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You’ll have probably noticed our SVP shop, Gifted, in the porch on the way in to Mass. Given that Easter falls early this year, this will be the last Gifted beforehand, so please make sure you have a look and take the opportunity to purchase some lovely gifts there.

On the way out of Mass, then, you’ll have a chance to buy tickets for our St Patrick’s Night Bingo on Saturday, March 16. As mentioned last week, this year the SVP are running the bingo in order to raise some funds for the church, as a way of saying ‘Thank You’ and giving back. The Bingo evening is always great fun so make sure you buy a ticket before they all sell out!

The SVP is, again, planning to hold a St Patrick’s Day Bingo Night this year, on Saturday, March 16. This event will be raising funds for the parish. Fr Paulo, the parish team and the parish congregation – i.e., you – are tremendous supporters of the SVP and so we’d like to now give back as a ‘Thank You’. Due to the size of the hall, and the popularity of previous bingo evenings, the event will be ticket-only and you can buy yours after next weekend’s masses.

Tuesday is the UN World Day of Social Justice, a topic that has underpinned the mission of the SVP since Blessed Frederic Ozanam founded the very first SVP conference, in Paris, in 1833. Social justice is a very live issue today, just as it was 191 years ago. Jesus once said to Judas that we would always have the poor with us – not as a fait accompli, but as an observation of how we have set up society. It may well be that we have set up society in a faulty way, resulting in the difficult social justice issues that we face.

You may recently have read the statistic that more than 50 major elections, involving a total electorate of 2 billion people, are due to take place this year. If this is true, then this is a record for any given year! We, too, will likely face a general election, so why not prepare and inform yourself of the important issues?

A quick browse of the national SVP website will give you a good flavour of the issues of social justice that we all have a say in. Rather than letting a newspaper headline, or the politician with the loudest voice, govern your opinion, maybe you could use this ‘quiet’ time to do a bit of background reading and a bit of self-education, which will then place you in a much more informed position when the big day comes!! Have a think!

The SVP team, and our various workstreams, are now very much back to ‘Business as Usual’ mode and you’ll see evidence of this in the porch this weekend with our Gifted shop. Monday night, then, sees our second monthly meeting of the year and then on Wednesday in the hall, after the 10am mass, you’ll find our Bereavement Support Group running their monthly tea and coffee support/drop-in session. Our other workstreams, such as home, carehome and detention centre visits continue as normal as do the B-Attitudes (Young Persons SVP) and the food bank, of course.