Wow! It’s like getting a birthday package a month early and marked: ‘Don’t open until…’ Finally, you take it out of the box after waiting so long and find the gift wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with a really nice ribbon, and marked ‘fragile’. Mum wants the ribbon so you must carefully untie it, then she wants the paper too so you have to patiently unseal and fold the wrapping paper. It all takes time and you just want to get it open and see what’s inside.
Here we are, nearly 3 months since the churches were locked, revealing, very slowly, the wonderful gift we’ve missed so much. We cannot yet have all we had before and might lose it as quickly as before. We must be patient and careful in how everything proceeds. Even as the 2-metre advice is relaxed we all remain vulnerable. So, be vigilant with hygiene and use PPE, stay shielded if you’re told to, not just for ourselves but for others too. Now is not the time to be careless. The prize is too great to let it slip away from our grasp.
I don’t expect we’ll ever have things as they were, like sharing the Precious Blood from the one chalice (only a very recent permission: VAT II on Concelebration and Communion under Both Kinds First Decreed for use 16 April 1965, extended faculty 29 June 1970) but we pray for the day we can communicate as Jesus intended as a community.
Opened Churches in the Deanery
Bexley: Mon, Wed, Fri 10-11am
Bexleyheath: Sunday and Tues 11am-12pm, Thurs 3-4pm
Bostall Park: daily 10-11am, plus Sat 6.30-7.30pm; Sunday 9-10 and 10.30-11.30am
Blackfen: Sun, Tues, Thurs, Sat 10.30am-12.30pm; Wed, Fri 5.30-7.30pm
Crayford: Wed and Fri 9-11am and 1-3pm
Erith: daily 10.30am-12.30pm except Sunday 2pm-6pm
Sidcup: daily 10.30am-12.30pm
Welling: Tues 10.30-11.30am, Sat 11-12, Sun 10-11.30am
Calendar for July Ordinary Time, Yr A
1st St Oliver Plunket Martyr National Calendar
3rd St Thomas Apostle
6th St Maria Goretti Virgin Martyr
11th St Benedict Patron of Europe National Calendar
13th St Mildred Diocesan Calendar
15th St Bonaventure
16th Our Lady of Mt Carmel Feast
20th St Apollinaris Bishop Martyr
21st St Lawrence of Brindisi
22nd St Mary Magdalen
23rd St Bridget Patron of Europe
24th St Sharbel Machlūf
25th St James Apostle
29th St Martha
30th St Peter Chrysologus
31st St Ignatius Loyola