newsletter 8th June 2014

Newsletter 8th June 2014.
Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost – which commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Our Blessed Lady and the Apostles.
On Monday we return to Ordinary time once again with the green vestments. In the Missal it is the 10th week in ordinary time and the Scripture readings at Mass are taken from the second cycle.
Wednesday is the feast of St. Barnabas. Although not one of the original twelve, he is honoured as an apostle on account of his great influence in the early days of the Church. In particular he helped Paul after his conversion and introduced to the other Christians.
Next Sunday is Trinity Sunday. There is a second Collection for the National Catholic Fund.
Year 6 from St.Matthew’s will be coming to the Church for Mass on Friday. This year they have completed their SATs for Key Stage 2 and await the results at the beginning of July. I know that with their teachers, they have worked very hard this year.
To London for meetings on Monday and Thursday and the Priests of the Deanery meet on Tuesday at Woolwich.
I am looking after the magnolia tree with great care an ensuring that it is watered regularly. There are so flowers but I am not sure when they will come into bloom. The hydrangeas in the same garden bed were originally used on a Communion day and have continued to flourish. Also the copper beech that was planted in 1982 has grown into a fine tree.
A recent treasure from the Oxfam shop – a book of plans from signal boxes on the Brighton line in 1920-1922 showing the signalling arrangements. This is really arcane. I can now work out how to shunt a horse box from the down platform into the cattle dock at Horsted Keynes.
A favourite for many people is to cook some chips – my method is to use equal portions of vegetable oil and corn oil – and ensure that the oil is at the right temperature before adding the chips. I understand that this is the recipe used at Macdonald’s – I am not sure about anything else but their chips are quite good
Some way ahead, but already some thoughts about Confirmations. Probably the Bishop will come in May of next year. Preparations would start in September or October – usually this takes the form of a class once a month, taking about an hour from 6.30 onwards. I will be putting out some inscription forms soon. Generally Confirmation is for those who are about 14 or 15.
The pool provides endless entertainment. There is a vacuum cleaner for the bottom of the pool but this needs to be connected up to the pump through about two metres of flexible pipe, and the pipe needs to be full of water and without air locks before it will work. A good way to become totally wet and frozen with a potential for bronchitis, but still I haven’t managed to make it work yet. Would anybody like to come to play one afternoon?
How about some Swinburne now:
When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces
The mother of months in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
With lisps of leaves and ripple of rain;
And the brown bright nightingale amorous
Is half assuaged for Itylus,
For the Thracian ships and foreign faces
The tongueless vigil, and all the pain.
Time for a prayer:
Grant us, O Lord to pass this day in gladness and peace, without stumbling and without stain; that, reaching the eventide victorious over all temptations, we may praise thee, eternal God, who are blessed, and dost govern all things, world without end. Amen.
And to finish, from Cobbett’s Rural Rides as he makes his way to Tonbridge: I began to see South Down sheep again, which I had not seen since I left Tenterden. All along here the villages are at not more than two miles distant from each other. They all have large churches, and scarcely any body to go to them.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon