St Joseph's RC Church

28/03/2018

Easter Triduum timetable

Holy Thursday - Mass at 8.30pm, watching till 10.30pm
Good Friday - Liturgy at 3pm; Confessions from 6pm to 7pm
Holy Saturday - Vigil at 9pm
Easter Sunday - Mass at 11am
Easter Monday - Mass at 12noon

31/07/2016

http://www.stjosephsmanchester.co.uk/?sermon=2016_07_31_Sunday17

"You can't take it with you when you die" is an evident teaching of the readings today. Money and possessions are necessary - we have to feed and cloth ourselves and our children, we have to repair the Church building we have to run hospitals....

30/07/2016

International Parish meal

All are invited to join us for a 'Parish International Meal' - celebrating rich cultures, languages, music and food of the people of our parish.

It will take place on Saturday 6th August, starting at 1pm in the Parish Centre.

You are invited to bring a dish of food from your home to share with others.

30/07/2016

Pro life action

In February 2016, British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) started a radical campaign to:

a. completely decriminalise abortion up until birth for any reason

b. limit conscience rights of midwives by requiring them to refer for abortions, even though General Medical Council does not require it of medical professionals.

c. extend the Abortion Act 1967 to Northern Ireland, making abortion legal there if 2 doctors agree that woman's health would suffer otherwise.

If you'd like sign a petition to stop the campaign or to find out more, please visit our parish website: http://www.stjosephsmanchester.co.uk/?parish=pro_life/

St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Longsight, Manchester - is a flourishing inner city parish with many parishoners coming from India, Africa and Europe. It serves the spiritual needs of catholic community in southern Manchester through daily Holy Mass and Sacraments. It also offers opportunities to...

30/07/2016

Diocesan consultation

Proposed plan for the restructuring of parishes in the diocese was released in early July.

The document and further information is available on the Parish website: http://www.stjosephsmanchester.co.uk/?parish=consultation

Please take some time to read and reflect on the plan. In about a month, we will have a parish meeting to talk about the proposal.
All are also invited to provide their individual responses directly to the Bishop, using the following form:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/salfordparishes

The consultation will last for 3 months, ending in mid-October 2016.

30/07/2016

Feast of St Thomas and St Alphonsa - Syro - Malabar Community at St Joseph's

The Syro-Malabar community of St Joseph’s Church celebrated their St Thomas and St Alphonsa feast day on 9th and 10th of July. St Thomas is one of Jesus’ 12 disciples who came to India and went on to plant the seeds of Christianity throughout Southern India. St Alphonsa is the first ever Indian born to have been canonised and made a saint. And so, these two saints hold a special place in the hearts of the Syro-Malabar community and their joint feast day is celebrated jubilantly.

The two days event started with the flag hoisting which took place on Saturday following the 10am mass (Syro Malabar rite) and novena. On the main feast day – Sunday – we were blessed with unexpected sunshine which started things off on a sunny and cheerful note. There were more than 500 people in attendance, and the main celebrant was Bishop Mar George Punnakottil.

Following the Holy Mass, the congregation went into a procession starting from the church and taking a route around the nearby areas with the statues of St Thomas and St Alphonsa, it was a great opportunity for us to show our faith in the local community. It was made even better with the sun shining brightly!

The final part of the evening was the cultural programmes and a meal shared by everyone in the church hall. The entertainment was organised and performed by people from within the community, including our young people and children, it was a great way to celebrate our colourful traditions and Christian values.

Overall, a very enjoyable and faith filled weekend for the Syro Malabar community of St Joseph’s!

We welcome you all to join us next year!

16/04/2016

The three readings fit together so well today and speak so clearly of being a Christian.

First there is the daily difficulty of living the faith, of having to deal with obstacles and opposition, of having to make difficult decisions. True we may not face a group as scary as the 'devout women of the upper classes' but like Paul and Barnabas there will be people who contradict what we say, people, even family members who, because of what they say or do, force us to make hard choices, even to say hard things. And always the devil and the flesh are there, tempting us to comfort, ease and neglect of our duty.

One of the things that keep us going is what John speaks of in his great vision. And what John speaks of is Holy Mass. The saints gathered about the lamb, who is our Lord, the eternal perfect sacrifice offered for our salvation. Standing with him, partaking in that sacrifice before the One who sits on the throne, The Father, who spreads his tent over them, could that be the Holy Spirit, so that all the saints are enveloped in, caught up in, the very life of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. This is heaven and it is in heaven that we already participate even on earth when at Mass, we join in the offering of Jesus to the Eternal Father, in the Spirit, as we say at every Mass through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours Almighty Father.

And strengthened by this participation in divine life, and following him by our words and actions... read more: https://goo.gl/QDJgnA

Fourth Sunday of Easter Readings: Homily The three readings fit together so well today and speak so clearly of being a Christian. First there is the daily difficulty of living the faith, of having to deal with obstacles and opposition, of having to make difficult decisions. True we may not f...

09/04/2016

As you may know St John’s Gospel was written in Greek. Now in Greek there are a number of words for love two of them are Agape and phileo.

Phileo means an inclination towards someone, something like a close friendship, a strong affection; We might translate Phileo as brotherly love.

The other word is Agape. This word means the love which involves sacrifice and giving and being for the sake of another. In His Gospel St. John uses this word Agape when he says God is love, he uses it too to describe the Love shown for us by Jesus on the cross. Agape means loving with the love that God loves us with, a love revealed on the cross by Jesus.

Now in the English translation three times Jesus says do you love me? And three times Simon Peter says yes I love you. Making up for his threefold denial of Jesus perhaps, perhaps a three fold strengthening of his love. True enough. But in the original Greek there is revealed a further level of teaching, of revelation of the loving patience and care of Our Saviour and of encouragement to us all who must grow in love... https://goo.gl/81GWNw

Third Sunday of Easter Readings: Acts of the Apostles 5:27-32. 40-41; Apocalypse 5:11-14; John 21:1-14 Homily As you may know St John’s Gospel was written in Greek. Now in Greek there are a number of words for love two of them are Agape and phileo. Phileo means an inclination towards some...

05/04/2016

We heard Jesus speak and saw what he did, St. Peter tells Cornelius, then he was killed but was raised to life by God and he appeared to certain witness and commanded them to proclaim that in Jesus is the forgiveness of our sins

Jesus is our life, says St. Paul. In him we have died, our true life is now hidden in heaven with Christ in God.

John tells us they saw the empty tomb and then realised that the whole of scriptures, the word of God was looking towards and is fulfilled in the resurrection. Jesus had to rise from the dead.

In these readings you have elements of what might be called the three stages of christian life. Intellectual conversion, moral conversion and falling in love...

Read more here: https://goo.gl/Rleb2A

Easter Sunday Readings: Acts of the Apostles 10:34,37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9 Homily We heard Jesus speak and saw what he did, St. Peter tells Cornelius, then he was killed but was raised to life by God and he appeared to certain witness and commanded them to proclaim that in Je...