Catholic History Walks January 30th, 2012
Come and enjoy discovering our Catholic Heritage!
Wednesday 15th February – 2.30pm Tour of Westminster Cathedral. Meet inside the Cathedral by the shop entrance.
Wednesday 29th March – 6.30pm – Meet on the steps of Wedstminster Cathedral after the 5.30pm Mass. We will explore the Westminster & Pimlico areas.
Friday 30th April – 6.30pm – Meet at St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street, EC2. We will be exploring the City of London, its old churches, and Cardinal Newman’s birthplace.
Sunday 6th May – 2pm visit to Allen Hall, the Westminster diocesan seminary. We have tea, followed by tour of the seminary led by teams of students, and then join them for a Holy Hour and Benediction. Come and pray for our future priests.
All Welcome! Come and bring your friends. No need to book – just turn up!
The Catholic History Walks are led by Joanna Bogle (Journalist, Broadcaster etc). Wear comfortable shoes and suitable clothing – We’ll be walking whatever the weather. These walks are sponsored by CONTINUITY MILES JESU www.mjcontnuity.com
Votive Lamps at the Shrines January 30th, 2012
Our Lady: Gaynor Paul-Clark (both lamps)
Sacred Heart: D Maharaj
St Joseph: All Parishioners
St John Fisher / St Therese: Recovery of Di Hyam
St Thomas More / St Anthony: Mr Telge Upali Peiris RIP
St Pius X: Vocations to the religious life
Saints this week January 30th, 2012
St John Bosco (1815-1888) Despite anti-clerical civil authorities & opposition of some senior people in the Church, John Bosco set up evening classes for young men, boarding-houses for apprentices and workshops for their training and education, and founded the Salesians (after St Francis de Sales) for his work.
Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, as recounted in Luke 2:22-40, 40 days after the Birth of our Saviour He was presented in the Temple.
St Laurence of Canterbury (died 619) was one of the original missionaries who accompanied St Augustine from Rome and succeeded him as the second Archbishop of Canterbury in 604.
St Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste, was martyred early in the 4th century, and is invoked for disorders of the throat – hence today’s traditional Blessing of Throats.
St Agatha (feast celebrated normally on 5 th February), was martyred in Sicily during the persecution of the Emperor Decius (250-253). Her name is inscribed in the Roman Canon (1st Eucharistic Prayer).
Prayer before a Crucifix January 30th, 2012
Behold, O kind and most sweet Jesus,
I cast myself on my knees in Your sight,
and with the most fervent desire of my soul,
I pray and beseech You that You would
impress upon my heart
lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity,
with a true repentance for my sins,
and a firm desire of amendment,
while with deep affection and grief of soul
I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate
Your five most precious Wounds;
having before my eyes
that which David spoke in prophecy
of you, O good Jesus:
They pierced My Hands and My Feet;
they have numbered all My Bones
A Garden for Our Lady January 22nd, 2012
We are planning to create a Marian Garden to complement our newly-restored outside shrine to Our Lady, and as one of many projects in preparation for the Year of Faith (from October 2012).
In pre-Reformation England, many of the common flowers, shrubs and trees were named after the Blessed Virgin and it was common practice to create gardens in her honour, using plants which celebrated her life and virtues. Much of our national Catholic heritage was lost, however, during the Reformation, when devotion to Our Lady and the saints was actively discouraged and even the flowers were renamed to hide their previous Marian connections.
In recent years, the practice of ‘Mary Gardens’ has been revived in the United States, but England, ‘Mary’s Dowry’, has been slow to rediscover its Catholic roots and traditions.
The St Joseph’s Marian Garden will be the first such garden to be created by an English Catholic Church since the Reformation, reviving a tradition which dates back to the 7th Century.
This is a wonderful opportunity for us to pull together as a parish in honouring Our Lady and in celebrating our Catholic Faith in this secular world. If you would like to be involved in any way in this project, please contact Felicity or Malcolm Surridge on art@malcolmsurridge.co.uk or speak to them after the 11.30 a.m. Sunday Mass.
Votive Lamps at the Shrines January 22nd, 2012
Week beginning Sunday 22th January 2012
Our Lady: Agnieszka Ptaszynska (lamp 1); Gaynor Paul-Clark (lamp 2)
Sacred Heart: Olga Cadman RIP
St Joseph: All Parishioners
St John Fisher / St Therese: Recovery of Di Hyam
St Thomas More / St Anthony: Myrophora Neophytou RIP
St Pius X: Vocations to the religious life
Saints this week January 22nd, 2012
St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) re-evangelized his home district which had gone over to the Calvinists who constantly threatened his life. As Bishop of Geneva his Introduction to the Devout Life was to help ordinary people to holiness. He is Patron saint of writers & journalists.
The Conversion of St Paul is recounted in Acts 9:1-22 & 22.3-16, occurring after he cooperated in St Stephen’s martyrdom
Ss Timothy & Titus, Converts and Companions of St Paul, to whom he wrote the Pastoral Epistles, were Bishops of Ephesus and Crete respectively.
St Angela Merici (c 1470-1540) was a Franciscan Tertiary who founded the Ursulines in 1535 to set up schools and instruct girls in the Faith and good works.
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was a Dominican and great philosopher who explained the harmony between Faith and reason in a simple & organised way
Conversion January 22nd, 2012
Question: Once we enter into communication with Jesus Christ, what is the next stage in our response to Him?
Answer: Conversion! Conversion is at the heart of this Sunday’s Readings. When we have met Christ, and are beginning to know Him, the first thing we perceive is the discrepancy between the moral quality of His life and ours. Thus we feel the desire to turn away from anything in our lives which is contrary to Him. This movement of aversion from sin, is also the movement of conversion to Christ.
Question: Is conversion something that happens to us gradually, or all at once?
Answer: Some people go through a sudden and complete act of conversion from a sinful to a virtuous life. But conversion is mainly an ongoing process that takes a whole lifetime.
In today’s First Reading, we have a case of the whole city of Nineveh being converted suddenly by the preaching of Jonah; and in the Gospel we have Our Lord asking people to make an act of conversion as He begins His preaching in Galilee; while in the Second Reading St Paul exhorts us to practice that gradual kind of conversion which consists in putting our hopes less and less in earthly joys and turning first and foremost to seek the joys of Heaven.
Conversion, as an on-going process, is like the continual correction of course that takes places as an areoplane is being navigated to its destination. Cross-winds and other deviating factors are continually shifting it from its course. Navigation instruments must operate continually to keep the plane on its correct course. That is why virtuous Catholics usually have recourse more often than lax Catholics to Confession – the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation – which is the medicine and remedy for our going off course, and restores us to the path that God has prepared for us and which will bring us back to Him
Churches Together in Malden 2012 January 15th, 2012
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Wed 18th ~ Wed 25th Jan
NB. The Preacher this year is our very own
Bishop Paul Hendricks
Chairman of Churches Together South London
Auxiliary Bishop in Archdiocese of Southwark
President of Diocesan Christian Unity Commission
Theme this year: WE WILL ALL BE CHANGED
Our Pre-Lenten Charity Fayre January 15th, 2012
Saturday 11th / Sunday 12th February 2012
We need all the unwanted items from your loft, or the back of the cupboard. Please leave them in the Drop-Off Point boxes in the Pastoral Centre corridor from tomorrow Monday 16th January.
All items must be of saleable quality. NB. No clothes or electrical items.
The Fayre is open after the following Masses:
Saturday (11th February) 6pm, Sunday (12th February) 9.30 & 11.30am only.
Come and support our Fayre!!
We are always very grateful for the people who co-ordinate & organise our bi-annual Charity fayres. However, we are in the process of recruiting more helpers, as we appreciate that it is no small task, and it comes round very quickly, so the more hands helping, the less onerous it is. If you can help in any way – setting up the hall, staffing a stall for a couple of hours, help with clearing up afterwards, etc, please volunteer. It would be of great help if we can have 2 separate teams who could divide the work and be responsible for only one of the fayres per year each.
Please contact the Parish Office if you feel you can be involved.
