Reading – Activities
The Youth Group
The Youth Group is for our young people aged from 13 to 17. It normally meets at the Priests’ residence – St John Fisher House – between 5pm and 9pm on the 2nd Saturday of each month. Activities include board games, DVDs of a spiritual or moral nature, discussions and debates, sharing a meal together, and talks by the priest.
Young Adults ‘Juventutem’ Group
‘Juventutem’ is for young men and women aged between 18 and 35. The Reading Group meets on the last Thursday of the month and involves Holy Mass and a social gathering. It is part of the Juventutem International Federation, an international Catholic network fostering the sanctification of young adults – members and others – according to the perennial traditions of the Latin Church. For further details, please contact Fr Phipps.
St Bruno’s Men’s Group
This generally meets on the first Thursday of the month. It gives an opportunity for the men of the Community to meet together at the Priests’ residence – St John Fisher House – for Mass, prayer, a little socialising and talks on the spiritual life by the Group’s Chaplain, Fr Phipps.
The Schedule is as follows:
7pm Mass in the House chapel (confessions from 6.30pm), followed by silent prayer
7:50pm Opening prayer to St Bruno.
8pm Refreshments and spiritual talk.
9pm Rosary and final prayer.
There are also occasional day trips away, such as to the recusant manor house, Harvington Hall.
St Margaret Clitherow Ladies’ Group
This generally meets on the second Saturday of the month. It gives an opportunity for the ladies of the Community to meet together at St John Fisher House for Mass, prayer, chat and talks on the spiritual life by the Group’s Chaplain. There are also occasional day trips away, such as to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation of West Grinstead, and ‘The College’ – Blessed John Henry Newman’s home in Littlemore near Oxford.
The schedule is as follows:
10am Mass in the House chapel.
10:45am Coffee & croissants
11:25am Spiritual talk
12:10pm Group concludes.
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
While the faithful of St William of York Latin Community are geographically dispersed – some are based in the Reading area, while others come from as far afield as Aldershot, Basingstoke, Oxford and Swindon – we are anxious to remain united in undertaking regular programmes of spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
Spiritual Works of Mercy
After our 8am First Saturday Mass, we have an apostolate of prayer outside of Reading’s BPAS Abortion Clinic, which is located at 121 London St, Reading RG1 4QA. There we pray 5 decades of the Rosary in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary and for an end to abortion. All are very welcome and we are pleased to be joined by parishioners from local parishes.
Corporal Works of Mercy
Twice a year, in Advent and Lent, the Community undertake alms giving for charities. The Advent appeals are normally for the work of pro-life charities, such as the Good Counsel Network and the Catholic Children’s Society of Westminster. The Lenten appeals tend to be for other charitable endeavours, particularly to support our persecuted brothers and sisters in the Faith, through charities such as Aid to the Church in Need.
Catholic home-education
For members of our Parish with children of school age, the question of education is a particularly pressing one. Whilst some of the children attend local schools, many parents have taken the decision to home-educate. Some have just started on this journey; others have been educating their children at home for several years and now have young adult children at University, in the workplace or starting families of their own.
Catholic parents choose to home-educate for a wide variety of reasons. Some simply feel that school is not the best learning environment for their child; others feel that the particular school local to them is not suitable. Some feel that home-education will give a stronger sense of unity to their family; others wish to make faith formation a priority in their child’s education. Yet others feel that they wish to offer their child a more ‘traditional’ or classical education, or, again, a more relaxed, less test-oriented education.
The Guild of Catholic Home Educators (Reading)
Here in Reading we run a group which is affiliated with the Guild of Catholic Home Educators, a national support network for families throughout the UK. Our group is run by a team of home-educating mothers from our community and caters to children from ages 0-16. We meet together once per week for four hours, eight weeks per term, to share educational and social activities. Parents remain on the premises at all times and all help out in some capacity.
Our Guild group is openly Catholic in nature: the day begins with Mass, prayers are said at various intervals and all the children attend age-appropriate classes in catechesis. The meetings thus provide an opportunity for fellowship and support with like minded families.
We run classes in a variety of subjects including English, history, science, philosophy, art and music including some subjects at GCSE level. Classes are run by parents, our parish priests and other volunteers from our parish, making this very much a community effort. Our volunteers have all been DBS (police) checked and have taken part in diocesan child safeguarding training. Our group has the blessing of our local ordinary, Bishop Philip Egan. If you are interested in finding out more about home-education, or if you are already home-educating and looking for fellowship and support, please contact our Parish Priest (if you are local to Reading) or go to the Guild of Catholic Home Educators website:
http://homeedcatholics.blogspot.com/2018/06/
Alternatively email homeedcatholics@gmail.com
