St Mary’s Blackheath
Newsletter 22nd October 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 Twenty-Ninth Sunday of the Church’s year.
On Monday we set off for our trip to the College at Valladolid in Spain. This year there are nine in our group. We return on Friday evening.
This means that there will not be a Mass in the Church from Monday to Friday this coming week. The Church will be opened as normal and there will be prayers and a Eucharistic Service.
Wednesday is the feast of the 40 martyrs of England and Wales. There will be a great celebration in the College including a Solemn Mass in the morning and Vespers in the evening. The day includes a splendid lunch, which is always most enjoyable.
Thinking ahead, during November there will be a basket below the altar for envelopes containing the names of those who have died who will be remembered at Mass during the month. You might want to begin to prepare your list.
Also, some thoughts about the Parish Council – for many years we had a very active Parish Council which helped to guide the life of our Parish – during Covid, things came to a halt and the remaining members of the previous Council have helped to manage things over the past couple of years. We need to start again on a proper basis and there will be an explanatory article in the next number of the parish magazine – and also a single page if you do not have a copy of the magazine.
After a long warm autumn, the garden is beginning to look sad as we move towards the winter. Most of my herbs have faded but I have taken some of the better ones into the house in the hope that they will survive.
You will need something from St. Teresa this week: excuse the Spanish.
Nada te turbe, nada te espante, todo se pasa, Dios no se muda; la paciencia todo lo alcanza; quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta. Solo Dios basta.
Probably some of this is familiar from a Taizé chant, but this is the full version taken from Teresa’s own words.
I have now started on a new baptismal register; volume 9 since the Church was founded in 1872. There are spaces for 600 entries and somehow, I have the feeling that maybe, I will not be able to complete this volume.
Cook some eggs until they are hard boiled. Shell them, put the yolks on one side and slice the whites. Make a thick white sauce, add some grated cheese and pour over the eggs whites. Grate the egg yokes through a sieve and pour over the mixture. Bake in the over for a few minutes and decorate with some parsley.
The high speed train from Madrid to Valladolid takes one hour compared with over three hours on the old line. It has been in service since 2010 and is well used – it has certainly transformed Valladolid – and makes one think of the fate of HS2.
Best wishes,
Nicholas Rothon.