4th Sunday of Advent 20th December—1110(C)

READING PASTORAL AREA

St. John Bosco Church 56 Western Avenue,

Woodley, Reading RG5 3BH Tel: 0118 969 3423

Priest: Fr Bonaventure Ndong

Email: stjohnbosco

@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk

Website: stjohnbosco.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/

groups/1455918784702101/

Part of the PORTSMOUTH DIOCESAN TRUST Registered

Charity Number 246871 Administrator: Karen Tarvin

Church Office is open Tues - Fri 8.30am to 1.30pm. (PLEASE NOTE: The office will be closed until 5th Jan For emergencies pls ring

Fr Bon)

WEEKLY COLLECTION Envelopes: £325.10 Loose: £349.39 Standing orders: £415

Total : £ 1089.49 Christmas Flowers £220.18 Thank you for your generous contributions. Your donations make the life and work of the par-ish possible. Next Special Collection 23/24 Jan—Catholic Education

Psalm Responses: Year C

20th Dec—“God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved”

Midnight Mass—”Today a saviour has been born to us; he is Christ the Lord”

25th Dec—”All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God”

27th Dec—”He, the Lord, is our God. He remembers his covenant forever”

3rd Jan—”All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.”

YEAR OF MERCY 2015 –2016

Remember to light the 4th

candle on your Advent wreaths

As we come to the end of the year, I sincerely thank everybody in the parish for all the cooperation and collaboration; in public and in private; seen and

unseen, in groups or individually, for the good and growth of this parish. Thank you to those who became members of this church this year, those who took on new roles and those who gave their time and talents to the church—we appreci-ate all and thank you sincerely. I am thinking of our catechists, (for Infant Bap-tism, FHC, RCIA), sacristans, leaders and members of different groups; choir, livesimply, Altar Servers, flower arrangers, Catenians, Extraordinary Ministers

of Holy Communion, Finance Committee, etc... May God richly bless you all. Fr Bon

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

THE JUBILEE CHRISTMAS It is Christmas: the birth 0f Mercy. In Him the words of the psalmist come true: "Love and

loyalty now meet; righteousness and peace now embrace, Loyalty reaches up from earth and righteousness leans down from heaven" (Psalm 85:10). The joy of Christmas is the joy of

forgiveness and redemption. One way of redemption is through indulgences. An indulgence is remission of temporal punishment due to sin, whose guilt has already been forgiven, and

reminds us of the common root of indulgences and penances given in Sacramental Reconciliation. Indulgences are intended to spur us to works of devotion and charity. To gain an indulgence, one has to be in a state of grace and detachment from sin; have recourse to sacramental confession and receive the Eucharist, preferably during Mass. Moreover, the individual is required to pray for the Intention of the Holy Father. In this Year of Mercy, all

believers are encouraged to undertake 24 hours Adoration in March (4th & 5th), and at other times, as a powerful weapon for the conversion of the world and the sanctification of all

people. Mercy is about Mary's Child, born on Christmas Day; born into a human family to purify, sanctify and glorify all families. Because Christ has been born, we are forgiven. Our misery due to sin is exchanged for the sweet mercy of God. Because we are forgiven, we rejoice and bring that forgiveness and joy to others. It is a jubilee Christmas in the Jubilee

Year of Mercy. So we can say Mercy Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

HISTORY OF ST JOHN BOSCO CHURCH, WOODLEY

As part of the 70th anniversary of the parish of St John Bosco we are looking for people to tell us a story. That story can be an anecdote of your personal

involvement in the church, or an event, or of people you remember who were active in the life of our community. There have been, and are, many people who have given a great deal to

developing our community and we would like to remember them and create an archive. We would like to set out 7 scrolls covering each decade of our church community. It will inevitably

be a work in progress and unlikely to finish in the short term. Please contact Paul Draper (pa.uleric@hotmail.co.uk or write him a note care of the parish office)

