Category Archives: 3 churches

An Advent for all!

3 churches, advent,

Advent this year has some real highlights, starting with this Sunday evening!

There will be beautiful music for Advent and Christmas in St Brigid’s at 7.30pm when “In The Stillness” is a concert given by the Elizabeth Singers with our own Max Davies. There is nothing like music to set the scene for events, and when it is as good as this will be, I’m sure we will all be smiling our way towards Christmas. There will be refreshments to follow. Free entry with retiring collection. Don’t miss it…

Meanwhile, on Saturday of this week a wonderful Catholic Youth Retreat will take place with young people from all corners of the Archdiocese of Cardiff and the Diocese of Menevia! Are you a teenager or young adult? Join us on Saturday 16 December in Swansea for a day filled with joy, inspiration, and spiritual growth. This is a follow-up to World Youth Day in Lisbon in July, but also it is the launch of a Youth Service for the Catholic church here in South Wales, something we have looked towards for a long time… What to expect? Mass with Archbishop Mark… Uplifting music from 99. One… Inspiring talks and insightful conversations… Delicious food to fuel your spirit… Two streams available: ages 13 to 18 and ages 18 and above. To register, please email Deacon Christian Mahoney at: christian.mahoney@rcadc.org or call him on: 07764 515864.

Then next Sunday, so-called Gaudete Sunday is also Bambinelli Sunday in our 3 Churches. At all weekend Masses in all 3 churches, you are invited to bring the figure of the baby Jesus from your crib at home. During the Mass the images will be blessed, ready for you to place in your crib at Christmas. This lovely tradition from Italy (bambinelli means little children) has taken off here in Britain too in recent years. Children love it, but anyone can bring their little figures to the altar when the priest invites us – young and not-so-young!

Lastly, we have our 3 Churches Carol Service on Tuesday 19 December 6pm at St Brigid’s, led by our younger children from Christ the King, our parish school.

So there’s a lot going on this Advent in our 3 Churches. Make sure you are part of it…

Fr Matthew

Coming up… Advent

3 churches, advent,

Next weekend sees the start of the great season of Advent. First, we have the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation at our joint Penitential Service at St Brigid’s on Saturday at 11.30am. The First Sunday is marked by a Family Mass at Christ the King church and a lovely talk about Our Lady, so central to Advent and Christmas, in the evening at Christ the King Parish Centre.

Here are the details about what’s happening in Advent 2023:

Saturday 2 December
11.30am Penitential Service at St Brigid’s

Sunday 3 December
9.30am Family Mass at Christ the King
7.15pm “Mary the Mother of Jesus” talk at Christ the King Parish Centre

Sunday 10 December
 7.30pm Advent and Christmas Concert by the Elizabeth Singers at St Brigid’s

Sunday 17 December
All Masses. ‘Bambinelli’ blessing

Tuesday 19 December
6.30pm Carol Service at St Brigid’s

Thursday 21 December
10.30am Advent and Christmas Mass at Christ the King School

Sunday 24 December Sunday Masses
9am St Paul’s
9.30am Christ the King
10.30am St Brigid’s

Sunday 24 December Christmas Vigil
6pm St Paul’s
6pm Christ the King
8pm St Brigid’s

Christmas Day Masses
9am St Paul’s
9.30am Christ the King
10.30am St Brigid’s

The season of Lent in our 3 churches

3 churches, lent,

Please make sure that you read and absorb the special LENT FLYER that has all the details you need for Lent to help us all observe this important season.

This year we will follow the STATIONS OF THE CROSS live-streamed from St Brigid’s every Saturday commencing 20 February at 9.30 in place of Mass. We will pause at two or three Stations each week in a reflective way. Most of us “connect” with at least one of the Stations from our own experience of judging, or assisting, or keeping going etc – the great themes of the Stations.

This year we want to bring the Stations alive by listening to one another’s story. One of the organisers Ami Liddington writes: “Lent is fast approaching. We will be running Stations of the Cross every Saturday morning via live-streaming at St Brigid’s. We would love to receive life reflections from as many people as possible, across our 3 Churches. For more information and / or to volunteer a reflection, please contact Ami Liddington on liddingtona@talktalk.net.”

Fr Matthew

A celebration of unity and commitment

3 churches, , ,

The Family Life Commission of the diocese would like to invite all couples whose wedding plans have been impacted by Covid-19, to join them for a Service of Unity and Commitment, along with other couples from across the Archdiocese of Cardiff on Saturday 13 February.

This is a special service for anyone who:

  • was due to get married in 2020 or 2021
  • has had their wedding day postponed, maybe more than once
  • had to change their wedding plans considerably
  • did get married, but the wedding could not be as originally planned

The service will be led by Father Matthew Jones as Priest Advisor to the Commission, and Deacon Christian Mahoney, and live-streamed from St Brigid’s via our webcam.

Though participation will be via live-stream only from 11am on Saturday 13 February, couples will be given the opportunity to play an active role in the liturgy.

For further details, download the Order of Service document. 

While this is primarily a service for the couples affected themselves, you are all welcome to tune in on Saturday to our webcam and join the Family Life Commission in praying for those couples whose married lives have not got off to the start everyone would hope for.

 

Returning to public mass in our churches

3 churches, Christ the King, St Brigids, St Pauls

Dear parishioners and friends of our 3 Churches:

We are very happy to announce that later this week we will return to public mass in our churches. As you will see below, we will begin on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th with Mass at St Brigid’s at 9.30am, continuing at Christ the King Saturday 6pm and Sunday 9am, and then St Brigid’s Sunday 10.30am and 6pm.

  • at these Masses we will welcome all who wish to come up to the limit for each Mass. If the numbers require it, on future weekends we will operate some kind of “booking” system
  • however, remember that the Sunday Obligation is still lifted – you might want to consider coming on a different day to allow needy parishioners to come at their convenience
  • 10.30 Mass at St Brigid’s will continue to be live streamed for the foreseeable future
  • to comply with directives, there can be no mass sheets or hymn books, and various other restrictions to enable things to run smoothly – to this end please follow the stewards’ assistance – for example by not lingering in the buildings after mass
  • Stewards – obviously more stewards are needed for public mass,  please consider whether you can offer this service and contact Ansti at anstic2018@yahoo.com (St Brigid’s) or Marie at llanishen@rcadc.org (Christ the King)
  • St Paul’s have also started the process of opening the church, so watch this space

It will be wonderful to be able to be back together again. We are very grateful to all those who have worked so hard to get us to this point. Well done!

Fr Matthew