St Gabriel's Catholic Church, Archway

25/05/2024

14/04/2023

The food project provides: cooked meal every Thursday to 24-28 people - the service starts at 9.30am where customers can have hot refreshments, keep ...

29/11/2020

26/05/2020

A message of encouragement for Pentecost 2020 from St Gabriel's Parish Priest Fr Ugo Ikwuka

09/04/2020

Thank you everyone who has joined us for the live stream of Mass and Holy Hour today and in the weeks before. We'll be back streaming live all throughout the Triduum here on Facebook, as follows:
Friday 3pm: Service of the Lord's Passion starting with Stations of the Cross.
Saturday 8pm: Easter Vigil.
Sunday 10am: Easter Sunday Mass.
Thereafter we'll be back with the masses of Easter every Sunday at 10am!

20/03/2020

Beloved parishioners,

Peace be with you. In response to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Catholic Church in England and Wales have directed that all public acts of worship in our churches be suspended from Friday evening, 20 March 2020 until further notice: that means after the evening Mass following the Stations of the Cross at 7pm.

The church will remain open throughout this period for private devotions and prayers with adequate social distance maintained at all times. The priests will celebrate Masses (Sundays and Weekdays) as usual, but without a public congregation (The church will not be open at these times). You are encouraged to join the Masses in spirit and make spiritual communion as appropriate from wherever you are. You are also welcome to attach your name or picture at where you normally sit during Masses so that we can connect more intimately in prayer at these Masses.

All previously booked Masses will be celebrated, and the Parish Office will be open as usual to receive further Mass bookings which is encouraged at this time. Our website is still under reconstruction, however, we are working towards streaming the Sunday Masses live via our Facebook handle https://www.facebook.com/ArchwayParish/ and youtube. Meanwhile, Masses are streamed live in many churches in the Diocese as listed in a leaflet provided on the Newsletter Desk.

During this weekend of 21/22 March, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed at the usual Mass times for private devotions, with the required social distance being maintained. Subsequently, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed daily in the secured St. Gabriel’s side altar. Aside the Masses, we, your priests will be praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy every 3pm for you and the world. You can join us to say this prayer wherever you are at the time.

All parishioners who are in self isolation and who need help with errands should please call the parish line 02072728195. All parishioners who are able to run the errands should please indicate by calling the parish line or texting the mobile 07533726467. Every transaction MUST be done with the requisite hygiene and social distance. We want to be sure that we can maintain contact with our parishioners so, if you did not fill out a Parish registration form last year, please pick one up at the back of the church, fill it out and hand it in to the Parish Office.

The Parish newsletter will continue to be produced and will be available each week on Fridays, after 3pm. A letter from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, a pastoral letter from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, a list of links to where Masses in the diocese are being live-streamed online, and a booklet of prayers ‘No one is alone!’ are all available to take away, in the porch.

While social gatherings have been suspended, the 100 Club hopes to continue to run so, if you do not pay by standing order and still want to be in the monthly draws, please leave your subscriptions at the Parish Office, with your name, or ask about filling out a standing order form.

"I am with you always until the end of time" says Jesus (Matthew 28:20)

Your priests

Frs Ugo, Ben & Oliver
Please share to parishioners of St Gabriel's, Archway, London.

St Gabriel's is the church and community centre of the Roman Catholic Parish of Archway, London. We are part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster.

20/12/2019

Life is liveable
The birth of a child is a sign of hope. Isaiah's prophecy in this Sunday’s First Reading celebrates the birth of a child as good news for the wearied people of Judah. Their King Ahaz had refused to join the military alliance of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Syria, preferring rather to trust in God for security. So, the allied forces decided to crush his regime in the Southern Kingdom of Judah and install a puppet king who would do their bidding. On hearing this, Ahaz and his people were dejected because Judah was seriously outnumbered. God sent the prophet Isaiah to go and assure Ahaz that this plot of the allied forces of Israel and Syria against Judah shall fail. For Ahaz and his people, this assurance was simply too good to be true. So God asks Ahaz to ask for any sign to re-assure him. But Ahaz demonstrates extraordinary faith by refusing to ask for a sign, preferring instead to stand on the word of God as pronounced by the prophet. God is impressed but decided all the same to re-assure Ahaz with a sign. And the sign is that a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel which means ''God is with us''. In other words, Jesus will be the very presence of God the Father in our world. St. John’s Gospel began with the affirmation, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. Thus, the primary sign of God's love for us (and for Ahaz) is that God comes to share life with us to assure us that life is liveable. And God’s presence among us does not end with the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Before his ascension, Jesus assures his followers, “I am with you always, to the very end of time”. Right down to the present, Jesus continues to be Immanuel – God’s presence among us. Through his Body the Church, its sacraments and the witness of the Christian community, Jesus continues to be visibly present in the world. The ordinary ways of God’s coming, presence and action among His people is too simple to be true. The average Jew of the time would find it absurd that this “Immanuel” would be born of a woman as a normal, suckling baby since popular belief then was that the Messiah, fully-grown, would drop suddenly from the skies on the Temple mount, in all his divine regalia and power. They found it hard to reconcile their expectations with the reality of the man Jesus whom they knew to be born and raised in their midst. Like them, we also wait for the Immanuel, the coming of God among us. How do we expect God to come among us? How does God work among us? Sometimes the problem is not that God is not with us but that we do not recognize the ways of God’s presence and action among us. Indeed, it is often hardest to see God in the people who are familiar never mind in our own very selves. But if we see the incarnation (taking flesh) of the Son of God as a bridge between heaven and earth, between the divine and the human, between the order of grace and the order of nature, maybe we will begin to discern the presence and action of God more and more in our daily lives.

14/12/2019

On God’s on terms
The embattled nation of Israel, now a province of the Roman Empire, had suffered for centuries under the oppressive rule of foreign powers. In the face of this pervasive evil, John the Baptist spent all his life in the desert praying and fasting in readiness for his mission of preparing the way for their liberator (Messiah). John’s preaching was fiery as his belief that the Messiah will come with wrath to finally destroy the evil-doers and establish His kingdom. Now, the long-awaited Messiah emerges and begins his public work. He chose members of his cabinet (his apostles) and John wasn’t even shortlisted. In fact, John is languishing in prison because in the course of preparing the ground for the coming of this Messiah, he had stepped on the toes of the King Herod. The Messiah doesn’t go to visit John in prison or even send him a word of encouragement. Worst still, John hears that he is going about performing signs and wonders. Why doesn’t he use his miraculous powers to set him free? As the one who has worked the hardest for his coming, it is not out of place should John expect to be a key beneficiary of his reign. As time passed and John couldn’t get any feel of this Messiah, he had to take the bull by the horns. So, he sent messengers to help him clarify things further. They are to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?” In the reply, there was no mention of “the coming wrath” or of any plans of rescuing John from prison. Instead, Jesus tells the messengers, “Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the Good News is proclaimed to the poor, and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me”. In other words, “Yes, I am indeed the Messiah. But please do not take offence at me if all your expectations are not met.” So, what is going on here? Wrong expectations! The popular belief was that prosperity was a sign that God was with someone while adversity signifies that God has abandoned a person. That way of thinking has persisted till today in spite of the personal example of Jesus himself. Yes, it is true that Jesus
miraculously healed and liberated people physically and materially. That was part of his Messianic mission to redeem creation that has become broken and dysfunctional. However, the miracles are more importantly “signs” of inner spiritual awakening or transformation. Like John, we too find ourselves in difficult situations and we have our expectations of how God will intervene. Isn’t our expectation that God manifest superior power to make things right? Jesus realized that only the humble power of God’s love can vanquish the reign of evil and bring about a new kingdom of justice and peace. Like John, we are equally people of Advent who wait on their Lord. What are our expectations this Christmas? Many definitely expect the material over the spiritual. But, it is only if we are able, like John, to be freed of our own expectations that we shall be able to welcome the coming of the Lord and his way of love

22/11/2019

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe !
St. Luke’s Gospel today begins with the sentence: ‘The people stood by the cross of Jesus, watching’ ……. What were they watching? They were watching the final, dramatic moments of the Lord Jesus Christ as he hung on the Cross. Above his head, the Gospel tells us of an inscription that read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ It isn’t a very royal scene that we hear described in St. Luke’s narrative, at least, as most people think of royalty. Usually, ‘watching’ a King presents a vision of triumph, of pageantry, of majesty. However, the only triumph we see today is that Jesus succeeded in carrying the Cross to Calvary. The only
pageantry we witness today is the mockery of the crowd, of the leaders and the soldiers surrounding him, even the criminal crucified there next to him. ‘Some Messiah!’ they jeered. The only majesty before us is the brief acknowledgement of the so-called ‘good thief” asking for a place in Jesus’ kingdom. This was what the people standing by the cross were watching. Like the crowd on Calvary in today’s Gospel, we still watch Our King. And Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, still watches us, offering us eternal life in his Kingdom. His royalty, signified by the Cross, is a Majesty of Mercy. “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth. We need constant contemplation of the mystery of mercy. Our salvation depends upon it. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever, despite our sinfulness.”
(Pope Francis, Bull of Indiction, Vultus misericordiae, April 11, 2015).