St Anthony of Padua Anerley

Parish Monthly Newsletter (January 2021)

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 coronavirus 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

Peace Sunday

Last  Sunday our bishops invited us to reflect on Pope invitation for all of us  to pray for the World Day of Prayer for Peace: Religious Freedom—the Path to Peace. Our society so often paints a picture of faith as being something that robs us of freedom and of religions as being a threat to peace. Religion is then simply seen as one of the fault –lines in contemporary society, an area for potential conflict. Of course, religions can indeed function in this way, but it is only religious faith which can put us in touch with the full richness of our humanity. We are spiritual beings and unless we attend to the spiritual dimension, we cannot hope to find peace, either for ourselves or for those around us. Properly understood, then, our psalm’s refrain is not the arrogant proclamation of the certainty that we know all God’s plans and that we are absolutely right, while everyone else is wrong. Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will, is rather, a prayer of humility. It reminds me that I believe in a God who stoops down to wounded humanity. One who impels me to speak out, both in praise of God’s utter goodness and in protest against the injustice in our world.

The religious freedom that we seek is the freedom to worship God as we should; the freedom to view our brothers and sisters as just that—as brothers and sisters; the freedom to contemplate our polluted planet as God’s Creation; the freedom to grow in our fidelity to the Gospel of love and justice. That is a freedom which we can share with followers of other faiths and people of no overt religious faith. And without that freedom –  without pursuing purposes greater than our own self-interest and our own little ideas– it is hard to see where peace might be found.

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.

Mass will continue to be celebrated at St Anthony’s unless there is government guidance against this. Parishioners, please carefully consider your health, especially if you have any additional risk factors when thinking about attending Mass.

Recently Deceased:

Please pray for the repose of the souls of Charles Zarb and Moria Selina Sell. Charles Funeral will be on  Wednesday January 27th at 11:00 am at St Anthony’s, 12:30 pm at Beckenham Cemetery. Please pay that his soul may rest in peace.

Keeping in Touch:

There will be a sign-up sheet, close to the Mass 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 about once per month.

Catholic Newspapers:

Papers are available postage free by subscription: The Catholic Herald www.catholicherald.co.uk, or ring 0207 448 3607; The Catholic Universe www.thecatholicuniverse.com/subscribe or ring 0161 820 5722.

Pope’s reflection and book:

Pope Francis’ reflection for Peace Sunday can be read online at http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace.html. Also, a book called Let us Dream detailing how to use the pandemic to make a better world is discussed at www.whatgoodnews.org.

Thank you

Those who continue to steward at Mass, clean the Church, read at Mass, arrange flowers, or 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. The Parish received a thank you card from Christ Church with New Year blessings.

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.

Parishioners can contribute directly to the Parish bank account: Natwest Bank Beckenham Branch, sort code 00 77 26 and account number 46000208. 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 24^th – 31^st January 2021