Fr Edward Dockery . . .

I took this photo the other day. I apologise for the quality but I only had my phone with me at the time.

It shows the gravestone of Fr Edward Dockery, the first Parish Priest of St Ann's. Although Mass was being celebrated at St Ann's before Fr Dockery was appointed, there was no presbytery and the parish was served by local priests from Epsom overseen by Canon Christall.

With the building of the presbytery in 1936 came the possibility of a resident priest and in September of that year, Fr Dockery was appointed as the first rector of the parish, taking up residence at the beginning of October.

Fr Dockery died in 1940 as a result of an incendiary bomb whilst travelling in his car. He was just 37 years old. May he rest in peace.

Fr Dockery was buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church (Anglican) Banstead which is where I took this photo.

In your charity, you might like to pay a visit to Fr Dockery's grave and say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May he rest in peace. Amen.

Incidentally, as you can see, the gravestone is looking rather the worse the wear. Therefore we have arranged for the stone to be professionally cleaned so that the site will provide a fitting memorial to our very first Parish Priest.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St Jean Marie Vianney, Patron of Parish Priests.

Act of Love of the Holy

Curé

D'Ars

I love you, O my God. My only desire is to love you, until the last breath of my life. I love you, O infinitely loveable God, and I prefer to die loving you, rather than to live for an instant without you.

I love you, O my God, and I desire only to go to heaven, to have the happiness of loving you perfectly. I love you, O my God, and my only fear is to go to hell, because one will never have the sweet solace of loving you there.

O my God, if my tongue cannot say at all times that I love you, at least I want my heart to repeat it to you as many times as I breathe.

Ah! Do me the grace: to suffer while loving you, to love you while suffering, and, that when I die: I not only will love you, but experience it in my heart. I beg you that: the closer I come to my final end, you will increase and perfect my love for you. Amen.

St Jean Marie Vianney, pray for me, and for all parish priests.

A regular visitor ...

We are delighted that Fr Stephen Dingley is able to celebrate Mass in the parish this week as he is in Banstead visiting his family. Fr Stephen is enjoying a well-earned break from St John's Seminary, Wonersh where he is on the teaching staff.

It is always a great joy to see Fr Stephen, especially as he's 'one of our own'. We wish him a very restful break.

This photo of Fr Stephen was taken by Mr Mark Sculley, Headmaster of The John Fisher School, Purley, during the Consecration of the School Chapel in January this year for the 50th Anniversary celebrations. Thanks to the Hermeneutic of Continuity from whose blog I 'borrowed' the photo and extracted this picture of Fr Stephen. Fr Stephen is an old boy of the school as many of you will know. As there are many current and past pupils of The John Fisher School in the parish, some of you may have been present at this event.

St John Vianney

Today at Mass we prayed for all parish priests as we celebrated the Memorial of St John Vianney, also known as the Curé d'Ars. I was touched and moved by these words in my
spiritual reading,

'On a certain occasion people asked a lawyer from Lyons returning from Ars, what he had seen there. He answered, " I saw God in a man.",

Today we ask the Lord that we may be able to say the same of each priest on account of his holiness, his union with God and his concern for souls.

If you read this blog, please pray for me.

An unexpected visitor ...

Fr Paul D'Arcy SMA popped into the parish early this week as he had come over to England to take part in Chichester parish's Golden Jubilee celebrations. It really was a flying visit and I know he was sorry not to have had time to meet more parishioners during his short visit.

It was good to have a chance to meet him properly at last after hearing so much about him from everyone in the parish. It was also interesting to chat to him about the parish and to show him any changes that have taken place since he left Banstead to go back to Ireland and and the SMA Provincialate in Cork. He was interested to take a look at the gallery as he had a lot to do with the project in the planning stages and he was very pleased with the result. He also took a look at the Garden of Remembrance, another project that was more or less completed whilst Fr Paul was parish priest.