Dear friends,
In this Sunday’s second reading, St Paul counsels the Christians in Ephesus that, although ‘[this] may be a wicked age, [yet] your lives should redeem it‘. Even where we cannot immediately discern the benefit of our lives of prayer, penance and good works – even where we may not derive immediate consolation from the same – yet we should always know that no prayer goes unanswered, no sacrifice passes unacknowledged, no small act of generosity is ever unseen by the Lord, who – in His mercy and in His mystery – strengthens the Church as the Body of Christ throughout its many members. Indeed, we should persevere in prayer and in charity, recognising that our efforts may be for the benefit of another, unseen – and that the graces we in turn experience may have been won for us by the holiness of some other Christian, that is, by the labours of a brother or sister now unknown.
Today is the beautiful Solemnity of the Assumption, and Morning Prayer will be said presently, at the slightly earlier time of 9.30am. Later today, Evening Prayer will be said as usual at 5.45pm, and Mass celebrated at 6pm: do come along to mark the occasion, and stay afterwards to drinks in the Vicarage garden.
There are 3 spare seats on the coach to Walsingham for the Pilgrimage for Healing and Renewal, on Bank Holiday Monday, 26 August. Please let me know ASAP if you would like to come – and please would all those who have signed up to participate, but have not yet paid for their seats, do so this Sunday (£20/£5). On the day, Morning Prayer will be said in church at 7am: please otherwise gather at church by 7.15am, and please bring a packed lunch.
Thank you for your generous pledges of household essentials for our incoming pastoral assistant, Ryan: please now bring these to church, this Sunday or next. Please see Pat to sign up to bring a dish to Ryan’s welcome lunch, after Mass on Sunday, 1 September.
Advance notice likewise of yet another bring-and-share parish lunch, on Sunday, 22 September – to mark our Patronal Festival in celebration of Our Lady of Walsingham, as also my own second anniversary as your parish priest. Again, please see Pat to pledge a sharing plate for this parish meal.
Advance notice also of our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning, on Saturday, 28 September, in the Hall 10.30am-3pm. Please see Bernadette to assist: online donations can be made here.
Next week on Thursday, 29 August the Willan Singers will be with us once again, to sing John Ireland’s Communion Service in C, during Mass at 6pm. There will again be refreshments afterwards – and we would be grateful if you might bake and bring a cake!
Last week at Mass some of our young people shared their very positive experiences of the recent Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage: if you have a Facebook account, you can see more pictures of the week here. Our three pilgrims joined with a group of 22 young people from London, and more than 300 from across the UK! Next year’s Youth Pilgrimage will take place 4-8 August 2025 – and we hope that even more of our teenagers will take part!
We are pleased to share the good news from Action by Christians against Torture that journalist, author and film-maker Vladimir Kara-Murza, who grew up and studied in Harrow, and for whom we prayed in November 2022, was finally released – while serving a 20-year sentence for “high treason” – in the recent prisoner exchange with Russia. This weekend at Mass we will continue to think about and pray for those unjustly imprisoned, and who suffer as victims of modern slavery.
Our friends at St Andrew, Kingsbury wish to recruit a part-time parish administrator: please see the attached job description. Applications close at midday on 31 August.
A member of the congregation has also asked us to advertise his property consultancy service: please see the attached flier. (St Mary’s is pleased to advertise on behalf of parishioners, but this should not in any way be seen as a formal endorsement of the services offered.)
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek and strive after peace,
Fr Richard