Catholic Education Sunday is a national day of prayer and celebration for everyone involved in the world of education. It is a day of thanksgiving to God for our children’s education and a chance to think about and pray for those children around the world for whom education is not always available. This year to celebrate, St Dominic Savio School staff, governors,children and their families joined parishioners at the 10.00am Mass. Children wore their school uniforms and were involved with Welcoming, Reading and taking part in the Offertory procession. Reception and Year 1 children painted pictures and made collages about the day's Gospel Reading showing Jesus healing people. It was wonderful to see the church and school communities gathering together to celebrate.

    

Chloe D’Mello, a Year 4 pupil at St Dominic School and parishioner of St John Bosco has won the Churches Together in Woodley competition for designing a Christmas card to go to 10,000 houses in Woodley. 

The competition was the idea of Linda Galpin, who runs RE-inspired Woodley and is a member of the congregation at St James Church.  “I had the idea to ask the children and young people to design a Christmas card showing what Christmas was really all about. We wanted to send a Christmas card that was uncomplicated and simple.”

A winner was chosen from each of the churches involved – St James, St John Bosco, Woodley Baptist, St Johns, Christ Church and The Airfield Church with each winner receiving a £30 Amazon voucher. Martin Neads (chair of Churches Together in Woodley) judged the winning entries. 

The churches will be delivering 10 000 Christmas cards featuring Chloe’s design to homes in Woodley from 10th December.

At the end of October, St John Bosco parishoners backed CAFOD's "Don’t Drop the Ball" campaign in force! Volunteer Rita Belletty organised a card signing after all Masses and encouraged everybody to sign a card, to send a strong message to the Government to act on climate finance and maintain aid to countries affected by climate change at the Durban conference – which is now only a few weeks away!

79 cards were collected on the day and some more taken home, which is great!

St John Bosco's Altar Servers were treated to a day out at Thorpe Park to thank them for their hard work throughout the year. They all had a wonderful time riding the big rides and water rides and getting very wet!

St John Bosco celebrated the gift of the earth with a Creation Mass and a Harvest Offering.  Parishioners were encouraged to reconnect with the earth by growing something and  offer a token item in gratitude.   The offering consisted of flowers, herbs and lots of fruit and vegetables which were taken to the Reading Drop-in Centre for the homeless.  The floral arrangements and music complemented the theme of the Mass.

Fr Chris also announced that the parish was taking up the CAFOD Live Simply Award challenge and all church groups and parishioners were invited to help earn the Award.   If the parish is judged to have achieved the required standard of living Simply, Sustainably and in Solidarity with the poor, it will receive a plaque declaring it to be a Live Simply parish.

The Parish was delighted to welcome Fr Andrzej Gowkielewicz (MIC) of the Marian Fathers, based in West London, to our run the Divine Mercy Retreat day in our church on the 3rd of September.  He spoke to a transfixed crowd about God’s Mercy, reminding us that God does not wish to judge us for our sins, but to heal aching mankind by pressing us to His heart.  He spoke about St Faustina and the private revelations she received from Jesus Christ regarding this subject. Fr Andrzej explained the importance and power of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, of how it is a powerful tool to change our hearts and the hearts of those we love and pray for.  The Hour of Mercy (3 O’clock) was observed as Jesus Himself requested, the hour when He was in agony on the cross. The Divine Mercy Chaplet was sung during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.  Fr Andrzej also concelebrated both the Saturday evening and Sunday morning Masses with Fr Chris and Fr John where he preached about Divine Mercy to those present.

The Divine Mercy Circle would like to thank Fr Andrzej, everyone who gave up their Saturday to attend and everyone who helped to make the day a success.   

The Divine Mercy Circle will observe 3 O’clock prayers in a different Parish each month. The aim is to establish a community that grows in, strength, size and love for Jesus Christ, each other and our local community.  Further details on the locations and timings of these Holy Hours are in the Calendar.

 

  

Each year the Polish community of the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus organise a procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Fr Chris, Fr John and some of our parishoners were honoured to be able to join the celebration this year. The afternoon began with Mass in the church after which the Blessed Sacrament was processed out into the streets of Reading. At the front First Holy Communion children and children in Polish costume scattered petals, and altar servers incensed the way of the Blessed Sacrament . It was lovely to see so many people joining the procession, singing hymns in adoration and bearing witness to their Faith. The procession wound it's way through the busy streets of Reading to a special Altar that had been made just behind the Abbey ruins along side the River Kennet. Here we listened to a Gospel reading. We then processed back out along the road to St James' church where we all crowded inside for Benediction and Reposition of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a very memorable and moving afternoon and a wonderful chance to join and worship with other people especially strengthening the link between the Polish and English communities.

Litter pick Weekend
For the third year running, members of our church formed a team to take part in the Woodley Litter pick weekend.   We picked up the rubbish from the paths surrounding the church and school, including about 50 wet copies of the Chronicle - a car was needed to carry this "find" from Radstock Close to the assembly point at the church!