Today is the Twenty Eighty Sunday of the Church’s year.
Best wishes to the new First Communion Group who started their classes yesterday and thanks to the parents for all their help.
I have sent round a note regarding the Confirmation classes.
Tuesday of this week is the feast of St. Edward the Confessor, the great English Saint who is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Thursday is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. We have visited her convent during some of our visits to Spain. Some of your will know the story of the strange shadow in the Convent – I must tell you the story sometime.
I would appreciate some help regarding outstanding baptisms and marriages. I have the initial paperwork for some of these, but I do not know if you still wish to proceed on an alternative date. Please contact me so that we can meet and arrange everything. A reminder that the new rules limit baptisms to 6 people in the Church, including the child, and weddings are now limited to 15.
Something from St. Teresa this week and I hope you will not mind that it is in Spanish:
Nada te turbe, nada te espante
Todo se pasa, Dios no se muda;
La paciencia todo lo alcanza;
Quien a Dios tiene nada le falta
Solo Dios basta.
At this time of year, I would normally be packing my papers for a visit to the College in Spain. I am pleased to tell you that eighteen students began the course this year. Please remember to say a prayer for them all.
Once again, I have been cooking some fennel. It is good to remove the tough outer leaves, slice the remainder and cook until just soft. Make a bechamel sauce and add some cheese. Pour over the fennel and bake into the over until it starts to brown. (one of my veggie nieces thinks that this is wonderful.)
With the many road closures and the eternal traffic congestion, I make my way about by train rather than car. There are some curious inter-changes at Peckham Rye and Tulse Hill.
A poem today from Betjeman about the Church Mouse:
Here among long discarded cassocks
Damp stools and half-split open hassocks,
Here where the Vicar never looks
I nibble through old service books.
My new patch of grass has grown well and I have been able to cut it a couple of times. There are further patches that require attention in due course.
Best wishes to you all, Monsignor Nicholas Rothon