Dear friends,
We are looking forward most eagerly to the Parish Mass at 10.30am this Sunday, 8 February, when Jonathan, our bishop, will join us to celebrate the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation: do please make every effort to be present (and extend this invitation to family and friends!); and please pray too for our candidates for Confirmation, Lisa and JP. There will be a party in the Hall after Mass: if you have not yet spoken to Pat, please let her know ASAP what you are kindly able to bring to eat, to share with the rest of the congregation. Volunteers are likewise requested to help set up the Hall, on Saturday from 4pm.
The sacrament of Confirmation is ‘the fire of God’s love sweeping down upon our lives, and filling us with His power. There is a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just as there was on the disciples on the day of Pentecost.’
We will be joined at the end of Mass by His Eminence Atanasie, Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who is likewise paying a pastoral visit to the parish of St Stephen the Great, Harrow – which meets in our church on Sunday afternoons. As a sign of the growing friendship with our Romanian Orthodox brothers and sisters, we will ask Bishop Jonathan to present an icon of Our Lady of Walsingham to Archbishop Atanasie, as well as other gifts to Orthodox Archdeacon Paul Loghin, and the parish priest of St Stephen the Great, Fr Aurel Sandu Nicolaescu.
This Sunday is the final opportunity to sign up for the next Youth Group outing, to FlipOut Watford on Tuesday, 17 February (during the school half-term holiday) – for which we will be joined by our friends from St Alphage, Burnt Oak. The family of each participating child or young person must complete and return a registration form, and pay £10pp (to include food and drink).
Please also now return last year’s palm crosses, to be burned to generate the ash for Ash Wednesday, 18 February – when there will be Masses at 9.30am and 6pm.
Please note that next week on Tuesday, 10 February there will be no public Morning Prayer. On Wednesday, 11 February the 9.30am Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes (on the World Day of Prayer for the Sick) will include the Anointing of the Sick: just as in Confirmation, the use of holy oil communicates the presence and tenderness of God in our lives. ‘This sacrament brings forgiveness. It helps the sick person to stay close to Jesus. It brings them consolation and peace, and helps them to offer up their sufferings to God for the good of others.’ All are welcome to be anointed during this Mass.
Another beautiful devotion in which you may wish to participate is the traditional devotion of the Five First Saturdays. When Our Lady appeared with the Child Jesus in Fátima in July 1917, Our Lord said that to ‘all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess; receive Holy Communion; recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation‘ shall receive, through the Blessed Mother, the ‘graces necessary for salvation‘ at the moment of death.
We extend our heartfelt sympathies, and the assurance of our prayers, to our friend Fr Bernard Dagnall and his family, on the sad loss of his wife Jenny Dagnall, who died last week on Saturday. Jenny’s funeral Mass will take place on Wednesday, 4 March at 10am in the church of St John, New Hinksey in Oxford. A Mass of Requiem will be said for Jenny here on Thursday next week, 12 February at 6pm. May she rest in peace.
Included with this mailing is an updated parish calendar for the year; and an invitation to the Patronal celebrations at St Cuthbert, Philbeach Gardens next month.
Let your Holy Spirit rest upon us: the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding; the Spirit of counsel, and inward strength; the Spirit of knowledge, and true godliness; and let our delight be in the fear of the Lord,
Fr Richard