St Mary’s Blackheath
Newsletter 7th November 2022
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 Thirty Second Sunday of the Church’s year.
Monday is the feast of the Dedication of the Cathedral Church.
Next Sunday is Remembrance Sunday. The 11am Mass will be a Requiem Mass for the Dead of the World wars. We will keep the two minutes silence at the beginning of Mass.
Also, next Sunday some envelopes will be available for donations to the Archbishop’s fund for administration.
On Friday at 11am there will be a Remembrance service at St. Matthew Academy. If you are passing by you may wish to share in this.
It was good to see all the young people last week for the Confirmation and the Holy Communion classes. Thank you for all your support.
A reminder of the basket under the altar for the names of those who can be remembered at Mass during the month of November.
This is the first newsletter written after the return from our visit in Spain. A very enjoyable trip and everything went well. The great celebration was the feast of the English Martyrs on 25th October. Cardinal Roache, one of our former students came from Rome to share in the celebration.
There was a lot of work at the College – looking after the accounts and visiting the banks as well as discussions with the new Rector on future administration. There are twenty-two students at present. An amazing link is that the father of one of them was in my class at school almost 70 years ago.
We try to bring a recipe back from Spain. Heat through some Ratatouille – from a can or better still make some of your own with some tomatoes, onions, courgettes, and an aubergine gently baked in the oven. Before serving add a couple of poached eggs which can be mixed with the vegetables.
A prayer from St. Bede:
Open our hearts, O Lord, and enlighten us by the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may seek what is well pleasing to your will; and so order our lives according to your commandments, that we may deserve to enter into unending joy; through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
The full service on the Elizabeth line opens this week: travel to the airport will be much easier: no longer the extended journey on the Piccadilly line.
Lots of work in the garden at present clearing up the leaves and the fallen branches. The last tree to lose its leaves is the big sweet chestnut. When these have gone, winter has really arrived.
We are beginning to think about re-introducing the cycle of mystery plays again this year. More news to follow.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon