On the 17th of February, the first day of Lent, we set out on a journey together, a journey that we shall be following throughout this month of March until we arrive together on 4th April at the glorious feast of Easter.
This Lenten journey
of forty days is a time for reflection, as we travel we need to look at
ourselves to see clearly just what we need to do to keep to the right path and
not be tempted to go astray.
We are reminded how Jesus went through just such a period of forty days in the desert, undergoing temptations from the devil as he prepared himself for his three years of ministry.
When we set
out on a long journey, we are obliged to stop at intervals in order to take on
refreshment to keep us going. As we make our Lenten journey we should be doing the
same; here at St Hilda’s we have the opportunity for spiritual “refreshment
stops” with the weekly prayer sessions every Saturday in church and the
Stations of the Cross on Zoom each Sunday evening. Please take advantage of
these if you are able.
We are all
travelling this road together, let us extend a helping hand in whatever way we
can to those in need, those struggling to keep up or even straying from the right
path. We can do this through prayer or in deeds of charity, so that we will all
be able to arrive together at the end of
this forty day journey to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.
“Jesus
lives, our hearts know well, nought from us his love shall sever.”
We set off
into the new month of April in the heart of the most significant seven days in
the church’s year – we are in Holy Week.
On the 1st
we celebrate Maundy Thursday – Jesus and
his apostles were gathered together for a meal, as they did every year, to
celebrate the feast of the Passover; but this time it was to be so very different!
Jesus uttered the words “This is My Body” and “This is My Blood” over the bread
and wine that they were all to share – an act that is perpetuated every single
day by a priest somewhere in the world.
This meal,
the one we know as the Last Supper, was
the start of the momentous story of the Passion; after the gathering in the
Upper Room the tension begins to rise as
we see Jesus alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, terrified because he knew what
he was going to have to endure yet agreeing to go through with it in order to
fulfil the Will of his Father.
The 14
Stations of the Cross take us through the events of the next three days, Good
Friday through to Easter Sunday. To many such an account of betrayal, humiliation,
brutality and execution would seem an utter failure but as Christians we know
that it was just the opposite. Death was
not the end; as on Easter morning the stone was rolled away and our Lord and
Saviour rose from the tomb. He had conquered death, the way to heaven had been
opened up for all mankind.
I pray that
you and your loved ones have a peaceful and joyful Easter and that soon the
shadow of this dreadful virus will have disappeared from our lives.
As we make
our way through the Church’s year, on the 17th February we come to
another one of its most significant days – we celebrate Ash Wednesday. This
marks the beginning of the 40 days of Lent, when we are reminded to reflect on how
we have strayed from the right path and how we should be making an effort to
get back on it in our preparation for Easter.
We all know about the tradition of giving something up for Lent; why not this year look at our Lenten observance in a different way? Instead of, or perhaps as well as, depriving ourselves of a treat, let us make an effort to do something extra to help someone who is in need. To do this brings us closer to the Lord and invites Him to come into the routine of our daily lives.
Also, what
about setting time aside each day for private prayer? What about, if it is
convenient, joining in the Prayer Session in church on Saturdays?
In normal
times we follow the Stations of the Cross each week in church; why not take
some time to follow the Stations in private prayer in your own home?
We talk about
“practising” our Faith. Practice means doing something extra so that we can
improve – “Practice makes Perfect”. Let us all make an extra effort to practise
our Faith as we prepare ourselves for the celebration of the Resurrection of
the Lord on Easter Sunday.
“As with gladness, men of old, did the guiding star behold”.
On the 6th of this month we celebrate the Feast
of the Epiphany, the arrival of the Three Wise Men to greet and to worship the
Christ Child – God made Man. This story is here in the Gospels for a purpose –
the Wise Men came from “country far”, they were foreigners, we are being told
very clearly that Jesus came into the
world to save all mankind.
They brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh for
the new arrival. There is a lovely folk tale that Jesus ignored the gold, liked
the aroma from the incense and touched the myrrh.
What is the message in this story? Just how important
is money in our lives? Do we let it dominate
us or is it in its rightful place, just a means to an end? Incense is a part of
our acts of worship, the fragrant smoke represents our prayers as they rise towards
the Lord. The Myrrh reminds us of how we
must all endure difficulties and sorrows
as we go through life and at the
appointed time, leave this world behind.
We stand on the threshold of the New Year; we are
leaving behind a very difficult year. Let us pray that the love and joy brought
in to the world those two thousand years ago will give us the strength to endure
all that 2021 will bring.
We are now into the season of Advent, the four weeks of waiting and of preparation for the momentous event that we celebrate on the 25th December, the birth of Our Saviour..
During Advent the church encourages us to take
a long hard look at ourselves to see whether we are in a fit state to welcome
the Christ Child into our hearts.
We mark the passing of the four weeks in church with an Advent Wreath; its five candles lit one by one as each week passes with the last one in the centre being lit on Christmas Day.
As I write this the national lockdown is due to end on 2nd December; let us pray that this is allowed to happen so that we can come together in person for Holy Mass on the remaining three Advent Sundays and on Christmas Day.
We will hold our Christmas Mass at 10.00am (an hour earlier than usual) on Christmas Day itself. This year there will be no service on Christmas Eve. How we will miss the Carols and being able to wish friends a Happy Christmas with a hug, but the priority must be to keep safe!
I wish you all a very happy and holy Christmas
and a healthy and joyous New Year.
As the year winds down through autumn into winter this is a month of fog, dark nights and bonfires. It is also however the month in which we commemorate the Saints and the Faithful Departed. Many people have been declared Saints by the church and have their own particular feast-day but on 1st November we remember all those other ordinary folk who have no particular claim to fame yet who have been safely welcomed into the bliss of heaven.
We usually
celebrate All Souls Day on the 2nd but as it is not possible to open
the church on two consecutive days, we will be reading a list of the names of all
our dear departed immediately after the Mass on Sunday 1st.
On Sunday 8th, Remembrance Day, we shall come together to commemorate all those who have given their lives in so many conflicts; “sacrificing their today for our tomorrow”. We should also remember on this day all those in the NHS and Care Communities who have lost their lives in the fight against Covid 19. We will be holding a Requiem Mass at 10.55.
We are celebrating
the feast-day of our Patroness, Saint Hilda at the Sunday Mass on 15th.
The church’s
year is drawing to a close with the New Year starting on the 29th
with the First Sunday of Advent
As the year winds down through autumn into winter this is a month of fog, dark nights and bonfires. It is also however the month in which we commemorate the Saints and the Faithful Departed. Many people have been declared Saints by the church and have their own particular feast-day but on 1st November we remember all those other ordinary folk who have no particular claim to fame yet who have been safely welcomed into the bliss of heaven.
We usually
celebrate All Souls Day on the 2nd but as it is not possible to open
the church on two consecutive days, we will be reading a list of the names of all
our dear departed immediately after the Mass on Sunday 1st.
On Sunday 8th, Remembrance Day, we shall come together to commemorate all those who have given their lives in so many conflicts; “sacrificing their today for our tomorrow”. We should also remember on this day all those in the NHS and Care Communities who have lost their lives in the fight against Covid 19. We will be holding a Requiem Mass at 10.55.
We are celebrating
the feast-day of our Patroness, Saint Hilda at the Sunday Mass on 15th.
The church’s
year is drawing to a close with the New Year starting on the 29th
with the First Sunday of Advent
Keep safe and
keep well.
God Bless.
We are now into the “Month of the Rosary”; the Rosary is a series of prayers in which we reflect on the main events in the lives of Our Saviour and His Blessed Mother. There are fifteen Mysteries or events for us to contemplate as we focus our minds by reciting an Our Father, ten Hail Marys and a Glory Be for each one. We use a set of Rosary Beads to help us along. It is a wonderful way to meditate.
October is a special month for St Hilda’s – on St
Luke’s Feast Day, 18th Oct 1904 Bishop Knox came to Heaton Park to
bless the new church and dedicate it to the Glory of God and to St Hilda. Since
that time our little church has been continuously a centre for the worshipping
community around Whittaker Lane, through two World Wars and now a global
Pandemic.
Now that we are out of the Lock Down what a delight it
is to be able to celebrate the Holy Mass and receive the Sacrament in person.
Let us pray that it won’t be too long before we can once again come together on
the Sunday in a High Mass with hymns and incense, a return to the daily midweek
masses and welcoming the children back in to share the life of St Hilda’s.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all in this most
difficult of times; stay well and keep safe!
God Bless.
September
September is the month when so much starts afresh. For me, in September 1950, I came out of the RAF following my National Service; in September 1963 I was ordained a Deacon and went to serve as a Curate at St Michael and All Angels in Wythenshawe.
This was
very appropriate as September is the month of the angels. What do we know about
angels? They are there, in heaven,
around the throne of God giving him constant praise but they also have a
role in the lives of all those on earth. We each of us have a Guardian Angel
for support and comfort in times of trouble. The angels act as messengers from
God, like Gabriel at the Annunciation. In the Old Testament Jacob, in his
dream, sees a constant procession of angels going up and down the ladder
leading from earth to heaven.
As we come
out of the Lock-down we are all having to make fresh starts in so many ways.
Let us pray that the children all over the country and in particular in our own
school make a safe and successful start to their new term.
As Autumn
reminds us that Winter is not far off and we see around us the early signs of
nature dying away, let us resist any air of gloom and think of the fresh starts
that we are all having to make.
God Bless
We are now in August, the month that we always associate with holidays. I wish everybody well for whatever type of break you have planned, whether staying at home, going away somewhere in this country or even flying off to an exotic location. We all need a break.
This month we celebrate a number of the major feast days in the church’s calendar. On Sunday 16th we hold the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. This feast is very important in the Travelers’ community; in normal times they would be gathering in their hundreds, coming from all over the country to Our Lady’s shrine at Walsingham but sadly are unable to do so this year due to the virus.
On the 4th
we remember St John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, who is the patron saint of
priests and four days later St Dominic, the founder of the preaching order of
the Dominicans and who introduced the use of praying the Rosary.
On the 6th
we remember the Transfiguration when Jesus was revealed in all His glory to a
group of his faithful apostles.
Let us pray for one another in this most difficult of times that after this holiday period we are able to pick up again the threads of everyday life physically and spiritually refreshed.
How wonderful it is to be back in Mother Church after so many weeks of ‘lockdown’ with all the uncertainties, concerns and fears that have come into our lives in recent months. I think we take the church for granted until it is no longer available to us and so I hope we will return with thanksgiving in our hearts and give honour to Almighty God. Sadly we will not be able to have our usual ‘diet’ of incense, music and the theatre of the Mass but it is right to start slowly until we are certain that all is well.
Please keep in your prayers all who are separated from loved ones by this terrible virus. Pray particularly for those in hospital or in the community who are suffering the effects of COVID-19, giving thanks for the NHS, Care Home staff, GPs and many more who are doing a marvellous job and coping in very difficult circumstances.
I have missed seeing you all and I look forward to being with you again and praising God in the place we love best.
With every blessing
Fr Croft
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Here we are once again into the season of Lent. Forty Days of waiting, of preparation. The Forty Days come to a glorious climax with the celebration of Easter – the Feast that expresses the real meaning of our belief as Christians.
We hear stories so often that there is a
tendency to switch off, to forget exactly what it is that we are commemorating. At the end of Lent, Good Friday, in the solemn
ritual at 2pm we will remember how Jesus was put to death by being nailed to a
cross. Yet two days later on Easter Sunday we remember how he rose triumphant
over death. He had suffered the torment of the Passion and such an horrific
death to atone for the sin of all mankind yet by overcoming death, through his
Resurrection we know that the pathway to heaven is clear and open to all those
who choose to follow it.
In Lent we are
getting ourselves ready to join all churches throughout the world in the
Paschal celebrations. We need at this time to take a hard look at ourselves;
no-one is spiritually perfect. How can we improve? There is a tradition that we
improve by giving something up during Lent. That is one way but another way is
to do something extra. We are so well off, we have much more than we need. How
can we share our good fortune with somebody else who is in need of help?
As part of your Lenten preparation why not join
us in the service of Stations of the Cross on Sundays at 6pm (not March 22nd). Please take home a Lent collection box to
donate money for charity.
God bless.
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February
Spring is upon us! The days are getting longer. When I was in Oldham at St James the ladies always commented that from the second Sunday in February you could eat your Tea without lighting the Gas.
On 2nd
Feb we celebrate the Presentation of the baby Jesus in the Temple; the Jewish
custom was to bring a new baby to be presented in the Temple forty days after
the birth. On the same day we celebrate
the Feast of Candlemas – light is being restored in the world; darkness has
been overcome. Candles are blessed and
taken home; in the past they would have been the only evening light in the
house.
In the Temple
Mary and Joseph meet Simeon, a very old man who had been promised by the Lord
that he would see the Messiah before he died. He holds the child and recites
the beautiful words of the Nunc Dimittis – we repeat his words each month at
our service of Compline.
We are almost
in Lent – Ash Wednesday is on the 26th Feb. Let us make a resolution that this will be a
time of prayer and preparation; it doesn’t have to be a time of “giving up” but
should be a time for doing something extra as we prepare ourselves for the
momentous events of Holy Week and Easter.
Here we are on the threshold of another New
Year! We stepped into the Church’s New
Year with Advent and now for the Calendar Year 2020!
Christ has been born, but in a stable in a
remote corner of Palestine. On 6th January, the Feast of the Epiphany,
we celebrate the revelation of this wondrous event to the world outside;
represented by Three Wise Men from “country far”, who have been called, each
one separately, to make the perilous journey together, following a star, to
welcome and bring gifts to the Saviour of Mankind.
Like so much in the Bible the story is full of
symbolism. The Gold recognizes the
kingship of Jesus, the Frankincense that he is the Son of God and the Myrrh as
a message that he is going to have to suffer and die to redeem mankind.
There is a part of this story that has
particular relevance to what is happening in so many countries today. Joseph had been warned that as Herod was
intending to kill all children under the age of two, he should take Mary and
Jesus and run away to Egypt; the Holy
Family was to become a refugee family.
How often is this happening today? Whole
families are having to flee for their lives to escape death. Let us ask
ourselves just how much we are doing to help these poor souls and let us pray
that governments come to their senses and stop this senseless bloodshed!
“Who is he in yonder stall, at whose feet the
shepherds fall?”
We are now approaching one of the two most important festivals in the church’s year. (the other one is Easter). Christmas is a time of celebration, of families getting together, of giving and receiving presents. I trust that all of you are looking forward to the festivities, but hope that in the midst of all the fun you save some time to think about the reason for all this jollity.
We are celebrating the momentous occasion when God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, was born in a stable. He came on earth with a message of peace and love.When you read this, we will be into Advent – the time of preparation leading up to Christmas. It is a time to reflect, to decide whether we are in a fit state to welcome the arrival of that very special baby, and if not, to do something about it!
On Sunday at 6pm we are holding a service of Compline, followed by Benediction. This is a quiet, end of the day short service, followed by a blessing that will be taking place on the first Sunday of each month. Please come along.
We must remember however that for so many people Christmas is most definitely not a happy event – those who have lost family members and are living on their own, those living in abusive situations, those who are forced to live on the streets. Let us remember all of these in our prayers and if we can, try to bring a measure of Christmas cheer into their lives.
November
As we move into November our lives are dominated by the days getting shorter and the nights longer. Winter coats, scarves and gloves are brought out of the wardrobe, but it isn’t a month of all doom and gloom, just rather chilly.
We start with All Saints Day on 1st November.
Who are the Saints? They are everyone who has found their resting place in heaven.
Certain ones
from among their number are given the title Saint because it is felt that there
is something about them, some aspect of their life on earth that set us an
example to follow. However these are the
exceptional ones; on 1st November we celebrate all those others, the
ordinary folk, including deceased members of our own families, who have joined
the heavenly family.
On the 2nd
the Feast of All Souls we pray for all
those whom we have loved and who have passed away; that their souls may find
rest in heaven.
Sunday 10th
is Remembrance Sunday, when we bring to mind all those who have given their
lives in war to preserve our freedom.
A Saint that
we remember particularly, on the 17th November is our patron St Hilda. Her contribution to
the Church in this country was huge; she presided over the Meeting (the Synod)
in Whitby in 664 that united the Roman and Celtic churches into one body. Please come and join us in our celebrations
on that day.
November brings the church’s year to a close with the Feast of Christ the King on 24th as we then embark on the following Sunday into a new year with the beginning of Advent.
October is a special month for St Hilda’s. In October 1904 the Bishop of Manchester
dedicated the newly built church on Whittaker Lane to “the glory of God” and in
the name of St Hilda of Whitby.
On the 20th of the month we will be
celebrating the anniversary of this Dedication and will be offering prayers of
Thanksgiving for 115 years of service in the community in Prestwich.
A church is just a building – the real strength of St
Hilda’s is the community of the faithful – the hundreds, and perhaps thousands,
who have come into this beautiful building during all those years to worship
together in celebration of the Holy Mass.
This continues today as Holy Mass is celebrated every
Sunday and on five other days every week.
However, the motto of St Hilda’s is “Faith and Fun” as
we come together not only in prayer but also in Friendship in our wide range of
social activities.
As we start a month that is scheduled to have a
momentous conclusion for the whole country let us pray that those in power
receive and act upon the Gift of Wisdom in all their decision making.
