Holy Communions - Week 2 - And a special visitor . . .

We had another beautiful First Holy Communion celebration this Sunday. As you can see our children look wonderful and very happy which is exactly as it should be. Thanks once again to our parents, catechists and school.

We were also delighted to welcome a special visitor to our Mass. His Grace Johanna Peterus Mouchi, Archbishop of the Diocese of Mosul in Iraq, is a cousin of one of our First Holy Communion children. Doesn't he look splendid in his cope and mitre?

As last week, you will find a few more photos of the day on our parish Facebook page.

Welcome Fr José Salas . . . !

We are delighted to welcome Fr José Salas who is spending a little time in the UK during his Easter vacation from his studies in Rome. Fr José will be joining us in the Easter celebrations here at St Ann's .

We are also very pleased as Fr José seems to have brought some of the Roman sunshine with him . . . or perhaps it has come all the way from his native Mexico!

Visitors . . .

It's been a busy time in the parish this week with one or two special celebrations - a Ruby Wedding Anniversary on Friday, an 80th Birthday and a Baptism today.

We've also been very pleased to welcome a couple of visitors to the parish this week.

We have a visitor in the presbytery. Don Michele Barone has been using the parish as his base whilst he's here for the Papal Visit. He flew up to Scotland for the events there and will go to London today and Birmingham tomorrow. I was pleased that he was able to concelebrate Mass in the parish this morning before he left for London.

Don Barone is a priest of the order of La Cassata di Nazareth in Italy.

Also, Sr Anastasia has been in the parish all week. She has been visiting her family and having a bit of a rest from her work in Sri Lanka with children and young people with special needs. Some of you may have met her at Mass.

A lovely surprise at Mass today . . .

We had a lovely surprise at Mass today. Fr Paul Brandon who often celebrates Mass at St Ann's when he is in the area visiting family, brought with him a relic of Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God (Father Dominic Barberi, Passionist Priest).

Dominic was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1963, during the Second Vatican Council. Later popes also admired Dominic; on his visit to England in 1982 Pope John Paul II described Blessed Dominic as
"One example of the countless other priests who continue to serve as models of holiness for the clergy of today"

Dominic is best remembered for his part in Newman's conversion, but is also commemorated for his exhausting work in the efforts to return England to the Catholic faith in the nineteenth century.

Naturally we celebrated the Memorial in his honour and after a beautiful Mass during which the relic had lain upon the altar, Fr Paul blessed those present with the relic.

Another regular visitor ...

I am delighted that Fr Kenneth McCarthy was able to come and look after the parish again recently whilst I was away for a short while.

Fr McCarthy, a retired priest of our diocese, has become a regular visitor to St Ann's and is always warmly welcomed by everyone in the parish. I am very grateful for his help and his willingness to 'step in' when asked to celebrate Mass here, sometimes at fairly short notice.

Thank you Fr McCarthy!

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.

Another visitor ...

Welcome back Fr Jarek. Yesterday morning I collected Fr Jarek Wasilewski from the airport. He'll be with us in the parish for a week of his well-earned summer break in between visiting his family in Poland.

Fr Jarek is working in Kimberley Diocese on the edge of the Kalahari Desert and has been there since 2004. I know he looks forward to his brief visits to the UK during his summer break and we in turn are very pleased to welcome him back. Please say hello to him if you see him around the parish.

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.