Catholic Pic March 2013 by Educate Magazine

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 1

20p from each sale goes to your parish Issue 102 MARCH 2013

ÂŁ1

ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL

Thank you Pope Benedict XVI Praying for those in public life

Celebrating Marriage and Family Life

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 2

lourd es by air 5 DAYS FROM L IV E R P O OL £495 Full boa in ex rd

LOURDES, NEVERS & PARIS •BY COACH•

8 DAYS DEPARTING 30th March • 25th May, 27th July • 10th August

PER PE

11TH 13TH AU JUNE • 23RD J U GUST • 3RD SE LY PTEMB ER

RSON SH

£495

ARING

cellent 3

PER PERSON SHARING

Giovanni San Rotondo

POLAND

by air from Liverpool Airport 6 DAYS DEPARTING 15th May

6515

star hotel

£600

£550

PER PERSON SHARING

6 DAYS DEPARTING 18th September

2013 Pilgrimages to Lourdes * Rome * Assisi * The Holy Land * Poland * Fatima CALL NOW FOR A FREE FULL COLOUR BROCHURE 768 Manchester Road | Castleton | Rochdale OL11 3AW

0844 8551844

www.options-travel.co.uk

Nugent Care launches the

Dignity in Care

Awards 2013

Do you know someone who has provided outstanding care through Nugent Care, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty for you or your family? Do you know someone who is receiving excellent care from a member of staff, team, fundraiser or volunteer working on behalf of Nugent Care? Then please nominate them for the

Nugent Care Dignity in Care Awards 2013

You can submit your nomination by completing one of our nomination cards and posting it in to a collection box. The nomination cards and collection boxes are at all of our establishments and can be easily recognised by the daisy symbol for Dignity in Care. Alternatively visit our website and nominate online www.nugentcare.org Closing date for entries: 22nd February 2013 The award panel may contact you for further information about the person/team you have nominated. Head Office: 99 Edge Lane, Liverpool L7 2PE tel: 0151 261 2000 fax: 0151 261 2001 e-mail: info@nugentcare.org minicom: 0151 260 4366

www.nugentcare.org Charity number: 222930

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 3

contents 20p from each sale goes to your parish Issue 102 MARCH 2013

Welcome Last month I wrote about the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of Prayer for the Sick, which was celebrated on Monday 11 February. As I wrote little did I know of the historic announcement which was to come to dominate that day. For the first time in almost 600 years a Pope was to relinquish the Papacy as Pope Benedict XVI announced ‘with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005’. Great drama and, predictably, a media frenzy. Comment and opinion across television, radio, newspapers and social media, and all this just as we were to begin our Lenten period of reflection.

ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL

Thank you Pope Benedict XVI

We should not let it distract from our Lenten observances but rather use it to heighten them as we prepare for Easter. Let us spend time in giving thanks to God for the faithful ministry of Pope Benedict XVI. In the coming weeks the Cardinals will go into Conclave, as they do let us spend time in quiet reflection that the Holy Spirit will guide them to give the Church another great Pope.

From the Bishop’s desk

In Church we use words like forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption and sacrifice on a regular basis, but do we really understand what they mean for us? The Lord used parables to instruct and teach but even those closest to him, his Disciples (the first bishops), didn’t really understand what he meant until they themselves experienced the trauma of his death, the trauma of fear, rejection, doubt, ridicule and mockery and saw the wounds in His hands and His side; even for them the message had to become personal. Does that apply to us? I love this season of Lent. I love it because it’s never easy but always interesting. I love it because I am both an observer and a participant. I love it that when preaching I also learn so much from others. I feel so small and insignificant and yet I know I have been given so many gifts. I am frightened and scared, and yet I am full of enthusiasm and hope. I pray that you will enjoy this Season for what it is, and that is to receive the Lord in all His fullness. He died for our sins but He also rose from the dead to bring us new life, and in abundance. A peaceful and joyful Easter to you all.

Celebrating Marriage and Family Life

Praying for those in public life

Contents 4

Main Feature Pope Benedict XVI resigns ‘a humble and selfless decision’

News From around the Archdiocese

How do you prepare for Easter? Is it just a matter of buying hot cross buns and Easter eggs for the children, taking the opportunity to lose a few pounds and ease up on the liver, or, do you take the opportunity to experience the death and resurrection of Our Blessed Lord as a fact and not merely as an opinion, and endeavour to see what that should mean to our everyday life?

£1

14 Spotlight Giving thanks for Pope Benedict XVI 15 Sunday Reflections Liturgy and Life 16 What’s On Whats happening in the Archdiocese 19 Animate Youth Ministry A non-stop month for the Animate team 20 Profile Tim Warren A safe bet for our schools 25 Cathedral Record Why should we sing? 26 Pic Extras Mums the word News from the KSC 28 Pic Life Miss O’Connell’s precious lesson

Editor Peter Heneghan Editorial Catholic Pictorial Magazine Liverpool Archdiocesan Centre for Evangelisation, Croxteth Drive, Liverpool L17 1AA Tel: 0151 522 1007 Email: catholicpictorial@rcaol.co.uk Pictures Cover: Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk Main Feature and Profile: Tom Murphy Advertising Andrew Rogers 0151 709 7567 Publisher 36 Henry Street, Liverpool L1 5BS

Copy deadline March issue 11 March 2013 CPMM Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced copied or transmitted in any form or by any means or stored in any information storage or retrieval system without the publishers written permission. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of material published, Catholic Pictorial Ltd. can accept no responsibility for the veracity of the claims made by advertisers.

29 Join In Family Fun More Mullarkey

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 4

Pope Benedict resigns by Simon Hart t was nearly eight years ago, on the evening of 19 April 2005, that the first puffs of white smoke escaped from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel to announce the election of a new Pope. The time was 5.50pm, precisely 24 hours and 25 minutes after the conclave of cardinals had begun the process of choosing a replacement for Pope John Paul II.

Less than an hour after the sighting of the white smoke, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, the cardinal proto-deacon, stepped on to the loggia overlooking St Peter’s Square to utter the words ‘Habemus Papam’ and tell the world that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, had been elected as Supreme Pontiff, the 264th successor of St Peter, and taken the name Benedict XVI. Moments later, the new Pope himself appeared. It was 6.48pm, and his first words as Pontiff came laced with humility. ‘After the great Pope John Paul II, the Lord Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to act, even with inadequate instruments and above all I entrust myself to your prayers,’ he said. On a cold, grey February day in Rome eight years later, the Pope issued another announcement and the world stopped and listened once again. Pope Benedict revealed that from 7.00 pm GMT on 28 February, he would be Pope no more. He would become the first 4

Catholic Pictorial

pontiff since Gregory XII in 1415 to stand down, having decided he lacked the ‘strength of mind and body’ to fulfil his duties any longer. He had been the oldest new pope for 275 years on his election and turns 86 in April, and his decision earned praise from Archbishop Patrick Kelly, who described it as a ‘humble and selfless decision’ and one whose timing allowed for the election of his successor in time for Easter. The centuries-old process of secret ballots and black and white smoke awaits once more. Pope Benedict’s announcement came at the end of a meeting with cardinals, a consistory for causes for canonisation. It sent shockwaves through the Catholic flock across the globe yet according to Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, it was a course of action that the Pope had discussed previously, in an interview for the book ‘Light of the World’. One of the questions the book’s author Peter Seewald put to the Pope was whether he could imagine a situation in which a pontiff might resign. The response was: ‘When a Pope realises clearly that he is no longer physically, mentally, and spiritually capable of carrying out his role, then there is legally the possibility, and also the obligation, to resign.’ There were echoes of that response when Pope Benedict XVI spelled out the reasons for his abdication in his 11 February announcement, made in Latin. He told the cardinals: ‘I have convoked

you to this consistory, not only for the three canonisations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. ‘I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of St Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. ‘For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of St Peter, will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is. ‘Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.’ These words brought an end to

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 5

feature ‘I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry’ the pontificate of the Bavarian-born Pope Benedict, an intellectual and theologian who had lectured at the universities of Bonn, Tubingen and Regensburg, and served as Cardinal of Munich. The eighth German pope, he produced three encyclicals: ‘Deus caritas est’ (25 December 2005), ‘Spe salvi’ (30 November 2007) and ‘Caritas in veritate’ (29 June 2009) during his papacy, as well as visiting 21 countries across five continents, including a memorable four-day trip to Britain in September 2010. That visit that will live long in the memory of all those fortunate enough to have heard Pope Benedict preach at Masses in Glasgow, London and Birmingham as well as at a Saturday night vigil in London’s Hyde Park. Young people from Liverpool also had the opportunity to listen to the Pope at World Youth Days, in Cologne (2005), Sydney (2008) and Madrid (2011). Archbishop Kelly cited Pope Benedict’s great ‘wisdom’ as he reflected on his decision to resign. The Archbishop said: ‘During his visit to this country in 2010 Pope Benedict XVI

F Flights lights Every Every SSaturday aturday ffrom rom M Manchester anchester d direct irect 1 11th 1th May May to to 28th 28th Sept Sept

Short Breaks to Lourdes Opening Season Pilgrimage - 5 Nights - 6th May 3 Nights - 14th Aug, 4 Nights - 17th Jun & 23rd Sept www.mancunia.com www.mancunia.com

R ROME OME

Departures from Manchester 4 nts - Apr, Sept & Oct

H HOLY OLY LAND LAND

Mancunia Mancuni a

LOURDES L O U R D ES

Departures Departures from from Manchester Manchester 7 Nights May, Jun, Oct Nights - M ay, J un, SSept ept & O ct

FATIMA F ATIMA

Departures from Liverpool 4, 5 & 7 nts - May, Jun, Sept & Oct

0161 0161 790 790 6 6838 838

o office184@mancunia.com ffice184@mancunia.com

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 6

feature

clearly appreciated the gift of God of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Two phrases from Blessed John Henry Newman’s hymn ‘Praise to the Holiest’ capture for me the Cardinal and then the Pope whom I have been blessed to know: ‘the loving wisdom of our God’ and ’the wisest love’. ‘Pope Benedict broke open for us, especially during his visit to our country, the wisdom above all given to us in the Word of God and to that Word of God a word of love for us. He has been a herald with only one concern; that in the words of John the Baptist: ‘the Lord must increase and I must decrease’. Therefore in the deepest sense it is no surprise that such a disciple of the Lord, when he discerns that the resources of body and mind are inadequate to fulfil the mission entrusted to him, comes to the clear humble and selfless decision to resign.’

‘a humble and selfless decision’ 6

Catholic Pictorial

Pope Benedict will play no part in the election of his successor, nor in the running of the Church during the period of Sede Vacante. On 28 February he departed for the papal summer residence of Castel

Gandolfo to prepare for a retirement that will be spent in the former cloistered monastery in the Vatican. The following day, 1 March, the business of finding a new Pope got under way. The conclave of cardinals that will choose his successor was expected, at the time of writing, to number 117. The list features 61 Europeans, 19 Latin Americans, 14 North Americans, 11 Africans, 11 Asians, and 1 from Oceania. They will be locked inside the Vatican, with no communication with the outside world permitted until they have reached a two-thirds majority. For each ballot of the voting process, each cardinal must write his chosen candidate under the words ‘Eligio in Summum Pontificem’: ‘I choose as Supreme Pontiff’. The papers, once counted, will then be burned in a furnace in the Sistine Chapel, as ever, black smoke will indicate no decisive vote. Eventually, though, puffs of white smoke will tell Catholics worldwide that the wait to discover the identity of their new shepherd is over.

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 7

Free cleft surgery which takes as little as 45 minutes and costs as little as £150, can give desperate children not just a new smile – but a new life.

I want to give a child a second chance at life. £150 towards surgery for one child £75 could cover half the cost of one surgery

£30 towards an overnight hospital stay £ We’ll gratefully accept any amount

Mr/Mrs/Ms Address Postcode Email Charge my gift to my:

Telephone

■ Visa ■ MasterCard ■ Maestro

Card No. Valid From

Exp. Date

Issue No.

Signature

■ My cheque is enclosed, made payable to The Smile Train UK

Donate online: www.smiletrain.org.uk Call: 0300 303 9630

Send this coupon with your donation to:

The Smile Train UK, PO Box 910, Northampton NN3 0BG

Use Gift Aid to increase your donation by 25% ■ YES! I would like Smile Train to claim Gift Aid on any donations I have made within the last 4 tax years (6 April to 5 April) and on all donations I make in the future until further notice. I confirm that I have paid or will pay at least as much UK Income tax and/or Capital Gains tax for each tax year as Smile Train UK and all other charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) that I donate to will reclaim on my gifts for that tax year. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council tax do not qualify. I understand that the charity will reclaim 25p of tax for every £1 that I have given/will give. ■ NO, I am not a UK taxpayer. These details, including your email address/telephone number, may be used to keep you informed about our future developments. If you do not want to receive such information please tick this box ■ Registered Charity No. 1114748

Registered Company No. 05738962

Z13011U124FBW2Q

A healthy diet during pregnancy can help prevent birth defects and clefts. Eat a healthy diet that contains lots of fruits and vegetables and foods fortified with folic acid. The U.K. Government recommends women should take sufficient levels of folic acid (400 micrograms/day) during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy to help prevent neural tube defects and reduce the risk for cleft lip and palate. When folic acid is taken one month before conception and throughout the first trimester, it has been proven to reduce the risk for neural tube defects by 50 to 70 percent. Be sure to receive proper prenatal care, quit smoking and drinking alcohol and follow your health care provider’s guidelines for foods to avoid during pregnancy. Foods to avoid may include raw or undercooked seafood, beef, pork, poultry, delicatessen meats, fish that contain high levels of mercury, smoked seafood, fish exposed to pollutants, raw shellfish, eggs, soft cheeses, unpasteurized milk, pâté, caffeine and unwashed vegetables. For more information, visit www.smiletrain.org.uk

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 8

News diary If you’ve got any news from your parish that you’d like featured e-mail us with the details at: post@merseymirror.com

Mass with those in Healthcare

On the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the World Day of Prayer for the Sick, Bishop Tom Williams celebrated Mass at Holy Name, Fazakerley, with and for those who work in healthcare. Bishop Williams, who Chairs the Bishops’ Conference Healthcare Reference Group, spoke of the importance of symbols and signs in Healthcare Ministry saying, ‘the anointing of the sick is a beautiful symbol and sign, the anointing with Chrism, the Oil of Healing and the bringing of Communion, the presence of Christ’. The Bishop continued by describing a two way process in which those in Chaplaincy work are reminded that they are dealing with people and that ‘it is not what you give to people but what they give to you that is important and encouraging’. He praised the work of all involved in healthcare whether cleaners, porters, nurses, doctors or chaplains. He concluded by saying, ‘ministry of the sick is the most vital and fundamental symbol of Christ’s presence among us and we do a very, very important and difficult job which is appreciated’. The theme for the twenty-first world day of prayer for the sick was taken from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, ‘Go and do likewise’ (Luke 10:37). In his message for the day Pope Benedict XVI said, ‘On this occasion I feel especially close to you, dear friends, who in health care centres or at home, are undergoing a time of trial due to illness and suffering. May all of you be sustained by the comforting words of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, “You are not alone, separated, abandoned or useless. You have been called by Christ and are his living and transparent image”’

Annual Civic Mass at the Cathedral Bishop Tom Williams was the Celebrant at the Annual Civic Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral on the Sunday before the beginning of Lent. Councillor Sharon Sullivan, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, together with civic dignitaries from across the region, members of the Judiciary, Councillors and Officers of Local Authorities and representatives of the Armed Services. In his homily Bishop Williams praised the qualities needed for leadership: wisdom, understanding, right judgement, courage, knowledge and reverence and spoke of the tradition of caring handed on from one generation to the next. He offered special thanks to those with civic roles and responsibilities. Dean of the Metropolitan Cathedral, Canon Anthony O’Brien said, ‘It’s a challenging time for all involved in local politics and leadership with the financial squeeze affecting funding for lots of public services so it’s important for us to gather to pray for the well-being of our local communities, and give thanks for the dedicated public service of so many people across all sections of our society.’

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:22 Page 9

news diary Leyland hosts ‘Crossing the Threshold’

The Parish Community of St Mary’s, Leyland hosted the ‘Crossing the Threshold’ day for the Bishops’ Conference Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis at the beginning of February. Delegates from the Archdiocese of Liverpool and the Dioceses of Lancaster and Salford heard an address from Bishop Michael Campbell of Lancaster whilst Liverpool’s Auxiliary Bishop Tom Williams celebrated Mass for the Feast of the Presentation and Bishop Terence Brain of Salford led a Service of Commissioning to conclude the day aimed at offering support and resources to help those gathered to reach out to and minister to non churchgoing Catholics. Bishop Campbell affirmed the need to seek ways of closing the gap between faith and culture saying, ‘The context which forms the background and has given rise to the concept of the New Evangelisation is the awareness of the rapidly changed and still changing world and society in which we live…This leads to a general feeling that God doesn’t impinge on our lives, that the world really doesn’t need him, or his truth revealed to us in Christ. We need to recover and “recharge” the content of religious language…Can we address modern men and women in a language which appears relevant and makes sense to them?’ The programme included nine workshops covering: welcoming families, men’s ministries, how to run small groups, social action, listening, using RCIA, tips on creating an evangelising parish, how to use new media and outreach in schools. Bishop Williams said: ‘It was a good to get people from different dioceses together to compare good practice and to encourage and support each other in the mission of the Lord. I thought that the experience of the day was very encouraging and it was good to see so

many people there.’ The day was the sixth in a series, events have previously been offered in York, Birmingham, Westminster, Crawley and Cardiff, involving over 1500 people. All the materials from the tour will now be collated, in preparation for the publication of an online national resource.

Obituary of Monsignor Stephen Louden Former Principal Catholic Chaplain in the Army and priest of the Archdiocese, Monsignor Stephen Louden, died on Friday 18 January at the age of 71. He was born in Southport on 18 November 1941, the son of Joseph and Sara Louden. He attended St Teresa’s School, Birkdale, and subsequently completed his seminary formation at St Joseph’s College, Upholland. He was ordained priest by Archbishop George Andrew Beck in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, on 8 June 1968. Following ordination he was appointed as assistant priest at All Saints, Anfield, where he remained until April 1973. He then became the assistant priest at St John’s, Kirkdale. In June 1976 he moved to Our Lady’s, Formby, as assistant priest. In October 1978 he began his many years of service as an army chaplain. In 1993 he was appointed as the Principal Catholic Chaplain in the Army and Vicar General to Bishop Francis Walmsley, Bishop of the Forces. He was also appointed as a Prelate of Honour of His Holiness on 2 April 1993. Upon leaving the army he was living for a time on the Wirral, before undertaking some academic studies at Trinity College, Carmarthen, and Wesley House, Cambridge. He spent his final years of retirement in Netherton. His Funeral Mass was celebrated at St Benet’s, Netherton, on Friday 25 January followed by burial at Southport.

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 10

Promise of prayers for the Holy Land from the King of Jordan and the Vatican, decided to build a new University in 2005. The 'American University of Madaba' is an English language university. It aims to be a beacon of light for the entire Middle East and beyond; a model roadmap for an oasis of peace and understanding.’

Bishops from across Europe and North America met in Bethlehem earlier this year for the meeting of the Coordination of Episcopal Conferences in Support of the Church of the Holy Land with the theme of ‘Suffering and vulnerable people in the Holy Land’. They also visited Jordan before the annual pastoral visit concluded in Jerusalem. Father Mark Madden (pictured right) travelled with the group and writes: ‘Christmas is constant in Bethlehem. There is excitement in the air and even the weather resembles a typical British Christmas, wet and cold. The religious atmosphere in Bethlehem goes hand in hand with the secular jumble of food stalls and souvenir shops dotting the streets leading up to Manger Square.’ ‘On the third day of the annual meeting we left Bethlehem to cross the Jordan River to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan where the government is preoccupied because so many Syrian refugees are arriving in a short space of time. 250,000 people have come into the country since May, which means that there are some 600,000 refugees. The Bishops are urging the international community to help the government of Jordan in this crisis situation.’ ‘We spent the night at a Religious Guest House. The house was lovely but the weather was awful with driving rain and gales coming through the gaps of window frames. I spent the night watching the curtains in my room take on a life of their own with the wind blowing them

Credit: © Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk

Catholic Pictorial

around. It made me thankful after what I heard that I had at least a roof over my head, a warm bed, a good meal inside me, safe and sound. Many that night, not far from where I was, were not so lucky.’ ‘Our second Day in Jordan was spent in the historical town of Madaba, the hometown of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Madaba has a long historical, cultural and religious heritage. With links to the Neolithic period, Madaba is noted for its mosaic art, especially the map of Palestine and the angle delta located in St George's church in the centre of the town for which it has become famous. Today, Madaba is home to a growing population of 60,000 and is not far from the Capital Amman or from the Dead Sea. The town is also situated near Mount Nebo from where Moses looked out to the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey.’ ‘It's here that the Patriarch, with support

‘We journeyed back to the Israeli border through some torrential rain, incredible scenery and wonderful rainbows. Jordan is a very beautiful country which isn't on the general pilgrimage map. It is a country steeped in biblical history and driving through it, across the numerous borders and the River Jordan, you can see why this area is “The Land of Milk and Honey”.’ In their closing statement the Bishops of the Holy Land Coordination said: ‘Our faith was enriched by the strength and fortitude of the people we met... We are inspired to promote a just peace and call upon Christian communities in our home countries and people of goodwill everywhere to support the work undertaken in this region to build a better future...With the local Bishops; we encourage practical support for the vulnerable, the formation of young people and every effort for the promotion of peace. We encourage Christians to come on pilgrimage to the Holy Land where they will experience the same warm hospitality we received. We shall work hard to persuade our respective governments to recognise the root causes of suffering in this land and to step up their efforts for a just peace.’

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 11

news diary ‘Children’s Dying and Death’

De La Salle inspire RCIA Sixth Form students from De La Salle Academy offered inspiration for Bishop Tom Williams and those taking part in the RCIA Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion which was celebrated at the Metropolitan Cathedral on the First Sunday of Lent. Students Bart Pieriton, Dominic Bromilow, Simba Mlambo, Thomas Carol, and Kenny Watkins under the leadership of Head of Art, Ms Emily Halsey, produced spectacular art work to bring the readings of the service to life. The main themes were from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (1:15–23) about being called to the wondrous love of God and the Gospel of Luke (5:111) giving the account of the calling of the Disciples as Jesus calls the fishermen to leave their nets and follow him

The Spiritual Care Team at Alder Hey Children’s NHS foundation Trust is offering a half day training session entitled ‘Children’s Dying and Death’. Attempting to minister within a situation of the loss or life limiting illness of a child whilst, thankfully, relatively rare, is always a demanding and traumatic ministry. This training session is designed to help to equip both Parish Clergy and, especially, members of Parish Bereavement Teams who may be called minister in such a situation. The half day session will cover spiritual aspects of care for patient and family, the life-changing effect of diagnosis and treatment, practical procedures following death, and advice and guidance in helping bereaved families through, and after, the funeral service. The sessions will take place at Alder Hey hospital beginning at 9.00 am and finishing at 1.00 pm. The cost per delegate is £25 which will include all materials and refreshments. The training will be available on the following dates: Tuesday 30th April 2013, Friday 19th July 2013, and Wednesday 9th October 2013. For more information, or to book, please contact Spiritualcare@alderhey.nhs.uk or phone 0151 252 5465.

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 12

news diary Pentecostal Banner Workshop The Art Studio at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool is holding a two-day course in making a Pentecostal textile banner. It will be held in the Studio itself and will run on 12th and 26th April 2013. Students will work to a provided design and the course will cover the details of the methods, materials and techniques used in banner construction. Previous experience of banner construction is not essential. All materials, equipment, tuition, lunch and refreshments on both days are included in the cost of £195. The Cathedral is easily accessible by both bus and on foot from Liverpool city centre. To book a place on the course, or to make further enquiries, please contact enquiries@metcathedral.org.uk or phone 0151 709 9222.

UCM 100 not out 2013 is a very special year for the Union of Catholic Mother's writes Ann Hogg. It is our Centenary year. Nationally this will be celebrated with a Mass at Westminster Cathedral on September 21st. Locally in many of the Dioceses there are also celebrations and Liverpool are holding a combined Centenary and Annual Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King on Saturday June 15th at 12.00 noon. We are hoping that as many members as possible will be there. There must also be many women who were members, but for whatever reason, are no longer active. These women are part of our history and in the past helped to make UCM the wonderful organisation that it is today. We would extend to them a very warm welcome to join us in the Cathedral and at the Adelphi Hotel to help make it a day to remember. Following the Mass there will be a reception, buffet and entertainment from 2.00pm to 7.00 pm at the Adelphi. Tickets cost £17.50 and are available from Liverpool UCM Secretary Mrs Kate Moss. Tel: 01925 411150.

Catholic Pictorial

Mass of Thanksgiving at St Brendan’s Shrine

Bishop Tom Williams, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool, was the Celebrant at a Mass of Thanksgiving in St Brendan’s Shrine, Old Swan. The closing Mass gave thanks for the fifty years of parish life at the church. Some of the artefacts from the Shrine will be taken to nearby St Oswald’s church. ‘We give thanks for all the blessings that have been received through the parish and church of St Brendan’s,’ said Parish Priest, Father Mark Beattie. ‘So many people have been touched by God through the ministry of both priests and parishioners.’

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 13

Maricourt Catholic High School Hall Lane, Maghull

Appointment to our School Admissions Appeals Panel under the Education (Admission Appeals Arrangements) Regulations 2002 is urgently required. Could you spare some time to serve as anIndependent Lay Member of the Archdiocese or someone who has an educational background and is not directly connected to Maricourt Catholic High School on our school admission appeals panel? This Panel will hear appeals where parents have expressed a preference for their child to be admitted to our school and this has not been met. The Panel will hear appeals in respect of Maricourt Catholic High (Voluntary Aided) School, which are in the administrative area of the Sefton LEA. If you are interested in serving on this Independent Appeal Panel; please contact: Julie Waugh, Maricourt Admissions Officer on 0151 282 2151 or e-mail waughj@maricourt.net as soon as possible

uncle sam presents

HOORAY FOR THE USA! WITH THE ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

NUGENT CARE HEAD OFFICE EDGE LANE, LIVERPOOL We are currently recruiting for the following:

SENIOR COMMUNITY WORKER DEAF TEAM 33 HOURS PER WEEK £22,665 - £25,139 per annum, pro rata Ref: 238/CEN We are seeking to appoint a Senior Community Worker to lead our Community Deaf Team. You will be qualified to at least BSL Level 3 with significant experience of working with Deaf people and a good knowledge of Deaf culture. You will need to be familiar with the Catholic faith, sacraments and liturgy. The work of the team includes: • supporting priests and parishes around the delivery of Roman Catholic missals • supporting signed masses in the Liverpool Archdiocese • interpreting and signing in a range of parishes, schools and wider community settings • advice and support for Deaf people • delivering signing and awareness training • organising events and pilgrimages • involvement in regional and national Deaf and Catholic networks • involvement in campaigning and fundraising programmes You will partake in and lead the team in the above activity and provide ongoing support, direction and supervision to the team members. You will need to work flexibly as there will be a requirement for weekend working.

DING INCLU RSHOP E B R BA JAZZ UALS SPIRIT S EADER L R E CHE

For an application pack please telephone our 24 hour recruitment line on 0151 261 2040, e-mail: personnel@nugentcare.org or visit www.nugentcare.org SATURDAY 18TH MAY 2013, 7.30 PM LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL Tickets : £12, £17, £23, £25, Box £30 Children & NUS Card Half Price Soprano : Deborah Norman Conductor : Keith Orrell Tickets available from Mavis Owens; Tel: 0151 652 6374; e-mailmavis@lwcu.freeserve.co.uk also from the Philharmonic Hall box office; Tel 0151 709 3789

Closing Date for completed applications: Thursday 7th March 2013, 12pm. An Equal Opportunities Employer Nugent Care actively promotes the safeguarding of vulnerable adults, young people and children www.nugentcare.org

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 14

spotlight

I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.’

The following Pastoral Letter was read in the Archdiocese on the Second Sunday of Lent: 24 February 2013. My dear People, ‘I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.’ Those were Saint Paul’s words when he said his final farewell to the Christians of Ephesus. I am certain they are words which Pope Benedict could make his own at seven o’clock our time on Thursday evening 28 February when he lays aside his ministry as Bishop of Rome, as Pope: ‘I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.’ Or to put it another way, borrowing words this time from Blessed John Henry Newman whom Pope Benedict beatified during his visit to this country: Pope Benedict has opened up for us the ‘loving wisdom’, the ‘wisest love of God’ who is the Holiest. And he summed up that loving wisdom, that wisest love in the very first page of his first letter addressed to the whole church: ‘Deus Caritas Est’: ‘God is love’. He wrote:

Catholic Pictorial

‘Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’ And there is the whole purpose of this joyful season of Lent: to bring us to the Great Week, Holy Week when we remember and enter into our Lord’s Saving Passion and Glorious Resurrection, by which the pride of the ancient foe, the father of lies, is vanquished. We shall in heart and mind, in word and song celebrate once more the mystery of our redemption in Christ, our liberation from all that is sin and death. You are all aware I am making a similar journey myself. The Mass on Thursday 28th February will be one of the last I celebrate in the Cathedral; I hope to be able to be principal celebrant at the Mass of Chrism on the Wednesday Evening of Holy Week. Both Masses will simply be those of the day. You thanked me more than abundantly last year when on 18th February we praised God for the fifty years of my life and ministry as a priest. This Thursday’s Lenten Day Mass and

the Chrism Mass say all that remains to be said. For Saint Paul gave to every priest, every Bishop, every Pope a clear charter ‘For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.’ In this my last pastoral letter I promise: I will always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when I pray for you, because I have seen your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Please make your own these words from the Second letter of Saint Peter, with which I ended a letter of thanks to Pope Benedict when I heard of his so wise, faithful and selfless decision: ‘May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.’

Yours devotedly in Christ, Archbishop of Liverpool

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 15

sunday reflections On a liturgical note Well, the Lenten journey this year is certainly a little more ‘eventful’ than in years past as we live through a period of ‘sede vacante’ (the empty Chair of Peter) and then the forthcoming conclave of cardinals for the election of the successor to Pope Benedict. The announcement on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February, took us all by complete surprise, but although we received it with heavy hearts we can but give thanks for the generosity and integrity of spirit by which the former Pope reached his decision ‘for the good of the Church’. He began by saying that ‘having repeatedly examined my conscience before God’; this surely is a timely reminder to us, as we live the season of Lent, that to examine our conscience, to look honestly yet peacefully at our own lives as bathed in the light of the risen Christ, is the task of each one of us daily. We are to examine our life of prayer, our life of faith, our life of active charity and to ask – is this in accordance with the light of Jesus? Am I living in such a way as to give good witness to the risen life of the

Sunday thoughts Remember the ‘Easter People’, the report of the National Pastoral Congress held in Liverpool in 1980? Its title echoes the words of Pope John Paul II (attributed to St Augustine): ‘We are the Easter people and Alleluia is our song.’ I hesitate to contradict Pope John Paul II or even St Augustine but I believe that here in Britain we are a Christmas people. Compare overflowing attendance at Midnight Mass with attendance at the Easter Vigil. Those with even the most tenuous links with the Church are still drawn to Mass on Christmas Eve. Easter, meanwhile, is a gathering of the core faithful. Alleluia may be their song but the song of the majority is ‘Silent Night’. Wikipedia notwithstanding, the Easter Vigil is not ‘the most important service of public worship of the liturgical year’. Is there a failure to identify with Holy Week in general or is it just with the Resurrection? Church attendance on Good Friday is

Canon Philip Gillespie

Lord in his Church and, through the Church, for the good of the world? Weighty questions, and not intended to disillusion us but to inspire and, where necessary, to correct our way of living. The liturgy of the Lenten season enables us to accompany those preparing for the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist; they too have weighty decisions to make, how best to respond to the love of the Father made visible in Christ Jesus by the power and action of the Holy Spirit. For those of us who have already celebrated these sacraments, who are already ‘initiated’ fully into the life of Jesus and his Church, the weeks of Lent give us the opportunity to ‘return to the source’ of all we hold dear in our lives – for God so loves the world that he gives his Only Son... Happy Lent, happy Holy Week and – when it arrives with us – a very happy Eastertide!

Mgr John Devine OBE

diminishing but it still attracts those whose regular practice level is inconsistent. Another factor might be that the Easter Vigil was reintroduced in 1956, hardly long enough to embed itself into the collective psyche. I recall my time in South America where church attendance on Good Friday and Easter Sunday was even more polarised. The people of Peru thrived on realistic depictions of the Lord’s suffering. The entire parish turned out to give the Lord a spectacular funeral on Good Friday but no one showed up to celebrate his rising. In time I realised that the suffering Christ and his distraught mother were these people’s friends. I was the outsider. The brutal realities of daily death and dying gave them an affinity with our crucified Lord that I could never achieve.

Why Lent is a Cinderella story As I child I loved fairy tales and they still hold a magic for me even today. One of my favourites is the story of Cinderella whose name literally means the little girl who sits in the ashes or the cinders. Ronald Rolheiser, the Canadian author, says of the story of Cinderella: ‘The moral is clear: before you get to be beautiful, before you get to marry the prince or princess, before you get to go to the great feast, you must first spend some lonely time in the ashes, humbled, smudged, tending to duty and the unglamorous, waiting. Lent is that season, a time to sit in the ashes. It is not incidental that we begin lent by marking our foreheads with ashes.’ This period of sitting in the ashes, this waiting is surely so that our encounter with the divine is more intense and we become more aware of the presence of God everywhere. I am becoming more and more aware that this encounter with God implies an alternative way of living that becomes a dance of love where we live with eyes and hearts that are open and in which we see the presence of God everywhere. We live with a sense of wonder and gratitude at the gift of this world and of life itself. St Bonaventure, when reflecting on St Francis’s personal love of nature and the incarnation of Jesus, saw the ‘traces’ or ‘footprints’ of God in all things. He said that the whole world was the ‘incarnation’ of the mystery of God, and the very ‘body of God’. The ‘journey of the mind to God’, as Bonaventure put it, was to learn how to see the unity of all being, how to listen for the partially hidden God, and how to honour the footprints that were everywhere once you could see. The result was a life of gratitude and reverence and simple joy while still living a busy life in the world. Lent is that time when we sit in the ashes to heighten our awareness of the ever-present God which, in fairy-tale terms, means we go to the ball, we find the prince and life becomes a dance with the Divine. Fr Chris Thomas

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 16

what’s on at Irenaeus, 32 Great Georges Road, Waterloo, L22 1RD. Details Tel: 0151 949 1199 or email: jenny@irenaeus.co.uk Metropolitan Cathedral Chapter Mass 12.15 pm in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. ’Jerusalem and beyond’: Reflections on Luke 1.00 pm in the Marian Centre, Bath St North, Southport.

Full listings, of Lenten Services and times for Holy Week and Easter Services, can be found on the Archdiocesan website at www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk Monday 4 March to Tuesday 12 March Novena of Grace At St Francis Xavier church, Salisbury Street, Liverpool, L3 8DR. Daily talk at 12.00 noon Mass (10.15am on Sunday). Novena of Grace At St Mary’s, Lowe House, St Helens, WA10 2BE. Daily Mass with Guest Preacher at 7.30 pm (4.30 pm on Sunday) Monday 4 March to Friday 8 March Loyola-Metro Liverpool Retreat in Daily Life At St Francis Xavier church, Salisbury Street, Liverpool, L3 8DR with introductory meeting on Saturday 2 March at 10.30 am. Monday 4 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Bartholomew, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NY. Lenten Holy Hour 11.00 am at St Bartholomew, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NY. Lenten Reflection by Father Tony Reynolds. 7.30 pm at St Raphael the Archangel church, Liverpool Road, Widnes, WA8 7ER. Lenten Reflection 7.30 pm at St Joseph’s Prayer Centre, Blundell Avenue, Freshfield, Formby, Liverpool, L37 1PH. Details Tel: 01704 879665 Email: theprayercentre.stj@googlemail.com Website: stjosephsprayercentre.org.uk Tuesday 5 March ‘Called to be Prophets’ Led by Father Chris Thomas. 10.30 am

Catholic Pictorial

Lenten Holy Hour 3.00 pm at Sacred Heart, Walmsley Road, Leigh. ‘Angels and Demons’ Lenten Reflection By Father Daniel O’Leary. 5.30 pm7.00 pm at Pauline Books and Media, Bold Street, Liverpool, L1 4HR. Details Tel: 0151 709 1328 Email: liverpool@pauline-uk.org Wednesday 6 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Ambrose Barlow, Astley, M29 7DZ. ‘Christ was humbler yet even to accepting death on a cross’ ‘Shoulder my yoke and learn from me’ a reflection on the Way of the Cross led by Father Ged Callacher. 7.00 pm in the Gibberd Room of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. ‘The Folly of God – a path to Light’ (1 Corinthians 1:25) A Lenten Evening for the St Thérèse of Lisieux Pastoral Area. 7.00 pm at St Mary's Hall, Woolton, Liverpool, L25 5JF. Details: Sister Kathleen kathleenhopkins@btinternet.com Tel: 0151 737 2423 or Sister Christine cawarrington@btinternet.com Tel: 0151 735 1645. ‘The Second Vatican Council's legacy of Dialogue: dialogue with other religions.’ Lenten Talk by Monsignor Peter Fleetwood. 7.30 pm in St Anne’s Pastoral Centre, Ormskirk, L39 4TG. Lenten Service of Reconciliation 7.30 pm at St Joseph, Mather Lane, Leigh, WN7 2PR. UCM Bi-monthly Mass 7.30 pm at St Oswald, Old Swan, Liverpool, L13 5SB. 'All Together Now' Ecumenical Lent Course 7.30 pm at St Ann's, Central Avenue, Warrington.

