St Mary’s Blackheath
Newsletter 15th January 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 second Sunday in the Church’s year. The green vestments appear once again until Lent. This year Lent begins on 22nd February, Ash Wednesday.
The Sunday readings during ordinary time are taken from Matthew’s gospel, cycle A.
Saturday of this week is the feast of St. Agnes.
The First Holy Communion children made their First Confession yesterday. Also the Confirmation group met last Thursday.
Thanks for your outstanding generosity this year gifts to the Manna Centre and the Jesuit Refugee Service. The gifts, 273 in all, were delivered last week. This is about a third more than the previous year. Thanks to the Justice and Peace Group for all their work in organising this.
Lots of things to do during the past week: the crib figures have been put away carefully for another year and the lights have been taken down. The costumes from the mystery plays have been stored away. So the Church is almost back to normal.
On Thursday of this coming week, we have a meeting of the Trustees of the College in Spain. We will meet at Southwark. I have to prepare the papers and make sure that all the reports are up to date. After the meeting, there is the task of writing the minutes, which can take many hours.
Always some Keats at this time of year for the feast of St. Agnes.
Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in wooly fold.
Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers while he told his rosary –
A prayer for the evening:
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and by thy great mercy defend us, from all the perils and dangers of the night, for the love of thy only son, Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
At this time of year, I make a pot of potato and leek soup. Stew the vegetables in a mixture of milk and water: correct the seasoning with plenty of pepper and put through the liquidiser: serve hot with some parsley.
I should be undertaking some work in the garden but recent days have been wet and cold. It is good to see that the spring flowers are starting to appear once again. Last year it was warm enough to fill the pool by the end of March. I hope that it will be a warm year once again.
The great nephews and nieces were taken by their grandparents to see The Nutcracker Suite last week. I remember recently they staged their own performance, with the help of Alexa which involved a lot of shouting and sliding down the stairs. The smallest boy was soaked with a bucket of water, though I do not know the reason for this.
Apologies for some spelling errors in recent weeks: as always, blame the computer.
Best wishes to you all
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon