Please be sure to get this date into your diary now!

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Once more a very busy week around The Presbytery as building works begin to wind down and scaffolding begins to be removed . . . . . . . On Monday Fr D was making sure that everything was ‘in place’ for the Blessing of Graves to be celebrated this weekend (Sunday 15.30 Cobham Cemetery). Parishioners are asked to meet at the chapel end of the car park so that we can have a prompt start. There will then be a short formal service of prayer before parishioners go and stand by the graves of their relatives (acting as markers for Fr D to come to). When Fr D gets to each grave he will sprinkle it with Holy Water and say a prayer. Once all the graves have been blessed parishioners are invited to return to the Parish Centre for Tea & Scones. After Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday morning Fr D was off to the diocesan offices at Crawley where he was interviewing a new Plaintiff who is asking for an annulment investigation. These interviews are quite involved and obviously very personal to the persons concerned and usually take between two and three hours of questioning. In the evening Fr D began the second half of the Reconciliation Programme for this year with the parents; these sessions prepare the parents for the work that they will be undertaking with their children on the Saturday morning following (hopefully able to give answers to any questions that their children might ask). After this week there will only be two more sessions for the group before the celebration of this great sacrament of God’s love on Saturday 29th November. Following Morning Prayer and Mass on Wednesday Fr D had someone coming to see him in one of the rooms in the Parish Centre. By the time this meeting was over several sections of the scaffolding around the Presbytery were coming down to reveal a great transformation of the main roof! The works now started to turn to the smaller sections of roof projecting from the house (front door canopy, utility room, bay windows at the rear, along with some hanging tile work).  In the evening at the Parish Finance Committee meeting work began on working out the running order for the next larger building projects that we need to face in the next couple of years - adapting the church lighting system for life without halogen bulbs, and what to do about the aging gas heating boiler for the church heating . . . . .

Our readings today are connected by their images and references to temples: a temple Ezekiel saw in a vision which was the source of renewal and healing, Paul’s teaching that we are each a temple of God with the Holy Spirit residing in us, and the story of Jesus cleansing the Jerusalem temple of the merchants. Such readings were specifically chosen for today when the Church celebrates the anniversary of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. There are four major basilicas in Rome, of which the oldest is St John Lateran. It is also the official cathedral of Rome (although the pope lives next to St Peter’s Basilica). So we might think of the Lateran Basilica as the “mother church” of the world. It was originally dedicated in 324 AD during the reign of Constantine when Christianity went from being a persecuted religion to being the official religion of the Roman Empire. Whether or not you appreciate the history, architecture, and beauty of ancient temples and churches, today’s readings offer images and metaphors to reflect upon in light of our faith. All of the scripture writers this week were aware of the corruption that can creep into religious practices and worship. They were also aware of the value and beauty in having a physical place where people can come together to pray, praise God, and be renewed in spirit.  Clearly Jesus was upset that the Temple, which was supposed to be a place of holiness, refuge, and peace, had become a profane marketplace. The requirement for Jews to offer animal sacrifices at the Temple was a financial burden for many poor people. If the Jews didn’t own such animals themselves, they had to pay a higher rate to buy them within the Temple precincts. Also, Jews had to pay a Temple tax and the tax had to be paid with coins minted in Israel rather than the more typical Roman coins. Money changers, of course, could exploit the pilgrims and worshippers by charging fees to change their coins. All this added up to exploitation of the worshippers which invoked Jesus’ anger. The Temple had been transformed from a place of prayer to an unjust marketplace. It would do us well to regularly ask ourselves if and how our modern churches might get twisted from their original purpose into places of hypocrisy or injustice sometimes too. Questions of the week  Would Jesus be angered about anything if he entered your place of worship today? Why or why not?  What is the most beautiful or most moving place where you have had the chance to pray and to worship God?