would like to know more please contact us on cluster.alpha@outlook.com  If you missed any,  here they are: Week 1; Week 2; Week 3.

SEECAT LENT GROUPS

There will be two SEECAT Lent groups (in person). 

The Tron at 3pm starting on Tuesday 8 March and at St Barnabas at 1:30pm starting on Wednesday 9 March, for 5 consecutive weeks.

There will also be a Zoom Lent Group at 2pm starting on Thursday 10 March, for 5 consecutive weeks. We will be using the material from this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

If you would like to go to any of these groups, please contact Clare Roller

St Catherine's Primary School News

Carried over from last week, here is the Reconciliation Class with Fr Alex. It's great to be forgiven - yeah!!

For an enlarged picture go here.

St John Vianney's Primary School

Global Celebration Afternoon

On Tuesday we had a Global Celebration Assembly and Afternoon. At Assembly we were discussing our School Community. There are over 21 different languages represented at St John Vianney. Some of our P6 pupils put on an Indian dance for us, it was fantastic and one of our P3 pupils shared facts about India in a powerpoint they made themselves- well done!

In the afternoon each class focused on a different language to learn about. Across the school we learnt about Polish, Igbo, Malayalam, Wolof, Arabic, Shona, Romanian and Tagalog. These are just some of the 21 languages represented. We had classes learning songs, listening to stories in different languages, making flags, drumming, researching countries plus many more. Our hope is that next year we can build on this and include parents/carers and the community more. Thank you to everyone involved. 

For an enlarged picture go here.

The Margaret Sinclair Story
 The online Premiere of The Margaret Sinclair Story will be broadcast live on Tuesday 29 March at 7pm.

The Story of Venerable Margaret Sinclair, a religious sister from Edinburgh, is vividly brought to life in this docu-drama.

Watch live at https://youtu.be/7LYFhRoRPz8 

After the premiere, Rachel (who plays Margaret in the film) and director Stephen Callaghan will host a public Zoom chat from 8pm at https://zoom.us/j/96814393754

Please note that both these links will go live only on 29th March.