St Bartholomew's Church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI announced a special “Year of Faith” to help Catholics appreciate the gift of faith, deepen their relationship with God and strengthen their commitment to sharing faith with others.
Celebrating Mass Oct. 16 with participants in a Vatican conference on new evangelization, the pope said the Year of Faith would give “renewed energy to the mission of the whole church to lead men and women out of the desert they often are in and toward the place of life: friendship with Christ who gives us fullness of life.”
The pope said the observance would begin Oct. 11, 2012 — the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council — and conclude Nov. 24, 2013 — the feast of Christ the King.
“It will be a moment of grace and commitment to an ever fuller conversion to God, to reinforce our faith in him and to proclaim him with joy to the people of our time,” the pope said in his homily.
Pope Benedict explained his intention more fully in “Porta Fidei” (“The Door of Faith”), an apostolic letter released Oct. 17 to formally announce the special year.

The full text of the Apostolic Letter is on the Vatican website.

From the first Sunday of Advent (28th November) we will be using new words for the proper prayers of the Mass -so from that date current Sunday and Weekday Missals will be out of date. Now is the time to start thinking about ordering one. None of the publishers have advanced copies available for display and publication will be at about the same date as the new texts are introduced. A form will be available in the repository where you can express interest in purchasing a Missal so that we have some idea of  the numbers we need to order.

For the 4 weeks of September we had a page in the newsletter dedicated to the new translation of the Mass. We have now produced a single 4-page document for those interested. It’s available here or via a link at the side of the main web page.

Although I write most of the posts currently on our website, I do so on behalf of the parish. I have started my own blog so that I can write about matters in a personal capacity. There is a link here or you will see a link at the side of the main page.

A copy of the slides used during the recent Parish General Meeting is now available. This includes notes on the meeting. For those who didn’t make the meeting this document lets you know the main points presented and discussed. It was felt at the meeting that time was needed to reflect on the issues raised when discussing the future development of the parish. A total of seven matters were raised and we are looking for parishioner feedback on these via email or the comments section of this website.

At Saturday’s parish general meeting it was suggested that the matters discussed should be posted on the website for wider consultation and to allow feedback. Over the next few days we will publish links to a range of topics on which we would appreciate the views and opinions of parishioners.

On Saturday 17th September at 7:30pm we will hold a parish general meeting. We hope this will become an annual event but this will depend on the successful of our first attempt. The meeting will last about an hour and will be followed a chance to socialise with a glass of wine and a sandwich or two.

As part of the preparation for the meeting we invited many of our parish organisations to submit a report and these are available in a booklet which is available at the back of the church or you can download a copy here.

On Sunday 4th September the English speaking Church started adopting a new translation of the Mass. Back in July, we presented the reasoning behind and nature of the changes in a series of parish talks. Over the first 4 weeks of September we are also publishing a series of full-page articles on the new translation in the parish newsletter. The texts of these articles, plus other material, is also being made available on this website for permanent reference.
When the Holy Father visited the UK last year he commended the new translation as an opportunity to think more deeply about the Mass and the faith which it both forms and expresses. As a parish we should see the new translation as more than a mere change in the words we say and hear but as a dynamic opportunity to deepen our individual faiths and our collective expression of that faith.

St Joseph's Altar in Aylesford

On Saturday 12th March our 34 Confirmation candidates, with 8 Catechists, Fr Deo and Deacon Paul spent a day at the Shrine of our Lady of Mount Carmel at Aylesford Priory. The theme of our confirmation course is becoming more like Christ and we have been exploring this by asking what would Jesus do? At Aylesford we explored the theme of vocation (what should I do with my life?) and sainthood (how do the saints help us to be more like Christ?). We also attended the midday Mass and each of the candidates had a chance to produce a clay pot in the on-site pottery. The candidates will complete the weekend with their Mass of Enrolment at 5:00pm this afternoon.