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Showing posts from 2017

Sunday 31st December 2017

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The Feast of The Holy Family Masses  8.30am    10.15am     6pm ____________________________ ___________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Our True Home:  Scott Hahn Reflects on the Feast of the Holy Family Download Audio File Readings: Sirach 3:2-6 , 12-14 Psalm 128:1-2 ,  3 ,  4-5 Colossians 3:12-21 Luke 2:22-40 Why did Jesus choose to become a baby born of a mother and father and to spend all but His last years living in an ordinary human family? In part, to reveal God’s plan to make all people live as one “holy family” in His Church (see  2 Corinthians 6:16-18 ). In the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, God reveals our true home. We’re to live as His children, “chosen ones, holy and beloved,” as the First Reading puts it. The family advice we hear in today’s readings – for mothers, fathers and children – is all solid and practical. Happy homes are the fruit of our faithfulness to the

Sunday 24th December

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Fourth Sunday of Advent Masses 6pm Saturday Vigil 23rd December Sunday 24th  8.30am    10.15am    ____________________________ ___________ Christmas Mass Times St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Christmas Eve  6pm Vigil Mass especially for families with young children 12 am Mass of Midnight and the Blessing of the Crib ________________________________ Christmas Day Monday 25th December Mass of the Dawn 8.30am  Mass of the Day 10.15am Octave daily Masses 9.30am A joyful and Holy Christmas to you all! from Frs Jeff, Bob, Michael & Deacon Richard

Sunday 3 December 2017

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First Sunday of Advent Masses  8.30am    10.15am     6pm ____________________________ ___________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Watch for Him:  Scott Hahn Reflects on the First Sunday of Advent Download Audio File Readings: Isaiah 63:16-17 ,  19 Psalm 80:2-3 ,  15-16 ,  18-19 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:33-37 The new Church year begins with a plea for God’s visitation. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,” the prophet Isaiah cries in today’s First Reading. In today’s Psalm, too, we hear the anguished voice of Israel, imploring God to look down from His heavenly throne – to save and shepherd His people. Today’s readings are relatively brief. Their language and “message” are deceptively simple. But we should take note of the serious mood and penitential aspect of the Liturgy today – as the people of Israel recognize their sinfulness, their failures to keep God’s covenant, the

Sunday 26th November 2017

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Our Lord Jesus Christ The King Masses  8.30am    10.15am concluding with Benediction     6pm ____________________________ ___________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission When the End Comes: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Solemnity of Christ the King Download Audio File Readings: Ezekiel 34:11-12 ,  15-17 Psalm 23:1-3 ,  5-6 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 ,  28 Matthew 25:31-46 Many saints and Church leaders have seen a connection between Christ’s words in the Gospel for the Solemnity of Christ the King (see  Matthew 25:31-43 ) and His promise to be present in the Eucharist (see  Matthew 26:26-29 ;  Mark 14:22-25 ;  Luke 22:15-20 ). For instance, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say of her work with the destitute: “In Holy Communion we have Christ under the appearance of bread. In our work we find Him under the appearance of flesh and blood. It is the same Christ. ‘I was hungry, I was naked, I was

Sunday 19th November 2017

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33 rd    Sunday in Ordinary Time Masses  8.30am    10.15am     6pm ____________________________ ___________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Settling Accounts: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Download Audio File Readings: Proverbs 31:10-13 ,  19-20 ,  30-31 Psalm 128:1-5 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 Matthew 25:14-30 The day of the Lord is coming, Paul warns in today’s Epistle. What matters isn’t the time or the season, but what the Lord finds us doing with the new life, the graces He has given to us. This is at the heart of Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel. Jesus is the Master. Having died, risen, and ascended into heaven, He appears to have gone away for a long time. By our baptism, He has entrusted to each of us a portion of His “possessions,” a share in His divine life (see  2 Peter 1:4 ). He has given us talents and responsibilities, according to the measure o

Remembrance Sunday 12 November 2017

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32 nd    Sunday in Ordinary Time Masses  8.30am    10.15am - of Requiem     6pm 'We Will Remember them' _______________________________________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea SS9 4BX EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Members of the Wedding: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Download Audio File Readings: Wisdom 6:12-16 Psalm 63:2-8 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 Matthew 25:1-13 According to marriage customs of Jesus’ day, a bride was first “betrothed” to her husband but continued for a time to live with her family. Then, at the appointed hour, some months later, the groom would come to claim her, leading her family and bridal party to the wedding feast that would celebrate and inaugurate their new life together. This is the background to the parable of the last judgment we hear in today’s Gospel. In the parable’s symbolism, Jesus is the Bridegroom (see  Mark 2:19 ). In this, He ful

Sunday 5th November 2017

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31 st    Sunday in Ordinary Time Masses  8.30am    10.15am     6pm We welcome Fr Lee Bennett as Principal Celebrant at the 10.15am Mass _______________________________________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea SS9 4BX EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Calling the Fathers: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time Download Audio File Readings: Malachi 1:14-2:2 ,  8-10 Psalm 131:1-3 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9 ,  13 Matthew 23:1-12 Though they were Moses’ successors, the Pharisees and scribes exalted themselves, made their mastery of the law a badge of social privilege. Worse, they had lorded the law over the people (see  Matthew 20:25 ). Like the priests Malachi condemns in today’s First Reading, they caused many to falter and be closed off from God. In a word, Israel’s leaders failed to be good spiritual fathers of God’s people. Moses was a humble father-figure, preaching the law but also practicing it

Sunday 29th October 2017

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30 th    Sunday in Ordinary Time Masses  8.30am    10.15am     6pm _______________________________________ St Peter's Catholic Church, Leigh on Sea EASTWOOD PARISH Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Love Commanded: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Download Audio File Readings: Exodus 22:20-26 Psalm 18:2-4 ,  47 ,  51 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus came not to abolish the Old Testament law but to fulfill it (see  Matthew 5:17 ) And in today’s Gospel, He reveals that love – of God and of neighbour – is the fulfillment of the whole of the law (see  Romans 13:8-10 ). Devout Israelites were to keep all 613 commands found in the Bible’s first five books. Jesus says today that all these, and all the teachings of the prophets, can be summarized by two verses of this law (see  Deuteronomy 6:5 ;  Leviticus 19:18 ). He seems to summarize the two stone tablets on which God was said to have engraved the ten commandme