Roman Catholic Church

ISLE OF MAN

Welcome to the official website of the
Roman Catholic Church on the Isle of Man.

 The Isle of Man is one of the 18 pastoral areas which make up the Archdiocese of Liverpool,
and on the Island there are 7 Roman Catholic churches

For details of PUBLIC WEEKDAY AND SUNDAY MASSES at a church near you, please CLICK THE ‘READ PARISH NEWSLETTERS’ BUTTON BELOW, and select the LATEST NEWSLETTER for your area, or SCROLL DOWN and look at the GREEN BOXES where you’ll find NEWS HEADLINES from our churches around the Island, for the coming week.

Our Lady Star of the Sea
and St Maughold, Ramsey
St Patrick’s, Peel
Parish Priest
Father Brian O Mahony CSSp
T: (01624) 813181
E: ourladystarofthesea@rcaol.org.uk

St Mary of the Isle and St Joseph, Douglas
St Anthony’s, Onchan
Parish Priest and Area Dean:
Monsignor John Devine
T: (01624) 675509
E: saintmaryiom@rcaolp.co.uk

St Mary’s, Castletown
&  St Columba’s, Port Erin
Parish Priest
Fr Joseph Kiganda CSSp
Deacon – Rev’d Alan Molloy
T: (01624) 822272
E: saintmarycastletown@rcaolp.co.uk

READ PARISH NEWSLETTERS

THANK YOU FOR VISITING US!

YOU’VE REACHED THE INFORMATION HUB
FOR ALL OUR ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES

NOVENA TO MARY, UNTIER OF KNOTS
Day 4 – Sunday 17th October  – 3.00pm
at St Anthony’s, Onchan
led by The Right Revd Peter Eagles,
Bishop of Sodor and Man.

Dates for the rest of the Novena are below 
Each service will take place at 7.00pm at St Mary’s
Day 5 – Thursday 21st October
Day 6 – Friday 29th October
Day 7 – Wednesday 3rd November
Day 8 – Thursday 11th November
Day 9 – Wednesday 17th November

Every day of the Novena gives us an opportunity
to bring our own personal knots to Mary,
but each day will also highlight a particular
aspect of suffering or conflict
If you are unable to join in person, we invite you
to make the Novena by saying this prayer each day:

Daily Novena Prayer to Mary Untier of Knots
O Virgin Mary, faithful Mother
who never refuses to come to the aid of your children;
Mother whose hands never cease to help, because they are moved by the loving kindness that exists in your Immaculate Heart, cast your eyes of compassion upon me and see the snarl of knots that exists in my life. You know all the pains and sorrows caused by these tangled knots. Mary, my Mother, I entrust to your loving hands the entire ribbon of my life. In your hands there is no knot which cannot be undone. Most Holy Mother, pray for Divine assistance to come to my aid. Take these knots into your maternal hands this day; I beg you to undo them for the glory of God, once and for all, in the name of your Divine Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

COVID NOTES:
PLEASE sanitise your hands
on entering and leaving the church
and practise reasonable social distancing. 
Wear a mask if you wish – masks protects the wearer
and reduce the spread of infection to others

ALL MASSES IN St MARY & St JOSEPH, DOUGLAS
are live-streamed, at the following times:

SATURDAY EVENING AT 5pm

SUNDAY AT 11am

MONDAY TO FRIDAY AT 12:10pm
see below for any occasional changes

VIEW LIVE STREAM

WELCOME to our ‘Live Stream’ church family
We’re pleased to receive your prayer requests,
or to have an email chat.
Email our Parish Office, using the CONTACT tab

MASSES  IN St MARY & St JOSEPH,  DOUGLAS
Saturday at 5pm   Sunday at 11am

MONDAY – FRIDAY
18 – 22 OCTOBER
MASS at 12.10pm

SATURDAY 23 OCTOBER
CONFESSIONS & EXPOSITION at 11am

MASS IN St ANTHONY’S, ONCHAN
Sunday Mass at 9.30am
Thursday 21 October  – Mass at 10am

MASS TIMES in the NORTH and WEST
Sunday Masses
St Patrick’s, Peel at 9am   
Our Lady Star of the Sea, Ramsey at 11am

Weekday Mass in St Patrick’s, Peel
Monday  – Communion Service at 10am
Tuesday, Thursday & Friday – Mass at 12noon

Weekday Mass in Our Lady’s, Ramsey
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday at 10am
Wednesday at 7.30pm
Saturday at 12.30pm & 6.30pm

MASS TIMES in the SOUTH
Sunday Masses 
St Mary’s, Castletown at 9am
St Columba’s, Port Erin at 11am

Weekday Mass in St Mary’s, Castletown
10am on Wednesday, Friday  & Saturday

Weekday Mass in St Columba’s, Port Erin
 10am on Tuesday & Thursday 

 


Greetings
from Monsignor John

17th October 2021  2021
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Day of Prayer for Prisoners and their families
Year B for Sundays – Cycle I for Weekdays

Dear Parishioners,

As the UK prepares to host the Glasgow Cop 26 International Conference on Climate Change, I share this piece with you from Franciscan priest Fr Richard Rohr:

The spiritual nature of reality, and the material, the physical, have been one ever since the Big Bang. The incarnation did not just happen 2,000 years ago; rather, matter and spirit have been one since God decided to manifest himself.

Christ is everywhere. The entire planet is anointed and messianic, if you will. All bears the Christ mystery. The whole point of going to communion in church is to sacramentalize the universe. We’re not only in communion when we go to communion. We’re always in communion when we learn this. We’re in communion driving to church. We’re in communion walking up the steps of the church. We’re in communion at the bathroom break. We’re in communion when we’re in nature.

Franciscan sister José Hobday (1929–2009) was a Seneca elder, an author and a storyteller. She writes of how she learned to “pray always” from the Native American spirituality of her mother, which honoured this sense of being in constant communion and harmony with God in all things.  

‘My mother prayed as a Native American. That meant she saw living as praying, and praying as living. She tried to pray her life. She expressed her prayer of gratitude, for example, in the way she did things. She told me many times, “When you stir oatmeal, stir it slowly so you don’t forget that oatmeal is a gift and that you don’t take it for granted.” She made a prayer out of the way she stirred oatmeal. Doing things prayerfully. That reflected her approach to prayer. She always did that. She even did it in the way she walked. She taught me and my brothers to walk with our hearts high and to walk softly on the earth because the earth is our mother. . . . As we walked, she said, we should be ready to enter into every movement of beauty we encountered. . . .

‘So, what things have I learned from Native American spirituality? First, to make my prayer creation-centred. Indians pray as relatives of the earth. They consider the sky their father, the earth their mother. The sun can be a brother or a sister. This makes you a creature with a relationship to creation, not someone above it or better than it. . . . In our prayer, we might very well reflect on . . . creatures, and their relationship with creation. That is what Native Americans have done. It has not only kept them in touch with creation, but with the Creator as well.’
 
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Today, Sunday, 17th October we look forward to welcoming the Right Revd Peter Eagles, Bishop of Sodor and Man. He will preside and preach at the 4th session of our Novena to Mary Untier of Knots at 3.00pm at St Anthony’s Onchan. During the service he will also dedicate a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. It is a tribute to good ecumenical relations on the Island that Bishop Peter is a welcome visitor to our churches. We are part of the Archdiocese of Liverpool but on the Island, we also claim Bishop Peter as ‘our’ bishop, too. We recognise him as a Manx spiritual leader and also value his role as a member of the Legislative Council at Tynwald where he gives a voice to all the churches on the Island.

Dates for the remaining seven days of the Novena are as follows:
All  Novena services will take place at 7.00pm at St Mary’s.
Thursday 21st October 7.00pm
Friday 29th October 7.00pm
Wednesday 3rd November 7.00pm
Thursday 11th November 7.00pm
Wednesday 17th November 7.00pm

Whilst every day of the Novena gives us an opportunity to bring our own personal knots to Mary, each day will also highlight one aspect of the suffering, loss, confusion, uncertainty and social issues that touch us at some time in our lives.
************************

SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION
We will be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation with Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald at Saint Mary’s at 5.00pm on Saturday 29th January 2022. Parents are requested to contact the parish office, preferably by email, if they wish their children to be confirmed. Those eligible to be confirmed must be in YEAR 8 or above. There will be a programme of preparation those seeking the sacrament during November. This will involve attendance at a small number of ‘live’ sessions combined with online preparation. Any Adults who haven’t been confirmed, and have not already been in touch with us, are also invited to contact the parish office. There will be a separate programme of preparation for them.

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION 2022
Children attending St Mary’s Catholic Primary School are being prepared for First Holy Communion as part of the school’s RE curriculum. Parents of Year 4 children attending other non-Catholic schools who wish to make their First Holy Communion in 2022 are required to register their names by email with the parish office  – the email address is saintmaryiom@rcaolp.co.uk   Six sessions of preparation are required. They will be invited to attend evening classes at St Anthony’s, Onchan. Three sessions will take place before Easter and three after Easter.

PARISH COUNCIL
Some weeks ago I shared my intention to form a Parish Council. I spoke of how parish life can be summarised under the three headings of Priest, Prophet and King – Worship, Formation and Service. As a first step I will be inviting twelve individuals from among those actively involved in serving the parishes under these headings to form a steering group.

To read the rest of this week’s news CLICK HERE

Fr John 

Monsignor John Devine OBE MA VF
Saint Mary of the Isle   Hill Street       Douglas      Isle of Man     IM1 1EG

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COVID UPDATE 

At the time of writing, I note that there have been two more recorded Covid related deaths with six patients in Nobles Hospital and a total of 569 known cases on the Island. This inevitably raises the risk of infection among those attending Mass. Our volunteer stewards will be wearing masks as they encourage us to follow NHS advice in sanitizing our hands when we enter and leave the church. You may wish to consider wearing masks yourselves both for your own health and to protect and reassure those attending Mass who are vulnerable. I take this opportunity to thank our stewards for their ongoing dedication and commitment to keep us all safe. 
The obligation to attend Sunday Mass is still suspended.

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In January this year, Pope Francis instituted a Church-wide celebration of a World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.
This special day took place this Sunday 25 July,
close to the liturgical memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.
The chosen theme is “I am with you always”.
You can read and/or download Pope Francis’ message for the first ever World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
BY CLICKING HERE

PRAYER FOR THE FIRST WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY

I thank You, Lord, for the comfort of Your presence: even in times of loneliness,
You are my hope and my confidence; You have been my rock and my fortress since my youth!
I thank You for having given me a family and for having blessed me with a long life.
I thank You for moments of joy and difficulty,
for the dreams that have already come true in my life and for those that are still ahead of me.
I thank You for this time of renewed fruitfulness to which You call me.
Increase, O Lord, my faith, make me a channel of your peace,
teach me to embrace those who suffer more than me,
to never stop dreaming and to tell of your wonders to new generations.
Protect and guide Pope Francis and the Church,
that the light of the Gospel might reach the ends of the earth.
Send Your Spirit, O Lord, to renew the world,
that the storm of the pandemic might be calmed,
the poor consoled and wars ended.
Sustain me in weakness and help me to live life to the full
in each moment that You give me, in the certainty that you are with me every day,
even until the end of the age.
Amen.

A Friendship Blessing – from Anam Cara:
A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul
where there is great love, warmth, feeling and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant or cold in you.
May you be brought into the real passion,
kinship and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
May they bring you all the blessing, challenges,
truth and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging
with your anam ċara.

“PEACE” – A SONNET BY MALCOLM GUITE
Not as the world gives, not the victor’s peace,
Not to be fought for, hard-won, or achieved,
Just grace and mercy, gratefully received:
An undeserved and unforeseen release,
As the cold chains of memory and wrath
Fall from our hearts before we are aware,
Their rusty locks all picked by patient prayer,

Till closed doors open, and we see a path
Descending from a source we cannot see;
A path that must be taken, hand in hand,
Only by those, forgiving and forgiven,
Who see their saviour in their enemy.
So reach for me. We’ll cross our broken land,
And make each other bridges back to Heaven.

A PRAYER FOR ALL WHO ARE LIVING WITH DEMENTIA

It steals upon our loved ones,
it steals when we do not understand what is happening;
why it is happening?
The happening is that slow dying
The taking away of a precious loved one.
We see someone we loved and treasured,
someone who won our respect,
we see that person denied of dignity and slowing;
losing an awareness of life and living.
It hurts…oh, how it hurts.
Let prayer be our help;
let prayer be our strength;
let prayer rise like a fountain of love.
May we come together in prayer for our cherished one.
Dear God, we pray, may your will be done.

 

A Poem on the Death of His Mother….. by Seamus Heaney
When all the others were away at Mass
I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.
They broke the silence, let fall one by one
Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:
Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.
And again let fall.
Little pleasant splashes
From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.

So while the parish priest at her bedside
Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying
And some were responding and some crying
I remembered her head bent towards my head,
Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives–
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.

Pope Francis Prayer Intention for June:

 We pray for young people who are preparing for marriage with the support of a Christian community: may they grow in love, with generosity, faithfulness and patience.

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From EPISTOLA AD DAKYNS by T.E. Brown

… The next is where God keeps for me
A little island in the sea
A body for my needs, that so
I may not all unclothed go
A vital instrument whereby
I still may commune with the sky
Even now between its simple poles
It has the soul of all my souls
But then – whatever I have been
Whatever felt, whatever seen
The loves, the hates, the hopes, the fears,
The gathered strength of all my years
All that my life in one was wrought
Of complex essence shall be brought
And wedded to those primal forms
That have their scope in calms and storms
And I shall be the living heart
And I shall live in every part.
(T.E.Brown)


HOLDING AND LETTING GO

We have a call to live, and oh
A common call to die.
I watched you and my father go
To bid a friend goodbye.
I watched you hold my father’s hand,
How could it not be so?
The gentleness of holding on
Helps in the letting go.


For when we feel our frailty
How can we not respond?
And reach to hold another’s hand
And feel the common bond?
For then we touch the heights above
And every depth below,
We touch the very quick of love;
Holding and letting go.

(Malcolm Guite from The Singing Bowl)

WHEN ATTENDING MASS, PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING :

We are really grateful to our stewards who have given so much of their time throughout the crisis. As we gradually return to normality, we must be ready to perform U-turns. With their experience of monitoring social distancing and sanitising surfaces, they are prepared should the situation change.
Some dismiss our vigilance as unnecessary. Younger and more robust members of our community may opt for a casual approach to protective measures. For the sake of our vulnerable parishioners, we unapologetically err on the side of caution. Please, continue to sanitise your hands on arrival and on leaving our churches and maintain reasonable social distancing. Thank you 

• The Sunday obligation is still suspended.
• Please adhere to social distancing guidelines in place. Any children accompanying you must do the same.
• Please sanitise your hands when you enter and leave the church. Holy water fonts are not in use .
• There will be no hymns books, Mass books or newsletters.
• You will be guided to a bench by a volunteer steward. It may not be where you usually sit.
• Toilets will remain closed at all times except for a genuine emergency.
• Only the priest will be on the sanctuary – without deacons, servers, readers etc. 
• There will be no children’s liturgy or choir and no live singing.
• There will be no Sign of Peace.
• Holy Communion will now be distributed at the normal place in the Mass.
• You may only receive the Sacred Host in your hand and not on your tongue. Communicants must avoid skin to skin contact with the minister’s hands.
• People receiving Communion are instructed to approach the altar with their arms outstretched so as to maintain a reasonable distance from the minister.
• Please do not gather at the back of church to chat.
• Baskets will be available at the entrance (and exit) for your weekly Offertory collection.

