St. Bernadette's Parish

This weekend the Parish Apostolic Workers will be distributing envelopes for their annual church door collection.

If you are a tax payer, by providing your name and address on the envelope, your donation is increased automatically by 20% through the HMRC Gift aid scheme (More Information)

Envelopes and donations should be returned to the Apostolic Workers by Sunday 20th May.

More information on the Apostolic Workers can be found here www.downandconnor.org/pastoral-services/pastoral-organisations/

Daily Mass times have returned to normal. These times can be found on the Mass times page found on the left of the page.

Mass will be celebrated at 9:30 from Monday to Friday.
Saturday 10am (adoration of Blessed Sacrament at 10:30), 12:00 Confessions, 6:00pm Vigil Mass.
Sunday 10am and 12noon.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Lourdes Chapel from 7am-7pm on Tuesday.

“They killed Him, finally, hanging Him on a tree, only to have God raise Him up on the third day”

Holy Saturday is the period of Holy Week when Catholics remember Jesus’ entombment. It is a preparation day. Today is a day of quiet and prayerful reflection on the true gravity of the crucifixion and Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice. Throughout the world our Churches are empty of the Blessed Sacrament and quiet in anticipation of Easter’s triumph over darkness and evil, sin and death.

The Easter vigil mass commences tonight at 9:00pm with the lighting of the Easter fire.

Stations of the Cross celebrated 7:30pm on Good Friday

On Good Friday, the entire Church fixes her gaze on the Cross at Calvary. Each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption. In the solemn ceremonies of Good Friday, in the Adoration of the Cross, in the chanting of the ‘Reproaches’, in the reading of the Passion, and in receiving the pre-consecrated Host, we unite ourselves to our Savior, and we contemplate our own death to sin in the Death of our Lord.

The Church – stripped of its ornaments, the altar bare, and with the door of the empty tabernacle standing open – is as if in mourning. In the fourth century the Apostolic Constitutions described this day as a ‘day of mourning, not a day of festive joy,’ and this day was called the ‘Pasch (passage) of the Crucifixion.’

The liturgical observance of this day of Christ’s suffering, crucifixion and death evidently has been in existence from the earliest days of the Church. No Mass is celebrated on this day, but the service of Good Friday is called the Mass of the Presanctified because Communion (in the species of bread) which had already been consecrated on Holy Thursday is given to the people.

The Holy Thursday liturgy, celebrated in the evening because Passover began at sundown, also shows both the worth God ascribes to the humility of service, and the need for cleansing with water (a symbol of baptism) in the Mandatum, or washing in Jesus’ washing the feet of His disciples, and in the priest’s stripping and washing of the altar.

The action of the Church on this night also witnesses to the Church’s esteem for Christ’s Body present in the consecrated Host in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carried in solemn procession to the flower-bedecked Altar of Repose, where it will remain ‘entombed’ until the communion service on Good Friday. No Mass will be celebrated again in the Church until the Easter Vigil proclaims the Resurrection.

And finally, there is the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by the people during the night, just as the disciples stayed with the Lord during His agony on the Mount of Olives before the betrayal by Judas.

The Parish penitential service will take place on Wednesday 4th April at 7:30pm.
Please check the Easter Mass Times page for arrangements over the Easter period.

Please note that Mass times change during Holy week. Details can be found on the Easter Mass Times page for details.