June- Month of the Sacred Heart
The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of the Lord Jesus. Friday 19th June is the dedicated feast day of the Sacred Heart. A devotion to the Scared Heart of Jesus is a devotion to Jesus Christ himself. It is a very busy month in terms of witnessing and celebrating our faith. The Sacred Heart of Jesus represents the entire mystery of Christ, the totality of His being; the Son of God, in whom we place all our trust.
Pope Francis invites everyone to pray the Heart of Jesus for the entire month of June and to support our priests so that they always reflect the image of that Heart full of merciful love. Let us remember in our prayers, our Parish Priest, Father Gerry, as he continues his ministry to the church and its people in these challenging, uncertain times.
Try to say this simple prayer as a family every day in June: ‘O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place all our trust in you”!
Dear Friends, I hope you are all well and continuing to Stay Safe.
Although our churches remain closed, you'll no doubt be pleased to know that preparations are well in hand for the day when we can fling the doors of St Kenelm's open and welcome you all back inside. Obviously, things won't be the same as they were previously and we'll have to get used to a 'new normal', whatever that may be, but it will be great for us to meet again, and I am very much looking forward to that. It's been a long time!
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. This Feast is always celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost and reminds us that the God we love and worship is One who reveals himself in a unity of three Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Over the years, many great minds have employed different methods to explain the Trinity - an egg (yolk, white, and shell), an apple, (seed, flesh, and skin), and St Patrick used the Shamrock, but helpful 'though they are, none of these can fully illustrate or define the beauty of the God who made us, the God who saves us, the God who is with us now, calling us into an eternal communion of love with Him and with each other. Our God is a great God and He is the One we celebrate today and everyday.
If you haven't already seen it, watch 'Fr Joshua Waltz's Vocation Story'' (55 minutes) on YouTube. Fr Waltz is a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota and he tells the story of his journey to the priesthood in a very entertaining way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqATi2zbaBw
Promoting Religious Vocations is a responsibility we all share. Pray for more vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life, and I actively take this opportunity to encourage any young man or woman reading this to consider that God may be calling YOU to serve Him as a priest or Religious. Furthermore, I invite you if you want to find out more, to see me!
Fr Gerry x
Good afternoon everyone, I hope you are all keeping well during these uncertain times.
As you know, we have been open to the children of key workers since the Government announced that schools were closing on Friday March 20th 2020!
Today, in line with Government advice, we have opened up to the children, whose parents chose to send back to school, in Y6, Y1 & YR. These children have been put into social bubbles with a limited team of staff, (we have five staff off, who have been shielding) to enable us to follow Public Health guidance regarding social distancing & trying our best to keep everyone safe.
These ‘bubbles’ will remain as they are unless the government states otherwise; if our Prime Minister makes a change & we can accommodate this change, I will contact you all to stay so.
Thank you to all those parents who have been communicating with us via email or telephone, to thank the staff for all they’re doing to ensure that their child is safe to come to school- we really do appreciate it. Staff have been working extremely hard to ensure that school is the happy, safe and wonderful place it always is.
Until we meet again; stay safe,
God bless, from Mrs F 🌈😊🙏💕
For information about how you can sign up for these Fun, engaging Maths sessions - Go to your child's Class Pages/Home Learning/Maths.
This information has been sent by the Birmingham Diocesan Education Service and has lots of useful website links to enable you and your children to continue your Faith journey at home.
Ascension Day Mass for Children:
Fr. Des will celebrate Ascension Mass on Thursday 21st May at 9:00 and 7:00. https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/our-lady-all-saints
Fr. Anton from the Oratory is celebrating a Mass for children on Thursday 21 May 9:00 https://t.co/NToPC7gr41?amp=1
Christian Meditation:
The Catholic Children’s Society in collaboration with the World Community for Christian Meditation have a YouTube channel. New meditations are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for children and every Thursday for young people.
https://www.bdes.org.uk/resources-for-prayer-and-learning.html
Novena to the Holy Spirit:
Please encourage your school communities wherever they may be to say a Novena starting tomorrow and leading up to the celebration of Pentecost: the birthday of the Church.
https://www.bdes.org.uk/resources-for-prayer-and-learning.html
This week’s Mass for the Sick and their families, NHS Front Line Workers and those working in Social Care will be celebrated by Bishop Mark Davies at Shrewsbury Cathedral at 7:00 on Thursday 21 May. https://t.co/7GVCZU1Pmf?amp=1
CAFOD continue to update their resources for schools and homes. Their new focus is ‘Make this a summer of hope.’ On Thursday 18 June they are holding a National School Assembly on the theme of hope.
Virtual Lourdes Pilgrimage:
The Annual Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes takes place next week. Thanks to all those schools who have contributed to this. You can find out more here
https://www.birminghamdiocese.org.uk/lourdes-pilgrimage
A message from Kenelm Youth Trust:
We are working on a few fun initiatives for the following week including some input for the virtual Lourdes pilgrimage on the Wednesday. The diocese will release the programme for this but the Youth Mass will be live streamed from Alton and we will be participating in the concert in the evening with Jo Boyce and Dan Callow.
The following video was created by the team here based on a prayer written by Fr Tim. We hope you love it as much as we do. I would be so grateful if you could share it far and wide!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kq9ytiaGSA