Sunday Missal:  4^th Sunday of Lent Year A – Page 171.

 

Teas and Coffees available after Mass on Sunday and Thursday.

 

Stations of the Cross will be celebrated on the Fridays of Lent at 7:00pm.

 

This Sunday is SCIAF Sunday – There will be a second collection for Papal & Episcopal Charities, including the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund. We pray for families around the world who long for safety, stability, and clean water. We give thanks for the courage of mothers in Ethiopia who walk miles each day to care for their children, often at great risk. Please give what you can in today’s collection.

 

 

 

 

St Joseph’s Day Parish Social: Sign up for a David’s Kitchen finger buffet after the Vigil Mass on Saturday 21 March. Donation only £5 per person. Tea/coffee and biscuits provided. Bring your own bottle if you so wish. Sign up sheet in the porch. Pay on the night.

Final vote on Assisted Suicide: This Tuesday (17 March) the Scottish Parliament is expected to have a final vote on Assisted Suicide. Please share your concerns now with your MSPs. Use the letter writing tool at https://carenotkilling.scot/

Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) available after Saturday morning Mass, by appointment or on request. There will be a Reconciliation Service on Monday 23 March at 7.00pm.

 

New Offertory Envelopes are available in the porch. Each set of envelopes costs £3.35, so if you can pay through the bank, please consider setting up a Standing Order (RBS - Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh St Josephs Parish – Account: 10417077 - Sort Code: 83 06 08). If you are a UK Taxpayer and are willing to Gift Aid your offerings please see Fr James.

 

Churches Together Palm Sunday Walk of Witness: Please join us for the Walk of Witness on Sunday 29  March. We will begin at 2.00pm at Burntisland Church at the Kirkgate, crossing the High Street to the Salvation Army hall, Kirkton Road to the Heritage site, pathway to St Joseph’s Church, cross Aberdour Road to St Serfs Church, Ferguson Place to Erskine Church for a short service.

 

The Beginning Experience are holding a weekend for those who find themselves suffering bereavement through divorce, separation or widowhood. The weekend will take place from 27-29 March at Conforti Centre, Coatbridge. For details contact Louise on 07786 687631 or email beginningexperiencescotland2@gmail.com  Completed applications must be returned by 13 March.

Anecdote: “Amazing Grace” is the story of the healing of one person’s personal as well as cultural blindness. John Newton was born in 1740 in England. He grew up in the Anglican Church. As a little boy he went to Church and learned Bible lessons.   His mother died when he was only eleven, and so he traveled with his father who was the captain and owner of a cargo ship.  The “cargo” was two to three hundred black slaves packed, lying next to each other, in the ship’s hold.  In a storm, little John Newton was washed overboard and was picked up on the open seas by a slave trader who trained John in his trade as he grew up.  Before his conversion, Newton’s life had become so debauched, irreverent, and immoral that even his fellow sailors were shocked by his conduct and coarse speech. On one return voyage to England, Newton was caught in such a fierce storm that all aboard despaired of life.  The Scriptures John had once learned at his mother’s knee returned to his mind, and he began to hope that Jesus could deliver him, dreadful sinner though he was.  For the first time in years, John sought the Lord in prayer, and as he later wrote, “the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.” It was on March 21, a date he remembered yearly for the rest of his life, that Newton began to realize the enormity of the evil in his life and his complicity with the evil of slavery in his slave-trading.  He left the ship, joined the seminary, was ordained and became a zealous pastor.  Thanking God for the grace of conversion, he composed a song which is now a famous and favourite hymn: “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” — Jesus always comes to heal people who are spiritually blind if they ask for help.  Newton, like his culture, had a huge personal blind-spot — tolerance for slave-trading.  And Jesus healed John Newton’s spiritual blindness. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)