We are a parish in Raynes Park South London under the Diocese of Southwark. We are grateful for your interest and invite you to learn more about our parish family.

Our main service is at 9.30am on Sundays and evening prayer at 4pm also on Sundays. Please have a look at Services Page for more details.

The Parish is now part of a United Benefice with All Saints' Church, South Wimbledon, (about two miles distance), with whom it shares its Parish Priest.  All Saints' Church is another Forward in Faith Parish under the pastoral care of the Bishop of Fulham.

 

5th February 2012

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Third Sunday before Lent

"This is why I came"

In today's gospel we are reminded how, during His eartly ministry, Jesus Christ literally transformed and saved the lives of many individuals. By healing the sick and casting out devils Jesus liberated many from pain and suffering and in so doing He gave all the people the gift of hope.

This hope is in stark contrast to the first reading from Job who in today's passage longs for the hope and liberation which Christ would one day bring; a longing that is articulated in today's psalm, a psalm which speaks of a Lord who will "Heal the broken-hearted" and "bind up all their wounds".

St Paul in today's passage from first Corinthians insist that the message of hope and liberation embodied in the gospel is so great that he "should be punished" if he did not proclaim it. By offering our lives to Christ we share in His hope and liberation, as Jesus said "This is why I came".

 

"In regard to the divine and holy mysteries of faith, not the least part may be handed on without the Holy Scriptures. Do not be led astray by winning words and clever arguments. Even to me, who tell you these things, do not give ready belief, unless you receive from the Holy Scriptures the proof of the things which I announce. The salvation in which we believe is not proved from clever reasoning, but from the Holy Scriptures."

Catechetical Lectures 4,17
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

Saint of the Week
Our Lady of Lourdes
11th February

The Church keeps the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes on 11th February. This day is the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady to a 14 year girl called Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. She was collecting firewood near a small grotto in the Pyrenean village of Lourdes, when she saw a vision of a beautiful woman, dressed in white, with blue sash.

On a total of 18 occasions, the woman appeared to Bernadette, and eventually revealed herself as the "Immaculate Conception". She asked Bernadette to scrape with her hands in the ground, and when she did, a spring of water bubbled up. As interest in the apparitions grew, people who used the waters of the spring were healed abd many miracles were reported.

To this day, millions of pilgrims make their way each year to this small French town to ask for our Lady's prayers, pray for healing, and be renewed in their Christian discipleship.

Forward! is published each week by Forward in Faith , 2A The Cloisters, Gordon Square, London WC1H 0AG

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