Other Services

Joint West Lothian Deanery/Presbytery Service for Pentecost.  Sunday 23 May at St Philomena’s Winchburgh.  N.B. The time is still to be settled.

Over the next 2 years the Catholic Community will be undertaking a parish renewal programme leading up to its 150th anniversary in 2012

This renewal programme will progress under 5 general headings:

• Worship and Spirituality
• Community Outreach
• Children’s and Youth Ministry
• Adult Education
• Stewardship

Each will play a particular part in fulfilling our parish’s general mission which is, to make Christ present in so tangible a way that his message is heard and his loving forgiveness available to the people of this community.

We believe that Jesus Christ is a relevant to the needs of 21st Century humanity as he was to people of the 1st Century.  Indeed the social and moral chaos of this century bears a close parallel to that which the early Christians lived out their faith lives.

Confident that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life for all people we joyfully face the challenges presented by atheistic & secular Capitalism

Over the last 18 months the Catholic Church in Broxburn(along with its linked parish in Winchburgh) has experienced the ministry of a number of priests from different parts of the world and from different religious congregations.

Fr Johannes Naihati SVD from Indonesia *
Fr Maurice Lwanga from Tanzania
Fr Isidore Aayang Dongyeru from Ghana *
Fr Leszek Niewdana SVD from Poland
Fr Rafal Holubowski from Poland
Fr Cyprian Tellis SJ from India

Each brought with them their own unique insight into faith as it expresses itself in different countries and cultures.  They along with other visitors to our parish have opened up a much wider perception of ourselves as Christians in the Universal Church.

Small towns and villages can all too easily become and remain insular and inward looking.  We pray that through these priests and the missionary activities we support we may gain and keep a breadth of vision and a depth of spirit worthy of the gospel.

At present we have Fr Yacub Barak from Pakistan ministering amonst us. He too has brought his own insights.  Insights particular to a Christian living under the constant intimidation and sporadic persecution.  Fr Yacub will be with us until the end of June.  His straight forward homilies and love of the sick and house bound are already endearing him to many.

In May a Father Johannes Bele SVD from Indonesia will join us for the summer.  This will renew our conection both with Indonesia and the SVD (Divine Word MIssionaries) a conection the Catholic Community in Winchburgh is keen to keep up with.

*At present we are raising funds to build a School in Northern Ghana see posting for details.

* We are seeking to build links between the SVD in Indonesia and Winchburgh Parish over the comming year.

Lent is the time when we remember Jesus in the wilderness.  In the desert Jesus struggled with temptation and defeated the power of evil.  The church believes that this defeat is made complete on the Cross, when Jesus accomplishes his mission to save humankind.

Reflecting the penitential nature of Lent, the starkness of the desert, and in order to set a sharp contrast between this season and the glory and light of Easter, the church has enacted a number of simple practices to help set the ‘tone’ of these 40 days.

In Church:-
• Most strikingly the colour of the vestments change to purple – the traditional colour of penance and mourning.
• Flowers are no longer displayed – to reflect the barrenness of the desert.
• The music is toned down, the Gloria is no longer sung or said, the word ‘alleluia’ disappears from liturgy and music.
• The readings focus on repentance, sacrifice and our need for mercy.

As Persons:-
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the personal marks of Lent.
• We are called to increase our devotional lives.  Come to mass more often, walk the stations’, say a rosary, read the scriptures or a spiritual book, etc.
• We are called upon to give up something we enjoy, it may be food or drink but it could be our favourite TV soap – in order to give some time to reflection and prayer.  This ‘fasting’ reminds us of Christ in the desert and draws our attention to those who have little or nothing.
• From what we may save in fasting, and more generally from the resources we have, we are called upon to remember the poor.

A Spiritual Springtime

Spring has come early this year and if you go out into the garden you will see signs of new life everywhere – buds on the tree, shoots coming from the soil, birds nesting.  All of which promise the autumn harvest.  Lent is an old English word for spring, it is proposed as a time when the old is cleared out and the soil of our lives prepared for new life – the new life Jesus offers to each one who put their trust in his death and resurrection.  By Easter we will be called upon again to rededicate our lives to Christ by remaking our baptismal vows.  In Baptism and through the journey of faith we are ‘Born Again’ into the new life of the Gospel.

To be born again is how Jesus in St John’s gospel describes what it is like to be saved.  For some this is a profound, almost devastating experience – like St Paul on the Damascus road.  For others it is the realisation of the truth of the gospel and a willingness to follow Jesus as a disciple – Like St Peter or St John himself.  For others it is a the slow process of growth and conversion where God opens our eyes to who Jesus is – Like St James, who only followed Jesus after the resurrection.  For all Christians it involves embracing as whole heartedly as we can the changes that God wants to work in our lives.

Growing Pains

The poet T. S Elliot begins his poem The Waste Land with the strange words

April is the Cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow…

He is struggling to give expression to our dread of change, our fear of unknown things.  Yet all must change for both life and death are an endless journey of change – here says St Paul ‘we have no permanent city’.

The question is can we or will we change.  Will we let the spring rain of God’s spirit stir us, will we let this Lenten Spring bring new life to the waste land of our Soul.  Will we allow ourselves to be born again.  Pray for the grace to change:-

God of the covenant, as the forty days of deluge swept the worlds corruption and watered a new beginning of righteousness and life, so in the saving waters of baptism your people are washed clean and born again.

Throughout these forty days, we beg you, unseal for us the wellspring of your grace, cleanse our hearts of all that is not holy, and cause your gift of new life to flourish once again.

Grant this through Christ, our liberator from sin, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, holy and mighty God for ever and ever.  Amen