St. Mary’s,
Blackheath
Newsletter: 27th November 2016
Mass times: Saturday: 6.30pm (first Mass of Sunday)
Sunday: 9.30 and 11am and 7.30pm
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10am
Tuesday, Thursday: 7.30am
Eucharistic Service: Tuesday 10am
There is a Mass at the Convent on Friday evenings at 6.30pm.
Confessions: Saturday 12 to 1pm
Welcome to the parish Magazine.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We begin a new year in the Church’s cycle. This year the readings at Mass on Sunday will be taken from cycle A. As we move into ordinary time, the gospel readings will be taken from Matthew. On weekdays, the Scripture readings at Mass will be taken from the first cycle.
Advent is a period of prayer as we prepare for the celebration of Christmas. It is not as penitential as Lent, but we use purple vestments and do not recite the Gloria at Mass on Sundays. In particular during the weekdays, the Scripture lessons are taken from the Old Testament and speak of the coming Messiah.
There is a Coffee morning in the Angelus Room today after the morning Masses. Any proceeds will be for the benefit of the White Helmet Charity which helps those injured during the fighting in Syria.
Also today the Christmas giving tree has gone up at the back of the Church. You are familiar with this from previous years – gifts for either the Manna Centre or the centre in Dulwich which helps the children of Asylum seekers.
First Communion classes have come around once again. There is a meeting for the parents who will be running the class at 8pm on Monday evening and the class will be on Saturday morning at 10 am in the big hall.
A note about the Christmas Masses so that you will have this to hand. There will be a Mass on Christmas Eve at 6.30pm. There will be a service of readings and music starting at 11.30pm followed by Mass at midnight. On Christmas morning the Mass at 9.30 will include the second part of the cycle of mystery plays and the solemn Mass of the day will be at 11am.
The list for parts in the plays has gone up in the Angelus Room so please remember to add names as soon as possible.
Now the recipe. Something quite easy that you might consider as a starter for one of you Christmas meals. Some small pieces of brie cheese with the rind removed – some slices of peeled and cored pear, some watercress and some triangles of toast. Easy to prepare – and to eat – whilst you cope with some more complex matters.
There is an advance notice that Christmas work on the railway will be taking place in the New Cross area. This suggests that the lines under the new flyover will be connected up. So far, the track bed has been ballasted and two of the new tracks have been laid with the conductor rail for the electric current. The structure of the flyover seems to have been completed but the track bed over the top has still to be ballasted and the tracks laid.
The familiar Advent prayer that we always use at this time:
Stir up our hearts, we beseech you, O Lord, that we may prepare the way for your only begotten Son; so that by his Advent we may be enabled to serve you with pure hearts and minds: through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
And to finish, John Betjeman on the Church Mouse
Here among long-discarded cassocks
Damp stools and half-split open hassocks,
Here where the Vicar never looks
I nibble through old service books.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon