THE EPIPHANY:

I wish you all a very happy Feast of the Epiphany, a Feast of enormous significance and celebrated in some parts of the world with greater solemnity than Christmas. Unlike St Luke, whose Infancy Narrative concentrates on the birth of the Christ child and the way the shepherds are chosen as God’s first messengers, Matthew is concerned that we focus on the bigger picture. Christ has come for all men and women of all time. The Magi, these mysterious but wise visitors from the East, bring their symbolic gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. At every funeral, I delight in reminding the congregation that, before leaving the church we use incense to bless the coffin because it reminds us of the dignity of every person. The incense (Frankincense) points us to the mystery of the Incarnation whereby the Son of God became truly and fully human, so that we could be redeemed and regain our full dignity as children of God, and therefore brothers and sisters of Christ. The more we meditate on the meaning of all this, the more we come to realise the people Christ is calling us to be and how we are to live our lives.

The Gold speaks to us of the New Kingdom that is to be established in our hearts: a Kingdom of love, of peace, of reconciliation, of hope. Sadly, for that to happen we must be willing to accept Christ’s invitation to take up our crosses and follow him. The Myrrh reminds us of Christ’s Passion and Death: his body would be anointed after his death. As we set out on this New Year, I pray with you that we will continue to strive with all our minds and hearts to be that presence of the redeeming Christ in our world today.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES:

Our Parish Family celebrated a wonderful Christmas, especially on 22nd December. The Justice and Peace group provided carols for the Confreres in the Chapel, and then joined in the fun at the ‘Christmas by Candlelight’ event at the front of the Monastery.

It was a wonderful evening, enjoyed by all, raising in the region of £5,000 for the Whitechapel Centre.

We will publish a final figure for the event in the coming weeks.

Many thanks to all those who gave their time and effort to such a worthy cause. God bless all for their generosity.

To view some photos of the event click here

A NEW YEAR GREETING FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS

Fr Andrew (our Rector) and all the members of the community join me in wishing you every joy and blessing for 2024. The Christmas celebrations in both parishes were blessed occasions and I can only reiterate my personal thanks to you all for your continuing support, encouragement, and generosity. Fr Beverley Ahearn’s condition has been a cause for concern over the past few weeks and we were prepared for the Lord to take him as the great Feast approached. However, he has survived and is now in the Royal, receiving intravenous antibiotics to try and remove the serious chest infection, which has been at the root of his recent problems. Sadly, the pressure on the health service at present is such that he spent well over 24 hours on trolleys in the corridors before finally getting a place in the Medical Assessment Unit, where he remains as I write these notes on Friday morning. His family members have been wonderful in helping to accompany him through these difficult days. Please pray for us all as we try to cope with everything that is going on.

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family: let’s pray that the Lord will watch over our families and keep us united and at peace. We welcome the New Year with the Solemnity of the Mother of God, and I suggest that we renew the dedication of our two parishes to Our Lady at the Masses we will have at noon in BOTH our churches on New Year’s Day.

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

A CHRISTMAS GREETING FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS

Fr Andrew (our Rector) and all the members of the community join me in wishing you every joy and blessing this Christmas.

Each year, as we tell again the story of the birth of the Child Jesus in Bethlehem, we are entrusted with a precious message, which, if we could just begin to grasp it, offers us and the wider world renewed hope that everything can be transformed and ultimately, in the words of Mother Julian of Norwich, “All will be well.”

The fuller text of the revelation she received was as follows:

“He said, Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be distressed; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome.” And “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” (Mother Julian died around 1416.)

In past Christmases I have never felt so moved to pray for our children as I have this year, reflecting on our sacred duty, in so far as we can, to leave them a world, in which they can flourish and live in peace. I hope that amidst all the excitement of Christmas you will be able to help them focus on the wonder of it all: Christ’s Mass. I was thrilled we were able to respond to the suggestion that last Sunday, like Pope Francis in Rome, we should bless the Bambinelli for our cribs at home.

It seemed to me to have been a huge success. And this leads me to offer a heartfelt thanks for all the initiatives that are being taken in both parishes as well as our schools to help us deepen our faith and strengthen the bonds that bind our communities together in the Lord. For example, this Christmas, events in both parishes have provided the Whitechapel Centre with funds to help the homeless in our city. I can add to this the efforts made throughout the year to further the mission of the Church among the poor across the world as well as your remarkable generosity to us in the monastery.

Thank you so much for all the expressions of good will and gratitude including the many gifts and the Christmas collection: we do not take all this for granted: we are immensely grateful.

THANK YOU

PRAY FOR US AND IN TURN WE WILL PRAY FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES

FROM ALL THE REDEMPTORISTS TO ALL OF YOU:
A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS    

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS – THE CHILDREN’S FEAST:

I have now attended eight nativity and carol services and I know of at least seven more that I am due to share in the coming week. The moment of truth for me came when one of our reception children stood centre-stage and, with huge confidence and unaided by a microphone, declared that she was AN ANGEL SENT BY GOD.

It gave me the perfect lead into the blessing at the end. It seemed to me that on the occasion we had received a special blessing from 60 angels sent by God. Both St Mark and St Luke tell us about the occasion when people brought little children to Jesus and the disciples tried to shoo them away, but Jesus seized the moment and said:

“Let the children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Of course, Jesus is not telling us to be childish all our lives, but childlike; in other words to have the trust of the little child that knows he or she is loved and treasured. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus gave the same response to the apostles when they asked him who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And in Luke, it is at the Last Supper that the dispute arose about who should be reckoned the greatest and again Jesus seized the moment:

“Among the pagans it is the kings who lord it over them… This must not happen with you. No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves.”

As a commentary on the state of the world today, do I need to say more? This Christmas may our children inspire us to redouble our efforts to prepare a world of hope, of love, of peace, of reconciliation, fit for them to inherit.

LOOKING FORWARD:

New Years bring fresh hope and offer us the opportunity to reassess and get things back into perspective. For us as Christians that perspective has to be the Lord’s perspective, as far as we are able to discern it. At St Mary’s, in addition to negotiating successfully with the Archdiocese for admin cover while our administrator has been on sick leave, recently I was faced with the illness of one of our key volunteers.

Accordingly, I appealed for more volunteers to help ensure the continuing smooth running of the parish. The response was more than encouraging, but now the challenge is to forge a unified team and resolve the inevitable tensions that can arise in such circumstances. Down the years, over and over again, you have heard me quote St Paul pleading with the early Christian communities to avoid divisions which cause disharmony. I am certain that this is always the work of the evil spirit. Our response is simply to allow the Spirit of God into our hearts, enabling us to heal and forgive so that we can reveal the compassion of Christ to one another and the wider world.

LOOKING BACK:

Another year in the Church’s cycle is complete and I look back again with a deep sense of gratitude for all the blessings it has brought us. At the same time we have had more than our fair share of challenges, not least the deaths and illnesses of so many, both in the Redemptorist community at Bishop Eton and in our two parishes. For example, since the First Sunday of Advent last year, Fr Kevin Callaghan, Bro Willie McDermott and Fr Jimmy Smale have all died, while, thankfully, Fr Andrew has recovered from his heart troubles with a wonderful new pacemaker. On the parish front, many of you have lost loved ones and others are coping with lengthy illnesses, including some of the key members who help to run the parishes, both among the admin staff and the volunteers.

THE COUNTDOWN:

I am very conscious that we have only two weeks before Christmas and that there remains much to be done. I hope that we can balance all the practical preparations with the Church’s annual invitation to attend to our spiritual well-being and ensure that the Lord will indeed be welcomed into our homes and hearts with renewed fervour. Traditionally, Catholics prepared for the great Feasts by receiving absolution for their sins and it is not that long ago that I would anticipate hours and hours in the confessional on days like Christmas Eve. My concern in those days was that I simply became an absolution machine. I like to think that our Reconciliation Services offer a balanced approach in today’s Church. 

For those who wish to spend a little time with the priest, we will have confrères in the confessionals. For those who do not feel that is necessary, Fr Andrew and I can ensure that you are not queueing for hours!

TIME FOR A BREAK:

As you well know, it has been a while since I have been able to find time to escape for some rest and relaxation; in fact, it was February. My wonderful office team have insisted that this is my one big chance before the end of this year, so, for the next couple of weeks, I will leave the two parishes in the capable hands of Fr Andrew, ably assisted by Fr Tony Cassidy.

I will be back for Sunday 26 November, when we have our Presentation Mass for the First Communicants at St Mary’s.

  REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY:

I always experience the poignancy of this time of the year, and I realise that it comes from being one of the boom babies, born immediately after the end of the Second World War. In my childhood I recall the prefabricated homes that had been erected on the bomb sites in Clapham. We grew up, knowing that the country had been through a terrible experience and that we were lucky to be living in peace with a happier future in prospect. I can remember when rationing finished and we were being told by a Prime Minister that we had “never had it so good!” As I grew up there were the occasional crises, like the Cuban missile affair, but nothing to compare with the chaos we seem to be facing today. So here I am now, at the other end of my life and still trying to piece the story together.

For all the progress, our children are being confronted with the frightening prospect of wars erupting across the world and a very uncertain future.

When I visited the reception classes in Bishop Eton yesterday afternoon, they were able to tell me about the importance of Remembrance Sunday and one of them had been able to provide the class with a tin hat from the First World War that had belonged to a family member.

And, of course, I was able to tell them that my father had been in the army in that same war. I suggest that we use this weekend as an opportunity to deepen our prayer and our commitment to build a happier and more peaceful future.

We will have Services at each of our Memorials on Sunday morning:

9.50am at Bishop Eton before the 10am Mass

11.00am at St Mary’s before the Mass