Category: Announcements

Divine Mercy

Finding peace through mercy.

In the 1930’s a Polish nun called Sr. Faustina (now St. Faustina) experienced a series of visions of Jesus. Amongst her visions Jesus asked her to paint this very special image – an image of the Divine Mercy of God flowing from his Sacred Heart. 

Her visions were centred around Jesus bringing her to a place where she could see the mercy of God at work in the world around her. 

She wrote of her pain at her neighbours being badly treated, about their sufferings and how it physically hurt her. She prayed that their sufferings would fall on her, that she may in some way lessen their suffering in order to help them find a path to grace and peace. 

It is far from easy to love with a love so deep that it causes you physical pain when you see that person hurting. 

Some of us are lucky enough to have experienced a tiny portion of this love – the love we have for our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers – our husbands and wives. 

But what St. Faustina showed us is that Jesus wants us to love everyone with that much love. 

It is that love which must inspire us to try harder. To try harder to defend the weak, to feed the poor, to cloth the naked, to visit the prisoner, to lift up the wretched and say, ‘I love you!’ and to really mean it. 

St. Faustina gave us a gift,  a gift to see the power and depth of Jesus love for all of us. What do we do with that gift?

Fr. Matthew

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Evening Prayer is now at 6pm each day to help those who want to attend when they finish work. 

+Jonathan will be with us next week for the Confirmations and to admit people to Holy Communion. If Fr. Matthew has not spoken to you yet and you’re expecting to be Confirmed – please call him!

There is church cleaning and decorating this Saturday (17th) to get things ready for the Bishops visit.

The PCC meeting has been postponed to the 25th April. 

Don’t forget to consider setting up regular giving with the Parish Giving Scheme. Call 0333 002 1271 with your bank details to hand and quote our Parish Code – 230 623 503

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!  

It’s often said that we Christians are ‘an Easter people’. What does that mean?

At the most basic level we are Christians because Jesus died for us, he descended into hell and on the third day he rose again. It is this central fact that is at the heart of our faith. 

Without that our faith is hollow. Without that understanding of that ultimate act of Love, without that understanding that he rose again, then who are we? 

Are we a social group here to care for the poor? Are we a group of people who meet once a week for a cup of tea and a chat? (When we are allowed again).

Absolutely not! We are a community of Christians whose faith in Jesus Christ – in his death and resurrection – drive us to acts of good in the world. 

Our faith is at the very heart of who we are and what we do in the world.

On Sunday we welcome four new people to the family of Christ, to the body of Jesus Christ and his Church on earth. 

Their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that death no longer has dominion over them. Death has no sting, because they know (as we already do) that they are saved into eternal life in the Love of God. 

Now what do they do with that faith? What do we do? We must take it out into the world and share it with others – we share it because we want more people to come to understand that Love and we want more people to be saved into Heaven! 

This is why I get excited each time we break a new number in church. This is what we are for… this is what Jesus Christ instructed us to do. 

Go and announce the Gospel of The Lord!

Fr. Matthew

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An enormous thank you to everyone who has cleaned, done the flowers, tidied up, moved chairs and just about every other job to make the church so clean, tidy & beautiful for Easter Sunday – thank you!

A very quiet week for public services as Fr. Matthew takes a couple of days leave and then ties himself to his desk to catch up with admin that has caught up over Holy Week & Easter. Fr. Matthew is available throughout the week via his usual number & email. 

Don’t forget to consider setting up regular giving with the Parish Giving Scheme. Call 0333 002 1271 with your bank details to hand and quote our Parish Code – 230 623 503

Light

before & after the darkness.  

Palm Sunday has always struck me as a delightful and fun day. I can so easily get caught up in the expectation and the joy of the people of Jerusalem as Jesus enters the city. 

I can see and hear the children as they run to meet him. This great teacher, this man who is God, Jesus who has given us so many signs and such wonderful love. 

The noise, the smells, the hands held high waving palm branches crying out ‘Hosanna in the highest!’

But in the midst of that joy there is a deep darkness. It is harder for us to experience fully the joy of the people of Jerusalem because know the story, we know what comes next. 

We know the agony that awaits Jesus and his disciples. 

We know the darkness of the garden at Gethsemane (where we will join the Disciples in their Watch on Maundy Thursday). 

We know the pain of the arrest and His condemnation. His struggle to carry the cross, His falls, the reversal of the joy of the crowds to jeers, hatred and spittle. 

Palm Sunday marks the start of that journey of darkness. 

It also, and this is the vital part of the story, marks the start of the journey towards the light. 

We KNOW that Jesus will come again, that He will rise three days later, that He will save us all – and in that joy we share a large part. 

This week, accept and see the darkness… then let the light destroy it utterly.

Fr. Matthew

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Wear red! This Sunday we remember the throng at the gates of Jerusalem, calling out toJesus ‘enter the King of glory!’ Join in with that throng and wear something red. Although we can’t have a procession this year, we will have palm crosses and we will be blessing them at the start of the service. 

The electoral roll is still open and will close next Sunday. Do take a form or contact Fr. Matthew to be added.

We’ll be following a Polish tradition on Good Friday and blessing baskets of food. This is at the request of our builders and it would be lovely for our congregation to come as well with Easter Eggs and Easter Food to be blessed. Just bring it in a basket at 11am.  

Don’t forget to consider setting up regular giving with the Parish Giving Scheme. Call 0333 002 1271 with your bank details to hand and quote our Parish Code – 230 623 503

Passiontide

Veiling the statues.  

This Sunday we enter a period of time in the church calendar called Passiontide. It starts the Sunday before Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday.

We’ll keep the crosses covered until the end of the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday (3pm), but we’ll keep the statues veiled until the start of the Easter Vigil (in our case that means we’ll remove them during the Gloria at the 10am Mass on Easter Sunday).

But why do we do this? Why cover those things that draw us to Christ the rest of the year?

Partly we do this because it serves to heighten our experience in church in the last two weeks of Lent – calling us physically to the importance of this period of time and pulling us towards the inevitability of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 

We do that by covering the statues so that we’re physically reminded to pay attention to the words that are being spoken in mass. 

We are denied the pleasures of our eyes so that our ears may more fully engage with the Word. 

The point is that it pulls us into a new state of excitement and anticipation – we are denied the beauty of the statues, the security of the crucifixes and we’re edged towards the reality of what is to come. 

Then, beautiful – the veils are removed and we are thrown back into the richness of our faith. 

During Passiontide we should pay close attention to how our feelings draw us to – or push us away from – God. 

Listen, watch, pray, He will soon be gone, only to return in Glory. 

Fr. Matthew

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We welcome Fr. Yaro to preach this Sunday – he joins us from St. Martin’s in Ruislip where he is the Assistant Curate – I know you’ll make him feel welcome.

The Electoral Roll is now open ahead of our APCM on May 9th. The Roll is open for 14 days. If you wish to be added to the Roll take a form at the back of church or speak to Fr. Matthew or Gleta Murray. 

If you can’t get to this Confirmation Class, then another will be run on April 11th. 

Don’t forget to consider setting up regular giving with the Parish Giving Scheme. Call 0333 002 1271 with your bank details to hand and quote our Parish Code – 230 623 503

Feast or Lament?

Celebrating with joy.  

This Sunday we will be celebrating Mothering Sunday. It is a very old feast and comes on Laetare Sunday – a time in Lent when we take a moment to remember that we are already an Easter People, that we have already been saved, that we have already seen the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

We take a breath and view the hard work we have undertaken so far, before girding ourselves for the coming weeks of sacrifice and pain. 

Even our liturgical colour shifts from deep, dark purple to the lighter and more joyful rose vestments. 

It is important to enjoy the feasts when they come. It is tempting to see in a feast the pain that being joyful can cause. 

There are many moments of lament and hardship in our liturgical calendar – when we remember the pain and hurt that we as a community and as individuals have suffered. 

But, on days such as this Sunday we should lift our hearts heavenward and whatever our personal circumstances, whatever our particular pains and hurt we should ask God to help us find joy and hope in our lives.

That joy and hope can be hard to find for some on Mothering Sunday, especially when one doesn’t easily have a model of motherly love, or where that earthly model is no longer with us. 

That gives us even more reason to cry out in joy for those gifts we have received. 

For the women in our lives who have lifted us up, for the women in our lives who have cared for us, loved us, held our hands, smiled at us, taken us to church, held us before God in prayer. 

Mothering Sunday is a day of celebration and of joy. Lift people up in that joy and love.

Fr. Matthew

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We have been asked to close the church for three days next week to enable the builders to replace a section of the power unit and for them to demolish the concrete stairs into the boiler room, which will create a great deal of noise. Church will be closed Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and Fr. Matthew is taking the opportunity to have a few quiet days of rest. 

With children back at the altar from this Sunday (14th), do come along and encourage them. There will be a special present and blessing for all mothers – offered by the children. 

Don’t forget to consider setting up regular giving with the Parish Giving Scheme. Call 0333 002 1271 with your bank details to hand and quote our Parish Code – 230 623 503

Do the small things.

What’s your example? 

We’re told that St. David’s final words were ‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do’.

These words are actually taken from his final sermon on the Sunday before he died – he was a prodigious preacher and founded monastic settlements over Wales, the South West of England and even Brittany. 

In Wales we still say, ‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd’ – which means ‘Do the little things’. 

This is good way to approach lent. If you try to do too much too quickly you will struggle. Sometimes the struggle is the point – that arduous and difficult path that Jesus trod before us and in which we attempt to join. 

But sometimes, it’s the journey that’s important and perhaps this lent that’s more important than it has been for a long time. 

If you’ve not yet found a rhythm for lent try to do the small things. Start simply with Prayer. Are you thanking God as you get up? As you go to bed?

Have you looked at those small bad habits and tried to knock them on the head? Perhaps it’s as simple as turning off your phone after 7pm.  

Be joyful, keep the faith. 

Fr. Matthew

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Other news

Mass for St. David will be at 5pm after Evening Prayer.

There will be cleaning in church again this Saturday at 11am – thank you to everyone who helped last week. 

There will be a PCC meeting on March 7th immediately after mass – it will be a long one, please bring your own lunch. 

Children will be back serving at the altar on Mothering Sunday – March 14th!

Mass for St. David will be at 5pm after Evening Prayer.

There will be cleaning in church again this Saturday at 11am – thank you to everyone who helped last week. 

There will be a PCC meeting on March 7th immediately after mass – it will be a long one, please bring your own lunch. 

Children will be back serving at the altar on Mothering Sunday – March 14th!

Don’t forget to consider setting up regular giving with the Parish Giving Scheme. Call 0333 002 1271 with your bank details to hand and quote our Parish Code – 230 623 503