Newsletter Sunday 7th October
October is the month of the Rosary. To honour Our Blessed Lady we will have Rosary, the Litany and Benediction at 6.30 pm today.
Last Friday was the Family Fast Day for Cafod and boxes for your contributions have been placed on the paper racks. Thank you for your help.
The Film Club meets this week in the Angelus Room at 5pm. I will be setting up the screen and sharpening the pizza cutter as usual
The Confirmation class meets on Wednesday evening in the Angelus room at 6.30.
The First Holy Communion group is back again for the 9.30 Mass after the second of their classes.
There are many things to learn so the first classes come together fairly quickly.
Saturday of this week is the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, the great English Saint who is buried in Westminster abbey.
Also a special anniversary this week, the Second Vatican Council opened 50 years ago on 11th October 1962.
Next Sunday there is a second Collection for the Needs of the Diocese, the fund that helps some of the smaller parishes to cover their expenses.
Some more news of the great nephew: his vocabulary has been increasing, but now he is beginning to say “no,no”: his mother thinks that this is a retrograde step.
Thanks to all who have helped in the garden during the summer and particularly to Bill who has organised it all. You will have seen that some the trees have been cut back during the last few days and there will be some more work on the beds at the end of the garden. This year the apples were quite disappointing. I think that was due to the lack of bees. I have been looking for spikes to support the boards for the rose terrace at the back of the house. The original wooden pegs have rotted and the boards are beginning to collapse.
Some Rupert Brooke this week:
Ah God! To see the branches stir
Across the moon at Granchester!
To smell the thrilling-sweet and rotten
Unforgettable, unforgotten
River smell, and hear the breeze
Sobbing in the little trees.
Say do the elm-clumps greatly stand
Still guardians of that holy land?
And a prayer:
God our Father, direct our ways and make us to increase and abound in love to one another and to all: that we may establish in purity of heart and in holiness before you at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the saints. Amen.
Recipe this week for some cold rice pudding. Cook the rice in some milk and add some sugar. Turn into a basin but keep back some hot milk and dissolve this with some gelatine. Stir in the beaten yoke of and egg and leave to cool and add some whipped cream – fold into the rice and leave to cool overnight. Serve cold with some lightly cooked fruit.
Thinking again this week about the London trams: do you remember the four tracks at Dulwich on Dog Kennell Hill so that several cars could ascend or descend at the same time? Usually these were the HR2 class cars with four rather than two motors – HR stood for “Hilly Routes”. The number 58 made its way from Victoria, through Dulwich and Catford to the entrance of the Blackwall Tunnel. It was replaced by the 185 bus in the autumn of 1951.
I am busy this week with College affairs: our accounting period runs to 30th September so I am drafting the accounts for the past year. Also I have to draft the annual report for the Trustees. We operate with a Charitable Trust in the UK so these duties are quite onerous. Off to Spain in a couple of week’s time to look at the Spanish figures: this is always good fun and I am looking forward to it.
There will be a Scripture book Club discussion on Saturday 20th October at 3pm in the Angelus Room on “The Letter to the Hebrews”. All are welcome – not just readers. Further details on the notice board in the porch.
Best wishes to you all
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon