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Save the date ~ St Nicholas’ Parents will be holding a uniform event to recycle uniforms and reduce waste on Sunday 24th July after 10am Mass in the upper hall.
Details soon regarding arrangements for collection of any items of school uniform that your child has outgrown or no longer has a need for. First Holy Communion ~ The next SAS session for St Andrew’s P4 pupils who are preparing for their First Communion is this Sunday 8th May at 9am in the upper hall, which will lead in to the 10am Mass with children's liturgy.
As the focus for this session will be about sharing a meal, we'll provide a small Brioch (chocolate or plain) with a juice drink. As we need to know if any child has an allergy, please, if required, complete the form which has been emailed to all P4 parents. If a child does have an allergy, it would be good if they could bring along a snack in a sandwich bag with their name on it. (only needs to be something small!) Many thanks. We look forward to this SAS session on Sunday, and to this month’s First Communion Masses. Sacrament of Confirmation ~ All P7 pupils are invited to an SAS / Catclub session at St Joseph's Church hall on Thursday 12th May 6pm to 7.30pm. This will be run by both St Andrew's and St Joseph's and it is a chance for all P7 candidates to get to together and explore Confirmation a little more. We look forward to seeing the P7s on 12th May, and to their celebration of Confirmation in June  We are so pleased to be able to offer Children’s Liturgy again, each week at the 10am Sunday Mass, and are happy to say that the number of children attending has been increasing each week. While we are currently delivering this as one group P1–P7, we hope to split this, as we did previously, into two groups of P1–P3 and P4-P7, as such we are looking for leaders and helpers to join the Children’s Liturgy Team. We would expect involvement to be no more than once per month, all materials are provided and initial involvement will be in a supporting role for the group leaders. Children’s Liturgy is run during school term time only and is a hugely rewarding and fun Ministry within our Church. All those involved in working with children and vulnerable adults must complete Disclosure Scotland and attend Safeguarding Training provided by the Archdiocese, which is all organised through the Parish and will not take up too much of your time. If you are interested in becoming involved in the Children’s Liturgy team, please contact Sharon on [email protected]  Many Congratulations and welcome to Jacks, Rebecca, Jason and Rokas. Last night, at the Easter Vigil, our parish community welcomed them into our faith by celebrating their initiation as full members of the Catholic Church. Please keep them in your prayers. They will continue to journey over the next few weeks through RCIA in the Easter period of Mystagogia (entering into the Mystery), and we’re looking forward to a celebratory RCIA Fish Supper Night soon. Pope Francis has given an invitation to join with him on Friday 25th March, the Feast of the Annunciation, to pray for peace in Ukraine.
The Act of Consecration prayer below will be prayed at 4.00 pm on Friday in our church, followed by the Rosary, as we unite with the Holy Father in prayer. Hopefully, many of you will be free to come along for this. If you are not able, you might want to say the prayer for peace at home. Printed copies of the prayer are also available in the church porch. Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Basilica of Saint Peter 25 March 2022 O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord! Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love. We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid. That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help! Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer. Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war. Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation. Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world. Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness. Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons. Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love. Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity. Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world. O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside. Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty. Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world. Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen. |
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