Welcome to St Brigid's Roman Catholic Church

St Brigid's Church

Welcome to St Brigid's Roman Catholic Parish in the Diocese of Motherwell, Scotland.

St Brigid's is a thriving parish of some 1,600 people, with a proud history in Newmains that stretches back to 1871.

Indeed the chapel/school established here in 1871 is still standing - though it is now a Parish Centre serving the social needs of the whole community.

We became a Parish in 1896 and our present Church was built in 1933. Now we gladly carry the Gospel of Christ into the third millenia.

Visit the heritage section of the website to find out more about the history of St Brigid's.

Words from Father Kelly

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Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, a Feast established for the whole Church by pope Urban IV in 1264. He entrusted the provision of the Liturgy for the Divine Office and for the Mass to St Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval Dominican theologian and philosopher whose spritual life was greatly nourished by the presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. As he composed the liturgy so he revealed his own thoughts and faith. He saw the Eucharist as a remembrance of the past and how god showed his love and mercy to the Israelites in freeing them from slavery in Egypt and accompanying them on their long hungry journey to the promised land providing them with manna and water. He saw also the love of Jesus for the people entrusted to his mission of redemption by the Father. He spoke of himself as the "Living Bread come down from heaven". He spoke of this living bread we must eat if we are to have life and at the Last Supper celebrating the passover remembering the escape from slavery now He consecrates the bread and wine left over and tells the disciples to take and eat, this is my body broken for you, this is my blood poured out for you. Then his command "Do this in memory of me". This is to be the new passover, the new covenant for those who will follow Jesus. The Passion and Death of Jesus would shortly follow. They were afraid and without understanding but then the mystery of the Resurrection came, slowly they adjusted to the meetings with Jesus in which he fed them with the breakfast he cooked for them on the shore, the meetings where he conferred different aspects of the ministry he would give them on Ascension Day and finally the joy and power of Pentecost. The Church is born in the gifts of the holy Spirit. The ministry of the Church is to make present the graces Our Lord won for us in His mission of Redemption. We call them the seven sacraments and today we celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the presence of the Lord as the bread of life, the sharing of His life with ours that we call Holy Communion. Looking back we see the long history of God sharing his love and mercy with his people. Today we are that people in Communion with our God in Jesus and our Communion today even in the restricted way of Spiritual communion carries the promise of the eternal communion that is heaven.                                                                                Fr Hugh P Kelly

Parish Prayer to St Brigid

Saint Brigid
You were a woman of peace.
You brought harmony where there was conflict.
You brought light to the darkness.
You brought hope to the downcast.
May the mantle of your peace
cover those who are troubled and anxious,
and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.
Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary.
Strengthen what is weak within us.
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
May we grow each day into greater
wholeness in mind, body and spirit.

Amen

St Brigid's Cross

The Saint Brigid’s cross is a custom that marks the feast day of St. Brigid, which falls on the 1st of February, the beginning of spring.

The making of the cross has many meanings and stories; one ritual is that the cross is hung over the door as a way of protecting the household from evil spirits and energies.

Another tradition that is practiced is that a new cross is made each year on St. Brigid's day, and the old one hanging from the year before is then burned to keep fire from the household.