All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

I write on Good Friday, well into the three day celebration of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery which we call the Easter Triduum. Good Friday is at one and the same time, the day in the year most full of desolation, despair and suffering; yet also the day most full of hope, triumph and promise.

The Lord gives himself for us in painful isolation, taking upon himself the sins of the whole world. Yet, the church has always taught that the cross is also a place of triumph and victory, in which we see the power of God’s love to save. The tree of death and shame becomes the tree of life and light.

It is crucial that we celebrate this mystery together in the liturgy of the church over the coming 48 hours.

Today the Liturgy of the Passion will take place at 3.00 pm. This includes hearing the Passion narrative, making solemn intercession for the needs of the world, veneration of the Cross, and receiving communion from the sacrament reserved from last night’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

There will also be an opportunity to celebrate the Stations of the Cross this evening at 7.30 pm. This will take the form of the Maria Desolata devotion, in which we reflect on the events of Good Friday through the eyes of Our Lady.

Our Easter Vigil will take place at 8.00 pm on Saturday 4th April. This is the most important liturgy of the whole year. I urge you to make the greatest effort to be present.

The new light of Easter is struck and fire blessed, the Paschal Candle representing the presence of the Risen Lord in his church is brought into the nave and a glorious Mass of Easter is celebrated. We hear in the Liturgy of the Word the whole  of our salvation recounted in sacred scripture and renew our baptismal promises together, before we celebrate the Mass for the first time together since Maundy Thursday and make our Easter communion together.

On Easter Day, the liturgical and musical provision will be a rich feast.  High Mass will be at 11.00 am and the music will include. Mozart’s Krönungsmesse, along with Mascagni’s Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana.

In the evening of Easter Day, Solemn Evensong will include Stanford’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A and the anthem will be Let all the world by Kenneth Leighton. A Te Deum (Stanford’s in Bb) will we offered in the presence of the blessed Sacrament in honour of the high feast day. O salutaris & Tantum ergo at Benediction will be by S. E. Nicholson.

I want to say a huge thank you to Fr Julian for preaching Holy Week for us this year. His homilies have been outstanding in their theological depth and spiritual insight. I am hugely grateful to him for preaching for us. He will be the preacher at all the remaining Triduum liturgies, including Easter Day High Mass. I look forward to hearing what he has yet in store for us.

I pray that through the coming days we may all unite ourselves with Christ who dies and rises for us, so that in him, we too might know eternal life and the power of the Resurrection.

Fr Peter

Easter Week services

Please note that as Monday is a bank holiday, there will only be one Low Mass at 12 noon (i.e. there will be no evening Mass at 6.30 pm). There will also be no Holy Hour on Wednesday at 5.00 pm this week.

Lent Appeal

You have one more week left to contribute to our Lent Appeal. This year, it focusses our outward giving on the charity C4WS. This is the body that runs the homeless shelter we help staff at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road.

You can read more about the wonderful work C4WS does here. We will no longer be accepting cheques or cash for our Lent Appeal. Instead, you are invited to make a donation to C4WS through the following link here.

Thanks

We are very grateful to Sandy Hill for sponsoring the cost of our Easter flowers. This gift is made in memory of her mother, Lucia Alice Walther Hill, whose anniversary of death fell on Maundy Thursday. Many thanks, Sandy, for your generosity and be assured of our prayers for your mother.

Attendance last Sunday

For your prayers

The sick

Jean Castledine, David Craig, Asuncion Gines, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Helen Hughes, Canon David Hutt, Daniel Oliver, Carol Simmons, Ingrid Slaughter, Sebastian Taite-Ellis, Shirley Thompson, Juliet Windham

Recently departed

David McClellan, Elizabeth Lyon

Anniversaries of death

Services this week