Parish Newsletters
3rd Sunday of Lent Year (C)
23 March 2025
THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEK
As we shall hear this Sunday, when Jesus tells the crowd that they must repent lest they perish, he is speaking of the Spiritual death, rather than the physical one. After all, the first part of the Gospel is denying the all too human belief that bad things only happen to bad people. Instead we are called to focus on the fruitfulness of our own fig trees. Have we been cultivating and fertilising the soil of our lives so that we might bear good fruit in the Kingdom of God?
2nd Sunday of Lent Year (C)
16 March 2025
THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEKEND
For the second time in St Luke’s Gospel the voice of God the Father is heard claiming Jesus as God’s Son.
The first time was at his Baptism when God the Father spoke directly to Jesus and said, “You are my Son, the Beloved.”
Today we read and hear on the mountain of the Transfiguration that God spoke again, “This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to Him.” But on this occasion the Father is not speaking to Jesus but to Peter, James and John who had been invited to accompany him on the mountain.
8th Sunday of the Year (C)
2 March 2025
THOUGHTS FOR THIS WEEKEND
Jesus lived in a culture and society where people worked the soil to provide food for themselves and their families. In this Sunday’s Gospel he uses a metaphor that his audience would have immediately understood, ’For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit’.
The Parish of Haigh, Aspull & Blackrod
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was founded in the mid 1850's and is part of the R.C. Diocese of Salford. The Church was blessed and opened in 1858, the year of the apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes. The Church was re-ordered in the 1990's and several new stained-glass windows were installed, some made in Blackrod, and are an interesting feature of the Church.
Holy Family Parish, New Springs, was funded from Our Lady's in 1898 and in 2009 clebrated the Golden Jubilee of its Church. The community of Blackrod, Bolton, had a chapel-of-ease from 1960 to 2009 when St. Andrews Church Hall was closed.
All three areas - Haigh & Aspull, Blackrod and New Springs are now served from Our Lady's.
Rev Kevin Foulkes
48 Haigh Road
Aspull
Wigan WN2 1YA
TEL: 01942 516732
Mass Times
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
6.00pm
9.30am
11.15am
9.15am
9.15am
9.15am
9.15am
9.15am
11.00am
Haigh
Haigh
Holy Family
Haigh
Holy Family
Haigh
Holy Family
Haigh
Haigh
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Saturday
11:30 - 12 noon
As announced
Haigh
Holy Family
A Parish History ~ 1858-2018
Mr Livesey & Mr West have worked with local parishioners to produce a book about the history of our parish and school, they have kindly allowed us to reproduce an electronic version of their book, available on the Parish Page, CLICK HERE to read it.
If you would like to purchase a hard copy of the book CLICK HERE
Forward...
It is a privilege and honour to write the forward to the Parish History of Our Lady’s Parish, on its 160th Anniversary.
It has also been a privilege and honour, and a pleasure, to serve as Our Lady’s Parish Priest since 1997 – following in the footsteps of my twenty-six predecessors.
Saint Peter writes ‘He is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house.’ (Peter 2:3-5)
We are the living stones of this Christian community – commissioned as ‘missionary disciples’ to be Christ’s ‘ambassadors’ (St. Paul Cor. 5:20) in loving witness, worship and service to our community.
There have been many changes over these 160 years – in the Church, Society, Education and the design of Our Lady’s Church. The priests and people of Our Lady’s Parish have experienced many joyful family and Parish celebrations but also wars, peace, poverty and economic depressions, through twelve Pontificates and six Reigns – and we too are facing a challenging time for the Catholic Church. Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman wrote that ‘To live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often’.
And so, building on and celebrating our heritage – the stones of Our Lady’s Church, and the ‘living stones’ of our dedicated, faithful and often courageous priests, parishioners and teachers in our Parish School we can face the future with confidence. We do so knowing that Jesus, Our Risen Lord, has promised to be with his Church forever. (Matthew 28:20)
I commend this publication to be read and enjoyed by everyone.
Many thanks to Phil Livesey and Neil West for their initiative to begin and to bring this book to completion and to all who have collaborated with them, with their own very interesting and often amusing memories! God bless you all.
Fr Kevin C. Foulkes