This Thursday, the 26th of November, there will be another “Night Fever” evening in St. Augustinus church.
There will be a mass at 18:00 followed by adoration of the Holy Eucharist.

During this evening we open the church and the youth group of the Majella community will invite the passerby to enter and light a candle.

Often these people are rushing and they have other plans for the evening, like going to the cinema nearby. For that reason we ask them to take a rest and visit the church.

In the church the Holy Eucharist is exposed and there will be soft music from our English Mass choir. It is time for prayer and reflection. You are free to come and go whenever you want.

If you would like to join the choir please contact Ratna by sending an email to ratna.rosalia@gmail.com.

In July, 2016, there will the World Youth Day (WYD) in Krakow, Poland.

WYD is a worldwide encounter with the Pope which is typically celebrated every three years in a different country. The most recent WYD was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from July 23rd to 28th, 2013 and the next World Youth Day will be held in Krakow, Poland in 2016.

WYD is open to all young people who want to take part in a festive encounter with their contemporaries centered on Jesus Christ. This event is an opportunity to experience in first person the universality of the Church; to share with the whole world the hope of many young people who want to commit themselves to Christ and others. World Youth Day is a unique way to deepen your faith and grow closer to Christ, by means of prayer and the sacraments, together with thousands of other young people who share your interests and ambitions.

The diocese of Utrecht will accompany young people to Poland and the English Mass would follow the same program but being a sub-group.
Fr. James is responsible for our sub-group named ‘English Mass’ and Lucija Hammann will be the contact person within this group.

If you are interested to join the WYD please contact Lucija Hammann: luc.hammann@gmail.com

There will be more information later about the organization of this event once we know the people that are interested. For the time being, please check the official website: http://www.krakow2016.com/en/.

Every year the catechism of the Dutch community organizes a special Christmas celebration for the children. This is on 24th of December at 19.00 in our church.

Children participate in this celebration, it is a sort of play with lots of songs, the story of the birth of Jesus is told. The children play different roles. It is not a real mass, but it is a celebration together with Fr. Swijnenberg.

The English Mass community children are invited this year to participate!

The songs and story are in Dutch, but most of the children in our community speak perfectly Dutch and of course the Christmas songs are very well known. Also this year the roles are without real text, so it is easy for every child to participate.

There will be rehearsing 2 times on Sunday the 13th of December and the 20th of December.

If you and your child(ren) are interested in participating
please contact Monique Kanawi (augustinus.jongeren@gmail.com)

On behalf Monique Kanawi, Kindernevendienst St. Augustinus

This Holy Year will begin on December 8, 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council and will close on November 20, 2016 (Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe).

An important element of this Holy Year is the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s in Rome on 8 December. The following Sunday in all dioceses in the world also open at least one ‘Door of Mercy’.

The diocese staff has decided to appoint three Holy Doors in the Archdiocese of Utrecht in St. Augustine’s Church in Utrecht (vicariate Utrecht) in the St. Calixtusbasiliek Groenlo (vicariate Arnhem) and in the St. Lambertus Basilica in Hengelo (Vicariate Deventer).

For this occasion, in St. Augustine’s Church, there will be a joint-mass on Sunday, the 13th of December at 10:30.
This is an opening celebration for the Holy Year dedicated for MERCY.

That means that, on this day, the English Mass will NOT take place at the normal time at 12.30.

‘Heaven is for Real’ – ‘De Jongen Die In De Hemel Was‘ Is based on the number one bestseller of the New York Times.

‘Heaven is for Real’ is the true story of a father who finds the courage and the conviction to share an extraordinary experience of his son to the world. It is Colton, son of pastor Todd Burpo, who claims he has been, during a Near-Death Experience, in Heaven. Colton tells all the details of his incredible journey and talks about things from before his birth. Things he could not possibly know.

Where: Coffee room St. Augustine Church, Rozenstraat 1, Utrecht
When: Sunday November 29, 2:30 pm.

Mrs. Olga Versteegh will hold an introduction about what a Near-Death Experience is and try to answer your questions.
Get inspired by this impressive story and come to this movie! Whether you believe or not, you are most welcome!

The film commission of the Salvator Parish

Dear brothers and sisters,

As you might already have heard, Fr. Herman Lieberom had a stroke.

It started on a Friday morning, the 30th of October, when he was reading some mass texts and he began to have difficulties reading. He paid no attention at that time, explaining the fact with his
advanced age.

In the afternoon on the same day, he had some accidents with his car, minor collisions with no bodily impact to his health. That triggered him to visit the doctor.

After some investigation the conclusion was that Fr. Herman had a stroke resulting in brain damage. The major consequence is that he lost sight in his left eye.

Fr. Ton Huitink spoke with him last Thursday and said that he looked healthy, but due to his vision impairment he was constantly surprised every time somebody turned up from the left side.

Fr. Huitink confirmed to us that Fr. Herman won’t be able to continue to serve the English Mass community anymore. Fr. Herman lives in the remote Salesian center of Assel, and his impossibility to drive again means that he can’t move around easily anymore.

This news fills us with great sadness and sorrow. Fr. Herman has been contributing to our community for more than 10 years now. He helped create, structure and hold our community strong with his effort, dedication and friendship. He is a pillar of our community and we are grateful to him for his contributions on making our community the way it is today. We also wish him a speedy recovery, he’ll be in our prayers.

The English Mass Coordination team is organising a visit to Fr. Herman in the Salesian center of Assel together with anyone in the community who wish to join. More news about this topic will follow.

Fr. Huitink will take his place for now, celebrating Sunday mass and doing the pastoral care for the English community. Fr. Huitink declared that the pastoral care is his responsibility. He also expressed that he considered the English Mass Community as one of his priorities.

You can continue to send to us your pastoral care needs, through our email address: team@englishmassutrecht.nl. We will make them reach Fr. Huitink, or let you know where to find him.

The English Mass Coordination team

From the 1st of December onwards, the Vespers will be celebrated every Tuesday and Thursday in the St. Augustine church. The vespers start at 16:00 and will take 30 minutes.
The Vespers will be celebrated in Dutch except for the recessional hymn Salve Regina, which will be sung in Latin. The vespers are meant to find a quiet time with God at the end of the afternoon. During the Vespers there will be no collections.

What are vespers?

Our Faith starts with prayer and celebration. You can do this on your own or together with the community. The most well-known service is the celebration of the Eucharist. But there are also different kinds of services, among which the vespers. The vespers are the sunset evening prayers. It has been celebrated for centuries in convents and religious communities. When the day ends, it is a good time to thank God for all that he gave us.

The celebration of the vespers have a fixed structure that builds on a long tradition: it starts with a hymn, followed by two short readings and sung psalms, the Magnificat en the Our Father.

Why celebrate Vespers in the St. Augustine?

The St. Augustine is open every day of the week for people to light a candle, pray or attend mass. Celebrating the vespers adds to the community and gives the opportunity for a moment with God within the haste and stress of daily life.

If you are interested in joining on a structured basis, you can register during the first three months, the registration list can be found on the table in the back of the church near the Maria chapel or you can contact the sevretary (tel. 030-2318545 or e-mail: info@salvatorparochie.nl).

In the future we will evaluate and can make adaptations, such as maybe celebrate once a week in the evening, so that people that work can also join.

To make this new initiative a success we would like to warmly welcome you to join us whenever you have time.

On behalf of the Working group Vespers

It is almost time for our bible study again. We will go on with the next passage of Saint John’s gospel.
We will meditate about the following passages:
The truth will make you free (John 8: 31-59)
Healing the man born blind ( John 9: 1-12)
I would suggest that each one of us chooses one part to meditate on and share with other participants.
We can also try to answer the following questions:
What is the central event?
What is the impact it has on the people in the story?
What is the message in the passage?
Do you recognize anything for yourself in the story?
…
We will meet on the 18th of November at 19.45’ at the pastoral center (backside of St. Augustinus church, Rozenstraat no. 1). Please let’s try to be on time.

We will be blessed to count you among us!

The prayer coordination team