newsletter 8th February 2015

Newsletter 8th February 2015
Today is the Fifth Sunday in ordinary time.
Welcome to the First Communion Children at the 9.30 Mass today. They have made their First Confession and from now on the classes are concerned with the Mass and the Eucharist.
Today after the morning Masses there will be Coffee and Cakes in the Angelus Room.
Wednesday is the Commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Next Sunday there is a second collection to help the smaller parishes in the Diocese. At one time the collection was at the beginning of October, but there was a clash with Autumn Fast day.
Saturday is the anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Bishop Lynch – in 2006. We send him our prayers and best wishes.
I am beginning to think about Lent which starts next week: traditionally we have Stations of the Cross on Sunday evening at 6.30. Would you like me to continue with this?
The Priests of the Deanery meet on Tuesday – back to the school in the afternoon and on to Greenwich Town Hall in the evening.
On Wednesday to London for a post audit meeting with the accountants for the College in Spain. I think everything is in good order.
At London Bridge Platforms 10-15 have been completed and are in use on the Brighton side. Cannon Street trains are using platforms 1-3 at the moment and works are progressing with the missing platforms. Further down the line, works are taking place on the site of the old South Bermondsey station, where the new dive-under will be constructed.
A night prayer for you:
Be present to us now, O God of mercy, and in the hours of the night be our protector, that we, made weary by the changes and chances of this world, may rest in your eternal changelessness. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
I used a recipe the other day based on a familiar soup from the College in Spain. You will need some red kidney beans, some potatoes and maybe a small cabbage. Stew gently until all is soft and then pass through a liquidizer and season as necessary. Not really very tasty, but a good stand-by in the cold Castilian winters. There is a risk that your family will complain if you try to serve this.
And now some Lewis Carroll:
‘Tis the voice of the Lobster: I heard him declare
You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.
May I remind you of the Retreats and Days of Recollection at the Convent during the coming weeks? Details are given in the porch of the Church.
The works the roof of the Church are now completed. If you look carefully, you will be able to see the new lightning conductors on the roof slopes. In Spain the custom used to be to place a branch from Palm Sunday across the door of the house to ward of lightning but possibly nowadays a more scientific solution is required.
And here is Father Brown, as observed by the arch-criminal, Flambeau: the little priest was the essence of the Essex flats: he had a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling: he had eyes as empty as the North Sea: and he had several brown papers parcels which he was quite incapable of collecting.
Best wishes to you
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon