Monday Oct 30th
Phew! It's exhausting being a godmother.....The Royal Air Force Museum was a good choice for a day out, and we had a good time.....but I arrived back feeling limp, and the big mug of tea I was given by my godson's mother was just bliss! There were not many people at the Museum as half-term is now over for most schools, so my small godson and I virtually had the place to ourselves when we toured the Bomber Command and Dam Buster sections....there is much food for thought here: there is something awesome about these great Lancaster bombers, and one can view a replica of the room where Barnes Wallis invented the "bouncing bomb", but.....all those children killed in the great raids on Germany's cities, and the terrible toll it took of brave young airmen's lives, too (my mother's oldest brother was shot down and killed serving in RAF Bomber Command in 1942 - one of my earliest lessons in history was being told about him as a small girl in the 1960s and being reminded to pray for "Uncle John" at Mass.....)
Most of today's young museum visitors have an extremely short attention-span: it is all too evident that the only place where they linger for more than a few moments is the computer-game bit where you can stand in front of a machine and make a picture of an aeroplane fly across a screen.....a pity, because the Museum does tell the whole story of WW11 extremely well, has some excellent audio-visual displays (Churchill making his Battle of Britain speech, children on a railway station for evacuation, family in the East End with Anderson shelter etc etc) plus huge numbers of aeroplanes - Spitfires, Hurricanes, Blenheims, Flying Fortressses, all in superb great rooms with excellent explanatory material. Children just hurry through the rooms and nag their parents for snacks from the refreshment stands. Young Thomas - whose parents restrict his use of computers, is lively and chatty, and is a delightful and happy companion, a real pleasure to take on a half-term treat - seemed to enjoy the day, and was still bursting with energy as we made our way home on the Tube and through the dark streets. I had borrowed a copy of George Weigel's biography of John Paul 11, Witness to Hope, to read on the train, and it was extraordinarily interesting to read the chapters on Poland and the Papal visit there in 1979, and all that followed, with echoes of what I had just seen in the Museum still reverberating in my mind.....
A good day out.
I am busy with preparations for my trip to America to speak at the Coming Home Network conference in Columbus, Ohio, this coming weekend. The topic is the English Reformation and it promises to be a feast of knowledge and information and discussion....
Here at home, a lovely and touching invitation.....we have a superb new Parish Centre, just opened, next to our parish church - the fruit of much energetic work by our splendid parish priest and support from the parish. ....and Father P. has invited me to open the Catholic bookshop which is to be part of the whole centre: I am really moved by this, and it will be lovely to be a part of this exciting venture. The Centre is a beautiful building, with space for all the large number of activities that are part of parish life: youth groups, Confirmation classes, meetings of Catholic groups and organisations, celebrations for parish events....it has been superbly designed to blend in with the church and enhance the whole area. Father P. says "This will be a really Catholic bookshop" and it will stock a good range of all the excellent books and pamphlets and DVDs and so on that are now available.....
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Sunday Oct 29th
Mass at St Patrick's, Soho Square. This is a splendid church, which has so much history (dates back to the 1790s, before Catholic Emancipation), and is the focus of so much superb evangelistic work in London (teams of young people, soup and sandwiches to the homeless, street evangelisation, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, talks on the Faith.,..and more.....). But it's endeangered., and it's whole future is at stake. IF THEY CAN'T RAISE ENOUGH MONEY FOR URGENT RESTORATION WORK ALL THIS WONDERFUL ACTIVITY MAY CEASE. In order to help, all you have to do is send a cheque (American dollars would be very, very acceptable) to them: St Patrick's appeal, 21 Sooho Square, London W1. This is the church where Archbishop Fulton Sheen worked when he was in London, and where he brought many people back to the Faith, and heard many confessions........today's Mass was beautiful, a cantor singing the Psalm, lots of lovely Latin chant (Agnus Dei, Sanctus), a moving sermon about forgiveness, and a packed congregation.....people kneel for Communion, and linger to pray after Mass. There is a warm neighbourly atmosphere as people mill about afterwards too....and at lunch I met some of the young people at the St Patrick's School of Mission, from which so many vocations have come.....and all this in the heart of London, in soho, where sordid clubs and all sorts of horrible things abound....
On to Mother's for the evening, and an overnight stay. I'll have to be up early to cycle over to meet my godson for the Museum trip.....
Mass at St Patrick's, Soho Square. This is a splendid church, which has so much history (dates back to the 1790s, before Catholic Emancipation), and is the focus of so much superb evangelistic work in London (teams of young people, soup and sandwiches to the homeless, street evangelisation, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, talks on the Faith.,..and more.....). But it's endeangered., and it's whole future is at stake. IF THEY CAN'T RAISE ENOUGH MONEY FOR URGENT RESTORATION WORK ALL THIS WONDERFUL ACTIVITY MAY CEASE. In order to help, all you have to do is send a cheque (American dollars would be very, very acceptable) to them: St Patrick's appeal, 21 Sooho Square, London W1. This is the church where Archbishop Fulton Sheen worked when he was in London, and where he brought many people back to the Faith, and heard many confessions........today's Mass was beautiful, a cantor singing the Psalm, lots of lovely Latin chant (Agnus Dei, Sanctus), a moving sermon about forgiveness, and a packed congregation.....people kneel for Communion, and linger to pray after Mass. There is a warm neighbourly atmosphere as people mill about afterwards too....and at lunch I met some of the young people at the St Patrick's School of Mission, from which so many vocations have come.....and all this in the heart of London, in soho, where sordid clubs and all sorts of horrible things abound....
On to Mother's for the evening, and an overnight stay. I'll have to be up early to cycle over to meet my godson for the Museum trip.....
Sat Oct 28th
Church schools and the big debate: I didn't do very well on the Radio 5 programme last night - I got far too annoyed with the chap from the National Union of Teachers - who said that education had nothing to do with religion, and that the Church has massacred millions of Aztecs and Indians in South America and that was what we should be teaching children about.....you can't really debate with this kind of bigotry, but it is certainly daft to lose one's temper.......
Today we finally, and at a late hour, when it was already growing dark, got a walk together on the Common. It is still terribly, unseasonably, warm, but the trees are turning golden and the houses looko so agreeable glowing as dusk arrives. We turn the clocks back one hour today. I telephone Fr Alexander Sherbrook at St Patrick's, Soho Square, asking if I could give out leaflets about the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival there tomorrow: he said an enthusiastic yes, and invited me to stay on for lunch as he had a number of other people coming.....he was with Cardinal george Pell of Sydney, who has been over in Europe: Fr Tim Finigan noted on his blog that he had met him briefly by chance in Rome. Fr Alexander had just returned from visiting the new Holbein exhibition at the National Gallery with the Cardinal "We made rude remarks about all those horrible Tudors". The papers have shown the picture of Henry V111 that is a main feature of the xhibition: he looks mean-spiited and vicious with a fat face and cruel eyes.....
A merry evening with friends, delicious talkative dinner in a beautiful candlelit dining-room, children scampering around about being got ready for bed......as it is half-term, I'm taking the oldest boy,Thomas, who is my godson, on an outing on Monday: we decided on the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon.
Church schools and the big debate: I didn't do very well on the Radio 5 programme last night - I got far too annoyed with the chap from the National Union of Teachers - who said that education had nothing to do with religion, and that the Church has massacred millions of Aztecs and Indians in South America and that was what we should be teaching children about.....you can't really debate with this kind of bigotry, but it is certainly daft to lose one's temper.......
Today we finally, and at a late hour, when it was already growing dark, got a walk together on the Common. It is still terribly, unseasonably, warm, but the trees are turning golden and the houses looko so agreeable glowing as dusk arrives. We turn the clocks back one hour today. I telephone Fr Alexander Sherbrook at St Patrick's, Soho Square, asking if I could give out leaflets about the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival there tomorrow: he said an enthusiastic yes, and invited me to stay on for lunch as he had a number of other people coming.....he was with Cardinal george Pell of Sydney, who has been over in Europe: Fr Tim Finigan noted on his blog that he had met him briefly by chance in Rome. Fr Alexander had just returned from visiting the new Holbein exhibition at the National Gallery with the Cardinal "We made rude remarks about all those horrible Tudors". The papers have shown the picture of Henry V111 that is a main feature of the xhibition: he looks mean-spiited and vicious with a fat face and cruel eyes.....
