Newsletter

NEWSLETTER 15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – 12/07/2020

MASS RESUMING IN ST CLARE’S

We announce that MASS will resume in St. Clare’s from Sunday 12th July at 9.30 am. All welcome. There will however be changes that you may not expect but are important to ensure that safety is paramount. With this in mind we have compiled the following list to give you an idea of the changes and for you to familiarise yourself with them. Above all we look forward to welcoming you to Mass on Sunday.

COVID PREVENTION INSTRUCTIONS FOR THOSE ATTENDING MASS

  • Church will be open this Sunday 12th July and Mass commence at 9.30am and there will also be livestreaming for those unable to attend.
  • Please do not come to Mass if you are unwell, have a temperature or have been exposed to Covid19
  • Please arrive early as the maximum capacity is 28 at 2 metre social distance
  • Seating will be allocated by the Stewards on a “first come” basis. Mass should start at 9.30am
  • As you arrive we will be asking for names and a contact number (please have this ready). This is to comply with regulations for “test, track and trace” – your information will not be shared other than in the event of someone testing positive for the virus. The information taken will be shredded after 28 days.
  • At all times observe 2 metre distancing and the “one way system”. Seating is maintained at 2 metres apart unless you are a family “bubble” of up to 4 people who may sit together.
  • As we have continued with the 2 metre distancing there is no requirement for face covering, but disposable masks are available if you would like one.
  • Hand sanitising is provided and is essential for entry to the Church even if you are using disposable gloves.
  • There will be no Offertory collection during Mass – a box will be on the hygiene station table as you leave for any donations.
  • Holy communion will be at the end of Mass, please wait in your seat until the Steward signals for you to come forward, keeping 2 metre distance, receive Communion with arms stretched and in silence and then leave without returning to your seat.

ROSARY CORNER

Our Lady has never refused me a grace through the recitation of the Rosary.

St Padre Pio

PRAY FOR THE SICK

Our sick, elderly, housebound and those in care homes are important members of our parish community. New names are in Bold Type. Please remember to pray for them each day as they carry their cross.
Dot Bell, Veronica Creaney, W. Downes, Mary Frain, Michelle Gentile, Katie Gray, Gwyn Harris, Lorna Jarvis, Judy Kearney, Ann Leach, Peter Lloyd, Rosemary McCabe, Kevin McCarthy, Gwen Spurr, Krysia Wesalak, Eileen Wyatt, Mark Wilson.

MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK

Thursday: Anonymous Donor
Sunday: Maureen Byrne
Friday: Jerry Toping
Monday: Pat Creighton
Saturday: Parishioners
Tuesday: Tessa Creighton
Wednesday: Volunteers

CHESTER CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION GOVERNORS

In Catholic schools, foundation governors are practising Catholics appointed by the Diocese. They make up the majority of the board members. A foundation governor has a responsibility to preserve and develop the Catholic character of the school, but like all governors, also has to ensure high standards of educational achievement by the children. To be effective, any Governing body needs to have a range of skills and diversity from both inside and outside the education sector. We are currently requesting the diocese to appoint 2 new Foundation governors to be in place for September 2020. If you feel you have something to offer and are able to make a commitment, please do consider putting yourself forward to be a Foundation governor at Chester Catholic High school. Full details of the role and how to apply can be found on the Diocese website.

ST CLARE’S SVP CONFERENCE

Our Conference Spiritual reading this week concerned “Searching”. It advised against becoming fossilised and being sure we know everything. It advises that we need to find joy in discovering something new and always having an open mind which may challenge long held views. We need to be looking to expand our horizons and allow our minds to be supple and open to learning, listening and growing. Keep safe and well this week. God bless. Steve

ST CLARE’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

Our Year Six pupils were thrilled with their new ‘Lockdown Leaver’ hoodies to evidence that they left primary school in this momentus year of 2020! They received this gift early so that they could enjoy wearing it with their school friends! Ethan, Milly, Harvey, Ryan, Gareth, Patricija, Michael, Nel, Lexi, Alexis, Casey, Taylor, Jeremy, Lewis, Levi, Shaun, Rebekah, Wiktor and Oliwia are leaving St Clare’s this year and we will miss each and everyone of them. They are a wonderful group of young people, full of great talents and skills which I am sure they will continue to develop in their high schools. Thank you for your generous donations towards our Chester Zoo sponsored walk- we are very grateful.

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WEDNESDAY PRAYER: 17th June, 2020

Psalm 102

My soul, give thanks to the Lord, all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings.
It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion, who fills your life with good things, renewing your youth like an eagle’s.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his hosts, his servants who do his will.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his works, in every place where he rules.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord!

LITANY OF PRAISE:

Response after each of our prayers of praise and thanks:

My soul, give thanks to the Lord!

SCRIPTURE READING:  1 John 4:7-11

My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away. My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.  The word of the Lord.

REFLECTION:  Dorothea Eastwood

Once as I lay thinking of God’s love and wishing that I might feel it more strongly and surely, it struck me very forcibly that I had never yet asked that I should . . . and even as I thought this I seemed to understand something of his love for all people, seeing it as warm beams of light that glowed alike for sinners and the pure in heart. And because to the pure in heart all things are pure, so to these the beams were not darkened nor deflected, for the saints burned with their own radiance and their light mingled with the light of God and the two united together, clear and brilliant.
Yet there are not many who received the light in its first purity, for most moved in a dark mist which they shed about them as the pure shed their glow. Upon this darkness the beams of God’s love beat ceaselessly; they fell with the same force, warmth and brilliance as upon the saint, but because of the sinner’s own darkness, they could not penetrate and illumine him. Instead they encircled him so that he sat within the little black or grey cocoon of his own spinning, unaware of the glory by which he was encompassed. And I saw, too, that by my own love for a fellow creature I could assist God’s love to penetrate this darkness. His love is infinitely, unmeasurably greater than mine, yet my narrow beam might act as a needle-point to prick the way for this vast radiance to enter. I saw that it was even more vital to love the sinner than the saint, for the saint was already himself the light of God’s love, but without human love, the sinner’s darkness grew denser and spread further.
And suddenly I saw that I, a sinner too, was surrounded by this power and this glory. I had to look and to know what I needed and the light came rushing in. If I would ask, I too would receive it in all its purity and if I received it, there was nothing I could not do.
But I had grown used to my dark mist; and I was afraid the light might blind me, afraid I might be lost in its vastness; I saw that, like all the other roads to truth and beauty, it required not only the sudden vision of arrival but much trudging on the long journey and much study of maps and help from fellow travellers – patience, too, and strength and an inextinguishable hope and faith. And yet this love of God’s was the source of all those things.

INTERCESSIONS:  Lord, in your mercy . . . Hear our prayer

CLOSING PRAYER:
Lord, make me a means of your peace.
Where there’s sadness here, let me sow your joy.
When the darkness nears, may your light dispel our fears.
Lord, make me a means of your peace.

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PREPARING FOR THE RE-OPENING OF THE CHURCHES

I am grateful to all the parish priests who have indicated that their parishes wish to be part of the
first phase of the re-opening of our churches. It is good to see the readiness and generosity of
volunteers and some 47 churches expressing interest in being part of this initial phase. I appreciate that local conditions – including the situation of clergy – won’t allow the re-opening of all of the churches. However, I hope the
experience of the first parishes will be a source of encouragement for everyone.
I note that parish priests are most often seeking to begin this phase by opening churches for a specific number of hours on weekdays and especially on Sundays. In conversation with the Vicars General, everyone seems to appreciate this is very much a pioneering stage as we emerge into changed circumstances and in some ways a changed world. The recent re-opening of schools, businesses and other facilities indicate elements of ‘covid security’ that will be expected of the churches in the months ahead. I am grateful to Julie Tinsley, our Health and Safety Officer, for
her availability to assist parish priests and parishioners during this first phase and beyond.
OFFICIAL GUIDANCE FOR THE REOPENING OF THE CHURCHES
As we await the final word from the Government on the timescale for the re-opening of churches, I
am pleased to be able to send you the official guidance from the Bishops of England and Wales
which has been agreed by the Government Task Force and peer reviewed by Public Health England. As I warned in my last letter, the requirements for public safety are certainly demanding. However, once we have these
provisions in place and demonstrate that we can act safely and responsibly we will have the basis to move towards the public celebration of Mass and the sacraments. It is important to note that we are awaiting from the Government the Risk Assessment Template which will be required to be completed before any church can be opened.
However, I have been assured that the guidance document attached contains all of the points to
complete this risk assessment correctly.

From Bishop Mark.