Dear friends,

What a busy but exciting week we have in prospect! On Friday falls the Solemnity (and Holy Day of Obligation) of All Saints: our usual 9.30am Mass will be followed by pastries and sparkling refreshments for breakfast – to which all are very welcome. Then, on Saturday, we will commemorate with great affection the faithful departed, for All Souls: there will be Masses at 9.30am and 2pm; Morning Prayer will be said simply at 9am (without the usual period of Eucharistic Adoration), and all are encouraged to practice fasting and abstinence for the holy souls in Purgatory. Evening Prayer, Confessions and the 6pm Vigil Mass will all take place as usual. Volunteers are then requested to help set up the Hall for our St Leonard’s Day celebrations, from 6pm.

On Sunday, there will be no 10.30am Mass (although Morning Prayer will be said as usual at 9.45am). This is because we will indeed be celebrating our secondary Patron, St Leonard, at 5pm (and in the presence of the Mayor of Harrow): this Mass will be followed by fireworks and feasting! Please extend an invitation to neighbours, family and friends – and please see Pat to confirm any remaining, kind contributions to the bring-and-share meal after Mass. Please also see me to contribute to the remaining cost of the fireworks (c.£120).

Please keep an eye on the Transport for London website, as disruption is anticipated, if Tube strikes go ahead.

The readings for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time remind us of the twin pillars upon which the spiritual life rests, namely the love of God – expressed in worship, and the love of neighbour – expressed in care, concern and service. However, our first reading (from Deuteronomy 6) also emphasises the intentionality and focus which we must bring to our spiritual lives – for we must love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and strength: we must guard against distraction in prayer, and against half-heartedness in our charitable actions, that indeed these principles of spiritual development should be found ‘written on [our] hearts‘.

We continue to welcome your kind contributions of raffle prizes and quality bric-a-brac, for the Christmas Market in the Hall on Saturday, 23 November: there will also be another planning meeting for this event, after Mass on Remembrance Sunday, 10 November. Do please spread the word!

Please see me to sponsor (£80 + Gift Aid) the final volume of the new four-volume chapel lectionaries which will be used from Advent Sunday: each volume may be dedicated (and inscribed) in memory of a departed loved one, or in thanksgiving – and these will be blessed, together with our beautiful new Book of the Gospels, by Bishop Peter Wheatley on Sunday, 1 December.

We extend our condolences, and the assurance of our prayers, to the family of the late Audrey Munday, sometime stalwart of St Mary’s, who died recently: I hope to share with you details of her funeral service in due course, suffice to say that the 9.30am Mass on Wednesday, 4 December will be offered as a Mass of Requiem for the repose of her soul: may she now rest in peace.

Thank you for your donations in October, totalling £455 (+ Gift Aid), for the charity Freedom from Torture; our external giving in November will be for the Alzheimer’s Society: please place your donations into the basket in church, and use a Gift Aid envelope as appropriate – but please do NOT post your donation separately to the charity!

Please continue to sign up for the outing to Winchester’s Christmas Market on Tuesday, 3 December; for the Schools’ Workshops on Friday, 6 December, and for the parish outing to the pantomime on Sunday, 15 December.

And a reminder that Kenton West Safer Neighbourhoods Team will be holding community contact sessions as follows: drop-in surgeries at Kenton Library on Thursday, 14 November (10-11am) and Tuesday, 26 November (12-1pm); “walk, talk and do” sessions on Wednesday, 6 November (Kenton Recreation Ground, 10-10.30am); Wednesday, 13 November (Kenton Recreation Ground, 11.30am-12.15pm); Wednesday, 20 November (Priestmead Recreation Ground, 12.30-1.15pm), and Wednesday, 27 November (Kenton Recreation Ground, 1-1.45pm); and “coffee with a copper” at Belmont Costa Coffee on Friday, 15 November (11.30am-12.30pm).

This Sunday’s incense will be flavoured with honeysuckle: register your favourite scent here, choosing from the ten scents trialled over the past ten weeks!

Praised be the God who saves me, worthy of all praise, my rock!

Fr Richard