MINISTERS FOR WEEKEND 26th/27th Dec

Readers Saturday Rita Belletty Neil Oxley Sunday Martha Babalola Andy Johnston Extraordinary Ministers of the Holy Communion Saturday L Cramp D Cramp M Eames Sunday M Stanbridge A + Altar G Siviter B + Altar J Jeyakumar C + Altar J Moriera D + Altar L Gutteridge Altar only Readers

2nd /3rd Jan Saturday Angela King Chris Hughes Sunday Milly Gray Abbie Cox Extraordinary Ministers of the Holy Communion Saturday B Ford K D’Souza M Moffat Sunday N Lamb A + Altar M Moreira B + Altar B Buckley C + Altar M Dodd D + Altar P Gibbs Altar only

MASS INTENTIONS & FEAST DAYS Date Time Dedication Intention Diary

Sat 19th Dec 6.30pm Liturgy of the Day Lourdes & Tony Leitao (L Collaco)

Sun 20th Dec 10.00am 4th Sunday of Advent Cliff Nutley + (Maria and family)

Baptism

Mon 21st Dec 10.00am Service of Word & Communion

Tue 22nd Dec 10.00am Liturgy of the Day

Wed 23rd Dec 10.00am Liturgy of the Day George Bentley + (Angela Bentley)

Thurs 24th Dec Christmas Eve

5.00pm 11.30pm

Children’s Christmas Eve Mass Carol Service & Midnight Mass

Richard Gurney + (Jo Ann Gurney)

Fri 25th Dec Christmas Day

8.30am 10.30am

Christmas Day Mass Christmas Day Mass

Parishioners Private Intention

Sat 26th Dec Boxing Day

6.30pm Mass Kenneth Gilbert + (Mary Gilbert)

Sun 27th Dec 10.00am The Holy Family Altar Servers rededication will take place at the 10.00am Mass

Fr. Chris Trish & Ron)

Mon 28th Dec 10.00am Service of Word & Communion

Tues 29th Dec 10.00am St Thomas of Canterbury

Wed 30th Dec 10.00am Liturgy of the Day

Thur 31st Dec 5.30pm Adoration & Thanksgiving (until 7pm)

Fri 1st Jan 10.00am Mary Mother of God Arthur Pearl + (Angela Bentley)

Sat 2nd Jan 6.30pm Ss Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen

Ella Ormiston + (Tom Ormiston)

Sun 3rd Jan Epiphany

10.00am Epiphany Mass Elvira Minopoli + (Maria Itta)

Mon 4th Jan 10.00am Service of Word & Communion

Tues 5th Jan 7.00pm Liturgy of the Day

Wed 6th Jan 9.15am Liturgy of the Day Alan Gleave + (Eileen Gleave)

Thur 7th Jan 9.15am Liturgy of the Day

Fri 8th Jan 9.00am Adoration & Mass

Sat 9th Jan 6.30pm Liturgy of the day Francis Coelho + Reuben Aguiar)

Baptism FHC

Sun 10th Jan 10.00am The Baptism of the Lord Guiliano Frappiano + (M. Frappiano)

FHC

Epiphany of the Lord: Is being celebrated on Sun 3rd Jan and is a Holy Day of Obligation.

CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS EVE MASS: All children attending the 5pm Children’s Mass on Christmas Eve are invited to dress up

as angels, shepherds or kings,

but no wings

please !

Confessions

(Please note next

confession is

Sat 9th Jan 2016)

FR BON’S BIRTHDAY AND GRADUATION CELEBRATION

Thank you to everyone who came along and helped him celebrate, to

all the helpers, the generosity of gifts, food drinks and time.

All Very much appreciated

THANK YOU

YEAR OF MERCY PRAYER CARDS

New Prayer cards are in the porch for the Prayer for Mercy after Bidding Prayers.

The Salve Regina will be said at the end of Mass on Fridays.

ALTAR SERVERS 26/12/15 is

the feast of St Stephen, who is the Patron Saint of Altar

Servers. Please can ALL of our

Servers attend the Mass at 10am on 27/12/15 for the

Rededication.

ST DOMINIC SAVIO CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

“Good with outstanding features”

Ofsted 2015

Thurs, 7th Jan 2016 9.15—10.30am

Come and visit us!

St Dominic Savio School

For being in the “top 1,000 schools” in the Daily Telegraph’s list of pri-mary schools in England. Being in the top 3 schools in all of Woking-

ham and NUMBER 1 school in Woodley in the school performance

tables.

WELL DONE!

CTW CHRISTMAS SERVICE CARD CORRECTION

Please note the Christmas day Mass times for St John Bosco church were

incorrectly printed and in some cases incorrectly annotated in the

CTW Service cards. Mass times are 08.30 and 10.30 am 25th Dec.

NEWSLETTER: Please note that this newsletter

covers 3 weekends - keep a copy! The

next newsletter will be issued for the weekend of 16th/17th

CHRISTMAS OFFERINGS

A reminder that the collection at all the Christmas Masses

traditionally go to the Priests serving the parish and form a significant part of their annual

income

Please remember to use the Gift Aid envelopes in the porch for the

Christmas offerings so that we can claim Gift Aid. Please remember to put your name or Gift Aid number on

the envelope. Thank you

ST JOHN BOSCO PARISH PILGRIMAGE Pilgrimages are an important part of the Year of Mercy; so all people are encouraged to undertake a pilgrimage to Rome and other religious sites.

Nationally, there is the Marian Shrine in Walsingham and locally, there are three designated places:

St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth

Our Lady and St Edmund Abingdon Our Lady and St Anne, Caversham (Birmingham Archdiocese)

The Holy Door is a symbol of entering the mercy of God. All the designated sites for pilgrimages have Holy Doors, which Christians are encouraged to

enter. These coincide with pilgrimages.

The parish of St John Bosco is planning a pilgrimage to one of the above on Saturday 20th February 2016.

Please vote for your preferred location, either in the email the Newsletter was attached to, or using the leaflets in the church porch by no later than 10th January 2016. Please

also indicate numbers.

Thank You

PLEASE PRAY for Alcyone Le Saige who is being baptised Sunday, 20th December 2015 and Ashana Shivashanker who will be baptised on Saturday, 9th January 2016. May

the Lord watch over them and their families.

SUGGESTION BOX

If you have any suggestions/ideas about any aspect of St John Bosco church and Parish life or would just like your thoughts known, there will be a Suggestion Box in the church porch. Please do make use of it to improve the par-ish community, anonymously if preferred..

CRIB OFFERINGS

This year, with the encouragement of Bishop Philip, our parish will be donating crib offerings to the Friends of the Holy Land. Every penny will help the poorest Christian families, especially in and around Bethlehem, the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, with education, employment, health and housing costs and initia-

tives. FHL is non-political and ecumenical. For further information, please take a leaflet by the crib and keep our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land in your

prayers at this time.

SEMINARIAN

Please welcome Mohanraj Edward who will be joining St John Bosco

as a (Seminarian of the Diocese of Portsmouth) on Pastoral

Placement in our parish from 2nd January to 24th January 2016

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

During this year of the 70th anniversary of the parish of St John Bosco the Italian community will be hosting a celebration of the Feast of St John Bosco

on Saturday 30th January 2016.

Please save the date, it would be good to see as many of you there as Possible. More details to follow in the new year.

We will soon be enjoying here the peace and joy of Christmas, but we are more than ever conscious of the absence of peace in many parts of the world.

On Tuesday 22nd December at 8 pm at Our Lady of

Peace church, let us come together for prayers, read-ings and reflections in the presence of Our Lord.

Please

note

change

of date

from

26.12.15

to

27.12.15

ST JOHN BOSCO BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE

Please keep in your prayers all those with Anniversaries in December Ruby Gomez + Robert Ashe + Eamonn Burke + Raymond Cook + Peggy Pounds + Aguida Ortiz +

Sarah Keenan + Guillermo Larano + Sheila Halse + Connie Hayes + Peggie Bentley + Sarah Irving + Arthur Jacobs + Ralph Gomez + Jessie Ayres + George Bentley + Richard Gurney + Norman West +

Sister Mary Agatha +

Please keep in your prayers all those with Anniversaries in January The Drinal Family + Victoria Silvester + Ella Louise Ormiston + Gwen Siveter + Arthur Pearl + Elvira Minopoli

+ Norma Smith + Czeslaw Lukomski+ Paul Hicks + Marjorie Florence Bryant + Jim Worthe + Alfred Anthony Caruana+ Elda Bayou +

NEXT MEETING DATES: REPOSITORY OPENS 15 MINS BEFORE AND AFTER MASS 3rd Woodley St John Bosco Scout Group: Term Time Only Beavers: Mon 6.00 - 7.00 pm Cubs: Thu 6.30 - 8.30 pm Scouts: Mon 7.30 - 9.30 pm

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION:

Next meeting Sat 9th January 2016 at 1.30pm and Sun day

10th January at 9.45am

Wishing everyone peace and joy this Christmas and New Year From Fr Bon on behalf of the Parish Administration

READING ABBEY READING ABBEY RUINS it has been announced that RBC have been successful in their bid for lottery funding to begin conservation work on the Abbey ruins. The Abbey is of enormous significance to the Catholic community in Reading and it was here that the Benedictine Monks prayed and lived as community. The church of St James is on the site of the Abbey and continues the Catholic presence in the town centre. It is also hoped that in due time the ruins on the site of St James will also be renovated.

ST JOSEPH’S COLLEGE

ST JOSEPH’S COLLEGE has won the “INDEPENDENT SCHOOL OF THE YEAR” award at the prestigious 2015 TES Independent awards. The school

offers education to early year pupils up to 6th form aged 18 is a Catholic independent school and is approved by the diocese. We the Catholic commu-nity of Reading rejoice in this award and offer congratulations to the College on

this magnificent achievement.

THE SANCTUARY LAMPS FOR WEEKS:

20th to 26th December dedicated to:

Main Church: George Bentley +

Lady Chapel: George Bentley +

27th December to 2nd Jan 2016 dedicated to:

Main Church: Arthur Pearl +

Lady Chapel: Arthur Pearl +

3rd to 9th January dedicated to:

Main Church: Our Housebound Parishioners

Lady Chapel: Our Housebound Parishioners

CAFOD Portsmouth Supporters’ Meeting

Join us at our next meeting on Sat 23 January 2016 from 10am until 1.30pm at St Bede’s RC Primary School (Popley Way, Basingstoke, RG24 9DX) where we will explore our Lenten resources and hear more about CAFOD’s water pro-grammes in Uganda. To book a place please ring 01252 329385 or email portsmouth@cafod.org.uk by 15 January 2016.

Launch of Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) in the Diocese of Portsmouth: Bishop Philip warmly invites all grandparents to join him in the Cathedral for a special Grandparents Association in our Diocese. Mass will be at 12.15pm on Friday, 12th Feb., 2016, and will be followed by an address from Catherine Wiley, Founder of the CGA. Refreshments will be provided afterwards in the Cathedral Discovery Centre. All are very welcome. For details, contact 01328 560333 or email info@catholicgrandparentsassociation.org.

BISHOP PHILIP’S LETTER

On The Family will be available at Mass 2nd/3rd January and will

be sent electronically on 1st January 2016

Nicodemus’ Night An extraordinary encounter with

Jesus Christ Friday, 8th January 2016

Our Lady of Peace 9pm Rosary, litany, meditation 10pm intercessory prayers and forgiveness 12am Angelus, Benediction, praise & Worship 1am Women for the Lord 2am Men for the Lord 3am Divine Mercy Chaplet, intercessory prayers 4am resting with the Lord 5am Mass of Our Lady of Peace