Let my prayer be set forth in THY sight as the incense :
Smoke Signals
Smoke Signals is not a parish publication; it was written and privately distributed by the late Peter Harper, a parishioner and a Sub-deacon at St. John’s. Yet it would never have existed outside a parish like ours.
Smoke Signals arose in 1995 as a response to a delightful but short-lived (1994-1996) leaflet produced by the choir called Square Notes that dealt with the music program and choir life.
Reproduced here are topics relating to church life, catholic customs, and the grandeur and foibles of Mother Church.
Despite the irony and sometimes the ‘tongue-in-cheekness’ of the style, the reader should feel the deep underlying love the author had for the Great Tradition of Western Christianity.
Peter Harper (1942 - 2019)
✠ Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord:
and let light perpetual shine upon him.
Homage to St. Pancras
Why St. Pancras, you say? Go and look at the panels set before the altar at Fr. Wood's Memorial, and you will find paintings of four youthful saints proposed as models to the boys of St. John's School; they are Saints Lawrence, Edward, George, and Pancras. Pancras is shown holding the Blessed Sacrament.
Teenage Girls
When did you last hear a female saint (except Our Lady) mentioned at St. John’s, and perhaps Mary Magdalene every 6-7 years when her feast falls on a Sunday? And the 4-5 holy women included in our Litany of the Saints during Easter Vigil?
Mary Magdalene, the Church’s Anima
Mary was further present at Calvary and she went to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morn to anoint His body, where she met Him and became the first recorded witness of His resurrection. She is the apostles' apostle, bringing to them the news of the risen Christ.
She Did Not Understand the Question
Maria Goretti had died a martyr, and we were amazed in 1950 when she was canonised during Holy Year in the presence of her mother and while her murderer Alessandro Serenelli was still alive.
The Baptist’s Day
The Canadian Zouaves took on the Sacred-Heart flag as their own. It replaced their earlier banner (white with the tiara and keys on one side, and on the other, their motto "Aime Dieu et va ton chemin! - Love God and go your way" - with a beaver and two crossed maple leaves.)
St. Cuthbert
I would suggest that he would do admirably well as a patron for Deep Ecologists or Ecosophists, you know those greenest of the greens who preach the new religion of Ecology and who equate the life of a cockroach with that of a human.
The Ladies’ Shrine
I am sure you have sometimes wondered about our St. Anne's Chapel. Why is it not simply a Lady's Chapel as in other Anglo-Catholic churches? You have heard the story that it is a memorial chapel built by our Founder in remembrance of his mother. Indeed, her name was Anne Key and a chapel dedicated to her patron seemed quite appropriate. But do you think we would have got a chapel if the good lady's name had been Melissa, Melody or Pamela?
And let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice