Prayers for sick parishioners

Albert Bishop

Albert was brutally attacked last Sunday by a hammer-wielding intruder into his home on the Hythe Road. He suffered serious head injuries and was transferred from Ashford's William Harvey Hospital to the Queen's Hospital, Romford. Please pray that he will pull through, and also for his daughters Amanda and Sarah and his grandchildren. Albert joined a number of us on a parish pilgrimage to Rome in October 2003 when we went to celebrate Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee as Pope and the beatification of Mother Teresa. He is fondly remembered by all his fellow pilgrims and is photographed above relaxing in Assisi. If you have any information that might be of assistance to the police, please contact them.

Evelyn Leonard

Evelyn, who has recently been diagnosed as suffering from cancer resulting in soft bone tissue in the femur, fell badly today as she tried to enter the confessional before Mass. She suffered excruciating pain as her family and other parishioners tried to comfort her until an ambulance arrived. It transpires she has broken her leg and is now in hospital awaiting treatment. Her fall was probably due to a combination of her weak bone and one of her crutches slipping. Evelyn was received into the Catholic Church on 17th December 2005 and has experienced a truly warm welcome into the family of the parish and of the Catholic Church as a whole. Please remember Evelyn in your prayers, together with her husband Peter, and her children Peter, James, John and Elizabeth (who is expecting a child).

Novena of Prayer
A number of parishioners have decided, on their own initiative, to begin a novena of prayer invoking the intercession of Our Lady, health of the sick, and St Pergrine, the Patron Saint of Cancer Sufferers. A prayer to St Peregrine followed by a decade of the Holy Rosary will be said in the church every evening at 6pm, except when there's Mass going on (i.e. Saturday evening and Sunday), beginning this Tuesday to conclude on Maundy Thursday. If you can be present, do come along. Otherwise, please join in prayer from wherever you happen to be at the time.