Anderton St Joseph's        
                Newsletter
XX & XXI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

17th and 24th AUGUST 2025

Jesus said to his disciples: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”


Sat 16thSt Stephen of Hungary 
17.00Vigil Mass at St Mary’s Chorley 

Sun 17thTWENTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (C) 
09.30Mass at St Mary’s

11.00Mass – Margaret Webster

Mon 18thSt Helena, finder of the True Cross 

Tues 19th St John Eudes

10.00 Liturgy of the Word, Holy Communion and Perpetual Succour Novena 

Wed 20th St Bernard

Thurs 21stSt Pius X

Fri 22ndQueenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary  
10.00 Liturgy of the Word, Holy Communion  

Sat 23rd 
17.00Vigil Mass at St Mary’s Chorley

Sun 24thTWENTY FIRST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
09.30Mass at St Mary’s

11.00Mass – Betty Wignall 

Mon 25thSt Edmund Arrowsmith 

Tues 26thBlessed Dominic Barberi
10.00Mass – Paddy, John and Willie Phalen 
with Perpetual Succour Novena 

Wed.27th St Monica 

Thurs 28thSt Augustine of Hippo 

Fri 29thThe Passion of St John the Baptist 
10.00Mass – Mary Murphy 
10.30Interment of Ashes of Mary Murphy 

Sat 30thSs Margaret Clitheroe, Anne Line and Margaret Ward, martyrs 

Sun 31stTWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 
11.00Mass – Maureen Hoole
12.10Baptism – Theodore Starbuck 


BAPTISM BOOKINGS DATES AVAILABLE  31st Aug, 28th Sept. Oct 26th. Nov. 30th Baptisms will take place at 12.00 Parents should collect a baptism booking form and an Order of Service from the Sacristy after Sunday Mass. Bring the booking form back one Sunday following so that any necessary preparation can be arranged.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SICK AND THE HOUSEBOUND:  Joan Bailey, Francis Brennan, Mary Brophy, Anne Byrne, Mary Patricia Case, Ken Catterall, Gerard Clarke, Rita Denver, Leo Duffy, Pat Font, Tom Fraser, William Freeman, Bob Goulding, Rosemary Hough, Cathy Hull, Peter Hull, Mary Johnston, Abp Patrick Kelly, John Kerfoot, Bill King, Emma King, Val McGlade, Janet McGowan, Fintan McPeake, Teresa Martin, Fr Laurence Mayne, David Molloy, Ellen Morris, Irene O'Neill, Heidi O’Neill, Lauren O’Neill, Barrie Swift, Josette Walsh, Lorraine Waugh, Jean White, all at Grove House & Marley Court. 


FR PATSY FOLEY is celebrating the 11.00 Mass this weekend. We are very grateful to him for supplying while Fr Marsden is on leave. Please make him welcome. 

GOSPEL FOR 24TH AUGUST - Luke 13:22-30 

Jesus went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

ST EDMUND ARROWSMITH (1585-1628) was born in Haydock near St Helens, the eldest child of Robert Arrowsmith, a yeoman farmer, and Margery Gerard. The family was constantly harassed for its adherence to Catholicism. One of his grandfathers died a confessor in prison. On one occasion, as a child, he was left shivering in his night-clothes by the pursuivants, who carried his parents off to Lancaster jail; While he and his three siblings were cared for by neighbours.
In 1605 Arrowsmith went abroad to the English College, Douai, to study for the priesthood. He was ordained in Arras in 1612 and sent on the English mission a year later. He ministered to the Catholics of Lancashire without incident until 1622, when he was arrested and questioned by the Anglican Bishop of Chester. He was released when King James I ordered an amnesty for all arrested priests, while negotiating a Spanish marriage for his son Charles. Arrowsmith joined the Jesuits in 1624.
In summer 1628, Arrowsmith celebrated Mass as usual at Arrowsmith House in Gregson Lane, but was betrayed by an innkeeper at Brindle named Holden. He fled from the pursuivants but on Brindle Moss his horse refused to jump a ditch, and he was captured. His captors took him to the pub, drank all his money, and next day carted him off to Lancaster Castle. He was convicted of being a Catholic priest in England. He was sentenced to death. His final confession was heard by fellow prisoner St John Southworth. His executioners tried to the last to persuade him to conform to the State religion, but he retorted: "Tempt me no more. I will not do it, in no case, on no condition." His last words were "Bone Jesu." He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28 August 1628. 

THE ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE MASS TO THE HOLY HAND OF ST EDMUND ARROWSMITH will be taking place at the Church of St Oswald & St Edmund Arrowsmith, Liverpool Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield (WN4 9NP) on Sunday 24 August 2025 at 3.00pm. Canon Sean Riley will be the principal celebrant. The Mass will be followed by a blessing with the Holy Hand.


ST HELENA was the mother of the Emperor Constantine who legalised Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313 AD, thus halting the persecutions and granting land and property to the Catholic Church for the building of churches etc. 
About 326 AD Helen set off for the Holy Land by ship, with a detachment of soldiers and builders, to excavate the Holy Places. 
She is most famous for the discovery of the True Cross. Emperor Hadrian had built during the 130s a temple to Venus over the supposed site of Jesus' tomb near Calvary, and renamed the city ] According to the historian Eusebius, Constantine destroyed the temple of Venus and discovered the burial site of Jesus in the spot. Later legends had Helena destroying the temple.
According to the legend that arose at the end of the 4th century, Helena chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. The legend is recounted in Ambrose, Then, Rufinus relates, the empress refused to be swayed by anything short of solid proof and performed a test. Possibly through Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem, she had a woman who was near death brought from the city. When the woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition did not change, but when she touched the third and final cross she suddenly recovered, and Helena declared the cross with which the woman had been touched to be the True Cross.
On the site of discovery, Constantine ordered the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. She was responsible for the construction or beautification of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives; sites of Christ's birth and ascension, respectively.

QUOTATIONS FROM ST BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX:
“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity. 
There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is Vanity. 
There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.” 

"Theirs is an endless road, a hopeless maze, who seek for goods before they seek for God." “What we love we shall grow to resemble.”

“Righteousness is the natural and essential food of the soul, which can no more be satisfied by earthly treasures than the hunger of the body can be satisfied by air. If you should see a starving man standing with mouth open to the wind, inhaling draughts of air as if in hope of gratifying his hunger, you would think him lunatic. But it is no less foolish to imagine that the soul can be satisfied with worldly things which only inflate it without feeding it.”

CHORLEY AND PRESTON HOSPITALS: Please contact St Joseph's Chorley (262713) if any member of your family is admitted into Chorley Hospital and needs a visit. In urgent cases or emergency please ask the ward staff to call the duty Chaplain on his bleep/phone. For the chaplaincy service at Royal Preston Hospital Tel: 01772 522435. For the chaplaincy service at Wigan Infirmary Tel: 01942 822324. 


Parish Priest: Fr Francis Marsden
Secretary: Mr Frank Webster 
Parish Office: St Joseph’s Presbytery, 28 Bolton Road, Adlington, PR6 9NA
Wednesdays 10.00-13.00
Tel: all calls now to 01257- 262537 (St Mary’s Chorley)

E-mail: stjosephs.anderton@tiscali.co.uk
Parish Website: www.stjosephsanderton.com

ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL Registered Charity No. 1199714
























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