newesletter 17th August 2014

Newsletter 17th August 2014
A quiet week and I hope that you are enjoying the summer days.
Two weeks now to the Jubilee celebrations. There will be a solemn Mass at 11am with special music. Afterwards we hope to have a shared picnic in the garden. If you can, please bring along something to share. I will provide some wine and some soft drinks.
Thanks to those who have agreed to help with the preparations. I suggest that we start at about 2.30 on Saturday afternoon to bring round some tables and chairs from the hall. A new acquisition is a wheeled trolley – we should have brought one years ago – which will help to make things much easier.
A lot of railway work taking place at present. The Overground will not be calling at New Cross – I think that a new connection will be put in – and Thameslink will not be calling at London Bridge for a few weeks. It is all most inconvenient for regular travellers but the works are most interesting.
Almost time now for the GCSE and the A level results – I hope that you have achieved some good grades – tense days at the Academy and the College as wait for the results and hope that we will continue to maintain our places in the league tables.
My pot of basil is thriving – I have mounted it on some bricks with a plastic covering and so far the slugs and the snails have not reached the pot. The plants look quite healthy but it would be tempting providence to plant them in the herb garden as the pests would destroy them in no time.
Pictures the other day of the great nephew totally absorbed with his train set. He obviously enjoys it very much – it could almost be a picture of somebody else about 70 years ago. His little sisters is doing very well and is greatly admired by everybody.
A prayer for you this week:
O God, whose never failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth: we humbly beseech three to put away from us hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Do you know Robert Lowell’s poem about Our Lady of Walsingham?
Our Lady, too small for her canopy,
Sits near the altar. There’s no comeliness
At all or charm in the expressionless
Face with heavy eyelids. As before,
This face, for centuries a memory,
Non est species, neque décor,
Expressionless, expresses God: it goes
Past castled Sion. She knows what God knows
Not Calvary’s Cross nor crib at Bethlehem
Now, and the world shall come to
Walsingham.
And here is the recipe for this week: gently fry a chopped onion and a clove of garlic in some oil. As it cooks add a de-seeded and finely chopped green pepper and some peeled, de-seeded and chopped. Continue to cook slowly and add some fresh basil, some chives and some parsley with salt and pepper to taste. Beat some eggs and fold into the mixture, turning up the heat and stirring to make sure that it does not catch. As soon as it is lightly set, turn on to a serving dish. (This is a very popular dish in the Basque Country.)
Have you ever read the measured prose of Sir Thomas Browne? I thank God – and with joy I mention it – I was never afraid of hell, nor never grew pale at the description of that place. I have so fixed my contemplation on heaven that I have almost forgot the idea of hell: I am afraid rather to lose the joys of one that endure the misery of the other: to be deprived of them is a perfect hell, and needs, methinks, no addition to complete our afflictions. (The introduction to my edition says that his writings provide a vigorously self-assertive display of his idiosyncrasies.)

And to finish, a little entertainment –
Some Gujarati – Maney tamari satey pyar che – some Romanian – Te ubesc – and some Cantonese – Ngor oi ley.
And in English, best wishes to you all
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon

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