Grenada church rebuilding. As the latest pictures show this is almost complete and the church will be consecrated on 7th October. The Grenada community and the English Dominican Province is deeply grateful for your generosity. The brethren ask you to continue to help them pay off the debt. To express their appreciation they are saying a monthly Mass for all their benefactors.

McNabb Appeal: we are in need of prizes to raffle at the Summer Ball (all proceeds to church developments). It would be a great help if you could donate cash (envelopes available from the Wellington Street entrance), a good-quality bottle of whisky, or any fairtrade items (wine, chocolates, etc). Please pass items to any of the friars. Thank you.

First Friday Coffee Morning: This coming Friday, at 10:30am in the Church Hall. Tea & scones or coffee & cake, a chance to chat with other weekday Mass-goers and members of the Community; and, of course, a raffle. Money raised goes towards the care and maintenance of the church fabric. Volunteers welcome.

Please leave these items after any Mass. Thank you.

We would welcome more volunteers to read at the 7pm Sunday Mass. If you are interested, please see one of the friars.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN lived throughout almost the whole of the nineteenth century. He was student and then a don at Oxford. With others, he began to look hard into the reality and history of Christianity. He found that much was missing in Anglican belief and practice, even much wrong. There were ‘heresies’, misunderstandings of Christian truth. Whole areas of religion had been forgotten: the many forms of prayer and devotion; dedicated ‘religious life’; the Saints as examples. Various movements, like the Quakers, and the Methodists, and the Salvation Army had come from feelings of this, but hadn’t found the answer. The Oxford Movement tried to introduce ways of worship and preaching that hadn’t been seen for centuries. It succeeded, in making divisions in the Anglican church: unkind critics talk of as ‘Low and lazy, Broad and hazy, High and crazy’. Newman seriously had to think of the one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church - of Rome. He converted, and asked to be received, to think of himself as a layman. This caused shock and anger among Anglicans, which he had to cope with for the rest of a very long life. Cope with it he did, in many books, and lectures, and letters. His goodness, and ability were seen, and he was ordained a Priest. He founded in England the Oratory of priests living together and undertaking parish work, writing, and teaching. He worked hard all his life to promote our understanding of faith. He wanted ‘an intelligent, and well-instructed, laity’. He was recognised and rewarded by being raised a cardinal. He will be recognised and rewarded even more by the Holy Father calling him ‘Blessed’, and well on the way to being a Saint. He said, of himself, ‘I have no tendency to be a saint. It is a sad thing to say so.’ (We can ignore that. It’s just the sort of thing a real saint would say.) ‘Saints are not literary men’ he explained. Not until now, that is. They’re just what we need; among the many other sorts of saints we could be!