‘The Way of the Cross.’ Lenten prayer and reflection led by the Irenaeus Team. 7.30 pm at the Sisters of Namur Community, 25 Newsham Drive, Liverpool, L6 7UG. Details Tel: 0151 949 1199 or email: jenny@irenaeus.co.uk Friday 8 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 6.30 am at Holy Family, Boothstown, M28 1DN. Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Joseph, Mather Lane, Leigh, WN7 2PR. Saturday 9 March Car Boot Sale 8.00 am onwards in the Cathedral Car Park. Pitches £10. Details from Claire Hanlon 0151 709 9222. Sunday 10 March Loyola Day 10.00 am-4.00 pm at Loyola Hall, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NZ. A day of quiet with input including guidance in prayer and sharing on a theme, ending with Mass. Details from Loyola Hall Tel: 0151 426 4137. Email: mail@loyolahall.co.uk Website: www.loyolahall.co.uk Lenten Holy Hour with Stations of the Cross 3.00 pm at Holy Family, Platt Bridge, Wigan, WN2 5LL. Lenten Holy Hour with Evening Prayer and Benediction 4.00 pm at St Mary’s, Mount Pleasant, Chorley, PR7 2SR. Monday 11 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Bartholomew, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NY. Lenten Holy Hour 11.00 am at St Bartholomew, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NY. Lenten Reflection by Father Tony Reynolds. 7.30 pm at St Raphael the Archangel church, Liverpool Road, Widnes, WA8 7ER. Lenten Taize Evening 7.30 pm at St Joseph’s Prayer Centre, Blundell Avenue, Freshfield, Formby, Liverpool, L37 1PH. Details Tel: 01704 879665 Email: theprayercentre.stj@googlemail.com Website: stjosephsprayercentre.org.uk Tuesday 12 March Ministry Day 10.00 am-4.00 pm at Loyola Hall,

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 17

march Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NZ. A day for people in full-time or part-time ministry with input and sharing and time for quiet prayer and reflection. Details from Loyola Hall Tel: 0151 426 4137. Email: mail@loyolahall.co.uk Website: www.loyolahall.co.uk

‘Christ was humbler yet even to accepting death on a cross’ ‘Pierced through for our faults’ a reflection on the Way of the Cross led by Father Liam Collister. 7.00 pm in the Gibberd Room of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King.

‘Called to be Prophets’ Led by Father Chris Thomas. 10.30 am at Irenaeus, 32 Great Georges Road, Waterloo, L22 1RD. Details Tel: 0151 949 1199 or email: jenny@irenaeus.co.uk

‘The Folly of God – a path to Light’ (1 Corinthians 1:25) A Lenten Evening for the St Thérèse of Lisieux Pastoral Area. 7.00 pm at St Mary's Hall, Woolton, Liverpool, L25 5JF. Details: Sister Kathleen kathleenhopkins@btinternet.com Tel: 0151 737 2423 or Sister Christine cawarrington@btinternet.com Tel: 0151 735 1645.

’Jerusalem and beyond’: Reflections on Luke 1.00 pm in the Marian Centre, Bath St North, Southport. Lenten Holy Hour 3.00 pm at Sacred Heart, Walmsley Road, Leigh. ‘Angels and Demons’ Lenten Reflection By Father Daniel O’Leary. 5.30 pm-7.00 pm at Pauline Books and Media, Bold Street, Liverpool, L1 4HR. Details Tel: 0151 709 1328 Email: liverpool@pauline-uk.org Lenten Service of Reconciliation 7.00 pm at St Vincent de Paul, Derbyshire Hill, St Helens, WA9 2LS.

'All Together Now' Ecumenical Lent Course 7.30 pm at St Ann's, Central Avenue, Warrington.

Clergy Day 10.30 am-3.30 pm at Loyola Hall, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NZ. A short presentation, prayer and discussion including Exposition and an opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Details from Loyola Hall Tel: 0151 426 4137. Email: mail@loyolahall.co.uk Website: www.loyolahall.co.uk

Sunday 17 March Lenten Holy Hour with Stations of the Cross 3.00 pm at Holy Family, Platt Bridge, Wigan, WN2 5LL. Lenten Holy Hour with Evening Prayer and Benediction 4.00 pm at St Mary’s, Mount Pleasant, Chorley, PR7 2SR. Monday 18 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Bartholomew, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NY. Lenten Holy Hour 11.00 am at St Bartholomew, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NY.

Lenten Taize Prayer 7.30 pm at St Richard’s, Mayfield Street, Atherton, M46 0AQ.

Lenten Reflection By Father Tony Reynolds. 7.30 pm at St Raphael the Archangel church, Liverpool Road, Widnes, WA8 7ER.

Lenten Reflection 7.30 pm at St Joseph’s Prayer Centre, Blundell Avenue, Freshfield, Formby, Liverpool, L37 1PH. Details Tel: 01704 879665 Email: theprayercentre.stj@googlemail.com Website: stjosephsprayercentre.org.uk

Thursday 14 March ‘The Gift of Prayer’ Led by father Brendan Rice. 7.30 pm at Irenaeus, 32 Great Georges Road, Waterloo, L22 1RD. Details Tel: 0151 949 1199 or email: jenny@irenaeus.co.uk

Tuesday 19 March Feast of St Joseph

Friday 15 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 6.30 am at Holy Family, Boothstown, M28 1DN.

Lenten Holy Hour 3.00 pm at Sacred Heart, Walmsley Road, Leigh.

Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Joseph, Mather Lane, Leigh, WN7 2PR. Wednesday 13 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Ambrose Barlow, Astley, M29 7DZ.

Tel: 0151 707 3525 or www.cathedralconcerts.org.uk

Saturday 16 March Lenten Day of Reflection With Father Daniel O’Leary in the Marian Centre, Bath St North, Southport. Details and Tickets (£10) from Pauline Tel: 01704 550845 or Cathy Tel: 01704 224286. Service of Reconciliation Led by Bishop Tom Williams. 3.00 pm in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. Amadeus Concert 7.30 pm in the Metropolitan Cathedral Crypt Concert Room. Tickets and details

’Jerusalem and beyond’: Reflections on Luke 1.00 pm in the Marian Centre, Bath St North, Southport.

‘The Second Vatican Council's legacy of Dialogue: dialogue with people who do not believe in God.’ Lenten Talk by Monsignor Peter Fleetwood. 7.30 pm in St Anne’s Pastoral Centre, Ormskirk, L39 4TG. Cursillo Ultreya 7.30 pm at St Michael and All Angels, Sidney Powell Avenue, Kirkby, L32 0TP. Wednesday 20 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Ambrose Barlow, Astley, M29 7DZ. Lenten Service of Reconciliation 7.00 pm at St Anne and Blessed Dominic, Monastery Road, Sutton, St Helens, WA9 3ZD.

Catholic Pictorial

p01-18_covers 22/02/2013 12:23 Page 18

what’s on ‘Christ was humbler yet even to accepting death on a cross’ ‘From death to newness of life’ a reflection on the Way of the Cross led by Father Ged Callacher. 7.00 pm in the Gibberd Room of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. ‘The Folly of God – a path to Light’ (1 Corinthians 1:25) A Lenten Evening for the St Thérèse of Lisieux Pastoral Area. 7.00 pm at St Mary's Hall, Woolton, Liverpool, L25 5JF. Details: Sister Kathleen kathleenhopkins@btinternet.com Tel: 0151 737 2423 or Sister Christine cawarrington@btinternet.com Tel: 0151 735 1645. Lenten Holy Hour 7.30 pm at Holy Rosary, Aintree Village, Liverpool, L10 2LG. Service of Reconciliation For the St Charles Borromeo Pastoral Area, Widnes. 7.30 pm in Our Lady of Perpetual Succour church, Mayfield Avenue, Hough Green, Widnes, WA8 8PR. 'All Together Now' Ecumenical Lent Course 7.30 pm at St Ann's, Central Avenue, Warrington. Thursday 21 March Newman Circle Talk: ‘Vatican II Gaudium et Spes’ Speaker: Father Kevin Kelly. 7.30 pm at St Helen's Parish Centre, Alexandra Road, Crosby, L23 7TQ Friday 22 March Lenten Early Morning Mass 6.30 am at Holy Family, Boothstown, M28 1DN. Lenten Early Morning Mass 7.30 am at St Joseph, Mather Lane, Leigh, WN7 2PR. Saturday 23 March ‘Via Crucis’ by Franz Liszt With reflections led by Archbishop Patrick Kelly. 7.30 pm in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool. Sunday 24 March Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Stations of the Cross and Benediction with the Sacrament of Reconciliation 3.00 pm at Holy Family, Platt Bridge, Wigan, WN2 5LL. Lenten Holy Hour with Evening

Catholic Pictorial

Prayer and Benediction 4.00 pm at St Mary’s, Mount Pleasant, Chorley, PR7 2SR. Sunday 24 March to Sunday 31 March Cross Walk and Holy Week For people in their 20s and 30s at Loyola Hall, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NZ. A group carries the Cross from Palm Sunday for four days arriving at Loyola Hall for the celebration of the Triduum. Details from Loyola Hall Tel: 0151 426 4137. Email: mail@loyolahall.co.uk Website: www.loyolahall.co.uk Tuesday 26 March ‘Called to be Prophets’ Led by Father Chris Thomas. 10.30 am at Irenaeus, 32 Great Georges Road, Waterloo, L22 1RD. Details Tel: 0151 949 1199 or email: jenny@irenaeus.co.uk

Lenten Service of Reconciliation 7.30 pm at Holy Family, Boothstown, M28 1DN. Wednesday 27 March to Sunday 31 March Holy Week Retreat For people in their 20s and 30s at Loyola Hall, Warrington Road, Rainhill, L35 6NZ. Details from Loyola Hall Tel: 0151 426 4137. Email: mail@loyolahall.co.uk Website: www.loyolahall.co.uk Wednesday 27 March Service of Reconciliation 7.00 pm at St Benedict, Hindley, Wigan, WN2 3AA. Ecumenical Service of Reconciliation 7.30 pm at St Ann's, Central Avenue, Warrington.

Holy Week and Easter at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord 24 March Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King 8.30 am Mass (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) 10.00 am Family Mass (Crypt) 11.00 am Procession of Palms and Solemn Mass Celebrant: Bishop Tom Williams 7.00 pm Mass (Crypt) 7.30 pm Service of Tenebrae (including Allegri’s ‘Miserere’) Wednesday of Holy Week 27 March 7.30 pm Mass of Chrism Celebrant: Archbishop Patrick Kelly THE EASTER TRIDUUM Maundy Thursday of the Lord’s Supper 28 March 10.00 am Sung Office of Readings and Morning Prayer (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) 7.30 pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper Celebrant: Bishop Tom Williams Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion 29 March 10.00 am Sung Office of Readings and Morning Prayer (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) 11.30 am Stations of the Cross (Cathedral) 3.00 pm Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion Bishop Tom Williams presides Holy Saturday 30 March 10.00 am Sung Office of Readings and Morning Prayer (Cantor) (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) 8.00 pm The Easter Vigil and First Mass of Easter Celebrant: Bishop Tom Williams Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection 31 March 8.30 am Mass (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) 10.00 am Family Mass (Crypt) 11.00 am Solemn Mass of Easter Day Celebrant: Canon Anthony O’Brien 3.00 pm Choral Evening Prayer 7.00 pm Mass (Crypt)

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:16 Page 19

youth ministry

A non-stop month for the Animate team February was a busy month for the team, with a good number of day retreats and mission days, starting at Christ the King Centre for Learning in Huyton, where we worked with years 7, 8 and 9. Our theme was ‘What do we stand for?’ and it was rewarding seeing the pupils consider how willing they would be to stand up for their faith. In small groups, they participated in ‘Values auctions’ to explore what was important to them and they produced mission statements, expressing what they would like to change or carry on doing in their own lives. We also had a mission-day visit to Cardinal Newman in Warrington and our day retreats were back in full swing at Lowe House too, with year 7 pupils from St Peter’s School in Orrell the first to arrive. ‘We are One Body’ was our theme; the young people learned how we all make up the Body of Christ, albeit with each of us, as unique beings, bringing different gifts. The next group to visit came from St James’ in Stockport, followed by sixth-form students from St Mary’s, Crosby. As we were talking about the need to demonstrate our faith by what we do, we sent the young

people into St Helens town centre, where they had to complete a set of ‘good deeds’ including talking to people in charity shops and picking up litter. It was a useful experience working with older pupils as we will be with sixth-formers from Bellerive FCJ and Maricourt High School in Liverpool in March. February also featured a parish mission at Sacred Heart in Westhoughton. This gave us an opportunity to work with eight and nine-year-olds, along with their parents and grandparents. It was different from our usual work but the younger ones provided a real buzz with their enthusiasm to take part, and the whole team left with smiles on our faces! The Animate team also had the chance to share ideas with catechists from around the Archdiocese at an evening meeting at which we distributed booklets with resources and ideas that they might find useful. The catechists discussed what they have been doing with their own groups of young people and we hope evenings like

this will become regular events – if you would like more information, please get in touch and we can we can put you on our mailing list. • ‘Crossing the Threshold’ Evangelisation Day Animate members presented a workshop on how social media can be used to help evangelise the Church at this event in Leyland on Saturday 2 February. We looked at Facebook, Twitter and other social network sites and had a worthwhile discussion on their usefulness, as well as providing a resource booklet. Such was the feedback we received, we are considering holding a day specifically on the use of media in the Church and if you would like more information, please contact us. • New-look Youth Alive launched The evening of 2 February brought our first Soul Food night for the Over18s with a talk and discussion led by Fr Simon on ‘How and what we worship in the 21st Century’ followed by Mass and a social. The following day we had a period of catechesis on ‘Putting our Trust in God’, followed by Mass. It would be great to see a few new faces at both events in future. www.animateyouth.org admin@animateyouth.co.uk 01744 740462 Sarah Brooks

Catholic Pictorial

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:16 Page 20

profile

Picture: Tom Murphy

Tim Warren

A safe bet for the future By Ann Todd Tim Warren, new Director of Schools and Colleges for the Liverpool Archdiocese, is a man with a mission. He left Liverpool City Council – where he was Assistant executive director in charge of Education, Employment and Skills – last July, and from then on, his avowed ambition was to ‘unite his career and convictions’ by securing this new position. This is why he took on a temporary role – as Interim director of Education, Skills and Community Support for Wigan Council – until the Archdiocese post, as successor to the retiring Frank Cogley, was advertised. ‘I am an Archdiocese of Liverpool product, born and bred in Wigan, a practising Catholic and come from a family with a strong tradition in the Catholic Church,’ he explained. ‘I had the good fortune to attend Catholic schools throughout my childhood, first at St Cuthbert’s, Wigan and then achieving my O and A levels at St John Rigby Grammar School, Orrell, where my spiritual education was blessed by the Christian Brothers who ran the school – and a certain Fr Vincent Nichols, the then school chaplain!

Catholic Pictorial

‘I’ve lived all my working life in Wigan and still live there now. Obviously working in your own patch is important. I know a lot of the Catholic schools already and it feels just right to do an important job for Catholic education,’ said Tim who, before joining Liverpool City Council, was Assistant Director for Children’s Services in Warrington (19962005) and Acting Director of Education in Warrington (2005-07). Indeed the only time he left his Lancashire home was to study languages at the University of East Anglia in Norwich – which also involved living in France for a year. ‘I had my eyes opened there,’ he recalled. ‘I very soon adapted to French food, which I can say I like very much! I still go to France now.’ Tim and his wife Anne have two daughters, Kathryn and Emma, and a granddaughter, Shannon, who is nine. He added: ‘I have always been prepared to give my spare time up to help further the cause of Catholic schooling and I was clerk to the governors during my children’s life at St James’ Catholic Primary School and a nominated foundation governor during their time at St Peter’s Secondary School in Orrell.’

Tim’s aim is to visit every one of the Archdiocese’s 235 schools in the next two years. ‘It’s a fair job to get round them all, but I’ve already started,’ he said. ‘It’s important to know your patch and there is no better way than going yourself to talk to the heads of schools to understand the issues from their point of view.’ He wants to build on the ‘excellent work of his predecessor, Frank Cogley, and points out that ‘81 per cent of our schools are rated as good or outstanding, compared with 65 per cent of all schools in the northwest, so that’s something to be proud of’. His work is a labour of love yet he does find some time to relax away from it. A former schoolboy rugby player, he has a season ticket at Wigan Warriors and also enjoys horse racing. ‘I regularly go to Ireland for the racing with my brothers. We always go to the Punchestown Festival,’ said the man who looks odds-on to succeed in his new role.

“I am an Archdiocese of Liverpool product, born and bred in Wigan”

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 13:58 Page 21

come & see

Introducing Edwina Gateley… We are delighted to welcome two keynote speakers to this year’s Come and See conference. Last month we introduced Daniel O’Leary and this month it is the turn of Edwina Gateley. Edwina was born in Lancaster and is a well-known author, retreat-giver and conference speaker. During a ninemonth period in 1981 and 1982, Edwina lived in prayer and solitude in a hermitage in the state of Illinois in America’s Midwest. She then spent over a year on the streets of Chicago walking with the homeless and women involved in prostitution, and she founded Genesis House – a house of hospitality and nurturing for women involved in prostitution. She is also resposible for the founding

of the Volunteer Missionar y Movement. VMM emerged as a new and challenging movement in the 1960s, calling on Christian men and women to respond to Vatican II's call for full and active involvement in the Church's life

and mission. This involvement has a double thrust: to witness to God's action through Jesus Christ in our world today, and to respond to the material and human needs of the poor and oppressed. Numerous groups and individuals – including the late American Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Bill Clinton, former President of the United States – have publicly commended Edwina's work and ministry and we are delighted that she has agreed to be with at this year’s Come and See. If you want more details about the conference, then contact us on 0151 949 1199 or email jenny@irenaeus.co.uk.

CATHOLIC PIC HOLY LAND PILGRIMS

Greetings from the Holy Land! This photograph was taken just after Mass at the Church of the Beatitudes. Mass was celebrated outside by Peter Morgan.

Catholic Pictorial

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:16 Page 22

LIVERPOOL ARCHDIOCESAN 2013 PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES Led by Archbishop Patrick Kelly

FRI 26 JULY - FRI 2 AUGUST 2013 Â£

By air from Liverpool and overland by -XPEXODQFH

Hotels from

Â£ 669

IXOO\ LQFOXVLYH

Â£

Â£10

ENQUIRIES: Independent Pilgrims Joe Walsh Tours Tel: 0151 909 2871 Email: info@joewalshtours.ie www.joewalshtours.ie

Â£ 599

REDUCTION PER PERSON WHEN BOOKING ONLINE

CAN YOU HELP? WE URGENTLY NEED:

$FFXHLO Saint-Frai *

*24 HOUR CARE FACILITY FOR SICK/DISABLED PILGRIMS

IXOO\ LQFOXVLYH

6LFN 'LVDEOHG 3LOJULPV /RXUGHV 3LOJULPDJH 2IÂ¿ FH Tel: 0151 727 4000 Email: lourdespilgrimage@rcaolp.co.uk ZZZ OLYHUSRRO ORXUGHV FRP &RQWDFW:

Â» 'RFWRUV QXUVHV KHDOWKFDUH SURIHVVLRQDOV Â» Adult helpers (age +18): no experience required, just a willing pair of hands

David Dolan | Email: davidadolan@hotmail.com Tel: 07817 727026 | www.liverpool-lourdes.com

Â» Youth helpers (age 15+)

$QLPDWH <RXWK 2IÂ¿ FH | Tel: 01744 740462

Â» 0XVLFLDQV VLQJHUV

Paul Ireland | Email: pireland@hotmail.com Tel: 07736 305063

Joe Walsh Tours | www.joewalshtours.co.uk | T: 0151 909 2871 E: info@joewalshtours.ie | 143 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2 Joe Walsh Tours is bonded and licensed as a Tour Operator and Travel Agent by the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK. T.O. 052 | T.A. 0689 | ATOL 5163

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:17 Page 23

marriage & family life

Marriage and Family Life Celebration

The Liturgy reflected the diversity of these relationships using Scripture embracing many aspects of family life. The family Bibles were entrusted to three new families in 2013 Jimmy and Agnes Gee who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on 29th December 2012. James and Gina Vandenburg, celebrating the birth of their first child: - Sadie Alice and to Gareth and Kathryn Gillard.

His second justification was the wonderful access that priests are given with Catholic families within tradition and pastoral practice. Each partner to a stable marriage has inside experience of only one marriage, of only one family, besides the one they were born into; the priest is allowed, perhaps because he has no marriage ties of his own, to become privy to the inner workings of a hundred, or several hundred marriages of the people to whom he ministers. In that respect he is more of an expert on marriage than any married person can be because of the range of his experiences.

Bishop Vincent gave an inspiring homily reflecting on how many might say that the celibate priest, or bishop, is still not the best person to lead the praises of marriage and family. Here he offered two lines of explanation: first, that he grew up in a family. He was mightily blessed that it was a good family, and as the years go by he appreciates more and more the unmerited blessing it was to have that entry into life.

He spoke of parental love saying, ‘when we look at the love of parents for their children we have the most common demonstration of the deep meaning of love. It is self-giving without expectation of return. It may be care delivered with a tired unsmiling face sometimes; it may look more like exasperation and frustration sometimes; but it is selfless to a degree that is not easily matched in lives without those

On Sunday 10th February 2013 at the start of National Marriage Week the Pastoral Formation department held their annual celebration of Marriage and Family Life at Our Lady Immaculate, Bryn, with Bishop Vincent Malone as the main Celebrant writes Maureen O’Brien. Each year this event is celebrated in a different pastoral area enabling all people whether young/old, married/single, separated/divorced or widowed to come together to give thanks to God for a variety of loving family relationships.

responsibilities. ‘How vital it is that we support one another in family duties by our understanding of mistakes, by our practical help when possible, by our prayers.’ He concluded: ‘We live in an imperfect world, but there is much for which we rightly rejoice and give thanks. Blessed be God who calls us into rich fruitful relationships with himself and with one another. And today specifically we give thanks for the wondrous gifts of true Christian Marriage and family life in all its forms.’ After the homily married couples had the opportunity to renew their marriage commitment and for those who were without a partner Bishop Vincent encouraged them to turn their hearts to Christ and enter into that same union. Sincere thanks must go to those who made the Service possible: to Bishop Malone, Father John Gorman, the children’s ministry, music ministry, all the people who worked behind the scenes and most of all to all who attended the celebration and made it such a special event.

Catholic Pictorial

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:17 Page 24

Catholic Pictorial

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:17 Page 25

cathedral

When should we sing? Cathedral Record Canon Anthony O’Brien – Cathedral Dean The major focus for March for the Cathedral will be Holy Week and Easter. Although there is much happening to distract us: corporate dinner; guided tours; a series of examinations in the Crypt for Liverpool Community College who are using our facilities for the first time and concerts, we remain focussed on preparing our liturgies with dignity and solemnity. Bishop Tom will be principal celebrant at all our services this year, apart from the Chrism Mass when Archbishop Patrick will be with us.

by Chris McElroy In the Mass before the second Vatican council (now known as the Extraordinary form) there existed a distinction between ‘High’ Mass (where everything was sung) and ‘Low’ Mass (where everything was spoken.) The liturgical books treated the ‘Low’ Mass as the norm: indeed the Mass was only valid if the priest spoke the text himself, regardless of whether the choir or congregation sang. In our current rite, the division between ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Mass has been replaced by the notion of progressive solemnity. Recalling the notion that singing invests the rites with a greater solemnity, then it could be said that that the more we sing the more ‘solemn’ is our liturgy. In practical terms then, what does this mean? Let us look at the liturgical year: just like a terrain of mountains there exist peaks of varying sizes. In liturgical terms, these would be Christmas, Easter and the Patronal Feast of a church or school. Celebrations related to these occasions then would want to be

celebrated with greater solemnity, than for example, a weekday during ordinary time. An important principal is that each community accepts singing as normative. Children especially thrive on ritual; singing at each and every communal gathering (assembly, liturgy etc) reinforces the notion that singing is an important function of that gathered body. Whilst it is not necessary to sing everything that might be sung, the normative status of singing in the liturgy cannot be over stressed. How many of us have attended a birthday party where instead of singing ‘Happy Birthday’ together, we instead spoke it in a monotone? Almost everyone at a birthday party will join in with singing ‘Happy Birthday’, even if the resulting sound is a more of a joyful cacophony than a melodious song. The same expectation of communal song is also vital in church and school. This is the second article following on from why we should sing. Future articles will look at who should sing, and exactly what they should sing.

Our series of talks and meditations entitled ‘Christ was humbler yet – even to accepting death on a cross’ continue every Wednesday evening from 7.00 pm – 8.00 pm in the Gibberd Room. On 6 March Fr Ged will meditate on Stations 7 to 9 ‘Shoulder my yoke and learn from me’; Fr Liam will focus on Stations 10 to 12 ‘pierced through for our faults’ on 13 March, and finally Fr Ged once again will reflect on ‘Death to newness of life’ Stations 13 to 15. You are all very welcome to join us as part of your spiritual preparation for Easter. Apart from our usual Holy Week liturgies, details of which can be found on the Cathedral website, I would like to draw your attention to one or two other special services that we are holding in the Cathedral. On Saturday 16 March at 3.00 pm we are having a Reconciliation Service in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel which Bishop Tom will preside at. We have a special service on Palm Sunday at 7.30 pm – Tenebrae (Latin for ‘shadows’ or ‘darkness’). The distinctive ceremony of Tenebrae is the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are sung. It promises to be a very powerful, dramatic service and you are most welcome to come along. May I wish you all a joyous Easter.

Catholic Pictorial

p19-26_covers 22/02/2013 12:17 Page 26

Pic extras Mums the Word It seems only yesterday that I was writing the Christmas column, yet here I am reflecting on the holy season of Lent and the great feast of Easter. God invites each one of us during the 40 days of Lent to 'come back to me with all your heart'. Traditionally, we gave up something we liked – sugar in tea! Nowadays the Church encourages us to do something extra. During this special 'Year of Faith', there are many opportunities within the Archdiocese for us to receive many graces and blessings. The Stations of the Cross are said in all our churches and many meditations have been written to help us follow Jesus in his Passion. I personally find the 'three falls of Jesus' very consoling and encouraging; we just have to keep on getting up and try again. In life’s ups and downs, God never leaves us or gives us any more than we can carry. The Easter Triduum is the highlight of our liturgical year. The Chrism Mass at the Cathedral is very moving when the holy oils are blessed and distributed for sacramental use and when our priests renew their commitment to their parishioners. Then comes the Last Supper Mass, where Jesus gave himself to us in the Eucharist and washed the feet of his Apostles; the Passion and Death at 3pm on Good Friday; and the silence of Holy Saturday leading to the Easter Vigil, when once again 'The light of Christ has come into our world'. I am sure that you will all be involved in making your church’s altars beautiful, and I wish you and your families every Easter joy and the blessings of the risen Christ. I hope to see you all at our AGM on 20 April. God Bless. Angela Moore, President

Catholic Pictorial

News from the Liverpool Province of the Knights of St Columba

Helping the less able on the Wirral With the KSC’s recruitment drive on the Wirral now under way, it seems a good time to shed some light on the excellent work that the Knights are involved in at the Lauries Community Centre in Birkenhead. They are the leading participants in an important project taking place there known as the Tuesday Club for the Less Able, which is managed by the KSC and staffed by unpaid volunteers. As the name implies, club activities take place every Tuesday (except Christmas and New Year) and cater for people with disabilities. There are no restrictions for membership – the age of those attending ranges from young people in their mid-20s to senior citizens in their early 70s and there are people with a variety of disabilities. Activities are held in an informal, relaxed atmosphere and include cards, bingo, board games, dancing, watching TV and playing pool. There is also a bar and tuck shop. A major benefit of this project is that not only do the members enjoy the get-

together, but their parents and carers are given a little respite in the process. The club has an opendoor policy, and a guiding principle of ‘Come and try it – if it suits, come back’. Currently there are 50 members and an average weekly attendance of 45. A minibus from Mersey Care is hired to pick up members each week at a cost of £3 return and – reassuringly – there is always the same driver. Members’ birthdays are occasions for celebration at the club and there are also celebrations at Christmas and Easter. In October, meanwhile, an annual visit takes place to Rhyl with lunch at Rhyl Sun Centre, where Tuesday Club members are joined by local people with disabilities – an event hosted by the North Wales KSC Province and Council 614 Buckley/Wrexham. Websites: www.ksc.org.uk or www.ksc.org.uk/province2/ Email: DPOKeane@aol.com

p27-32_covers 22/02/2013 12:29 Page 27

Catholic Pictorial

p27-32_covers 22/02/2013 12:29 Page 28

PIC Life Miss O’Connell’s precious lesson in making lives better By Moira Billinge I was nine years old and a pupil at St Michael’s Junior School in West Derby Road, Anfield. One cold, wet, miserable morning, my sister’s teacher, Miss Mollie O’Connell, and I happened to come in from the playground and passed through the large front door at the same time. This was the pre-school uniform era and it was the first time Miss O’Connell had ever spoken to me. In the very gentle and precise way that I came to know so well, she said: ‘Moira, I do like your skirt. It’s beautiful.’ I remember feeling surprised, and pleased, that she knew my name, but the memory of her impromptu compliment and her kindness is as vivid to me today as it was then, so great was its effect. What a lifelong impact a few kind words can make. How important it is to be recognised by name. Someone once remarked: ‘I can live for a week on a good compliment.’ It is not that we necessarily search for praise, but a few thoughtful words can be lifechanging. Sometimes we overlook the importance of Catholic educators and Catholic schools. In the recent political debates about whether or not so-called ‘faith schools’ should be allowed or whether they should become part of the secularised state system, time and again antagonists have eventually acknowledged that Catholic schools educate a higher proportion of pupils from varied racial and lower socioeconomic backgrounds than their apparently more egalitarian state counterparts. Equally, the same sources have 28

