Upcoming Activities & Offerings

Sun. Sep 13th  --  24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Education Day

                               9:00 am Mildenhall, 11:00 am Brandon (and online)

          (No Mass during the week)

Sun. Sep 20th  --  25th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

                               HOME MISSION DAY

                               9:00 am Mildenhall, 11:00 am Brandon (and online)

         (No Mass during the week)

Sun. Sep 27th  --  26th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

                               9:00 am Mildenhall, 11:00 am Brandon (and online)

Fri. Oct 9th -- Family Fast Day

Remember! To attend Mass in person on Sunday you must book from 1pm on Wednesday for the following weekend.  See Church Services page on this website.             

Fr Luke will be on Holiday from 14th - 30th September,  During this time there will not be any weekday Masses. (The first day back 1st October there will be a 10:00 am Mass at Mildenhall.)  The two Sunday Masses will celebrated by a visiting Priest and streamed online as usual.

Whilst Fr Luke is away we welcome Fr Denys Lloyd from Norwich who will be celebrating both Masses in the parish on both weekends.

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, 

call to him while he is still near.

Let the wicked man abandon his way, 

the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him, 

to our God who is rich in forgiving; 

for my thoughts are not your thoughts, 

my ways not your ways– it is the Lord who speaks.

Yes, the heavens are as high above earth 

as my ways are above your ways, 

my thoughts above your thoughts.

                                                        Isaiah 55:6-9

Besides being a word far too big for breakfast, anthropomorphism has been invented to express our understanding of things non-human. We use it in many ways to attribute human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. For example, I have a neighbour who does this in relation to her dog, who has hands, not paws. There may be times when you treat your computer as human, for example, by raging at it when something goes wrong. Even more common is to treat your car as if it were human, asking it to go faster, shouting at it when it breaks down, and so on.

It is so common, that it is too easy to use it in thinking about and talking to God.

In the passage from Isaiah quoted above, God firmly and lovingly reminds us that it doesn’t work, if we rely on our image of Him. “My ways not your ways” is a straightforward way of saying “Take care. I’m not to be treated exactly as if I am like you.” We cannot fully understand God (or ourselves for that matter!). This means that we should take great care, for example, in making judgements, especially about other people and their behaviour and motives. It’s best left to God to judge the worth of people.

This is not to say that we can know nothing about God. What we know and understand comes from Him. To acquire such leaning means we have to be able to listen to Him. 

More on this next week,    TC

Please use October 9th as your fast day and then send the donation saved by fasting to us in one of these ways:

1. By. making a transfer from your bank account to the parish’. Details of the parish’s bank account are: -

• Bank Name: Lloyds Bank plc
• Bank Address: Thetford (309858) Branch
• Sort Code: 30-98-58
• Account Number: 00489176 

or

2. By sending a cheque to the parish made out to Brandon & Mildenhall RC Parish. Please do not send cash.

Watch this space for news of how we hope to run a virtual Autumn Fayre. It is our main fund raiser of the year and our Church needs funds!

Eileen has already proposed that she is happy to make her wonderful Christmas cakes. They will need to be pre-ordered, and will cost £10 - excellent value for a cake full of fruit & brandy. More details to follow, and please get in touch with your ideas at cfburrell55@gmail.com

In 2015, more than 700 million people, or 10 per cent of the world population, lived in extreme poverty, struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation. Until 2019, That figure dropped dramatically to less than 5 per cent.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic is reversing the trend of poverty reduction, with tens of millions of people in risk of being pushed back into extreme poverty - people living on less than $1.90/day - causing the first increase in global poverty in more than 20 years.

Given the scale of the problem, it seems that ordinary people, like you and me, can do little to stop this trend. That is not true. There is much that we can do locally, and for the world

There is much we can do:

• Supporting the Food Bank each month. This is crucial for the Food Bank’s survival and the sustenance of the poor among us;
• Supporting missionaries who help the poor around the world by saving money through the Red Box campaign;
• Buying fairly traded [Fairtrade] goods, which mean poor producers can get fair profits and trade their way out of poverty;
• Living simply so that climate change can be slowed and the poor better protected from climate disasters;
• Donating to CAFOD to support its campaigns for the poor;
• Supporting the annual Shoebox campaign;
• And many more initiatives that each of us get involved in.

These may be small acts of generosity, but small gestures build up to create tsunamis of love for our neighbours here and across the world.                                    TC

Last week we saw that charity does begin at home, when “home” is your heart stirred by God’s love into having compassion for others, that is, the poor, whether poor in spirit or in material things. Let us look at the latter. Pope Francis has summed up the issue succinctly, as usual:

“Jesus tells us what the ‘protocol’ is, on which we will be judged. It is the one we read in chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel: I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was in prison, I was sick, I was naked and you helped me, clothed me, visited me, took care of me. Whenever we do this to one of our brothers, we do this to Jesus. Caring for our neighbour; for those who are poor, who suffer in body and in soul, for those who are in need. This is the touchstone.”

From Papa Francesco: Questa economia uccide (Pope Francis: This economy kills) by Andrea Tornielli &. Giacomo Galeazzivia

This will be news to few of us. There are an estimated 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, every one of whom will have heard this extract from Matthew’s Gospel. One in twelve people in the UK are Catholic – that’s 5 million people in our country who have heard this bit of Good News.

There are 736 million in the world in extreme poverty, who have little or no access to fresh water or adequate health care and, if they are employed at all, earn less than £1.42 per day. What could you do with only £1.42 a day or the equivalent of £9.94 for a seven day working week?

Here in England it has recently been revealed that some workers in the garment industry are working for less than £3 per hour. Again, how would you manage on £150 (gross) for a 50 hour week?

It is mystifying why these inequalities continue, when there are so many of us charged by Jesus to aid the poor. What to do? We’ll look at that next week.

[Statistics about global poverty are attached to this Newsletter.] TC

John Wyclif, in Of Prelates in 1382, wrote “Charite schuld bigyne at hem-self” and others, such as John Marston (1610) and Sir Thomas Browne (1642) have proved authors of its use as “Charity begins at home.” It is, in my view, used too frequently to discourage charitable giving to others, especially foreigners: that is, “charity should begin at home and end there.” That’s a pity, because it shows ignorance of the origin of the saying. The notion that family should be one’s foremost concern is in 1 Timothy 5:8:

“Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

This is not a recommendation to have compassion only for one’s nearest and dearest. It and the proverb itself are much deeper in meaning than an exhortation to meanness. For me, an Australian Baptist Minister, Melinda Cousins, summed it up in a blog, six years ago:

“… my understanding is that the saying as it was originally taken up …. was meant to refer to the fact that virtues are cultivated in the everyday – that is, we learn to be compassionate and charitable people at home; [and] that capacity within us as human beings begins to develop there, and then grows as we exercise it outside the home.” ‘Can we please stop saying ‘Charity begins at home?’ Thinking Aloud 2014

The word ‘charity’ entered the English language to mean ‘Christian love for others’, especially the poor. It has often been linked to agapé, or unconditional love, the most Christ-like love there can be. That’s a far cry from restricting compassion to just your aunty.

As we learn to love God through experience of His love for us, so we learn how that kind of loving can be the route to helping those in need, wherever in the world they are, and thus demonstrating, with the humility and tenderness agapé requires, God’s love and His Son’s offer of salvation.

                                                                                            TC

“We are God’s work of art”     Ephesians 2:10

A Message from SPUC – The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

‘On 24 June 2020, MPs voted by a huge majority in favour of Dr Rupa Huq MP’s Ten Minute Rule Bill “to restrict demonstrations in the vicinity of abortion clinics”. The Bill comes up for a Second Reading in the House of Commons on Friday 25 September.

Sarah Olney MP is also introducing a similar bill on Friday October 30. …..

….. We are launching a petition calling upon the Home Secretary to uphold the right of peaceful, law-abiding pro-life citizens to save the lives of unborn children and to offer help to pregnant women directly outside abortion clinics…..’

