Next Friday, 2 October, is the day designated as Harvest Fast Day, when we devote some of what we save through fasting to the CAFOD collection, which will be the second collection on Sunday 4 October.  Envelopes will be distributed this weekend, and collected next weekend.  Cf. Elizabeth Carey’s article on the parish website, which can be viewed via the link on the home page. 

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    The same Friday, 2 October, is the first Friday of the month, and so we hope to expose the Blessed Sacrament for adoration between the lunchtime and evening Masses.  If you are able to make a commitment to be present for a part of the period of exposition, please sign your name against one of the timed slots on the list at the back of the church.

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    As October is the month of the Holy Rosary, there will be an opportunity to pray the rosary in the Lady Chapel each weekday evening after the 6pm Mass throughout October.  Please stay for this is you are able.

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    On Wednesday 7 October, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, (the reason why October is kept as the month of the rosary), we will be hosting a Wigmore Hall concert at 7.30pm, given by the Sixteen, under the direction of Harry Christophers, and they will be singing a concert of Renaissance polyphony with music by Lassus and Josquin, among others.  Tickets can be purchased from the Wigmore Hall Box Office, not from the church.

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    A few days later, on Saturday 10 October, there will be an opportunity to take part in the National Eucharistic Congress (Adoremus), at Westminster Cathedral, which will include a Blessed Sacrament Procession from St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, to Westminster Cathedral.  The procession is due to leave St George’s at 3pm and to finish at 5pm with Solemn Benediction at Westminster Cathedral presided over by Bishop Jim Curry. This will be followed by Mass at 6pm celebrated by Bishop Gerard Bradley, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark.  Reigstration is necessary for other elements of the Congress (via the link https://westminstercathedral.org.uk/adoremus/), but not for participation in the procession, Benediction or Mass.

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    Another quite different procession is planned for the following Saturday 17 October, when pilgrims will make their way from Farm Street Church to Saint James’s Church, singing medieval pilgrim songs associated with the camino to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, where the relics of Saint James are venerated.   Prior booking is necessary, as music rehearsals are involved - in order to reserve a place, visit http://bit.ly/caminosongs1.

    Next weekend is the date by which forms are due to be handed in to the Parish Office in connexion with enrolment for parish sacramental preparation programmes, that is to say, for First Holy Communion Preparation, Confirmation preparation, and the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), aimed at those interested in learning more about the Catholic faith, whatever their background.

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    We continue to receive requests for Certificates of Catholic Practice in connexion with applications for school places.  There are postcards available at the back of the church which can be used to obtain evidence of Mass attendance on three successive Sundays.  If these are submitted to the Parish Office, with a sufficient number of signatures from the priests who celebrated the Mass that you attended, a certificate can be produced.

 

    On Tuesday 13 October, an event is to take place online that may be of interest to some of our parishioners, organized by the Good Steward - Catholic Philanthropy.  Places can be booked for the online presentation through https://www.ticketsource.com/catholics-in-fundraising/the-good-steward-catholic-philanthropy/e-jpobab.  I do commend this worthy initiative to your attention.

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    On Tuesday of the coming week, we have a great feast to look forward to, the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.  It is this occasion that gives rise to the name “Michaelmas”, often used to designate the term that has just begun.  Saint James’s Church includes a rather striking statue of Saint Michael wielding a sword, at the right-hand end of the altar rails.  What must once have been Saint Michael’s altar was re-purposed in 1929 as an altar of the English martyrs, many of whom were beatified in that year, but the statue of Saint Michael remains.  As he is the patron of Vatican City and well known for combating evil in the form of the devil and his angels, his patronage is greatly needed.

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    The other archangels - Gabriel and Raphael - are given roles in Scripture in the areas of communication and healing respectively.  It is often maintained that the honour accorded them of the title “archangel” has to do with the importance of the missions entrusted to them.  

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    Wednesday sees the memorial of Saint Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church, whose biblical scholarship led to the translation of the entire Bible into Latin - the so-called “Vulgate” Bible is the fruit of his labours.  He is famed for saying that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” - a sombre admonition to us all.

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    On Thursday we celebrate the liturgical memorial of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a great Carmelite mystic and herself one of relatively few female Doctors of the Church.  We have an altar dedicated to her, surmounted by a statue, in our church, just inside the Memorial Chapel, which currently serves as the repository.

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Friday, besides being the Harvest Fast Day and the first Friday of the month, happens to be the liturgical memorial of the Guardian Angels, who are assigned to each one of us as an expression of the particular personal care that God takes of every human creature.  We rejoice in the protection and intercession that our Guardian Angels offer to each one of us.

 

As autumn is now well and truly under way, Father Domenico and I wish all our parishioners a blessed season in preparation for the Christmas festivities.​​​​​