God’s Perfect Timing

Ash Wednesday Masses are at 10:00am and 7:30pm

Living in London, one can quickly become detached from the seasons. Flowers flown in from thousands of miles away fill petrol stations. Even in unoccupied buildings, lights shine, illuminating winter’s long nights. Meanwhile, though the ground is hard (or sodden in this weather), cherries sit plump and ripe on greengrocers’ shelves on the Edgware Road. In this context, it’s easy to miss the cosmological timing of the Church’s feasts. Christmas falls at the darkest time of year, when days are shortest. Six months earlier, at summer’s height, we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, marking the days’ gradual shortening—a sign in the heavens of John’s prophetic words: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). These feasts weren’t randomly assigned to match cosmology. Rather, they coincided with real moments in time, revealing God’s preordained plan. His actions are not reactive, like a politician’s, but part of a carefully laid design for our salvation, brought into effect at the perfect moment.

The feast of the Presentation, which marked the end of Christmas, is one such moment. It falls midway between the darkest day and the spring equinox—the tipping point where winter begins to yield to spring. A time when new life, though small and fragile, begins to emerge, heralding the end of darkness and death. At spring’s onset, the smallest, most delicate blossoms announce winter’s passing. In Jerusalem, the end of sin and death was proclaimed by the arrival of the most fragile of infants. A poor child, for his parents could offer only the sacrifice of the poor. Yet concealed within him was the majesty of God —the one who would conquer death forever. Despite city life, we should reflect on nature’s stillness, the quiet signs of new life, and the change they foretell. Nature teaches that transformation isn’t signalled by great explosions but by subtle, easily missed moments. So too in our spiritual lives: faithfulness, observance, and contemplation bear the fruit that sustains our souls. This is the key to the ordinary time of the Church’s year in which we now find ourselves. Fr Alex

Music at Our Lady

The choir was founded by Claude Crozet in 1971 and some of the original members still sing with us. Claude’s project was considered quite pioneering during a period of cultural “reform” within the Church and his work has been continued by other conductors within the choir and beyond.

If you would like to join us, please introduce yourself at the end of mass or send a message.