Christmas

Christmas 2025

We wish all our Parishioners and Visitors a blessed Christmas

and a Happy New Year 2026

Mass times are as follows

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December 24th: Christmas Family Mass (with Children's Nativity play) at 5pm

December 24th: Christmas Mass during the night at 9pm

December 25th: Christmas Dawn Mass at 10am

December 25th: Christmas Mass during the day: 12 noon

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December 26th: Feast of St. Stephen - Mass at 11am

December 27th: Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist - Mass at 11am

December 27th: Vigil Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family - Mass at 7pm

December 28th: Feast of the Holy Family - Mass at 10am and 12noon

December 29th: 5th Day of Christmas - Mass at 10.15am

December 30th:  6th Day of Christmas - Mass at 7pm

December 31st: 7th Day of Christmas - Mass at 10.15am

January 1st: Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God - Mass at 11am

(Note there will be no Mass at 7pm on January 1st)

Friday 2nd January: Christmas Weekday - Liturgy of the Word at 10.15am

(Mass will be in Mornington on 2nd January at 8.45am)

Saturday 3rd January: Christmas Weekday - Mass at 11am

Saturday 3rd January: - Vigil for the Second Sunday of Christmas - 7pm

Sunday 4th January: Second Sunday of Christmas - Masses at 10am and 12 noon

Monday 5th January: Christmas Weekday - Liturgy of the Word at 10.15am

(Mass will be in Mornington on 5th January at 8.45am)

Tuesday 6th January: The Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord - Mass at 11am

Wednesday 7th January: Christmas Weekday - Liturgy of the Word at 10.15am

(Mass will be in Mornington on 7th January at 8.45am)

Thursday 8th January: Christmas Weekday - Mass at 7pm

Friday 9th January: Christmas Weekday - Mass at 10.15am

Saturday 10th January: Christmas Weekday - Mass at 11am

Saturday 10th January: Vigil for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Mass at 7pm

Sunday 11th January: The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Masses at 10am and 12noon

Christmas ends on the evening of 11th January 2026

Christmas

by

John Betjeman

The bells of waiting Advent ring,

   The Tortoise stove is lit again

And lamp-oil light across the night

Has caught the streaks of winter rain

In many a stained-glass window sheen

From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge

And round the Manor House the yew

Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,

The altar, font and arch and pew,

So that the villagers can say

"The church looks nice" on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze

And Corporation tramcars clang,

On lighted tenements I gaze

Where paper decorations hang,

And bunting in the red Town Hall

Says "Merry Christmas to you all."

And London shops on Christmas Eve

Are strung with silver bells and flowers

As hurrying clerks the City leave

To pigeon-haunted classic towers,

And marbled clouds go scudding by

The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,

And oafish louts remember Mum,

And sleepless children's hearts are glad.

And Christmas-morning bells say "Come!'"

Even to shining ones who dwell

Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true? And is it true,

This most tremendous tale of all,

Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,

A Baby in an ox's stall?

The Maker of the stars and sea

Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true? For if it is,

No loving fingers tying strings

Around those tissued fripperies,

The sweet and silly Christmas things,

Bath salts and inexpensive scent

And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,

No carolling in frosty air,

Nor all the steeple-shaking bells

Can with this single Truth compare –

That God was man in Palestine

And lives today in Bread and Wine.