Today Is Education Sunday. The second collections are for the Catholic Education Service (CES) which acts on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference to support Catholic education.
Next week is Evangelii Gaudium (Home Mission) Sunday. The second collections provide the bishops of England and Wales with resources to support Home Mission, the spread of the Gospel in our own country.
Coming up on 27th September is our Harvest Thanksgiving celebration. We take this opportunity to invite parishioners to make offerings and donations to be blessed after Mass before distribution to those in our community.
Dear family members and friends: Today’s responsorial psalm reminds us, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in mercy.” It is this nature of the Lord that urges Him to forgive. Jesus teaches us a very good lesson about our behaviour towards others, especially to those who do to us something wrong. We have to forgive them. There is no limit for forgiveness. It is an act of love. The parable of the wicked servant who did not forgive his fellow servant is a good warning to us about the need to forgive others because we have received forgiveness from the Lord several times. Let us practise this forgiveness in our family, workplace, community and also in all our relationships. Thus, we will be fulfilling the commandment of the Lord to love one another. Amen.
Dear family members and friends: In today’s Gospel Jesus deals with a very crucial matter: how to deal with a person who does something wrong in the community of believers. There is a chance of some personal conflicts within the community. The basic attitude we should have is one of peace, healing and restoring the broken relationship. Jesus speaks about various steps. The first one is to talk privately to the person concerned. Many problems can be solved by this. If not settled, the second step is to talk in the presence of two or three witnesses. If it is not still solved, then bring the matter to the church. Church includes the presence of Jesus and it has the moral and spiritual authority to decide what is right and wrong. Jesus gives a special authority to the church to bind and lose. As part of the church let us try not to get into conflicts and if anything happens reconcile at the earliest. Amen.
Dear Family members and friends: In today’s Gospel, two very important message are given: 1} Jesus speaks about his passion, death and resurrection. 2} Jesus speaks about what one must do in order to follow him. Jesus very openly says what is going to happen to him. He did not want to hide anything from the disciples. Humanly speaking the leaders will all talk about gains to motivate and influence the followers. But Jesus did not want to misguide the disciples. Again, He says to all who want to follow him to take up the cross and follow him. There is no short cut to follow him, but wholehearted accept all the life experiences, with the prime importance of the soul. Let the question in our ears and hearts: “What shall a man give in return for his soul?” Amen
Last week’s pudding part was a success. Thank you to everyone who brought dishes to share.
The parish office is closed from today until Tuesday 8th September. The parish email address and answerphone will be monitored but for anything urgent please contact Fr. Jose directly.
Weekly newsletters by email will resume on 13th September.
St. Simon Stock Catholic Church 
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