Baby-changing table

We now have a baby-changing table available for parents/carers wishing to attend to the hygiene needs of their infants. For the moment, all we have is the table with its wipeable cushion top. As baby care is not one of my specialisms, I would welcome suggestions as to how we can further improve our facilities in this regard. For the moment, of course, we are very much restricted by the fact our facilities are temporary and fairly basic, due to the building works in the couvent, but we’ll continue to do our best in the circumstances.

We are blessed to have so many children in our community — if you bring your baby/child to Mass, thank you for doing so: it’s never easy, and you may be nervous if your child is crying, talking or running around. Don’t be. Know that you, your children, your family and friends are always welcome.

Fr Ed

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 59,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 22 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

St Alphonse, home of the English-speaking Catholic community in Luxembourg, now has a Facebook page (not to be confused with the French-language St Alphonse page…). Search ‘St. Alphonse –  International Parish of Luxembourg’ and you’ll find it.

I’m not really au fait with FB, but come on, parishioners, you know what to do!

Thanks to Jeannette Jackson of our community for setting up the page. I notice there’s already a posting from today’s Mass.

Fr Ed

The Christian Meditation group meets faithfully every Tuesday in the meeting room in the church of St Alphonse at 6.30pm. Very occasionally there is a pause — there will be no Christian Meditation meeting on Tuesday 28th December. Meetings will resume the following Tuesday and continue as usual. All welcome.

Fr Ed

Our Children’s Liturgy is a vital part of our parish life: children aged from 4-7 (with variations on either side!) have their own class during the Mass each Sunday, re-joining the rest of the community just before the Our Father. For many of these children, this is their only formal religious education, catechising them until they are old enough to join the First Holy Communion class.

The ministry of educating children in the faith through the Children’s Liturgy has been faithfully carried out for many years in our parish — however, happily, we are facing growing pains: we have more children than ever, we are seeking to co-ordinate more closely the catechesis the children receive  in their ‘Sunday School’ with the liturgy their parents are simultaneously receiving in church, and we are implementing safeguarding procedures, necessary for the protection of the children and their teachers.

So that’s the situation — here’s the request: we are looking for catechists, people who have training/experience with passing on the faith to children; and we are looking for parents willing to accompany the catechists: to sit in on classes from time to time.

The more catechists and accompaniers we have, the less often each person will have to serve. At the moment each volunteer serves every 3rd week, but as we grow the number of people available, the less often each volunteer will need to serve.

If you think you might be interested, or if you have any questions, please contact me.

Thank you

Fr Ed