Welcome

to the Catholic parishes of Monmouth & Ross-on-Wye

Welcome to Visitors: we extend a very warm welcome to you and hope you enjoy your time in these areas of outstanding beauty. Both our churches, one in Wales and one in England, are in the Archdiocese of Cardiff.

We are a Catholic community growing in faith, spreading the Gospel message of Love through our daily lives and by supporting one another and the wider community through prayer, fellowship and service.

We welcome you to our website and hope you enjoy learning more about our communities.  We warmly welcome both new parishioners and visitors from all over the world to our parish.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

I wish you all a very happy Easter – and much joy in a Covid-free future!

Father Nick

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SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, 9th May 2021

CELEBRATING MASS FOR OUR PARISHES

Every Sunday Mass is live-streamed  at 11:00 am.

To view the Mass, click here.

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Thursday, 13th May, ASCENSION THURSDAY, Masses as follows (under current restrictions this is not a Holy Day of Obligation):

09:15 am Monmouth – no need to book

11:00 am Ross-On-Wye (live-streamed. Use link above) – no need to book if you wish to attend.

MASS TIMES IN OUR PARISHES

Sunday Mass at 09:15 am (MONMOUTH) Booking essential.

Sunday Mass at 11:00 am (ROSS-ON-WYE) Booking essential.

Saturday (Vigil) Mass at 6:00 pm (MONMOUTH). No need to book.

Wednesdays: Mass at 10:00 am (MONMOUTH). No need to book.

Thursdays: Mass at 10:00 am (ROSS-ON-WYE). No need to book.

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BOOKING FOR SUNDAY MASS

Applications for Sunday 9th May are now CLOSED.

Applications for Sunday 16th May will be open on Monday, 10th May. You will be informed by Friday evening, 14th May, if you are offered a place at Mass on Sunday

If there are more applicants than places for any service and you are not allocated a place this week, when you apply for another week you will be put at the front of the queue.

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Should you need to contact Father Nick, please do so by phone (01600 712029) or by email (monmouth@rcadc.org)

A Message from Father Nick 60

Dome of St Peter’s Basilica (brittanica.com)

St Peter’s (3) – “Why did you doubt?”

A memory comes back of Holy Saturday night in St Peter’s. As the congregation waits in darkness for a new year’s Easter Vigil to begin, the only sound is one of whispering – in every language of the world it seems. When the lights are illumined with dazzling force, everyone looks up, and a line of giant letters stands out in sudden clarity around the base of the enormous dome: “Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram…” “You are Peter, and on this rock…”

Far below the dome, at the foot of the altar, is the so-called “confession”, an open crypt which recalls Peter’s confession of faith and his ultimate acceptance of martyrdom. Bishops come here to pray when they make their visit to the pope (their ad limina: “to the threshold” of the apostles). And every pallium for the world’s metropolitan archbishops is left here for a time before being conferred.

Four great piers support the famous dome, each with a statue relating to the “relics” kept near Peter’s tomb: St Helen for part of the true cross; Veronica for her veil; the Centurion Longinus for the lance with which he pierced Christ’s side; and Andrew, Peter’s brother for a piece of his skull which has now been returned to Greece. Whether these relics are genuine or not, they remind us of the real cost of faith behind such opulence.

   (continued in the next column)

A Message from Father Nick 60 (contd)

Bernini’s glory (visit-vaticancity.com)                   

There is a crowning glory to the scene. At the very end of the basilica, in a window of fine alabaster, the Holy Spirit as a dove shines through an avalanche of clouds and golden rays. Here architecture, sculpture, shafts of light, combine in baroque splendour. As the glory cascades into the basilica, it incorporates another symbol: St Peter’s “chair” – or “cathedra” (from which our word cathedral comes). Four great Fathers of the Church carry this great symbol (Ambrose and Augustine from the West; Athanasius and John Chrysostom from the East).

Pope Benedict XVI described the chair as “a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his successors to tend Christ’s flock, keeping it united in faith and charity.”

Gian Lorenzo Bernini produced this final great statement of the basilica’s art, and it seems somehow appropriate that his work too is the first impression many pilgrims have of St Peter’s. He designed the colonnades reaching out like an embrace on either side of the piazza. They are of course a sign of welcome – “the maternal arms of Mother Church.”.

Colonnade of St Peter’s Basilica (pinterest.com)

NOTE: All of Father Nick’s Messages can be accessed through the tab “E_Bulletins” at the top of this page, or by clicking HERE.

NEW ARCHDIOCESAN PROGRAMME

The Diocesan Evangelisation Commission is pleased to announce its new programme:

Spread the Gospel: Developing a Missionary Parish. 

Click HERE for further information.

INDIA’S DILEMMA

Therese Warwick, CAFOD writes:

As coronavirus brings devastation across India, CAFOD is working with experienced local Church agency, Caritas India, to provide vital support to poor and marginalised communities. Donations to CAFOD’s Coronavirus Appeal will help Caritas India distribute PPE kits to frontline health workers, promote COVID & vaccine awareness campaigns, and set up safely run isolation & quarantine centres. You can donate online here: cafod.org.uk/give.  Please keep praying for the people of India and all those affected by the pandemic.

FOOD STORIES

MEAT-FREE FRIDAYS
Kim Howells (Ross-On-Wye) has set up a website https://mossfoodstories.wordpress.com which contains a CONTACT form on which you can send her your Friday non-meat recipes and food stories. These will then be made accessible to all on that website. In compliance with the data protection rules, Kim will not publish the donors’ contact details.

PARISH NEWS

(updated 6/5/2021)

Ross-on-Wye Pentecost Ecumenical Service

It has been a custom in recent years for the Ross on Wye Churches to put on a public celebration of the birth of Christianity on Pentecost Sunday.

To continue reading about how to take part in this year’s celebration on 23rd May click HERE.

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ST MARY’S, MONMOUTH

MASS IS NORMALLY CELEBRATED every Saturday (Vigil) Mass at 6:00 pm; Sunday Mass at 09:15 am.

Sunday Mass: Booking is essential. Applications for Sunday, 9th May are now closed. Applications for Sunday, 16th May will open on Monday, 10th May.

Wednesdays: Mass at 10:00 am. No need to book.

St Mary’s 100 Club continues! For the latest update: Click 100

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ST FRANCES OF ROME, ROSS-ON-WYE

Altar, St Frances of Rome

MASS IS CELEBRATED every Sunday at 11:00 am (live-streamed).

Sunday Mass: Booking is essential if you wish to attend the Mass in the church. Applications for Sunday, 9th May are now closed. Applications for Sunday, 16th May will open on Monday, 10th May.

Thursdays: Mass at 10:00 am. No need to book.

THOSE WHO ARE SICK

Please pray for all those in our parishes who are not well and would like to be remembered, especially:

Denis and Elaine O’Connor (Ross-on-Wye)

Jacob Sprackling (aged 2 1/2 years), great-grandson of Nell Tregaskis (Monmouth)

Eithne Holcom (Ross-on-Wye)

Honor Houghton (Ross-on-Wye)

Claire Doherty, sister of Broo (Monmouth)

Sheila MacEwan (Monmouth)

Elizabeth Allcock (Monmouth)

REQUIESCANT IN PACE

Please pray for the repose of all who have died at this time, especially for those who died very recently:

Canon Richard Byron, formerly parish priest of Monmouth

Roger and Rosemary Philp (Ross-on-Wye)

Sadly and inevitably because of the pandemic all funerals are subject to severe restriction but we hope, when it is again possible, to celebrate a memorial mass for each of those we can now only acknowledge in prayer.

PARISHES’ INCOME

ST MARY’S, MONMOUTH

Click here for full details of ways of contributing to St Mary’s.

ST FRANCES OF ROME, Ross-on-Wye

For full details of how to contribute to St Frances of Rome, click here.

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