The travelling Icon pays a visit to St Ann's . . .

We have been privileged this weekend to have the travelling Icon of Our Lady of Consolation in our parish as part of the Diocesan initiative for the Year of Mercy.

The Icon has been not only in our parish church but also paid a visit to the nearby prison HMP High Down and our parish school of St Anne's. 

We were fortunate that the Icon was with us on Friday evening during our Stations of the Cross.  

This added to the very prayerful atmosphere in the church and enables those present to venerate the image before or after the devotion.

The travelling Icon is an opportunity for all of us to pray in a special way asking for Our Lady's intercession on our behalf during the Year of Mercy. This is especially valuable for those who are unable to make a pilgrimage to one of the Holy Doors that have been set up across our diocese.

The original Icon is to be found at the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in West Grinstead and this is an ideal destination for a pilgrimage to enter through the Holy Door during this Holy Year.

Bring flowers of the rarest . . .

May is traditionally the month dedicated to Our Lady, and today being the first Sunday in May, after Mass we crowned not one statue . . .

But two!

And of course we sang  . . .

Also, there will be May Devotions at 4pm every Sunday during May with Holy Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar, concluding with Benediction. All welcome!

A busy Good Shepherd Sunday . . .

It has been another busy Sunday in the parish.  At the end of the 10am Mass we had the May crowning of  the statue of Our Lady.  This necessitates the use of a ladder and ascending the same in priestly vestments but all was accomplished successfully and safely.

Although we didn't sing this particular hymn today for the Crowning, you might like to hear it anyway . . .

Immediately after Mass we moved straight into the Opening and Blessing of our new Annexe. You'll find a few photos of that on our Annexe blog.

Queen of the May . . .

Our Lady is looking especially beautiful this morning adorned with her May crown.  Thank you very much to our flower arrangers who did a wonderful job in creating such a fitting adornment for Our Lady.

It was particularly apt this morning as we celebrated the first of our First Holy Communions at the 10 O'clock Mass.  It was wonderful to see our children looking so happy and excited on their First Holy Communion Day.  I hope and pray that it will be a day filled with happy memories that they will look back on with great joy.  I'm sure many of us still remember well the day we made our own First Holy Communion.  It was  a beautiful family,  and parish family, celebration.  I'm looking forward to  next week's First Communions now!

Here's a photo of this week's happy children. There are more on our parish Facebook page.

And finally, a hymn to Our Lady, and for our children . . . 

Our Lady, Queen of the family, 

pray for us.

October is the month of the Holy Rosary . . .

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

October is the month of the Holy Rosary.

John Paul II said it was his favourite prayer. This prayer to Our Lady is both contemplative and vocal; 'The heart of the Rosary is contemplation.' says John Paul II. Saying the Rosary will bring us peace; one of the ways this happens is that we pray the prayers with the rhythm of our breath and the beat of our our hearts.

In praying the Rosary we can enter into the lives of Jesus and Mary. Mary will always teach us about her Son, and we see Jesus through the eyes of His mother.

Who knows Jesus better than His mother?

As we pray the Rosary during the month of October let us ask Mary to teach us about Jesus.

Our Lady of the Rosary,

pray for us.

October - The Month of The Rosary

October is the month of the Rosary and what a beautiful prayer Our Lady has given us.

I know many of you faithfully pray the Rosary regularly but if others of you have been given a Rosary recently (or one of your children) and you'd like to remind yourself how to pray the Rosary you'll find very good instructions here.

I do encourage you to spend a few minutes with your children, perhaps when you say your family prayers at bedtime, to help your children learn how to use their Rosary beads.

During October we have Rosary and Benediction every Sunday in church at 4 pm. I hope some of you will come along and pray for our parish.

Ave Maria!

Thanks to Gloria TV for this lovely video with Ave Maria soundtrack. Well worth a viewing.