Newsletter 21st June 2015
Today is the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is also the Longest Day – and Father’s Day.
Next Sunday we will be keeping the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, transferred from 29th June.
This week on Monday, the feast of the two great English Martyrs, John Fisher and Thomas More. Wednesday is the feast of the birth of John the Baptist.
Fisher, foreseeing the problems of the Reformation, encouraged Lady Margaret to found Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge for the education of priests. The Latin Grace before meals, composed by Fisher, is still read in Hall.
The Parish AGM is due to be held on 2nd June. At this time of the year we are looking for some new members for the Parish Council. This year we need four: not too onerous a task – probably three meetings per year and the term of office is for three years. As you will have noticed, over the years the Parish Council has helped to achieve a great deal in the work and operation of our parish. Nomination forms are on the paper racks.
To Lewisham this week for two education meetings but no meetings in London this week.
The great nephew enjoyed his visit for the baptism recently. His sister is almost one year old; she is starting to crawl and I was trying to encourage her to stand up. A very friendly girl and I am sure that her brother will be proud of her.
The railway works at Rotherhithe seem to be progressing very slowly. You can see the beginnings of the excavations for the dive-under – there will be four tracks in the tunnel under the fast Brighton lines. A number of new signals have been installed in recent months – some two rather than four aspect. Some have been moved to allow space for longer trains.
A morning prayer:
O God, creator of light: at the rising of the sun each morning, let the greatest of all lights, your love, rise like the sun in our hearts.
And now Browning about Venice:
Have you come here with your old music, and here’s all the good it brings.
What, they lived once at Venice where the merchants were the kings,
Where St. Mark’s is, where the Doges used to wed the sea with rings?
After this I am sure you will be looking for the recipe. One of my French cook books said that one of the basic tasks is to cook a simple roast chicken. Here is my method: dry the skin well and smear with butter, some salt and a little pepper. Piece the skin in several places so the juices will run out. Pre-hear the oven to about 170, 20 mins per kilo plus 20 minutes. Baste a few times during cooking. I hope you don’t mind this! I am sure you have your own method.
At this time of year, at the College in Spain, we would have finished our exams and would be moving out to the country house at Viana. The first ten days were “public work”. Building the bridge across the river, scraping the moss from the irrigation tank we used as a swimming pool, weeding the tennis court and clearing the garden beds and the roadway. Lots of work but it was a very pleasant place to stay during the summer months.
I recently re-read Decline and Fall. Here is Paul in solitary confinement. “It was so exhilarating , he found, m never to have to make any decision on any subject, to be wholly relieved from the smallest consideration of time, meals, or clothes, to have no anxiety ever about what kind of impression he was making; in fact to be free”. I recommend it for holiday reading.
And now to return to the problem of Hannah’s six orange sweets.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon