Below are a few interesting news items from this week’s Bulletin. To download the full version of our latest Bulletin, please go to our Bulletin page. Thank you.
THOUGHT FOR FIRST EUCHARIST SUNDAY
LET THE LITTLE ONES COME TO ME!
It was Pope St Pius X who around 1910, prompted by the Holy Spirit and his love both for children and for the Eucharist, first encouraged us to bring our young children to Jesus in the Eucharist – from the age of 7 years (the traditional ‘age of reason’).
So today we have the joy of bringing the little ones to Jesus, not keeping them away but opening the Table of the Lord to them. They sit with us at this Feast of Love. They share with us the transforming meal whereby we become ‘bread in God’s hands to be broken and given for the life of the world’, whereby we become God’s Cup of Joyous and Suffering Love, so that the peoples of the Earth can taste the Bread of Heaven, drink deeply from ‘the wells of salvation’ and find New Life poured out and running over!
The Banquet of the Eucharist will always be beyond our understanding, for it is the sheer extravagance of God’s loving, of the Father’s embrace of tenderness for our little ones – the children of His Love!
THOUGHT FOR FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
LOVE IS THE LAW AND THE GLORY
What is God’s Glory filling Jesus? The Cross is the moment of Glory – and the Cross is the power of love transforming hate. God’s Glory is God’s Love!
So we glorify God not by splendid liturgies and churches, we glorify God by the splendour of our humble, gentle, strong and prophetic loving.
A new commandment that is beyond commandment for it is the magnetism of love not the compulsion of law. Law limits whereas Love liberates and opens us to an infinite vista where the impossible becomes the normal!
In the end love is always the answer: love reshaping itself in a million different ways in response to the need for love that cries out: whether it is a friend in pain or a continent starving; whether it is an addict needing acceptance or the Church needing challenging! Always the answer is love – and then more love!
MASS IN SPANISH – FRIDAY 30th MAY AT 6.00pm We welcome the Latin American Society as they celebrate Mass here at St Nick’s. Fr Matt Anscombe will preside. You are invited to bring food and drink to share afterwards.
MISA LATINOAMERICANA – VIERNES 30 de Mayo, 6.00pm Inglesia San Nicolas de Tolentino, Seguido las misa tendremos un convivo. Por favor traer comida y bebida para compartir. Presidira Padre Matt Anscombe
DIOCESAN CELEBRATION OF THE JUBILEE OF HOPE We are invited to this special event with Bishop Bosco at Downside Abbey and School on Saturday 19th July. There will be three keynote speakers and a full programme for children and young people (from 3-15 years). Full details: Jubilee Celebration of Hope | Clifton Diocese
Register via the link: www.jubileedayofhope.eventbrite.co.uk
ELECTION OF OUR PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL We are holding elections for all 12 members of our Parish Pastoral Council. Because we have had only 8 nominations, we are delaying the election in the hope we can have more nominations in due course. We are all called to share the ‘shepherding of Christ’ among His people and His world. Giving time and energy to the work of the Parish Pastoral Council (the main decision-making body in the parish and essential in developing a secure future for our community) – this is part of sharing ‘the shepherding of Christ’. Please seriously and prayerfully consider who might be called to this ministry in our parish.
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR SURVIVORS OF ABUSE – TUESDAY 20TH MAY
| This year’s Day of Prayer for Survivors of Abuse is Tuesday 20th May 2025. This year’s focus is on the theme of “The Empty Chair”. Many of us are saddened by reducing numbers in our churches. This is happening for a wide variety of reasons, but our thoughts are on those who are not there because they have suffered abuse in a church setting and cannot face being here. They may be the families or friends of survivors. They may be former members of a community affected by allegations or convictions for abuse. They may be people who are simply so disgusted or ashamed by what they have heard about abuse within the Church that they no longer want to be part of it. All these groups and others are represented by “The Empty Chair”. |
ENCOUNTER 2025 is a diocesan wide programme to equip and empower people to share their faith and be renewed in heart and mind. The first step is to deepen our understanding of the Holy Spirit and cultivate a closer, more intimate relationship with God – this is at the heart of what we hope to achieve between Easter and Pentecost. The programme officially began on Saturday, 3rd May, with a launch event at the Cathedral. Weekly sessions follow on Wednesday evenings, live-streamed from the Cathedral, enabling everyone across the Diocese to join in, wherever they are. These will be recorded and available to view at a later date. For more information: email pentecost@cliftondiocese.com
THE VOCATION OF THE CATECHIST Have you ever thought of offering to help with Catechesis in our parish? We need more people to be willing to help in this area. Support and training will be made available. The Catechesis of our children is an essential building block of our and every parish community. Our diocesan Adult Education Department writes: ‘We need more people to consider this important role in our church, so please consider joining this on-line information session on Monday 23rd June at 7.00pm’ Mary Hopper would love to hear from you if you are willing to consider serving the children of our parish in this way. To join this on-line session, email adult.education@cliftondiocese.com and you will be sent the link.
LAUDATO SI CLIFTON – Saturday 31st May 10.30am-4.00pm at St Bonaventure’s
Perhaps the greatest legacy of Pope Francis will prove to be this great Encyclical and its challenge to simplify our life-style in order to heal our planet and assure justice for the poorest of our world. Come and encounter its vision and teaching, and meet those in the diocese who are dedicated to spreading the message of Laudato Si and putting it into practice. At St Bonaventure’s Church, Egerton Road, Bristol BS7 8HP – parking available. Bring and share lunch. Contact Sue Ingham: suingham@gmail.com or mob 07856466950
‘ALL ARE WELCOME IN THIS PLACE’ It is our privilege to host here at St Nicks the Diocesan Ministry among the LBGTQ+ community. It would be a great sign of welcome, valuing ‘Gay’ Catholics, if more parishioners would come sometimes to our 3rd Sunday a month Mass with our LGBTQ+ friends. Do try to come occasionally and share with us.
CLEANING OUR CHURCH We are short of people for the weekly clean. This normally happens on a Friday morning, so if anyone has a little time then, some more hands would be very helpful. If you can’t come at that time, see Eddie and negotiate a time when you could do some of the cleaning. It’s like Tesco – every little helps!
AREA HOUSE MASS To gather parish members dispersed around Bristol, to bring the Eucharist to the community and to build small local communities, we are holding regular Area Masses, After such Masses we have simple refreshments – tea/coffee, biscuits (may be cake), but no more. Please contact Richard if you will host a Mass. Any Volunteers for the next few Area Masses ? Please contact Richard
JUBILEE YEAR OF HOPE Hope is a key virtue, along with faith and love – it is a trust in the future of the Church and the world. As Pilgrims of Hope we are witnesses and servants of a new future for our torn world, that it will one day become a ‘New Heaven and a New Earth’, ending war, poverty & injustice. It is our calling and responsibility to build this ‘New World’ – to make real God’s Vision for humanity and our planet – to be bearers of Hope!
DIOCESAN PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES August 22nd to 29th The healing shrine of Mary under the title of ‘The immaculate Conception’. Mary appeared to a young sick child called Bernadette in one of the poorest parts of France – a frontier village in the Pyrenees. Since then countless millions of pilgrims have flocked there, often bringing sickness, depression and profound burdens – finding peace and strength and often physical and emotional healing. For further details please go the diocesan website to find LOURDES/CLIFTON DIOCESE
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE IN HOSPITAL: When a Catholic goes into hospital, the patient or their family MUST request a visit from the Catholic Chaplain – data protection and confidentiality rules in hospitals prohibit the passing on of information to chaplaincies otherwise. The Chaplain cannot visit a patient without prior request to visit.
SHORT TALKS ON YOUTUBE We continue the theme of prayer – reflecting on different ways of praying. Our next YouTube will be on ‘Praying the Stations of the Cross – walking with the suffering Christ of the 21st Century’
HALL BOOKINGS For hall bookings please contact Astrid (our Parish Administrator) in the office, either using the Parish Office email or phone number (see front of bulletin for both) or her work phone number: 07354895768.
