For details of Feast Days, Holy Days and Special Occasions, please see the weekly Newsletter.

On the first Sunday of each month, the Parish Mass is a Children's Mass.

On the third Saturday of each month, the Parish Mass is a Youth Mass.

Children's Liturgy is held at all other Sunday Masses for primary school children during school terms.

There is a facility in the side chapel which encourages families with babies and young children to come to church. You can see and hear what is going on in the church and the children can move around, draw or even cry!

WORSHIP IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Fr. Ken Payne

1. The Mass (or Eucharist)
Liturgy of the Word – reminder of our Baptism and act of sorrow, followed by readings from the Old Testament, Letter of St. Paul (usually) and the Gospel and Homily, the Creed and Prayers of Intercession
Liturgy of the Eucharist – offering of bread and wine, Eucharistic Prayer and Consecration, followed by Communion and Thanksgiving.
Parts of the Mass are usually sung (eg. the Gloria; Alleluia; Holy, holy; Lamb of God, etc.) as well as suitable hymns. There are also several periods of silence in both parts of the Mass and especially after Communion.
According to Jewish custom we begin the Day of the Resurrection (Sunday) on the Saturday evening, so in many churches, in addition to the Sunday Masses, there is also a Mass on Saturday evening.
Often, if a priest is not available for the Mass, a Communion Service is led by a lay person, commissioned as a Eucharistic Minister.

2. The Way of the Cross (Lent and Holy Week)
This is a meditation on some of the events surrounding the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. They are usually represented by carvings or pictures around the walls of the church and groups of people move around the church as they meditate.

3. The Rosary
(This may be said publicly with others or as a private meditation.) It consists in meditating on 20 different events, mostly in the life of the Lord. As an accompaniment to this several prayers are repeated as a sort of “mantra”, (the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory be) and in order to keep the rhythm and time of the meditation the fingers move over a set of beads – rosary beads.
It is sometimes found to be helpful to link the theme of each event (or mystery) with a happening in everyday life, eg. when contemplating the Presentation of Jesus in the temple and the meeting with Anna and Simeon, one could couple it with prayer for the elderly people we know; or when meditating on the Proclamation of the Kingdom, one could pray that one always acts in a Christ-like way in one’s daily encounters.

4. Benediction (centred on the Eucharist)
The Real Presence of Christ present in the Eucharist is exposed for all to see on the altar and is a focus for both silent and vocal prayer. Hymns are often sung and there is always a reading from Scripture and a time of silence, followed by a blessing with the Blessed Sacrament, or Eucharist.

5. Prayer Groups
Shared and usually spontaneous prayer in small groups. In some groups, with a more charismatic style, people may pray or sing in tongues and exercise the gifts of healing and prophecy.

6. Healing Services
Hymns, prayers and readings, usually including praying for and over the sick, with sometimes the giving of the Sacrament of the Sick.

7. The Divine Office (Morning Prayer, Prayer during the day, Evening and Night Prayer and the Office of Readings)
Parts of each day are set aside for prayer and the Morning and Evening Prayers follow a set pattern comprising a hymn, psalms, Scripture reading, the Benedictus or Magnificat and prayers of intercession.
There are variations on this in the Prayer during the day, the Night Prayer and the Office of Readings, the latter consisting of not only Scripture readings but also passages from some of the great spiritual writers and documents of the Church. Following the prayer of the Divine Office may be done alone or, preferably, in a group or religious community.

8. Processions
These take place on Good Friday, often with other Christians; and at other times to mark special feasts, etc., e.g. Palm Sunday, the Eucharist (in June), Our Lady (in May), or the patron saint of the church.

9. Taize Prayer (Ecumenical)
The structure of this is usually based on a simplified version of Morning and Evening Prayer – see above par. 7. In addition to a psalm, scripture reading and intercessions, there is always a ten minute silence after the reading and the contemplative