Our team of volunteer welcomers for Sunday Masses is doing a great job making sure the chairs are disinfected before Mass, that everyone disinfects their hands on entering the church and that we are all seated safely. Lorna will be preparing a new rota soon and we still need some more volunteers to ‘spread the load’. If you could help at either the 11.30 or the 18.30 Mass, please contact the parish office: parish@catholic.lu

Cardinal Hollerich will be celebrating Mass with Fr Ed on his final Sunday in Luxembourg, 20 September, at 11.30. To reserve a seat at this Mass, please contact the parish office. Thank you – Nicola

In the last of the Lockdowns from Lauriston talks, Fr Damian Howard SJ looks back on some of the key learning from the series and ahead to the challenges and opportunities for the Church in the ‘new normal’.

See pdf file:

Source:

Lockdowns from Lauriston – Fr Damian Howard on the post-Covid Church

Thursday, July 2, 2020 (retrieved Thursday, July 30, 2020), https://www.jesuit.org.uk/blog/lockdowns-lauriston-fr-damian-howard-post-covid-church

Sent by Fr HP

Dear friends,
I will be leaving Luxembourg at the end of September this year, after eight years of beautiful ministry here. Truth to tell, I was already planning my move last year, and met with the Cardinal in January this year to explain to him — he was gracious and understanding. With the onset of the current COVID crisis, I put everything on hold.

My reasons for leaving are personal, and nothing to do with our English-speaking Catholic community: I have only experienced joy, satisfaction and deep connection with my ‘parish’ experience here: your warmth, faith and dedication has been second to none. I am so proud of our community, what it is, what it does, and what it represents. We have so many people actively involved, and so many who are true apostles of the faith, so many who work away, often in the background. Ours is a community of faith, commitment, welcome joy and inclusion — by the grace of God.

I am conscious too of the care and support that so many in our community have given to me personally. We have faced many challenges together, moving church, being temporarily displaced, unable to use our meeting rooms, having to disinfect each other and be masked… that’s just to name a few! But to have faced these challenges together has been so important, and made our community stronger.

I can’t adequately explain why I must move on, other than to say that the same random Spirit who wafted me in to Luxembourg, is wafting me elsewhere. I announced my departure today at Mass today (Sunday)

The date of my departure is linked with my new post, my appointment to which was confirmed this week: Dean of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

With Nicola in the office, Fr HP in post, with an engaged, active Pastoral Council (and all the sub-committees) the parish can virtually run itself. I’m looking (at the Cardinal’s request) for a Redemptorist to take my place.

The Cardinal has asked that we have an official celebration Mass to mark my departure: how, where and when yet to be determined, but probably 20th September at the 11:30 Mass; please God it won’t have to be by Zoom!
Every good wish to you, and so many thanks for so much,

Fr Ed

If you are following the 11.30 Mass via the livestream on Facebook, you can sing along at home with the Mass sheet below.