Dear friends,
It is now almost the end of the Church’s year, which concludes this Sunday with our celebration of Christ the King. Please make every effort to come to Mass: Sunday’s Parish Mass at 10.30am will involve a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, and our guest preacher (hopefully at Saturday’s Vigil Mass as well as on Sunday morning) will be Fr Andrew Davis, for many years the Vicar of Christ the Saviour, Ealing. This weekend also sees our “Countdown to Christmas” tabletop fair in the church Hall on Saturday, 10.30am-5pm: after a pause of some years, we are delighted to see the reappearance of this major fundraising event for our parish – for which we invite your wholehearted support. Join us on Saturday for food and drink and music, and pick up a bargain – with jewellery, cakes, decorations and bric-a-brac on sale…
There are changes to the Mass schedule next week, to allow us to support our friends at Kingsbury and Willesden Green: on Thursday, 30 November there will be no public Evening Prayer or Mass at St Mary’s (but Mass instead at St Andrew, Willesden Green at 7.30pm); and next week on Saturday, 2 December there will be no public Evening Prayer, Confessions or Vigil Mass (but Mass instead at St Andrew, Kingsbury at 4.30pm). Both parishes kindly supported us at our recent Confirmation – and it would be lovely if as many of us as possible could in turn support them for their Patronal celebrations.
As we look forward to Advent, we now invite cash donations towards our Christmas flowers (there will be a basket in church); we also require volunteers for our forthcoming Christmas workshop for Kenmore Park School (the afternoon of Friday 8 December), and for the (rescheduled) Christingle Service at 4pm on Sunday, 17 December: please sign up in church, or speak to me. Please note that the Christmas Dinner on Sunday, 16 December has been cancelled. However, a bring-and-share lunch in the Hall will follow a Sung Mass at 12pm on New Year’s Day, Monday 1 January: please put this date in your diary now, and let Pat know what you will be bringing.
Please find attached a flier for next year’s Harrow and Hillingdon Men’s Pilgrimage to Walsingham, as also details of the ACAT Christmas Greetings campaign, to extend solidarity and compassion to those imprisoned for their faith, or held inhumanely.
As this Sunday’s readings relate, true Christian honour, glory and nobility lie in wise discernment and compassionate service: as we prepare to enter the great season of preparation (Advent), let us make it our special prayer to ask for these gifts of wisdom and love. As, this Sunday, we kneel before Christ the King upon his throne of glory in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, let us call upon Christ, our great high priest, prince and prophet to encourage and empower us to be tireless in kindness and alert to the movement of His Spirit in the world.
Blessed, praised, hallowed and adored be Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe!
And may he richly bless you with wisdom, holiness, generosity and peace:
Fr Richard