Thought from Fr. Colm - 8th June 2026

We celebrate Corpus Christi this Sunday by gathering as an international Community to share a meal. How fitting to have an international meal of sharing in these fragile times. The meal will take place in the Jubilee Room immediately after the 10.30 Mass at St Joseph’s.  The celebration of Corpus Christi will also be celebrated with the annual Corpus Christi procession at Ushaw College.

Our Youth Group invited the Durham Gospel Choir to their gathering last Saturday evening, and the Choir were marvellous. The members are all university students from around the globe, and all students here in Durham. My regret was that the parish weren’t present, and so we hope to do something about that in the future. A special thank you to our parish group for organising.

My sympathies to Emma Turnbull on the sudden death of her Dad. And sympathies also to the Bethapudi brothers, Sam, Sed and Raj, on the death of their Mother in India.  Our parish Camino pilgrims head off again on Monday to walk the Portuguese Camino. We (Chris Brennan, Dennis Bradley and myself) will remember you all as we walk from Porto to Compostela. Your prayers please that we get back in one piece.

Our BOP group were joined by Barbara Reilly O’Donnell to discuss ways of improving links between the schools and Parish. It was a really positive meeting with good suggestions for moving forward. We had our first meeting of the Parish Grants Committee. This is a small group looking into ways of accessing funding for our buildings. Community outreach is an essential for accessing any financial resources. If you have any suggestions, please let me, or Marjorie,  know, and we’ll pass on to the Committee. Our congratulations to our children from St. Godric’s School receiving their First Holy Communion this Saturday, and to St. Joseph’s and St. Thomas More’s next Saturday.

Plans for our big celebration at St Leonard’s on 12^th July are in full swing. We will be celebrating not only a new school, but an opportunity for us to gather as one worshipping parish community. Thank you all for your encouragement in this endeavour. Lovely hearing how so many of you have missed our Christmas and Easter gatherings. Staff and students are looking forward to welcoming us.

“The only cure for sagging of fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

Thought from Fr. Colm - 31st May 2026

Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world. Whenever humanity is in danger of marring its true identity, we Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is “only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear.” [1] In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness.

Founded on Christ, the living stone, we experience the powerful and mysterious action of the Holy Spirit, and we believe that every authentic human effort to cooperate with him for the good will be blessed by our heavenly Father, in whom we place our hope. For this reason, we can diligently contribute to every initiative that builds a more just world, and we can call others to collaborate in promoting the integral development of every human being. We wish to engage in dialogue with all men and women of our time, with whom we share in the events, questions and aspirations of humanity. [2] Together with them, we seek to identify new paths for the common good and for promoting a dignified life for all. Indeed, openness to dialogue is an integral part of the Church’s vocation because, constituted in Christ as “a sacrament… of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race,” [3] she recognizes history as the place where the Gospel challenges and directs human experience.

An excerpt from the Introduction to Pope Leo’s Encyclical Letter ‘Magnifica Humanitas’

The complete Encyclical letter can be read on the Vatican website

Thought from Fr. Colm - 24th May 2026

Our appeal for new members of the SVP was very successful. Thank you to those who signed up to add strength to our membership.  We also need to strengthen our numbers of both attendees and drivers for our Wednesday Lunch Club.

Our congratulations to our vital St. Leonard’s link, Rachel Thornton. We wish Rachel and Damien a wonderful life together as husband and wife, as they tie the knot this Saturday. Thanks to both of you, especially Rachel, for your support to our schools and parishes. I met with Rachel recently to prepare our Summer Mass in the newly built St Leonard’s and Rachel is really looking forward to the Parish Sunday Mass on the 12th July.

The breakfast in aid of our newly formed Youth Group was a great success in both St. Godric’s and St. Joseph’s last Sunday. The wafting smell of cooking bacon permeated the churches well before the Masses ended Well done to our BOP group. They raised almost £500.

Exam time is always a time of anxiety. Our prayers are with all our schools and university students sitting exams at this time.

“I remember listening to Miles Davis in the car with my dad. I had just done my Grade 5 piano exam, and I was quite cocky. I said, 'It sounds like he's played the wrong note there.' I remember the look of horror on my dad's face, and thinking, 'Wow, I have to figure out why that is not acceptable.'

Laura Mvula