Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s as we reach Passion Sunday. Today marks the beginning of Passiontide, the time when we enter even more deeply into the passion of our Lord, which has its climax on Good Friday. Entering into and, in some way, experiencing the anguish of another is never an easy thing to … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s on this First Sunday in Lent. Today we celebrate Mass and then we will move across to the parish hall for a light lunch and the first of our Lenten Studies. Lent is a time when we go back to basics and recall the foundations of our faith … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s. Today is the last Sunday before we begin Lent, and the readings have a strong theme of call and response for us to consider. Like Isaiah, when we come to the Eucharist we are called into the presence of the One who overwhelms us with his holiness. Our response … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s on this Celebration of Candlemas. Candlemas is a beautiful feast when we celebrate Christ coming into the world as its true light. The biblical setting is the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth, in obedience to the Law of Moses. The … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s on this fourth Sunday of Advent. Today we light the candle for love, the fourth candle on our wreath, as our waiting and praying in preparation for Christmas draw to an end. The focus comes closer to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus to Mary. We notice that the … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s today on this third Sunday of Advent, which is called Gaudete Sunday. This name comes from the first word of the traditional entrance antiphon and means ‘Rejoice’. It is a Sunday when, traditionally, the penitential focus of Advent is relaxed and we allow the joyful expectation of the redemption … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s on this second Sunday of Advent. It is good to be here. This morning, as we light the second Advent candle, the candle for peace, our attention is drawn again to the Advent wreath, this year constructed from specific and significant dried laurel and bay leaves, with the addition … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s as we begin Advent together. Last Sunday we celebrated Christ the King in grand style and now our tone changes as we begin to wait on the Lord’s coming. Today the Mass begins with the Asperges, which is the sprinkling of baptismal water. This provides emphasis on the penitential … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Welcome to S. Michael’s on this Feast of Christ the King. This celebration comes at the end of the long sequence of Sundays in Ordinary Time which follow Pentecost. During this period we have heard much about the growth of the kingdom, and the work of the Holy Spirit acting through believers. Today … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, It is good to be here and worship at S. Michael’s this morning. We want to report to you an exciting decision made by our Vestry concerning the position of a part-time Youth Worker in our parish. We are very blessed in having a Church School as part of our parish family. Many … [Read more…]
