Corpus Christi and 'Going Forth' Mass . . .

Today saw great celebrations at St Ann's! We not only celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi with a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, we also celebrated the Going Forth of our new First Communicants.

Lord, our God,
in this great sacrament
we come into the presence of Jesus Christ,
your Son, born of the Virgin Mary
and crucified for our salvation.
May we who declare our faith in this
fountain of love and mercy
drink from it the water of everlasting life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

More photos of the Going Forth celebrations

Thanks to Rosemary for forwarding these lovely photos of the cake with some of the children and Bishop Kieran.

Going Forth Mass with Bishop Kieran

Yesterday our usual 10.00am Mass was also the 'Going Forth' Mass for our First Holy Communion children - 39 in all. We were very lucky in that Bishop Kieran was able to be with us for the occasion to preside at Mass.

One lucky child receives a blessing from Bishop Kieran after Mass.

It was difficult to get a good photo in church with all the excitement afterwards. Here is one effort, with apologies to those children who have not quite managed to squeeze into the shot. If anyone has any good pictures and they would like to email them to me at the parish address, then I'll be happy to include them on the blog in the next few days.

Here is a shot from the balcony which gives you an idea of the difficulty in obtaining a clear photo!

After Mass we all went into the hall to enjoy the beautiful cake made by Sue Towersey. These young men were obviously having a good time.

And here is the cake in question. Luckily I took a photograph before it was taken over to the hall, otherwise it would just have been a photograph of a plate full of crumbs!

It was good to see all generations of our parish family enjoying the occasion.