Parish General Info

OUR LADY OF LOURDES & SWITHUN’S LAUNCH OUR NEW WEBSITE FACEBOOK & TWITTER PRESENCE

WELCOME TO THE DIGITAL AGE !

WWW.STSWITHUNS.ORG.UK

With a huge joy – during this weekend of Parish Retreat, of St Swithun’s Day and our Spiritual Renewal – I would like to announce, that we have a fantastic, very special PARISH WEBSITE – We are all very welcome to visit: www.stswithuns.org.uk It is the effect of a hard work, dedication and generosity of the people, whose name I would like to introduce to You in the next Newsletter.

HELP US SHARE THE GOOD NEWS – LIKE and SHARE OUR NEW FACEBOOK PAGE –www.facebook.com/stswithuns.org.uk/

HELP US SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS – SIGN UP AND FOLLOW FATHER MARCIN ON TWITTER @FRMARCIND

Our Parish Locations

Come and join our friendly congregation who come together in our two Parish churches, Our Lady of Lourdes and St Swithun’s, to worship God and listen to God’s word.

Our Lady of Lourdes Church


Telephone: 023 9282 8305	Bransbury Rd, Portsmouth, Hampshire. PO4 9JY

Daily Services Calendar >

St Swithun’s Church


Telephone: 023 9282 8305	Waverley Road, Southsea, Hampshire. PO5 2PL

Daily Services Calendar >

You can contact us or send us a message

Address: 105 Waverley Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire. PO5 2PL
Telephone: 023 9282 8305

A warm welcome to our Parish

Welcome to Our Lady of Lourdes & St Swithun Parish.

We are a vibrant community and come together to worship our Lord Jesus Christ in our two churches of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Swithun’s here in Southsea.

We are part of the Diocese of Portsmouth with our Bishop Philip Egan. We are a very friendly group of people who come together in our two Parish churches to worship God and listen to God’s word. We are an active community that is served by Father Marcin Drabik and a great parish council and many other people in our Parish.

We are linked with our Roman Catholic Primary School, St Swithun’s and have a number of Religious communities affiliated to us too.

You will find a large, mixed and varied congregation who participate in all sorts of parish activities and functions. We have many different groups and we even run a Parish Film club.

We invite you to come and share in our beautiful worship of God through our various services and ministries. We ask that you have a look at our website, where hopefully you will find something of interest that sparks your thoughts further about our Lord.

If you have a special intention or want a prayer sent then please feel free to ask us. You can do this by adding your request in the form below.

With Best wishes and God’s Blessing Fr Marcin

Beacon

Request a prayer…

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in our Parish

Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament:

We welcome you to our Parish. Here is a list of our general list of Benediction and Adoration Services for the Parish. However use our Daily Services Calendar to get an actual view of the Services for that day.

View our Daily Services calendar for upcoming dates >

Please try and take the opportunity this week to spend some time quietly in the company of the Real presence of Our Lord.

Normal Times during the week that we have Mass at St Swithuns (Check calendar for actual dates)

Mondays at 9:30am
Tuesdays at 9:30am
Wednesdays at 9:30am
Thursdays at 9:30am
Fridays at 9:30am
Saturdays at 9:30am

Beacon

Request a prayer…

Confession and Reconciliation in our Parish

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

We welcome you to our Parish. If you would like to go to Confession then you can find the general times below in our Parish churches. However use our Daily Services Calendar to get an actual view of the Services for that day.

Confession is heard at the front of the Church in the sacristy either privately or face to face.
Confession is also available on request if at all possible.
If you want to find out more about the Sacrament of Reconciliation then please feel free to visit out webpage on Reconciliation

View our Daily Services calendar for upcoming dates >

Confession at St Swithuns

(Check calendar for actual dates)
Mondays at 9.30am to 9.55am
Tuesdays at 9.30am to 9.55am and 6:30pm to 6:55pm
Wednesdays at 9.30am to 9.55am
Thursdays at 9.30am to 9.55am
Fridays at 9.30am to 9.55am and 6:30pm to 6:55pm
Saturdays at 9.30am to 9.55am
Sundays at 8.00am to 8.25am and 5:30pm to 5:55pm

Confession at Our Lady of Lourdes

(Check calendar for actual dates)
Saturdays at 5:30pm to 5:55pm

Beacon

Request a prayer…

DAILY MEDITATION;Wednesday of the 11th Week of Ordinary TimeJune 20, 2018Today’s Prayer:Jesus, help me to take risks in Your love. Help me to understand that Your generosity and Your love for me goes far beyond what I can imagine. Amen.Today's Readings:2 Kings 2:1, 6-14Ps 31:(25)20-21,24Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18Three keys to holy livingIn today's Gospel reading, Jesus gives us three keys to holy living: almsgiving, praying and fasting. But the keys don't work unless we use them in the right door, i.e., the right attitude.The first key is almsgiving. The right attitude, which opens the door to God's generous love, is a spirit of giving. To pick up the key and use it without hesitation or fear, we first must have an attitude of trusting God, because it's when we believe in his generosity (even before we see it) that we can safely be generous toward others.God promises (see Malachi 3:10) that if we bring him the whole tithe (10% of our income), he will replace it abundantly. Why? Is it because of his generous love toward us? Yes and so that we can share even more with others. Likewise, if we are generous with love, giving it freely and abundantly whether the person deserves it or not, we open the door of our own hearts, making us capable of receiving more of God's love.The wrong attitude is a spirit of giving in order to get, which is an attempt to reward ourselves, like the hypocrites who "blow their own horns." This is only briefly satisfying. The recompense given to us when our generosity is based on love, however, keeps us closely united to God. Those who love others are friends of God, and friends share freely with each other.The second key is prayer. Jesus points out that there's a right way to pray and a wrong way, a right attitude and a wrong attitude. The right attitude is a sacrificial spirit; we pray because we're surrendering our own ideas of how God should help while choosing to trust in his plans. This key opens the door to God's better ideas. The wrong attitude is bargaining with God to force him to grant our request, or reciting formula prayers in order to seem prayerful while not living out the words.The third key is fasting. The right attitude is a humble spirit that seeks purification and discipline. Fasting originated in Judaism as a personal sacrifice on the Day of Atonement (the Hebrew community's annual event for the forgiveness of sins); its purpose was to increase personal humility and repentance. This should also be our motive as we fast to acquire "mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #2043). By disciplining our free will, we open the door to the Holy Spirit's strength for resisting temptation.With holy attitudes, our reward is a close, fulfilling, totally satisfying relationship with God.#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-20062018 ... See MoreSee Less

8 hours ago

View on Facebook

Likes: 6
Shares: 0
Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

DAILY MEDITATION:Tuesday of the 11th Week in Ordinary TimeJune 19, 2018Today’s Prayer:Holy Spirit: Empower me to be merciful to those who are difficult to love. May I be able to make sacrifices for them, praying to our Father for their needs and worries, and serving them with concrete works of love. Amen.Today's Readings:1 Kings 21:17-29Ps 51:3-6ab,11,16Matthew 5:43-48Loving our enemies perfects usToday's Gospel reading is the key to understanding God's mercy. If we do what Jesus is telling us here, then we will begin to understand more deeply that God loves us no matter what, even when we behave like enemies instead of his friends.He says: "Love your enemies." Who is your enemy? An enemy is anyone whose will, desires, or agenda is conflicting with yours.It's easy to love those who are not in conflict with us, but when we have to deal with someone who's causing a problem, the genuineness of our love is tested: Are we really concerned about them -- or only about ourselves?The more costly the conflict, the harder it is to love our opponents. But love is a choice more than a feeling. We choose to love, not because our enemies deserve our love, but because Jesus loves them so much that he died for them. If we don't respond to our enemies with love (compassion and forgiveness), we are choosing to turn away from Jesus, because God is love.Loving unconditionally means to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Perfection in the Bible does not mean committing no sins and making no mistakes. Spiritual perfection means to love whole-heartedly, under all conditions."Under all conditions" does not mean putting up with evil. Healthy boundaries are also a part of unconditional love. People who cross the line by sinning against us need to experience consequences that will give them an opportunity to learn and grow. They might think that we're unloving, but we know our motives, we know how much we love them, and God surely knows.We don't have to like everyone, but to be united to Jesus we do have to love everyone. We should not unite ourselves to abusers by remaining with them, nor should we ignore a situation that needs to be corrected, but we are called to do good to all, just as our Father gives rain to the just and the unjust.If we trust God to make good come from the bad that happens as we deal with our enemies, we are living in his love. If we do good instead of retaliating or perpetuating the bad, we are remaining in his love. If we deal with others the way Jesus taught by example, we are united to his love.Our enemies help us discover the limits of our love. When we react to their sins in unChrist-like ways, we learn of our own need to seek forgiveness. We realize that we have to rely on the Holy Spirit for supernatural love. We're perfected. Praise God for our enemies!#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-19062018 ... See MoreSee Less

1 day ago

Likes: 11
Shares: 0
Comments: 1

How come these Meditations are always so appropriate??❤️

DAILY MEDITATION:Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary TimeJune 18, 2018Today’s Prayer:Father: Forgive me for my pride and self-sufficiency when judging others and myself. I ask You to help me be always aware of your forgiveness for my unfaithfulness in learning how to be as merciful as You are. Amen.Today's Readings:1 Kings 21:1-16Ps 5:2-7Matthew 5:38-42Mercy succeeds where love failsThe Sermon on the Mount can seem too challenging to take seriously unless we're truly interested in growing stronger in holiness. In chapters five, six and seven of Matthew, Jesus gets down to the nitty-gritty details of how to be holy, and nearly every verse challenges us to examine how much we really do want to learn from him.Today's Gospel reading is a good example of this. We don't really want to turn the other cheek when someone hurts us. We don't want to lose the court battle when we're sued, let alone give away more than what's been demanded from us. We don't want to give our money to those who didn't earn it. We don't want to increase our donation to the Church, because we might need that extra money to buy more clothes or a newer car, a bigger house, or a fantasy vacation. And how quickly we reduce the amount when the pastor or bishop or someone else in the Church does something wrong!The extreme generosity that's necessary for holiness becomes easier when we understand why Jesus wants us to be holy. The reason is mercy. Think of love as the front door to people's hearts. When they close it, mercy is the love that sneaks in through the back door. Mercy succeeds where love fails.When Jesus preached this Sermon, he raised us above the Old Testament's "eye for an eye" spirituality, which gets so easily warped into revenge-seeking. Basically, he said: When others hurt you, be merciful and love them (forgive them, do good to them, pray for them, etc.). This is how we stay united to God, who is Divine Mercy itself. In this unity, he turns our problems into blessings and produces a greater good.People hurt us without understanding that they're actually hurting themselves. By sinning, they close the door to God's love. But if we love them, we give God to them; he reaches them through us (we become the back door to their hearts). If we refuse to give them mercy, we are refusing to give them God, and we are also closing our own doors to God and to his love.If someone strikes out at you verbally, don't strike back; give love. If someone tries to steal from you, you can't stop his sin of greed but you can stop him from sinning against you by freely giving to him what he's taking. If an irresponsible coworker demands that you do his work for him, prevent it from being a sin by volunteering to do even more. This is mercy.Does this sound like we're enabling sin? Well, mercy is only the first step. With good and humble discernment from the Holy Spirit, the next step is to invite the other person to grow in holiness. But even in this, mercy is key, because we must draw the line against ongoing sin -- motivated by love, not revenge or resentment.Being merciful isn't always fun. However, think of a time when you didn't deserve God's love or act of kindness. What did it feel like when you realized that he cared about you anyway? How did it change you? This is what your mercy can do for those who sin against you.#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-18062018 ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago

Likes: 9
Shares: 0
Comments: 0

... See MoreSee Less

The Mustard Seed Principle | Word on Fire

wordonfire.org

3 days ago

Likes: 4
Shares: 0
Comments: 0

stswithuns.org.uk/newsletter-NL_17062018 Join us for Mass at 8:30am , 10:15am and 1pm (in Polish) today. Happy Father's Day to all father's in our Parish too. ... See MoreSee Less

Newsletter: 17th June 2018 -11th Sunday Ordinary Time Year B St Swithun's RC Church Southsea

stswithuns.org.uk

Likes: 7
Shares: 0
Comments: 0

WELCOME TO THE DIGITAL AGE !

WWW.STSWITHUNS.ORG.UK

HELP US SHARE THE GOOD NEWS – LIKE and SHARE OUR NEW FACEBOOK PAGE –www.facebook.com/stswithuns.org.uk/

HELP US SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS – SIGN UP AND FOLLOW FATHER MARCIN ON TWITTER @FRMARCIND

Our Lady of Lourdes Church

St Swithun’s Church

Daily Services Calendar >

You can contact us or send us a message

Welcome to Our Lady of Lourdes & St Swithun Parish.

Confession at St Swithuns

Confession at Our Lady of Lourdes

Signup to Receive Parish e-News

Latest Parish News & Updates