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Welcome to the 'Parish News' section for Sacred Heart, Cobham
Traditionally in the Church the month of November is a period of time dedicated to prayer for the Holy Souls in purgatory (those not yet in the presence of God but destined to be). The Church commemorates all her faithful children who have departed this life, but have not yet attained the joys of heaven. St Paul warns us that we must not be ignorant concerning the dead, nor sorrowful, “even as others who have no hope . . . . for the Lord himself shall come down from heaven . . . . and the dead who are in Christ shall rise.” The Church has always taught us to pray for those who have gone into eternity. Even in the Old Testament prayers and alms were offered for the souls of the dead by those who thought “well and religiously concerning the resurrection.” It was believed that “they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them” and that “it is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” We know that a defiled soul cannot enter into heaven. NOVEMBER BOOK OF THE DEAD - As usual Parishioners who have taken the time to complete a ‘Dead List’ for any family or friends who have died since last November will now be able to ‘look up’ the names in our Parish Book of the Dead; which will be placed on the sanctuary throughout November. Each weekend during November one of our Masses will be celebrated for the Holy Souls. NOVEMBER BLESSING OF GRAVES - Our annual Blessing of Graves will take place next Sunday (9th November) at 15.30 (Cobham Cemetery, by the chapel entrance). After the short service there will be tea and scones available back at the Sacred Heart Parish Centre.
On Saturday (1 st Nov.) the Holy Father declared John Henry Newman to be the 38th Doctor of the Church, recognising his great holiness, learning, and wisdom. John Henry Newman was born in London on 21 st February 1801. The eldest of six children, his family were practising members of the Church of England with the young John Henry an enthusiastic reader of the Bible. Aged fifteen, he had a religious experience so strong that it would change his life forever. Writing about the experience later, he said: “A great change of thought took place in me. I fell under the influences of a definite Creed … I believed that the inward conversion of which I was conscious … would last into the next life, and that I was elected to eternal glory. … I believe that it had some influence on my opinions … in isolating me from the objects which surrounded me... and making me rest in the thought of two and two only absolute and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my creator.” He would later refer to this as his first conversion - before becoming a Catholic in 1845, and thereafter, on 30 May 1847, ordained a Catholic priest. Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) admired John Henry Newman’s fierce religious orthodoxy and appointed him as a cardinal three decades later, in 1879. The year before he died, John Henry wrote about the journey to sainthood: “Such are the means which God has provided for the creation of the Saint out of the sinner,” he said, “it is the very triumph of His grace, that He enters into the heart of man, and persuades it, and prevails with it, while He changes it.”
The name of St Charles is associated with reform. He lived during the time of the Reformation, and had a hand in the reform of the whole Church during the final years of the Council of Trent. Although he belonged to Milanese nobility and was related to the powerful Medici family, Charles desired to devote himself to the Church. In 1559, when his uncle, Cardinal de Medici was elected Pope Pius IV, he made Charles cardinal-deacon and administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan. At the time Charles was still a layman and a young student. Due to his intellectual qualities Charles was entrusted with several important offices connected with the Vatican, and later appointed secretary of state with responsibility for the papal states. The untimely death of his elder brother brought Charles to a definite decision to be ordained a priest, despite his relatives’ insistence that he marry. Soon after being ordained a priest at age 25, Charles was consecrated bishop of Milan. Working behind the scenes, Charles deserves the credit for keeping the Council of Trent in session when at several points it was on the verge of breaking up. Charles encouraged the pope to renew the Council in 1562, after it had been suspended for 10 years. He took upon himself the task of the entire correspondence during the final phase. Because of his work at the Council, Charles was unable to live in Milan until the Council concluded. During the plague and famine of 1576, Charles tried to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily. Whilst the civil authorities fled at the height of the plague. Work and the heavy burdens of his office began to affect Charles’s health, leading to his death at the age of 46.
The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Fr D got back to The Presbytery late on Sunday afternoon, pushing that funny box on wheels that he always takes away with him. As the supermarkets were closed by this time and he had run-down the food in the fridge before he left to go on holiday, the sisters were very kind and had a dinner waiting for him. After he had finished his dinner, Fr D took the ‘box on wheels’ upstairs to his bedroom and started bringing down bags of clothes to put into the ‘white boxes’ in the utility room. By the time that he had put two bags through both boxes and a further bag into one box he was ready for bed! On Monday Fr D was able to see what progress had been made on the re-roofing of The Presbytery and was delighted! The workmen explained that the majority of the works necessary (like lots of things) was in the preparations. The roof still had the original 1932 tiles in place which were very much at the end of their life cycle. Also when the house was built there was such thing as sarking felt (which now goes underneath the tiles in modern houses), replacing the tiles has meant that a layer of insulation is now in place under the tiles and roof battens. This has proved to be very effective: Fr D went into the loft which is normally very cold to find that it was every bit as warm as the house is normally - so the insulation properties of the new layer are excellent! The workmen also explained to Fr D that the chimney (which he had asked to be taken down as part of the works) was in fact badly split facing the roof and would have required a lot of work in the very near future! The flat roof on the very top of the house has been remade in fibreglass to ensure a long lifespan. Next week the workmen will set about re-tiling the awning over the front door, the roof over the utility roof and the sections looking out over the garden. Also on Monday the workmen erecting the new fence around the car park arrived and immediately set to work digging out the holes for the new uprights and bedding them in with concrete. As the week progressed they began to fill the sections between the posts with the panels and the security side of things is now vastly improved (it also meant that the local council’s decayed chain-link fence is no longer in view from our side!). Whereas it was sad to see the demise of the conifer boarder it was not feasible for us to continue risking fires (such as the two we have already had) with vehicles (and fuel tanks) in such close proximity.
Just a few snaps of the accommodation that Fr D has found for himself on this year’s holiday. Temperatures are holding up well and he has found some great places to eat . .
The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Well, Fr D has been away for a week now, with no sign of a post card. I knew that it must be that time of year again when he got the big box on wheels down from the attic a few days before he disappeared . . . . . This is a map of Lefkada which is where Fr D has gone off to this time. The airport is actually just south of Preveza which is on the mainland (about twenty-five minutes from the island). He last went to this island the October before the infamous ‘lockdown’ when Covid hit and all travel and holidays were banned. Fr D particularly likes this island because there is not much in the way of hotels having been built destroying the beauty of hundreds of fishing villages around the coast. It is also famous for the yachting that takes place all around the coast (and at least two of our own parishioners have been known to go on yachting holidays around the island.!). Fr D is staying in the capital.
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St John Henry Newman, the 19th century’s most important English-speaking Catholic theologian, spent the first half of his life as an Anglican and the second half as a Roman Catholic. He was a priest, popular preacher, writer, and eminent theologian in both churches. Born in London, England, he studied at Oxford’s Trinity College, was a tutor at Oriel College, and for 17 years was vicar of the university church, St Mary the Virgin. He eventually published eight volumes of Parochial and Plain Sermons as well as two novels. His poem, “Dream of Gerontius,” was set to music by Sir Edward Elgar. After 1833, Newman was a prominent member of the Oxford Movement, which emphasized the Church’s debt to the Church Fathers and challenged any tendency to consider truth as completely subjective. Historical research made Newman suspect that the Roman Catholic Church was in closest continuity with the Church that Jesus created. In 1845, he was received into full communion as a Catholic. Two years later he was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome and joined the Congregation of the Oratory, founded three centuries earlier by Saint Philip Neri. Returning to England, Newman founded Oratory houses in Birmingham and London and for seven years served as rector of the Catholic University of Ireland.
The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . A very busy week indeed this time as Fr D got himself ready to go off on holiday (it seems to involve a lot of preparation), as well as organising things for our Harvest Thanksgiving Mass and Social . . . . . . On Friday afternoon (it always is!) last week it was noticed that the internet was not working anywhere in the Parish plant. Fortunately the Newsletter was able to be printed thanks to the diocesan IT man loaning the Parish a portable ‘plug-in’ system for the weekend. Openreach decided that they could not attend with an engineer until Monday between 08.00 and 13.00. Fr D met with both parents and candidates for First Reconciliation in the Parish Centre on Saturday morning for their third session of input (Fr D was able to explain to the children that the reason that there are ten commandments is because most people have ten fingers - these were what amounted to ‘visual aids’ around the camp fires whilst the chosen people wandered in the desert for forty years!). On Monday Fr D was busy concentrating on getting the text of several newsletters sorted when the Openreach telephone engineer arrived to look at the internet and phones. After repeating much of what Fr D had already done in the way of obvious checks he went over to the local telephone pole to have a look at things. As it turned our two BT vans had been working in the same spot on Thursday afternoon (underground) and the engineer discovered that they had managed to damage the cable to the church and Parish Office. By this stage Fr D had discovered that the line into the Presbytery (used for broadband and TV) was also out. However, the engineer could only deal with the church and Parish Centre line as that was what he was called out for! Fr D immediately got on to BT and ordered another engineer’s visit (and it goes beyond that as Fr D knows that the Sister’s broadband and telephone line disappeared on Friday too!). Fr D was left with another engineer coming between 12.00 and 14.00 on Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday, after Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition, Fr D was off down to the diocesan offices for the last time before his holiday. When he got back in the late afternoon he needed to concentrate on getting some payments made to various suppliers and contractors - he hadn’t been able to do this before because the broadband was down. He also sorted the Intercessions for whilst he was going away . . . . .
The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Things beginning to move faster and faster as space in Fr D’s diary before he goes on holiday is becoming a rarity . . . . . . Those parishioners that attended the Diocesan ‘Festival of Hope’ last weekend came back very happy to have attended the event (Fr D had seen them off on the coach in the morning from the car park before he met with this year’s First Reconciliation families). On Monday the diocesan IT Manager was in the Parish helping to finalise the telecom and IT project that we have been working on for the past eighteen months. The object was to greatly reduce costs and to build in some measure of future-proofing in our use of telephones and computer technology. Previously the Parish was with BT Business for telephones and broadband which was quite expensive. This has now been switched to another business supplier for considerably less money and the whole set up has been streamlined (the bird’s nest of wires has also been reduced and will soon be housed in a data cabinet within the Presbytery - there is already a data cabinet in the Parish Office. Earlier in the year the Parish Centre was made wifi friendly in each of the main rooms so that any users would have access to a dedicated ‘Guest’ set up (this is now an expected part of modern facilities). In the evening Fr D and the Finance Committee chair attended a meeting of clergy and Parish Finance Chairs from the whole of the Deanery. The meeting enabled the Chief Operating Officer of the diocese to explain how finances might be expected to be organised once the Bishop’s Pastoral Plan brings the nine parishes in the Epsom Deanery into one Parish under the care of a team of clergy (Fr D was quite surprised by how sensible the meeting was with all participants offering insight into what might be!). Following on from Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition Fr D was off to the diocesan offices in Crawley. In the evening Fr D met with parents for the third of six sessions in the First Reconciliation programme. After Morning Prayer and Mass on Wednesday Fr D was meeting with a representative of a television company who want to explore the possibility of some filming in the church in late January; nothing is yet finalised as there are other churches to be seen, but they were very pleased with the Sacred Heart as a possible venue . . . . . . .