Category: Pew Sheet

Holy water, holy habits.  

By now you’ll be aware that our Lent 2022 course is called ‘Holy Habits’. 

I decided to use this as the basis for our Lent reflections and teaching as I watched people stop themselves half way down the nave after we restored the holy water stoup a few weeks ago – and head back to the door to cross themselves with the water.

It reminded me that these small things  had drifted away over the pandemic and we could do with being reminded about why we do them and why they are important.

It also prompted me to think about those little things that we may have picked up over the various lock downs, things we didn’t do before but we now find very helpful.

An example for me is the installation of a new crucifix next to my bed – put up in such a way that it’s the first thing I see when I wake and the last thing I see when I go to sleep. 

It prompts me to cross myself (another holy habit) and to say the Our Father. 

There are other habits – things like pilgrimage or the practice of gratitude – that perhaps we don’t consider enough in our day-to-day lives. 

This Lent please make a special effort to come to the in-person course (Thursdays from March 17th after the 10am Mass) or to the online course (Thursdays at 7:30pm on Zoom – details on the website) and engage with the little things that point you to God each moment of each day.

Fr. Matthew 

Downloads

Other news

A Welsh Celebration Concert! Make sure you have your tickets for the Torfaen Male Voice choir who are visiting us from Wales on Saturday. There are a small number of early bird tickets left (£2.50). Please do put up posters (available at the back of church) and encourage all your friends to come. Tickets available via the website, Fr. Matthew or Susan Chick.

Our Lent Course – Holy Habits – will start on March 17th. It will be after mass each Thursday at 10am and end with a shared lenten meal. It will be delivered by Fr. Matthew and Fr. Sam Cross from St. Thomas, Kensal Town. You’ll also be able to take part online on Thursday evenings (7:30pm). Details on the website. 

We’ll be renewing the Prayer list at the end of this month with a new list for March.. If you would like to remain on the list, or if there is someone you would like to add please speak to Susan.

Saints Cyril and Methodius,  missionaries for Christ.  

On Monday we celebrate with a feast! We do enjoy a good feast at St. Anselm’s and this is a good one.

Saints Cyril and Methodius were brothers who both entered the service of Christ. 

Methodius was a monk and Cyril became a Bishop. Between them they are credited with many wonderful things (not least the invention of an entire alphabet) but at the heart of this celebration is the message of a joint purpose and calling. 

The brothers were missionaries in the slavic countries and nothing could stop them bringing the message of Christ to those peoples – not even the lack of a language or alphabet to do so.

They joined forces to make Christ known in a place that was not especially open to the message… 

Our mission at St. Anselm is just the same. We join forces with our brothers and sisters here in church to  make Jesus known in Hayes. 

Hayes may not be the perfect soil into which to plant – but our mission is one sent by God and so we must look to Cyril and Methodius and not be discouraged -but see it as an opportunity to discover new ways of doing things and new ways of communicating the Gospel.

Although, I do hope we don’t have to invent a whole new alphabet to do it!

Fr. Matthew

Downloads

Other news

Date for your diary! Saturday February 26th we’ll be welcoming the Pontypool Male Voice Choir for our first big concert at St. Anselm in recent years. Tickets will be £5 but will be available next Sunday at the discount rate of £2.50. Tell your friends and get ready to sell some tickets!

We’ll be renewing the Prayer list at the end of this month with a new list for March (as will be our pattern for the future). If you would like to remain on the list, or if there is someone you would like to add please speak to Susan (contact details on the front page of the pew sheet).

Lent will soon be upon us. Fr. Matthew will be running a series of lent talks after Thursday Mass called ‘Holy Habits’. They’ll last for about 20 mins with discussion afterwards – as well as some suitable Lenten cake, tea & coffee.  

Our Lady of Lourdes, healing and love.  

In 2018 I took my first pilgrimage to Lourdes. I was expecting – as many people had told me – the Disney Land of the Roman Catholic world. 

A place rammed full of souvenir shops and tourist traps – not a place of prayer and healing.

‘Many people’ were entirely wrong (as they often are). From the moment Fr. Sam and I arrived in this tiny Pyrenees town we felt the powerful sense of prayer. 

Prayer that has happened for so long and so hard that it had worn the world between this one and the next thin. 

A sense that God was listening, that Our Lady was there with Her hand held out to take us to Her son.

Each evening we would gather for the Rosary walk. This procession had thousands and thousands of people – all praying the same prayer in their own language. It gave me a real sense of the world-wide faith of Jesus Christ and it was powerful!

On Friday we offer Mass for Our Lady of Lourdes and we give thanks for all of those people who have traveled there and found healing in the waters, who have found healing in the prayer, who have found healing in the peace.

This week I head off on my own pilgrimage to Walsingham. Another place worn thin through prayer. 

I will be praying for you all and for your health and vitality as we face a new and exciting future post COVID.

Fr. Matthew

Downloads

Other news

We’ll be renewing the Prayer list at the end of this month with a new list for March (as will be our pattern for the future). If you would like to remain on the list, or if there is someone you would like to add please speak to Susan (contact details on the front page of the pew sheet).

Fr. Matthew is away during the week over the next two weeks (but here on Sundays) – pilgrimage to Walsingham next week and a half-term holiday with his family in the second week. The usual schedule of weekly prayer will be maintained by Susan and our dear friend and visitor Fr. Angus. 

Lent will soon be upon us. Fr. Matthew will be running a series of lent talks after Thursday Mass called ‘Holy Habits’. They’ll last for about 20 mins with discussion afterwards – as well as some suitable Lenten cake, tea & coffee.  

The Presentation of the Lord,  

or Candlemass, marks the official end of Christmas (40 days, just as with Easter). We will be taking down the tree at the back of church and packing away the lights for another year.

The Holy House Crib will be dismantled, cleaned and put safe ready for Advent 2022. 

We will give the church a deep clean and we will prepare to face the year ahead refreshed and rejuvenated by the 40 days of feast we have just enjoyed. 

I like to think this is how Mary and Joseph felt as they entered the temple with Jesus and encountered Simeon and Anna. 

Yes, they were there to fulfil the ritual observance of purification after childbirth – but it also marked the beginning of a new life as a family out in the world.

This is our opportunity to put behind us the restrictions of COVID, to put behind us the constraints and necessary sacrifices that we have all had to make and to start a new life as a family of Jesus out in the world.

This week I’ve met with other Priests in Hayes and we are rapidly developing plans for a walk of witness on Good Friday and a day of fellowship, prayer and celebration on Pentecost. 

This is the moment for us to present ourselves to Hayes – to throw the doors wide and invite in all of those who have been broken by COVID and the associated constraints. 

To be the Simeon’s and Anna’s as they come to church for the first time. To welcome them and to see in each and every one of them Jesus Christ. 

Fr. Matthew

Downloads

Other news

I don’t know about you but i’m still excited after last Sunday. Our wonderful confirmations and the commissioning of Susan as our Lay Minister. Susan is going to be responsible for the prayer list in the future, so if you would like to add someone or take them off please do contact her with her new details on the front of the pew sheet. 

Relaxation of COVID rules: With the (what we all hope is the final) relaxation of COVID rules we are going to re-start visiting – please contact Susan if you’re aware of anyone who needs a pastoral visit or the sacrament at home.

At Easter we are planning on reinstating the common cup at mass. If you would like to be part of the team that administers the cup can you please speak to Fr. Matthew as everyone needs to be re-licensed by the bishop.

Please note changes in this weeks mass times (especially Thursday) and a High Mass on Wednesday for Candlemass. Do bring your candles for blessing. 

Sunday of the Word of God.  

In 2019 the Pope established this new day in the calendar – The Sunday of the Word of God. 

He did this because he wanted us to to revisit, celebrate, study, discern and share our Holy Scripture. 

The centrality of scripture to our everyday life can so easily be lost and so this is an annual reminder that it MUST be part of our everyday life and not something that we simply hear on a Sunday (if we’re listening!)

Pope Francis points out that this celebration is an ecumenical one because:

“… the Scriptures point out, for those who listen, the path to authentic and firm unity”

There is far more in scripture that unites us than divides us and the joint study and love of scripture opens up for us the life of Jesus and in doing so opens up for us the life that Jesus calls each of us to. 

The bible is not something to sit on a shelf untouched day-to-day but is something that should be read – often. It should be read alone in the quiet of your mind, and with others, as you discern what God is saying to you.

There are free bibles available at the back of church for you to take away and during Lent there will be a new home group that will meet each week to study together and refresh our understanding of the bible.

‘The word of the Lord, thanks be to God!’

Fr. matthew

Downloads

Other News

A huge Sunday coming up with the Commissioning of Susan Chick as our new Lay Minister and the Confirmation of two of our dear friends who were baptised a few weeks ago (from the Parent & Toddler Group). Please make a HUGE effort to be with us on Sunday to celebrate this amazing day.

We are cleaning the church at midday on Saturday 22nd January – if you can spare an hour it would be hugely appreciated.

We’re looking for new volunteers to take on the flowers. Have you ever thought of having a go? It would be lovely to have a refresh once a month and around the big festivals. 

On Tuesday we have all been invited to St. Pauls for the consecration of Lusa as the new Bishop of Willesden. There will be no services at St. Anselm and I encourage you all to pray for the new Bishop.

Enforced humility, and what it means.  

Our Gospel this Sunday tells the story of Jesus and his Mother at a wedding in Cana.

We know the story well, but this week as I have sat with the scripture in my enforced quiet due to illness the words of Mary to the servants have struck me incredibly hard.

‘Do whatever He tells you.’

John 2:5

When we are sick or our bodies start to dictate what we do with our time we can feel angry and frustrated. That’s certainly been my experience this week… I have things to do and people to see! 

I have God’s work to do! I must open the church, I must ring the bell, I must visit and I must be in the parish talking to people in the high street.

All of this is good and proper, but this week I’ve been forced to sit quietly and not do these things. 

I’ve had to sit and quietly listen to the voice of God in a way that I have not dictated. 

Many of us come to God in a way that we dictate. We say how and when we come to God, we even dictate to God how we will carry out His will in the world. 

But in that dictation there is arrogance and pride. 

We must be alive to the fact that God may require us to carry out His mission in a way that we may not particularly like or expect – and it can take something like being ill to highlight that to us.

Perhaps we should find a path that allows us to listen rather than dictate, and not wait until we’re forced into it against our will!

Fr. Matthew

Downloads

Other news

Thank you all for your kind love and support last week when I was poorly. The messages and presents of oranges, home remedies and notes made all the difference. I’m back to full strength and feel very loved indeed – thank you. 

Foodbank needs: Tinned fruit, vegetables, meat & fish. Instant noodles, long life milk. 

It was beautiful to come to your homes this week to bless them, if you missed out and would still like a blessing do let me know. 

We will be joined by (potentially) two applicants for the new Director of Music role this Sunday – one of whom will be playing for us – I know you’ll give them your usual loving welcome. 

Please note the new weekly pattern of worship – we’ve moved the Monday morning mass to be an evening mass instead – praying that as the evenings lighten we may encourage those going home from work to come through our doors.

Renewal and expectancy.  

This Sunday we will all renew our baptismal vows, we will be sprinkled with holy water as we call to mind those promises we made – for some – quite some time ago!

I find this service to be especially poignant and approach it each year (thank the good Lord we can do it this year!) with a degree of expectancy. 

It’s a word that sings out loudly from our Gospel this Sunday: 

“A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people” (Luke 3:15)

On one hand it carries with it the expectancy of the people who were starting to believe that John was in fact Christ – but it also conjures up for me the expectancy of what a baptised life looks like. 

I have preached many times on the renewal of Christian life through regular confession and forgiveness. 

Renewal also comes through the remembrance of our baptismal vows – it’s why we do it every single time someone is baptised in church. 

Now, I should warn you – that the last time I did this I used a great deal of water – my training incumbent called the entire thing ‘father’s revenge’ – so – come prepared to be soaked in the waters of baptism, to put behind you those things that should be put behind you and to once again walk, cleansed of your sin, into the world proclaiming Jesus Christ – just as John did.

Fr. Matthew

Downloads

Other news

Bring a bottle with you on Sunday if you would like to take some Holy Water home with you. Then cross yourself with it each time you leave the house. 

Thank you to everyone who has donated food, time & money to the new St. Anselm foodbank. We helped 12 families & individuals this Wednesday and 5 during the week. We are in need of tinned meat, fish and vegetables along with long life milk and dried noodles. If you could provide any of these we would be grateful for your support. 

Our advert for a new director of music will go out later this week – along with a personal message of support from Anthony. When you see it please do share it with your friends just in case they know of someone who may be looking for a move to our wonderful community! 

Please note there is no morning prayer or mass on Monday 10th, but there will be mass in the evening after Evening Prayer.

I will be blessing chalk at the high mass for Epiphany on Thursday 6th. If you would like your home blessed with this chalk I plan to wander the parish on Sunday (9th) from 2pm onwards. Do let me know if you’d like me to come to your home (email or call me on the numbers on the pew sheet).