Dear friends,
Please excuse a shorter weekly message than usual, as I balance my laptop on a hay bale, and search in vain for a signal! – located as I am this week in Walsingham, England’s Nazareth, for the Youth Pilgrimage. We are having an amazing time, and I look forward to sharing some photographs with you! Please pray for all pilgrims participating, and for the Shrine staff and others coordinating the week. So far, we have visited the Shrine and the Holy House; enjoyed a barbecue; worshipped together at Mass, and studied the Bible; enjoyed a football tournament, drama and circus skills workshops; walked the Holy Mile; experienced the healing ministries of the Shrine, and eaten our body-weights in sweets and ice cream! This afternoon, we are off to the seaside. I hope that the wonderful time had by this year’s pilgrims will encourage others of our young people to sign up next year.
This coming Sunday we are invited back to All Saints, Margaret Street for their Assumptiontide Choral Evensong, Benediction and Procession of Our Lady along Oxford Street: those wishing to travel together from Kenton should gather on the platform at Harrow-on-the-Hill station at 4.50pm.
This time next week, on Thursday 15 August, it will indeed be the great Solemnity of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Morning Prayer will be said at the slightly earlier time of 9.30am; and the 6pm Mass will be followed by drinks and light refreshments in the Vicarage garden – do come along!
In 1950, Pope Pius XII solemnly defined the dogma of the Assumption, which truth had nevertheless long been intuited by the Faithful: he acknowledged that ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary… by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body‘: instead, she was taken bodily into heaven at the close of her earthly life, where now she reigns in glory with Christ, and intercedes for the Church. We celebrate the power of Christ at work in Mary, and see in her our hopes fulfilled.
Have you ever thought about becoming a monk, nun or friar? If so, RoOT (Religious of Orthodox Tradition) is hosting a monastic taster day at St Paul’s Church in Brighton, on Saturday 12 October: register via nunsandmonks@gmail.com
May almighty God, at the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham, grant you health and peace,
Fr Richard