Version:1.0 StartHTML:000000248 EndHTML:000010119 StartFragment:000001675 EndFragment:000010087 StartSelection:000001675 EndSelection:000010077 SourceURL:http://www.stmarysblackheath.org.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=1281&action=edit&message=1
Newsletter 23rd July 2017.
Today there is the annual Mission Appeal for the benefit of the St. Francis Xavier Foreign Mission Society.
This afternoon from 2 to 5pm there will be a tea party in the garden.
A reminder that the inscription forms for the First Holy Communion classes are now available. Please return these as soon as possible. I need to order the books and prepare the schedules for the classes.
Tuesday of this week is the feast of the apostle St. James.
To Canary Wharf for an investment meeting on Tuesday and to the Town Hall in the evening for an Education meeting.
The holiday period has now started so time to catch up on a few things “ if the weather is warm I am sure several days will be spent in the garden. You are welcome to come but please remember to return towels and bathing costumes if you use them. Also please, nothing too violent on the trampoline now that it has been repaired.
Thanks to those who have offered to help with the open day in the Church in September. An information leaflet is being prepared together with some coloured postcards. What else to display? Some pictures and maps of Wricklemarsh Manor which was on the site of the Church and demolished in about 1770. And maybe some of our treasures – the relic of St. Patrick, the ancient Victorian Monstrance, and some of the old vestments.
Digging in the garden recently, I came across some pieces of slate – nothing had been built there for many years and I concluded that these must be fragments left over from the demolition of Wricklemarsh Manor.
Growing basil is far from easy: some splendid shoots appeared but one night they were eaten by the birds and animals. I am trying again with some netting and some wooden spikes to deter the animals. At this time of year, with a little rain and plenty of sun it grows quickly. The birds are busy attacking the apples and I fear that there will not be much of crop this year.
A reminder that there will be a retreat at St. Andrew’s Convent on Saturday 23rd September. The theme will be different forms of prayer. Further details to follow.
A prayer from St. Jerome on the Holy Scriptures:
O Lord, you have given us your word for alight to shine upon our path: inspire us to meditate on that word and to follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day: through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Some useful information: here are the names of 10 Knights of the Round Table: Lancelot, Tristam, Lamorack, Tor, Galahad, Palomides, Kay, Mark, Mordred.
The new railway tracks for the route beyond London Bridge to Blackfriars are nearing completion. These will be used by the Thameslink trains and will be connected to platforms 4 and 5 at London Bridge station. The major works to connect up the new lines will be taking place at the end of August.
Milton at his most solemn:
Blest pair of sirens, pledges of heaven’s joy
Sphere born harmonious sisters, voice and verse.
Wed your, divine sounds, and mixt power employ,
Dear things with inbreathed sense able to pierce; Â
And to our high raised phantasy present
That undisturbed song of pure concent.
I hope that you will be able to enjoy these holiday weeks.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon
Last Sunday’s homily
Fifteenth Sunday of the year 2017.
We have now moved on to a new section of Matthew’s gospel – he part in which he gathers together the parables of the kingdomVersion:1.0 StartHTML:000000248 EndHTML:000010119 StartFragment:000001675 EndFragment:0
00010087 StartSelection:000001675 EndSelection:000010077 SourceURL:http://www.stmarysblackheath.org.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=1281&action=edit&message=1
Newsletter 23rd July 2017.
Today there is the annual Mission Appeal for the benefit of the St. Francis Xavier Foreign Mission Society.
This afternoon from 2 to 5pm there will be a tea party in the garden.
A reminder that the inscription forms for the First Holy Communion classes are now available. Please return these as soon as possible. I need to order the books and prepare the schedules for the classes.
Tuesday of this week is the feast of the apostle St. James.
To Canary Wharf for an investment meeting on Tuesday and to the Town Hall in the evening for an Education meeting.
The holiday period has now started so time to catch up on a few things “ if the weather is warm I am sure several days will be spent in the garden. You are welcome to come but please remember to return towels and bathing costumes if you use them. Also please, nothing too violent on the trampoline now that it has been repaired.
