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Saint John the Evangelist Parish Aurs Road, Barrhead, Glasgow, G78 2RW

Tel 0141 876 1553 | Email: stjohnsbarrhead@gmail.com | web: www.stjohns-barrhead.org Parish Priest | Father Paul Brady Deacon | Rev Brian Mackenzie

LITURGICAL SERVICES HOLY MASS: Weekdays at 9:30am; Saturday at 10:00am, Vigil for Sunday at 4:30pm; Sunday at 10:00am, 12:00 noon and 6:30pm. SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION: Saturday after 10am Mass. Between 4:00pm and 4:25pm, and after the Vigil Mass. ROSARY: Weekdays in the Church/Oratory after Mass; Friday 3:00-4:00pm in the Oratory. EXPOSITION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT: From 10:00am to 9:00pm each weekday in the Oratory.

3rd

December 2017 1st

Sunday of AdventJESSE TREE APPEAL

Our Jesse Tree appeal this year will again be for children in

Barrhead who may not rec eive presents this Christmas. As in previous year, there will be labels with the child’s age and a suggested gift. Please return your gift with the LABEL ATTACHED. This allows us to easily allocate your gift to the

child/ young person concerned. SPECIAL COLLECTION

This week’s special collection is for the Parish Building Fund. CHILDREN’S NATIVITY PLAY

Rehearsals continue today for the Nativity performance presented by the Children’s Liturgy group at 6.30 pm on Christmas Eve. Children of Primary school age who would like

to participate should meet in front of the altar after 10am Mass each Sunday from the 26th until Christmas. We need plenty of sheep, shepherds and angels in addition to the main characters! The practices will last approximately 20

minutes. Parents and carers should wait in the church to collect their children when the rehearsal is finished.

PARISH CALENDAR 2018

Forms are now available for sponsoring a day in the parish calendar. Each intimation will cost £5. These could be birthdays, anniversaries of weddings, deaths or other family dates. Please return the completed forms to the sacristy over

the next two weeks. CHRISTMAS AT THE CHURCH PIETY STALL

Christmas goods are now on sale at the piety stall including cards, gifts, calendars, novelties, diaries and more besides.

Feel free to go in and have a look at the refurbished stall. The stall is able to take contactless and card payments now.

1ST

ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH

Friday 8th

December is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the first anniversary of the Dedication of our church.

SUNG MASS IN THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN MASS)

There will be a sung Mass in the Extraordinary form, better known as the Latin Mass, next Saturday at 12noon here at St John’s. All welcome to attend.

SYNOD VISIT Doing my bit booklets. Please put your completed booklets in the box at the back of the church. The box will be there for the next four weeks. Remember you can also fil l it in online at

rcdop.org.uk Thank you. 100 CLUB DRAW NOVEMBER WINNERS

1st

Prize £140 No 90 Frances O’Neil, 2nd

Prize £70 No 161 Wm Leckie, 3

rd Prize £35 80 Claire Irving, 4

th Prize £20

1 Maureen McGuir, 5Th

Prize £20 78 MM Davidson Winnings can be collected from the Sacristy after Mass. Please note any prizes not collected will be paid back into funds .

COFFEE IN THE HALL

Coffees and teas will resume in the hall this week after the 10.00am Mass. All welcome.

LET THE CHILDREN LIVE Margaret Campbell is selling the “Keep Christ in Christmas”

stickers with the proceeds going to the street children of Colombia. Contact 01415715419

SSVP Ozanam Club is for members 16 yrs + with additional support

needs, held in St. Mirin's Cathedral Hall . Anyone interested is invited to attend the open nights on the 12th January 2018. Leaflets are at the back of the Church with more details.

UWS CHAPLAINCY

Studying at UWS? Would you like to get involved in our Catholic society? If so please contact Fr. John Morrison @johnmorrison1976@gmail.com

ADVENT A small booklet, “Walk with me” is on sale at the piety stall for £1. There is a short mediation for each day of Advent.

CHRISTMAS MASSES

Please note that the times for the Christmas Masses: 6.30pm- Nativity Play, 7.00pm Vigil Mass of Christmas, 11.30pm, Carols and readings 12midnight Night Mass of

Christmas. Christmas Day- Mass at 11.00am only SYNOD UPDATE: MAKING ALL THINGS NEW

Our Synod Acta (available on the diocesan website) under Charter Point 8 (Structures) commits us to ensure our

diocesan structures are apt for evangelisation and lay participation in times to come. Specifically it asks us to consider the configuration of our parishes and the deployment of our clergy. It asked if we now have too many

parishes relative to our lower number of priests and if they are in the right places given so many ongoing local population shifts? It suggested we may need to make changes to allow us

opportunities for real growth in coming years? With the Synod’s call for a diocesan plan for growth our priests met with Bishop John last week in an Assembly of Clergy to begin discussion on this issue. We agreed it should be a matter for

the people at the local level to try to discern, deliberate and come up with their own workable solutions, rather than for the bishop to bring forward proposals from above. We also

agreed that the people should be approached in open meetings during 2018 to consider the issues and come up with local plans for the generation ahead. We felt that transparency and good communication were paramount and

decided that a Bishop’s letter in January 2018, in l ine with the Synod’s requirement for good consultation with the laity and for good processes of dialogue and discussion, would be the next immediate step.

ST. MIRIN’S CHAPLAINCY CENTRE - FIRST TALK OF THE NEW YEAR: ANTHONY GIELTY - OUT OF DARKNESS

Tuesday 5th

December at St. Mirin’s Chaplaincy Centre, 45

High Street, Paisley at 7pm For further information please see @paisleyvocations on fb & twitter!

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CREDL Any students from Paisley Diocese studying the Cer tificate in

Religious Education by Distance Learning (CREDL) who require seminar assistance can contact Marianne Boland on 0141 847 6130 for more information. FOR THE ATTENTION OF ALL CHURCH VOLUNTEERS WITH

PVG CERTIFICATES - The Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Group has recommended that all volunteers doing regulated work with children and vulnerable adults or both, should do the Level 1 training by the end of 2017 and, with the

agreement of Bishop John, this will now be implemented as diocesan policy. The next available training sessions will take place in :

St. Mirin’s Parish Hall, Paisley on Tuesday 5th

December at 10.30am-12noon St. John’s Parish Hall, Barrhead on Wednesday 17

th January at

7pm-8.30pm

St. Mirin’s Parish Hall, Paisley on Saturday 27th

January at 10.30am-12noon Please contact Sarah Jane at the Diocesan Safeguarding

office safeguardingadmin@rcdop.org.uk or 0141 847 6138 to register for this training session.

HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS There will be a Holy Hour for Vocations at St. Mirin’s

Chaplaincy Centre, 45 High Street, Paisley beginning at 7pm on Wednesday 6

th December. Please come along and

pray for Vocations. MARY'S MEALS ROSARY BEADS

Liz Grant of Mary’s Meals has made some lovely Rosary Beads in boxes together with l ittle reflections which go with the Mysteries. These are available at £5 each or £7 gift wrapped.

A perfect stocking fil ler. Each Rosary would come with a little certificate saying how the purchase of such will now provide a meal for a child for six months. Contact Liz at liz.grant6111@gmail.com or by phoning 0141-316-5079

MASS AT ST. MIRIN’S CHAPLAINCY CENTRE BY UWS Mass will be celebrated at St. Mirin’s Chaplaincy Centre, 45 High Street, Paisley every Tuesday and Thursday throughout Advent. Mass will commence at 1pm. Please feel

free to join us. MARTIN EELRED CONCERT

Singing Songs of Andrea Bocelli St. Mirin’s

Cathedral, 15th

December at 7.30pm. This is a FREE concert with a donation for the Diocesan charities.

“Today, with the First Sunday of Advent, we begin

a new liturgical year. This season invites us to reflect on the dimension of time, which always exerts great fascination over us. However, after the example of what Jesus loved to do, I wish to start with a very concrete observation: we all say that we do not have enough time, because the pace of daily life has become frenetic for everyone. In this regard too, the Church has "good news" to bring: God gives us his time. We always have little time; especially for the Lord, we do not know how or, sometimes, we do not want to find it. Well, God has time for us! This is the first thing that the beginning of a liturgical year makes us rediscover with ever

new amazement. Yes, God gives us his time, because he entered history with his Word and his works of salvation to open it to eternity, to make it become a covenantal history. In this prospective, already in itself time is a fundamental sign of God's love: a gift that man, as with everything else, is able to make the most of or, on the contrary, to waste; to take in its significance or to neglect with obtuse superficiality.

Then there are the three great "points" in time, which delineate the history of salvation: at the beginning, Creation; the Incarnation-Redemption at the centre and at the end the "parousia", the final coming that also includes the Last Judgment. However, these three moments should not be viewed merely in chronological succession. In fact, Creation is at the origin of all things but it also continues and is actuated through the whole span of cosmic becoming, until the end of time. So too, although the Incarnation-Redemption occurred at a specific moment in history the period of Jesus' journey on earth it nevertheless extends its radius of action to all the preceding time and all that is to come. And in their turn, the final coming and the Last Judgment, which were decisively anticipated precisely in the Cross of Christ, exercise their influence on the conduct of the people of every age.

The liturgical season of Advent celebrates the coming of God in its two moments: it first invites us to reawaken our expectation of Christ's glorious return, then, as Christmas approaches; it calls us to welcome the Word made man for our salvation. Yet the Lord comes into our lives cont inually. How timely then, is Jesus' call, which on this First Sunday is powerfully proposed to us: "Watch!" (Mk 13: 33, 35, 37). It is addressed to the disciples but also to everyone, because each one, at a time known to God alone, will be called to account for his life. This involves a proper detachment from earthly goods, sincere repentance for one's errors, and active charity to one's neighbour and above all a humble and confident entrustment to the hands of God, our tender and merciful Father. The icon of Advent is the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus. Let us invoke her so that she may help us also to become an extension of humanity for the Lord who comes.” Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus address, 30/11/2008