Dear friends,
It was lovely to see many of you yesterday for our New Year’s Day Mass and meal – and thank you to all who came and who contributed.
A new year begins, and with it seem to come challenges and opportunities in equal measure. Someone once asked the Lord for happiness. ‘I give you blessings,’ the Lord replied: ‘Happiness is up to you.’ The meaning of this saying is that God graciously invites us to become co-authors with Him of our own destiny; to make more or less of what He gives us; to demonstrate either hope or hesitation as He beckons us into this new year. This weekend we will celebrate the great Feast of the Epiphany, and the arrival of the wise men in Bethlehem: like Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, we too are called to lay our gifts at Christ’s feet – to allow the Lord to direct our energies and aptitudes according to His good purposes – but also there to place our ‘burden of carefulness‘, with the ‘gold of obedience and incense of lowliness‘, as the Epiphany hymn describes. At the end of Mass, chalk will be blessed with which to inscribe a solemn formula of blessing upon our houses, asking God’s favour for the coming year: this inscription uses the sign of the Cross thrice, with the initials of the names of the Magi, and the numerals of the new year – 20 + C + M + B + 25. As we draw these figures upon our doorpost, we pray, ‘Bless, O Lord God almighty, this home, that in it there may be health, purity, the strength of victory, humility, goodness and mercy, the fulfilment of your Law, thanksgiving to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. And may this blessing remain upon this home and upon all who dwell herein. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.’ Chocolate coins, recalling the first of the kings’ gifts, will also be handed out to everyone!
We have of course so very much for which to be thankful. In 2024, average Sunday Mass attendanceincreased to 62, a 13% increase on the previous year. Usual weekly attendance (including those who came on a weekday and not on the preceding Sunday) stood at 69; Usual Sunday Attendance – which we are now able accurately to calculate – was 57, where, however, our ambition had been 61: let us pray for growth in faith, in love and in numbers – and let us answer this prayer by ourselves coming faithfully, Sunday by Sunday, to Mass. I am also overjoyed to report that our final monthly appeal in aid of an external charity (in December, for Crisis UK) raised £818.20 (+Gift Aid), thereby bringing our total donations for the year to an amazing £12,393.82 (+Gift Aid!) As a brother-priest remarked to me, ‘A giving parish is a living parish‘, and our investment in the good works and the needs of others is surely a sign of our confidence in, and commitment to, the mission of God through His Church.
Our new contactless donations terminal is already raising much-needed money for our own work and witness: we are likewise grateful for part-sponsorship of its purchase, and invite anyone else who wishes to do so to contribute to the remaining cost of £230.
The Intercessions list on the pew sheet is being updated, and any names to be included for our prayers should be written clearly on the list in church: this includes names already on the list, as it is being revised from scratch.
Please note that next week on Tuesday (7 January) Morning Prayer will be said at the earlier time of 9.00am; volunteers are then requested after the 9.30am Mass on Wednesday next week (8 January) to begin taking down some of our Christmas decorations.
Please find attached an invitation to Epiphanytide Lessons and Carols at our sister church of St George, Headstone on Saturday, 25 January at 5pm (with the Willan Singers, who are well-known to us at St Mary’s).
May God, the source and origin of all blessing, grant you grace, pour out His blessing in abundance, and keep you safe from harm throughout the year,
Fr Richard