Public and private prayer, and the way we try to live all our life, are offered to God in worship (from the old word, ‘worthship’). By everything we do and are we try to show God what he is worth to us and to celebrate what we are worth to him.
The summit of this offering of ourselves is, for Catholics, the Mass. ‘It’s the Mass that matters’ is the old Catholic saying. Our offering is a small thing, but at the Mass we join ours to that of Jesus Christ; he is present with us in our gathered assembly, in the reading of the Scriptures, in our praying, in the silences, and above all in the bread and wine at the altar. At the Mass we are caught up in the movement of his self-offering, and that makes our poor attempts worthy after all. Mass is offered most days in one or other of the three churches in our parish. Central to the week is our Parish Mass every Sunday in our Parish Church in Bridport. The usual pattern of Mass times throughout the week is given both on the Home Page and under Holy Mass Times. Please look at the Newsletter for details of the current week’s Masses and other services.
Preparation is provided for Baptism, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Contact the Parish Office about these, and also to arrange the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Communion at home and hospital visits.
There are regular times each week for Confession but the priest can also be available at another time by arrangement.
What We Believe
The Catholic Church is a worldwide group of followers of Jesus who try to carry out the same things today as he taught his apostles. We believe we are all precious children of a loving God we call ‘Father’.
We have been told everything we need to know about our Father by his son Jesus: he taught the truth and lived it. His message that we are loved by God will affect the way we think of ourselves and others.
Not that we think ourselves better than other people: the Catholic Church is a fairly motley collection of sinners! But we have the joy of belonging to God none the less, and we do so in the company of the Church. That is important to us. We are not alone, left to ‘do our own thing’. Jesus deliberately formed a group of disciples around him, led by Peter. Catholics believe that we are part of that same group today, still led by Peter’s successor whom we call the Pope (ie ‘Father’).
Catholics have the Mass at the centre of their lives: in it we are caught up in the offering Jesus makes to the Father. There is no better prayer we can make or duty we can perform.