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.

19th September 2021

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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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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MASS TIMES IN OUR PARISHES

Saturday (Vigil) Mass at 6:00 pm (MONMOUTH). Booking essential

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

Sunday Mass at 11:00 am (ROSS-ON-WYE) NO NEED TO BOOK 

Tuesday, 21st September: MASS IN MONMOUTH AT 10:00 am.

Wednesday, 22nd September: NO MASS

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

Fridays: 10:00 am  (MONMOUTH)No need to book

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BOOKING FOR  MASS IN MONMOUTH ONLY

Applications for the following weekend’s Masses open on Mondays and close on Thursday evenings.

Applications for Mass on 18th and 19th September are now CLOSED.

Click MONMOUTH to apply for Mass in St Mary’s, Monmouth.

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)

If you are new to the parish and would like to be included in the parish register, please contact the parish secretary (sec.stmarysrc@gmail.com).

A Message from Father Nick 79

“A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn”

Our rite of baptism includes an option called the “EPHPHATHA”, based on one of Jesus’ healing miracles. In a rather lovely addition to the ceremony, even quite tiny infants have their ears and mouth blessed in readiness for hearing and speaking – and singing – the word of God.

But Scripture is produced by human beings too. At one time it was believed that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were written by Moses (although the book of Deuteronomy describes his death). Solomon was credited with writing the so-called Wisdom books. And David was thought to have composed the 150 psalms. (He might well have written some of them.)

In fact, the psalms are a neglected treasure, and they have an extra, musical, dimension. Even at mass, the responsorial psalm is not properly a “reading”. Like the Alleluia verse, it is meant to be sung – the very name, “psalm”, refers to a plucking of strings. When we share these ancient songs, we are offering our heart to God.

There are different kinds of psalm: psalms of praise and lament and thanksgiving; royal psalms, “wisdom” psalms, psalms of the community… They come from deep inside the singer and they express a whole range of emotions. This, more than anything, establishes their link with David.

David plays a kind of lyre, and dances in spiritual ecstasy. He is the original “messiah”: a shepherd-king completely unashamed about his love for God. His name is mentioned more than any other name in Scripture – Jesus himself is referred to as the “Son of David”.

Yet David is also a sinner, as his treatment of Bathsheba and Uriah makes painfully clear, and his name has been attached to a famous psalm of repentance. Psalm 51 is often called the “Miserere” from its opening word in Latin: “Have mercy…”  The psalmist is acknowledging his guilt, begging God to forgive him.

“Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.

In your compassion blot out my offence.

O wash me more and more from my guilt

and cleanse me from my sin.”

So it continues, verse after verse, combining penitence with trust in God’s mercy. (It featured in the Yom Kippur service some of us attended last week).

 (continued in the next column)

A Message from Father Nick 79 (contd)

And of course, as a psalm, the Miserere has a musical history too. It can be chanted like other psalms, but in 1638, a member of the Sistine Chapel choir, Gregorio Allegri, composed a new setting of it for Holy Week. Allegri’s composition was so beautiful that the pope forbade anyone to transcribe it, on pain of excommunication. The hope was to preserve its special mystery, and for over 100 years Allegri’s Miserere remained a “secret”.

In 1770, however, the fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came to Rome with his father. After visiting the Sistine Chapel, he wrote down the whole piece from memory in a blaze of Mozartian genius. Later still, in 1831, Felix Mendelssohn made his own transcription from a version that was set much higher. Finally, in 1880, when Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians was being compiled, a small passage of Mendelssohn’s transcription was accidentally grafted onto the earlier version – giving us that ethereal and haunting top C sound we know so well today. Allegri’s Miserere has grown into a pinnacle of music – and of prayer.

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.

(updated 16/9/21)

CONVERSATIONS AT THE CHAPEL (MARKET ST, ABERGAVENNY)

DR ROWAN WILLIAMS in conversation with Alastair Laurence,

Wednesday, 29th September 7:00 pm. £10 entry fee.

Click CONVERSATIONS for further information.

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For updates to Archdiocese News please click RCADC Sep.

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)

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.

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, especially those who died recently.

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.

NEWS FROM OUR PARISHES

(updated 18/9/21)

GOOD NEWS FROM ETHIOPIA

Lisa and Stephen of Ross-on-Wye are proud to be able to announce that on June 22nd the Charity Commission granted Desta Ethiopia charitable status (registration no.1194896). The latest newsletter of the new charity is available HERE.

HELPING SVP

The SVP does great hidden work in our parish responding to many different kinds of need. They rely on our support. As usual, we are leaving a collection box at the back of the church for the next three weeks for contributions to their work.

SVP AFGHANISTAN APPEAL

The SVP is working with charities helping Afghan refugees and is holding a nationwide appeal over four weeks for toiletries for them. We are urgently seeking basic toiletries:- toothpaste and brushes, soap, shampoo, sanitary products, wipes, nappies. No fancy smelly items and, please, only unopened items. There will be a collection box in the baptistry. Thank you from the SVP!

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ST MARY’S R C CHURCH, MONMOUTH

Amendments to Mass at St Mary’s

Weekly Mass times:

Tuesday, 21st September: 10:00 am in Monmouth instead of Wednesday, 22nd September

Wednesday, 22nd September: NO MASS IN MONMOUTH

Friday, 24th September : Mass as usual at 10:00 am. No need to book.

Saturdays (Vigil), 6:00 pm. Booking essential

Sundays, 09:15 am. Booking essential

Applications for Mass on 18th and 19th September now CLOSED.

Click MONMOUTH to apply for Mass in St Mary’s, Monmouth.

Fr Nick, Tim and Gail have now carried out a risk assessment of St Mary’s, in accordance with the latest Guidance issued by the Bishops of England and Wales.
Social distancing has been slightly relaxed to increase the number of available seats at each Mass.
Given the restrictions on space within the Church, the following remain in place for the time being:
1. It will still be necessary to book a place at Mass on Saturday and Sunday
2. Places do not need to be booked for weekday Masses
3. Contact details will still be required
4. Face coverings are mandatory
5. Hands must be sanitized before entering the Church
6. Where possible all doors will remain open before and during Mass for good ventilation
7. Stewards will continue to be present and will clean the Church after each Mass
8. There will be no singing for the time being
It is essential that we protect all Parishioners, whilst allowing as many people as possible to attend.
Mass. With this in mind, the above restrictions will be reviewed on a regular basis.

FIRST COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION

We hope at last to begin again a programme of preparation for the Sacraments. Would parents of children eligible for FIRST COMMUNION please contact Father Nick. monmouth@rcadc.org  Tel: 01600 712029

Those eligible for CONFIRMATION (from Year 8 upwards) are also invited to make contact with Father Nick.

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ST FRANCES OF ROME, ROSS-ON-WYE

COVID RESTRICTIONS LIFTED SO, NO BOOKING NECESSARY FOR SUNDAY MASS.

Now that Covid restrictions have been lifted in England we welcome a larger congregation back into St Frances of Rome.

In the interests of all it would be much appreciated if those attending would continue to wear masks during the service as social distancing cannot not be easily maintained in the church.

Weekly Mass Times – No need to book – please read note above:

Thursdays, 10:00 am.  

Sundays, 11:00 am. (This Mass is also live-streamed)

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