Newsletter - 5 January 2025
Happy New Year!
Dear brothers and sisters,
As the festive season comes to a close, many of us have returned to our normal work routine. It appears that this time has passed very quickly with very little change: are we not the same in 2025 as we were in 2024? However, the fact that the Christmas season is not yet over is an invitation to remember what happened the very night of Christmas, which changed the course of the whole of human history, stirring something in each of us personally.
Additionally, the Church has invited us at Vespers on the 31 December to pray with two specific intentions:
For the gifts and burdens of the year that is past.
For the promise of the year that lies before us.
When reviewing 2024, our lens may focus either on good things or on bad ones. Most of the time the truth of our reality is a combination of both. The year may have presented some serious burdens and challenges due to external circumstances, but also because of our own decisions and behaviours. Focusing too much on life’s burdens can lead us to overlook the gifts bestowed upon us. Brothers and sisters, we often need to be reminded to open our eyes to the good things in our lives and the blessings received. We know the saying “A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest”. A good exercise before we leave Church today would be to try to identify a few of the blessings and gifts received in 2024 and to give thanks to the Lord. This will help us to step into the second New Year’s intention. Can I consider the year ahead of me as a promise? Or am I contemplating this year, whilst carrying on with my normal duties, without considering that there could be a promise to unfold? A promise by definition is the very thing which is not yet but is surely to come. It is thus not visible. Only faith can allow us to consider a promise seriously. At Christmas we have celebrated the coming of our saviour in a manger: a small and vulnerable baby! But we know that babies do grow up and develop. Now is the time to believe in the seed sown at Christmas, that this year can be different, a year where the promise of the Lord can grow and develop.
I wish to all of you a very blessed New Year.
Fr Pascal ccn
Focus of the Week
ADORATION
Adoration will resume on Monday 6 January 2025.
SHRINE & PARISH OF OUR LADY OF WILLESDEN JUBILEE CHURCH FOR THE NORTHERN AREA OF THE DIOCESE OF WESTMINSTER JUBILEE 2025
To begin the Jubilee Year 2025, Bishop John Sherrington will preside and preach at choral vespers and benediction on the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Sunday 5 January 2025 at 4.30pm.
Parishioners from the parishes of the northern area deaneries (Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey and Harrow) are especially.
The Shrine Church is situated at the corner of Acton Lane and Nicoll Road, London NW10 9AX