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Saint John the Evangelist Parish Aurs Road, Barrhead, Glasgow, G78 2RW

Tel 0141 876 1553 | Email: stjohnsbarrhead@gmail.com | web: www.stjohns-barrhead.org Parish Priest | Father Paul Brady Deacon | Rev Brian Mackenzie

LITURGICAL SERVICES HOLY MASS: Weekdays at 9:30am; Saturday at 10:00am, Vigil for Sunday at 4:30pm; Sunday at 10:00am, 12:00 noon and 6:30pm. SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION: Saturday after 10am Mass. Between 4:00pm and 4:25pm, and after the Vigil Mass. ROSARY: Weekdays in the Church/Oratory after Mass; Friday 3:00-4:00pm in the Oratory. EXPOSITION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT: From 10:00am to 9:00pm each weekday in the Oratory.

10th December 2017 2nd Sunday of AdventJESSE TREE APPEAL

Our Jesse Tree appeal this year will again be for children in Barrhead who may not receive presents this Christmas. As in previous year, there will be labels with the child’s age and a suggested gift. Please return your gift with the LABEL ATTACHED. This allows us to easily allocate your gift to the child/ young person concerned. Please return the gifts as early as possible, ideally by next Sunday, due to the last Sunday of Advent falling on Christmas Eve.

SPECIAL COLLECTION This week’s special collection is for the Parish Legacy Fund.

CHILDREN’S NATIVITY PLAY Rehearsals continue today for the Nativity performance presented by the Children’s Liturgy group at 6.30 pm on Christmas Eve. Children of Primary school age who would like to participate should meet in front of the altar after 10am Mass each Sunday from the 26th until Christmas. We need plenty of sheep, shepherds and angels in addition to the main characters! The practices will last approximately 20 minutes. Parents and carers should wait in the church to collect their children when the rehearsal is finished.

PARISH CALENDAR 2018 Forms are now available for sponsoring a day in the parish calendar. Each intimation will cost £5. These could be birthdays, anniversaries of weddings, deaths or other family dates. Please return the completed forms to the sacristy over the next two weeks.

CHRISTMAS AT THE CHURCH PIETY STALL Christmas goods are now on sale at the piety stall including cards, gifts, calendars, novelties, diaries and more besides. Feel free to go in and have a look at the refurbished stall. The stall is able to take contactless and card payments now.

SYNOD VISIT Doing my bit booklets. Please put your completed booklets in the box at the back of the church. The box will be there for the next 2 weeks. Remember you can also fill it in online at rcdop.org.uk Thank you.

100 CLUB DRAW NOVEMBER WINNERS 1st Prize £140 No 90 Frances O’Neil, 2nd Prize £70 No 161 Wm Leckie, 3rd Prize £35 80 Claire Irving, 4th Prize £20 1 Maureen McGuir, 5Th Prize £20 78 MM Davidson Winnings can be collected from the Sacristy after Mass. Please note any prizes not collected will be paid back into funds.

COFFEE IN THE HALL Coffees and teas will resume in the hall this week after the 10.00am Mass. All welcome.

YOUTH CHRISTMAS COFFEE MORNING Parish youth will host a Christmas coffee morning on Sunday 17

th December after the 10am Mass. There will be home

baking and a special guest. The youngsters will raffle hampers in the Foyer over the next few weeks. Profits will go our various youth events coming up such as Youth to Lourdes.

PERPETUAL EUCHARISTIC ADORATION We have new Prayer Cards for Adorers who would like to offer up an hour’s Eucharistic Adoration for family or friends at this special time. The Cards have a space to allow Adorers to write in the names of the recipients and envelopes are provided so that they can be put in the mail. They will help to promote PEA in the parish, would make lovely Christmas Cards, and are available now in the Oratory(suggested donation £1 per card).

HOSPITALITY GROUP The group wish to thank all those who supported the Ladies Night. Special thanks to the “Neilston Boys” who supplied the music. A total of £1200 was raised on the night. Thanks again for your kind generosity.

SACRED HEART COMPANIONS The Prayer Group will meet in the Oratory on Tuesday 1th December 2017 from 1-2.00pm.

PENITENTIAL SERVICE A number of priests will be available for confessions on Wednesday 20th December from 7.00pm onwards.

LET THE CHILDREN LIVE Margaret Campbell is selling the “Keep Christ in Christmas” stickers with the proceeds going to the street children of Colombia. Contact 01415715419

SSVP Ozanam Club is for members 16 yrs + with additional support needs, held in St. Mirin's Cathedral Hall . Anyone interested is invited to attend the open nights on the 12th January 2018. Leaflets are at the back of the Church with more details.

UWS CHAPLAINCY

Studying at UWS? Would you like to get involved in our Catholic society? If so please contact Fr. John Morrison @johnmorrison1976@gmail.com

CHRISTMAS MASSES Please note that the times for the Christmas Masses: 6.30pm- Nativity Play, 7.00pm Vigil Mass of Christmas, 11.30pm, Carols and readings 12midnight Night Mass of Christmas. Christmas Day- Mass at 11.00am only

ADVENT A small booklet, “Walk with me” is on sale at the piety stall for £1. There is a short mediation for each day of Advent.

BLESSING OF CRIBS AND BABY JESUS FIGURES The annual blessing of your nativity crib figures will take place next Sunday at the 10am Mass. Bring along your baby Jesus figure from your crib to be blessed. There were will be some figures available for children to take home too. FOR THE ATTENTION OF ALL CHURCH VOLUNTEERS WITH PVG CERTIFICATES The next available training sessions will take place in :St. Mirin’s Parish Hall, Paisley on Tuesday 5th December at 10.30am-12noon, St. John’s Parish Hall, Barrhead on Wednesday 17th January at 7pm-8.30pm, St. Mirin’s Parish Hall, Paisley on Saturday 27th January at

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10.30am-12noon. Please contact Sarah Jane at the Diocesan Safeguarding office safeguardingadmin@rcdop.org.uk or 0141 847 6138 to register for this training session.

SMARTIES Please take a tube of smarties home with you and return them filled with 20p or £1 coins.

AMAZON If shopping on Amazon, please do so via the Amazon banner on the parish web site. One you do that, anything you buy after clicking the banner will gain a small percentage of the sale for the parish, at no cost to you.

MARY'S MEALS ROSARY BEADS

Liz Grant of Mary’s Meals has made some lovely Rosary Beads in boxes together with little reflections which go with the Mysteries. These are available at £5 each or £7 gift wrapped. A perfect stocking filler. Each Rosary would come with a little certificate saying how the purchase of such will now provide a meal for a child for six months. Contact Liz at liz.grant6111@gmail.com or by phoning 0141-316-5079

MASS AT ST. MIRIN’S CHAPLAINCY CENTRE BY UWS Mass will be celebrated at the St. Mirin’s Chaplaincy Centre, 45 High Street, Paisley every Tuesday and Thursday throughout Advent. Mass will commence at 1pm. Please feel free to join us.

MARTIN EELRED CONCERT Singing Songs of Andrea Bocelli, in St. Mirin’s Cathedral, 15th December at 7.30pm. This is a FREE concert with a donation for the Diocesan charities.

Confession Times Weekend confessions time as normal

Parish Reconciliation Service Wednesday 20th at 7.00pm

Saturday 23rd December 10.30am

Christmas Masses on Christmas

Eve Sunday 24th December:

Carol Service at 6.30pm

Vigil Mass of Christmas at 7.00pm

Carol Service at 11.30pm

Midnight Mass 12midnight Christmas Day Holy Mass will be

celebrated at 11.00am Please note that there will be no Evening Mass

on Christmas Day.

“This Sunday marks the second stage of the Season of Advent. This period of the liturgical year brings into the limelight the two figures who played a preeminent role in the preparation for the historic coming of the Lord Jesus: the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist. Today’s text

from Mark’s Gospel focuses on the latter. Indeed, it describes the personality and mission of the Precursor of Christ (cf. Mk 1:2-8). Starting with his external appearance, John is presented as a very ascetic figure: he was clothed in camel-skin and his food was locusts and wild honey that he found in the Judaean desert (cf. Mk 1:6).

Jesus himself once compared him to the people “in kings’ houses” who are “clothed in soft raiment” (Mt 11:8). John the Baptist’s style must remind all Christians to opt for a lifestyle of moderation, especially in preparation for the celebration of the Christmas festivity, in which the Lord, as St Paul would say, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

With regard to John’s mission, it was an extraordinary appeal to conversion: his baptism “is connected with an ardent call to a new way of thinking and acting, but above all with the proclamation of God’s judgment” (Jesus of Nazareth, I, p. 14; English translation, Doubleday, New York, 2007) and by the imminent appearance of the Messiah, described as “he who is mightier than I”, who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:7, 8).

John’s appeal therefore goes further and deeper than a lifestyle of moderation: it calls for inner conversion, based on the individual’s recognition and confession of his or her sin. While we are preparing for Christmas, it is important that we re-enter ourselves and make a sincere examination of our life. Let us permit ourselves to be illuminated by a ray of light that shines from Bethlehem, the light of the One who is “the Mightiest” who made himself lowly, “the Strongest” who made himself weak.

All four Evangelists describe John the Baptist’s preaching with reference to a passage from the Prophet Isaiah: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Is 40:3). Mark also inserted a citation from another prophet, Malachi, who said: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way” (Mk 1:2; cf. Mal 3:1).

These references to Old Testament Scriptures “envisage a saving intervention of God, who emerges from his hiddenness to judge and to save; it is for this God that the door is to be opened and the way made ready” (Jesus of Nazareth, I, op. cit., p. 15).

Let us entrust to Mary, the Virgin of expectation, our journey towards the Lord who comes, as we continue on our Advent itinerary in order to prepare our hearts and our lives for the coming of the Emmanuel, God-with-us.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 4th December 2011