The Parish of "Our Lady Of Furness"

4th Sunday Lent 2017

Fr. Darren is looking for volunteers to work with the youth in our parish. If you are interested in helping, please email frdarrenolf or phone01229 471405

Best regards
John Sharpe

On Saturday 25th March at the 12:10 Mass in St. Mary’s, we shall celebrate the gift of married life in our parish community. All married couples are warmly invited to attend to thank God for the vocation of marriage and to renew their vows. The young couples who are preparing to get married have also been invited

Visit our new web page, which gives lots of information about ‘Mary’s Meals’ our sponsored fundraising charity, that enables many children – living in one of the world’s most impoverished countries – to come to school, receive a nutritious daily meal and gain an all-important education.

Mary’s Meals Webpage

3rd Sunday Lent 2017.pdf

​On Saturday the 4th March a good number of those preparing to either enter into full communion with the church or wish to be baptised attended the rite of election at Lancaster Cathedral. This group of people have weekly been attending the RICA programme in our parish.

The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) is a formal program of catechetical instruction, ascetically practice (prayer and spirituality), and liturgies whereby adults called catechumens are formally admitted into the Church and receive the Sacraments of Initiation Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. (The Sacrament of Penance is received later since baptism washes away all sin original sin and actual sin.) The “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” of the Second Vatican Council decreed, “The catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps, is to be restored and brought into use at the discretion of the local ordinary (Bishop).
This is what the Bishop had to say on his blog about the Rite of Election
The Rite of Election is a significant step for those who want to be received into the Catholic Church – preparing to receive the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist at Easter .It is also an occasion of joy to these individuals’ families, friends and local fellow-parishioners and clergy who work to accompany their journey of faith. After the candidates have completed their formation in the Catholic faith, the Rite of Election is celebrated by the local Bishop who chooses them and elects them in the name of the Lord and of the local Church (for us the Diocese of Lancaster) to which they belong. The call, the election, of the Church embodies in human voice the call of God to which the candidates have already responded. They are then asked to express their response here and now in the presence of the Church “Do you wish to enter fully into the life of the Church through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist?” They respond “We do.”

Please keep our brother and sisters in your prayers as they continue on the journey of RCIA 

Everyone had an early start this morning, with rooms to today and bags to be packed before setting off on the mini busses for Westminster Cathedral.  We attend the sung Mass at 10:30am which four young people from our group brought up the offertory.

The Mass was a little over an hour, by which time the young people were ready for McDonalds.

After the young people had eaten it was time for some good byes as some of the Barrow young people returned via train and the Preston people returned via the mini busses.

Please continue to pray for our young people as they grow in faith.

The Flame event confined after lunch with some young people giving their experience from working overseas with the poor. After this Cardinal Nicola lead a time of pray with then lead into a period of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Once this had been completed Matt Redman.  The whole theme of Flame this year was 10,000 reason to hope, the young people where invited to join Flame giving 10,000 messages of hope for those refugees forced out by war, poverty or persecution.

http://cymfed.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/10k_reasons_to_hope_worksheet.pdf

Cardinal Nicols also launched the the feedback APP for the synod in 2018, he said the Pope want to hear what young people had to say in their contribution to the Synod. This APP went live last night. The Cardinal said that hall the responses would be collected and put together to form part of the Synod on youth in 2018.

Last night after the Flame event had finished the group went for a tour of London, covering Oxford street, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, China town.

After the small tour of London we return to the Kiaros Centre, to be ready for an early start on Sunday morning.