MASS TIMES Monday – Friday: 13h10

Sunday: 07h30 | 09h30 (Sung)

18h00 (Student)

MORNING PRAYER Sunday: 09h00 (before 09h30 Mass)

Join in the prayer of the Church

led by our Schola Cantorum

CONFESSIONS Monday – Friday: after 13h10 Mass

EXPOSITION Monday – Friday: 12h00-13h00

BENEDICTION

Friday: 13h00

WEDDINGS & BAPTISMS

Please contact parish office

PARISH STAFF Pastor: Fr Gilbert Mardai SJ

frgilbert@trinityjhb. co.za

Parish Deacon: Rev William Davies

revbilly@trinityjhb.co.za

University Chaplain: Mr Ricardo da Silva SJ

ricardosj@trinityjhb.co.za

Twitter: @ricdssj

Director of Music:

Mr Cameron Upchurch

music@trinityjhb.co.za

Parish Administrator:

Ms Kelsey Hauptfleisch parish@trinityjhb.co.za

Trinity House Residence Manager:

Ms Cathy Setlogelo

resmanager@trinityjhb.co.za

PARISH BANKING DETAILS Bank: Standard Bank

Branch: Braamfontein (004805) Acc: Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Acc No: 002294192

25 December 2013

THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD—YEAR A

PSALM RESPONSE FOR VIGIL MASS OF CHRISTMAS

I will sing forever of your mercies, O Lord.

PSALM RESPONSE FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

MASSES & FEASTS THIS WEEK

VIGIL MASS OF CHRISTMAS

Is 9: 2-7 / Ps 96:1-3.11-13 Tit 2:11-14 / Lk 2:1-14

CHRISTMAS DAY

Is 52: 7-10 / Ps 97: 1,2-6 Hebr 1: 1-6 / Jn 1: 1-18

* Italics indicate Mass intention

THIS WEEKEND’S MINISTERS Proclaimers

Christmas Vigil Robert Herring Cathy Setlogelo

Christmas Day 07h30 Paul Mina Tilly Michaels

Christmas Day 09h30 Paul Coombes Julius Ajayi

Ministers of the Eucharist

Christmas Vigil Tilly Michaels Wendy Davies Mike Fiore Tilly Michaels

Christmas Day 07h30 Estelle Earl Julia Moorman Colin Lesar Krysia Lesar

Christmas Day 09h30 Cathy Setlogelo Wendy Davies Sabie Makgothi Matthew Augustine

Hospitals Monica Tetteh Sr Judy Coyle

Counters Julia Moorman

Flowers Estelle Earl

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @TRINITYJHB

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK: HOLY TRINITY CATHOLIC CHURCH

THIS WEEK’S HASHTAG

#HT_CHRISTMAS

PARISH NOTICES

Masses after Christmas

Please take note of the change in Mass times during Christmas:

Weekday Masses from Thursday, 26 December - Friday, 3 January 2014 will be at 09h00

and not at 13h10. Sunday Masses continue as per normal arrangements.

Weekday Masses return to normal schedule from Monday, 6 January 2014.

Rosters for Liturgical Ministers

All Ministers of the Eucharist and Proclaimers who did not receive their rosters via email, collect

a copy from the Sacristy. Thank you.

Planned Giving Envelopes

There are still many who have not collected their planned giving envelopes. Please collect your

Planned Giving Envelopes from the box at the back of the church. If you cannot find your name

on any of the envelopes and would like to make a contribution, please contact Kelsey in the

parish office during the week and she will arrange to have a set of envelopes printed for you.

Accommodation

A parishioner is looking for accommodation to rent either a 2 bedroom flat or cottage in

Parktown, Observatory or Auckland Park area. If anyone knows of any please contact Gabriel

on 083 332 0957

Vatican Survey

Next year, there will be a meeting of bishops at the Vatican known as the Extraordinary Synod of

Bishops’. Pope Francis has asked that this meeting follow a more consultative process and, as

such, has asked that the views of every Catholic be solicited. At the back of the church, you will

find a booklet giving a brief summary of the Synod agenda as well as a questionnaire. We

request that parishioners submit their response in an envelope marked ‘Vatican Survey’. You do

not need to answer every question only those where you feel you would like to contribute your

view. Please write the answers to each section on a separate piece of paper to aid in collating

the responses. Envelopes can then be placed in the box situated at the back of the church.

If you prefer, you may email your response to vaticansurvey@trinityjhb.co.za.