This year is the 5th anniversary of Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical ‘Laudato si’
Its message is just as prophetic today as it was in 2015.
The encyclical can provide the moral and spiritual compass for the journey
to create a more caring, fraternal, peaceful and sustainable world.
Catholics around the world are being encouraged to pause, wherever we are,
and say this prayer at noon each day:-

Loving God, Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them,
you created us in your own image and made us stewards of creation.
You blessed us with the sun, water and bountiful land so that all might be nourished.
Open our minds and touch our hearts, so that we may attend to your gift of creation.
Help us to be conscious that our common home belongs not only to us,
but to all of your creatures and to all future generations,
and that it is our responsibility to preserve it.

May we help each person secure the food and resources that they need.
Be present to those in need in these trying times,
especially the poorest and those most at risk of being left behind.
Transform our fear and feelings of isolation into hope and fraternity,
so that we may experience a true conversion of the heart.

Help us to show creative solidarity
in addressing the consequences of this global pandemic.
Make us courageous to embrace the changes
that are needed in search of the common good.

Now more than ever may we feel that we are all
interconnected and interdependent.
Enable us to listen and respond to the cry of the earth
and the cry of the poor.

May the present sufferings be the birth pangs
of a more fraternal and sustainable world.
Under the loving gaze of Mary Help of Christians,
we make this prayer through Christ Our Lord.   Amen.

Prayer of Spiritual Communion used at live-streamed Masses
Lord Jesus Christ,
You promise to be with us when two or three are gathered together in your name.
You promise to be with us until the end of time.
You are with us when we hear your Word in the Sacred Scriptures.
You are with us in those who are hungry and thirsty, sick or in prison and in the face of the stranger.
You are with us in our beautiful world and in the very stuff of the entire Universe.
You are with me in the very depths of my being;
And you are with us in the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist.
Today I am unable to receive you in this Sacrament of your Body and Blood.
Lord Jesus, strengthen my belief that you are always with us until you come again.
I believe that one day I will see you face to face
when there will be no more suffering, no more tears and no more sadness.
Lord Jesus, stay with me and with those I love throughout this day and for the rest of my life.
You who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen

Pope St John Paul II – on his visit to England in 1982 – had this to say about
the place of sickness and suffering in the life of the church:

‘Today I make an urgent plea to this nation. Do not neglect your sick and elderly. Do not turn away from the handicapped and the dying. Do not push them to the margins of society. For, if you do, you will fail to understand that they represent an important truth. The sick, the elderly, the handicapped and the dying teach us that weakness is a creative part of human living, and that suffering can be embraced with no loss of dignity. Without the presence of these people in your midst you might be tempted to think of health, strength and power as the only important values to be pursued in life. But the wisdom of Christ and the power of Christ are to be seen in the weakness of those who share his sufferings.
Let us keep the sick and the handicapped at the centre of our lives.
Let us treasure them and recognise with gratitude the debt we owe them.
We begin by imagining that we are giving to them;
we end by realising that they have enriched us.’              (Southwark Cathedral, 28 May 1982)


CLICK HERE TO FIND DAVID CRYSTAL’S DAILY READINGS ON LINE


SOME WORDS FROM POPE FRANCIS

SOME OF THE POPE’S TWEETS ON THE PANDEMIC:
‘Today in the tragedy of a pandemic, in the face of the many false securities that have now crumbled,
in the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon hearts, Jesus says to each one of us :”‘Courage, open your heart to my love”.’

‘The current pandemic has highlighted our interdependence: we are all linked to each other, for better or for worse. Therefore, to come out of this crisis better than before, we have to do so together, all of us, in solidarity’

The official website of the Roman Catholic Pastoral Area of St Maughold, Isle of Man in the Archdiocese of Liverpool

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