Fr Mark on Remembrance

Fr Mark’s November message reflects on Remembrance.

November is a month of remembrance we start on at St Mary’s Priory on November 2nd with All Souls when at the Requiem Mass we will remember the faithful departed (including all those whose funeral  the clergy have conducted over the last eleven months). Nine days later on November 11th we will mark Remembrance Sunday, when we  remember all who gave their lives for Queen and Country. The following Wednesday the Parish Fellowship will hold its annual Remembrance Evening.

This year we will also remember those who have been killed or seriously injured in Road Traffic Accidents with a Road Peace Service at St Mary’s Priory at 4pm on November 17th.

Remembering, is of course, at the heart of our worship in the Holy Eucharist. When, as we are commanded by Jesus, we relive the Last Supper he had with his disciples before he hung on the cross. Remembering  or  re assembling the experience is what we are doing at the Eucharist. In so doing we are recalling what Jesus did for us.So in a similar way we do at the other services of remembering this month. We remember those we have lost  and re-call what they meant to us / did for us, and thank God for it.

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Next Monastic Day – Oct 24th

Every month we go back to our roots at St Mary’s Priory and the follow the Prayer pattern of the Benedictines.

You do not need to book , just come along, unless you want to stay for lunch, then call 01873 853168.

MONASTIC DAY -SCHEDULE

9.30am	Terce
10.00am	Free
12.00am	Sext
12.15pm	Holy Eucharist
1.00pm	Lunch
2.30pm	None
2.45pm	Free
4.30pm	Tea
5.30pm	Choral Vespers
7.00pm	Choral Compline
7.30pm	Healing Liturgy

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Henry VIII School Concert Series

WE are pleased to host a series of Concerts by Musicians from King Henry VIII School. 

November 20th : Lunchtime Concert

December 11th: Lunchtime Concert

December 20th : Christmas Concert

Welcoming the news Fr Mark Soady, Vicar, said ” We have always had a good relationship with the school this is another example of us building on that”.

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Fr Mark’s October message

I write this with the Food Festival very much at the forefront of my mind – and looking forward to a month of Harvest Thanksgiving Services.

Food is of course an essentail of human exsistance, so not surprisingly it features a lot in the Bible. In the Gospels especailly  Food Banquets are a symbol for heaven. Jesus calls himself “The Bread of life”, not the one who will give us food that sustains us for today, but for eternity.

The petition, “Give us each day our daily bread,” in the Lord’s Prayer  puts food as sustenance in the context of worship and relates it to God’s action. In both Old and New Testaments, God is the clear source of food. Food is a part of divine grace and providence.

So Harvest Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to say thanks to God not only in prayer but by our actions.

Our Harvest donations this year will go to the Abergavenny Foodbank. Holy Trinity have been contributing regularly to this for some months, and Anne Parr will now start collecting items from St Mary’s from now one.

Schools, churches, businesses and individuals donate non-perishable, in-date food to the foodbank. All food given out by foodbanks is donated.

Foodbank clients bring their voucher to a foodbank centre where it can be redeemed for three days emergency food. Volunteers meet clients over a cup of tea or free hot meal and are able to signpost people to agencies able to solve the longer-term problem.

Mark

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.                   ( Proverbs 15.170)

 

Harvest Festival October 12-14th

October 12th – Evensong Preacher: Canon Dorrien Davies (St Davids Cathedral) followed by Harvest Supper.

October 14th –

8am Holy Eucharist

9.30am All Age Harvest Worship

11am Sung Eucharist, Preacher: Revd Catherine Haynes (Chaplain Haberdashers School for Girls, Monmouth).

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