2017 – THE CENTENARY OF THE APPARITIONS AT FATIMA (3)

It is said that in 1884 Pope Leo XIII had an experience during which he heard God say that he would permit a period of 100 years that would test the Church. This alarmed Pope Leo enough that he penned the well-known Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel and asked that it be prayed at the end of Mass throughout the universal Church, something we do here in this parish at the end of Mass during the week.

But when and what is the hundred-year period? Some theologians think the period of 100 years of trial seen by Pope Leo is coming to its culmination, the premise being that, though it was foreseen by Leo in 1884, it actually began in 1917 with the warning of Our Lady at Fatima. Her message was clear: pray and be converted or else suffer grievously the consequences of human sinfulness.

It is clear that we have suffered grievously for our failures in the past 100 years. Sister Lucia recounted Our Lady's words as follows: “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don't be afraid, anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. — However, Our Lady has already crushed its head.” At this point in time it would seem that our culture does not have a definition of marriage at all; it's whatever anyone wants to say it is.

Perhaps this year of 2017 is going to be critical and that we had better pray a lot more than we have in the past. Repentance is also crucial. Perhaps the hundred years of trial are ending; they might end well or they might come to a dreadful conclusion. That is why we must pray.

See also this article in the National Catholic Register by Msgr Charles Pope of Washington DC.

THE CHURCH OF ST JOSEPH

		St Joseph’s Entrance
		Click the buttons to cycle through pictures of our Church

Address and Map to St Joseph’s Church
	1 Stavordale Road, Weymouth DT4 0AB

OUR HISTORIC CHURCHES

By 1979, as a result of the unremitting zeal of Priests and Parishioners, there were no less than 7 Catholic Churches in Weymouth and Portland. However within these last 33 years, Churches have had to be closed one by one. Shortage of priests has been one reason but another is that with better transport and with parishioners being more mobile, there is not the same need to have a Church in every locality. Our many churches carry with them a rich history and this can be accessed via the 'History' button on the left hand side of this page.

The latest Church to close – 8th September 2012 – is St Augustine’s. This had originally opened for worship on 22nd October 1835 and was the first Catholic Church to be established in this area since the Reformation.

St Joseph’s Church, dedicated on 19th March 1934, is now the Parish Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea. Over the past months, it has been refurbished and extended to accommodate worshippers from the original parishes. There is a completely new parish hall. To see the various features of the refurbished Church, please click on the small arrows to the right and left of the picture above.

Photographs of St Augustine’s Church and a short description can be found by clicking this link.

Similar pages will be prepared for the Church of Our Lady and St Andrew, Portland and the other Churches in the area as information emerges.

PRAYER FOR OUR NATION

Almighty God and Father, we come before You as Your children to implore Your divine assistance and intercession at this time, when our nation is moving further and further away from You and Your teachings. Its various governments are pursuing a secular agenda, enacting laws that are contrary to Your divine law and to Your law of nature, laws that would further marginalise Your Church and Your people.

Father, strengthen our faith and our willingness to be seen and counted as Your witnesses at this time. Help us to do all that we can to oppose existing and proposed legislation offensive to Your Holy Name

We ask this through Your beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

Prayer courtesy of Rev Fr Stephen Geddes, Parish Priest

Our Parishes are part of the Plymouth Diocesan Trust – a Registered Charity No 213227
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Writing to a Peer in the House of Lords

There are currently 778 peers in the House of Lords. They do not have constituencies like MPs do, and you can write to any peer or several peers. Choose as you wish. (Some people choose a peer whose surname has the same initial letter as their own).

If you have MS Excel on your machine, the list of Peers and their political affiliations is given in this link. This also includes an application for randomising a choice of up to six Lords should you so wish to use it.

If you do not have access to MS Excel or are unfamiliar with its use, you can download this pdf list of all the members and make the choices yourself. Click here to do so

Advice on how to write to a peer is given in this link. Note that there are different types of peer and each has a different mode of address.

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Problems with using Internet Explorer 10 (IE10)? — Switch to ‘Compatibility View’

The most recent version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, Internet Explorer 10, comes bundled with Windows 8. IE10 is also being automatically updated on some Windows 7 machines.

It can happen that this automatic download onto the Windows 7 machine may be incomplete. In such cases, some Web sites may not yet work correctly in Internet Explorer 10, including the Secure Remote Access service.

But you can still use these Web sites in Internet Explorer 10 by turning on Compatibility View.The easiest way to do this is as follows:

Press the ‘Alt’ key on your keyboard. (It is usually found to the left of the space bar). This reveals the IE toolbar at the top of the screen, with File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, Help

Click Tools. This reveals a drop down list; from this find and click the option Compatibility View Settings. This opens a small window. There are three checkboxes at the bottom of this window.

Click the checkbox for the option Display all web-sites in compatibility view is checked. Ensure that it is properly checked (ticked)

Close the window. Press function key F5 to refresh the screen. This should solve the problem

Other solutions can be found on the ‘Microsoft answers’ page Set Desktop IE10 to Always Use Compatibility View

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