The Season of Advent
“Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us signs of the attention he has for each one of us. How often does God give us a glimpse of his love! To keep, as it were, an “interior journal” of this love would be a beautiful and salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to consider the whole of our life as a “visit,” as a way in which he can come to us and become close to us in every situation?
Advent becomes an opportunity to reawaken within ourselves the true meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of Christ, the Messiah who was expected for long centuries and was born in poverty, in Bethlehem. In coming among us, he brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and his salvation.
Thus, the Advent season “is in a particular way a period of joy, an interiorized joy that no suffering can diminish. It is joy in the fact that God made himself a Child. This joy, invisibly present within us, encourages us to journey on with confidence.”
Pope Benedict the 16th

Mass for the Holy Souls
in Haycombe Cemetery
1000 on Sat the 30th of November
in the Hilltop Chapel
During this Mass we will pray for those who are buried or interred in the Cemetery for our all our departed loved ones, family, & friends, and for all who have died with nobody to pray for them.  A collection will be taken to help cover the fee for using the Chapel.   Please note there will not be a Mass in St Alphege on that Saturday.  There will also be a collection at the Mass to help with the fee for the use of the Chapel. 
 
A Mass to Prepare for Advent
will be celebrated on Thursday at 1000 with St John’s School.  During the Mass Advent Candles will be blessed to them be taken back to each classroom. Everyone is welcome to attend and pray with our children. 

Mass for the Holy Souls
in Haycombe Cemetery
1000 on Sat the 30th of November
in the Hilltop Chapel
During this Mass we will pray for those who are buried or interred in the Cemetery for our all our departed loved ones, family, & friends, and for all who have died with nobody to pray for them.  A collection will be taken to help cover the fee for using the Chapel.   Please note there will not be a Mass in St Alphege on that Saturday.
I am very grateful to the staff at Haycombe for their generous help in enabling this Mass to be celebrated.   If you would like a poster to advertise this please e mail Fr Robert. There will also be a collection at the Mass to help with the fee for the use of the Chapel. 
 
Please pray for the repose of the soul
-  of Fr Bernard Carpenter, a retired Priest of the Diocese who died this week.  He was for a long time Parish Priest in Frome
- of Neil Charles McPherson who died recently, and for his family after this sudden loss
 

Poetry
A number of you asked me about the poem I mentioned during the Homily at Mass last Sunday. The text is below,

​It was written by the poet George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633).  His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as one of the foremost British devotional lyricists.  He was born in Wales into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University's Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He sat in the Parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625.  
 
After the death of King James, Herbert renewed his interest in ordination. He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as the rector of the rural parish of Fugglestone St Peter, just outside Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill and providing food and clothing for those in need.  He was never a healthy man and died of consumption at age 39.

​November – the month of the Holy Souls
During November we pray for and remember in a particular way those who have died, our family, friends, and all those dear to us, but also those who died un-mourned in this world who have nobody to pray for them.
I have left envelopes on the table by the Newsletter in which you can put the names of those whom you will be remembering.  These will be bought up and join those which were bought forward on All Souls Day to the Altar and Mass will be offered for the repose of their souls.
 
Pope Francis Prayer Intention for November
For anyone who has lost a child - we pray that all parents who mourn the loss of a son or daughter find support in their community and receive peace and consolation from the Holy Spirit.