Newsletter 19th February 2017
Today is the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary time.
Wednesday is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle.
The Confirmation class is at 6.30pm moved from 15th February.
The funeral of Frederick Simoes is at 12.30 on Tuesday.
Next week we will be beginning Lent on Ash Wednesday. The period of ordinary time seems very long this year as Easter is late. I hope that it means that we will have some good warm days – for Palm Sunday, for the Vigil, and just possibly hunting for some eggs in the garden on Easter Sunday.
A full week ahead as I am up to London for Spanish College business on Wednesday – to review the audited accounts and on to the Fund Managers. This is in preparation for a trip to Spain at the beginning of March. I will ask the Rector if it will be possible for a group from the parish to come to the College in the autumn. I will let you know the dates in due course.
You will probably have notice that some of the new tracks for the dive-under at Rotherhithe are now in use. The slow down Brighton line from London Bridge dives under the bridge for the Thameslink tracks which join up with the fast up and down Brighton lines. Work has now started to lay the tracks on the top of the flyover. Probably later in the year it will be necessary to join them up with the existing tracks at New Cross.
A very popular dish at Sanlucar de Barrameda, which seems to be served everywhere, is hot rice with sea food. Not quite a paella in the traditional sense but long grain rice mixed with some tomato sauce and some herbs. Different types of shell fish are added – prawns and clams and possible pieces of octopus. There is a notice on the beach saying that clams can only be collected by licensed fishermen, as there is a danger that they may be contaminated and they need to be inspected with expert eyes. I am sure that this does not deter some of the visitors.
Some Auden this week:
Look, stranger on this island now
The leaping light for your delight discovers
Stand stable here
And Silent be.
Memories from the past: here is Clive James describing a College Review in the mid1960s. “I even got away with my own monologue. A whimsical little number, it went on for so long that the Hearties, from a sitting start, managed to reduce their table to matchwood before I was half-way through. But the show had built up too much impetus to be easily stopped.”
Now time for a prayer:
Eternal Father, let my first thought each day be of you, to worship, to call upon your name and to make my prayer to you. Amen.
Something curious is happening with the olive trees: one has retained all its leaves but the second one has shed its upper leaves and careful examination shows that buds are appearing for new leaves. I cannot explain this, but I think they are both still quite healthy.
You will have noted the leaflets giving details of the various events at the Convent during the coming weeks. You are most welcome to attend.
The boy is hard at work at school. He looks after his little sister and reads to her from time to time – though he has to catch up with his own reading. A new bicycle arrived at Christmas and so he is out regularly with his mother.
A final warning
TCLIO
Best wishes to you all
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon