Dear friends

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and as we prepare to embark once again on our annual Lenten journey, and I writing to let you know about our special services and programmes for the season at The Annunciation.

On ASH WEDNESDAY itself there will be Masses at 10.00am (said) and 7.30pm (sung) as usual, with Imposition of Ashes at both services.

Then, starting with SUNDAYS, we shall continue our long-standing practice of walking the Way of the Cross jointly with our neighbours at Saint Patrick's each week at 3.00pm, starting on the First Sunday of Lent at The Annunciation and alternating between the two churches.

(Please note that there will be NO 8.00AM MASS this coming Sunday, 18 February, as I shall be in Montreal for my mother's funeral. Father David will celebrate at 10.00am and lead Stations of the Cross.)

Then on TUESDAYS there will be an opportunity to spend time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament with at period of silent prayer following the 6.30pm Mass and ending with a simple form of Benediction at 7.30pm.

And on WEDNESDAYS at 8.00pm there will be a four-week online Lent Course by Zoom, beginning in the Second week of Lent on 28 February, and using the new SPCK/CBS 'Bread of Life' course, a look at the Christian faith through the shape of the Eucharist. If you wish to join this course please send me an email so I can send you the link.

I will write to you again about Holy Week services, but it is not too early to mention our celebration of our FEAST OF TITLE, the Annunciation. Because 25 March falls this year in Holy Week the feast is transferred until after the Easter Octave. Accordingly we will celebrate it with a Sung Mass at 5.00pm on Sunday 7 April at which the preacher will be Father Philip Barnes of Saint Stephen's, Gloucester Road, former Shrine Priest at Walsingham. Please make a special effort to join us.

Finally a word about our LENT APPEAL, remembering that almsgiving is one of the traditional Lenten disciplines alongside prayer and fasting. With so many pressing needs in the world at the moment, from the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine to natural disasters in many places around the globe, we have decided to support the British Red Cross general appeal and allow them to use the money where it is most needed.

Please be generous. If you are giving in church use a white Gift Aid envelope from the pews and mark it clearly for the Lent Appeal, to make it easier for those who count the collection to assign it correctly. And as always, if you can Gift Aid your donation it will go even further. A link for online donations is also available on our new webpage with A Church Near You.

With every blessing for a holy and rewarding Lent.
Father Paul.