Month: November 2021

Dear Parishioners,

With the beginning of the Season of Advent this weekend it isn’t out of place to wish you a very happy new year, liturgically speaking, as our cycle of readings and prayers for use at Mass starts on the First Sunday of Advent each year. May it be a good year for us all, and from the Faith that we hold in common may there be benefits and blessing in abundance for ourselves and those we carry with us in our hearts and thoughts.

I continue to invite the hesitant and anxious to join us for one of our weekday Masses not least in a Season of preparation for the coming of Christ and in the recollection of His birth in the vulnerable setting of the stable at Bethlehem. Asked about numbers at our weekday Masses by several parishioners who have yet to return I can say that the busiest is the Wednesday morning at Cleckheaton, with – on occasion – as many as 25 – 30 parishioners, and the quietest is the Thursday afternoon Mass at Heckmondwike, which is often a class Mass for the children, but this week (apart from the children, who all sit at the front of church) there were just four parishioners. All of our weekday Masses allow for social distancing. I can also reassure parishioners at we continue to do everything we can to ensure a very high standard of cleanliness within our churches, thanks to volunteer cleaners, and sanitiser stations. Hopefully this encouragement and reassurance will move some to return to their spiritual home during Advent.

Be assured of remembrance in prayer, thought and affection.

As ever, Fr. Nicholas

Dear Parishioners,

It is good to be able to send you the Newsletter and Readings for Holy Mass this weekend, together with a relatively ‘hot off the press’ statement from the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales regarding the status of the Sunday Obligation to attend Mass. The statement is considered and clearly reflects an awareness of the level of anxiety that a number of people feel about coming together once more for a communal act of worship.

Personally, and it is only a private reflection, I am pleased to see anyone returning to participation in Holy Mass, even if they are not yet ready to join us on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning, but choose to make a weekday Mass their weekly commitment to being fed by the Lord in both the Scriptures and Eucharist. When our churches were limited for capacity, at both Christmas and Easter, we were encouraged to attend Mass on any one of the days of the Octaves of those feasts, and celebrate at that time the fulness of the festival. It worked and worked well, allowing people to come into an environment in which they felt safe, and at the same time celebrating our primary feasts. The invitation is offered once more … come to a weekday Mass, make that your weekly celebration. The Lord is waiting patiently to welcome you back, and so are many of the faces that you recognise, not to mention the buildings that are our spiritual homes !

May the week – the last in our Liturgical calendar – be kind to you and your loved ones. Be assured of remembrance at the altar, in thought and affection.

As ever, Fr. Nicholas

Dear Parishioners,

Once again it is good to be able to send you the weekly Newsletter and Readings for the celebration of Holy Mass this weekend.  Hopefully you are well and safe, and life is beginning to ‘open-up’ a little bit more for you. 

The Bishops of England and Wales are hoping that at the end of this month the Obligation to attend and participate in the celebration of a weekend Mass will be reintroduced having been suspended from the beginning of the Pandemic in March 2020. It would be good to think that as a nation we will be in such a good place, in regard to the health of the population, for this to happen. However, with it will come some apprehension, anxiety and fear, not least for those who have, on the whole, kept themselves to themselves over this lengthy period of time, limiting their social contacts. 

As a faith community with two churches, which were amongst the very first in the Diocese to open their doors to worshipping congregations in July 2020, it is commendable that we have, throughout the last fifteen months, continued to provide safe environments in which to gather. Credit for this has to be given to a relatively small group of parishioners who acted in the capacity of Stewards, together with others who after every Mass or other event in both churches spent a good deal of time sanitising pews, touch-points and cleaning other areas of our buildings. Continuing to adhere to current Guidelines from our Health and Safety Officer we endeavour to maintain this safe environment for all entering our churches. I do therefore encourage those parishioners who have not yet crossed our thresholds to think about doing so. 

During the week I celebrated a Mass with just three people in the congregation, allowing plenty of room to retain social distancing ! Our weekend congregations are numbering around the two hundred figure – or a mean of fifty at each Mass. Again, there is room to socially distance, feel safe, and at the same time begin to reconnect with the familiar. Our churches are also our spiritual homes and home is often where our hearts long to be, so please do think about healing the ache in your heart to return to your spiritual home and the celebration of Mass. 

As always, the practical items of a Newsletter and the Readings come with an assurance of remembrance in prayer, thought and affection.

As ever, Fr. Nicholas