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Thank you very much for your donations to World Mission Sunday last week.  Your prayers and contributions will help missionaries work alongside communities throughout the world that are poor or in need, regardless of their background or belief.  Please pray for the work of Missio and all those working to offer the love of Jesus, that we may remain strong in our witness to Christ’s love for all peoples.  To continue supporting mission throughout the year, please go to missio.org.uk or call 020 7821 9755 (office hours).

St George’s Church:  As usual the Memorial book will be placed near the altar.  However, due to the Coronavirus this year we will unfortunately not be able to invite our parishioners to add the names of their deceased friends or relatives.  If you would like your friends/relatives names added to this book please email or send to the office.

The month of the Holy Souls’ is November and traditionally people have Mass offerings for the repose of the souls for friends and family.

Many of you will have heard that St John’s Seminary in Wonersh is to close in its present form. The Seminary has served the Church for 130 years and there is great sadness that formation must now end at the site.

Unfortunately there was no new intake this September. With the seminarian body numbering just 17 the community is small, with the building and staffing costs too high to sustain. Arrangements have been made for the remaining seminarians to join the community at Allen Hall, Chelsea in September 2021.

Archbishop John Wilson and Bishop Richard are committed to providing priestly formation that will serve the people of our Dioceses and parishes into the future. St John’s will remain a legal entity so that consideration can be given to the ways in which the tradition of priestly formation established at Wonersh in 1891 will continue.

The Trustees of St John’s are extremely grateful to rectors, staff and seminarians, past and present, and to all those who have supported the Seminary over the years. We ask our Diocesan church family to pray for vocations to the priesthood, keeping our seminarians in their thoughts and prayers over the coming months.

Monday Nov 2nd is All Souls’ Day and Mass at St George’s will be 10am followed by Deacon John blessing graves in the Memorial Garden and then at Willingdon Cemetery.  Mass at St Wilfrid’s will be 11.30am.  Fr Rory will celebrate the Mass for St Wilfrid’s Community.   Please inform Margaret Piegrome on 870990 if you wish to attend the 10am Mass at St. George’s On All Souls’ Day.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your divine love. 

Send forth your spirit O Lord and renew the face of the earth

Having commenced the streaming of Sunday Mass from our parish community each Sunday, we value this important development.  Lockdown at the beginning of the year was enforced because of the coronavirus, which introduced to us the possibilities of this technology as being particularly helpful and having a good outcome.  My experience of “lockdown”, especially as it happened as we drew close to Holy Week was very beneficial.  It helped me to be particularly attentive to the divine office, with the celebration of Mass giving great emphasis to the scriptures as we progressed through Holy Week.  This brings God’s salvation, and after Good Friday the focus upon the resurrection, the ascension, and especially Pentecost.

How much we need that outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit.

Two things:

One: Will be the prayerful celebration of our liturgies, with the appropriate themes that emphasise each event in the life of our journey through the Christian year.

Two: Community; communication will help us build up the community life of our parish.  The children’s liturgy has been a good help in this direction.

The coronavirus exposed our weaknesses, and brought home to me my biggest failure as a parish priest.  When I had an episode with a breakdown in my health and the loss of my driver’s licence, some of my failures became particularly glaring to me.  The great amount of help that I have received, emphasised what I always believed; a body made up of many parts working together, is truly important and is always the way forward to a good outcome.

When I came to the parish, I introduced Leaven Groups for each community, and please God, after the virus is contained we will be able to return to this.  I had been in the process of establishing “The Missing Link” when we lost some great leaders within our communities, but now please God, is the time to return to this.   I am asking three persons from each church to link together to get us off to a good start.

Recently we listened to a reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes about time.  It included the lines: “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens.” 

Time is a gift from God.  In a little booklet called Living Faith, with a reflection for every day of each year,  Sr. Melanie Svoboda suggested a simple activity as a means of appreciating this gift: “Find a ticking clock.  If you do not have a ticker and if you have access to the Internet Mr Google will find you one if you search “ticking clock sound” Listen to the ticking for several minutes. Do nothing else. Just listen. Do no work of any sort.  Be aware of the ticking sound and the silence between each tick.  Remember, every tick indicates the passing of a moment of time and a moment of your life.

After listening, ask yourself how the experience felt.  Was it calming? Irritating? Boring? Interesting?  Assuming that every tick represents one second, how many ticks have you lived so far? (One year=31,536,000 seconds) How many ticks do you estimate that you have left to live? How have you chosen to spend your ticks so far: sleeping, working, eating, relaxing, talking, listening, reading, playing, praying? Now ask yourself this question: “Is there something you would like to devote more ticks to in the future?”

Sunday 18th October 2020 – Today is World Mission Sunday

World Mission Sunday supports missionaries who work alongside communities that are poor or in need, regardless of their background or belief.  By supporting Missio, the Pope’s charity for world mission, you will help missionaries like Sr Nilcéia share the love of Christ with those most in need.  Please pray for the mission of the Church throughout the world and give what you can to this very important collection which will sustain the future of our Church. Please call 020 7821 9755 (office hours) or visit Missio’s website to give a single gift, set up a Direct Debit and Gift Aid your donation, if possible: mission.org.uk

“You are my disciples”                         

                        Fact                                  Faith                                Feelings

The words of Jesus are alive and true as they came down to us through the ages.  So we can acknowledge that fact. 

Faith then is one of the essential ingredients that can bridge the great gap that at a time exists between this fact and our feelings.  This episode with the coronavirus highlights in a very distinct way the drama that is the life of faith.  As the churches have returned to their lockdown in Ireland, the statement by our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, sets the scene for the drama to unfold for us.  Our situation at the moment allows for “steady as you go”.  Streaming our Masses on Sunday is a God sent blessing, and can be a channel of grace as we develop our faith and grow as a community.

When we were first given the challenge to return to church for mass, because I did not have my car the people from St George’s were very active and helpful to me in arranging meetings in the garden and getting the ball rolling.  Margaret Piegrome has also been very pro-active in getting our parish list up-to-date, this is a work in progress.

This sets the scene for us now to grow as a community of faith.  The age profile with the implied complications of being over seventy sets the scene for a new generation.  Streaming of Mass and preparing for our Christmas celebration may be very helpful with this.  Some time ago as we were trying to develop our parish structure.   We established what we called the “Missing Link” as a first step in developing a plan for our way ahead.  We need to renew this link, with me having oversight for, to bring about plans to help us to work together.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives a list of lame excuses from the invited guests which they used as reasons for not attending.

The Toronto Star invited teachers to submit excuses they had received from their students as part of a competition. They received these examples: A student explaining why he was late: “I was kidnapped by aliens and interrogated for three hours.” Another student, telling why he had failed to turn in his essay: “The bus driver read it and liked it so much he kept it to show to his passengers.” Another: “I got mugged on the way to school. I offered him my money, my watch, and my penknife but all he wanted was my essay.” Mike, a 14-year old, came up with a “watertight” excuse for arriving at school an hour late with his pants soaked to the knees: “I was just about to board the bus when I found I’d lost my ticket. Since it would take too long to walk to school, I hopped a fence onto a golf course. I headed for a creek that criss-crossed several fairways until I found a likely spot for lost balls. Retrieving three balls from their watery graves, I then made for the clubhouse where I sold the balls for bus fare! And that’s why I’m late.” Mike’s entry won.

We have all been given our wedding garment through our Baptism.We need to keep wearing the wedding garment of holiness. This means we must do good for all the people we know and meet in our everyday lives. We are helped in our efforts through the graces which receive through the other Sacraments. When we attend Mass either through live streaming or in Church and receive Holy Communion we are strengthened in our lives. Our personal prayers at any time of day or night help us to recharge our own spiritual batteries and guide us in our efforts of doing good for those we meet. Listening to God’s Word when we hear the readings nourishes us and help us in our actions. 

Yes, we have all been given our wedding garment ready for the banquet waiting for us in heaven so we must take care to wear it at all times in preparation for the event. Just remember that we do not have automatic entry. We can, however, succeed through our actions.