Newsletter 27th January 2013
Today is the Third Sunday of Ordinary time. There is a second collection today for the Catholic Education Service.
Saturday of this week is the Feast of the Purification in which we commemorate the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, forty days after his birth. It is also known as Candlemas Day. At the beginning of the morning Mass we will bless the candles that we will be using during the year and there will be procession into the Church.
Monday of this week is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican theologian. Thursday is the feast of St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Order.
Confirmation class again on Wednesday evening at 6.30pm. The classes come close together but there is a lot to get through before April. We look forward to seeing you all.
Next Saturday afternoon there is a session for readers in the Church at 3pm. There will be a general introduction plus some practical advice.
A busy week ahead: I am off to Canary Wharf on Monday morning. There will be a 7.30 Mass but I will not be about at 10. If the Bishop is not here, the Eucharistic Ministers will distribute Holy Communion. A meeting of the Children’s Society on Wednesday and a Local Authority meeting in the evening so that the week is very full.
Thanks to all who helped with gifts for the Manna Centre and the Centre for Asylum seekers. As you probably noticed, there were a few problems in getting everything to the right place, but these have all been resolved and your gifts have been received with much appreciation.
I expect that you would like a poem, so here is Wordsworth on Westminster Bridge:
In his first splendour, valley, rock or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
“That Mighty heart” is the title of a documentary film made about London in 1962. You can download it from the LT.Museum Website and a treat is in store, including recordings of Housewife’s Choice and Music While you Work.
Of course lots of interesting images of Underground trains and buses, much else besides. Was London really once like this? And who was playing in the Test Match?
Initial work has now started on the new railings outside the Church. Recently we were measuring up the stone for the new corners. The next job is to cut the stone but it now looks as if work on site will begin during February.
A prayer for today.
Teach us gracious Lord, to begin our works in a spirit of reverence for you, to continue them in obedience, to finish them in love, and with cheerful confidence look up to you, whose promises are faithful and whose rewards are infinite, through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Here is a vegetarian recipe you might like to try.
Cook some green or brown lentils and drain. Also cook and drain some long grain rice. Fry some chopped onions in butter until then are brown. Add the lentils and the rice and stir well. Cook gently until all is hot and add salt and black pepper to taste.
Lots of kind advice on the orchids in recent weeks including some re-potting compound. I am very pleased to report that the older ones seem to be making good progress and there are first signs of some fresh shoots. They seem to like a small quantity of water and not so much direct light. Also the herbs in the new pot in the kitchen are beginning to sprout, though it is too early to put them outside. However you may have spotted that the first shoots have started to appear.
During my travels, my companion at the moment is “The Pickwick Papers” on my Kindle. Highly to recommended as the narrative is suitably episodic so that it can be taken up and put down again without problems. If you were reading Harry Potter – can your remember this from years ago – you always had to try and remember what was happening in the last chapter.
And to say that Maria has now washed and ironed and darned the costumes from the plays and they are now all safely away for another year.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon