Catholic Parish of Our Lady and St John, Lee and Stubbington

04/04/2026

03/04/2026

Saturday 4th April
10 am Blessing of the Easter Baskets

8pm The Easter Vigil of the
Resurrection of our Lord

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
Bells Lane
Stubbington

03/04/2026

FRIDAY 3RD APRIL
GOOD FRIDAY
Diocesan Prayer: Peace in the Holy Land
† Fr. Francis Ellerton (1989), Fr Seamus Gillooly (2001)

03/04/2026

Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday

A Novena is literally nine consecutive days of prayer. The Novena of Divine Mercy can be prayed at any time, but especially in the nine days from Good Friday until Easter Saturday in preparation for Divine Mercy Sunday (the Second Sunday, or Octave Day of Easter) when many parishes celebrate with a Divine Mercy celebration at 3pm on Divine Mercy Sunday afternoon. The Novena included the recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which begins with the Three o'clock prayer: You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.
The Novena and Chaplet of Divine Mercy is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades, preceded by two opening prayers from the Diary of Saint Faustina, the Novena Prayer for the relevant day and the recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy followed by a closing prayer.
You can find the Novena prayers here: https://mailchi.mp/portsmouthdiocese/divine-mercy-novena
and if you are not familiar with the Divine Mercy Chaplet, you can find a walk through guide and all the prayers here: https://mailchi.mp/portsmouthdiocese/how-to-pray-the-divine-mercy-chaplet

Source: Bishop's e-newsletter

02/04/2026

The Blessing of Easter Baskets will be on Saturday 4th of April at Catholic Parish of Our Lady and St John, Lee and Stubbington at 10am.
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Traditional Easter Basket Blessing Explained - Beautiful Way to Celebrate Christ's Resurrection

Blessing of the Easter Basket is a centuries old tradition of Christians around the world and particularly in Europe. Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood or p***y willows, typical Easter evergreens.

Preparing a decorative basket with linens, occasionally embroidered for the occasion, and some boxwood and ribbon woven through the handle. Observing the beautiful foods and creations of other parishioners is one of the special joys of the event. In some older or rural communities, the priest visits the home to bless the foods. The vast majority of parishioners visit their local church on Holy Saturday.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2025/04/traditional-easter-basket-blessing.html

01/04/2026

The Chrism Mass is the special Liturgy in Holy Week during which the Bishop blesses the three Holy Oils for use in the Sacraments: the Oil of the Blessing of the Sick, the Oil of Catechumens and the Oil of Chrism. The blessing of the Holy Oils is one of the most ancient ceremonies of the Church and it is always celebrated in the Cathedral with the priests, deacons, religious and lay people of the diocese. The Mass is one of the main diocesan events of the year and is a celebration of thanksgiving to God for our Diocese of Portsmouth, its clergy, religious and people. During it, all the priests make a renewal of their commitment to priestly service, “manifesting their communion with the Bishop” (Roman Missal). It is always a wonderful manifestation of the Church in our Diocese of Portsmouth and an opportunity to thank God for our Catholic faith.

Bishop Philip Egan would like to invite you all to join this great celebration.

24/03/2026

18/03/2026

Bishop Philip writes…

A Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you today! Prayers and blessings to all those of our readers who hail from ‘the Old Country’ or have Irish ancestry. Years ago, when I was at school, we all wore shamrocks today and sang gustily the great hymn “Hail glorious St. Patrick, dear saint of our isle.” Thinking back on it, a lot of the teachers and pupils in my primary school were of Irish origin. Indeed, my family name ‘Egan’ came on my Dad’s side from my Great-Granddad who was from County Mayo. He moved to Manchester as a young man and it was there that my Granddad and eventually my Dad were born. May St. Patrick continue to pray for us now in our own times and may his example prosper the evangelisation and conversion of these lands.

Meanwhile, welcome to this edition of e-News for Tuesday 17th March 2026: https://mailchi.mp/portsmouthdiocese/issue526

We continue in e-News this week (see Magazine section) with the second of the five spiritual conferences that Fr. Tom Kleinschmidt recently gave on St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati as models for our children. Note too the diocesan pilgrimage we are organising in the summer to Turin and to Assisi. Turin has St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Savio and the Salesian saints as well as St. Pier Giorgio. and in this eight hundredth anniversary year of St. Francis, we’re delighted to visit him too as well as St. Carlo. For now, as we enter the fourth week of Lent, may the Lord guide you and bless you with His love.

With all good wishes and an assurance of my prayers,

In Corde Iesu

+Philip

Bishop of Portsmouth



[Image: Word on Fire]

17/03/2026

Senior Tea

Our well loved Senior Tea is on Thursday 19th March between 2pm and 3.30pm at Our Lady's Church Hall, Bells Lane, Stubbington. Plenty of parking and near no.5 bus stop!

Refreshments, chatter, raffle all in our cosy hall - all are welcome - you do not have to attend the church.

If you have not been before, would like to come and have questions please message and we will put you in contact with the organiser.

17/03/2026

Our walking group is over half way through our challenge for Cafod but our fundraising hasn't matched our enthusiasm! If you would like to sponsor us you can either do so on the link below, on Dona in our church porch area, or cash in an envelope into the church office.

If you would like to join us on our walks we have one this Saturday, 21st March from Our Lady's, Stubbington to St. John's in Lee (coffee in the church) and back;
24th March to Solent Breezes round trip and
31st March a short walk from Gosport Ferry to Portsmouth Roman Catholic Cathedral and return to include attending the Chrism Mass (and coffee before returning!).

For more details especially times and meeting points contact: Claire on
07710 180982 or Andrea on 07955013741.

Support Parish of Lee's fundraising page and donate to their page