Welcome to Our Parish
We are a vibrant Catholic community in Great Dunmow, dedicated to living out the Gospel message through worship, service, and fellowship.
Join us for Mass and experience the love of Christ in our welcoming community.
Parish Priest: Rev. John Britto Michael
Mass Times:
Saturday Vigil Mass: 17:30
Sunday Masses: 11:00
Holy Day Masses: 09:00, 20:00
Sacrament of Reconciliation: 17:00 (Saturdays)
Today's Readings
Wednesday of the 1st week of Lent
First reading
Jonah 3:1-10
The Ninevites repent, and God spares them
The word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. A proclamation was then promulgated throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his ministers, as follows: ‘Men and beasts, herds and flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water. All are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has done. Who knows if God will not change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burning wrath, so that we do not perish?’ God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour, and God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.
Psalm or canticle
Psalm 50(51):3-4,12-13,18-19
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
A pure heart create for me, O God,
put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
nor deprive me of your holy spirit.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
Gospel
Luke 11:29-32
As Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be a sign
The crowds got even bigger, and Jesus addressed them:
‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’
Our Parish History
Saint Anne Line (died 27 February 1601) was an English martyr who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I for harbouring a priest. Her date of birth is unknown, but she was the second daughter of Willam Heigham, Esq., of Essex, a strict Calvinist, and was, together with her brother William, disinherited for converting to Catholicism. Some time before 1586, she married Roger Line, a young Catholic who had been disinherited for the same reason. Roger Line and young William Heigham were arrested together while attending Mass, and were imprisoned, fined, and finally banished. Roger Line went to Flanders, where he received a small allowance from the King of Spain, part of which he sent regularly to his wife until his death around 1594.
Around that time, Fr. John Gerard opened a house of refuge for hiding priests, and put the newly-widowed Anne Line in charge of it, despite her ill health and frequent headaches. By 1597, this house had become insecure, so another was opened, and Anne Line was, again, placed in charge. On 2 February 1601, Fr. Francis Page was saying Mass in the house managed by Anne Line, when men arrived to arrest him. The priest managed to slip into a special hiding place, prepared by Anne, and afterwards to escape, but she was arrested, along with two other laypeople.
She was tried at the Old Bailey on 26 February, and was so weak that she was carried to the trial in a chair. She told the court that so far from regretting having concealed a priest, she only grieved that she "could not receive a thousand more." Sir John Popham, the judge, sentenced her to hang the next day at Tyburn.
Anne Line was hanged on 27 February 1601. She was executed immediately before two priests, Fr. Roger Filcock, and Fr. Mark Barkworth, though, as a woman, she was spared the disembowelling that they endured. At the scaffold she repeated what she had said at her trial, declaring loudly to the bystanders:
"I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far I am from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand."
Fr. Barkworth kissed her hand, while her body was still hanging, saying,
"Oh blessed Mrs. Line, who has now happily received thy reward, thou art gone before us, but we shall quickly follow thee to bliss, if it please the Almighty."
Anne Line was beatified by Pope Pius XI on December 15, 1929. She was canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 25, 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Her feast day, along with that of the other thirty-nine martyrs, is on 25 October. Her name is sometimes spelled as Ann Line.
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
Anne Line. (2007, February 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:57, February 25, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anne_Line&oldid=110824882
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Our Lady and St. Anne Line
13a Mill Lane
Great Dunmow, Essex
CM6 1BG
Parish Office
01371 872550
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Parking Information
Limited parking is available in the church car park. Additional parking can be found at:
- Great Dunmow Co-Op (5 min walk)