A merry evening with friends, delicious talkative dinner in a beautiful candlelit dining-room, children scampering around about being got ready for bed......as it is half-term, I'm taking the oldest boy,Thomas, who is my godson, on an outing on Monday: we decided on the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Friday Oct 26th
Just off to do a radio phone-in programme with Radio Five Live, about Church schools - or, as we are now supposed to call them, Faith schools - debating with various people from the British Humanist Association and so on......but while I am waiting for the cab to come, there is time to write my blog.
Extraordinary coincidence - providence, call it what you will.......a message sent to this blog (see comments, yesterday) from America, from a lady who knows my cousin Patricia and her husband Mark.....so I immediately telephoned Patricia who said "Joanna! I was just about to telephone you!!" It turns out that Tricia - who designs beautiful architectural extensions to houses - is designing a layout for a "virtual tour" of the Catholic Distance University to put on the website, and it is all run by this nice lady who has contacted me. As there are umpteen million people in the world, it is rather fun when there is this sort of contact/coincidence via the Internet..... I'll write more about this when I've learned about the Catholic Distance University, which sounds a great idea and well worth discovering....
Tricia and I seem to deal in extraordinary coincidences. Here's another one: my niece L. is at university, where Tricia's daughter is also studying, and they are at the same college....that would be coincidence enough, as the two girls had never met, and each went quite independently to the college......but then, earlier this year, L. was looking for new accomodation for herself and a group of friends, and she learned of a house to let, and telephoned the number.....and it was Tricia, who recognised the name and said "Er.... we're related! I'm your father's first cousin!"
Spent the day in London, cycling first to Sloane Square where I had coffee at Peter Jones (big shop, wonderful panoramic view over London from its 6th-floor coffee shop) with Josephine Robinson chairman of the Association of Catholic Women....lots of useful plans for the next months, including some fund-raising for help with families who have children with Downs syndrome, ideas for our 2007 Schools Religious Education Project, etc. Then on to the Catholic Truth Society bookshoop, where I picked up some booklets on the Reformation which I will take with me to the Coming Home Network conference in Columbus, Ohio, at which I am speaking.....hurrying home with the rain falling, I took a phone call from the BBC and said "Can I call you back? It's raining here and I've got washing on the line....." so it was only after I'd rushed around getting the laundry safely into the house that I was able to sort out the plans for a Radio 5 programme later this evening.
At the CTS I bought - and will probably give to Mother for Christmas (she doesn't read this blog so it doesn't matter my whispering it here!) a copy of the superb new book about the Holy Father by Peter Seeward (Ignatius press). It's wonderful, with lots and LOTS of beautiful colour-plate pictures of our dear Holy Father and a great deal of information about all the things he has done.....what an extraotrdinary and remarkable mind he has, and what a gift to the Church he is at this stage of our history.....and every day, this man is still working and accepting the massive responsibility of an office with burdens from which anyone would shrink, let alone some one of almost 80.....
Just off to do a radio phone-in programme with Radio Five Live, about Church schools - or, as we are now supposed to call them, Faith schools - debating with various people from the British Humanist Association and so on......but while I am waiting for the cab to come, there is time to write my blog.
Extraordinary coincidence - providence, call it what you will.......a message sent to this blog (see comments, yesterday) from America, from a lady who knows my cousin Patricia and her husband Mark.....so I immediately telephoned Patricia who said "Joanna! I was just about to telephone you!!" It turns out that Tricia - who designs beautiful architectural extensions to houses - is designing a layout for a "virtual tour" of the Catholic Distance University to put on the website, and it is all run by this nice lady who has contacted me. As there are umpteen million people in the world, it is rather fun when there is this sort of contact/coincidence via the Internet..... I'll write more about this when I've learned about the Catholic Distance University, which sounds a great idea and well worth discovering....
Tricia and I seem to deal in extraordinary coincidences. Here's another one: my niece L. is at university, where Tricia's daughter is also studying, and they are at the same college....that would be coincidence enough, as the two girls had never met, and each went quite independently to the college......but then, earlier this year, L. was looking for new accomodation for herself and a group of friends, and she learned of a house to let, and telephoned the number.....and it was Tricia, who recognised the name and said "Er.... we're related! I'm your father's first cousin!"
Spent the day in London, cycling first to Sloane Square where I had coffee at Peter Jones (big shop, wonderful panoramic view over London from its 6th-floor coffee shop) with Josephine Robinson chairman of the Association of Catholic Women....lots of useful plans for the next months, including some fund-raising for help with families who have children with Downs syndrome, ideas for our 2007 Schools Religious Education Project, etc. Then on to the Catholic Truth Society bookshoop, where I picked up some booklets on the Reformation which I will take with me to the Coming Home Network conference in Columbus, Ohio, at which I am speaking.....hurrying home with the rain falling, I took a phone call from the BBC and said "Can I call you back? It's raining here and I've got washing on the line....." so it was only after I'd rushed around getting the laundry safely into the house that I was able to sort out the plans for a Radio 5 programme later this evening.
At the CTS I bought - and will probably give to Mother for Christmas (she doesn't read this blog so it doesn't matter my whispering it here!) a copy of the superb new book about the Holy Father by Peter Seeward (Ignatius press). It's wonderful, with lots and LOTS of beautiful colour-plate pictures of our dear Holy Father and a great deal of information about all the things he has done.....what an extraotrdinary and remarkable mind he has, and what a gift to the Church he is at this stage of our history.....and every day, this man is still working and accepting the massive responsibility of an office with burdens from which anyone would shrink, let alone some one of almost 80.....
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Thursday Oct 26th
Met Mother at Carshalton's old church by the ponds: I padlocked my bike to the church railings and enjoyed the view as I waited. The village looks so beautiful in this mellow sunshine. The church is mentioned in the Domesday book, and there was certainly one here long before that, too. The present one is a beautiful building, lots of Victorian restoration inside but still with a largely medieval feel. I have spoken at this church a couple of times - at the Women's World Day of Prayer and also at meetings of the friendly Women's Fellowship......back in the 19th century the church had a reputation for being very controversial and "high" and this lingered.....the nice rector, the Rev Leigh Edwards, who was there a few years ago sent his daughter to my old school, St Philomena's, the main local Catholic girls' school. Mother and I went for a walk through the churchyard, and there was Rev Leigh Edwards' grave....and also those of variouis other familiar names...such as Mary Bates, who was a Borough councillor with me back in the 1970s.....We had a pleasant lunch at the wine bar next door. It used to be a butcher's shop, called Woodmans, and now it is v. trendy and called "The Woodman" with a pub-sign. Still has the low ceilings and latticed windows that it has always had.
Walked around the Ponds and The Grove, where the river Wandle flows down towards Wandsworth and the Thames....."It was just further along the riverbank - along by Strawberry Lane - that your father asked me to marry him....we'd spent the evening with friends and were walking slowly back....." I'd heard the story before, but it was nice to be with Mother as she reminisced. "Odd, really....my parents moved here after they got bombed in London, and then of course they got friendly with these nice neighbours....and each talked about their children, away at the war....and then when we came back when the war ended, we met and got friendly....he took me to an Army dance......" They married at the little Catholic church down by the railway station: the pictures look like something out of a wartime film, with Daddy in uniform with his Sam Browne (a family heirloom: his uncle wore it in World War 1. Jamie has it now).
Cycled back to write feature articles for Catholic press about yesterday's Mass at the House of Commons: Americans readers will be able to read about it in the National Catholic Register in due course. Then Hilary, from the Catenians, came to collect various items for the Towards Advent Festival on Nov 4th : some word-games and a quiz for children, hymn-sheets with "God Bless our Pope", tickets for the workshops.....and pots of jam to be sold at the Refreshments table. He is very confident that the day will go well.....I plan to hand out more leaflets about it again this Sunday.....
I am now working on the 2007 Childen's RE project for the Association of Catholic Women. We thought that it might be a good idea for children to learn about angels - a topic often neglected in Religious Education. So we're going to set them some good essay topics and have them discover St Michael, and Guardian Angels, and all sorts of important things......
Note for Americans and any Brits under 40: a Sam Browne is an officer's crossbelt.
Met Mother at Carshalton's old church by the ponds: I padlocked my bike to the church railings and enjoyed the view as I waited. The village looks so beautiful in this mellow sunshine. The church is mentioned in the Domesday book, and there was certainly one here long before that, too. The present one is a beautiful building, lots of Victorian restoration inside but still with a largely medieval feel. I have spoken at this church a couple of times - at the Women's World Day of Prayer and also at meetings of the friendly Women's Fellowship......back in the 19th century the church had a reputation for being very controversial and "high" and this lingered.....the nice rector, the Rev Leigh Edwards, who was there a few years ago sent his daughter to my old school, St Philomena's, the main local Catholic girls' school. Mother and I went for a walk through the churchyard, and there was Rev Leigh Edwards' grave....and also those of variouis other familiar names...such as Mary Bates, who was a Borough councillor with me back in the 1970s.....We had a pleasant lunch at the wine bar next door. It used to be a butcher's shop, called Woodmans, and now it is v. trendy and called "The Woodman" with a pub-sign. Still has the low ceilings and latticed windows that it has always had.
Walked around the Ponds and The Grove, where the river Wandle flows down towards Wandsworth and the Thames....."It was just further along the riverbank - along by Strawberry Lane - that your father asked me to marry him....we'd spent the evening with friends and were walking slowly back....." I'd heard the story before, but it was nice to be with Mother as she reminisced. "Odd, really....my parents moved here after they got bombed in London, and then of course they got friendly with these nice neighbours....and each talked about their children, away at the war....and then when we came back when the war ended, we met and got friendly....he took me to an Army dance......" They married at the little Catholic church down by the railway station: the pictures look like something out of a wartime film, with Daddy in uniform with his Sam Browne (a family heirloom: his uncle wore it in World War 1. Jamie has it now).
Cycled back to write feature articles for Catholic press about yesterday's Mass at the House of Commons: Americans readers will be able to read about it in the National Catholic Register in due course. Then Hilary, from the Catenians, came to collect various items for the Towards Advent Festival on Nov 4th : some word-games and a quiz for children, hymn-sheets with "God Bless our Pope", tickets for the workshops.....and pots of jam to be sold at the Refreshments table. He is very confident that the day will go well.....I plan to hand out more leaflets about it again this Sunday.....
I am now working on the 2007 Childen's RE project for the Association of Catholic Women. We thought that it might be a good idea for children to learn about angels - a topic often neglected in Religious Education. So we're going to set them some good essay topics and have them discover St Michael, and Guardian Angels, and all sorts of important things......
Note for Americans and any Brits under 40: a Sam Browne is an officer's crossbelt.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Wed Oct 25th
The Houses of Parliament in the rain...a glowing chapel, and people singing "Faith of Our Fathers" after a beautiful Mass.....this has been a wonderful evening.
Edward Leigh MP and his staff (a nice chap called Alex Haydon, who is a great friend of ours) organised a Mass to honour St Edmund Campion. It was arranged partly through the Catholic Union, and a large crowd of Catholic Union members came....the chapel at the Houses of Parliament is reached by stairs leading down from the Great Hall, where Campion was tried.....Fr Julian Large of Brompton Oratory said the Mass and preached splendidly, calling us to challenge the culture of death, said that it is good we aren't persecuted any more but alas the reason is that people in Britain are indifferent to religious truth....he spoke about how we must oppose hideous attacks on human life such as abortion, embryo experimentation, euthanasia, quoted the noble Bishop von Galen who spoke up against euthanasia in Nazi Germany in WW11.....all this at a most lovely Mass with a beautiful atmosphere, a beautiful "Ave Verum" at Communion, several MPs and members of the House of Lords present, and a general sense of being drawing together to uphold a common Catholic Faith......rather notable because we have felt under pressure what with the Govt's plans for messing up Catholic schools and so on. The Mass was in the Tridentine Rite, which, as he noted, would have been a new rite in Campion's day, fresh from Trent,....other saints such as Bleessed John Houghton, the Carthusian martyr from the London Charterhouse, and SS John Fisher and Thomas More, would have known other rites.....the Carthusians had their own special rite and of course More and Fisher would have known the Sarum rite....
People enjoy singing the Latin responses, and I think that, if, as we are all hearing will happen, the Tridentine rite becomes something more widely allowed and used, then it will adapt a bit and people will simply join in more, as they do automatically with Latin in the current new Roman Rite.....I noticed today that we all wanted to sing the "Pater Noster" and there was a sort of muddled hush as we realised that, according to the ritual, we shouldn't.....I think a sung Tridentine rite will gradually begin to take over from the silent one that people used to know....which is surely what Vatican 11 really intended.
Afterwards J. and I walked together across Westminster bridge, feeling rather encouraged by being among so many good Catholics and in a spirit ot unity and faith: J. had also had a most useful meeting with Tory MP Ian Duncan Smith and discussed a number of important issues.....we were hungry so had some supper at one of the restaurants on the southern side of the river, near the old County Hall. It was nice to be sitting quietly together and talking after such a remarkable evening. Tomorrow I will be writing up an account of the Mass for the Catholic Herald newspaper....
The Houses of Parliament in the rain...a glowing chapel, and people singing "Faith of Our Fathers" after a beautiful Mass.....this has been a wonderful evening.
Edward Leigh MP and his staff (a nice chap called Alex Haydon, who is a great friend of ours) organised a Mass to honour St Edmund Campion. It was arranged partly through the Catholic Union, and a large crowd of Catholic Union members came....the chapel at the Houses of Parliament is reached by stairs leading down from the Great Hall, where Campion was tried.....Fr Julian Large of Brompton Oratory said the Mass and preached splendidly, calling us to challenge the culture of death, said that it is good we aren't persecuted any more but alas the reason is that people in Britain are indifferent to religious truth....he spoke about how we must oppose hideous attacks on human life such as abortion, embryo experimentation, euthanasia, quoted the noble Bishop von Galen who spoke up against euthanasia in Nazi Germany in WW11.....all this at a most lovely Mass with a beautiful atmosphere, a beautiful "Ave Verum" at Communion, several MPs and members of the House of Lords present, and a general sense of being drawing together to uphold a common Catholic Faith......rather notable because we have felt under pressure what with the Govt's plans for messing up Catholic schools and so on. The Mass was in the Tridentine Rite, which, as he noted, would have been a new rite in Campion's day, fresh from Trent,....other saints such as Bleessed John Houghton, the Carthusian martyr from the London Charterhouse, and SS John Fisher and Thomas More, would have known other rites.....the Carthusians had their own special rite and of course More and Fisher would have known the Sarum rite....
People enjoy singing the Latin responses, and I think that, if, as we are all hearing will happen, the Tridentine rite becomes something more widely allowed and used, then it will adapt a bit and people will simply join in more, as they do automatically with Latin in the current new Roman Rite.....I noticed today that we all wanted to sing the "Pater Noster" and there was a sort of muddled hush as we realised that, according to the ritual, we shouldn't.....I think a sung Tridentine rite will gradually begin to take over from the silent one that people used to know....which is surely what Vatican 11 really intended.
Afterwards J. and I walked together across Westminster bridge, feeling rather encouraged by being among so many good Catholics and in a spirit ot unity and faith: J. had also had a most useful meeting with Tory MP Ian Duncan Smith and discussed a number of important issues.....we were hungry so had some supper at one of the restaurants on the southern side of the river, near the old County Hall. It was nice to be sitting quietly together and talking after such a remarkable evening. Tomorrow I will be writing up an account of the Mass for the Catholic Herald newspaper....
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Tuesday Oct 24th
Today is my dear Jamie's birthday and we've just had a pleasant supper and he has cards from friends and family ranged along the mantle-piece.
I spent yesterday - after a cheerful lateish breakfast with nephew and niece and hugs and farewells and "See you next at Christmas!" - in Hull. I do like train journeys when one has an agreeable book and when one starts with very good coffee at the station. And this time I had also brought some useful work: spent part of the time transcribing addresses and tel. numbers from our family address book to my new small pocket notebook which is a task I had been meaning to do for ages. Changed trains at Doncaster and a slow local train chugged to Hull (Americans......er....Hull is in Yorkshire!)
Father William Massie met me at the station - he organises the Hull Faith Forum, which runs regular talks on all sorts of aspects of the Catholic Faith. It was packed! I spoke on "Celebrating feasts and seasons" and it was all great fun and a most enjoyable evening. (If you want to buy my Book of Feasts and Seasons, hurry at once to Gracewing Books and order it!). Afterwards a cheerful time of talk and laughter in a pleasant pub with some of the young people - including the young chairman of my talk and his wife, who are expecting their first baby, and we had a good deal of fun thinking of English names that might be suitable for the child....general feeling that Ethelbert or Wynfrith might be a bit much, but some felt Aelred was a possibility, or what about Caedmon?
Overnight at Hull, and Mass celebrated by Fr William in Corpus Christi church, preceded by the Office and followed by the Rosary....quite good numbers attending, with a number of young people and children as it is half-term.....the train journey home took me past the Humber estuary, with a glorious view, the sunshine turning the water into beaten silver.....England is still green and lush, the fields look summery rather than Autumnal, but here at home tonight it there is a slight chill for the first time, and Jamie has pulled on a warm jersey to enjoy a DVD. while I write this.
Today is my dear Jamie's birthday and we've just had a pleasant supper and he has cards from friends and family ranged along the mantle-piece.
I spent yesterday - after a cheerful lateish breakfast with nephew and niece and hugs and farewells and "See you next at Christmas!" - in Hull. I do like train journeys when one has an agreeable book and when one starts with very good coffee at the station. And this time I had also brought some useful work: spent part of the time transcribing addresses and tel. numbers from our family address book to my new small pocket notebook which is a task I had been meaning to do for ages. Changed trains at Doncaster and a slow local train chugged to Hull (Americans......er....Hull is in Yorkshire!)
Father William Massie met me at the station - he organises the Hull Faith Forum, which runs regular talks on all sorts of aspects of the Catholic Faith. It was packed! I spoke on "Celebrating feasts and seasons" and it was all great fun and a most enjoyable evening. (If you want to buy my Book of Feasts and Seasons, hurry at once to Gracewing Books and order it!). Afterwards a cheerful time of talk and laughter in a pleasant pub with some of the young people - including the young chairman of my talk and his wife, who are expecting their first baby, and we had a good deal of fun thinking of English names that might be suitable for the child....general feeling that Ethelbert or Wynfrith might be a bit much, but some felt Aelred was a possibility, or what about Caedmon?
Overnight at Hull, and Mass celebrated by Fr William in Corpus Christi church, preceded by the Office and followed by the Rosary....quite good numbers attending, with a number of young people and children as it is half-term.....the train journey home took me past the Humber estuary, with a glorious view, the sunshine turning the water into beaten silver.....England is still green and lush, the fields look summery rather than Autumnal, but here at home tonight it there is a slight chill for the first time, and Jamie has pulled on a warm jersey to enjoy a DVD. while I write this.
Monday Oct 23rd
Spent a very happy Sunday at Holy Ghost Church, Balham. The 11.30 Mass there is celebrated with beautiful music, led by a good choir with plenty of congregational enthusiasm. People enjoy singing Latin. There are two earlier Masses, as well as the Saturday and Sunday evening ones. The most popular seems to be the 10 am (English, lots of good hymns) which is attended by vast crowds of mostly young families with quantities of children, some of whom are extremely noisy. It's all splendid that they are at Mass, of course, but why don't some families check their children from running about, or simply get them to focus on what is happening at the altar? This is actually very easy to do when, as in this case, Mass is being said with great reverence, and there are lots of glittering candles, and a bell being rung, and the sanctuary is beautiful, and there is a general sense of something supremely important happening......I can distinctly remember being rather bored at Mass when I was small (no music in those days, and no microphone, everything rather remote and inaudible - and as we lived some way from the church, Mass was in a tea-hut in the park, so not much by way of devotional items to inspire prayer!) - but one was urged to look at a picture-prayer book, or to pray quietly, or just to "be quiet and think about God".....
