Dear friends,
This Sunday coming is the Feast of the Transfiguration, of which the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote, ‘Today the liturgy invites us to focus our gaze on this mystery of light. On the transfigured face of Jesus a ray of light, which he held within, shines forth. This same light was to shine on Christ’s face on the day of the Resurrection. In this sense, the Transfiguration appears as a foretaste of the Paschal [Easter] Mystery.’
This Saturday a number of us will travel to St Alban’s Abbey, for the Richborough Family Festival with Bishop Norman Banks. Morning Prayer will be offered in church at 9.00am, to which all are welcome: please then gather in church at 9.15am, for a prompt departure at 9.30am. We will return to Kenton at approximately 6.45pm.
Please bring a packed lunch, or purchase something to eat in St Alban’s: there is a café in the cathedral, which will however likely be very busy – but there are also plentiful shops and supermarkets in the city centre.
Please pray for fair weather, but bring wet weather gear! If we are outside to eat lunch, you may also wish to bring a camping stool or picnic blanket.
Please note that there will, on this occasion, be no 6pm Vigil Mass at St Mary’s on Saturday.
Please note that the outing to Brighton on 19 August, organised by St Andrew, Kingsbury, is now fully booked.
Please find attached the latest monthly prayer case from Action by Christians against Torture (Harrow). ACAT was formed in 1984 by the British Council of Churches, with the active support of Amnesty International and the Society of Friends (the Quakers). Their aim is to support Christians of all denominations to pray and to write letters of appeal to governments and other in countries where it is known that abuse and torture are practised, and to be a powerhouse of prayer for those detained.
We pray, ‘Lord Jesus, you experienced in person what it is like to have a death sentence hanging over you: you were plotted against; betrayed by a friend, and arrested under cover of darkness by those who came with clubs and swords. You were tortured, beaten and humiliated – and sentenced to an agonising death, though you had done no wrong. Be now with prisoners throughout the world: be with them in the darkness of the dungeon, and in the loneliness of separation from those they love; be with them in their fear of what may come to them, in the agony of their torture and in the face of execution and death. Stretch out your hands in mercy to all who have need of you at this time. Amen.‘
Please also find attached an invitation to St Cuthbert, Philbeach Gardens on Sunday, 3 September at 6.15pm, for Pontifical Evensong and a Procession of the Relics of St Cuthbert.
May the light of Christ, risen in glory, illuminate our minds, hearts and lives,
Fr Richard