2019 Missals still available @ £5.95. Please see Fr Ikeokwu

Living Faith Price change. From January 2019 Living Faith will be £1 per copy.

Catholic South West: free introductory copies available in the porch.

Message from the Chaplaincy at Musgrove Park Hospital If you are admitted to the hospital the chaplaincy team like to know that you are here so our ward volunteers know to look out for you on their weekday visits and so that Fr Ikeokwu can offer you the sacrament of the sick and he or Eucharistic Ministers can bring you Holy Communion. When you are admitted to the hospital a member of staff should ask for and record your religion, but sometimes busy staff tend to overlook it. And don’t assume because you’ve been in the hospital before it will automatically be there. You or your family can also contact us on 01823 342515 or at Chaplain’s@tst.nhs.uk to ask for a visit. Julia French. Lead Chaplain and head of spiritual care M.P.H.

December 100 Club winners:1^st and 2^nd Paddy Finnegan; 3^rd Moira Higgins

Charles Morland’s memorial service will be held at 2.30pm on Friday 11^th January at St Peter’s church, Langford Budville.

Holy Communion preparation class: Saturday 12^th January, 11am – 12 midday in the Parish Room.

On Saturday 12^th January please pray and fast for the end of abortion and euthanasia in this country. Your prayer and fasting is urgently needed, and it really does save lives. This is the day before the 22^nd anniversary of the founding of the Good Counsel Network, for details of our live saving work see www.GoodCounselNetwork.com. All details on poster in porch, Good Counsel News, and prayer cards.

Christmas crib and other trimmings will be taken down on Monday 14^th January. Help will be appreciated.

On this Feast of the Epiphany we hear how king Herod summons the wise men to see him privately “and sent them on to Bethlehem”. Herod points the wise men in the direction of Jesus but he does not go there himself. In celebrating the birth of the Lord we must be careful that our lives are not like that, pointing the way to Christ but not making the journey ourselves. In the Year of Prayer we are called to draw near to Jesus, to make the journey, as the wise men did, which leads us to kneel and adore the Christ child who has himself journeyed from his Father’s side to bring us salvation.

Matthew is unique in giving us the story of the wise men: mysterious travellers coming from the east, an exotic part of the world full of mystery and mystique. The wise men are there to represent all of us and even their precious gifts are of considerable significance. The gold points us to the fact that the Christ child has come to establish the kingdom of God. The incense reveals that he is no ordinary child but God’s Son, while the myrrh warns us of the disturbing prospect of his passion and death: his body will need to be anointed after his death.

The Church has incorporated the wonderful symbols of the wise men’s gifts into its liturgy. We use incense to remind us of the preciousness of Christ’s presence in the sacraments, and the preciousness of each one of us.

St Paul, after is conversion, was at pains for the rest of his life to make sure that everyone else grasped it: Christ had come that the pagans, too, could share the same inheritance as his own Jewish ancestors.

In today’s world the invitation to us is to be ever conscious of the need to reach out to everyone and embrace all people as God’s precious children. With so many displaced people travelling across the world to avoid persecution, warfare and violence, Pope Francis has appealed to us to see in them the face of Christ and make them welcome. This feast of the Epiphany of the Lord provides a wonderful opportunity for us to think again about the expansive and all- embracing nature of God’s revelation to the world, embodied in Jesus, and above all of what it means for us to respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters.