Dear friends,
Strange indeed would be the family so busy preparing a birthday party for their child, that they had not the time to congratulate that child on the occasion of their birthday; stranger still the family who put together such a party, but issue no invitation to the one whose special day it is! And yet such will be the case for so many people this Christmas, who will forget “the reason for the season”, and fail to place Christ at Christmas’ heart. But, as Sir John Betjeman once wrote,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
To put Christ at the heart of Christmas, we need also to put Mass at the heart of Christmas: you are warmly invited – and encouraged to bring family and friends – not only to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at 11.30pm, and the Mass of the Day on Christmas Day at 10.30am, but also first to Mass this weekend, for the Fourth (and final) Sunday of Advent, celebrated as usual at 6pm on Saturday, and 10.30am on Sunday.
At Mass we will hear the Gospel account of the Visitation, when Elizabeth saluted her cousin Mary, and declared that ‘Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord‘: like Mary, we must be those who listen and who believe, our faith informed and fortified by the sharing of Word and Sacrament in the Eucharist.
We would likewise be hugely grateful for your help decorating the church for Christmas, either after Mass (and after a fortifying glass of vin santo!) on Sunday, and/or on Christmas Eve after Morning Prayer at 9.45am. Thank you so much to all who have already contributed so significantly to our Christmas preparations – perhaps by delivering Christmas invitations to the parish; and thank you for your kind Christmas wishes, cards and gifts to your clergy, who love you very much.
Hopefully in time for Christmas, or otherwise in the New Year, we will be upgrading our contactless donations systems, to make these payments more straightforward and customisable. The new equipment has cost £330: please speak to me if you would like to sponsor this purchase. Thank you similarly for donations towards the cost of this year’s Christmas flowers, totalling £417.20; and thank you to those who supported the Bereavement Care carolling at Harrow Station earlier this week, which raised the magnificent sum of £623.13 (+Gift Aid).
It is not only with our neighbours that we have been sharing the Good News of Christ’s Birth: earlier this month, we welcomed almost 400 children (and their grown-ups) to our church, for two schools’ Christmas workshops; an inaugural Kenton Schools’ Community Carol Service, and the Harrow District Scouts’ Christingle! We are grateful to Fr Mike for these and these beautiful pictures from these very special occasions.
Please find attached an invitation to join other Christians from across Harrow at a Prayer Meeting on Wednesday, 8 January 2025 from 8pm to 9pm, at St Peter’s Church, West Harrow. And do remember to let Pat know what you can bring to the bring-and-share lunch after a 12pm Mass on New Year’s Day, Wednesday 1 January 2025.
May God the Holy Spirit, by whose working the Virgin Mary conceived the Christ, help you to bear the fruits of holiness,
Fr Richard