Welcome to St. Bernadette's Parish, Belfast

ST. BERNADETTE’S PARISH

Christmas Eve: 6pm
Christmas Eve: 8pm (celebrated according to the Syro Malabar Rite of the Catholic Church)
Christmas Day: 11am
12.30pm (celebrated according to the Syro Malabar Rite of the Catholic Church)

HOLY ROSARY PARISH

Christmas Eve: 6pm and 9pm
Christmas Day: 9am and 10.30 am
PLEASE NOTE THERE WIL BE NO 12.30 PM MASS ON CHRISTMAS DAY

Mass times as normal in both Parishes for Christmas week 26 – 30 December

As we celebrate the wonder of Christmas, we ask our caring God to help us to listen, to the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.

This booklet, produced by the Northern Pastoral Network, provides us with a series of reflections following the feasts of the twelve days of Christmas.You may want to use it in your private prayer or gather your family each day for a short time of prayer and reflection.
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We pray this Christmas that, as we rejoice and give thanks with family and friends, each of us will rediscover the meaning of Our Lord’s Nativity and the great hope that it proclaims for the world.

This Christmas we hope that people will be able to connect with their Parish Church.  For some that will be gathering for a celebration of Mass over the Christmas Season and for others it may simply be a time of quiet prayer, lighting a candle or visiting the crib. 

Visiting the Crib is a prayerful activity that we can encourage and the NPN have produced some resources to support Parishes.  The resources connect to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter ADMIRABILE SIGNUM reflecting on the meaning and importance of the nativity scene. 

The Parish Pastoral Council has produced an Advent Calendar for Children. This can be downloaded below

Long warm days…
The pace of life slows…
A time for picnics and rest in the shade…
Lord, help me to rest awhile
in the cooling shade of your presence.
Slow down my restless heart and
fill me with
gentle compassion for all your people.

A pastoral reflection by the Catholic Bishops Of Northern Ireland on the forthcoming NI Assembly Election.

Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign this year focused on Zimbabwe, through the story of Thandekile and her two children. Thousands of miles from Ukraine, and far from the media spotlight, families like Thandekile’s are enduring a forgotten crisis of Covid, poverty and climate change. They need our help. For further information see www.trocaire.org, section Lent 2022.
This year’s Lenten Campaign closes on Easter Sunday. Trócaire boxes and donations can be returned to the church from this weekend. It is also possible for parishioners to donate directly to the Lenten campaign through the Trócaire website – www.trocaire.org

Trócaire can benefit again this year from the UK Aid Match programme, which means that the UK government will match parishioners’ donations up to a maximum of £2 million. This is an opportunity for our Lenten donations to double.

“CHRIST IS ALIVE! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world. The very first words, then, that I would like to say to every young Christian are these: Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive! (≠1)
… Christ is alive! We need to keep reminding ourselves of this, because we can risk seeing Jesus Christ simply as a fine model from the distant past, as a memory, as someone who saved us two thousand years ago. But that would be of no use to us: it would leave us unchanged, it would not set us free. The one who fills us with his grace, the one who liberates us, transforms us, heals and consoles us is someone fully alive.
He is the Christ, risen from the dead, filled with supernatural life and energy, and robed in boundless light. That is why St Paul could say: ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile’ (1Cor 15:7).
(extracts taken from Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation to Young People & to the Entire People of God, CHRISTUS VIVIT, Christ is Alive, 2019)