Weekly Record

16th November 2008

All our Masses this weekend will be offered for our deceased loved ones, those names that have been sent in by many for the Pious List and deceased members of our Cathedral community. For all who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith and who sleep in Christ - may they know the fullness of life and joy. I have printed below a few verses which were on the back of the service sheet of a recent funeral of a priest. Food for prayer and reflection perhaps! Go, silent friend, your life has found its ending; to dust returns your weary mortal frame. God, who before birth called you into being, now calls you hence, his accent still the same. Go, silent friend, your life in Christ is buried; for you he lived and died and rose again. Close by his side your promised place is waiting where, fully known, you shall with God remain. Go, silent friend, we do not grudge you glory; sing, sing with joy deep praises to your Lord. You, who believed that Christ would come back for you, now celebrate that Jesus keeps his word.

Also this Sunday afternoon we have the final confirmation celebrations for this year. Bishop Malone will confirm 290 young people from the Widnes and Crosby Pastoral Areas. This many candidates is a record number for one Confirmation service in the Cathedral but probably wouldn’t be enough to put Bishop Malone in the Guinness Book of Records.

On Tuesday afternoon 2008 school children will take part in a ‘Big Sing’ in the Cathedral – an experience of singing and making music together in the Year of Culture. A big sing needs a big conductor so I hope our Director of Music, Tim Noon, has three Weetabix that morning to be able to cope with a Cathedral full of young children.

From Wednesday onwards we play host to a gathering of Catholic Bishops from Europe and Africa. Our Cathedral congregation is truly international with many having their origins or families from various parts of the world. I list below the bishops who will be attending and where they are from in case there are any from your homeland. They will join us for Morning Prayer on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7.30am, for Choral Evening Prayer on Saturday at 5pm (non on Thursday and Friday), and for Solemn Mass on the Feast of Christ the King.

Bishop Antonio Jaca of Caxito, Angola; Bishop Franz Scharl, Vienna (Aux); Bishop Rene Ehuzu of Porto Novo, Benin; Bishop Jan De Bie, Bruxelles (Aux); Archbishop Ntamwana of Gitega, Burundi; Cardinal Josip Bozanic–Zagreb-Croatia; Archbishop Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana; Bishop Tom Burns, Menevia-Wales; Archbishop Rabemahafaly, Madagascar; Archbishop Defois, Lille, France; Archbishop Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria; Bishop Josef Voss – Munster (Aux); Cardinal Sarr of Dakar, Senegal; Bishop Eammon Walsh, Dublin (Aux); Bishop Mvemve of Klerksdorp, S Africa; Bishop Giudici, Pavia, Italy; Bishop Maluma of Njombe, Tanzania; Bishop Janiak, Wroclaw, Poland; Bishop Fernandes of Beja, Portugal; Bishop Gherghel, Lasi, Romania; Bishop Sanchez Gonzalez, Spain; Archbishop Sainz Munoz, Papal Nuncio; Archbishop Marchetto, Pontifical Council; Bishop Josef Sayer, Misereor, plus our own Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishops and some of the Bishops of the Northern Province, advisors and translators.

Canon Anthony O'Brien
Cathedral Dean