Youth, family and children’s page

CHILDREN’S LITURGY 11am SUNDAY MASS
• 15TH SEPTEMBER WELCOME – We will be having a children’s liturgy to welcome back all our children, to say hello and welcome to any new children joining the parish.
• 13th OCTOBER – HARVEST – We will be having special children’s liturgy to celebrate harvest and will have a harvest sale in the hall after Mass. More details to follow nearer the time.

HARVEST FESTIVAL AND CHILDREN’S LITURGY, SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER

The children reflected on what makes a good harvest and by re arranging the letters of this word we agreed that we HAVE so much food, clean water, crops rain and sun, but we must remember those who STARVE affected by drought storms or flood and all of their crops are destroyed. When we SHARE what we have with those who starve that makes a good HARVEST.

THANK YOU EVERYONE especially Mary and Frances and the Children’s’ Liturgy team for such a wonderful Harvest celebration last weekend. Lots of preparation led to lots of smiles and fun AND £100 collected to help CAFOD help those who are in great need.
Sue

CATHOLIC YOUTH MINISTRY INTERNSHIPS
Castlerigg Manor (The Lancaster Diocese Retreat Centre) is looking for young Catholics aged 18-25 to join their Youth Ministry Internship Programme. The scheme gives participants wide ranging experience, skills, training, and qualifications as well as the opportunity to work with a fantastic team based in the English Lake District. For more information contact director@castleriggmanor.co.uk

SUNDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 11AM MASS, (Burley)

In children’s liturgy and as part of the season of creation we thought about what we can do to look after the world. We agreed that the world was in all our hands and we all needed to spread the word about caring for and looking after the world. The children wrote on each of the fingers of the hands 5 different ways they would help to look after the world. We then shared these with the parish. The children’s ideas included: make a composter, stop chopping trees down, use less water, shower less and  plant more trees.

Father’s Day

On Father’s Day we had a children’s liturgy where we spoke about discipleship and what we could do beyond listening to the work of God at church. We talked again about Pope Francis’ message about caring for the world and how we were trying to live that out in our lives  through our Live Simply message. We visited the herb garden created in the church gardens and talked about the herbs, their smells and what they could be used for . The herb garden has been created for parishioners to use as and when they want with many herbs provided by parishioners. We then created herb posies for the children to give to their dads and also one for Fr Michael.
Frances, Cath & Mary
Parish Family Feast Day
The Parish Family Feast Day on June 22nd was made even more special when 3 students from St Mary’s school Menston came to serve at Mass.  Thank you so much.  Following Mass we all enjoyed coffee and cakes in the church hall.
A VERY BIG THANK YOU, St Mary’s Lourdes Group Cake Sale
St Mary’s Lourdes group are so very grateful to you all for making us so welcome and for your overwhelming generosity.
Your donations amounted to £607.48. Please pray for us as we will pray for you all whilst we are in Lourdes.
Please place your prayer intentions in the box at the back of church.
If you wish your prayer to be posted privately, then please place it in an envelope marked as a private intention. The final date for intentions to be handed in will be Sunday 02 July. They will then be collected and taken out with us to Lourdes on 06 July.
Once again, thank you all so very much.
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION CHILDREN
Congratulations to all our very special young members of the Parish Family namely, Allie, Ani, Hannah, Henry, Jack E, Jack S, Krissy, Marianne, Nell, Nyla, Rosa, Rosie and Seamus who have received their First Communion.
Many, many thanks to Nicola our Parish Catechist for guiding the children and parents throughout their preparation for the sacrament.

BAMBISANANI FUNDRAISING QUIZ NIGHT – THANK YOU (from Rebecca)

I wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who attended my fundraising quiz in the Parish Hall on Friday night in support of the Bambisanani Partnership. With your help I have been able to reach my fundraising target of £2,000. In the summer I will be volunteering my skills to work with orphaned children in a deprived rural community in KwaZulu Natal province. The partnership uses sport to teach leadership, literacy, numeracy and art as well as training PE teachers and sports coaches and teaching athletics.
Thank you all so much for your support again.
Rebecca Shaw, Yr. 13 student, St Mary’s School.

 

FIRST SACRAMENTS
On Sunday 5th March at both the 9:00am & 11:00am Masses, we presented to the Parish family our children who are preparing to receive their First Holy Communion. We ask you please to pray for the children, their families and their catechist, Nicola. First Holy Communion will be celebrated on Sunday 21st May ‘23.
The children and parent sessions are on Sunday mornings at 10:00am.
Nicola.

CONGRATULATIONS to our young children who celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation and made their First Confession; Ariana, Bea, Freya, Harry, Jack, Jack Joshua, Krissy, Oliver, Sophia.
A BIG THANK YOU to our parents and catechists who prepared the children, the laughter and the 100% attendance!!
Thank you to the Parish Family for their prayers.

Christmas crib
Many thanks to our parish children who decorated our crib.  The crib was made from a pallet and old fence panels.

Advent 2022

Fruit Trees
Our parish children helped to plant the two fruit trees (an apple and a Victoria plum) last Sunday.  It was a great event, we look forward to picking the fruit in the next few years.
The Live Simply and the Gardening Team

During the children’s liturgy we discussed  Pope Francis’ letter where he talked about God’s love for the world which is our home and how we are, as Christians, need to look after it.  We also talked about the work we have done in church to try and follow the Pope’s messages  by creating our Tree of Life project where we have tried to respond to Francis’ messages by Living more simply, caring for others around us and looking after the environment
To live out the messages of living simply, live sustainably and live in solidarity with others in the world we created the “Live Simply Advent Calendar”. We thought this Advent instead of asking for more things which use up resources we would try and do other more sustainable things. The children came up with some great ideas like, use last year’s Christmas cards to make decorations , walk or carshare rather than drive, switch off lights when you are not in a room and make a Christmas present for someone rather than buying one. We have displayed this in church with all the ideas so please take a look and see what changes you could make.

We also gave our children’s liturgy advent wreath a makeover, replacing all the plastic on it with foliage collected from road side areas.

CHILDREN’S LITURGY
For the children of the Parish Family, it would be good to double this number of gatherings BUT we need Leaders to work together to achieve this.
We always work in twos and if we could manage just 4 teams of two it would mean once every 4 weeks.
You could almost choose your dates and themes.
Please if you are over 16 and would consider leading a session with another just let Fr Michael or Mary Preston [preston.mary@googlemail.com ] or me know. PLEASE consider it. Sue

CONFIRMATION

It was wonderful to be with 18 young people in our parish family to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Marcus.  Canon Michael Mahady, Rachel, Clare (catechists) and all the sponsors, parents & families and teachers witnessed the beautiful service at the Cathedral Church of St Anne in Leeds last Wednesday, 23 November.

 

 

 

 

WORLD YOUTH DAY 2023
Aged 16-30? You’re invited to join the Diocese of Leeds Youth Service in Lisbon, Portugal from 31st July – 7th August 2023 for World Youth Day, a week-long youth festival with Pope Francis and young people from across the world! Cost: £1200, which includes accommodation, travel, WYD package and more! Email youth@dioceseofleeds.org.uk to apply!

CONGRATULATIONS
To Year 3 and Year 4 children in our Parish Family, Ailie, Ani, Bo Belles, Eddie, Hannah, Henry, Jack, Marianne, Nell, Nyla, Rosa, Rosie and Seamus who received the SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION for the first time. 

To Alexia, Amity, Bo Belles, Iris, Jonah, Lottie, Lucy, Max, Orry and Will who celebrated their receiving of First Holy Communion. We pray for them, they were very special occasions for their families and all of our Parish family.

Easter Gardens

Mary co-ordinated a fantastic group of 3 children’s liturgy sessions in Lent which culminated in celebrating the Easter story on Easter Sunday.
We (and the children ) made some Easter gardens and you will be able to see these if you haven’t already – in the structure we had previously used as a stable at Christmas-time.

Here are the children and the gardens they made depicting 3 crosses on a grassy hill and an empty tomb with the covering stone rolled away and the used shroud on top…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 11am Mass on the 1st Sunday of Lent 17 children came to a special Children’s Liturgy at 11am mass where they started to make Easter Gardens. They used seed trays, peat-free compost, grass seeds, cress seed, moss and pebbles. It was a wonderful occasion. We hope to add to the gardens during Lent so they will be ready for Easter Sunday.

Just to let you know we have life in the gardens and actually quite a lot. As you can see all are growing really well apart from one so I will put some more grass and cress seeds in this next week. I have turned them round as they are growing towards the light. We might have to give them a haircut if they keep growing like this!!

 

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR CONFIRMANDII

Alice, Alister, Annie, Christopher, Cora, Devon, Evie, Finnegan, Francesca, Ina, Isaac, Poppy, Sebbie, Sofia and Sophia who received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Canon Michael here in our church. It was wonderful to welcome so many family members. Many thanks to all who made this service a special time for our lovely Youth members. May the Holy Spirit continue to inspire them to choose wise, kind and loving ways. We wish them many blessings and much happiness in all they do.

READING at Church
Last year and this year, several Confirmation candidates said they would offer to read at Mass.
We would love this to happen! You can choose the Mass you prefer to attend and if you all come forward …you would read once a month or less.
You can read with another young person; one of your Parents or Siblings or another adult in the Parish Family or just by yourself. The more info you give to Theresa the better. Theresa’s email is jerrett202@gmail.com

Hedgehog Hotel
Jack and his grandad John have teamed up to build an amazing hedgehog hotel for their holiday project.

Jack cut the tunnel and legs to size, he then drilled, glued and screwed the box and tunnel together leaving grandad to cover the box and fit the lid.  The hotel is now in the Parish garden waiting for its first visitors.  Please click here to find out more and see how it was designed and built.

 

 

 

Confirmation 2021
A small Parish Church building but a large group of youth members of our Parish Family chose to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation at the end of May.
The photos show Fr Michael having Bishop Marcus’s special permission to bestow the sacrament of Confirmation on Year 6 students of the Parish Family and lifelong friends now confirmed as friends forever!
What a splendid choice of Confirmation names …… Anne, Anthony of Padua. Bridget, Cecelia, Christopher, Edward, Frances, Francis, Irene, Mark, Oscar de Romero,  Patrick, Peter, Philomena, Sebastian and Therese;  so many great saints!

Please keep our children and their parents in your prayers by joining in the Our Father which is the first prayer they are saying together.

THANK YOU to the young person who has built and returned the bird box ready to add to the others in the trees in the Parish gardens. Pop round and have a look!
Sunflower Seedlings
Frances would like you to start bringing back the named sunflowers pop them behind the Planter next to the Hall door; the insects can’t wait to visit them!!

The Tree of Life team need a little more help with watering on non-rainy days. Please can you help? There is water and watering can on site.

Frances is the Lead contact frances.atkins@nhs.net. Please send her a message or ring me and I will pass on your details.

Frances always needs bedding plants for replenishing the front bed….
Can you lend a hand with weeding and watering ANYTIME. From 10 minutes to an hour even once a month can change our Parish grounds into a flowering haven for our insects and birds.

This invitation is especially for those who are active and not involved in a Parish family activity. Anyone at Secondary school can also volunteer with their parents. It will be so sad if no-one joins the Parish Family effort with up to one hour a month during good weather. It is outside, it is safe, you choose your own time or, if you wish to make friends, join the group.

Let us all admire the summer planting as it comes into bloom and, as we do remember Pope Francis and his Laudato Si plea to safeguard our beautiful world.
THANK You in anticipation.
Sue

Prayer for the end of the virus

Almighty and merciful Father, who show your love to all your creation
We come before you asking for a quick control of the Coronavirus currently ravaging our world.
Hear graciously the prayers we make for those affected by the virus in various parts of the world.
Grant healing to the sick, eternal life to the dead and consolation to the bereaved families.
We pray that an effective medicine to combat the sickness be speedily found.
We pray for the relevant governments and health authorities that they take appropriate steps for the good of the people.
Look upon us in your mercy and forgive us our failings.
Amen
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God Bless and stay safe

The children’s liturgy leaders

 

 

 

Mass times & information

Weekend Masses are Saturday 5:30pm (vigil), Sunday 11am.
Weekday Masses are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday, all at 10am.
CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES
Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24th December)
4.30pm Christmas Vigil and Family Mass
9.00pm Mass during the Christmas Night (preceded by carols from 8.30pm)

Christmas Day (Wednesday 25th December):
8.30am Christmas Dawn Mass
The sacrament of reconciliation is Saturdays, 5 - 5:15pm.
ILKLEY MASS
The Sunday Mass at Ilkley is at 9:15am.

News

Thank you Fr Michael

A Wonderful Weekend What a wonderful weekend our Parish Family enjoyed. So many people came to celebrate Mass together. On Saturday evening we gathered after Mass for the blessing prayers for the newly installed defibrator. On Sunday a Mass we welcomed Josephine and Colin with their family to give thanks to the Lord for their […]

New fruit trees

In December 2022 Frances and Keith bought two fruit trees, an apple and a Victoria plum, a bag of soil conditioner and stakes to hold the trees in position.  Mike and Keith dug out two holes in the garden (they are to the left of the presbytery) and placed the trees (still in their pots) […]

Fr Barrie Holmes

With great sadness I have to let you know that Fr Barrie Holmes died in St Gemma’s Hospice on the evening of Friday 19th November. He was our Parish Priest for some very special years. It was he who re-ordered our lovely Church, and help make it the lovely place / centre we all love. […]

Pope Francis’ on Thought for the Day for climate change

Dear BBC listeners, Good Morning. “Climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic have exposed our deep vulnerability and raised numerous doubts and concerns about our economic systems and the way we organise our societies. “We have lost our sense of security and are experiencing a sense of powerlessness and loss of control over our lives. “We […]

Bug Hotel

We have built a bug hotel from an old wooden pallet, a milk crate and some unused fencing panels.  We gave it a new roof and covered it with roofing felt to make it last a long time.  It is in place and now open for visitors!  Our children will be filling it soon with […]

Jack’s hedgehog hotel

Jack and his grandad John have teamed up to build an amazing hedgehog hotel for their holiday project. Jack cut the tunnel and legs to size, he then drilled, glued and screwed the box and tunnel together leaving grandad to cover the box and fit the lid.  The hotel is now in the Parish garden […]

Under the Gaze of God

Fr David Williams C.P. (who lives in Otley) has written a book which may be of interest to our parishioners.  It is available from Amazon books.

Fr Michael – “A Golden Priest”

Fr Michael – “A Golden Priest” We at SS John Fisher and Thomas More are one of the lucky ones. We have the privilege and joy of celebrating a priest’s Golden Jubilee. Congratulations Fr Michael! Fr Michael as an altar boy at St Patrick’s,            Fr Michael at his Ordination Mass […]

A poem to celebrate Fr Michael’s golden jubilee

From Us to You The Lord asked you to follow Him and serve with grace and love To minister to those in need of blessings from above To watch His flock and guide us and to teach us how to pray To understand the Gospels and to follow in His way This task accepted graciously […]

Youth take part in Father Michael’s Golden Jubilee Mass celebration

At Mass, on Sunday 7th March at SS John Fisher & Thomas More church Burley-in-Wharfedale, we gave thanks for and celebrated the Golden Jubilee of a Golden priest. Exactly 50 years ago, Father Michael Mahady was ordained a priest at St Patrick’s Church, Leeds on a wet Sunday in Lent. Father Michael celebrated his Golden […]

Catholic Care – Annual Review

Catholic Care’s 2020 annual review has been published, you can read it here.  This is Bishop Marcus’ summary of its amazing work. “Despite all the phenomenal challenges and restrictions of the last year, the leadership, staff and volunteers of Catholic Care have diligently continued to provide an outstanding range of services and support to people […]

Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight starts on Monday 22nd February. Unfortunately, this year we will not be able to have a stall as we would usually do but can I encourage you to change one of your store cupboard items to Fairtrade, whether it is your tea/coffee, biscuits, honey, rice or toilet roll and there’s more!! This year […]

World Day of Prayer Service – 5th March 2021

The World Day of Prayer is a global ecumenical woman led movement. This years’ service, written by women from Vanuatu (a group of islands in the South Pacific) should have been held in the Salem Church. As we are not able to meet together the Burley/Menston committee have compiled a service on-line. To participate, log […]

Lenten Activities

It’s always hard to think of things to do for Lent and, if you are struggling, we have attached some ideas for you here. You can cut them up and put them in a jar and draw one out each day or each week. There is something there for everyone. Don’t worry if you can’t […]

CAFOD – A special Lenten fast

Give up harsh words: use generous ones. Give up unhappiness: take up gratitude. Give up anger: take up gentleness and patience. Give up pessimism: take up hope and optimism. Give up worrying: take up trust in God. Give up complaining: value what you have. Give up stress: take up prayer. Give up judging others: discover […]

New benches around the Round House

There are now four benches and lots of lovely extra planting around the Round House. This has been a lovely collaborative project, and each of the four churches has supplied a bench. Each bench will have a little plaque on it.  It is hoped the renovated gardens and comfortable seating will cause many friendships to […]

Pray Fast Give

This Lent our parish children and their families can find out here how we can look out and help each other, thinking of ideas based on the themes of prayer fasting and giving.  Also we would like you to create an Easter garden and tell us just in a couple of sentences what you have […]

Not everything is locked down!

Still Unlocked! Thanks to Mary we have this video to share… Our church may be closed for just a little while but our prayers, like many other beautiful things, are not locked down. Let’s all use this one minute video to pass on the 3 wishes we have for each other in the last chapter […]

Tree of Life – Work with nature

In 2015 Pope Francis signed his landmark encyclical Laudato Si’: On the Care of Our Common Home, it asked us to think about the things we value most, how could we start to change what we do in our lives at home and in the parish to better protect and enhance our beautiful, but fragile […]

Sacraments 2021

6th December 2020 Dear Parent or Carer, Below you will read the letter from the Diocese, this is different to previous years for 2 reasons. Firstly, the Diocese of Leeds have produced their own programme of materials including books to help you as the parent to play a main role in the preparation and learn […]

Tree of Life – Reduce, reuse, recycle, renewable

Reduce, reuse, recycle, renewable – or not wasting resources Examples include buying only what we need, lowering temperatures a little in our homes, installing solar panels on roofs, changing lights to LEDs, carshare or walk to church, use showers rather than baths, insulate our homes better, stop single use plastic & waste, recycle more and […]

Tree of Life – Petition & educate

Examples of what we can do include asking supermarkets to stop using single plastics, petition for better & cheaper public transport, come to an extra mass each week, work to save animals that are in danger, and publicise and share what we are doing.  Our Parish Council thought engagement with our students and children should […]

Laudato Si – Climate Change

Pope Francis calls on fossil fuel bosses to switch to renewable energy Pope Francis has directly appealed to oil and gas companies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy in order to prevent climate change pushing the world’s poorest people deeper into poverty. The Pope issued the call at a meeting held in the Vatican […]

Connect2 & HandsOn programmes

Our parish supports CAFOD and its Connect2 projects.  This began with the Puentecitos community in El Salvador in 2016.  Read here about the amazing projects have been completed, helping to improve people’s income and food production in this very poor region of the country.  From January 2019 we have supported people in Magdalena Medio, Columbia through CAFOD’s […]

Climate change

Climate change is hitting the poorest countries hardest. Severe weather events are undoing decades of development. World leaders signed a promise in 2015 to try and keep global temperature rises below 2 degrees. In 2018 scientists said that this target must drop to 1.5 degrees. Pope Francis asks us to listen carefully to those times […]

Raised beds & insect friendly flowers

We have a great new raised bed on the gravelled area just outside the church hall.  Thank you to the children who have grown insect friendly flowers this year and planted them in the planter. Frances has added a few flowers soon too, we have started to build-up a wildlife haven for insects and birds. […]

Catholic Care launches its Community Market initiative. 

At Catholic Care we know that many people are struggling with financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have over the last 8 months spoken to many parents who have sadly lost their jobs. The impact of this has been devastating, leaving many feeling unable to feed their families for the first time. Supporting […]

Pastoral Letter from Bishop Marcus

Bishop Marcus has sent us a Pastoral Letter for this Sunday, day of prayer for prisoners and their families. It is aimed to raise awareness about the criminal justice system and explore different approaches to Restorative Justice.  Please see our Diocesan news & events page for more information. We can read Bishop Marcus’ letter here and […]

Changes to our church

You will see from these photos the layout of the benches has had to be changed in order to ensure distancing of 2m. • in the lady chapel we have individual seats and these should NOT be moved • if the Mass you want is full, you may be able to choose one of the other […]

Volunteer stewards THANK YOU

Thank you and well done to all the Stewards, Cleaners and Organisers of the Church and its services over the last few weeks. You have been doing a great job keeping our Parishioners as safe and protected as you can. Many of you will be away with your families over the next few weeks. Travel […]

Please remember the people of Tereli in your prayers

On Tuesday 21st April, the village was attacked by as many as 300 well-armed bandits who arrived on motorbikes to loot the village and take all of the cattle. For three hours a few young people tried to hold them off with hunting rifles, while others hid in their houses or fled to the caves […]

Parish Offertory

If you would like to, and only if your circumstances allow, you can now make a donation to the Parish Offertory, either by this online page: https://donor.secure-operations.com/detailed/donate?charity_id=1086222&type=2&reference=10154&amount= or, to contribute £5, please text CHURCH SSFM to 70500

Leeds Cathedral live-streaming of Mass & devotions

Mass is being live-streamed on Sundays at 11:00am.  Weekday Masses Monday to Friday are now live-streamed usually at 12:30pm (12noon on Saturdays) and preceded by the Angelus and Rosary which will be prayed at 11:50am (11:20am on Saturdays).  To participate online, please access the Leeds Cathedral Live YouTube channel www.leedscathedrallive.org.uk where the words of Prayers, […]

Yorkshire lad parts with his brass!

We had thought about Solar panels ever since they first came on the scene, as our home does not have a gas supply. But the cost was well beyond our pockets. What with the mortgage, the financial outlay, it was well out of our reach. 10 years ago solar panels were expensive. We could have […]

Anne Judge

ANNE JUDGE – REFLECTIONS 20th February 1928 – 19th March 2020 Anne was born on the 20th February 1928 in Granard, County Longford in the Republic of Ireland and after a lifetime of loving service, this smiling and gracious servant of God, returned peacefully to the Lord on 19th March 2020. She was the last […]

Parish Family Events

Today was the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord and the children spent time finding out about the Sacrament of Baptism, which most of them received when they were too young to remember !! Robyn the baby doll proved the perfect baptismal candidate.

Sacrament of Reconciliation 2019

Eleven younger members of the Parish Family made their First Confession on Saturday 23rd March. Canon Michael thought them the best group ever! The children told their Catechist James, helped by Gabby and other parents, they had had a lot of fun in their preparation sessions. After receiving the Sacrament the celebrations continued in the […]

Christmas vigil mass for children

The mass was directed at our children, our young parishioners did the readings and the bidding prayers. Children read the Gospel story whilst others gathered on the altar steps when their part was mentioned. We had Mary and Joseph, lots of lovely angels, shepherds and lambs—plus the kings. Fr Michael blessed the crib and then […]

Special mass for altar servers

On 21st September Bishop Marcus celebrated a special mass for the altar servers of the diocese. About 80 attended with their families. 3 of our servers represented our parish family. Bishop Marcus thanked the servers for their loyal service to God.  It was a wonderful way to show the servers how important they are to us all.

Parish family walk 2019

A very happy and chatty bunch gathered after the ‘Back to School’ 11am Mass  for a picnic in the Parish Hall.  Next a short walk led by Martin, was enjoyed by all from 2 years old to where “80 years young” has been celebrated!!  As the walkers ran back across the car park  the heavens opened!  […]

First Holy Communion

Congratulations to all of our children celebrating their first holy communion on 15&16 June.  Fr Michael said, ‘It has been a wonderful occasion for our whole parish family. I am hoping that many of the children will now wish to train as altar servers and many take part in the Children’s Liturgy of the Word […]

Ilkley half marathon

Sunday 14 July was a great event, the weather was fine, not too hot, and our runners were cheered on throughout the route. We would like to thank all the Burley churches, families and friends for your generous support, both on the day and your donations to support Zakari and his colleagues as they strive to […]

Celebrating Mothering Sunday

Children of the Parish Family presented all the ladies with daffodils galore. Thank you to this year’s Flower Fairy Godmother Pat for preparing all the lovely daffodils!

DAY OF REFLECTION: Caring for the Earth – Our Common Home:

The Justice & Peace Commission held its Day of Reflection on 30 March at our church.   It was a day of prayer and personal reflection about our place in God’s creation and our responsibilities towards looking after our common home. We discussed some main themes in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si.  We heard about what […]

Sacrament of Confirmation 2019

On 28th February 2019 26 year 6 & year 7 students received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Canon Michael. Our Catechists Rachel and Liz thoroughly enjoyed the preparation sessions. It was wonderful to hear Saint John Paul being chosen as her Confirmation name by one of the students. Laughter was the keynote of each session […]

Bishop of Leeds’ annual appeal for Catholic Care

Bishop Marcus has asked us to support our diocesan charity Catholic Care.  You can read Bishop Marcus’ letter here.

Bishop of Leeds’ letter to the clergy and faithful of the diocese

Bishop Marcus has responded in his capacity as Bishop of Leeds to the publication on 20th August 2018  of the Holy Father’s Letter to the People of God on the need for ‘…combatting all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience’.  You can read Pope Francis’ letter here and […]

Our parish prayer

God our loving Father, You made us your children in baptism. Pour out on us the gifts of your Holy Spirit. Help us as a parish to know the paths we must follow so as to build up your kingdom. Teach us to grow in faith, to encourage one another with words of hope, and […]

Catholic Care

Catholic Care is one of the charities we support.  A link to a short video describing its work can be found here and further information is given on our charities webpage.

Catholic Care Bulletin Spring 2019 – SS John Fisher & Thomas More parish family receives a mention … Bags of Dignity

A huge thank you goes to Parish Family of SS John Fisher and Thomas More Parish, Burley-in-Wharfedale; who had the novel idea of filling used handbags with toiletries, ladies products and men’s personal hygiene and shaving necessities for those in need.  Six bags have been given to Sheila Pickles from St Monica’s Housing to give […]