Dear friends,
Tickets (£12.50/£5) remain on sale for our summer barbecue (on Saturday, 16 August), either for cash, by contactless payment or by using this link – if using the link, please enter the total payable, and then notify Fr Richard once payment has been made, so that a paper ticket can be issued to you also. Fr Richard also has a spare ticket, free of charge, for the first person who requests it. Please note that the final planning meeting for the barbecue will take place after Mass on Sunday, 10 August.
Additional seats have now been released on the coach to Walsingham, for the Pilgrimage for Healing and Renewal (on Bank Holiday Monday, 25 August) – these cost £25/£5, and the coach will leave St Mary’s at 7.45am. The ministries of healing are central to the work of the Shrine at Walsingham, where – for centuries – pilgrims have come to seek Our Lady’s intercession for health and wellbeing.
Before then, next week nine of our young people will accompany Fr Richard to Walsingham for the Youth Pilgrimage, joining 27 other young people from the Dioceses of London and Southwark, and around 250-300 young people from across the country, for a week of worship, teaching, fellowship and fun, to explore the theme “Credo – Seeing Jesus through Mary’s Eyes“, with contributions from former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, the Bishop of Richborough and others. Please pray for our young pilgrims (and for fair weather!) – and thank you for your support for this apostolic venture. If you would like to make a financial contribution to our group costs, please see Fr Richard: we would also welcome contributions of Tesco gift cards. (And note also that, on Tuesday and Thursday next week, there will therefore be no public Morning Prayer at St Mary’s.)
This month’s chosen charity is Mind, a national charity which advocates for and raises awareness of better mental health provision, at the same time as supporting those with mental health problems: to contribute, please use the basket at the back of church – where you can also pick up an information leaflet, to learn more.
Also at the back of church is a sign-up sheet for a parish lunch and conversation after Mass on Sunday, 14 September (the Feast of the Holy Cross), when our guest preacher – Fr Stephen Gallagher, Missioner to the See of Fulham – will lead us in a discussion about our parish’s future direction and priorities. A buffet lunch will be provided free of charge, and with no need for personal contributions of food – but please sign up before 7 September, to help with judging numbers for catering, and also to inform us of any dietary requirements. (The lunch and conversation will likely not last for longer than two hours.)
Fr Gallagher has been ordained for more than thirty-five years, serving variously as a parish priest and Youth Missioner in the Diocese of Chichester; as Shrine Priest and Assistant Administrator in Walsingham; as a “Fan the Flame” missioner, and as a parish priest here in London, in Enfield Lock. He now combines his work for Bishop Jonathan with a role as Associate Priest of St Chad, Haggerston, and Stepney Catholic Missioner.
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus reminds us to develop a proper perspective on our priorities in life, cautioning against the single-minded pursuit of material gain. Instead, we should ask how our life and actions might give glory to God, and so store up treasures for ourselves in heaven.
Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us; / give success to the work of our hands,
Fr Richard