newsletter 15th March 2015

Newsletter 15th March 2015
Today the Fourth Sunday of Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday from the first word of the Introit antiphon. We are half way through Lent and today we use the Rose coloured vestments.
From next Sunday the statues and crosses will be veiled as we enter the more solemn part of Lent.
There are Stations of the Cross this evening at 6.30pm.
The Confirmation class meets on Wednesday evening at 8pm.
I am off to Douai Abbey early on Tuesday morning for a meeting of the Historic Churches Committee. This means that I will not be here for a 7.30 Mass on Tuesday, but otherwise the week will be as normal.
To London on Monday for a meeting of the Churches Main Committee and to Lewisham Town Hall on Wednesday evening, so quite a full week.
Thursday is the solemnity of St. Joseph.
Tuesday is the feast of St. Patrick.
Next Sunday as a special Lenten devotion, the choir will sing solemn Vespers.
I cooked some cauliflower cheese the other day. Cook the cauliflower in one piece and keep it fairly firm. I made a white sauce with some margarine, flour and milk and add some grated cheese, a pinch of mustard and some black pepper. Break up the cauliflower and pour the sauce over it and bake in a hot oven. Just the thing for Lent.
This year one of the tasks we have to undertake is to trim the trees in the front drive. We have not done this for some years and they are beginning to cover up the lamp posts. Not all the tree are ours – some are in the gardens of the adjoining houses so we do not trim them all.
Yeats on Byzantium:
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre
And be the singing-masers of my soul.
A prayer for Lent:
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for all our sins do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be saved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is noticeable that some of the bus routes operated by the new buses are working without conductors and with the rear platform doors closed. I wonder how long it will be before a revised design appears without a rear platform. Conductors seem to have a limited function as they no longer collect fares.
Here is Betjeman on Pugin: his own churches, which were almost all Roman Catholic, are attempts to realize his dreams. But for all the sincerity of their architect, the brass coronals, the jewelled glass by Hardman of Birmingham, the correctly moulded arches and the carefully carved woodwork habe a spindly effect. It is not in his buildings but in his writings that Pugin had so great an influence on the men of his time. (Our Church was designed by William Purdie, a pupil of Pugin. The stained glass windows were designed by Hardman. What do you think?)
Did you enjoy the account of the Railway Club Dinner in the recent issue of the Parish Magazine? Meals on trains are almost a thing of the past: the plastic trays on journeys to the north are a poor substitute. My best memories from the past: afternoon tea on the Golden Arrow in the Pullman from Dover to London or dinner in the ancient Wagon-Lit on the Iberia Express threading through the Cantabrian Mountains.
Best wishes to you all
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon

This entry was posted in Newsletter, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.