Sunday 29th January
9.30 Uttoxeter. - Teresa Wheeler
11.30 Abbots Bromley - Rod Livingston - Beatrice Oldershaw

Monday 30th January.
9.45 Morning Prayer followed by Communion Service

Tuesday 31st January - St John Bosco
19.00 Evening prayer with Mass - Richard Lavin

Wednesday 1st February
9.45 Morning Prayer and Mass - Ford and Finch families

Thursday 2nd February Presentation of the Lord
9.45 Morning prayer with Mass - Margaret Kelly

Friday 3rd February - Saint Werburg
9.15 School Mass - Fr Gregory Winterton RIP

Saturday 4th February
10.00 Exposition with Morning Prayer, followed by a Communion Service.
12.00 Confessions

Sunday 5th February  Ist Holy Communion Enrolment
9.30 Uttoxeter. - People of the Parish
11.30 Abbots Bromley - Patrick Herrity

Abbots Bromley Wednesday Wed 1st
18.00 Rosary and Communion Service

Sunday Lectionary- Fourth Sunday in ordinary time Year B
Weekday Lectionary Year 2 - Week 4
Psalter week 4


Please remember those whose anniversaries occur at this time;
Ethel Parker, Mary Dale, Edward Hodgkins, Ernest Murtagh, Julia Tildesley, Debbie Phowss, Cecil Chadfield, Robert Johnson, Eva Johnson, Jean Johnson, Harold Ward, Thomas Lavin, Dorothy Mellor, Pail Higgins, Vera Chadfield, Dorothy Mellor, Kathleen Cosgrief, and Kathleen Edwards.

Newsletter No: 529 Sunday 29th January 2012. Please ring Sally Herbert 01889 563469 with information. If you are new to the Parish please take a Welcome Pack from the back of church or ask for one.

Next Sunday, February 5th:
Second collection for The Catholic Education Service promotes and supports Catholic Education in England and Wales. It does so on behalf of the Bishops' Conference and in partnership with the 22 diocesan education services.

Saint Vincent de Paul Society:
The next meeting will be held in the Guild Hall after Mass on February 5th.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Crib offerings. £46.75 was collected.

Missals:
If you bring your own missal to church please put your name in the front. A number have been purchased from Anthony and are difficult to return to their owner when they are all the same!

Please pray for all the sick and housebound especially:
Father Fred, Marissa Edge, John Riordan, Rachel Walker, Margaret Walker, Gwen Tipper, Marie Sowter, Carmel Snape, Jackie Houlihan, Tim Hames, Liam Johnson, Doris Buckley, Betty Hudson, Joan Mern, Peggy Oldham, Joan Hoptroff, Win Prince, Pat Edwards,
Frances Wood, May Fallows, Amy White, Mary Waltho, George Peaty, Anna Crosby, Monica Baxter, Kath Pym, Kath Adams, Daniel Leadbetter, Jan Spooner, Michael Colclough, Mary Copplestone, Leanna Hudson, Sue Geen, Janet Hackney, Adam Edginton,
Angela Bryant, Theresa Waring ,Charlie Finch, Sue and Mike Brown, Tony and Josie Goodwin, Bernard Wilks, Catherine Abell, Canon Gerry Hanlon, Father Jim Ward and
Father James Mealy.

Basil in Blunderland
One day the children, Barney and Kate, invited Cardinal Basil Hume to play hide and seek with them.
He had not meditated and as a monk he was required to do half an hour of mental prayer each day. How, he wondered, could he play hide-and-seek and, at the same time, meditate? As the book unfolded we saw how each hiding place in fact became a place to pray and how each suggested thoughts about the spiritual life.
This chapter was entitled 'Fog'
"I did something which I think was probably wrong. Now there is an unwritten convention among hide-and-seek players that you do not in fact go back again to the place where you have already hidden. But I thought if I did this, then I might get quite a bit of peace. I also hoped the two children would forgive my decision to go back behind the curtain where before I had been able to sit comfortably. It was now unlikely that I would be found by them. I now had a chance to continue with my prayers. As I looked out of the window I noticed that the fog was still as thick as ever. The last time I hid there, it suddenly lifted and I saw the garden. I was able to reflect then on how sometimes the fog, which seems to separate us from God, lifts a little and we see something which reminds us of God. The beauty of the garden spoke to me of the beauty which is in God. This time the fog suggested quite another train of thought. Quite often people who are leading good lives, doing their best to pray well and serve God, can and do go through very dark periods. They feel lost. The fog around them appears to become thicker and thicker. They can see nothing clearly. They are in turmoil or just empty. They have no peace within. They want somebody to come and help them. The light has gone out of their minds. They experience no warmth in their hearts. They may rush from one spiritual book to another to find a solution, or go in search of a spiritual director, but in vain.
There is another way of reacting. A sheep which has wandered away from the rest of the flock gets itself caught up in a whole heap of briars. The more it struggles to get free the more it becomes entangled. As it struggles, a great fog comes down and hides the surroundings from the sheep's eyes. The sheep is lost, lonely and unhappy. It has exhausted itself struggling to get free. Then through the fog it hears the sound of the shepherd's voice. It does not see him, but knows that he is coming in search of it. The shepherd approaches, disentangles the sheep from the briars and sets it free. Indeed more than this, the shepherd carries the sheep on his shoulder back to a place where there is no fog and cold but only light and warmth.
For many of us who believe that we are doing our best to pray and respond to God's will this kind of situation will occur. It happens, I believe, so that we may recognise our need to be helped by another. We have to learn patience. We must wait. We may have to wait a long time, entangled by our problems and unable to see where to go. When Our Lord called Himself the Good Shepherd and then told us the story about the lost sheep, we learn something which is not only very helpful but profoundly important. I often feel like a lost sheep surrounded by fog, but I am happy to remain so, waiting for the Good Shepherd to come and find me. He delights in my patience, and in my trusting of Him that indeed He will come. I may read many books seeking a way out of my problems; I may search out wise and experienced spiritual guides, and find no solutions. True, God may speak to us through a book or a person. Sometimes He leaves us to wait, alone and confused. It is a purifying process, as we come to rely less - or if at all -on our own resources, and have to abandon ourselves into God's hands. 'Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.' Christ prayed these words on the Cross. They are good friends for us when our need is desperate.
With that lovely thought in mind I just sat behind those musty curtains and prayed, 'Lord, please keep looking for me, I am waiting to be found.'"

The Presentation of the Lord.
According to Jewish law, the firstborn male child belonged to God, and the parents had to "buy him back" on the 40th day after his birth, by offering a sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24) in the temple (thus the "presentation" of the child). On that same day, the mother would be ritually purified (thus the "purification").
Originally, the feast was celebrated on February 14, the 40th day after Epiphany (January 6), because Christmas wasn't yet celebrated as its own feast, and so the Nativity, Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord (Theophany), and the feast celebrating Christ's first miracle at the wedding in Cana were all celebrated on the same day. By the last quarter of the fourth century, however, the Church at Rome had begun to celebrate the Nativity on December 25, so the Feast of the Presentation was moved to February 2, 40 days later.

Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan.
Saint John Chrysostom