Dear friends,
On Monday, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross – and we pray especially for the 630 priest-brothers of the Society of the Holy Cross. The twentieth-century martyr St Maximilian Kolbe wrote that, ‘The cross is the school of love‘ – for, in the mystery of the Holy Cross, we see the heart of love exposed: a love which is sacrificial and self-forgetful; a love which is generous and gives, and a love which courageously opens its arms to embrace the world, despite the great vulnerability this entails. As the hymn has it, ‘I will cling to the old rugged cross, / And exchange it some day for a crown.’
Volunteers are required this evening (Friday), to help set up the Hall – in advance of tomorrow’s Macmillan Coffee Morning (in the Hall, 11am-4pm). Please encourage family, friends and neighbours to support this most worthwhile of events: online donations for Macmillan may be made here.
On Sunday after Mass, the ashes of the late Phil Edwards will be laid to rest in our memorial garden.
Please also pick up in church one of this year’s stewardship envelopes, to make your contribution towards the expense of sanding and resealing the church floor: this work cost £7,020 – and your offerings (in thanksgiving for God’s blessings over the year past) will be much appreciated. We entrust the success of this campaign to the prayers of Our Lady of Sorrows, whose commemoration falls next week on Tuesday – the anniversary also of the laying of the foundation stone of St Mary’s, on 15 September 1935.
We will celebrate our Patronal Festival (in honour of Our Lady of Walsingham) on Sunday, 27 September – when our guest preacher and principal celebrant will be the Rt Rev’d Tony Robinson, Emeritus Bishop of Wakefield. This Mass will include Sprinkling with Walsingham well water (which will afterwards also be available, to take away in individual bottles), and will be followed by a bring-and-share parish lunch in the Hall: please let Denise know what you can bring, to share. Volunteers are requested, in due course, to help set up the Hall for this, from 6.45pm on Saturday 26.
There is a bumper crop of fliers appended to this week’s message – including Patronal festival celebrations in Willesden, Abbey Wood, Pimlico and Shepherd’s Bush; and Masses in honour of Our Lady of Walsingham (Kentish Town) and a ruby jubilee of priestly ordination (Little Stanmore): do take a look! Details are also appended about an Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace, next month.
And please note, finally, that I will be on annual leave between Wednesday 16 and Wednesday, 23 September: please consult the pew sheet for changes to the Mass schedule; and, in my absence, please speak to Fr Mike with any pastoral concerns – or to the churchwardens concerning any other urgent business about St Mary’s.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
Fr Richard