Sunday Missal:  27^th Sunday, Year C. Page 1069.

Teas and Coffees available after Mass on Sunday and Thursday.

Fife Pilgrim Way – Deanery Event for the Jubilee Year: Saturday 4 October, 11:00am Ceres, Kemback & Springfield Church to St James’ Church, St Andrews. Further details on notice board.

200 Club: Congratulations to the winners in the September draw. £200 K. Coser (242); £100 Margaret Green (139); £50 Jim Tonner (210); £50 Nan Kelly (120); £20 Margaret Green (98); £20 James Kay (86).

Day of Prayer for Peace 7th October 2025: The Bishops of Scotland invite all Catholics to keep Tuesday 7th October as a day of prayer for peace. It is of course two years since the terrible massacre in Israel and now the continuing atrocities in Gaza. We invite our brother priests to open their churches on that day for as long as possible so that everyone has the possibility to visit their parish, especially the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament for a moment of prayer and to light a candle. Our world today is troubled by so many wars and conflicts; it is appropriate that we as Catholics pray individually and together on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Holy Land, Gaza and Israel. Pope Leo has also asked all Catholics to pray the Rosary during the month of October for peace in our world. Could I suggest the following prayer for your intentions on the 7th October:

God of peace and justice, We pray for the people of the Holy Land: Israeli and Palestinian, Jew, Christian and Muslim. We pray for an end to acts of violence and terror. We lift to you all who are fearful and hurting. We ask for wisdom and compassion for those in leadership. Above all, we ask that Jesus the Prince of Peace,

Establish lasting reconciliation and justice for the Holy Land and all nations. Amen.

With thoughts and prayers in Christ, the Prince of Peace.  +John Keenan, President of the Bishops’ Conference

Fife Education Mass:  For all who are, or have been, involved in Catholic Education in Fife. Mass will be celebrated by Canon Brian Gowans in St Marie’s RC Church, Kirkcaldy, on Wednesday 19 November at 7:00pm. Tea and coffee after Mass.

October is Mission Month in the Church, which culminates in World Mission Sunday on 19^th October. During this Jubilee Year of Hope and particularly during this month we are invited by the Holy Father to recall our baptismal vocation to share in the mission of the universal Church., “To go out to the whole world and spread the Good News” – the news of Hope in Christ. We can realise this through or prayers, sacrifices and financial support for the Church in 1100 mission dioceses in the world.

Venerable Margaret Sinclair event: Commemorate the centenary of the death of Venerable Margaret Sinclair on Saturday 22 November 2025 by meeting at her former grave in Mount Vernon Cemetery, Edinburgh, at 9:00am to pray the Rosary. This will be followed by a walk to her tomb at St Patrick's in the Cowgate. Benediction at 12:15pm followed by Holy Mass at 12:30pm. A Centenary Mass will be offered at the Sacred Heart Altar, in St Patrick's on Monday 24 November at 5:45pm.

Anecdote:  I believe… At the end of World War II, it is reported, the Allied soldiers were searching farmhouses for snipers. In one abandoned house, which was almost a heap of rubble, they had to use their flashlights to get to the basement. On the crumbling wall, they spotted a Star of David.  It had obviously been scratched by a victim of the Jewish Holocaust. And beneath it was the following message in clear but rough lettering: “I believe in the sun -even when it does not shine.  I believe in love – even when it is not shown. I believe in God – even when He does not speak.” -Like the Holocaust victim who had inscribed those uplifting words on the basement wall, Mother Teresa believed in the sun — even when it did not shine. She believed in love — even when it was not shown. And she believed in God — even when God did not speak. In her secret and personal letters Mother Teresa revealed that for almost 50 years, she had gone through what is best described as “the dark night of the soul,” driving her to doubt the existence of Heaven and even God. Said a Jesuit priest, Fr. James Martin, “I have never read a saint’s life where the saint has had such an intense spiritual darkness. No one knew she was that tormented.” — Like all of us, Mother Teresa was but human. And it is only natural that we, like her, will experience times of doubt, loneliness, dryness and even denial. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!”   (James Valladares in Your Words O Lord, Are Spirit, and They Are Life; quoted by Fr.

Botelho). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).

Have a good week. Take care. Fr James