Wed Oct 11th
Staying overnight at Coniston, University residence run by Opus Dei. This meant the bonus of having early morning Mass absolutely on hand - chapel in fact right next to my room. Also - and this is really nice - there is a sort of upstairs gallery overlooking the chapel, with the entrance on our floor, so one can go in late at night and there is the sanctuary lamp glowing.

It's a plain fact, though, that when some one knocked on my door this morning and announced that Mass was in half an hour, instead of thinking "Oh, how lovely!" I thought "Oh. I'd thought of sleeping late, actually", because it was sort of nice not being at home and having to get on with ordinary things in a busy way as one generally does. (For your info, those who are interested in my spiritual life...yes, I did get up.)

Kind people here, pleasant breakfast, use of computer to get on with some work so the morning isn't wasted.

News as I trawl Internet: the H. Father says in a message to a conference in Rome that we must make good use of modern communications, praises the work of Catholic TV stations etc...this is encouragement for all of us who work in the media. We do need, as Catholics, to claim the space here , and it's great that there is so much good material on the Internet and on the (now vast) range of media sources - as I keep explaining to anyone who will listening, getting your news only via the BBC means you don't really know what's going on. This is especially true when religious issues are involved: too many people with their own agenda concerning the Church, especially ex-Catholics, lapsed Catholics, Catholicswhofeelawfulandcan'tbringthermselvestogettoconfession etc etc.

Which brings me to the question of this Blog. I am Not Happy with it: as regular readers will know, there have been technical difficulties, and I am thus not using all, or even any, of the facilities available such as links to other blogs, etc. A fellow-blogger (young, of course, and male, of course - there don't seem to be many Auntie-like bloggers around) has offerred to give me some help and we hope to have a session at an Internet Cafe in London. Content of this blog is also sometimes poor, and indeed trivial, though Jamie insists that the latter is fine :"People like reading about you whizzing about on your bike and enthusing about Catholic things. It's exhausting, but reassurring."