Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton -

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1 Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton - Clifton Diocese (a company limited by guarantee) Registered Charity No Church of the, Yeovil Parish Address: 73 Higher Kingston, Yeovil, Somerset, BA21 4AR Also serving Church of St Michael, Lightgate Road, South Petherton, TA13 5AJ Chapel of Our Lady and St Augustine of Canterbury, HMS Heron Royal Naval Air Station, Yeovilton, BA22 8HT Parish Office yeovil.holyghost@cliftondiocese.com Parish Telephone: Served by the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales (Fransalians - MSFS) Parish Clergy: Father Jean-Patrice Coulon MSFS; Father Jose Maliekal MSFS Priests resident in the Parish: Father David O Regan; Father Peter Clarke (Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham) Parish Administrator: Sue Chant (Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings) Parish Safeguarding Officer: Awaiting Appointment. The Diocesan Safeguarding Office can be contacted at ROSARY: before weekday Masses at Yeovil, and before Sunday Mass at South Petherton. All welcome. CONFESSIONS: Saturday am; 4.15pm 4.45pm ANOINTING OF THE SICK: On request. Please inform one of the clergy if you are going into hospital. If possible, please seek anointing beforehand. BAPTISMS: By appointment. Adults seeking to know more about the Catholic Faith should speak to the Parish Priest, and/or come to the Journey in Faith (RCIA) sessions. SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE: Six months notice for weddings. HOLY ORDERS: Any man considering a vocation to the Priesthood or Permanent Diaconate should speak to one of the clergy.

2 SPECIAL COLLECTION THIS SUNDAY: is for the Christmas Collection for the Lord's Larder. Please leave your foodstuffs and household items in the boxes provided at both churches: a collection will be taken at the usual time for anyone wishing to make their donation in a monetary form. SECOND COLLECTION NEXT SUNDAY: as usual is for the Christmas Flowers. Many thanks as ever to our flower arrangers who work hard to make our churches beautiful for the Christmas Festival. CHRISTMAS OFFERING: The Collection taken at all Masses on Christmas Day goes as custom to the Priests of the Parish. As the Parish is served by the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales, it also goes toward helping the English Province fund the missions of our Congregation in different parts of the world, in particular India, Africa, Brazil and the Philippines. There are envelopes available at the back of both churches for parishioners who wish to contribute but who will not be here on Christmas Day. Many thanks in advance for your generosity. ADVENT DEVOTIONS: In this holy season, where we are invited to watch and wait for the Lord who is to come, there is a possibility with meeting with the Lord in Eucharistic Adoration and the Mass. There will be two extra Masses on Tuesdays at 6.30am in the morning, and Thursdays at 6.30pm in the evening. Adoration will be on Tuesdays from 7am to 10am; Wednesdays from 3pm to 6pm (with recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3pm); and Thursdays from 7pm to 10pm. Please sign up for an hour so that there are at least two people in the church at any one time. There will also be Visiting Confessors: Father Peter Clarke will be at the on Saturday 22nd December from 3.45pm to 4.45pm; and Fathers Louis Beasley-Suffolk and Philip Thomas will be there on Thursday 20th December from 7pm to 8pm. Father David O Regan will be available at St Michael s on Saturday 22nd December from 11am to midday. As well as the usual Saturday times, and by request, parishioners are encouraged to avail themselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in preparation for Christmas. A FUTURE FULL OF HOPE - The Year of Prayer - Gaudete Sunday If you want God, and long for union with Him, yet sometimes wonder what that means or whether it can mean anything at all, you are already walking with the God who comes. If you are at times so weary and involved with the struggle of living that you have no strength even to want him, yet you are still dissatisfied that you don t, you are already keeping Advent in your life. If you have ever had an obscure intuition that the truth of things is somehow better, greater, more wonderful than you deserve or desire, that the touch of God in your life stills you by its gentleness, that there is a mercy beyond anything you could ever suspect,you are already drawn into the central mystery of salvation. (Maria Boulding)

3 CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES 2018 Christmas Eve: Monday 24th December 5.00pm Mass at Yeovil 6.00pm Mass at South Petherton 9.00pm Polish Mass at Yeovil 10.30pm Carols followed by Mass at 11.00pm at Yeovil Christmas Day: Tuesday 25th December 8.00am Mass at Yeovil 9.00am Mass at South Petherton 10.30am Mass at Yeovil 4.30pm Polish Mass at Yeovil All Masses are with Carols except at 8.00am where it is said with Adeste Fideles sung at the Crib at the end of the Mass. GLOBAL HEALING - HOW FAITH HELPS US CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME: Global Healing is a film-based resource to help us to respond to the damage being done to our planet our common home. It's for parishes, groups and individuals and aims to inform, challenge and equip people to engage with Pope Francis vital call to Care For Our Common Home. Bishop John Arnold, the Chair of the Bishops Environmental Advisory Group: "Pope Francis calls on all of us to respond and this resource will help us do that together in our communities and families - for the sake of future generations. "As Bishops, we are so very grateful to all of you who will make the time and effort to respond to Pope Francis passionate plea to care for our common home." The film and discussion will be held on Monday 17ᵗ December at 7.30pm at the Parish Centre. You can also access the resources yourself at CHRISTMAS MUSIC DECEMBER 2018: December 16th 3:30pm All Saints Church West Camel Carol Service. This year our choir has been cordially invited to join in with preparing for this service. The invitation to the service itself, is to the whole parish, do come and join us.

4 GAUDETE SUNDAY - THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, so called from the first word of the Introit at Mass (Gaudete, i.e. Rejoice). The season of Advent originated as a fast of forty days in preparation for Christmas, commencing on the day after the feast of St. Martin (November 12), whence it was often called "St. Martin's Lent " a name by which it was known as early as the fifth century. The introduction of the Advent fast cannot be placed much earlier, because there is no evidence of Christmas being kept on December 25 before the end of the fourth century, and the preparation for the feast could not have been of earlier date than the feast itself. In the ninth century, the duration of Advent was reduced to four weeks, the first allusion to the shortened season being in a letter of St. Nicholas I ( ) to the Bulgarians, and by the twelfth century the fast had been replaced by simple abstinence. St. Gregory the Great was the first to draw up an Office for the Advent season, and the Gregorian Sacramentary is the earliest to provide Masses for the Sundays of Advent. In both Office and Mass provision is made for five Sundays, but by the tenth century four was the usual number, though some churches of France observed five as late as the thirteenth century. Notwithstanding all these modifications, however, Advent still preserved most of the characteristics of a penitential season, which made it a kind of counterpart to Lent, the middle (or third) Sunday corresponding with Laetare or Mid-Lent Sunday. On it, as on Laetare Sunday, the organ and flowers, forbidden during the rest of the season, were permitted to be used; rose-coloured vestments were allowed instead of purple (or black, as formerly); the deacon and subdeacon reassumed the dalmatic and tunicle at the chief Mass, and cardinals wore rose-colour instead of purple. All these distinguishing marks have continued in use, and are the present discipline of the Latin Church. Gaudete Sunday, therefore, makes a break, like Laetare Sunday, about midway through a season which is otherwise of a penitential character, and signifies the nearness of the Lord's coming. Of the "stations" kept in Rome on the four Sundays of Advent, that at the Vatican basilica is assigned to Gaudete, as being the most important and imposing of the four. In both Office and Mass throughout Advent, continual reference is made to our Lord's second coming, and this is emphasized on the third Sunday by the additional signs of gladness permitted on that day. Gaudete Sunday is further marked by a new Invitatory, the Church no longer inviting the faithful to adore merely "The Lord who is to come", but calling upon them to worship and hail with joy "The Lord who is now nigh and close at hand". The Nocturn lessons from the Prophecy of Isaiah describe the Lord's coming and the blessings that will result from it, and the antiphons at Vespers reecho the same prophetic promises. The joy of expectation is emphasized by the constant Alleluias, which occur in both Office and Mass throughout the entire season.

5 In the Mass, the Introit "Gaudete in Domino semper" strikes the same note, and gives its name to the day. The Epistle again incites us to rejoicing, and bids us prepare to meet the coming Savior with prayers and supplication and thanksgiving, whilst the Gospel, in the words of St. John Baptist, warns us that the Lamb of God is even now in our midst, though we appear to know Him not. The spirit of the Office and Liturgy all through Advent is one of expectation and preparation for the Christmas feast as well as for the second coming of Christ, and the penitential exercises suitable to that spirit are thus on Gaudete Sunday suspended, as it were, for a while in order to symbolize that joy and gladness in the promised Redemption which should never be absent from the hearts of the faithful. G. CYPRIAN ALSTON. FIRST HOLY COMMUNION 2019: Father Jean-Patrice writes: Classes will begin in January for children who are in Year 3 or above to make their First Holy Communion in June It will be necessary for parents to enrol their children with me or Father Jose this Sunday after Mass. No further enrolment will be possible after this time. HANDCRAFTED WOODEN PRODUCTS: There will be a sale of products (including wooden Christmas decorations) made by highly talented Master Craftsman Jozef Mesar after Mass at 9am this Sunday 16th December at St Michael s. Proceeds from the sale will go towards the Marian Hall Fund. PARISH DIARIES 2018: Small Parish diaries are available at the back of both Churches. These are available free of charge. We remember in our prayers: The Parishes of St Patrick, Brockworth and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Churchdown, Gloucester. The Holy Father s Prayer Intentions for December: Evangelization: In the Service of the Transmission of Faith. That people, who are involved in the service and transmission of faith, may find, in their dialogue with culture, a language suited to the conditions of the present time. For the safety of Asia Bibi, and for all Christians persecuted for their faith. Last Sunday s Offering: Many thanks for your generosity. Polish Mass: Every Sunday at 4.30pm. The Traditional Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite: Every Friday at 6pm (except August). Mass in the Syro-Malabar Rite: Second Sunday at 2.30pm. Mass at RNAS Yeovilton: Every First Thursday at 12.15pm (except August). Ecumenical Prayer Group: First Monday of the month at the Parish Centre at 7.30pm. If you have any items for the Bulletin please send to Sue Chant by Tuesday evening at yeovil.holyghost@cliftondiocese.com.

6 Mass and Service Times for the Week Ahead Saturday 15th December - First Mass of Sunday 5:00pm Aubrey Painter and Sabina O Connor RIP (Mrs N Painter) Sunday 16th December - Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) 9:00am Intentions of Martin O Flaherty (Mr M O Flaherty) St Michael s 10:30am Pro Populo 6:30pm Denis Cloney RIP (Mrs B Hawthornthwaite) Monday 17th December - Weekday of Advent II (O Sapientia) 10:00am Edith McLaughlin RIP (Mr and Mrs F Brennan) Tuesday 18th December - Weekday of Advent II (O Adonai) 6:30am Holy Souls (November List) 17 Followed by Adoration until 10am 10:00am Denis and Helen Mary Winskill RIP (Foundation Mass) Wednesday 19th December - Weekday of Advent II (O Radix Jesse) 8:00am Holy Souls (November List) 18 10:00am Deceased Members of the Fernandes Family (Miss M Fernandes) 3:00pm Divine Mercy Chaplet and Adoration until 6pm Thursday 20th December - Weekday of Advent II (O Clavis David) 10:00am Celebrant s Intention St Michael s 12:15pm Next Mass on 10ᵗ January 2019 RNAS Yeovilton 6:30pm Holy Souls (November List) 19 Followed by Adoration until 10pm Friday 21st December - Weekday of Advent II (O Oriens) 10:00am Chris Marsh RIP (Mrs A Burrell) Followed by Adoration (Benediction at 11:15am) S THOMAS APOSTLE II CL 6:00pm Intentions of Father Harry Heijveld Saturday 22nd December - Weekday of Advent II (O Rex Gentium) 10:00am Phyllis and Brian Carpenter RIP (Mr and Mrs F Brennan) First Mass of Sunday 5:00pm Joyce Lewandowska RIP (Foundation Mass) Sunday 23rd December - Fourth Sunday of Advent 9:00am Holy Souls (November List) 20 St Michael s 10:30am Pro Populo 6:30pm Karzimiesz and Maria Budzynski RIP (Foundation Mass)