URGENT NEED for CATECHISTS Have you ever thought about helping in the work of preparing our children for the sacraments? Our community always has a need for more people to help with this. You do not have to be a teacher or to have had previous experience as a catechist – training is available, and you can always start by supporting the catechists we already have. If you would like to think about the possibility a bit more, speak to Mary Hopper or to one of the people who currently help with one of the Catechetics groups.
Thank you for your help!
DO YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER TO SUPPORT THE PARISH MISSION? The Parish Pastoral Council was delighted that at our last Parish Forum on the future of our parish many expressed the wish to offer some time and energy in support of the life and mission of St Nicks. So the PPC established a ‘Volunteers Whatsapp’ to let people know the needs and opportunities for volunteering either on a long-term or an occasional basis. Some cannot commit themselves to a regular slot or programme but could volunteer from time to time and for limited periods. However hardly anyone has come forward as willing to join such a team of volunteers on this Whatsapp Group. WE REALLY NEED YOU TO OFFER WHAT TIME YOU CAN TO SUPPORT THE PARISH’S WORK AND MISSION. Please contact the Parish Office or Patience Bird (07411406411) giving your mobile no. Thanks!
POPE FRANCIS SPEAKS ON DIVERSITY OF GIFTS, CHARISMS & MINISTRIES: “The most beautiful experience is the discovery of all the different charisms and all the gifts of his Spirit that the Father showers on his Church! This must not be seen as a reason for confusion, for discomfort: they are all gifts that God gives to the Christian community, in order that it may grow in harmony, in the faith and in his love, as one body, the Body of Christ. The same Spirit who bestows this diversity of charisms unites the Church. It is always the same Spirit. Before this multitude of charisms, our heart, therefore, must open itself to joy and we must think: “What a beautiful thing! So many different gifts, because we are all God’s children, all loved in a unique way”. Never must these gifts become reasons for envy
NEED FOR WELCOMERS It is so important that when people come to Mass on Sundays (especially if they are visitors or have not been to Church for a long time) that they are warmly welcomed. We need more volunteers for our Welcoming Ministry. It makes such a difference when people are greeted at the door. Welcomers will need to arrive no later than 9.30am for this Ministry, ready to hand out the bulletin and any Liturgy sheets.
URGENT NEEDS OF OUR FOODBANK [1] Volunteers urgently needed – we need members of our Christian community with a heart for the disadvantaged and poor to volunteer in our foodbank. Can you give one morning a week? (opening times – Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9.30am to 1.00pm). Some of our existing volunteers cannot help during the school holidays because of childcare. Please see Michael Conway (mob: 07482425539).
[2] Food and Toiletries needed – It has become much more difficult to source suitable food and other items and often we have little to offer those with great need. Please bring anything you and ask your friends and neighbours to help and share with those who have so little. We need fresh meat (which can be frozen), bread, eggs, fruit and vegetables; pasta, rice, breakfast cereals, milk, sugar, tea/coffee, pasta sauces, and tinned fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, baked beans etc. Some vegan foodstuffs also needed as well as some pet food. And of course also washing powder, cleaning materials and toiletries. Please bring what you can at the Offertory on Sundays – larger deliveries by arrangement with Michael, our foodbank manager, (mob: 07482425539). THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!
CALLING SISTERS AND BROTHERS WHO FEEL ALIENATED FROM THE CHURCH
There are so many who have been hurt by their experiences in the Catholic Church and many reasons for that hurt. A particularly destructive hurt has been abuse especially by priests and religious. Yet Christ calls us to be a welcoming, safe and healing community.
Here at St Nick’s we seek to offer an unconditional welcome and a safe and respectful place to be and to speak your voice. We seek to echo the words of Jesus: ‘Come to me all you who labour and are burdened and I will give you peace’. So we want to welcome you, be a community where you can if you wish speak your pain, voice your hurt and anger, or just come and be. We understand that for many it is impossible to trust the Church again, and we do not expect or deserve that trust. But we do want to earn it and so offer to share your journey and make together the safe space that is your right. ‘Our community currently includes those who have expressed some of their own experience of this particular hurt. They, particularly, would like you to know: “If you come to see us you won’t be alone – it isn’t easy but we do seek to journey together gently.”We understand it may be difficult for some to enter the Church. If you wish to make contact please tell us what might help to make things easier for you.
THE PARISH DATABASE The Parish Pastoral Council seeks to create a comprehensive database to include all our parish members. Today forms will be distributed asking for some essential information – names of all family members, address with postcode, telephone and email contact details etc.The purpose of this is to enable effective pastoral care, community building and effective communication. The information given will be used solely for internal parish and pastoral reasons and will not be divulged to any other party. Please sign the forms giving your permission for us to hold your details on our database – this is essential for compliance with GDPR (Data Protection legislation). THANK YOU!
URGENT APPEAL FOR BAME BLOOD DONORS The NHS has issued an urgent call for more Black people to give blood to meet increasing demand for Asian, Black African, Black Caribbean or mixed ethnicity donors. Some 16,000 new donors from these ethnic groups must be recruited this year as demand rises for life-saving transfusions for people with sickle cell disease, according to the health service. Sickle cell is the fastest growing genetic disorder in the UK, affecting 15,000 people with around 300 babies born with the blood disorder each year; the illness can cause organ failure, stroke or loss of vision, sometimes even leading to death. The disorder is more common in Black people and, as such, people from this ethnic group are more likely to have the rare blood sub-group Ro that many Black sickle cell patients need. The Church strongly encourages blood donation as a life-saving gift to others. PLEASE CONSIDER BECOMING A BLOOD DONOR – ONE PINT OF BLOOD CAN SAFE UP TO THREE LIVES! To become a blood donor today, register today and book and appointment by visiting www.blood.co.uk, downloading the GiveBloodNHS app or calling 0300 123 23 23.
GOD’S CALL TO SERVE THE LIFE AND MISSION OF YOUR PARISH It is very clear that our parish, together with all churches and voluntary organisations around the country, has not yet recovered fully from the effects of the Covid Pandemic and the restrictions placed upon our meeting together during that time. A significant number of our community are not coming to Mass here for a variety of reasons. It is a joy to welcome new families and individuals who have found their way to St Nicks. However there has been great difficulty in drawing members of the parish into being part of the many ministries and tasks of the parish. Whether it is the welcoming Ministry, Church Cleaning, the Foodbank, Catechists, the ministry of the Parish Office serving the wider community, too few are doing too much in support of the parish’s life and mission. We are all called by our baptism to serve and build the Church as a mission community. We are all called to sacrifice time and energy to build our parish community and support the Mission of Christ entrusted to us. I realise only too well that many have heavy commitments caring for children or elderly family members and juggling work and family. They are indeed serving Christ in these ways. But I do ask everyone to reflect whether some time can be given to sustain the parish’s life and mission as we move towards a lay-led parish. This will be a great challenge for all of us. Please pray about this urgent need in building the future of our unique parish.
ST NICK’S AND COMMITMENT TO ‘SYNODALITY’ We have played our part in contributing to the Church’s world-wide ‘Synod’, as last year we gathered in different groups to listen to one another and share our thoughts and feelings about being part of the Catholic Church. The result was a 60 page report (which remains on our parish website for all to read) which we sent not only to our Bishop but also to those overseeing the Synod in the Vatican in Rome. But this is only the beginning! For the first time the ‘International Synod of Bishops’ in October in Rome will include 70 non-bishops (clergy, religious, lay men and lay women) with full voting rights. This is a very significant step forward – but there is a long way to go yet! But what is equally important is that your Parish Pastoral Council is committed to finding ways of embedding ‘Synodality’ in the life and ‘governance’ of our parish community – prayerful listening to one another in order to discern what the Spirit is saying to us in our parish about the way forward into a future different from the past yet fully alive with Prayer, Community and Mission. The Synod’s working document emphasises that those who experience being excluded from church life “are bearers of Good News that the whole community needs to hear” and that “whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God.”
