Dear friends,
I write to you on the memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels. Each of us has been given a guardian angel by God, as a heavenly protector and guide. Our Lord says that ‘[our] angels in heaven always gaze on the face of my Father in heaven.’ The angels thus have a dual role, fulfilling their earthly mission of guardianship of God’s people, whilst echoing the eternal song of praise in heaven. Their ministry reminds us of God’s care for each of us, individually. At the same time, therefore, as thanking God for our guardian angels, let us also pray for them in their mission: what a bore and a burden to them some of us must be! May we one day be a cause of rejoicing for them also.
On Saturday our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning will take place in the Hall, 10.30am-3pm. Volunteers are requested both to bake a cake for the occasion (please see Bernadette), and to help setting up the Hall on Friday evening, from 5pm. Those who cannot come on the day, but would like to make a donation towards the invaluable work of Macmillan Cancer Care can do so online, here. Please support this special event, and enjoy hot coffee and delicious homemade cake, while raising money to look after those living with cancer.
On Sunday, it will be our Harvest Festival: as we give thanks to God for all the good things we enjoy, we also remember those less fortunate than ourselves. Please bring to Mass a contribution for the Harrow Food Bank: the list of requested groceries, household items and toiletries is available in church. Our Harvest collection will remain open for a couple of weeks after this one, to ensure all donations are accounted for.
Thank you very much for your support of last month’s appeal in aid of Caritas Bakhita House, which raised £660 (+Gift Aid). Bakhita House is currently home to 12 women and 2 babies (all in need of shelter, food and assistance), one of whom said, ‘What my time here has taught me is not to look back, but forward where my future is, and where I will be safe.’ Your kindness means that Caritas Westminster can provide hope, dignity and safety to trafficked and abused women who need it most.
We have also received a lovely message from the Motor Neurone Disease Association, our chosen charity in July: the sum of £545 raised at St Mary’s means that the MND Association can now – buy software to enable someone with MND to bank their voice, helping them to maintain their identity should they lose their voice in future, whilst communicating with friends and family; fund an expert researcher for a day, helping better to understand this disease; buy a memory box for a child affected by MND, which will allow a family to capture those moments and memories which will provide comfort to that child in future; provide information packs for 7 newly-diagnosed people with MND, so that they know what to expect, and how to access support, and fund an MND Connect helpline advisor for 7 hours – what an achievement!
This Black History Month, we will be collecting for the Sickle Cell Society: this charity supports families caring for loved ones and healthcare professionals on the frontline – providing vital services, advocating for better healthcare and empowering those living with sickle cell. Please use (a Gift Aid envelope and) the basket in church, and please give generously.
This month we also begin the annual Mass count for the national Church’s Statistics for Missionprogramme: we give glory to God for an increase in the size of our Sunday congregation, which – by one measure – has grown by 30% over the past three years. At the end of the third quarter of 2025, our averageSunday attendance was 63, and our usual Sunday attendance 60 (including 4 children). At the same time, I was disappointed to note how few people were at Mass last Sunday (in my absence): let us this month, and across this final quarter of the year, recommit ourselves to faithful attendance at the Eucharist Sunday by Sunday. Our target is now for an average Sunday attendance of at least 60 people each week, from this weekend until the end of the year – and success lies, friends, in your hands!
There will be a PCC meeting after Mass on Sunday.
The list is now out in church for this year’s All Souls Mass, on Sunday, 2 November at 6pm – when we remember and pray for our departed loved ones. Please make a note of this date and time, and please PRINT CLEARLY the names of those you would like remembered, aloud by name, during this Mass.
Please sign up in church for our parish outing on Sunday, 12 October: we will depart from Harrow-on-the-Hill Station at 3.15pm, and take in afternoon tea (approx. £6.50pp) at St Martin-in-the-Fields’ Café in the Crypt, before joining in Choral Evensong at 5pm. We will return to Harrow-on-the-Hill around 6.30pm.
The next Youth Group outing will be to the Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs exhibition, on Saturday, 25 October. Places are limited: please sign up in church, and collect and return an application form, as well as £10pp to secure a place (this includes lunch, at McDonalds).
Please also find included with this mailing an invitation to a Solemn Mass in honour of St Teresa of Ávila, at St Andrew, Holborn (the pro-cathedral of the See of Fulham), on Wednesday, 15 October at 7pm (guest preacher: Fr Alan Rimmer, Assistant Priest, All Saints, Margaret Street) – to be followed by drinks and a light supper.
We pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters affected by the terrorist attack in Manchester this morning; as also for a peaceful, just and lasting resolution to the conflict in the Holy Land of Christ’s birth, and likewise for an end to all violence and hatred, in the name and the power of the Prince of Peace.
May God our Creator, who clothes the lilies of the field and feeds the birds of the air, bestow on you His care, and increase the harvest of your righteousness,
Fr Richard