• Please go to www.spuc.org,uk/SaveTheRightToSaveLives and sign the petition.
• Please share the petition with friends and family via email and social media.

---------------------------

“St Paul says that we are all the work of God. If we truly believe this and try to live by the apostle’s statement, it means defying all our preconceived notions about others and, above all, about ourselves. St Paul gives us a new way of looking at reality, a reality that now appears to our eyes as transfigured by the light of God and renewed in Christ.

Each element of creation is, therefore, changed and made different. We can no longer “act as usual”, as if nothing has happened. We are now in Christ, and each of us is a new creation bearing the image of God. Therefore, we must show utmost respect to one another and to ourselves, because we are all God’s handiwork.

This is not always easy to do. We are weak, and often struggle and fail. We must pray for the sort of faith that strengthens our resolution, so that the grace of God may act in each of us, according to God’s wishes. It is said of St Seraphim of Sarov that he addressed each person he met with the salutation, “Christ is risen, my joy.” He called each and everyone “my joy” because he saw in them the work of God. This is another saint who has much to teach us.”

                                                                          Br Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette: Blessings of the Daily

Pope Francis says:

“I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life. In the same way, however, I can and must [state] that there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father.” (Apostolic Letter, 2016)

“Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good... Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”

It’s that time of year again, when we ask you to pack a shoebox for Samaritan’s Purse. Your box of delights will be delivered at Christmas to a child (girl or boy) in need. As things stand there will be special arrangements this for collecting your box. A small supply of boxes is available, if you need one. Please contact Gill Caple on 01638 716474 for details.

You can find out more about the scheme at www.samaritans-purse.org.uk

The first series of talks have finished for the time being, but the full catalogue is available below.

Missed a talk? The full series is available to ‘watch again’ both here on our Faith Talks page and on Facebook. 

Topics covered thus far: 

• Faith for our Times: God's call on our lives - Fr Luke's Vocation Story
• Faith and Reason (Science and Faith) 
• Genesis, Evolution and the Big Bang!
• The Resurrection in scripture and Tradition 
• The Eucharist: Real Presence 
• The Eucharist: Source and Summit
• The Eucharist: Meal and Sacrifice
• The Church
• The Problem of Evil
• Spiritual Warfare
• There is something about Mary

FOOD BANK

Although we still cannot use our churches as a collection centre for the Food Bank, people’s needs remain. You don’t have to be unemployed to get help from a Food Bank. Those in low paid jobs, including those still furloughed, struggle to provide themselves and their families with the basic essentials of daily living, from food to hygiene and health products.

Our next collection would have taken place on August 3rd . Please use this date to put together your next donation and take it to the King’s Project in Mildenhall. They are open from 10.00 am to Noon on Mondays and Fridays and will welcome your contribution.

CAFOD

CAFOD Beirut Emergency Appeal

The explosions In Beirut have left hundreds of families with NOTHING.

Local organisations and volunteers are already on the frontlines, assisting hospitals and attending to the injured.

YOU CAN HELP: go to https://cafod.org.uk/donations/one-off?_Amounts=25&_Appeal=121949

CORONAVIRUS INITIATIVE:  CAFOD has joined with the UK Disasters Emergencies Committee to help millions of people whose lives are at risk, as coronavirus spreads across refugee camps and countries suffering conflict. 

COVID 19 has swept cross the world. Over 700,000 people have died and more than 12 million have survived it. Western nations have the highest survival rates. Poor countries have the worst. Please remember and join in CAFOD’S Coronavirus Campaign. Go to www.cafod.org.uk/coronavirus

You can donate at www.cafod.org.uk/coronavirus to help CAFOD scale up its coronavirus response through our Global Church family. Or use CAFOD’s Summer of Hope fundraising ideas with your family and friends to transform lockdown and raise money for the appeal: for more information go to www.cafod.org.uk/summerofhope .

CAFOD’S REACH. Last week we gave details of CAFOD’s Coronavirus Campaign. That’s not all CAFOD do! Here’s a short list of their campaigns. Click on each to get an up-to-date report.

• Syria crisis: Millions of refugees face new threat from coronavirus

• Rohingya Crisis: Reaching vulnerable families

• Yemen crisis explained

• Cyclone Amphan brings double crisis to Bangladesh and India

• Cyclone Idai: how your donations are helping people rebuild their lives

• The humanitarian challenges that lie ahead in 2020

• CAFOD launches urgent appeal for millions of families facing hunger in Zimbabwe and Zambia

• Over 200,000 evacuated as Typhoon Kammuri makes landfall in the Philippines

Fr Luke has a new Daily Radio Show on Catholic Radio Station, Radio Maria!

‘Heroes of Faith’ profiles heroic and saintly Christians from throughout history in the
hope that we can draw some inspiration from their lives.

The show is on Mon – Friday at 3:10 pm and repeated at 10:25 pm each evening.
The station is available on DAB Radio* and online at https://radiomariaengland.uk/
you can also download their app (Radio Maria World family) from the app store –
you will need to select Radio Maria England from the list.

*Likely that DAB coverage in our area won’t get Radio Maria

Don’t worry you can now just visit our website!

The Facebook live steam in now integrated with our parish website, this means you can simply go to the parish website and see the live stream. The video will appear in a screen below the main logo (active while services are being streamed live). If it doesn’t appear after a few minutes refresh the page.  If still having problems, click on the link in the box below the live stream place holder.

For those of you who are using Facebook and commenting, please continue to do so as you can only interact with the page through Facebook.

Customers have questions, you have ansThe Irish station Radio RTE, which is based in Dublin, is broadcasting to the UK on long wave 252kHz. Every other Sunday they broadcast Mass at 11am.  The next one will be on Sunday, May 3 and fortnightly thereafter.

Radio Maria England, which is based in Cambridge, broadcasts on DAB+ in Greater London and on DAB (Band 11C 220.352 MHz) in Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas.  You can also listen to it from across East Anglia online at https://radiomariaengland.uk  Broadcasts include Masses, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and morning and evening prayer.

EWTN, which has a base in Walsingham, Norfolk, produces a wide range of radio programmes and can be reached on https://www.ewtn.com/radio

Premier Christian Radio is on DAB, Internet and can be also accessed via TV Freeview 725wers. Display the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.

At this time, it will not be possible for people to receive Holy Communion. Everyone is invited, however, to join in the ancient practice of making regular spiritual communions, this can be particularly fruitful when following the daily Mass in your Missals on online via the live feed.

Prayer of St Alphonsus:  My Jesus, I believe that you are present in this Holy Sacrament of the altar. I love you above all things and I passionately desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come spiritually into my soul so that I may unite myself wholly to you now and forever. Amen.

Struggling with the coronavirus and social distancing measures? Scared? Need to talk? Struggling to get shopping or basic groceries?

Pick up the phone!  Your parish is your family and we are here for you, in the first instance feel free to call Fr Luke on 01842 812200 and he will do his best to help you, support you and put you in contact with others who may be able to help. If you don’t get an answer.  Leave a message and your number (Clearly) and he will get back to you. We may be socially isolating -but we are not on our own!

(especially if you are having trouble live-streaming Online)

Radio Stations: DAB (Digital) Radio: Radio Maria England, Premier Christian Radio (available on TV Radio as well and has Sunday Morning Worship) Radio 4 Has Sunday Worship on Sunday Morning at 8:10 am on FM and a Daily Service at 9:45 am on Long Wave (not FM).

TV: Sky TV 588 is ETWN (Catholic Channel) and has Daily Mass broadcast as well as other prayers and devotions.

Websites: https://pray-as-you-go.org/ https://shalem.org/programs/online/holy-interruptions/
https://stpaulcenter.com/hub/

Coloring prayer resources: If you would like adult-coloring sheets, to help with
prayer/mindfulness/meditation please contact Fr Luke and he will try and source them for you.

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed a new icon that has appeared at St Johns during the lockdown. This icon was written (painted) and given by an anonymous benefactor. The Icon shows St John, the beloved disciple (and Evangelist) leaning on the breast of Jesus at the last supper. Jesus offers the host with his right hand and holds a scroll in his left. The scroll is the word of God and is a symbol that Christ is the Incarnate Word of God. Christ’s outer robes are in blue, a symbol of divinity. His inner robes are red a symbol of his humanity – Christ is both human and divine. St. John’s outer robe is of the same red colour and seems to flow from Christ’s inner garment – reminding us, perhaps, that Christ’s humanity is the source of life. Human beings are made in the image of God and Christ is the perfect image of the unseen God, hence true humanity flows from and is modeled on the person of Jesus Christ. We encounter this humanity and divinity in every celebration of the Eucharist. This Eucharistic Icon placed centrally behind the altar can leads us into a deeper appreciation of the central mystery of our faith.

Having a Mass offered for someone’s intention is a good and holy thing to do. It is important to remember, however, that Mass is always offered in the first instance for all people. (For For God’s Glory and our sanctification) No one buys or owns a Mass. A Mass is always ‘our Mass’ - even if offered for a particular individual. Please also remember that in our parish only one Sunday Mass can be offered for an intention that someone has asked for. 

There can be a bit of a back log with Mass intentions:

• If you would like Mass offered for a particular intention on or near a specific day, (and at a specific location) please give as much notice as possible – some people book days a year in advance. 
• If the date that you would like is unavailable. Mass will be offered at the requested location, on the next available free-day. However, this means that it could be as long as six weeks after the proposed date. 
• If you are not too-concerned about where Mass will be offered (Brandon or Mildenhall) then it is often possible to fit a Mass in sooner than this. 

Want to know more about the Church?  Perhaps you are a Catholic but missed out on making your confirmation as a youngster.

If this is you, please consider joining our RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) programme. Please write to Fr Luke expressing your interest.

Free e-book (with church imprimatur) for your computer/tablet/phone:

The new Liturgical Year begins on the First Sunday of Advent. This e-book may be downloaded free of charge to any computer/tablet/phone. It offers the Gospel for every day of the coming Liturgical Year A-2 (Sundays Year A, weekdays Year 2), together with a reflection of some 750 words on each daily Gospel. 

The e-book may be passed on for downloading to friends or acquaintances as desired, and may be accessed at the following URL address:  www.catholic-thoughts.info/ebook/

As a parish, we are dedicated to working for fair treatment of growers and suppliers in the Third World. 

Because of lack of support, we no longer have a Traidcraft stall at Mildenhall, but we are still obliged to use Fairly Traded tea and coffee. If these cannot be purchased from shops and supermarkets locally, Gillian Caple can order it from Traidcraft. Please ask her. 

Locally, Sainsbury’s have opted out of using the Fair Trade logo and, therefore, there is uncertainty about the status of their products. Non-fair trade brands such as Nescafe, Lavazza, etc. should not be used in St John’s. Please inspect purchases carefully for the Fairtrade logo. 

We have a number of ways of recording people for whom prayers are said, including, books at each church and this section of our weekly Newsletter. 

In the Newsletter we record the names of those whose anniversaries occur each month and sometimes those for whom special requests have been made. These names will, of course, re-appear the same time next year. Because of limited space, the anniversaries are for those who have died since 2010. 

Do you want to share our faith in everyday life here in the parish?

This autumn we have started a Proclaim! Group focusing on evangelisation. We are reading Sherry Weddell’s Forming Intentional Disciples together over six weeks and then we support each other to proclaim God’s Good News.  

Following the first presentation on Wednesday 25th September at St Thomas’ Brandon, it was thought that it would be good to share our prayers with the whole parish.  So a prayer pamphlet was enclosed in your newsletter on 29th Sep.

Please add these prayers to your own prayers at home. 

Pray for yourself; and for the group who are estabilishing the programme on Wednesdays; and for the whole parish: that we will have the desire and confidence to share the beauty of God’s love with others.  

Fr Luke writes:  Many thanks for all who have contributed to keeping a respectful silence before mass. This is a joyful practice and creates the appropriate atmosphere for the celebration. 

Please also respect others, who may be trying to pray before and after Mass, by keeping talking to a minimum in and around the main body of the Church. (This does not apply so much to Mildenhall after Mass as we have a Blessed Sacrament chapel for people to pray in whilst teas and coffee continue at the back of the Church.) Silent and prayerful preparation is something that Pope Francis asks us to take seriously.

The Pope says: “Mass is the highest form of prayer and not an appropriate moment for small talk. At church, Catholics should spend their time in silence before Mass, preparing to meet with Jesus instead of engaging in "chitchat,”. Silence is so important…we are not going to a show. Silence prepares us and accompanies us." –           

                                                General audience Nov 15th 2017 

       IF SILENCE IS GOLDEN, PLEASE GIVE JESUS A LITTLE OF YOUR GOLD 

Pax Christi (The Peace of Christ) works for:

• Peace – based on justice. A world where human rights are respected, basic needs are met and people feel safe and valued in their communities.
• Reconciliation –a process which begins when people try to mend relationships –between individuals or whole countries after times of violence or dispute.
• Nonviolence –a way of living and making choices that respects others, challenges what is not fair or unjust, and offers alternatives to violence and war.

To do this Pax Christi works to:

• Support teachers, chaplains and youth workers in promoting a culture of peace in schools and amongst young people.
• Develop solidarity between people who are working non-violently for justice and peace. Pax Christi does this through joint actions for peace in Israel-Palestine, through events to encourage international efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and by celebrating the life and witness of peacemakers.
• Promote an understanding of sustainable security where human needs are met and the environment is protected, rather than seeking security through weapons and warfare. Pax Christi campaigns against military spending, the arms trade and nuclear weapons.

                                                                                                    TC

Your local J&P Group brings together Brandon, Mildenhall and Newmarket as our two parishes work together to promote practical action in support Catholic Teaching. We: 

• Arrange exhibitions & displays;
• Organise peace vigils;
• Provide resources to celebrate church festivals (from Easter chicks to Peace Poppies);
• Run campaigns (e.g. “Share the Journey”) to support people in need in the UK and elsewhere round the world;
• Raise funds for specific projects;
• Keep people informed about J&P Matters.

We always welcome new members to the group. You don’t have to come to meetings! You can join by using Skype of Face Time or just receive and respond to our monthly Update. 

The Justice & Peace Group usually meet on the first Monday of each month. All are welcome.

Talk to Tom or Gill Caple for more information: 01638 716474 

Prayer 

O Lord Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, full of compassion and maker of peace, you lived in poverty and suffered persecution for the cause of justice. 

You chose the Cross as the path to glory to show us the way of salvation. May we receive the word of the Gospel joyfully and live by Your example as heirs and citizens of Your kingdom. Amen. 

On Sunday, July 7th, the Justice & Peace Group facilitated a shared lunch and discussion on what a parish might do to counteract or reduce the effects of climate change. Here are some of the ideas that emerged: 

A. Become a Live Simply Parish 

B. Use Solar Panels/Raise money for Solar Panels 

C. Become a plastic-free parish? 

D. Educate the kids in the Children’s Liturgy 

E. Make a commitment as a parish to: 

     • Turn off lights when not in use 

     • Make sure all our lights are LED bulbs 

     • Check the lights 

F. Have a walk/cycle to mass Sunday (for those who can) 

G. Share cars to get to Church using less fuel.

Many other suggestions were made as well, some of which are already in place. There’s no doubting that more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of local action, and not just waiting for world leaders to solve the problem. 

If you have suggestions about practical actions we can take, please contact Gill or Tom Caple 

Ten years ago the UK Government took a global lead and passed the pioneering Climate Change Act committing us to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Recent research by climate scientists has stressed that this is no longer enough. We need to go further, faster. Unless we make dramatic changes, the damage caused by climate change will be irreversible. We need to reach ‘net zero’ emissions by 2045 at the latest. This is based on the science behind keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C. Several countries have already committed to reach this target. The UK as a global leader on climate change must join them to ‘revive’ our common home. So what can we do? 

For further information about the national campaign go to www.cafod.org.uk/climate 

Working with Adult Faith Formation (AFF) 

AFF is a group that has come together to work together in their spiritual development. They meet monthly on Thursday evenings and Tuesday lunchtimes for prayer, talks by invited speakers and study sessions. 

In February the J&P led an event on Intercessions.  AFF members took part in an interactive session involving discussion, practice in composing intentions and reflection.  The papers supporting the session can be obtained from Tom Caple.  Participants said that the session was helpful.

The session was repeated (with suitable adjustments) for the Tuesday Lunch Club.  It also got a positive response.

Stations of the Cross 

We led a poetry-based Station service at OLISE on Palm Sunday.   Each participant read a relevant poem at each station. Across the echoing church, each reading draped us with insights and reverence for Christ’s gift of sacrifice. It proved a very moving way of remembering Jesus’s journey. 

Nonviolence Works is a network of Christian Peace Organisations, including Pax Christi, committed to furthering peace in communities. The network has evidence that there are ways other than violent intervention to resolve differences and bring an end to wars. It publishes cases that show how nonviolent approaches can and do work. We will publish examples from time to time. Here are three: 

Norway 1942 

Teachers refused to co-operate with the pro-Nazi Quisling regime and, although many endured prison, the obligation to teach Nazi doctrines had to be withdrawn. 

Mozambique 1989-92 

The Rome-based Community of Sant” Egidio brokered an agreement between RENAMO and FRELIMO forces, ending ten years of war. 

Guatemala 2007 

Young stilt walkers used circus acts and carnival in the streets to transform the climate of violence spread by brutal youth gangs. 

Gracewing has just published a beautiful little book Devotions to St Thomas Becket by Fr John S. Hogan, a priest of the Diocese of Meath in Ireland, with illustrations by a monk of Silverstream Priory. As well as the Christmas Novena to St Thomas, Fr John's book offers an 'armchair' pilgrimage to Canterbury with the Seven Stations of St Thomas of Canterbury. The book retails at £7.99 St Thomas Becket, a popular little life of the saint, at £6.99 - you can find copies of these books at the back of the Church in Brandon. Please put money in the CTS pamphlet box on the wall. 

A new statue of the Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of Walsingham has been donated to our parish for the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at St Johns. Please have a look at our new statue and take a moment to ask the prayers of Mary, Mother of God of Walsingham. 

Walsingham is our National Shrine and the centre of the New Evangelisation as designated by the Bishops of England and Wales, we are blessed to live so close to this beautiful and important site for Catholicism in our Country. 

There is sometimes confusion about what stole fees are and who receives them. 

They are amounts of money given to priests for various services (Baptisms, Marriages, funerals, etc.). In some countries, the priest keeps the fee. In East Anglia, because priests receive a modest stipend (salary) each month, Bishop Peter Smith decreed that fees should be part of the parish income. This is still the situation. 

Items left behind or lost are now accumulating. If you have lost anything please check what is in the narthex. We will keep abandoned items for one month, but will then have to dispose of them. Items of value may be kept longer, but we cannot take responsibility for these or anything else left behind. 

If you are struggling to get a roast dinner ready after Mass at Brandon, consider taking one home with you from the Orient Express Carvery! For £9:99 they give you a takeaway tin and you fill it with freshly cooked food and locally sourced meats. 

Thank you to Lina Busuttile, a member of the Mildenhall community who kindly created the new altar cloth for St Thomas’. Mass goers at St Thomas’ will also notice the new icons around the Church. These were purchased with the remaining funds that with given to the parish by an anonymous benefactor of the Divine Mercy Pictures 

Having a mass said or paying for flowers in the church are practical ways supporting the work of the parish. Please give your donations to Fr Luke or Philip Kemp. 

Has your house been blessed? Would you like a home visit and a blessing for you home and family? 

If you would like Fr Luke to visit you in your home and invoke God’s blessing upon your home and family, please speak to him after Mass or call the presbytery. 

Even if your home has been blessed in the past we can still pray together and ask for God’s blessing upon our lives. It’s also an excellent way for priest and parish to get to know each other! 

Just Traid, the Fair Trade shop next to St John the Baptist Church, St John’s Street, Bury, has launched an exciting new menu in their café and a wide range of goods in their shop. Well worth a break to rest your legs and your pocket, when Christmas shopping! 

• Just Traid are also looking for volunteers to help in the shop and the kitchen. For more talk to Gill Caple. 

The Fund deals with emergency grant applications from families or individuals in need. It also considers support for young people wishing to explore a third world project in their gap years or long vacations. 

The fund is administered by Caritas East Anglia. All applications come from the parish or endorsements from professionals working with applicants. 

Over the past year, the Fund has supported families and individuals facing homelessness or job losses resulting in rent arrears. Others helped have been dealing with the sudden onset of terminal illness. 

For more details go to:  https://www.rcdea.org.uk/caritas-east-anglia/ 

November is a traditionally the month when we pray for the dead. In both of our Churches you will find a ‘Book of the Dead’. 

Please put the names of your loved ones who have died in the book and they will be prayed for throughout November. I will also offer Mass for the Holy Souls at various points in November and they shall be remembered in those Masses. 

To add a name, simply find the page which corresponds to the month that they died and write the name in. Any name of any deceased person can be added, they do not need to have died in this last year nor do they need to be a Catholic. All people alive and dead can benefit from our prayers! 

were donated to the parish and have come from the shrine at Krakow. To find out more about this devotion please take a leaflet from the rack at the back of Church. 

Time set aside for Lectio Divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. We discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God offers us in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. We can attend "with the ear of our hearts", listening for God's presence in our lives. 

• Choose a text of the Scriptures that you wish to pray. This could be a reading for that day’s mass, or a particular book from the New Testament. The amount of text covered is in God's hands, not yours. 

• Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent. This could be a few moments focused on your breathing, or a favourite prayer. Use whatever method is best for you and allow yourself to enjoy silence for a few moments. 

• Turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savour each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." In Lectio Divina, God is teaching us to listen to him, to seek him in silence. 

• Take the word or phrase into yourself. Slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories, and ideas. Memories or thoughts are simply parts of yourself that, when they rise up during Lectio Divina, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of your inner self. 

• Speak to God. Whether you use words, ideas, or images--or all three--is not important. Interact with God as you would with one you know loves and accepts you. Give to God what you have found within your heart. Experience God by using the word or phrase he has given you as a means of blessing and of transforming the ideas and memories that your reflection on his word has awakened. 

• Rest in God's embrace. And when he invites you to return to your contemplation of his word or to your inner dialogue with him, do so. Learn to use words when words are helpful, and to let go when they no longer are necessary. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence. 

 Many prayer groups find it a useful approach to collective study and prayer. 

This form of Lectio Divina works best in a group of between four and eight people. A group leader coordinates the process and facilitates sharing. The same text from the Scriptures is read out three times, followed each time by a period of silence and an opportunity for each member of the group to share the fruit of her or his Lectio. 

• The first reading is for the purpose of hearing a word or passage that touches the heart. When the word or phrase is found, the group's members take it in, gently recite it, and reflect on it during the silence that follows. After the silence, each person shares which word or phrase has touched his or her heart. 

• The second reading (by a member of the opposite sex from the first reader) is for the purpose of "hearing" or "seeing" Christ in the text. Each ponders the word that has touched the heart and asks where the word or phrase touches his or her life that day. Then, after the silence, each member of the group shares what he or she has "heard" or "seen." 

• The third and final reading is for the purpose of experiencing Christ "calling us forth" into doing or being. Members ask themselves what Christ in the text is calling them to do or to become today or this week. After the silence, each shares for the last time, and the exercise concludes with each person praying for the person on the right of him or her. 

Those who regularly practice this method of praying and sharing the Scriptures find it to be an excellent way of developing trust within a group. It also is an excellent way of consecrating projects and hopes to Christ before more-formal group meetings. 

 Based on “How to Practice Lectio Divina” Rev. Luke Dysinger OSB www.beliefnet.com