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

Peter Harper (1942 - 2019)
✠ Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord:
and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Saints Peter Harper Saints Peter Harper

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.

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And let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice