St Mary’s Blackheath
Newsletter 8th October 2023
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 Twenty Seventh Sunday of the Church’s year.
At the end of Mas today we will be collecting donations from the Cafod fast day last Friday.
Friday is the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, the great English King who is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Also some anniversaries this week on 10th October: Archbishop Cowderoy, who ordained me and Monsignor Greenstock who was the Vice Rector when I was at the College in Spain. Prayers for the repose of their souls.
Welcome to the First Holy Communion group again today who will be helping in a special way with the 9.30 Mass.
Autumn days coming and once again I am thinking about heating in the Church. Please help as far as possible by keeping the doors closed.
It is good to see that the grass is growing well on the patch left by the pool. Thanks to Freddie and Clara for doing something really useful in sowing the grass seed. If you look at the Google Map for the garden, you can see the pool in place.
The works to the Church are almost complete. You will noted the new lights, including a new light on the step. A new piece of stone is awaited for the porch, but the main doors have been repainted and the side door adjusted.
Always trying something unusual. Bake some peppers, an onion and some tomatoes in the oven, adding a little vegetable stock to stop them burning. When they are soft, season and liquidise to make a thick sauce and use with some pasta.
A meeting of the priests of the Deanery on Tuesday and on Thursday to the eye hospital to check that all went well after the recent operation.
A prayer before eating:
Lord Jesus, who when you were on earth celebrated a meal with joy, be with us now and fill us with your spirit as we share our food. Amen.
We are they who come faster than fate:
We are they who ride early, or late:
We storm at your ivory gate:
Pale kings of the Sunset, beware!
For those with obscure interests, further units are coming across from the South Western to be converted into “City-Beam” trains. Six further units have come and there are six further units awaited to complete the total of thirty units.
We have been thinking recently about the Parish Council: due to Covid it went into a partial limbo, but we need to start things again and I will be sending out some information in the coming weeks.
The boy is doing very well at school this term. His mother tells me that he is already thinking about Cambridge – greatly to be encouraged. It seems that he wants to read Natural Science. But which College?
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon