15th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Today Father Martin presided and preached at the Parish Mass. At the beginning of the service each week, the members of the Sunday School have a prayer and collect the Bible and Mr. Monkey, a rather badly behaved monkey. Today he was found hanging on to the candlesticks before he went out to our thriving Sunday School. They return in time for the Offertory showing us the pictures they have drawn and/or coloured.

In his sermon, based on the Gospel of the Good Samaritan, Father Martin said we are all very good at walking by on the other side, like the priest and the Levite. This could be understandable when some one begging in Romford was discovered to change into an Armani suit when he arrived home. The priest and the Levite didn’t help because they wanted to retain their ritual cleanness. being compassionate could be costly and not everything works out as you think it will. Father Martin related the incident in the last when two teenagers had crashed their scooter into the vicarage doing considerable damage to the front porch. As one was injured an ambulance was called but, when they heard the siren, the two youngsters thought it was the police and ran away. Despite the cost we must not walk by on the other side.

YESTERDAY’S SATURDAY SHOP TOOK £142.