Newsletter

HOLY ANGELS CHURCH is open Monday – Friday
9am – 1.00pm
For Visits and Prayer.

 

WELCOME

 

Times of Mass and Devotions
Sat    5 Jan	5.30pm	HA	Vigil Mass for Sunday	Deceased relatives of Sister Lucy
Sun   6 Jan	9.15am	HF	The Epiphany of the Lord	Special Intentions for people of the Parish
	11.00am	HA		Sister Benignus (RIP)
Mon   7 Jan			NO MASS
Tue   8 Jan	9.30am	HF	Weekday of Christmas Time	William & Dorothy Robson (RIP) Nov. List
Wed  9 Jan	9.30am	HA	Weekday of Christmas Time	Members of the Sudbury Family (RIP) Nov. List
Thu 10 Jan	7.30pm	HF	Weekday of Christmas Time	Sr. Mary Edmond (RIP) Nov. List
Fri    11 Jan	12.00pm	HA	Weekday of Christmas Time	Aganoor & Canty family (RIP) Nov. List
Sat   12 Jan	5.30pm	HA	Vigil Mass for Sunday	Frank Boyle (RIP)
Sun   13 Jan	9.15am	HF		Special Intentions of the people of the Parish
	11.00am	HA	The Baptism of the Lord	Elizabeth Morris (RIP)

 Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confessions)
Holy Angels, Ash: First Friday of month after 12pm Lunchtime Mass
Holy Family, Farnham:  First Thursday of month after 7.30pm Evening Mass
Special Services with Confessions at both Churches for Advent and Lent

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Wednesday at Holy Family @ 7.00pm (in Church Hall)

 (Parish Office Hours: 9.30am – 1.30pm)

                        Please note:  HF = Holy Family, Heath End, Farnham and HA = Holy Angels, Ash

Liturgy

Feast of the Epiphany

Entrance:     HA 170  HF: 788 We three Kings
Offertory:     HA: 166 HF: 55   As with gladness
Final Hymn: HA: 150  HF: 692 The First Noel

Information

 

Date for Diary:  Saturday 9th Feb The youth group are holding a games fund raising afternoon at Holy Family followed by a fish and chip supper.  Times and prices to be confirmed in next week’s newsletter.  Please support our young people and put the date in your new diary now.

 

Holy Family Church Catholic Parish Farnham, Hale, Weybourne & Badshot Lea

Youth Mass at Holy Family on the 13^th January, 2013 followed with a cake sale to raise funds for theYouth Retreat. (Please be aware of the cake sale taking place after Mass if you are parked in the Church car park and allow for this when parking if you need to leave on time. 

 

(If someone would offer to bake a cake on behalf of Father David he would be happy to donate the ingredients) Father  would be willing to have a go at baking a cake but he doesn’t think this would raise much money!!

 

Mother and Toddler Group – Meet up every Thursday morning from 9.30am until 11.30am. 

 

Mother and Toddler Group – Meet Tuesdays in St. Mary’s Room from 10.30am until 12.00pm. 

 

Baptisms

Please make an appointment to see the Priest/Deacon to discuss what you need to do to prepare for your child’s baptism.

 

Prayer Requests

Please continue to remember in your prayers:  Robert Edwards, baby Rosie Partridge and Daniel. (We pray Lord for their complete recovery. Amen)

 

Words of thanks from Father David

Father David and Deacon John wish you every blessing and happiness for 2013.

Father David would like to thank you for your very kind and generous Christmas offerings which will be a great help to him during the coming year.

Father David and Deacon John would like to express their thanks and appreciation for the many kind cards, greetings and gifts they have received. It is very encouraging for both of us, who are here in a voluntary capacity, to know that you appreciate the time we dedicate to serving the parish.

A special word of thanks to Father Paul for looking after the parish last weekend and on New Year’s day. I know that what he does for us is appreciated by so many people.

A word of thanks to those who organised the Christmas Carol Concert for the Syrian Refugee Children which was a great event and enjoyed by all. The amount raised was £144.58 Many thanks to the St. Laurence Chobham Handbell Ringers and Mark Humphries the organist and Harpsichordist.

We have been asked to include a special word of appreciation to those who organised the Children’s Christmas Party at Ash.

Religious Christmas Cards can be recycled. Please cut of any personal or private messages and leave them in the boxes that will be at the back of our two churches for the next couple of weeks.

The week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins on Saturday, 19^th January, 2013. Please remember in your prayers our neighbouring ChristianChurches and also the work of Farnham Churches Together which we formally belong to and Churches Together in Aldershot whom we have worked well with on several projects last year.

St. Matthew tells us the amazing details of the visit of the three wise men also called kings, because they brought, gold, frankincense and myrrh (three gifts) the early church guessed that it was three wise men who visited and this may not be correct.  The Greek Orthodox Church believe that there were twelve wise men and other old Christian traditions like our own also have a different number of wise men.  A very early Greek 8^th Century document actually claimed that one of the wise men was of Irish origin.

Charles Miller, a contemporary commentator on the Gospels suggests that the story of the wise men in today’s gospel is part of St. Matthews way of teaching the early Christians the universal importance of God’s plan of salvation.  God does not despise the poor Jewish Shepherds or the rich wise men from outside the Jewish community.  How many other people came to see the infant child Jesus, we do not know.  The inclusion of non Jewish wise men or leaders is the first and clearest demonstration that Jesus is to be the Saviour of All in the world and we are all called to be his ambassadors in faith in the time and country where we live.

 

Holy Angels Art Trail

The painting on display this week at Ash is The Dream of Joachim from the Giotto (1267-1337) frescos in the Scrogegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua (Painted 1304-06 The painting was kindly provided by Maureen Chapman to whom we are grateful.

In 1301 Enrico Scrovegni began erecting the Arena Chapel in Padua dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to make amends for the sin of his father’s extortionate money lending activity.  In the small area of this simple barrel-vaulted rectangular hall, Giotto planned and painted 13 episodes from the life of Mary and her parents, 26 from the life of Christ and 14 of the vices and virtues. 

Giotto’s frescoes were to become the template for centuries of Italian painting.  He reintroduced a style in Western art which had been dormant for a thousand years.  This style was very earthy where people expressed real emotion, they were solid and inhabited real space.  They are set against natural backgrounds or fully three-dimensional settings — even the animals have character.  Art no longer only looked heavenwards but outwards in celebration of the created world.  Giotto had been inspired by an early visit to Rome where local artists were recreating frescoes and mosaics on the walls of basilicas which were being reawakened from the Classical ancient rubble.

In the Dream of Joachim Joachim and Anne have been childless. Joachim goes to the desert to pray for a child — living amongst the shepherds and sheep.  One day he sacrifices a lamb on the altar to purify himself and an angel appears to tell him his prayer has been heard and he should go home to Anne.  He rests in a shepherds’ hut and again an angel appears to tell him he would be a father if he goes home — and in due time Mary is born.  Anne has also been visited by an angel to tell her the good news.  Giotto paints with realism with the sheep scrabbling the rocks and a sheepdog looking after them as the shepherds are distracted by the angel. 

The scenes portrayed are known to suggest that the secrets of a happy life are faith and not ideology, common sense and not confusion, tranquillity and not haste.

 

A New Year’s Prayer

O Lord, as the years change, may we find rest in your eternal changelessness.  Help us to meet this new year bravely, in the faith that, while life changes all around us, you are always the same, guiding us with your wisdom and protecting us with your love;  through our Saviour Jesus Christ.