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