Message from Canon Kristian

Dear Parishioners

With the drawing in of the evenings and the appearance of the colder and wetter weather it definitely feels like we have entered into Autumn!  I hope you are all keeping well and continuing to keep as safe as you can.

NHS Test and Trace App

You will have heard that, if we have a suitable mobile phone, we are being strongly encouraged to download the new NHS Covid-19 Test and Trace app.  This is an important way in which the spread of the

coronavirus can be both monitored and contained.  Should you come into contact with someone who has the virus, the app will tell you and then, by law, you will be required to self-isolate for 14 days in order to protect others.  Every public building, including churches, has been issued with a “QR code” – something that looks like a square filled with a pattern of black and white smaller squares – which will be recognised by the app through your phone camera.  Everything you enter a building with one of these codes, you are asked to log this on your app.  This information is then stored on your phone.  The NHS Guidance that was issued to introduce the app, which gives fuller information about how it works, what other information it can give you and why it is important that we use it is available to view HERE.   Obviously, there will be people who do not use a mobile phone, or have a model which is not capable of downloading the app.  As a result, we are being asked to continue to take tracking details manually alongside the use of the app, so please still give your details to the stewards as you enter church if you have not already booked a space with Rosie in the Parish Office.

World Day of the Poor

This Sunday brings the Season of Creation to a close.  Hopefully we have used this time well to consider what negative impact each of us as individuals has on our environment and have made concrete changes to our how we live in order to enhance and protect our common home.  Clearly, the close of the Season of Creation is not a sign that we can forget about all this until next year.  It is something which should be an integral and on-going part of our lives and mission as Christians.  This Sunday also sees the publication of another Encyclical by Pope Francis, Brothers and Sisters All, which will set out his teaching regarding global human solidarity and co-operation, something which is badly needed in this increasing fractured and divided world of ours at the present time.  I am sure we will be reflecting a lot more of what the Holy Father says to us in this Encyclical over the next few months.  One local initiative, which will include reflections on the Pope’s teaching contained in this new document, as well as in his teaching on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which he has been giving at the weekly Wednesday Audiences in Rome, is the diocesan-wide online event in preparation for the World Day of the Poor (15 November 2020).  Participation in this event is free and I strongly encourage those parishioners who can to take a look at the presentation of the event on the Diocesan Website and to register to take part.

First Communion Preparation

Our parish catechists have started to make plans to restart the preparation for our children who were preparing for the First Communion before the Covid lockdown.  Due to social distancing rules, it will be necessary to continue the rest of the preparation in smaller groups.  The participation of the family in the preparation will be even more importance than it was before as on-going support at home for what the children are being taught will be vital.  We will be providing help to parents alongside the sessions with the children and I cannot emphasise to parents how important that this will be and there will be an expectation that at least one parent or family member will attend these sessions.

Confirmation Preparation

As yet only two teenagers have registered their interest in preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation.  I am aware that there is a greater number of our teenagers than this who are at the age to prepare for this Sacrament, so I urge them and their parents to give importance to this and to pass details onto myself or Deacon Michael as soon as possible.  The Sacrament of Confirmation is important as it is the time when we complete our Christian initiation which began at our baptism.

Responding to the Psalms and Praying with the Sunday Gospel

Hopefully you will remember that we are still in the Year of the Word – as the front of the Newsletter reminds us week-by-week, although it has been somewhat disrupted by the unforeseen impact of the coronavirus.  However, the Spirituality Committee of the Bishops’ Conference has been reflecting on how best to support and sustain our prayer life at this challenging time, particularly for those who may not have easy access to the internet or streaming services.  So the Committee has looked to the Psalms as the inspiration for its new resource.  “Responding to the Psalms” is a simple initiative that a Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm – an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word – and invites and encourages further reflection on each verse.  Short questions are provided to encourage deeper thought on the verse for a few days or so before the focus moves on to the psalm’s next verses.  Once each verse has been considered, we arrive at next Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm.  The aim is that this will sustain us throughout the week.  The resource can be used both by individuals and in small groups.  The Psalms for October are available to download here, but they can also be downloaded from the website of the Liturgy Office of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.  The Psalms for the coming months will be posted on that site two weeks before the beginning of the month and I will attach them to the Newsletter as well for those who find it easier to get them in this way.

Monika Manser has produced her weekly handout to assist those who find it helpful to pray with this Sunday’s Gospel – the Parable of the Dishonest Tenants – using their imaginations. This can be downloaded from the parish website under the Resources > Reflections section.

Monthly Coffee Morning

Our monthly Coffee Morning on Zoom will take place this coming Thursday, 8 October, at 11.00am.  All parishioners who have the capability to use Zoom are invited to pop in and have a chat.  Access details are available by contacting the parish.

Feast of St John Henry Newman

This Friday we celebrate the Feast of St John Henry Newman, who was canonised last October.  Let us all take that opportunity to ask for his intercession for the Church and for our country as we look to the future with hope, that we will embrace positively and willingly the changes that we will be called to make to both our life as a parish community and to the way we live our everyday life as we learn to live the new reality that the presence of Covid-19 has brought.  Let us make our own the prayer of the Collect for the Mass of the Feast:

O God, who bestowed on your Priest Saint John Henry Newman
The grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church;
Graciously grant that, through his intercession and example,
We may be led out of shadows and images
Into the fullness of your truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

The reference to the leading of God’s “kindly light” in this prayer is taken from the well-known  hymn written by St John Henry “Lead, kindly Light” in 1833, originally as a poem titled “the Pillar of the Cloud” based on Exodus 13:21-22: “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”

Before he became a Catholic in 1845 and when still a young priest of the Church of England, Newman became sick while in Italy and was unable to travel for almost three weeks. As he tells us in Part III in Apologia Pro Vita Sua – his autobiographical account of the development of his understanding of the Faith – and speaking of the time of the start of the Oxford Movement within the Church of England in 1833:

I was aching to get home; yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks. I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. I knew nothing of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament there. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. We were becalmed a whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio. Then it was that I wrote the lines, “Lead, kindly light,” which have since become well known. I was writing verses the whole time of my passage. At length I got to Marseilles, and set off for England. The fatigue of travelling was too much for me, and I was laid up for several days at Lyons. At last I got off again and did not stop night or day till I reached England, and my mother’s house. My brother had arrived from Persia only a few hours before. This was on the Tuesday. The following Sunday, July 14th, Mr. Keble preached the assize Sermon in the University Pulpit. It was published under the title of “National Apostasy.” I have ever considered and kept the day, as the start of the religious movement of 1833.

Perhaps we could take some time this week to meditate on the words of his hymn too, which are very apt for our own challenging times:

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom;
lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
the distant scene—one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor pray’d that thou
shouldst lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path; but now,
lead thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
pride ruled my will. Remember not past years.

So long thy pow’r hath blest me, sure it still
will lead me on
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
the night is gone.
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
which I have loved long since, and lost awhile

As always, be assured of my prayers for you all, and do please let me or Rosie know if you would like a visit.

With every blessing

Fr Kristian