St Dominic’s, Stone & Sacred Heart, Eccleshall

Welcome to our website.

We are the parish which Includes Immaculate Conception and St. Dominic, Stone; Sacred Heart, Eccleshall; Holy Michael Archangel, Aston-by-Stone. We hope to keep you well informed during these strange times and offer some thoughts and prayers.

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Dear Parishioners,

This weekend we begin the new liturgical year. We ended the ‘old’ year on a high note celebrating the Feast of Christ the King. On this first Sunday of Advent we start a time of spiritual preparation. We know preparation is an important part of life. Anything worth having is well worth preparing for. If we live in expectation we always have something to look forward to and that lightens the burdens of our present. As Christians we prepare for Christmas and to renew our gratitude for Jesus wo was born as one of us sharing our human condition. We also know the Lord will come again at the end of the Age to take us to Heaven to be with Him and our loved ones for eternity. Until that time, we have our Christian lives to live and to daily love and serve the Lord in our concern for our neighbour. To enable us to succeed we know Jesus comes again and again in the sacraments to give us grace and life. In all we are called to realise at Advent that Jesus is always coming to us and we must be always aware of Him and receive His daily blessing with joy. We wait for Jesus as we know this life is not forever. Our waiting contains promise, love, alertness, reflectiveness, new beginnings and fulfilment. We are called to stay awake, alert and aware. We will light the first purple candle of our Advent Wreath. Let us pray this small light will pierce the shades of darkness that overshadows our world. We are a people of uncrushable hope. The world needs our prayers. Have a good and holy Advent.

Mission Appeal: This weekend we have an appeal to support the work of the Marist Fathers. Instead of a Marist Father speaking at all Masses, we have a written appeal which will be read out. There are images on the website showing the work of the Marist Fathers in their mission overseas. Please support this appeal with your prayers and donations.