Tuesday Dec 12th
Finally, I am at home and working on my own computer, albeit with a somewhat worried air, as if the thing might go on strike again, and my internet connection - gloriously restored by my wonderful nephew - might snap off and leave me once again staring at a screen with an irritating bland message on it telling me nothing is available....

Friday saw a cheery gathering at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen....the excellent team from Miles Jesu had been running a "Dowry of Mary" event all week, with talks on different aspects of our country's Catholic heritage with the idea of fostering a sense of renewal and revival. It was a great delight to be part of the event for an evening. Things began with a Holy Hour in church, the Rosary, and Benediction. There was a most beautiful prayer, written by Cardinal Wiseman, which I had not heard before, listing some of the great saints and missionaries who brought the Faith to our country, and spread it among us. Later I gave a short talk, and then afterwards there was a cake, and wine, and a celebration as it was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I was given a lift home by Mac, of Mulier Fortis fame.

Very early the next morning I was up and about, packing a knapsack and hurrying to Gatwick Airport, where I caught a flight to Inverness. I was off to Pluscarden Abbey, up in the North of Scotland - and a perfectyly WONDERFUL time I had there, too!! It is glorious: a real Medieval abbey, left in ruins when all the monastries of Britain were ransacked and destroyed, then rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century when the land was given back to the Benedictine order by the family who had owned it for those centuries.....

Pluscarden has a good-sized community of monks: they chant the office at the set hours of the day, beginning in the early hours of the morning (Yes, EARLY - they rise at 4am!), they keep goats and bees, they live out the traditional monastic life and they make visitors very welcome. There is a comfortable guest-house, St Scholastica's, for ladies (men stay in the monastery itself) and it's all in the most glorious countryside, with the stars glittering in a sky untainted by street-lighting, with the wind roaring through the trees, and the sound of the abbey bell fresh and clear without any competition from traffic. Best of all, while I was there, we had a power cut so there was no electricity for quite few hours, until the power-lines were repaired. Mass was by candlelight on Sunday morning, with a December gloom outside and great singing and glittering lights within the great Abbey church. It was absolutely the most wonderful experience and I cannot adequately describe how enjoyable it all was.

Father Abbot was very friendly - I did an interview with him for the National Catholic Register (USA) - and full of laughter and common sense and wisdom. Going to all the chanted offices (well, almost all....I skipped the 4 am effort!) gives the visitor a most reassuring sense of awareness of this great unbroken wave of prayer, going on and on, all the days and weeks of the year..... St Scholastica's was cosy, the other visitors were good companions, and after Compline one had such an agreeable feeling of being safe and protected (the final prayer includes being blessed with a sprinkling of holy water)....and then a lamplit walk down the drive and hot chocolate and a vast range of interesting books for a good read....

I left Inverness in pouring rain to fly back to London on Monday morning, working on a great batch of Christmas cards en route - some recipients will find it odd that Bogle Christmas greetings come with an Inverness Airport postmark. Back to a slightly untidy house in which poor Jamie had been wrestling with computer problems and looked bleak and lacking domestic comforts. I brewed tea and told him my adventures and we talked about Christmas plans.