The Parish of "Our Lady Of Furness"

PPCs will be suspended until further notice following Fr Bernard’s sudden and unexpected death.

Revised dates for the two recently postponed meetings in Sacred Heart and Saint Columba with Saint Patrick parishes will be published in due course.

Bishop Michael has written an ‘extra’ letter, that is, one that wasn’t included in his annual plan, which he sends to all of his priests.  As Fr Bernard said, in what turned out to be his last homily, “. . . because it wasn’t in his plan, it must be about something that he thinks is important”.

Please make time to read it.  It isn’t very long, just 2 small pages of text, but it contains some vital messages for all of us who live and worship in our combined parishes of Sacred Heart and Saint Columba with Saint Patrick.  This link will take you directly to the letter.

Bishop Campbell’s Pentecost Pastoral Letter: re-grouping to be smaller but more ‘missionary’ Church

This headline, taken from the Lancaster Diocese website, tells us that the Bishop is looking ahead to visualise the challenges that we must face; not on our own, but with the support of the Holy Spirit, just like the early Christians did.

We could not have imagined, as we listened to Fr Bernard reading this letter that he would become, on that very day, another of what the Bishop refers to as the “numerous recent clergy deaths”.

Fr Bernard’s unexpected and sudden death is a change that no-one expected.  It leaves us shocked, stunned, and facing an even bigger challenge in forging a path for our Fit for Mission journey without his guidance and leadership.  Just like the Apostles, at the Ascension, our sense of loss and uncertainty may make us numb and concerned for what the future holds.  But we, like them, must put our trust in the Lord, receive the Holy Spirit and use our lives and our energies to do the Father’s will and rebuild the Kingdom here in our communities in Barrow.  What we achieve will be our tribute to Fr Bernard and the legacy of the wisdom and leadership he gave us during his all too short time with us.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.  Amen

We must remember Bishop Michael and our senior clergy in our prayers too as they face yet more difficult decisions on re-shaping and re-grouping the Church in Lancaster Diocese.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful
And kindle in them the fire of Your love
V: Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created
R: And You shall renew the face of the earth

Let us Pray:
O God, Who instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, Grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen

Sacred Heart School has long had strong links with the parish community and the wider local community.  Over the years, a lot of work has been done by successive Head Teachers to improve these links.  This term several different groups  have been established, aimed at encouraging parents to get involved in the life of the school.

Mother and Toddler Group
This is held every Tuesday morning from 9.00-10.30 am. It’s a chance for mums and dads to have a coffee and a chat while their little ones have fun playing and getting to know each other. This group is open to anyone with pre-school children, so if you are interested, feel free to pop along.

Friends of Sacred Heart Group
This group meets on a Wednesday morning – again from 9.00-10.30 am. Parents and friends get together to offer help with projects which the school are in involved in. So at the moment they are helping to prepare the food for the Lenten Lunches; organising a school Easter Fair to raise funds for CAFOD and collecting items for the Christmas Child Shoebox Appeal.

Family Cooking
This is proving to be a very popular session with a long waiting list! Parents and children cook together, learning how to make simple, but healthy food. We are lucky to have the help of one of our dads who is a trained chef and is sharing his skills with the other parents.

The group have also recently enjoyed a visit by Lily and Jim from the Diamond restaurant, which was reported in the Evening Mail.  They very kindly gave up their time to come into school to show the group how to cook tasty food in celebration of Chinese New Year. Many thanks go to them for their help and kindness.

 Tea and Cakes Afternoon
On Friday 15^th March at 2.00pm we will be holding a “Tea and Cakes” afternoon – where the children will entertain you with a little Easter concert. Why not come along and spend some time with us and the children – we would love to see you!

Our weekly newsletter now contains a reference to the next Sunday’s Gospel reading.  This is to help us  take up one of Fr. Bernard’s Year of Faith challenges, to read and contemplate upon the scriptures each week and prepare for celebrating the next Sunday Mass.

Sr. Margaret Fielding, who visited our parishes last year to give us several talks on Prayer, taught us about ‘Lectio Divina’ or ‘Praying the Scriptures’.  She is involved in the production and distribution of PREGO leaflets, working with St. Bueno’s Spirituality Centre.

Three leaflets are produced

• the weekly PREGO leaflet, giving reflections on each week’s Gospel reading
• the monthly PREGO EXTRA leaflet, giving guidance on  the themes of each month’s readings
• the YEAR OF FAITH leaflet, expanding on a theme from scripture that relates to the YoF themes

You can find these leaflets by following this link – http://www.beunos.com/prego.htm#
You can add this link to your web browser ‘Favourites’ so that you can access it easily each week.

Have a look and, please, do let us know what you think about them.
– Are they helpful?
– Will you use them?
– If you like them – why do you like them?

Local arrangements for distributing hard copies are in place for people who do not have the internet. There are also e-mail distribution lists for people who are not so ‘web-wise’.  Details will be provided later, once they have been confirmed.

Coffee and Chat sessions for the next three months will be held on the following dates at the usual time in the Social Area.

Keep an eye on the Newsletters nearer the time for details

Crossing the Threshold – is the theme adopted by the Bishops of England and Wales for reaching out to non-attending Catholics, those people who used to be called ‘lapsed Catholics’.  Of the 5 million Catholics in the UK, it is estimated that 4 million no longer practice their faith.

A day of prayer and workshops was held at St. Mary’s, Leyland on 2nd February (Candlemas Day).The report of the day held at Leyland has been published on the web. Have a look at http://www.catholicnews.org.uk/Home/News-Releases/Evangelisation-Day

Bishop Michael gave a very good opening address. You can read what he said by opening a link on this website or by finding it on the Lancaster Diocese website. We will make copies available for those of you without a computer.  These can be picked up from the back of our churches.

A report will be prepared for both PPCs.

If you want to find out more about ‘Crossing the Threshold’, the day itself or the information gathered, please contact John Newby or Barry Kendall.

A Day of Recollection for members of both parishes will take place at Boarbank Hall, near Grange-over-Sands, on Thursday 7^th March, 10am to 6pm. Cost £15 including lunch.

See the posters at the back of church for more details.

This is an ideal opportunity to put the Year of Faith into practice.

Contact Andrew Holden after mass or through the Contact Us page.

Watch this space for latest news of what’s on

The ‘Year of Faith’ declared by Pope Benedict began in earnest in October 2012, on the 50th anniversary of the start of Vatican II.  How many of us remember that day?

Many events and activities are likely to emerge as the year goes by, all of them aimed at strengthening the faith of all Catholics.  The year is paticularly aimed at rekindling the faith of those who, for whatever reason, no longer practice their faith.

It will be a challenging year for us all, but it will be a year that presents us with opportunities for pushing ourselves to develop our understanding of our own, individual faith.  It will also help us to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the basis of our beliefs and practices as Catholic followers of Jesus Christ.  The Pope calls it ‘the New Evangelisation’.  That ‘E’-word is scary for most of us, even though it is what Jesus challenges us to do, each time we are dismissed from Mass.

I can remember one parish priest, Fr Joe Phelan (RIP), who used to challenge us in his congregation by saying, “What’s the point of being an adult with only a child’s understanding of our faith and religion?”  In other words, why do many of us stop our formal learning when we left behind RE lessons as we left school or, for some, as we left primary school.  Maybe that’s a question we need to be asking ourselves now, so that we can begin to think about what ‘concrete’ and ‘specific’ things we need to organise and do so that we can start learning again.

We will be inundated with information, there is little doubt of that.  But it is a great opportunity to learn more, to re-start our religious education.  There is already an amazing amount of information on websites around the world.

If you want to dip your toe into the water, the Lancaster Diocese website is a good place to start – http://www.lancasterdiocese.org.uk/Groups/187799/The_Diocese_of/The_Catholic_Faith/The_Year_of/The_Year_of.aspx

There is a series of pages  – under the banner of “Year of Faith – Seeking the Face of Jesus” – with suggestions of what we might do as parishes, schools, families, and individuals.  There’s also a good ‘Links’ page that will take you to Vatican information and to other international and national sources of information.

Bishop Michael  sent out letters to all Parish Priests AND to all Parish Pastoral Council chairpersons.  He asked a long series of questions about how we are progressing with the aims declared by parishes in their responses to Bishop Patrick’s challenges in the ‘Fit For Mission’ review.  He also asked us to say what ‘concrete’ and ‘specific’ things we will be doing in our parishes during the Year of Faith itself.  He doesn’t want to know what ideas we have, but what real actions we will take.

Our responses went to the Bishop around the end of October 2012.  The Bishop and his Year of Faith team have the onerous job of reading, digesting, and responding to all of the responses they have received.  That may take some time.

In the meantime ,  you may be asked for your help: it will be needed.  The Parish Councils alone cannot decide what the parish should do or organise everything that has to happen.

Please, don’t wait to be asked or wait for other people to do things.  Be brave and come forward to offer your help or tell us what you want to happen.

There will be more news on these items later – and probably a separate web-page will appear to cover all aspects of the Year of Faith.

If you want to know more or become actively involved then please contact Fr Bernard or your PPC Chairs – John Newby at Sacred Heart and John Sharpe at Saint Columba with St Patrick’s

To help us prepare ourselves for weekend Mass, the bell will now sound 2 minutes early.
This will allow us time to settle into our place of prayer.

We should take time to become still and quieten ourselves from the cares of the day, sharing with God the joys, graces and blessings of the past week, and thank God for them. Perhaps there are less joyous things that we could talk over with God too.

We ask God to make us aware of his loving presence with us HERE and NOW.
We get ready to meet Jesus in the Mass.
We remember GOD IS WITH US
We Talk in our own words to Jesus or maybe finish this time with an OUR FATHER