Saint Charles Swinton
Parish Newsletter
10 January 2016
The Baptism of The Lord
Page 118 in Mass Book.
The Baptism
of the Lord
John the Baptist dunked people
in water and by that means
somehow made their hearts more
prepared for the Lord.
John explained that Christ
himself would not baptize with
water, but with the Holy Spirit
and with fire. But can you be
dunked into the Holy Spirit? And
then there is the fact that Christ
himself was baptized with water.
Why was he baptized in this way,
if he himself was going to baptize
others with the Spirit and not
with water?
And so baptism is confusing,
isn’t it?
How are we to understand it?
The people who came to John to
be baptized came confessing
their sins (Mt 3:6). They knew
that they were in spiritual trouble,
and they knew they couldn’t save
themselves from it; they needed
God’s help.
And so John’s immersing a
person in water began spiritual
regeneration for that person,
because by letting John drop his
body in water, a person being
baptized let go in his heart too
and surrendered to God.
continued over….
The Coming
Week…….
Sunday
10 January
The Baptism of The Lord
Mass 6.00pm (Saturday)
8.45am. 11.00am
Once again this year we are
blessed with welcoming a
seminarian to our parish for
his January pastoral placement.
He is Gavin Landers who is in his
fifth year in Oscott College. All
being well he will be ordained as
a deacon this coming summer
and then to the priesthood the
following summer.
Gavin introduced himself last
week and this is his official
“newsletter welcome”!
Thursday
14 January
11.00am Funeral Mass for
Derek Michael Walsh, RIP.
Aged 77 of Clifton Grove.
(no 8.30am Mass this morning)
Vocations Prayer Day. As you
may be aware, each year every
school and every parish of our
diocese are allocated a day to
pray for vocations to priesthood
an religious life. the new
calendar for this year is on the
notice board in church and our
school and parish I have
highlighted. You will notice that
Saint Charles Primary School falls
today.
Providentially, Gavin, our
seminarian, is here and so will be
spending his time visiting each
of the classes to speak about
vocation.
Friday
15 January
8.30am Mass
Pope Benedict at
Oscott College 19/9/2010
Monday
11 January
8.30am Mass.
Tuesday
12 January
Saint Aelred of Rievaulx
born in 1110, Aelred died in Rievalx,
Yorkshire on this day in 1167. The son of
a priest, he was educated at Durham and
in the household of King David of
Scotland. In 1134 he visited the newly
founded Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx and
was so attracted to it he chose to become
a monk there, and was eventually elected
abbot. He is remembered for his gift of
friendship, his sensitive and gentle rule
and for his enduringly popular writings,
especially that on friendship.
Saturday
16 January
9.00am Mass in Cemetery.
12noon Sacrament of
Reconciliation.
Sunday
17 January
Second Sunday in
Ordinary Time
“Peace Sunday”
Mass 6.00pm (Saturday)
8.45am. 11.00am
*********************************
8.30am Mass.
Further ahead…..
Wednesday
13 January
Monday
18 January
9.15am Mass in School, Year 6.
All welcome
Octave of Prayer for Christian
Unity begins. (see over)
That first letting go, with its
acknowledgement of sin and its
desire for God, opens a person to
God. And once such a person has
opened himself to God, God can
send his Holy Spirit into him.
Then, when a person receives the
Holy Spirit,
his whole self is plunged into God.
This is the baptism of the Lord,
the baptism of the Spirit, which
the baptism of water enables.
Baptism of water, and baptism
of the Holy Spirit, are the
beginning of spiritual
regeneration, because they are a
surrender to God. In the openness
of that surrender, the Spirit
comes into a person, and God’s
grace begins to flow into him.
Unless it is somehow stopped again
by sin, that grace flows until, in
heaven, a person is united to God
in prefect righteousness. So, once
a person is baptized, with water
and the Holy Spirit, the grace of
God, which is given in the Spirit
and by the Spirit, begin a spiritual
rebirth in that person that leads
to new life in the Lord.
Octave of Prayer for
Christian Unity.
18 – 25 January.
Each of the days of this Octave
the Churches Together Group in
Swinton and Pendlebury have
organised a series of Prayer
Lunches.
We are hosting one of these on
Tuesday 19 January at
12.30pm.
Details of the other days can be
found on a poster on the notice
board.
The Octave will conclude on
Sunday 24 January with our
annual Unity Service, this year
in Saint Anne’s, Clifton at
6.30pm.
This year’s material for each
days’ prayer has been prepared
by the people of Latvia with the
theme of “Salt of the Earth”
We hope to have some element
of the Unity Service in Latvian!
**********************
Congratulations
Marriage
To Ian Mulcahy and Amy Cardiff
who were married here on
December 31st.
Why then does the Lord himself
accept baptism, since he needs no
spiritual regeneration?
The answer goes to the heart of the
whole story. Christ is Emmanuel, God
with us.
And he is with us at every stage
in our journey to him, even in its
very beginning, which is the
baptism of the Lord.
Eleonore Stump on Saint Louis
Jesuits Sunday Liturgy website.
Religious Profession.
To Sister Moira Geary FMSJ, local
Superior of Saint Joseph’s
Convent, Greenleach Lane who
celebrated sixty years in
religious life on Wednesday last.
And to Sister Joan FMSJ on her
fortieth anniversary the previous
Saturday.
**********************
Further ahead
continued…..
Tuesday
19 January
7.00pm Sacramental
Programme
Parents’ session
Unit 4 “We are People who
Celebrate God’s Word”
Wednesday
20 January
7.30pm RCIA (Faith
formation) recommences.
Saturday
23 January
10.00am Sacramental
Programme Children’s session.
Sunday
24 January
Retiring collection to for the
Annual White Flower Appeal to
support the work of the Society for
the Protection of Unborn Children.
The focus this year is on the
protection of vulnerable people in
the context of the proposed Assisted
Suicide Bill.
6.30pm Swinton and Pendlebury
Churches Together hold their annual
Unity Service at Saint Anne’s Clifton
to conclude the Octave of Prayer for
Christian Unity. – See more details in
centre column.
Wednesday
10 February.
Ash Wednesday!
School for Prayer.
As we have done in past years
this will be on Saturdays in
Lent and this year with the
theme of “Praying with Art in
the Year of Mercy”
A member of Churches Together in Swinton and Pendlebury
Parish Priest: Rev Mgr Paul F Smith STL   0161 794 1089   paulsmith@saintcharles.freeserve.co.uk website: www.stcharlesswinton.co.uk
MASS TIMES
Saturday: 6.00 pm (First Mass of Sunday)
Sunday
 8.45 am (Church Parade every second
Sunday of the month)
 11.00 am (with children's Liturgy of the
Word)
Registered Charity No. 250037
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION
Saturdays: 11.30 am to 12.00 noon
and after evening Mass
BAPTISMS
By appointment. Parents are expected to
attend a course of preparation.
Monday to Friday: usually 8.30 am
Holy Days
7.30 pm (eve), 8.30 am
WEDDINGS
Six months notice is normally required.
Saint Vincent de Paul Society
Monthly as announced
Union of Catholic Mothers
First and third Tuesdays at 7.15pm
Beaver Scouts
Mondays in school at 6.00pm
Cub Scouts
Tuesdays in school at 6.00 pm
Brownies
Wednesdays in school at 6.00 pm
Rainbows
Thursdays in school at 6.00 pm
If you would like to receive this weekly newsletter by e-mail please give me your e-mail address.
A member of Churches Together in Swinton and Pendlebury
Parish Priest: Rev Mgr Paul F Smith STL   0161 794 1089   paulsmith@saintcharles.freeserve.co.uk website: www.stcharlesswinton.co.uk
MASS TIMES
Saturday: 6.00 pm (First Mass of Sunday)
Sunday
 8.45 am (Church Parade every second
Sunday of the month)
 11.00 am (with children's Liturgy of the
Word)
Registered Charity No. 250037
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION
Saturdays: 11.30 am to 12.00 noon
and after evening Mass
BAPTISMS
By appointment. Parents are expected to
attend a course of preparation.
Monday to Friday: usually 8.30 am
Holy Days
7.30 pm (eve), 8.30 am
WEDDINGS
Six months notice is normally required.
Saint Vincent de Paul Society
Monthly as announced
Union of Catholic Mothers
First and third Tuesdays at 7.15pm
Beaver Scouts
Mondays in school at 6.00pm
Cub Scouts
Tuesdays in school at 6.00 pm
Brownies
Wednesdays in school at 6.00 pm
Rainbows
Thursdays in school at 6.00 pm
If you would like to receive this weekly newsletter by e-mail please give me your e-mail address.