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A welcome note from our Parish Priest, Father Alex WEEKEND MASSES: Saturday 5.30, Sunday 8.30 & 10.30 LENT AT TRHE ORATORY OF OUR LADY OF HARTLEY & ST FRANCIS DE SALES OUR JOURNEY TO EASTER: On 25th February 09 which is Ash Wednesday, at 9.15am & 7.45pm Masses, blessed ashes will be placed on our forehead to remind us that all our bodies shall return to dust one day. We shall join the Christian communities all over the world in their forty days journey to Easter. It is a journey that has twofold character: baptismal preparation and penitential practice. The Church instructs us to prepare for the renewal of our Baptism and to discipline ourselves through fast and abstinence. This is a time to intensify our hatred of sin and to pray for ourselves, the world and the sinners. In accordance with the mind of the Catholic Church, we are reminded of the obligation of Friday penance, which can be fulfilled in one or more of the following ways: to abstain from meat or some other food; alcoholic drink, smoking or some form of amusement; make the special effort involved in family prayer, take part in the Mass, visit the Blessed Sacrament or pray the Stations of the Cross; fast from all food for a longer period than usual and perhaps give what is saved to the needy at home or abroad or a charity; make a special effort to help somebody who is poor, sick, old or lonely. Failure to undertake this penance on a particular Friday would not constitute a sin, yet to do penance on Friday is of obligation. I am sure that we don’t all do penance every Friday of the year, however, I think Lent is offering us the opportunity to do so. I am, therefore encouraging each one of us to decide how to fulfil our Friday penance obligation this Lent. It could be to start with CAFOD Fast Day on Friday 6th March 09. Concerning Almsgiving, a few opportunities are on our way this Lent. We have our Parish SVP, Cabrini Society, the Jesuits Refugees Centre in London and so forth. Saturday 28th February 2009, seven adults from our Parish will attend the Rite of Election while 26 Children will celebrate their First Reconciliation. Between 28th-29th March09, nine youth of our Parish will attend their Confirmation Retreat at St Vincent’s Youth Centre Whitstable. Please keep all these people in your prayers. We have plenty of opportunities for prayer. Every week day, rosary is said, before Mass. Friday at 12 noon there will be the Traditional Stations of the Cross in the Church, and in the evenings at 7.45pm there will be a meditation on the Stations of the Cross. Every Sunday at 5pm is the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for our communal adoration which will conclude with praying psalms and benediction. The Church is open from 8.30am to 3pm Monday, Thursday and Friday, ALL DAY WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY during Lent for our personal prayer. FR. MICHAEL BEATTIE, will preach at all Masses of the weekend of 21st-22nd March to prepare us for our Easter Reconciliation at 3pm on Sunday 22nd March. Mr. David Payne from Café will lead our 24h Parish Recollection on Friday 20th March at 8pm with the theme “ALIVE” followed by food and wine and “LIVING LIFE TO THE FULL” on Saturday 21st March at 10am preceded by a cooked breakfast. Our Ecumenical friends are welcome. From two weeks before Easter, all the statues and crosses in our Church and all the Catholic Churches in the world will be covered with violet/purple veils. In the second week of the Passiontide, we relive the full story of how God saves us in Christ. We begin the Holy Week with Palm Sunday. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people waved palm and olive branches in praise of him. We commemorate that triumphant entry, and we sing, “ Hosanna to the Son of David.” Here, in our Parish, we shall bless palms at all Masses. However, the blessing for 10:30am Mass will take place at 10:15 at Whitefriars, to enable us to have a short procession before Mass. This will lead us to Holy Thursday. In the morning at 11am there will be Chrism Mass at St George’s Cathedral, during which the Archbishop, with his auxiliary Bishops and the clergy of the Diocese, will renew their priestly vows and bless the oils for Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders and Anointing of the sick. In the evening, we shall start the Triduum. It lasts three days. We reflect on the Last Supper: how the Lord assembled his apostles as a united family. How he washed their feet to give them an example of service. He gave them his own flesh and blood as food. We shall wash the feet of those who wish to commemorate this gesture of service and love that Jesus our Lord left us. We then watch in prayer until midnight. We break after the night watch to come back Friday 3pm to hear the story of our Lord’s passion and death as recorded in the Gospel of St. John. We pray for the Church, the Civil authorities and so forth, and kneeling down, we kiss the Cross, the symbol of our salvation. Then, in family unity, we eat the flesh of Christ. We break again, to come back Saturday. There are no special services during the day. We consider that we are in the tomb with Christ, awaiting the resurrection. When it is dark, at 7pm we gather to celebrate the Easter Vigil. We watch the priest bless the new fire, symbol of the risen Christ’s new life. We hear the praises of the Easter candle, which has been adorned to represent the glorious Christ. We assist at the preparation of the baptismal water which will be used throughout the Easter season or the year. Finally, we participate in the Mass of the resurrection and eat the flesh of Christ so that we might share his life. I encourage you to attend the three days, since they mark one event: the Institution of the Eucharist, the Passion, Death and the Resurrection of the Lord. The celebration which we have started on Thursday with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, concludes with the solemn blessing of the Easter Vigil. This joyful Easter celebration begins the Easter season which will last seven weeks and conclude with the Feast of Pentecost. Let us all enter the fight of God. |
