Author: Fr. Matthew

Passiontide, the final two weeks.

This Sunday is called Passion Sunday and it marks the start of the last two weeks of Lent. 

This is a very special time within our church calendar and is marked by the veiling of the statues, icons and crosses in church. 

It marks the two weeks before Christ’s Passion and our liturgy at morning prayer and evening prayer shifts to recognise this starker last period of lent.

It is in this time that the darkness feels greatest, we know what is to come on Good Friday and we know the events of the next two weeks only too well.

In the old lectionary (our diary of readings) the readings for this Sunday focused on the eighth chapter of John – where Jesus is accused of blasphemy and even possession and where people started to reach for stones to throw at him. 

“So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” John 8:59

Just as Jesus hid himself He is now hidden in church behind veils and covers. 

His images and statues are taken away and perhaps we find ourselves holding stones ready to throw.

In these final weeks of lent we are called to see the stones we are carrying and to recognise where we were planning to throw them. 

We are called to examine ourselves in the starkness of the darkness ahead.

It is in that examination and that darkness that we will most clearly see the coming glory and bright light that is Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

Fr. Matthew

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Next Sunday children are invited to come and help build the Easter Garden in the Lady Chapel. It’ll be a hands-on activity where we re-create the garden of gethsemane, calvary and the tomb. The garden will form the centre piece of the altar of repose over Easter.

During Lent there will be a Priest available for confessions for an hour before each mass. Make your way to the statue of Jesus and the Priest will hear your confession or will help you make your first confession. 

It’s Palm Sunday next week so don’t be late for Mass – we’ll start our procession outside at 10am and you’ll be able to receive your blessed palms to take home.

From the 30th April we’ll be launching a new Evening Prayer & Benediction service on the last Sunday of each month at 6pm.

Julie, Susan and Fr. Josiah are advancing plans for a new Sunday afternoon children’s service and club – 4pm to 6pm on the last Sunday of each month. The first service will be on the 30th April. If you’d like to be involved, please speak to Fr. Josiah.

A trinity of Bishops!

This week we were visited by Bishop Sarah, Bishop of London. Bishop Lusa, Bishop of Willesden, and our own Bishop, Jonathan.

The visit was part of the Bishop of London’s tour of the Willesden & Fulham Areas. She arrived with the entire senior staff and we shared a time of prayer together before having some lunch.

Many people from the parish were able to meet with the bishops and the senior staff and tell them exactly what they thought of St. Anselm’s!

They got to try out the coffee bike and hear about the amazing work so many of you are doing here.

This visit comes on the back of two successive Sundays where our attendance has topped 50. 

There is now a real sense of renewal and purpose here in St. Anselm – something I know none of you will be surprised about – but to hear it confirmed by the visiting bishops and senior staff is deeply encouraging.

Everyone should be proud of their part in this amazing renewal and their part in planning new and exciting projects launching soon. 

These new projects include a Sunday afternoon Children’s and Youth Club as well as a new Playgroup and the return of monthly Evening Prayer & Benediction. 

You’ll also notice some plans for a re-designed entrance (on the noticeboards at the front door) that will make us more accessible and attractive to those wandering by.

How wonderful it is to be loved by Jesus and to be following the Holy Spirit in this place alongside you all!

Fr. Matthew

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This Sunday we celebrate Mothering Sunday. A lighter day during Lent during when we celebrate ‘home’. Mothering Sunday was traditionally the day people would travel home to the church they were baptised in and visit family – especially our mothers. So come this Sunday as we celebrate all those who care for us, our families, whoever they are whatever they look like. We also have a small present for our mothers.

During Lent there will be a Priest available for confessions for an hour before each mass. Make your way to the statue of Jesus and the Priest will hear your confession or will help you make your first confession. 

Julie, Susan and Fr. Josiah are advancing plans for a new Sunday afternoon children’s service and club – 4pm to 6pm on the last Sunday of each month. The first service will be on the 30th April. If you’d like to be involved, please speak to Fr. Josiah.

From the 30th April we’ll be launching a new Evening Prayer & Benediction service on the last Sunday of each month at 6pm.

Can you bring in any spare plastic bags you have for foodbank please.

Via Crucis, the way of the cross.

The way of the cross (Via Crucis) is depicted in most of our churches in different images, photos etc. and this gives us imaginary scenes of the process Jesus went through up to his crucifixion, death and burial in the tomb. 

This is part of the liturgy is a devotional exercise because we stand in front of the 14 stations which helps in our meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ. 

In going through the stations, we listen to words of encouragement, meditate, pray for ourselves and others including the faithful departed. 

I have always seen this liturgy as a great tool in presenting Jesus to an unbeliever and individuals who want a better description of how Jesus died on the cross. 

As a young Christian growing up, the Via Crucis helped to shape my understanding of Christianity and my social life. Indeed, it was clear to me that nothing good comes easy and to achieve greatness takes time. I always made sure never to miss the liturgy of the stations of the cross because I see God speaking to me in this devotional exercise.

Jesus Christ went through all this so that we will be saved and have eternal life. What Jesus Christ did for us on the cross is what makes us who we are today. 

I am always encouraged to press on no matter the difficulty when I read this scripture 

“…if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

Fr. Josiah

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On Thursday (16th) we’ll be joined by three bishops. Bishop Sarah as Bishop of London is visiting churches in the Willesden Area alongside Bishop Lusa (Bishop of Willesden) and our Bishop, Jonathan (Bishop of Fulham). Please do come along at midday for a short period of prayer followed by lunch and conversations with the bishops. Nothing too serious, just a chat over coffee from the new coffee bike and some lovely cake. An opportunity to tell the Bishops exactly what you think of St. Anselm’s and Hayes!

During Lent there will be a Priest available for confessions for an hour before each mass. Make your way to the statue of Jesus and the Priest will hear your confession or will help you make your first confession. 

Next Sunday is Mothering Sunday (not Mother’s Day as I was told off for saying this week!) Please do come home to your mother church here in Hayes. There will be a small gift for all mothers at the end of Mass.

Can you bring in any spare plastic bags you have for foodbank please?

Exploring a good lent.

It may sound odd to want to wish somebody a good lent. But that’s exactly what we should do.

Lent is a period of time that allows us to prepare for the high point of the Christian year – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

It is not simply a period of time where we think about something that we can give up, ‘what are you giving up this year?’ or what we may take on, ‘are you doing extra devotionals this year?’. 

No, lent is first and foremost a period of preparation, a period of preparation in which we leverage the power of self-denial in order to attempt to walk more closely with Jesus in his final weeks of earthly life.

In the following weeks we will walk with Jesus as He moves from the surrounds of Jerusalem where crowds follow Him and where He teaches to all who will listen. Where He heals, where He walks, where He talks to all who have ears to listen. 

We will enter into that great city with Him as he arrives as King – but not the King that people want or expect.

We will stand next to Him as the crowds who followed Him, where healed by Him, who listened to Him call for His death on the cross.

Most importantly we will share in His death, we will wait at His tomb and we will rejoice when we arrive on Easter Sunday morning – He is alive!

So I wish you a good lent. I wish that you find a way to walk with Jesus over the coming weeks and in doing so find a closer relationship with Him and a deeper understanding of His Love for you.

Fr. Matthew

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Please bring your palm crosses to church on Sunday so that we can burn them for Ash Wednesday!

During Lent there will be a Priest available for confessions for an hour before each mass. Make your way to the statue of Jesus and the Priest will hear your confession or will help you make your first confession. 

Next Saturday (25th) is the annual fundraising concert by the Torfaen Male Voice Choir. Last year we raised well over £500 in ticket sales and donations for tea & coffee for the work of the parish. Please do support the concert by selling tickets this week or putting up a poster in your local shop.

Alpha continues to run on Thursday evenings right through Lent. If you’re interested, or know someone who you think may find it helpful, given them a flyer or point them to our website at stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/alpha

Can you bring in any spare plastic bags you have for foodbank please?

Our new coffee bike is now in place alongside our new cafe area. We’ll be advertising shortly for somebody to come and run the cafe on our behalf for a set daily fee – if you know of anyone who may be interested please speak to Fr. Matthew.

Healing & wholeness.

It’s no surprise that many of us feel under the weather at this time of year. The cold weather is still with us, the sun isn’t quite warming things up yet and is still taking too long to appear in the mornings – yet disappears far to early of an evening.

We are tired, we are worn out, we many not even be able to put a finger on quite what is wrong with us.

Of course sometimes we know exactly what is wrong with us – a sore throat, a bad leg, poor eyesight and an aching back.

When these things assault us we turn to the medicine cupboard and reach for the pills, the solutions, the badges and special wraps that keep us going day by day.

These are good and important things, but there is a deeper hurt, a deeper pain, a deeper wrongness that can affect how we feel day to day.

It’s difficult to put a name to, but it can pull us down and in doing so make our physical woes harder to bare, harder to heal.

It’s this deep hurt and pain that our service of Benediction and Healing will address on Sunday evening. 

There will be a quiet hour where we’ll sit in from of the Blessed Sacrament and ask Jesus to heal us.

We’ll gather and Fr. Matthew & Fr. Josiah will lay on hands and pray for healing for specific needs.

We’ll be anointed with oil from the Holy Land and will reach out to God in prayer – to ask that the deep hurts we feel are cured. That they are made bearable.

Come, be healed.

Fr. Matthew

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PCC meeting on the 5th February (this Sunday) immediately after mass – to include a special meeting for appointing Fr. Matthew as Vicar.

There will be a special service of Benediction and Healing on Sunday (15th) at 6pm – with anointing and laying on of hands for healing using oil from the Holy Land.

Alpha continues to run on Thursday evening and for the next 10 weeks. If you’re interested, or know someone who you think may find it helpful, given them a flyer or point them to our website at stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/alpha

The foodbank is still in serious need of help. Last week we looked after over 89 families and each week we are being cleared of food. Please do donate any spare tins you may have

Our new coffee bike is now in place alongside our new cafe area. We’ll be advertising shortly for somebody to come and run the cafe on our behalf for a set daily fee – if you know of anyone who may be interested please speak to Fr. Matthew.

Love one another, as I have loved you.

Being a Christian is not always easy. For a start there are all these other people who claim to be Christian but don’t behave the way I do… so they can’t be Christians!

Sadly, this kind of thinking is all too common in our churches. It’s the kind of thinking that Jesus preached and taught against so often. 

We need to start with the simple understanding that anyone who loves Jesus is a brother and sister – and then work from there.

There are enough reasons to disagree and argue with people in the world without us finding new ways to fall out with our own family.

As I return from the Holy Land I’m prompted to consider the part that I play in division and hatred. It may sound overly dramatic, but my own small part is a cog in a wheel that results in the hatred and hurt we see in the middle east. 

In the same way that our small acts of good add up to change the world, or small acts of nastiness or gossip or unkind comments add up to make the world a worse place.

So in this Week of Christian Unity, I urge you to keep an eye out for your brother and sister Christians around the world and to pray that one day, with the Grace of God, we will once again be one in Him.

Not divided by doctrine and dogma, but united in love and in a joy of being a family in Christ.

Fr. Matthew

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Alpha started on Thursday evening and continues for the next 12 weeks. If you’re interested, or know someone who you think may find it helpful, given them a flyer or point them to our website at stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/alpha

The foodbank is in need to tinned fish, long life milk, sugar and most of all… bags! Can you please have a dig around and bring some in on Sunday.

Next Sunday we have our family led mass put together by Fr. Josiah and Susan. It will be a wonderful opportunity to share the gifts of our children with the whole congregation. It will be a very special service.  

Our new coffee bike is now in place alongside our new cafe area. We’ll be advertising shortly for somebody to come and run the cafe on our behalf for a set daily fee – if you know of anyone who may be interested please speak to Fr. Matthew.

PCC meeting on the 5th February immediately after mass – to include a special meeting for appointing Fr. Matthew as Vicar. 

Fr. Matthew has brought Holy Water back from the Holy Land (the Well of Mary in Nazareth) and this will be available on Sunday. 

It’s easy to bring people to church.

As I sat to write this weeks pew sheet I was visited in the vestry by a regular member of the congregation – I shall not reveal their name to save their blushes. 

They sat opposite me and we had a good natter about the parish, about life in general, about schools and Hayes Town – all the usual and interesting things.

They then told me they’d been to have their hair done and overheard some people talking about the church and how they’d seen it was now open after so many years of being closed.

So, they piped up and told them it was their church and it had never been closed, but it was certainly very much alive these days.

The people in the shop were amazed and told her how they had started going to a church in Ealing before COVID because they thought we were closed.

The stalwart of St. Anselm then invited them to come here, but didn’t stop there – they got their numbers and has arranged to meet them ahead of mass and bring them here… messaging them during the week to remind them where and when to meet. 

What a brilliant thing to do! It is exactly what Bishop Philip North encourages us to do when we invite people to church.

‘I’m going to church on Sunday, it’s great – you should come. What time shall I pick you up?’

So thank you to this wonderful person – this evangelist of God – who has shown us how easy it is to bring new people to the Love & Grace of Jesus Christ.

Amen, amen, amen!

Fr. Matthew

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Thank you to all who have brought provisions in for the foodbank, we are now back up to full strength – but the need is great and continuing so do please keep the donations up over the coming weeks.

Alpha starts this week! (19th Jan) If you’re interested, or know someone who you think may be close to becoming Christian, given them a flyer or point them to our website at stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/alpha

You’ll have noticed our new coffee bike is now in place alongside our new cafe area. We’ll be advertising shortly for somebody to come and run the cafe on our behalf for a set daily fee – if you know of anyone who may be interested please speak to Fr. Matthew.

Fr. Josiah is organising our first family mass at the end of this month. If your child would like to take part, please speak to him. We’re very keen for children to lead the readings and the prayers – we have much to learn from them!

PCC meeting on the 5th February immediately after mass – to include a special meeting for appointing Fr. Matthew as Vicar. 

Fr. Matthew is in the Holy Land this week (returning Wednesday evening) If you have any special prayer requests for him to take to this special place please be in touch.