ST. BENEDICTS R C CHURCH OWEN STREET, ATHERSTONE,

WARWICKSHIRE, CV9 1DG Tel: 01827 713177,

Website: st-benedicts-atherstone.org Parish Priest: Mgr. Paul Watson

Finance Secretary: Jo Howe 01827 750214Newsletter: Brian Ingram 01827 704858

email: brianingramocds@gmail.comItems for inclusion in the Newsletter by Thursday Noon

Dates for your DiarySummer Fete Saturday 27th June 1.00-4.00pm on the School Field. Please put the date in your diary. This is a joint venture, Parish and School working together to raise much-needed funds. We need as many helpers as possible to help organise, prepare, and/or work on the day, and to clear up afterwards. If we have a rota of helpers no one needs to be working all day, and there should be time to join in the fun as well. There is a list in the porch today for names of volunteer helpers and a box for reply slips, which are printed on the newsletter. There is also a big box next in the porch for donations of gifts for the Tombola, Children's Tombola and the various stalls and games. No jumble or bric-a-brac thank you!

Cakes, home produce and plants are always best sellers, so bakers and gardeners, please keep the date in mind.

If anyone can sponsor the Bouncy Castle, or sweets and prizes for the children, we will be very grateful.

Invitation from Archbishop Bernard Longley to young Catholics of the Archdiocese - The Archbishop would like to invite you to join him on pilgrimage to World Youth Day, Krakow, Poland in July 2015. Birmingham Catholic Youth Service will be organising this pilgrimage, which takes place between 19th July - 2nd August 2015. Age range - 16-35 years. For more information and to download your application form, see the website: www.go2wyd.co.uk There will be a provisional meeting held at St Osburg's Parish Hall, Coventry on Monday June 8th at 7pm - 8pm, for anyone interested in the pilgrimage - parents, youth leaders parishioners etc.

Bible Alive - the June Issue is available - sorry that it is a week late - please feel free to take a copy.

Summer Retreat - July 24-26th at Hilton, Nr. Lichfield (Non-Residential) in a country setting. There are brochures in the porch and a Poster on the noticeboard.

We extend a warm welcome to everyone worshipping here this weekend, refreshments are served in the Church Hall after 9.30am

Mass, please come and join us, ALL ARE WELCOME.

Solemnity of Corpus Christi (B)Sat 6th June 4.00 pm Vigil of Sunday Noel O'Brien

Sun 7th June 9:30 amCorpus Christi 1st Holy Commuunion

The Wood Family

Mon 8th June -

Tues 9th June2.15 pm 7:00 pm

School Mass Feria

Wed 10th June 10.00 am Feria

Thurs 11th June 7:00 pm Feria

Fri 12th June 10.00 pmSolemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

For the Parishioners

Sat 13th June 4.00 pm Vigil Mass Luca Wood

Sun14th June 9:30am Bridie O'Hare

AnniversariesWe pray for all our deceased relatives and friends especially those anniversaries fall at this time, John Plunkett, Victor Bonislowski, Mary O'Keefe, Ivy O'Connor, Anthony Bird, Alice Skelcher, Albert Tarbuck, Lawrence Turner, Rose Bonner, Tommy Major May they Rest in Peace.

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dictThe Liturgy & the Care of the Church

Readers this week: Sat: Freddie, Robert, Ewan, Amari Sun: Abby, Benedict, Tom

Readers next week: Sat: Bobby, Abby, Ben M. Sun: Benedict, Lily, Tom, Ellie

Offertory Procession this week: Sat: Ewan, Amari Sun:

Eucharistic Ministers T. Wright T. Wilmott Next Week M. Bourne D. Dickens Church Cleaning - R. Hatton, A Duffield Altar Society - -------------------

Money MattersCollections last week: Ist - 278.34 2nd - 171.13 - thank you!

Gift Aid donors - Please see Tracey (Sat) or Jo (Sun) after Mass

TOTE: 31/5/2015 Winning Nos. 8 / 32 Payout 24.24 (incl Rollover) 2 Winners - Muriel Wilkins & Matthew Smith 12.12 each Snowball next week 15

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I would like to help with ............................................. at the Summer Fete on Friday pm/ Saturday am/ Saturday pm (delete as appropriate).

Signed: ................................... contact No. .................................

Email address: ..................................

The Sick and their CarersPlease pray for Father Andrew, Pat & Maureen Burke, Bridie Symmons, Ada Russell, Winifred Jones, Charlotte Smith, Kath Ford, Ursula Cope, Patricia Carter, Christina Chetwynd, Olive Fortune and Father Paul. Please remember our housebound parishioners in your prayers: Marion Burrows and Marie Aherne .

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ The Mystery of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ was established as a Feast Day or Solemnity in the Church's calendar at the beginning of the 14th century. Although it was at the Last Supper that Jesus took bread and said: "This is my Body" and also took a cup of wine and said: "This is my Blood", the actual Feast was to be celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday (now moved to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday). In Holy Week our attention is more focused on the events of the Lord's Passion. Today we are invited to reflect on the amazing mystery of the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the very presence of Christ is with us. We can touch and receive him into ourselves. And at the same time, we become united to Him and are caught up and involved with Jesus' own sacrificial offering of love and obedience to the Father. An atheist philosopher once said that "we are what we eat". He meant that human beings are nothing more than the atoms and molecules, the proteins and minerals that make up all of matter. However, his words were true in a way that he did not intend. In fact, in the living material world, there are different levels of being - e.g. vegetable, animal, human. Usually, it is the higher level of life that assimilates into itself the lower level. Vegetables assimilate minerals from the ground; animals assimilate the nutrients from vegetables; human beings assimilate the goodness from eating animals (and vegetables). Animals dont become vegetables because they eat vegetables; we dont become animals because we eat meat. We extract from our food what is good for us.. In a sense, the minerals, vegetables and animals are assimilated into us.. We are not what we eat; what we eat becomes part of us. When we eat the Eucharist something different happens. The Eucharist is living food; it is the living risen Christ, present to us in the form of food. The fact is that the risen Christ is a higher form of life than we are. Pope Benedict once described the Resurrection as "an evolutionary lead" - a new and higher form of existence - one in which we will eventually fully share. When we eat the Body of Christ, Christ assimilates us to Himself. We begin to take on his likeness. (In the Incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity took on our likeness - and even our sin!). Now, Jesus unites us to himself and begins to transform us, so that we gradually become more like him. It is true to say of eating the Eucharist that "we become what we eat". It is not true of eating any other kind of food. In a real sense, as we eat the Body of Christ, we become the Body of Christ. We become the extension of His presence in the world. this is why the Church is called "the Mystical Body of Christ".

When Jesus gave us his Body, he was giving, not some part of himself, but his whole self, including his total love and obedience to His Father. When he gave us his Blood, he was not giving the stuff out of his veins, but the life he gave up in death in love for the Father and love for us. This is the mystery that we receive & celebrate!