St Mary’s Blackheath
Newsletter 13th August 2023
Sunday Masses: Saturday 6.30pm first Mass of Sunday
– Sunday 9.30 and 11am and 5pm.
Monday to Friday: Mass at 8am.
Saturday 10am and 6.30pm
Confessions: Saturday 12 to 1
Today is the Nineteenth Sunday of the Church’s year.
Tuesday of this week is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a Holy Day of Obligation and Masses in the Church are at 8 and 10am and 6.30pm.
Monday is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe the Polish Franciscan Priest who died in Auschwitz. There is a statue in his honour on the front of Westminster Abbey as one of the great saints of the 20th century.
Newsletters are written well in advance, but by the time you read this I hope that I will have returned safely from the hospital following a small operation to correct a blocked tear duct.
You may have noticed the damage that I caused to the fig tree with the leaf spray. I am tending it with great care: it seems to have survived and some new leaves are beginning to bud.
A small request: please remember to close the garden gates when you leave if you have brought a car into the garden: it helps with security: there have been some unwelcome visitors in recent days.
As predicted in this newsletter, the former Red Arrow electric buses have started to operate on route 108. A ride to Stratford one day to see how they perform. The Mercedes Citaros are retiring. They were one of my favourites and served us well. I remember when they first appeared on Red Arrow services to replace the bendy buses.
I will be ordering the First Communion books this week: a reasonable estimate is that there will be 30 in the group. As always there may be some late comers.
You might try this: take the top off some large tomatoes and scoop out the pips. Salt the inside a leave to drain. Make a cream with a can of tuna fish, some softened butter, some pepper, a drop of Worcestershire sauce and fill the tomatoes. Serve on a bed of water cress with some halved hard boiled eggs.
I am reading a biography of Cromwell at present, so here is Andrew Marvell:
So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious Arts of Peace,
But through Adventrous War
Urged his active Star.
And a prayer:
God our Father, our strength in adversity, our health in weakness, our comfort in sorrow, be merciful to your people, and give us new live as we hope and trust in your kindness.
The boy and his sister are back from their holiday trip with bleached hair and very brown. Recent birthdays – the boy is now 12 and his sister is 9. I look forward to seeing them soon.
Some problems with Alexa who did not seem to approve of the new broadband: some complex tasks to resolve this.
I hope that you are enjoying the August days – at last a little sun and some warmth.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon