St Anthony of Padua Anerley

Parish Monthly Newsletter (Christmas 2020)

Welcome to St. Anthony’s Church

¨ Please wear a face covering in Church.

¨ Please remember to sanitise your hands on entering and leaving the Church.

¨ Please write down your name and contact details so that you can be contacted in the event of Corona virus cases at the Church.  This information is kept securely by Father Sunith.  Please do contact Father Sunith if you begin to feel unwell after attending Mass.

¨ Please follow the one way system in place in the Church.

¨ To maintain social distancing only every other pew is available with green markers to show the positions available.

¨ If you wish to receive Communion please stay in your pew and Father will come to you.

¨ To avoid cross contamination, please refrain from touching the statues.

¨ Please put your church donations into the donation boxes.

¨ The Church is cleaned after every Mass to avoid cross contamination.  Please do assist with the cleaning after Mass if you are fit and able (speak to the Marshall about the cleaning regime).

¨ Please remember to switch off your mobile phone when you enter the Church 

Each Christmas, we celebrate the feast by using the same readings. We do not change according to the normal cycle of the years (A,B,C).  But there are three different masses given to us—Vigil, Midnight. During the Day. This means that though the message is the same all the time –that Jesus, Son of God, is born unto this world from the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit—the emphasis can be slightly different.

For me and for very many, there is a special mystery, awe and radiant joy. This is the night when God gives us the amazing gift of his only Son. Surely it is only right and fitting that we should come with the poor but beautiful gift of ourselves. We  should make his birth by receiving his gift to us of himself at the end of His life’s journey in this world which begins at Christmas.

We should remember in all our joy and celebration that God’s purpose in sending his Son as Christ into the world was to save us. Through his love he leads us through repentance and service of Him and our neighbour to the fullness of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God is already here. When we come to Mass we share in that Kingdom. The sad truth is that God’s Kingdom has not yet been fully realised. We must understand that we are all on our own mission to make the Kingdom more real in our lives.

Christmas, then, is  a wonderful time show our generosity in opening ourselves to others, especially the poor, sick, forgotten in God’s world. In loving us, he loves them, and asks us to respond to his love by loving others also.

Wish you all very merry Christmas,

Fr. Sunith

Mass Times and Intentions:

Mass is celebrated from Monday to Saturday at 9.30am. Sunday Masses are at 6pm (Saturday evening), 9.30am, 11.15am and 5.30pm. The parish website www.stanthonyofpaduaanerley.com, has details of the weekly Mass Intentions.

Christmas Masses will be on Thursday December 24th at 6pm and 9pm and on Christmas Day at 9:30am and 11:15am.

Note that the Church recognizes an Octave, where Liturgically every day from December  25th until January 1st is “Christmas Day”. This may help Parishioners avoid crowding around Christmas.

On Thursday December 31st the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed from 8pm, followed by Mass at 9pm.

Recently Deceased:

Funerals will take place as follows: Epiphany Fernandes, Monday December 21st, 11am; Clotilde Biniga, Monday December 21st, 1:45pm;  Josie Healey, Tuesday December 22nd, 11am (at the graveside); John Wright, Wednesday December 23rd, 11am. Please pray that souls may rest in peace.

Please pray also for the Head teacher Mrs White’s father Frank Develin who died recently.

Keeping in Touch:

There will be a sign-up sheet close to the signing-in sheets for those who wish to leave their name and an email address. These will be used to email out (using blind copy) the Parish Newsletter.  We intend to produce a Newsletter approximately once per month.

Crib Offering 2020

The Catholic Children’s Society is appealing for Crib donations to support work with local children via the Southwark Crisis Fund. Donations may be made at www.carhchild.org.uk/crib.

Thank you

Those who have stewarded at Mass, cleaned the Church, read at Mass, arrange flowers, or have helped in many other ways in the background, are thanked for their generous help, especially in these difficult times.

Local Food Bank:

Please help support families in need by contributing to the food bank held at neighbouring Christ Church, at the corner of Maple and Anerley Roads.  Food donations are collected on Fridays only.  If you would like to donate then please leave your donations at the back of the Church.

2021 Calendars:

There is a limited stock of Italian Wooden Scroll.  The Wooden Scroll Calendars are £3. If you would like one then please put the money into one of the donation boxes.

Newsletter Notices:

If you have a notice for the Parish Newsletter, please email it to the presbytery (anerley@rcaos.org.uk).

Financial Support:

We appreciate your continued care and support for our parish community, especially with the uncertainty and financial instability  the pandemic has brought  both households and parish.

The Archdiocese is making available forms that will enable you to keep sustaining St Anthony’s parish financially, which can be found at the back of the Church.

Tax payers, please join the Gift Aid programme allowing our parish to increase the value of every donation it receives from tax payers by 25%. We value your assistance in maintaining our wonderful Parish community.

Parish groups:

The Knights of St Columba, the UCM and the Parish Council continue to meet virtually (via zoom) at regular times.

Please take this newsletter home with you.

If you know of someone who would like a copy of this newsletter then please take one and pop it through their letter box.

  MASS TIMES AND INTENTIONS 20^th – 27^th  December 2020