All responses must be submitted no later than 15 January 2014.

There is a tendency for preachers to go on about

the absence of Christ in Christmas, and about how pagan

Christmas has become – as if the first Christmas was

ideal. We forget that Jesus came into a non-Christian

world. In our times Christmas has indeed become very

commercialised. Many people are lured into

overspending and excessive eating and drinking.

However, these abuses must not blind us to the true

meaning of Christmas. When thick smoke rises up,

catches in your throat and brings tears to your eyes, it is

because a fire has been lit. Ever since the coming of Christ a bright fire has been burning on our

earth, a fire that will never die.

At this fire we experience the warmth of God’s love and the glow of human fellowship. Let

us not be afraid to come in out of the cold and warm ourselves at this fire. Let us, therefore,

stress the presence of Christ in Christmas, and help people to find him.

So, Happy Christmas, everyone!

Fr Gilbert Mardai SJ

PASTOR’S CORNER

Make sure you have

a faucet aerator

on each faucet.

These inexpensive

appliances conserve heat

and water, while keeping

water pressure high.

RENEW AFRICA PRAYER

God of love and Father of all,

we, the people of Johannesburg,

are your family

embraced by your love.

You call us into the fullness of life

through Jesus Christ your son.

Unify us now,

as we strive together,

to create a world

where truth and justice find a home.

Fill us wih your Holy Spirit

so that we may be empowered

to live in your likeness.

Help us to be:

a community of love and understanding;

a community of hope and welcome;

a community of prayer and action.

Renew us in Spirit

as we recommit ouselves

to your loving service.

Grant this through Christ, our Lord. Amen

PARISH GROUPS

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL Fritha 083 380 8179

SUNDAY MEDITATION Maeve 011 646 5959

COME HOME BIBLE STUDY

Philip comehomebiblestudy@gmail.com

GAY & LESBIAN Dumisani 073 508 6905

YOUNG ADULTS Donald donfun2002@yahoo.com

ALPHA Samson alpha@trinityjhb.co.za

SANT’ EGIDIO PRAYER Gomolemo 074 440 3397

JUSTICE & PEACE Mike 072 082 7928

CHRISTMAS DAY

BY FR JOHN MOFFAT SJ

The

Jesuit

Institute

South

Africa

In Luke’s Gospel, the histories of ordinary people meet world history. Herod, Quirinius the

governor, and Augustus Caesar run the known world. But it is in the story of ordinary, faithful

people Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph that we discover what matters. The Son of God is

not found in palaces of the great and powerful. We first see him in the pains of childbirth of a

village girl, forced to travel with her husband from her home by the demands of officialdom and

driven to seek shelter in a cow stall.

We can sometimes forget how shocking the Christian story is. Mary and Joseph are the

parents of the one who comes to save the world. Yet they stand patiently in queues along with

the millions throughout history who have been pushed around by remote, corrupt bureaucracies.

The first to greet the new-born are shepherds, among them bandits, refugees from the wrath of

the Roman superpower. But it is amongst these that God chooses to be ‘God-with-us’. And this

is why the Christmas Gospel is a Gospel of joy. The name ‘Jesus’, carries the message that here, in

this simplicity and poverty, among these ordinary people, is the rescue, brought about by God.

When we try and understand the history of the world since the coming of Christ, we can

sometimes feel a little disappointed. If he was born and died and rose, why is the world not so

much better now? Movements that rise on the tide of liberation and hope sink back into

complacency, self-interest and corruption. People kill one another in the pursuit of wealth,

whether in the bloodshed of military force or the slow, impersonal death through economic

forces. Our globalized world now does not seem so very different from the ancient, global space

of the Roman Empire on whose edges the Christ was born.

And that is perhaps the point. Christ is continually born into our world and into our lives.

And our human history, with all its light and shadow, continuously needs God’s saving help. There

are moments of grace for each of us that transform our hearts with hope. There are moments of

grace for the world that give us all a vision that things can be different, that we can be different.

As we gaze on the scene at Bethlehem, it speaks to us and tells us that those glimpses of hope

represent the deepest truth about God and the world and us. It is an invitation to see the world

with God’s eyes, from below, in simplicity, and to recognize who we are called to become. We are

to follow this child, the healer, the liberator from sin and death. We are to be signs of his

presence, bringing him to birth in our generation, with healing and reconciliation, with liberation,

justice and peace. In every generation the world longs for God’s rescue. In every generation the

Christ-child is born anew, among ordinary lives, to refresh the world with hope.