Saint Stephen's Blog
One of the ways that we, as individuals or communities, can heed Pope Francis’ words about caring for the earth and tackling climate change, is to plant some trees.
In the UK the National Trust have pledged to plant twenty million trees in the next decade.
As our journey towards the Celebration of Easter concludes we can experience the joy of Salvation and, hopefully, the tangible freedom of release from the strictures of the pandemic.
Angela Mary Mann was born on 9th July 1953 in Newington, Southwark, to parents George and Rosemary (Roma) Hooper. She was one of six children, along with siblings Deirdre, John, Paul, Pauline and Alison. She was educated at St Joseph’s Convent in Sidcup, and went on to a college in Lewisham to gain secretarial skills.
Pope Francis declared a year devoted to St Joseph starting on 8th December 2020.
Parishioner Desmond Miller published a booklet “St Joseph: His Life and Mission” in 2017, which some of you will have read. For those who didn’t obtain a copy, here is a link to it: St Joseph Booklet.
St Stephen’s cannot celebrate this special year with a variety of services and activities due to the restrictions, however Canon Edward is pleased to be able to have a special Novena to St Joseph. The Novena Masses will begin on Wednesday 10th March at 7.00pm, and will continue daily until Friday 19th March, when we will celebrate the Feast of St Joseph. There will be a short reflection given by the Mill Hill Fathers, and the following prayer from the Pope’s Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), will be prayed each day after Mass.
On our journey through Lent I’ve become aware of some parallels with the plight of those lepers, who came to Jesus, and ourselves. Of course, even the worst we suffer is nowhere as bad as they suffered but many of us have suffered much. As well as those we know and love who have died, there has been isolation, face masks, washing often (as the Jewish regulations demanded), fear of contagion, despair, loss of work or income leading to debt and food poverty, loss of education, learning and attainment, especially for our children, stifled ambition becoming boredom, frustration, anger. . . But we now have hope. Just as the sick cried out to Jesus our prayers are being answered.
