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By DEACON BARRY MELLISH The Forty Days of Lent have a great biblical precedent, not least in the forty years the people of Israel wondered the desert in search of the Promised Land. The example for our own practice of “Quadragesima” lies in the forty days Jesus was in the wilderness before he undertook his…
This year, SS Joseph & Swithun is proposing to join in with the Diocesan programme, Saving Grace.
Pope Francis has asked the whole Catholic Church worldwide to engage in a process of discernment under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In order to start this process, the Archdiocese of Southwark is asking us to respond to a questionnaire, giving honest and open opinions about our real-life experiences, and to reflect on what the Holy Spirit might be…
By DEACON BARRY MELLISH
There are people who talk all the time – or perhaps it just seems that way! We could be one of them and not realise it. Perhaps it is our personality or we are so full of ideas that we cannot wait to explain them all. Or perhaps it is our ego: what we say must be more important than whatever anyone else has to say so they never get a word in edgeways. It takes all sorts to make the world! But there is a lesson to be learned from this and it affects us all.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England And Wales (CBCEW) has issued a statement regarding the Covid-19 vaccine.
By DEACON BARRY MELLISH
Time spent at home during lockdown seems an excellent opportunity to catch up with some modern or contemporary spiritual authors and their books. The problem is how to get hold of these if all the local libraries are shut.
The Open Library seems to offer a way forward, if you are happy to read or browse text on a computer, tablet or maybe even mobile phone.
Fr MATTHEW KWAGHTAVER
It was Thanksgiving season in the nursing home. The small resident population gathered around their humble Thanksgiving table, and the director of the home asked each in turn to express one thing for which he or she was thankful for. “Thanks” were expressed for a home in which to stay, families, friends, etc. One old lady, when her turn came, she said, “I thank the Lord for two perfectly good teeth left in my mouth, one in my upper jaw and one in my lower jaw. They match so well that I can chew my food.” The psalmist says, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.” (Ps.92:1).
Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of Father Charles Briggs, Parish Priest of St Mary’s Chislehurst, who died in the early hours of the morning of Tuesday 25 August at St Christopher’s Hospice, fortified by the Rites of Holy Mother Church.
By Deacon AIDAN McPARTLAN
I wonder how many stories have been told or films made about buried treasure? You know the sort of thing. A clue is found that sets the ball rolling and we quickly discover the lengths that people will go to revealing the greedy instincts, of human nature, hiding just below the surface.