WHAT IS OUR COVENANT WITH THE POOR? In preparation for the great Millenium of year 2000 the Bishops of England and Wales asked every parish to draw up and make a ‘Covenant with the Poor’. As part of our parish’s Covenant we pledged to pray regularly for Justice & Peace, to serve the homeless and poor who come in increasing numbers to our extensive Food Bank and the Wild Goose Café and to encourage parishioners to volunteer time and energy to work in the Food Bank and the Wild Goose Café; and also to give non-perishable food (especially rice, pasta, tinned fruit and tomatoes, tinned fish and meat etc) and/or money (in special envelopes) to be used for the poor. This food and money goes to support our ministry among the poor of our area. During Lockdown this as greatly expanded and very many people inn Bristol are supporting us, in addition to our parishioners. We also founded and developed our Borderlands Charity (‘from exclusion to belonging’) to serve our asylum & refugee community that has remained serving throughout the periods of Lockdown. In normal times, the Offertory Procession at Mass regularly sees gifts to be shared with the poor and vulnerable, carried to the Altar (restoring the ancient meaning of the Offertory Procession). So the Covenant with the Poor that we renew solemnly at each Patronal Feast of St Nicholas of Tolentino (early September) has continued to grow and develop and as such has shaped the life, mission and witness of our parish community. The development of the ministry of the Parish Office has enabled us to develop our ‘Option for the Poor’ in obedience to the Gospel Let us praise God for such rich grace and love poured out upon our community, and though our community to many in their need.
LOVE THE CHRIST OF THE POOR – WORDS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM “Would you honour the Body of Christ? Do not despise His nakedness; do not honour him here in church clothed in silk vestments and then pass him by unclothed and frozen outside. Remember that He who said ‘This is my Body’ also said ‘You saw he hungry and gave me no food’. I am insisting that nothing can take the place of care for the poor. What use is it to adorn the altar with gold cloths and deny Christ a coat for his back? He would be outraged!”
MEN AND WOMEN EQUAL IN MINISTRY There are many charisms and ministries in the Body of Christ – each one of us, young and old, male and female, lay and clergy, and whatever our gender identity – all of us are ‘beloved children of the Father’, each of us is gifted by the Holy Spirit to serve, to proclaim, to build the missionary Body of the Christ and to transform the world. In our parish we are moving towards a parish community led and served by predominantly lay ministry, served and supported by the ordained ministry including a part-time (non-resident) priest. We are committed as a parish to promote, empower and train many different forms of ministry. The ministry of women and men are equally valued, the ministry of lay people and ordained deacons and priests are equally valued. All of us over 40 years old have almost certainly grown up in a church that has neglected and minimised the ministries of lay people. We are still in a clergy (and therefore male) dominated church and this has caused major problems while being unfaithful to the New Testament. Some ministries are denied to women (and not just ordained ministries) … therefore there is an urgent need to enable voices of women to be heard, their gifts to be recognised and their ministries to be released, for the good of the whole Church and its Mission and witness. This is to correct the imbalance and injustice that has been the norm for centuries. Please do not misinterpret this as diminishing or demeaning the ministries of our brothers, lay or ordained. We are all called to work together for the Kingdom as equal partners in the Lord’s work.
IS GOD CALLING YOU TO FOSTER OR ADOPT A CHILD? 109 children are taken ‘into Care’ each day in this country! 109 children everyday looking for security, for a home where they can belong and thrive. Also there is an increase in the number of unaccompanied child refugees arriving in this country (which will increase with the Afghan Exodus). I know from my own personal experience how important adoption is to give a child a new start in life. Many children are from the BAME community and there is a great need for more fostering and adoptive families from these diverse ethnicities. Could God be calling you, your family, to this healing vocation for a child in care? Contact CCS Adoption (tel: 0117 935 0005 or email info@ccsadoption.org) or ‘Home for Good’ (clare.walker@homeforgood.org.uk )