Dear friends,
Thank you to all whose hard work last week made our Patronal festival celebrations, in honour of Our Lady of Walsingham, such a success: I was also very touched by your kind wishes on my second anniversary of Induction as your parish priest.
Today (Thursday, 26 September) we congratulate Fr Mike on his fourth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood: ad multos annos, Father! Fr Mike will celebrate the usual Thursday evening Mass at 6pm, and invites you afterwards to join him for light refreshments.
This Saturday coming, our Macmillan Coffee Morning will take place in the Hall, 10.30am-3pm. This important fixture in our calendar raises vital funds for the work of Macmillan Cancer Care, and donations can be made on the day in cash or by using your smartphone to scan a QR code: alternatively, you can donate online in advance via this link. Volunteers are requested to set up the Hall from 9am on Saturday, and/or to bake and bring a cake or other goods to offer. Please encourage the attendance and support of family, neighbours and friends.
On Sunday, we will continue to bear in mind those in need, as we receive your donations of groceries for distribution by the Harrow Food Bank at our Harvest Festival: at this time, the Food Bank in particular requires – tinned and packet food; long-life milk and fruit juice; cooking oil; porridge; teabags and instant coffee; toiletries for adults and infants, and household cleaning products; ketchup; pasta sauces, and preserves and spreads. At this time, the Food Bank does NOT require baked beans; tinned vegetable soup; cereal, or toilet paper – of which they have plentiful supplies. This Sunday will also be the final opportunity to make a cash donation towards the running costs of the Food Bank: please use a Gift Aid envelope as appropriate, and place your donations into the basket at the back.
In a suburban setting, the idea of the Harvest Festival might at first glance seem out of place or anachronistic: the Harvest Festival as we know it began in 1843 with Fr Robert Stephen Hawker, the rector of the north Cornish benefice of Morwenstow, who emphasised the connection between the bread and wine of the Eucharist and the prior labour and skill of those who worked in the fields and vineyards to produce them. Still today, in the Blessed Sacrament, God gives Himself to us in the stuff of ordinary life, in the simple elements of the Mass – calling us in turn to offer of our everyday existences to reveal His glory and to honour His Name. In our gifts to the Food Bank, we echo the original generosity of God, who answers the needs of the spirit just as we endeavour to make a small contribution to alleviate the needs of the flesh.
Later on Sunday, we will be attending Choral Evensong in the awe-inspiring setting of Westminster Abbey, at 3pm: do join us for this parish outing. Owing to engineering works, we will now be gathering on the platform at Kingsbury station (NOT Harrow-on-the-Hill) at 1.45pm; we will likely return to Kingsbury around 4.45pm. Please sign up in church.
Please also now sign up in church for the next Youth Group outing, on Saturday, 26 October – when we will go trampolining at Harrow Leisure Centre (£10pp, to include refreshments); and for our parish Christmas outing to the pantomime at Harrow Arts Centre, on Sunday, 15 December at 3pm (£20/£10 under-18s).
Please add to your diaries All Saints’ Day, on Friday, 1 November – when Mass will be celebrated at the usual time of 9.30am, and will be followed by fizz and pastries. All Saints’ Day is a holy day of obligation, which means that unless we are unavoidably occupied otherwise, we should make every effort to come to Mass.
Please also find attached a flier for the forthcoming 18-35s “Adoremus” young adults’ pilgrimage to Walsingham, 22-24 November: please speak to Fr Richard if you would like to attend, as a travel bursary may be available from parish funds.
Please, finally, find attached a poster for our upcoming secondary Patronal Festival, in honour of St Leonard, on Sunday, 3 November at 5pm. Please note that there will be NO 10.30am Mass that Sunday, in order for everyone to come together at 5pm. There will be fireworks and a party after Mass – and we will have a short planning meeting to begin preparing for this (as well as for our pre-Christmas Fair on Saturday, 23 November) after Mass on Sunday, 13 October. As usual, we would be very grateful for your bring-and-share contributions of food for the party; our guest preacher will be Fr David Bateman, Assistant Priest in the City Centre Catholic Parish in Southampton. Please do spread the word, and invite family – and friends from other parishes: all are welcome!
This Sunday’s incense will be scented with benzoin: register your favourite scent here, between now and 4 November!
Father, source of all life, and giver of all that is good, hear our prayers and grant us all that is in accordance with your will,
Fr Richard