OUR PARISH SUPPORTS THE COBHAM AREA FOODBANK Please can you help local people in crisis by purchasing items on the list below and placing them in the Foodbank’s collection point in the narthex when to come to Mass at the weekend? 

Application Forms for next year’s 1st Reconciliation and 1st Eucharist Programmes are now available from the Sacristy after our weekend Masses. Prospective candidates: • need to have been born before 31st August 2019, • be in at least Year 3 when schools re-commence in September, • and, of course, be attending our weekend and Holy Day Masses along with their family. It is very difficult to imagine that someone who is not presently attending our community on a regular basis could possibly be prepared and ready to receive a sacrament within the next year. Parents only (not grandparents or friends) should collect the application which needs to be completed and returned by 18.00 on 31st August 2026 (sorry, no late applications can be accepted).

A missionary from Bethlehem, The Holy Land, will visit us once again on the weekend of 25th - 26th July to briefly talk about the Holy Land and sell religious articles made out of Olive Wood to help and support the poor Christian families, any help you could give to them will be highly appreciated.

Many thanks to all our volunteers who help to provide coffee after church and to those parishioners who come along and make it an enjoyable social event. Due to the generosity of everyone we have been able to donate £500 to Cobham Food Bank this year, which is sorely needed. We are grateful to our volunteers who are taking a step back and welcoming several new volunteers in September. There will be coffee after 11 o'clock mass up to 19th July and then a break for the summer, see you in September. If anyone would like to help in any way, please get in touch with Diane Yearley 07927 397936.

Born in 1221, St Bonaventure was baptized John, but became Bonaventure when he became a Franciscan at the age of twenty-two. While St Francis died about five years after Bonaventure’s birth, he is credited with healing Bonaventure as a boy of a serious illness. Bonaventure’s teaching career came to a halt when he was elected to serve as Minister General. His seventeen years of service were not easy as the Order was often involved in conflicts over the interpretation of poverty. Some friars even ended up in heresy saying that St Francis and his community were inaugurating the era of the Holy Spirit which was to replace Jesus, the Church, and Scripture. But because he was both a man of prayer and a very good administrator, Bonaventure managed to structure the Order through effective legislation. But more importantly, he gave the Friars an organized spirituality based on the vision and insights of St Francis. Always a Franciscan at heart and a mystical writer, Bonaventure managed to unite the pastoral, practical aspects of life with the doctrines of the Church.  Shortly before he ended his service as General Minister, Pope Gregory X created him a Cardinal bishop of Albano. But a little over a year later, while taking part in the Second Council of Lyon, Saint Bonaventure died suddenly on July 15, 1274. There is a theory that he was poisoned.

This is one of Jesus’ more famous parables, commonly called “The Parable of the Sower” or “The Parable of the Seed.” It briefly describes a scenario that makes sense to most listeners. Of course, seeds sown on a path, on rocky ground, and among thorns wouldn’t produce much, if any, harvest. And, of course, seed sown in fertile soil should produce a very good harvest. Anyone who knows anything about seeds and plants would understand this, so what is the point Jesus is trying to make? Knowing Jesus, the disciples immediately realise that a seemingly straightforward parable has a deeper meaning than what we under stand on the surface. They also recognise that not everyone will read a more profound message into a simple parable, so they ask Jesus why he teaches like this.  This Gospel passage comes after Jesus has just clashed with the scribes and Pharisees, the ones who think they know-it-all when it comes to God and religion. He had been healing people and casting out demons, and many people in the crowds received him with humility and gratitude. The scribes and the Pharisees, on the other hand, wouldn’t accept the good work he was doing at face value, and they accused him of working for Satan. Jesus points out to his disciples that those religious leaders are just like their ancestors who refused to listen to the prophets of old. As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink.” The Pharisees and scribes could see the good and miraculous things Jesus was doing, but they wilfully closed their ears and eyes to how God was acting in and through Jesus. At the same time, many people in the crowd were proving to be “good soil,” hearing and seeing how God was acting in the world. Questions of the week  Share about a time when you have witnessed someone open to experience God’s amazing or miraculous growth.  At this point in your life, what kind of soil would you say you are?

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Another busy week here at The Presbytery as Fr D got together materials for several meetings that he was involved in through the week . . . . At all of our Masses last weekend there was an appeal for the HCPT Lourdes Pilgrimage Group that Fr D travels with each year after Easter. The leader of the Group was able to talk a little about the origins of the Children’s Pilgrimage and give a little taste of what the children do during their week each year. Several parishioners took the opportunity to talk to the two Group representatives after each Mass and at coffee after the 11.00 Mass. Early on Monday morning Fr D was up and about to give access to the electrical engineers who made a start on ‘Phase Two’ of the reworking of the church lighting system. This involved altering the round spotlights throughout the building from halogen units (240w) to LED units (50w) and ensuring each was reinforced where necessary to take bulbs that are four times the weight of the old ones! Just to be certain each unit is now held with a short length of aircraft grade wire to ensure that there will be no accidents! The smaller amount of power that the new units use will make a considerable dent in the lighting electricity bills in the future (as well as lasting much longer before replacement becomes necessary)! After celebrating Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday, Fr D took off down to Crawley in the car to continue work on two cases he will soon call to judgement, as well as answering an increasing number of canonical queries that seem to come in to the Tribunal office. After Morning Prayer and Mass on Wednesday Fr D had a meeting with the Clergy Welfare Officer for Surrey. This involves a chat during which the officer checks that Fr D is looking after himself (eating properly etc.), taking his day off each week, and being in reasonable contact with other clergy locally. She also reminded him that he really ought to avail himself of the diocesan ’health check’ at some point (when there’s time).  Following Morning Prayer and Mass on Thursday Fr D did not go down to Crawley for his second day of Tribunal work as he had a Teams Meeting of the Trustees of the Bosco Catholic Education Trust. Fr D joined via teams because the meeting was taking place in Hastings and he had other things that he needed to do which precluded travelling for that long (and the heat was not the best thing to be driving in) . . . . . .

RETIRING COLLECTION THIS WEEKEND - Seafarers and fishers play a vital role in all of our lives, but they often work in difficult, hazardous conditions. In the last year, more crews have been abandoned by their employers than ever before. Many are still being denied the right to leave their ships for even a short break away from the relentless noise and pressure on board. Many are reporting more stress and poorer mental health. Sea Sunday is this weekend. On this weekend the Church prays for all those who live and work at sea. Your support will make a big difference to seafarers and fishers in need. This collection is vital to enable Stella Maris (formerly called Apostleship of the Sea) to continue its important work - so please give generously. Thank you.

St Benedict was born into a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome, and early in life was drawn to monasticism. First he became a hermit, leaving a depressing world - pagan armies on the march, the Church torn by schism, people suffering from war, morality at a low ebb. He soon realised that he could not live a hidden life in a small town any better than in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high up in the mountains for three years. Some monks chose Benedict as their leader for a while, but found his strictness not to their taste. Still the shift from hermit to community life had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various families of monks into one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity, fraternity, and permanent worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was to become one of the most famous monasteries in the world - Monte Cassino. The Rule that gradually developed prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study, manual labour, and living together under an abbot. In the course of the Middle Ages, all monasticism in the West was gradually brought under the Rule of Saint Benedict.  Today the Benedictines exist in two branches: the Benedictine Federation; and the Cistercians, men and women of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.