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Pope Francis declared a year devoted to St Joseph starting on 8^th 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 10^th March at 7.00pm, and will continue daily until Friday 19^th 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.

Continue reading “Year of St Joseph”

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.

Continue reading “Reflections for the Month of March”

As the opportunity for having the Covid vaccine spreads more widely, some of us might feel more able to leave home unnecessarily. We must remember that it is our responsibility to help control the spread and protect others. We are being warned that this virus may become embedded as an annual epidemic, like the flu, with new strains appearing and medicine trying to keep up, rather than getting ahead of developments. Continue reading “Reflections for the Month of February”

This week is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, during which we pray that all our churches work and serve closely together, bearing fruit for the common good, especially during this challenging time of the coronavirus.

St John’s Church, Welling are offering a prayer chain, in which they invite you to take an hour to spend with the Lord on either Friday 22nd or Saturday 23rd January. To see which hours are still available and to get instructions on booking as well as links to prayer resources, please go to: St Johns Welling | Prayer Chain.

If the hour you want is already booked, then please do book it anyway, as we will all be praying at home or elsewhere.

May you draw close to the Lord as you spend time with Him during Unity Week.

We look towards the light!

Being in Lockdown for so long, I have found a resonance with St Paul’s plight in his journey under guard to Rome and then house arrest. The chains that bound him were not a hindrance to proclaiming the Good News to the fledgling churches he had established and helped to grow – and to us – in his letters. He never lost sight of the purpose the Lord had for him to proclaim the Word to Gentile Governors and Kings so that Jesus Christ would be known throughout the world.

Continue reading “Reflections for the Month of January”