Catholic Pictorial

Prayer for the Feast of Saint Joseph Dear Holy Saint Joseph spouse of Mary Be mindful of me pray for me Watch over me - faithful guardian of the most precious of all treasures I ask you to please bring this matter to a happy end - if it be for the glory of God and the good of my soul – Amen Send your favourite prayer to: Catholic Pictorial, 36 Henry Street, Liverpool L1 5BS

admitted that one reason why Catholic schools often show better per formance in any league tables is because pupils are more often treated as individuals, with teachers prepared to ‘go the extra mile’ on their behalf. In April Mollie O’Connell will be 95. Yet she is actively involved in St Michael’s parish and writes her weekly Gospel Thoughts for the parish newsletter. Such was her influence and the quality of her teaching that, decades after my sister first appeared in Mollie’s classroom as a pupil, they are still in regular contact. I am just one of many thousands of people whose lives she enriched in one way or another, although, unfortunately, she was never to become my form teacher. Her concentration as she engages in conversation and focuses on the individual is total and a talent born of her deep faith and love, interest and respect for others. She embodies the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who in 2007 said: ‘Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s Kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.’ There are, and always have been, many wonder ful teachers like Miss O’Connell. We thank God for their dedication and continued determination to inspire the young, despite their increasingly huge workload and additional stresses. Most cherish the awesome responsibility and awareness that they can influence their pupils’ lives forever. God bless them.

Worth a visit With spring arriving and the winter months finally behind us, plan a trip to a truly splendid fairytale castle, writes Lucy Oliver. Imposed impressively upon the Northumberland landscape, the stone towers of Alnwick Castle – the setting for Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films – contain plenty within. For children there are daily medieval craft activities, the chance to dress up as knights and ladies, and broomstick training, Harry Potter-style. For more traditional tastes there are the Capability Brown-designed gardens and a fascinating Coach House, featuring the Percy family’s luxurious state coach which journeyed to the 1825 coronation of Charles X of France. The lavish state rooms contain furniture, art and historical curiosities including gloves worn by Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell’s nightcap, and there is more to see in the castle’s various museums: the Percy Tenantry museum, Castle museum and Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland. Visitors can take two different guided tours – the Battleaxe to Broomsticks tour and Historical Grounds tour – and also venture below the castle walls where grisly folklore tales await in the Lost Cellars. Before leaving, enjoy a medieval mouthful at the Courtyard Cafe. Alnwick Castle is open from 29 March. Call 01665 511350 or go to www.alnwickcastle.com.

p27-32_covers 22/02/2013 12:29 Page 29

join in Eating Out

Children’s word search The wonderful Feast of St Joseph is celebrated on March 19 - see what you can find out about this great saint in our word search

Mothers Day and the wonderful Feast of Easter are big celebrations this month. Treat the family to a celebration meal at one of our listed restaurants but do book your table.

CARPENTER

G M

EXAMPLE

Deli-Fonseca Brunswick Dockside L3 0151-255 0808

Side Door Hope Street, L1 0151-707 7888

V W

FAITH FATHER HOLY

HUSBAND

M W

LOVE

SAINT JOSEPH

M Y

TRUST WORKER

Farmers Arms Chorley Road, Bispham Green, Lancs L40 01257 464640 Derby Arms Prescot Road, Aughton L39 01695 422237 Miller & Carter Parbold Hill, WN8 01257 462318 Matou Pier Head, L3 0151-236 2928

Recipe from the Monastery Kitchen

More Mullarkey From Johnny Kennedy

–

The young curate was in reflective mood. ‘Do you remember my first sermon?’ he asked Father Mullarkey. ‘How could I forget?’ replied the auld fella. ‘I was so nervous and you told me to grab their attention right away by saying I spent the happiest days of my life in the arms of a woman – and then tell them it was my mother.’ ‘I remember it as though it was yesterday,’ said Fr Mullarkey. ‘You stood up, shaking like a leaf, and said, ‘I spent the happiest days of my life in the arms of a woman and I can’t remember who it was but Fr Mullarkey knows’.’

Audio copy of the Pic out now An audio version of the ‘Catholic Pictorial’ is available free of charge, compiled by students, technicians and Chaplain, Helen Molyneux, at All Hallows RC High School, Penwortham Anyone interested in receiving the audio copy should contact Kevin Lonergan Tel: 01772 744148 or 01772 655433 (home).

Easter Nest Cake Melt some dark and white chocolate in two separate heat resistant bowls on top of pans of simmering water. Be careful not to let the chocolate boil. Mix with All Bran cereal for ‘twigs’ and sprinkle in some sultanas. Using a bowl-shaped container as a mould - a plastic bowl with some ‘give’ in it is ideal - press clumps of white and dark coated ‘twigs’ with the handle of a spoon into the inside of the bowl to form a nest. Refrigerate to set hard. Meanwhile sandwich together two sponges with a filling eg. jam and cream etc. Mix icing sugar with a little water to make some green coloured icing to spread over the top. Before it sets, sprinkle with green coloured desiccated coconut to look like grass. Dip bowl with nest in into hot water for a second to release the nest from the bowl. Coat the inside of the nest with a little more melted dark chocolate to make it smooth. Refrigerate to harden. Fill nest with small coloured chocolate eggs and place on top of the cake. decorate nest and grass with flowers and leaves and some chickens.

Catholic Pictorial

p27-32_covers 22/02/2013 12:29 Page 30

CATHOLIC PICTORIAL DIRECTORY Mail order in memoriam

Blooming Affordable Memorials 304 Park Road, Toxteth L8 4QY

£496 or fitted and anchored with up to 100 letters £650

T: 07804 286165 or 0151-7278333 Evenings

Your Local Catholic Business We specialise in all Memorials • Headstones (at trade prices) • Flower Arrangements • Ornaments • Flower Pots

Visit us at our Website www.graveneeds-memorials.co.uk

Wanted for the Missions Large Statues (Even damaged ones), old vestments, pictures, church fittings, rosaries, prayer books, etc.

cards & bookmarks TOWARDS THE THIRD SECRET distinction ByofIain Colquhoun

Acknowledgement IS IT ABOUT PAST EVENTS... Cards also available Funeral ServiceSTILL SheetsTO alsoCOME? available OR THINGS In response to this booklet Bishop Burns of Menevia wrote: ‘I commend your thoroughness of research and efforts to clarify the dangers involved in this very complex matter’. For the very first time I follow ‘pointers’ given by both the present Pope available and by Sister Lucia herself. Samples from 26 Holm Hey Road, Birkenhead CH43 0TP

Available for £2.OO inc p+p from author at Phone: 0151 608 9370 45 St Nicholas Court, Killay, Swansea SA2 7AG

Visit our website www.mortonpress.co.uk

Jesuits Jesuits

The The

For information about a life as a priest or brother

For information about life asplease a priest or brother in the Society of Jesus contact in the Society of Jesus please contact

Vocations Promoter 114 Mount Street Vocations Promoter London W1K 3AH 114 Mount Street

Please ring Mr. B. Ferris KSC, 102 Moor St, Earlsdon, Coventry CV5 6EY Tel: 02476 676986

email: voc@gbsj.org London W1K 3AH www.jesuitvocations.org.uk email: vocations@jesuit.org.uk www.jesuit.org.uk

Fitted Bedroom Furniture

JOHN W. GRIFFITH & SONS INDEPENDENT FAMILY FUNERAL DIRECTORS

(Incorporating Gibbons) PRESCOT

Fine fitted bedrooms at a fraction of the cost of other manufacturers

WILL WRITING SERVICE

GRANGE BANK FUNERAL HOME GRANGE ROAD,WEST KIRBY, WIRRAL 0151-625 7606 (Opp. Post Office) MILL BANK FUNERAL HOME, MILL LANE, WALLASEY, WIRRAL 0151-638 5528/5563

£45 per Will (2 Wills £80)

Free Design & Quote

Have your Will Written for you in the comfort of your own home

20 years building beautiful bedrooms. Every bedroom guaranteed

No extra charges Fast, friendly service

We are available 24 Hours, 7 days a Week. As near as you telephone. our service extends throughout Merseyside

F Flights lights Every Every SSaturday a t u rda y ffrom rom M anchester d irect Manchester direct 1 1th May May to to 28th 28th Sept Sept 11th

Short Breaks to Lourdes Opening Season Pilgrimage - 5 Nights - 6th May 3 Nights - 14th Aug, 4 Nights - 17th Jun & 23rd Sept www.mancunia.com www.mancunia.com

Tel: 01744 821390

R ROME OME

Departures from Manchester 4 nts - Apr, Sept & Oct

H HOLY OLY LAND LAND

Departures D epartures from from Manchester Manchester 7 Nights May, Jun, Sept Oct Nights - M ay, J un, S ept & O ct

FATIMA F ATIMA

Departures from Liverpool 4, 5 & 7 nts - May, Jun, Sept & Oct

0161 0161 790 790 6 6838 838

o office184@mancunia.com ffice184@mancunia.com

To advertise on this page please contact Andy. Tel 0151 709 7567 or email andy@merseymirror.com 30

Catholic Pictorial

Mancunia Mancuni a

LOURDES L O U R D ES

0151 292 1868

p27-32_covers 22/02/2013 12:29 Page 31

p27-32_covers 22/02/2013 12:29 Page 32