Newsletter 25th February 2024
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 Second Sunday of Lent.
After the gospel of the Temptations of the Lord last Sunday, the gospel today describes the event known as the Transfiguration. It is suggested that the two gospels show the contrast between the Divine Nature and the Human Nature of the Lord.
As a Lenten devotion we have stations of the cross at 4.15pm this evening.
No flowers in the Church for the time being and purple Vestments as an outward sign of the penitential season.
The Funeral Mass for Alyn Roberts will take place 11.30am on Tuesday.
Donations from the Cafod Lent fast day last Friday will be collected at Mass today in the ancient boxes.
Friday 1st March is the feast of St. David, the patron of Wales. Otherwise, the weekday Masses are for the Lenten season.
A meeting on Thursday to plan the service on the Heath on Good Friday. Together with the procession on Christmas Eve, this is one of the annual events sponsored by Churches Together in Blackheath.
A familiar Spanish dish for Lent is to gently stew a can of butter beans with some small pieces of ham or maybe some chorizo. This is a typical country dish in Castille.
Geroge Herbert on Lent:
True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion,
When good is seasonable.
A Lenten prayer:
Lord our God, increase our hope and strengthen our love:
Give us grace to live by every word that proceeds from thy mouth, through Christ Our Lord.
Next week, I am off to Spain for a few days, so the preparatory meeting to plan things in advance for the First Communion class on 9th March has been brought forward to this week: I have been in touch with the parents who have agreed to help.
Something from Thomas Merton:
In the vivid darkness of God within us there sometimes come deep movements of love that deliver us entirely, for a moment, from our burdens, and number us among those of whom is the kingdom of heaven.
I am pleased to report that the fig tree is showing signs of life with some new leaves. Also, the trunk appears to have grown during the winter. My pot of basil remains indoors with several large shoots – it is far too delicate to risk the attentions of the snails and the birds. A determined snail would be able to destroy it overnight.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon.