St Mary’s Blackheath
Newsletter 9th July 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 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary time.
It is kept as Sea Sunday and there are some envelopes if you would like to make a donation to help the work of the Apostleship the Sea.
Tuesday is the feast if St. Benedict.
A request to return the forms for the Holy Communion classes. I work out that 24 forms have been taken but to date only 9 have been returned.
Some requests about Confirmations: we hold classes every two years so the next set of classes will start in the autumn of 2024.
A very Spanish recipe. Chop and onion and fry it in some hot oil and add some pieces of chorizo. Add a can of chopped tomatoes and some drained chick- peas. You might serve it with some pesto.
To Sussex this coming week to visit my family. I have not been there for at least a year so it will be good to see the latest developments: usually there is a high-speed trip round the lanes in one of the cars and I have to pretend I am enjoying it.
I commend Benedict’s rule to you: (ch.40). It is some uneasiness that we specify the amount of food and drink for others. We believe that half a bottle of wine a day is sufficient for each. But to those to whom God gives the strength to abstain must know that they will earth their own reward.
And some Auden:
In Brueghel’s Icarus, for instance; how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure.
The herb pots are doing well this year: a high- pitched alarm has safeguarded the basil from the birds and animals. Lots of parsley and cress in different forms: I am beginning to harvest it.
We are coming to the end of the season for music at Mass. Thanks to the organists and the members of the choir for all their help and support. We start again in September.
A prayer for those who mourn:
O God, be close to all those who are mourning for the loss of someone that they have loved. May you be their comfort and their strength. Through Christ Our Lord.
Years ago, at this time of year, we would be settling in to the College’s country house in Spain. There was a special form of language that we used – I must go the bodega as we are going on a vega day, and we need a puchero and a garrafon Claro! There were no exact English words for the things that we needed.
Very many thanks for your generous response to the appeal for funds for Greenwich Foodbank which came to £815.48 (excluding any funds donated direct online). Thank you too for your ongoing food donations which are greatly appreciated and much needed. Details of the Foodbank’s current needs are displayed at the back of the Church.
Best wishes to you all,
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon