Posts from 2025 (Page 2)

Dearest friends, St. Dunstan was a renowned and well loved Archbishop of Canterbury (his memorial is on Monday this week). He was so loved that for the better part of two centuries he was easily England’s favourite Saint – and between him and St. Edmund – was a favourite to become the patron Saint of England. In the end of course England chose St. George, which makes St. David the only native of the country for which he is the…

Dearest friends, Our Lady of Fátima is a title given to the Virgin Mary following her apparitions to three shepherd children—Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto—in Fátima, Portugal, in 1917.  Between May and October, Mary appeared six times, delivering messages emphasising prayer, repentance, and devotion to God.  She identified herself as the “Lady of the Rosary,” urging the children to pray the Rosary daily for peace and to make sacrifices for sinners. The apparitions included three…

Dearest friends, May is here and with it comes the tradition of honouring Our Lady – not just for a day, or even a few days – but for a whole month. Buy why do we do this? The tradition goes back centuries, but as with many of the traditions surrounding Our Lady it found its modern form in the medieval period.  May was seen as a month in which the darkness of winter had finally been expelled and the…

Dearest friends, In the 1930’s a Polish nun called Sr. Faustina (now St. Faustina) experienced a series of visions of Jesus. Amongst her visions Jesus asked her to paint a very special image – an image of the Divine Mercy of God flowing from His Sacred Heart.  Her visions were centred around Jesus bringing her to a place where she could see the mercy of God at work in the world around her.  She wrote of her pain at her…

The Triduum What a beautiful beginning to Holy Week – congratulations on a hugely encouraging turn out at both parishes for Palm Sunday! Today begins the Sacrum Triduum, or Three Holy Days – of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the celebration of Easter. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper will be celebrated this evening at 7pm at St. John’s, and afterwards the Watch of the Passion will continue until midnight (although you are welcome to come and go as you…

Dearest friends, Palm Sunday has always struck me as a delightful and fun day. I can so easily get caught up in the expectation and the joy of the people of Jerusalem as Jesus enters the city.  I can see and hear the children as they run to meet him. This great teacher, this man who is God, Jesus who has given us so many signs and such wonderful love.  The noise, the smells, the hands held high waving palm…

Dearest friends, This week we have been enjoying the wonderful readings from Genesis giving us the first few chapters of the story of Joseph. (Genesis 37). It’s worth going back when you have a moment this week and reading the whole story (Genesis 37-46). It is a story where you can easily imagine Joseph asking the question ‘how much more of this can I take?’.  First he was sold into slavery by jealous brothers, then he was put in prison…

Dearest friends, It has been a terrific week in both churches as we have had an early taste of Easter Sunday with the celebration of school Easter services. At St. Luke’s we welcomed Haytor View Primary School – who sang us songs, read scripture, and explained why Easter was so important. At St. John’s we travelled the short distance to St. Catherine’s school in Heathfield, where once again the children sang, gave readings (and even some poetry), and explained why…

Dearest friends, Next Sunday we will be celebrating Mothering Sunday. It is a very old feast and comes on Laetare Sunday – a time in Lent when we take a moment to remember that we are already an Easter People, that we have already been saved, that we have already seen the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  We take a breath and view the hard work we have undertaken so far, before girding ourselves for the coming weeks of…

Dearest friends, In Lent we will be following the Stations of the Cross on Saturday evenings before Evening Prayer.  But why? The 14 stations allow us to spend time with Jesus Christ in His last day on earth. We start with His condemnation and end as He is laid in his tomb.  Many churches have beautiful images, icons or even life size statues of each of these moments in His last day. Each gives us a moment to pause, to…

Dearest friends, This week we collected your palm crosses and burnt them to make the ash for Ash Wednesday (thank you Mark!)  There are never quite as many collected back as there are given out. We are reticent to give up those beautiful palm crosses that we took home from church last Palm Sunday.  They adorn our halls, our studies, our offices, our bedrooms, and we become used to their reassuring presence.  Each time we walk past them we feel…

Dearest friends, We start lent by being shriven of our sins. It is a moment of weakness and as St. Paul tells us, ‘..when I am weak, then I am strong’. (2 Cor’ 12:10) In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, our fragility gives us strength. Our willingness to expose our ugly sins to Christ, renews us. Reconciliation is the sacrament of love and of mercy, it is a moment to die to sin and to our own desires that we may…