Forgiveness - that is, God’s forgiveness of us is at the heart of our faith.

St. John writing in his first letter in the New Testament says: ‘If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.’(1 John 1.9).

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus commands us to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ This sounds incredibly hard, if not impossible! And it is impossible unless we come to know, deep within ourselves, God’s forgiveness of us.  Then - and only then- does it become possible. ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’

 The church gives us the wonderful Sacrament of Reconciliation (‘confession’). Church teaching is that we should receive this sacrament at least once a year, but I suspect most of us need God’s grace of forgiveness more often (and besides which a yearly confession is an awful lot to remember!) A good ‘rule of thumb’ might be every three months or so.

 

Mass attendances last Sunday were 684. 

Sunday 20/2/11

7th Sunday in Ordinary time (A)1

 

6pm –  Denis & Anne Crowley (M Harrington & family)

 

9.15am-  The O’Connor family (Ned) 

 

11am – People of the Parish

Monday

21/2/11

Feria

9.30am – Dr Michael Kelly RIP (Mary Kelly)

 

1-30-3.30 pm - craft/card games/tea and chat in the hall. Everyone very welcome!

Tuesday

22/2/11

The Chair of St Peter

 

9.30am- Phyllis Marsh RIP (the Charlesworth family)

 

7.15pm- No evening Mass or Evangelium today 

Wednesday

23/2/11

St Polycarp

 

9.30am – Margaret Kiernan RIP (J & P Keen)

Thursday

24/2/11

Feria

 

9.30am –Anne Kinahan RIP (Mary Kelly)

 

Friday

25/2/11

Feria

 

9.30am – Joe Head RIP (Pat Murray)

Saturday 26/2/11

We welcome through Holy Baptism (4.30pm) Naina Maria Ganapathy (2yrs 9mths), her parents Vijay and Arun; and godparents Sunder and Laura.

Sunday 27/2/11

8th Sunday in Ordinary time (A)

 

 6pm –  People of the Parish

 

9.15am-  Bill O’Riordan RIP (Ned) 

 

11am – Olive Cosgrave RIP (the CWL)

 

Taizé Service 7pm – all warmly welcome to this meditative and moving form of worship

 

Monday March 7th – meeting in social centre (7pm) for parents of children at present in Year 2 to explain the new arrangements for First Communion from 2012 (ends by 7.45pm).

Thursday March 10th – Autumn Festival Planning meeting – meeting room 8pm.  Many of you have requested another Festival in October and I encourage as many of you as possible to come and get involved, building on the success of last year’s event. 

Petts Wood Festival Chorus tickets are for sale in the Rainbow Centre and In the Repository (our church shop) after Mass.  Tickets £8.00 (£5.00 concessions). Concert in St Michael’s Locksbottom – March 20th 7.30pm. Tickets limited so get yours now!

Teacher required in the Nursery from September 2011 (St Mary's Catholic Primary. Glenure Road, Eltham). Email: headteacher@stmary-rc.greenwich.sch.uk

Please remember the sick in your prayers: Bill Morley, Gerald Colman, Gloria Calnan, Joshua Canning (11 yrs.), Florence Angel, Christopher Drew, Ernest Field and Bishop Michael Evans (East Anglia).

 

John Donne (1572-1631) was a great poet and also Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. He was also a man who knew the need of God’s forgiveness in his life, and he expresses this in his poem ‘Wilt Thou Forgive?’  It needs a slow read, two or three times. I have found it a help personally. I hope you might too.

 

            Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun

            which is my sin, though it were done before?

            Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run,

            and do them still: though still I do deplore?

            When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

            for I have more.

 

            Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I won

            others to sin? And made my sin their door?

            Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun

            a year or two, but wallowed in a score?

            When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

            for I have more.

 

            I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun

            my last thread, I shall perish on the shore;

            Swear by thy self, that at my death thy Sun

            shall shine as it does now, and heretofore.

            And ,having done that, thou hast done,

            I have no more.

 

Every blessing, Fr Bryan