Teas and Coffees available after Mass on Sunday and Thursday.

Thank You: Last week’s collection for World Day of the Poor raised £858.20.

Special Collection next Sunday for the Scottish Catholic Education Service.

Thank You to the Knit & Knatter Group and to all who supported their recent Coffee Morning & Christmas Fayre. £1121.14 was raised; a lot of hard work coming to fruition!

Visit of Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem: Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzabella will be at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh on Sunday 1^st December. His Eminence will preach at the evening Mass that will be presided at by Archbishop Cushley. Mass begins at 7.30pm. All are welcome.

Parish Social Event, Friday 27 December 2024, 7.00 pm to 10.30 pm in Church Hall - all welcome.  The cost is £15 per person and will include a buffet. Sara’s Italian Deli in Kirkcaldy are catering for this event.  There will be gin and tonic available on arrival and a whisky after the meal (for those who wish to drink).  You are also welcome to bring your own bottle to enjoy on the night.  A sign-up sheet is available in the church porch and it would be appreciated if names could be added by Sunday 1 December 2024 so that the catering can be finalised.

St Andrew’s High School: You are warmly invited to celebrate the Vigil of the Feast Day Mass at St Marie’s, Kirkcaldy on Friday 29^th November at 7.00pm, followed by light refreshments in the hall afterwards.

Nativity Blessing: Archbishop Cushley will bless the Nativity Scene at Mound Place, Edinburgh, at 3:00pm on Sunday 1 December.

SSVP Seniors Christmas Party - Sunday 15^th December: If you wish to attend please add your names to the sheet on the table in the porch. Thank you.

Save the Date:  Children’s Christmas Party – Saturday 21^st December 2pm-4pm

Zoom series on new Lectionary:  The Archdiocese is hosting a series of 45 min. talks on Zoom to take a closer look at the new Lectionary which is being introduced in Advent. Join Fr Jamie McMorrin at 7:00pm on Wednesday 4 December, Wed 11 Dec, and Wed 18 Dec. The sessions are free to attend. Register at bit.ly/lectionaryadvent 

East Fife Male Voice Choir Christmas Concert: Saturday 7 December at 2.00pm at the Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy. Tickets £12 at the door (under16’s free).

From Pope Francis’ recent Encyclical Letter  Dilexit Nos, On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ:  Whenever Jesus healed someone, he preferred to do it, not from a distance but in close proximity: “He stretched out his hand and touched him” (Mt 8:3). “He touched her hand” (Mt 8:15). “He touched their eyes” (Mt 9:29). Once he even stopped to cure a deaf man with his own saliva (cf. Mk 7:33), as a mother would

do, so that people would not think of him as removed from their lives. “The Lord knows the fine science of the caress. In his compassion, God does not love us with words; he comes forth to meet us and, by his closeness, he shows us the depth of his tender love”.

Anecdote: Christ has conquered, Christ now rules, Christ reigns supreme”: In the middle of St. Peter’s Square in Rome, there stands a great obelisk. About four and half thousand years old, it originally stood in the temple of the sun in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. It was bought to Rome by the dreaded Emperor Caligula and it was set right in the middle of the equally dreaded Circus of Nero, on Vatican hill. It was in that Circus that St. Peter was martyred, and the obelisk may well have been the last thing on this Earth that Peter saw. On top of the obelisk there now stands a cross. In ancient times, there was a gold ball representing, of course, the sun. Now there is a cross —  the cross of Christ, and on the pedestal of the obelisk there are two inscriptions. The first of them is in Latin, “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat”, which translated means, “Christ has conquered, Christ now rules, Christ now reigns supreme.” The other inscription is, “The Lion of Judah has conquered.” Here we have the language of victory! Christianity has triumphed by the power of the cross over the greatest power that the ancient world had known, the Roman Empire, and here, in the middle of St Peter’s square, stands the obelisk bearing those triumphant inscriptions.

(Mark Coleridge Archbishop of Brisbane) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).

Have a good week. Take care. Fr James