Move For Trees
I shall be walking 50km between 1-31 October to raise money for the National Trust to fulfil their pledge to plant and establish 20 million trees by 2030.
Trees provide homes for wildlife, reduce flooding and clean our air. Today the UK is the least wooded country in Europe, and 41% of UK wildlife species have been in decline since 1970. When you plant a tree, you contribute to reducing emissions, as these hardy plants work hard to lock up carbon. These trees will also open up new habitats for wildlife such as the red squirrel, the hazel dormouse, the greater spotted woodpecker and other birds like the song thrush and the red kite. Trees are good for nature. They're good for the climate. And they're good for people. It costs just £5 to plant one sapling and help grow the woodland of the future.
Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si’, speaks of “a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions” amongst which he includes planting trees. In response to the Pope’s call let’s see if we can get one tree planted on behalf of every Catholic in the country! That would equate to over 4 million trees!
If you wish to support this cause and contribute to my fundraiser please click here.
IronMan Fundraiser for Youth 2000
Robert Toone is doing the Mallorca Ironman 70.3 to raise funds for the mission and apostolate of Youth 2000, whose mission is to help young adults reconnect with God and the Catholic faith. If you wish to donate and support his fundraising efforts you can do so here.
Institute of St John
The Institute of St John are running a series of classes every Tuesday morning from 10.30 to 12.30 in the downstairs hall of St Patrick’s Soho. The next one will take place on Tuesday October 19th and will given by Br Michael Paul CSJ on Thomas Aquinas on the Life of Christ. For those unable to make it in person a Zoom link can be acquired from Claire Bruce on claire.bruce@gmail.com.
Deo Gratias
At 4pm on Saturday 23rd the Deo Gratias group will meet at the Rosary Shrine to discuss iconography and how the process of creating icons mirrors the Christian life. This will be followed by a time of prayer and a social.
Rosary Processions
The Rosary Shrine will also be holding candlelit Rosary processions at 7pm on all the Saturdays of October.
Loretto Worship Nights
Praise and worship every Sunday night from 7pm in the crypt of St Mary’s University Chapel in Twickenham.
Monthly Recollection
On Friday 22nd October from 7.30pm Opus Dei are organising an evening recollection for men at 8 Orme Court, London, W2 4RQ. The recollection will consist of Eucharistic Adoration, two meditations given by a priest, a catechetical or formational talk, Benediction, an examination of conscience, and opportunity for confession. The recollection will be followed by a social.
Assumption Mini Retreat for Young Adults
The Religious of the Assumption are organising a mini-retreat and pilgrimage to the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Bethnal Green, E2 9PB from 12-4pm Saturday 23rd October. There will be Mass at 12, followed by lunch (bring your own), a talk, and then time for reflection and prayer. RSVP: tramy@assumptionreligious.org.
Nightfever
On Saturday 23rd October St Patrick’s Soho will host Nightfever from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Nightfever is a night of music, adoration and personal prayer. Volunteers stand on the street inviting passers-by to come into the church and light a candle. Should you miss this, don’t worry for Nightfever will reoccur on Saturday 13th November and Saturday 11th December. For more information have a read of this article which appeared in the Big Issue a couple of years ago.
Fra’ Angelico Art Group
The Fra’ Angelico Art Group will meet at St Patrick’s Studios in Wapping at 10.30am on Saturday 30th October for a day of creativity and companionship. Please bring your own materials and lunch. For more information please contact Irene Novelli at irenenovelli@hotmail.com or call 07481 763845.
Eucharistic Rosary Procession & Vigil of Readings for the Eve of All Saints
The Rosary Shrine will host a Rosary Vigil at 7pm on Saturday 30th October. The Vigil will include Adoration and readings from some of the Church’s youngest saints and blesseds, a Eucharistic Rosary Procession, and music composed and conducted by Polish composer Pawel Bebenek. The Dominican friars are also looking for four men who could help with carrying the canopy over the Blessed Sacrament and if there are four people (male or female) who would be interested in doing some of the readings by and about the saints. If you are interested in helping in either capacity please contact Fr Joseph Bailham O.P. at joseph.bailham@english.op.org.
Theology of the Body Conference
TOB Network UK are hosting a Theology of the Body Conference at St Patrick’s Soho on 13th November from 9am till 4.30pm. The Conference includes Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, keynote talks, and a discussion panel. Tea and coffee will be provided, but you will have to bring a packed lunch. Book your tickets here.
Looking for flatmate
Flat on Kew Road (with balcony!) and only a 10 minute walk to Richmond station. Rent is £800pcm including council tax, but excluding utilities. Available from 5th December. Let me know if you are interested or know anyone who might be.
Year of St Joseph
It being the year of St Joseph and the month of the Most Holy Rosary you may want to finish your daily recital of the Rosary with this prayer:
To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.
As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
Amen.
Plenary indulgences can also be obtained for the following devotions this year:
Contemplation of the Lord’s Prayer for at least 30 minutes, or participation in a spiritual retreat of at least one day which involves meditation on St Joseph.
Fulfillment of a corporal or spiritual work of mercy, after the example of St Joseph.
Recitation of the Rosary in families and between engaged couples.
Daily entrustment to the protection of St Joseph, and invoking his intercession so that job-seekers may find employment.
Recitation of the Litanies to St Joseph or Akathistos to St Joseph, or some other prayer to St Joseph, for the relief of Christians suffering from persecution.
Recitation of any prayer legitimately approved in honour of St Joseph on the 19th of every month and every Wednesday.
Novena for Work
This novena for work has recently come to my attention and seems particularly apt this year as St Joseph (whose year it is) is the patron saint of workers. It may be of particular interest to those who are job-hunting or for those who are keen to sanctify their work.
Tuition
I have been giving private tuition since May this year (having worked in educational settings prior to that) and am offering tuition in History, English, Religious Studies, and Politics at a rate of £25 per hour. I can provide tuition online or in-person (so long as you are in reasonable distance). Let me know if you or anyone you know might be interested, and please spread the word.
London Shrines
Westminster Cathedral (shrine of St John Southworth)
Rosary Shrine (diocesan shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary)
Corpus Christi Maiden Lane (diocesan shrine of the Blessed Sacrament)
Tyburn Convent (Shrine of the Martyrs at Tyburn)
Volunteering Opportunities
Accommodation
Netherhall House (male)
Ashwell House (female)
Quote of the Week
“And how shall I acquire 'our formation', how shall I keep 'our spirit'? — By being faithful to the specific norms your Director gave you and explained to you, and made you love: be faithful to them and you will be an apostle.”
St Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 377
Pope’s Prayer Intention for October 2021
Missionary Disciples
We pray that every baptised person may be engaged in evangelisation, available to the mission, by being witnesses of a life that has the flavour of the Gospel.
Spiritual Reading
The Consolation of the Devout Soul
Chapter 2, Section 2: That faults committed quite inadvertently are by no means to be called sins.
I said before, ‘the errors into which we fall without being fully conscious of them;’ because when there is absolutely no consciousness, and therefore no voluntary malice, they cannot be called even venial sins, but are only imperfections and weaknesses of human nature, from which we cannot in any way guard ourselves, and of which we cannot in any way repent; since, as St. Augustine says, where there is no voluntary malice there is no sin. And here I must make a little digression which appears to me important.
This truth I should wish to impress on those souls that accuse themselves of their natural weaknesses as if they were sins, and mourn over them, and believe themselves to be through them in a bad state before God, so that sometimes they even omit the Holy Communion prescribed by their own director, judging themselves to be too unworthy to receive it. How much they are in error! Do not even children know that where there is no voluntary malice there can be no sin? But these persons fancy they find sin where there is not a shadow of it, nay even where there actually is merit. If it happens that they feel a momentary impatience, or envy, or sensuality, they immediately think they have sinned, although they endeavoured to repress those feelings when as yet they were scarcely aware of them. These persons, then, have not sinned in this matter, for they cannot avoid such feelings: nay, indeed, by combating them the moment they become aware of the same they obtain merit. Hear what St. John of the Cross says: ‘If you do not give your consent, but rather experience displeasure and abhorrence of them, and with patience endure them, they purify your will as fire does gold. These weaknesses, these miseries, are the necessary consequence of original sin, in the same way as diseases and other temporal ills are evils to which all the children of Adam are subject, and from which no one could pretend to be entirely free without pretending to a privilege which God does not grant.’
We must also remark and remember that this is the Catholic doctrine, as taught by the sacred Council of Trent against the errors of Protestants, who pretend that the involuntary motions of concupiscence - that is, of the sensitive appetites - are sins. On the other hand, some people may object that the masters of spirituality exhort those souls who aspire to perfection to lay bare to their directors their evil inclinations and the temptations that molest you; that is, provided he does not already know them, and has not commanded you to be silent about them; but for pity’s sake do not accuse yourself of them as if they were sins; for sins they are not, and consequently are not matter for confession. For pity’s sake do not be terrified by these miserable sensations, which are compatible with the most perfect sanctity that is to be found in the world. And do not tell me that the saints do not experience these miseries also; for I can answer you that no theologian is to be found who believes that any saint ever existed who did not experience at some time or other inclinations to evil, except the Queen of saints, the most holy Mary. And if there be any saint who did not experience any perverse inclination against any given virtue, it was only a special privilege, which is by no means a necessary part of sanctity. Indeed St. Aloysius Gonzaga never had the slightest temptation against holy chastity; but would you place him above the Apostle St. Paul, who suffered severely in this way?
Postscript
Inevitably I will have left out events, prayer groups, and volunteering opportunities so please feel free to get in touch with me at edwardckendall@gmail.com if you know of anything worthy of inclusion in this newsletter. And please subscribe and share this newsletter with all your friends and anybody who you think might be interested by clicking the buttons below.