newsletter 3rd February 2013

Newsletter 3rd February 2013.

In the past this would have been known as Sexagesima Sunday – sixty days before Easter.
Next Sunday is Quinquagesima with Shrovetide on Monday and Tuesday before the rigours of Lent.

Normally we bless throats on 3rd February, the feast of St. Blaise but I will attend to this on Monday. We use two of the candles blessed on Candlemas Day.

I have to go to Canary Wharf on Tuesday – as usual there will be the Mass at 7.30 but if the Bishop is not about, the Eucharistic Ministers will distribute Holy Communion at 10.

A little delayed, but a word of thanks to all those who were able to come to Requiem Mass for Father Gould. We were pleased to welcome the Archbishop and amongst the other visitors, Bishop Tripp who started his life as a priest at Blackheath in 1953. He was delighted to look round to see how familiar everything was. I had to conduct the service at the crematorium but I understand that you were all well looked after in the hall following the Mass in the Church.

Next Sunday there is a Second Collection for the Diocesan Children’s Society.

The Film Club meets again this evening at 5pm. A long title – I hope that this is correct – “The Man who went up a hill and came down a mountain”. A thought the other day that films on DVD may be coming to an end – just as videos came and went. If you can download a film on to your mobile, who needs a DVD. At least we can continue to enjoy them for the time being.

A recipe for cauliflower. Break it up and cook in boiling water until just tender but not soft. Meanwhile heat some butter in a pan and fry some breadcrumbs until they are golden and season them with pepper and salt. Drain the cauliflower, place it in a shallow dish and sprinkle with most of the breadcrumbs. Cover with a béchamel sauce, dust with the remaining breadcrumbs and bake in a hot oven until it is bubbling nicely.

This week – a major development for Christ the King Sixth Form College – as we take over our third site at Crossways in Brockley – to be know as the Aquinas site. I hope to be there on Monday morning to greet the first students. Four years ago we expanded to take on the Sidcup site and now we will have almost 3000 students.

A short prayer for today:
O Almighty and eternal God, grant us an increase of faith, hope and charity: may we obtain what you have promised and make us love and practise what you command: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I wonder why we ever though Macaulay’s poem “Horatius” was worth reciting. Here is an awful verse:
The horsemen and footmen
Are pouring in amain
From many a stately market place;
From many a fruitful plain;
From many a lonely hamlet,
Which hid by beach and pine,
Like an eagle’s nest, hangs on the crest
Of purple Apennine.

Increases in Railway fares cause consternation. Here is a submission made to a Parliamentary Committee by Charles Saunders, the Secretary of the Great Western Company: Perhaps the railway could arrange to convey the very lowest order of passengers, once a day at a very low speed in carriages of inferior description, at a very low price, perhaps at night. (From the 1840s).

Today, the first Sunday of the month, we have our Latin Mass: and to entertain the classicists, a couplet from Catullus:
Odi et amo: quare id faciam, fortasse requires.
Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

(I hate and love; you ask, perhaps, how can that be.
I do not know, yet I feel it happen; and I am in anguish).

The great nephew enjoyed the snow immensely. His mother took him out sledging. He has a new snow suite and looks very smart. Lots of pictures on Facebook, all of which require a favourable comment from friends – and from great uncles.

Best wishes to you all

Monsignor Nicholas Rothon.

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