Thanks to those who have offered to help with the open day in the Church in September. An information leaflet is being prepared together with some coloured postcards. What else to display? Some pictures and maps of Wricklemarsh Manor which was on the site of the Church and demolished in about 1770. And maybe some of our treasures – the relic of St. Patrick, the ancient Victorian Monstrance, and some of the old vestments.
Digging in the garden recently, I came across some pieces of slate – nothing had been built there for many years and I concluded that these must be fragments left over from the demolition of Wricklemarsh Manor.
Growing basil is far from easy: some splendid shoots appeared but one night they were eaten by the birds and animals. I am trying again with some netting and some wooden spikes to deter the animals. At this time of year, with a little rain and plenty of sun it grows quickly. The birds are busy attacking the apples and I fear that there will not be much of crop this year.
A reminder that there will be a retreat at St. Andrew’s Convent on Saturday 23rd September. The theme will be different forms of prayer. Further details to follow.
A prayer from St. Jerome on the Holy Scriptures:
O Lord, you have given us your word for alight to shine upon our path: inspire us to meditate on that word and to follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day: through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Some useful information: here are the names of 10 Knights of the Round Table: Lancelot, Tristam, Lamorack, Tor, Galahad, Palomides, Kay, Mark, Mordred.
The new railway tracks for the route beyond London Bridge to Blackfriars are nearing completion. These will be used by the Thameslink trains and will be connected to platforms 4 and 5 at London Bridge station. The major works to connect up the new lines will be taking place at the end of August.
Milton at his most solemn:
Blest pair of sirens, pledges of heaven’s joy
Sphere born harmonious sisters, voice and verse.
Wed your, divine sounds, and mixt power employ,
Dear things with inbreathed sense able to pierce; Â
And to our high raised phantasy present
That undisturbed song of pure concent.
I hope that you will be able to enjoy these holiday weeks.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon
Last Sunday’s homily
Fifteenth Sunday of the year 2017.
We have now moved on to a new section of Matthew’s gospel – he part in which he gathers together the parables of the kingdom and we will be reading these for the next few weeks.
We begin with the familiar parable of the sower – parable which also appears in Mark’s gospel. It seems a simple and obvious story based on the life of the local countryside – but as always, as you begin to think about it – there is something curious about the story.
Some time ago, listening to Farming Today on the Radio – there was an item about a new machine which controls the distribution of seed through a satnav system – making sure that it is only scattered in the parts of the field where it will produce a crop – I think it was estimated that there would be a saving of about 12% – and relating this to the parable, it made me think about the careful old Galilean farmer – he has carefully bought his corn seed in the market – making sure that it is of good quality – he know the terrain of his fields well – so would be really be throwing handfuls of seed in to the patches of brambles – on the rocky parts of his land where there is no soil – on hard trodden pathways on the edge of the field were the soil has not been ploughed and prepared – rather, after the last harvest, the field has been ploughed carefully so that it will produced a new crop, 30, 60 even a hundredfold.
I wonder if the apostles and some of the first hearers of Our Lord worked this out – realising that it was more than a simple image – it might be taken as a sign of the generosity of the Lord – sowing the grace of faith in unexpected places – it is not limited to a small number – the elect- who can be guaranteed to produce a crop – rather it is spread everywhere, generously and indiscriminately – sometimes it will be succeed – but there will be failures as well – caused by a variety of circumstances – thorns, birds, dry rocky soil – but this does not mean that it has not happened – the Lord is equally generous to all – it really becomes an image of the infinite mercy of God – giving his blessings to all – even though it is high risk and a probability that it will not succeed – birds of the air and choking thorns - but this does not deny the fact that it has happened.
This is one way of looking at the parable – but another suggestion – throughout life we are put into groups and classes – from Ofsted inspections onwards – it gives us an identity – a label – and it possible to think of the parable in this way – those represented by the edge of the path – by the thorns – and certainly it is possible to classify us in different ways – but what of something different – a suggestion that these represent different phases, different moments in our lives- maybe times of temptation, may be even times of failure – times of dryness on the edge of the path – when there is a risk that we will be distracted by something else – or the opposite – times of great joy, of great enthusiasm – but without a real root – who can’t but fail to be encouraged by a Papal audience in St. Peter’s Square – but what is beyond this – and the thorns – the Lord refers to this as the worries of the world and the lure of riches – this is very wide ranging – almost from human success to human failure – but we can see the real meaning of this – the multitude of things which are there to distract us –
But the parable is not totally negative – it is not just a risk assessment – rather it gives the hope of real success rich soil – who hears and understands – yields a harvest – now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty – and you will notice that it is a single person – the one who yields – it is not a comparison between individuals with different grades of success – rather for each one of us – there can be different seasons in our lives – some times of enormous success – others not so fulsome – but the important part is that we have produced something – a thought that will come back again in the parable of the talents –
- So really quite a complex parable with many dimensions of meaning – there is no wonder that Matthew chooses it to introduce his section of the parables of the kingdom. Â
and we will be reading these for the next few weeks.
We begin with the familiar parable of the sower – parable which also appears in Mark’s gospel. It seems a simple and obvious story based on the life of the local countryside – but as always, as you begin to think about it – there is something curious about the story.
Some time ago, listening to Farming Today on the Radio – there was an item about a new machine which controls the distribution of seed through a satnav system – making sure that it is only scattered in the parts of the field where it will produce a crop – I think it was estimated that there would be a saving of about 12% – and relating this to the parable, it made me think about the careful old Galilean farmer – he has carefully bought his corn seed in the market – making sure that it is of good quality – he know the terrain of his fields well – so would be really be throwing handfuls of seed in to the patches of brambles – on the rocky parts of his land where there is no soil – on hard trodden pathways on the edge of the field were the soil has not been ploughed and prepared – rather, after the last harvest, the field has been ploughed carefully so that it will produced a new crop, 30, 60 even a hundredfold.
I wonder if the apostles and some of the first hearers of Our Lord worked this out – realising that it was more than a simple image – it might be taken as a sign of the generosity of the Lord – sowing the grace of faith in unexpected places – it is not limited to a small number – the elect- who can be guaranteed to produce a crop – rather it is spread everywhere, generously and indiscriminately – sometimes it will be succeed – but there will be failures as well – caused by a variety of circumstances – thorns, birds, dry rocky soil – but this does not mean that it has not happened – the Lord is equally generous to all – it really becomes an image of the infinite mercy of God – giving his blessings to all – even though it is high risk and a probability that it will not succeed – birds of the air and choking thorns - but this does not deny the fact that it has happened.
This is one way of looking at the parable – but another suggestion – throughout life we are put into groups and classes – from Ofsted inspections onwards – it gives us an identity – a label – and it possible to think of the parable in this way – those represented by the edge of the path – by the thorns – and certainly it is possible to classify us in different ways – but what of something different – a suggestion that these represent different phases, different moments in our lives- maybe times of temptation, may be even times of failure – times of dryness on the edge of the path – when there is a risk that we will be distracted by something else – or the opposite – times of great joy, of great enthusiasm – but without a real root – who can’t but fail to be encouraged by a Papal audience in St. Peter’s Square – but what is beyond this – and the thorns – the Lord refers to this as the worries of the world and the lure of riches – this is very wide ranging – almost from human success to human failure – but we can see the real meaning of this – the multitude of things which are there to distract us –
But the parable is not totally negative – it is not just a risk assessment – rather it gives the hope of real success rich soil – who hears and understands – yields a harvest – now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty – and you will notice that it is a single person – the one who yields – it is not a comparison between individuals with different grades of success – rather for each one of us – there can be different seasons in our lives – some times of enormous success – others not so fulsome – but the important part is that we have produced something – a thought that will come back again in the parable of the talents –
- So really quite a complex parable with many dimensions of meaning – there is no wonder that Matthew chooses it to introduce his section of the parables of the kingdom. Â