Embedded Files
Welcome to Woodhall Spa Parish
Welcome to Woodhall Spa Parish
Our Lady and St Peter Woodhall Spa
click on the picture above to see inside and here to see the garden
Sunday 10am Mass and Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10.00am
Serving Woodhall Spa, Horncastle, Coningsby and Metheringham
Parish Priest Fr John O'Donnell
Our Lady and St Peter
15 Cromwell Avenue, Woodhall Spa, LN10 6TH
Tel 01526 352245
e-mail catholic.church.woodhallspa@gmail.com
The Catholic Church in England and Wales
Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period
(reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)
St Mary's Church of England Church, Horncastle
click on the picture of the church to see inside
Saturday 6pm Mass
Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday aged 88
At 9:45 AM, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, announced the death of Pope Francis from the Casa Santa Marta with these words:
"Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God."
Professor Andrea Arcangeli, Director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of Vatican City State has stated that Pope Francis died from a stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse.
Pope Francis – Requiescat in Pace 21.04.25
Pope Francis | Requiescat in pace 21.04.25
Pope Francis has died aged 88, the Vatican Press Office has confirmed. He served as the 265th successor of St Peter from his election on 13 March 2013 to 21 April 2025.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and Archbishop of Westminster, said:
“The death of Pope Francis brings great sadness to so many around the world, both within the Catholic Church and in societies in general. A voice proclaiming the innate dignity of every human being, especially those who are poor or marginalised, is now silent. The legacy he leaves is one we must seek to carry forward and strengthen.
“Pope Francis was called to priesthood through his experience of the mercy and compassion of God. This remained the core of his ministry, as Priest, Bishop and Pontiff. Only in understanding the love and mercy of God towards each one of us can we fashion societies and communities that bear the mark of the ‘kingdom of God’.“This same focus and emphasis lay at this desire to see membership of the Church as being rooted in ‘missionary discipleship’, a dynamic and powerful vision for every Christian and every community.“Now we pray for the repose of his soul, that he may know, in full measure, the merciful and loving embrace of the Father, of the one God to whom he gave his life in unstinting service.“May he now rest in peace and rise in glory.”
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales will celebrate Requiem Masses for the repose of the soul of the late Pope in their cathedrals. Prayer cards have been distributed to Catholic parishes throughout the two countries.
The Bishop of Nottingham, the Right Reverend Patrick McKinney, has expressed his sorrow following the death of Pope Francis.
Bishop McKinney said: “I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. The Pope has left an indelible mark on the Church and the world, as a man of great warmth and humility who made use of his global prestige to highlight and to listen to the concerns of the poorest and most marginalised people across the world. The loss of the Holy Father will be deeply felt in all of our diocesan communities and well beyond, but I believe his legacy will live on.
“I was very privileged to meet Pope Francis in Rome on two occasions— first, upon my appointment as Bishop of Nottingham in May 2015, and once again during the ‘Ad limina’ visit of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales to Rome in 2018. Each time I was struck by his humility and warm welcome, deep love of Christ Jesus, desire to engage in dialogue, and his profound commitment to the Church and her mission. He will be greatly missed.
“The Holy Father once said, that ‘it is only through faith in the resurrection that we can face the abyss of death without being overwhelmed by fear’. It is so poignant that Pope Francis has died this Easter Monday just one day after wishing the world a ‘Happy Easter’. May the Crucified and Risen Lord reward him for his valiant labours. He named this year, a Jubilee Year of Hope. So, In the face of his death and our experience of grief and loss, I would encourage all Catholics to continue to journey as Pilgrims of Hope trusting in Christ’s promise of eternal life to those who are faithful to his teaching, and to commend our prayers for the Holy Father to the intercession of St Ignatius, St Francis of Assisi and Our Lady, Queen of Heaven.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen."
The Vatican will announce details of Pope Francis’ Funeral arrangements in due course, and details of Masses and Services across the Diocese of Nottingham will be soon be shared on the diocesan website (dioceseofnottingham.uk).
There is also an opportunity to sign a virtual book of remembrance [coming soon], as well as to visit any of the following Jubilee churches across the diocese where there will be a book of remembrance.
Live and recorded Masses at St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham
Please click on the picture link below
Monday – Friday 1 pm Mass
Saturday 10 am Mass
Sunday 10 am Mass
Solemn Vespers Friday 25.04.25 7pm
Remembering Pope Francis
with Bishop Patrick McKinney
For todays Mass Readings and for the Readings for the Week
click on the Universalis link below
Pope Francis Holy Mass and Urbi et Orbi Blessing 20.04.25
Easter Sunday
Live and recorded liturgies and addresses of Pope Francis with English commentary
Please click on the picture link below
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION PRAYER
Offered as an example of a suitable prayer for use by home viewers wishing to participate in a Live Streaming of the Mass
After the celebrant has received Holy Communion himself, the celebrant reads aloud the Act of Spiritual Communion, and invites the home viewers to say the words of the prayer with him.
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen
Notices
For “Churches Without Walls” and "Community of Enquiry" meetings, programme and information click here
"Talking Philosophy & Theology: a Carmelite Perspective - Reading & Discussion Zoom Group - Open to All" - A group of Third Order Carmelites, a lay organisation, are offering a course via Zoom on the philosophy that is woven into the spirituality of Ss Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Sr. Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). Meeting via Zoom as follows: 1st & 3rd Wednesday evenings at 7.45 pm for 8.00 -10.00 pm. Philosophy & Theology Combined with “Formal” reading and discussion of Edith Stein. -- 2nd & 4th Thursday afternoons at 12.45 pm for 1.00 -3.00 pm. Philosophy & Theology Combined -- NB Since this is not a “time-limited course”, as such, with no strict “beginning” or “end” other than “in God”, we always welcome new members and old returners, at any time! Should anyone be interested please contact james.hunter200@btinternet.com Click here for more details
Pope Francis April 2025
Pope Francis April 2025
For the use of the new technologies
For the use of the new technologies
How I would like for us to look less at screens and look each other in the eyes more!
Something’s wrong if we spend more time on our cell phones than with people. The screen makes us forget that there are real people behind it who breathe, laugh, and cry.
It’s true, technology is the fruit of the intelligence God gave us. But we need to use it well. It can’t benefit only a few while excluding others.
So, what should we do? We should use technology to unite, not to divide. To help the poor. To improve the lives of the sick and persons with different abilities. Use technology to care for our common home. To connect as brothers and sisters.
It’s when we look at each other in the eyes that we discover what really matters: that we are brothers, sisters, children of the same Father.
Let us pray that the use of the new technologies will not replace human relationships, will respect the dignity of the person, and will help us face the crises of our times.
April 2025
Remembering Pope Francis 1936 - 2025
Grapevine Newsletter
Grapevine Newsletter
31.03.25
31.03.25
Mission Lab
Mission Lab offers fresh ideas for the future of your parish. In nine online sessions starting in May 2025, we’ll showcase how parishes around Nottingham diocese are seeking to build vibrant, attractive and outward-facing Catholic communities.
Sessions take place monthly on Zoom from May 2025, on Monday or Tuesday evenings. All are welcome – drop in when you can. Click below to register for the series – we’ll send you a reminder of the link shortly before each session.
Faith and Footprint
Tuesday 03 June at 7.00 p.m. by Zoom
Our next Online Faith and Footprint workshop by Zoom
Faith and Footprint is our regular opportunity to explore how our faith calls us to live on the Earth - and to put it into practice. Join us to answer the call to care for our common home.
Your gift today goes a long way. CAFOD is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales.
We work with local experts across the world, bringing hope, compassion and solidarity to communities, standing side by side with them to end poverty and injustice.
We work with people of all faiths and none.
Weekly Newsletter
The Catholic Diocese of Nottingham
20th April 2025
Marriage Week 2025
7-14 February
Marriage Week is an annual celebration offering the opportunity to support and promote marriage and family life. It is celebrated from 7-14 February.
Street Pastors in Lincoln
Seventeen towns and cities in Nottingham Diocese have a Street Pastors scheme which reaches out to young people..
Lincoln Street Pastors are looking for people who are willing to offer up their time and their prayers for the Night Time Economy streets of Lincoln and become one of the team of Lincoln Street Pastors.
To find out more about what's involved follow the links below.
CAFOD
Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
How you can help
We have all been shocked and saddened by the devastating conflict in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Our local partners are actively responding and providing urgent humanitarian aid to those in need.
Assisted Suicide - Cardinal to Catholics 01.04.25
Urge your MP to vote against the deeply flawed and under-scrutinised Bill on assisted suicide.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has written a pastoral letter urging Catholics to contact their MPs – even if they have done so already – to oppose the Bill that seeks to legalise assisted suicide.
Oppose Assisted Suicide
Legislation is passing through parliament seeking to legalise assisted suicide. The Bill's Third Reading and vote is likely to take place at the end of April or start of May. It is vitally important you contact your MP to oppose it. There is still time.
Year of Jubilee 2025
The Holy Father has decided that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee, something which happens every 25 years. The theme is “Pilgrims of Hope
Bishop Patrick's Statement following the Second Reading of the Assisted Suicide Bill 29.11.24
Excerpt below, click on picture link above for full statement
Bishop Patrick McKinney comments following the vote in Parliament
Today, a Bill which would license physician-assisted suicide for the terminally-ill was approved by MPs. This marks a very bleak day in our country’s history.
Ukraine
Pray for Peace in Ukraine
Click on the picture link above for details
Good news for prospective hosts
of Ukrainian refugees
October 2022
We are happy to announce a new matching service under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, supported by the nationwide Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) in England and Wales.
St John of God Hospitaller Services in partnership with CSAN are offering a matching pathway, training and support programme for sponsors and individuals displaced by the war in Ukraine. We aim to support people on their journey and provide opportunities to integrate into our community in the UK.
After months of the brutal Russian war in Ukraine, the number of people fleeing the war and in need of shelter remains high and will continue to rise as winter is fast approaching.
We are very conscious that so much of our attention is rightly focused on those at home who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. There will be those in our communities less affected by that who may be able and willing to open their hearts and homes to displaced people from Ukraine. Can you help?
CAFOD Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal
At least 3 million people have fled their homes to escape conflict in Ukraine. Your donations will reach families who are in urgent need of help.
Parishes of Welcome
The war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending soon, and its people are continuing to flee. Would you like to help your parish extend a welcome to refugees? Are you seeking to host a family or individual - or do you already have a guest and experience you'd like to exchange with fellow hosts?
We have received numerous expressions of interest in hosting refugees from the conflict in Ukraine. Compassion and solidarity are alive and well in the Diocese of Nottingham. That's why we're opening a Parishes of Welcome scheme, to help you find the support you need as a welcomer, locally and nationally, within the Church and beyond.
Even if you don't have spare accommodation, there are already plenty of opportunities to develop the care, support and accompaniment that will help those who have fled Ukraine to find a place of safety.
Pope Francis Message for the 58th World Peace Day 01.01.25
Pope Francis Message for the 58th World Peace Day 01.01.25
Click on the picture link above to read the message
Sponsorship to all Ukrainian refugees
Click on the picture link above for details
Caritas in Ukraine
Caritas Ukraine and Caritas-Spes are working on the ground to help about 13.000 people in different parts of the country, and especially in critical areas such as Mariupol, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kyiv and Odessa. Caritas Internationalis have launched a campaign to support their work, especially for the most vulnerable people, such as the elderly and children in the conflict zones.
#HelpUkraine
Organisations in Derby serving the Ukrainian community have come together to launch the #HelpUkraine appeal. The national launch was hosted by the Ukrainian Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel, near the Arboretum. It is introduced in the video above by Fr David Senyk, parish priest of communities the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy in the area of our diocese.
You are invited to donate to this appeal, which is managed by the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain with the Church's support. It represents the efforts of Ukrainians here in Nottingham Diocese and across the UK, and is the perfect way to show solidarity with our own neighbours, and their efforts for their compatriots, in this crisis.
youth2000uk Youth 2000 seeks to draw young people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, lived at the heart of the Catholic church. www.youth2000.org
The Joy of Love
Reflection document on Marriage and Family Life
Click on the picture link above for details
World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly 28 July 2024
The World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly falls on Sunday 28 July 2024. Pope Francis has given the day the theme "Do not cast me off in my old age" c.f. Psalm 71:9
Pope Francis Message for the third world day for Grandparents and the Elderly 22.07.23
Click on the picture link above for details
Pope Francis Letter to Married Couples December 2021
Pope Francis Message for the first world day for Grandparents and the Elderly 25.07.21
Click on the picture link above to read the letter
Novena on the Care of Creation
The 'God Who Speaks' team offers this Novena of readings and prayers as tangible action to respond to the urgent climate change issues we all face.
please click on the picture link
A Father's Heart - A Podcast for Catholic Dads
This new podcast series from the Diocese of Nottingham for the Year of St Joseph will explore what does it mean to be a Catholic Dad , taking St Joseph as our model. Each month a section of the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde will be explored through conservation with two dads from the Diocese of Nottingham sharing their thoughts and experiences.
'Being a Disciple'
The 'Being a Disciple' series was run in conjunction between the Diocese of Nottingham and Catholic Voices over four evenings on Zoom in January 2021.
Brenden Thompson, CEO of Catholic Voices presented in each session a fundamental principle of being a Catholic disciple. Session 1 explores the Word of God and how as disciples we are called to internalise it that means to live it, to share it and to seek to know it better.
This course was aimed at both those who would like to grow in their personal discipleship and those who want to help others grow.
The recordings are presented here for you to access and use this course to help you grow as a disciple or to help others in your community.
Let us pray for peace, and let us bring it about, starting in our own homes!
May we help people to discover the joy of the Christian message: a message of love and mercy. Pope Francis
Pope Francis: our path is to take care of others
Pope Francis 03.02.15 - Daily contemplation of the Gospel
Daily contemplation of the Gospel helps us to have true hope. The Pope again urged people to take 10 minutes out of their day to pick up the Gospel and talk to the Lord, rather than waste it on TV soap operas or listening to other peoples’ gossip.
Take up the Gospel, read and imagine the scene, imagine what happens and talk to Jesus, from the heart. And with this we allow hope to grow, because we have our gaze fixed, we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
We should all carry out this contemplative prayer. 'But I have so much to do!'. At home, 15 minutes, pick up the Gospel, a small passage, imagine what happened and talk with Jesus about it. So your gaze will be fixed on Jesus and not so much on a TV soap opera, for example. Your ears will be focused on the words of Jesus and not so much on your neighbourhood gossip ... ".
Hope comes from this prayer, he said, adding "our Christian life unfolds in that context, between memory and hope": "Memory of our past journey, memory of so many graces received from the Lord. And hope, looking at the Lord, who is the only one who can give me hope. And in order to gaze at the Lord, to know the Lord, we pick up the Gospel and carry out this contemplative prayer.
Today, for example, try for 10 minutes - 15, no more – to read the Gospel, picture it and say something to Jesus. And nothing more. And so your knowledge of Jesus will be bigger and your hope will grow.
Bishop Patrick recommends the new Pocket Gospels
Pope Francis has said "Everyone should carry a small Bible or a pocket edition of the Gospels and should find at least a few minutes every day to Read the Word of God"
Priced £4.99 from the Bible Society
Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period
(reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)
Sunday & daily Mass live streamed at
Live Catholic TV
Live Catholic TV
Live Catholic TV
Live Catholic TV
Find your local Diocesan newspaper.
Thoughts from Elston Hermitage on Angels
Thoughts from Elston Hermitage on Angels
Of all things visible and invisible angels then are part of that invisible side of God's creation and so worthily deserve our attention.
Angels are God's messengers not only for great occasions but we can be assured they are constantly looking after us too as promised by the Psalmist 'The Lord will command his Angels to guard you in all your ways, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone' (Ps. 91 11-12). Angels then are body and soul guards, and each of us has a guardian angel to watch over us.
Pope Francis: Guardian angels our companions on life’s journey
Pope Francis at Mass at Casa Santa Marta. "Guardian angels exist, they are not the fruit of imaginative doctrine, but companions that God has placed beside us on our life’s journey."
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