However, it was a happy morning - everyone v. friendly. A delightful lunch with the parish priest, curate, parish sister, and guests. Then, having used up all my leaflets, I cycled home and got things ready for my guests......nephew and niece arriving to stay as part of half-term family travels. It was, as always, a huge pleasure to have them: when nephews E. and G. were small they used to come here for half term and we had terrific outings to Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral and adventures chugging down the Thames in pleasure-boats and eating picnics in parks...., and then in due course their younger sisters L. and M. took their place and there were further delights with visits to Kensington Palace and climbing trees on Wimbledon Common and having a wonderful hospital for the dolls and Uncle Jamie being a noble wounded soldier and having to be bandaged up in a most satisfying way. And now, here is G. training as a lawyer and M. in her last year at school and on her way to visit L. at university....and E. is married with a most delightful baby of his own!
We sat and talked until terribly late, covering a vast range of topics, laughing a great deal, and not wanting to go to bed because there always seemed to be just one more thought or something hilarious to recount....
Spent a very happy Sunday at Holy Ghost Church, Balham. The 11.30 Mass there is celebrated with beautiful music, led by a good choir with plenty of congregational enthusiasm. People enjoy singing Latin. There are two earlier Masses, as well as the Saturday and Sunday evening ones. The most popular seems to be the 10 am (English, lots of good hymns) which is attended by vast crowds of mostly young families with quantities of children, some of whom are extremely noisy. It's all splendid that they are at Mass, of course, but why don't some families check their children from running about, or simply get them to focus on what is happening at the altar? This is actually very easy to do when, as in this case, Mass is being said with great reverence, and there are lots of glittering candles, and a bell being rung, and the sanctuary is beautiful, and there is a general sense of something supremely important happening......I can distinctly remember being rather bored at Mass when I was small (no music in those days, and no microphone, everything rather remote and inaudible - and as we lived some way from the church, Mass was in a tea-hut in the park, so not much by way of devotional items to inspire prayer!) - but one was urged to look at a picture-prayer book, or to pray quietly, or just to "be quiet and think about God".....
However, it was a happy morning - everyone v. friendly. A delightful lunch with the parish priest, curate, parish sister, and guests. Then, having used up all my leaflets, I cycled home and got things ready for my guests......nephew and niece arriving to stay as part of half-term family travels. It was, as always, a huge pleasure to have them: when nephews E. and G. were small they used to come here for half term and we had terrific outings to Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral and adventures chugging down the Thames in pleasure-boats and eating picnics in parks...., and then in due course their younger sisters L. and M. took their place and there were further delights with visits to Kensington Palace and climbing trees on Wimbledon Common and having a wonderful hospital for the dolls and Uncle Jamie being a noble wounded soldier and having to be bandaged up in a most satisfying way. And now, here is G. training as a lawyer and M. in her last year at school and on her way to visit L. at university....and E. is married with a most delightful baby of his own!
We sat and talked until terribly late, covering a vast range of topics, laughing a great deal, and not wanting to go to bed because there always seemed to be just one more thought or something hilarious to recount....
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Saturday Oct 21st
Cycled home from Mother's where I had stayed the night: we had a lovely evening, watching a DVD of some of James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" and I addressed a mountain of envelopes for the Assn of Catholic Wiomen's next education project for Catholic primary schools....the evening was punctuated by the sounds of fireworks, and in my naivety I assumed this was an early arrival of November 5th but it wasn't - it was the end of Ramadan.
On to Balham where I was to speak at a Marriage Preparation Day organised by the Holy Ghost church. A roomful of engaged couples is a happy audience! The idea is to communicate the Church's wonderful message about God's original plan for us in marriage, and how we are part of it....including the Church's teaching on sexual union, what it is for, why sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, how we can move forward if we are aware that we need to change our lives and our behaviour......the afternoon is carefully structured, with an excellent presentation from Nicole Parker, who runs the Fertility Care Centre in London, and explains about how we are made, and fertility as a gift from God......Afterwards, I stayed on for the evening Mass, at which I gave out leaflets promoting the Nov 4th Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster. There was much activity at the church, because Archbishop Vincent Nichols has asked all Catholic schools and parishes to lobby Parliament over the Govt's plans to wreck our Catholic schools by imposing a quota system for all new "faith" schools. The Holy Ghost parish has an popular school, which is right next to the church - Father Stephen Langridge explained the Govt's plans and the Chairman of the Governors was there afterwards to give further information and take contact-addresses for campaigning etc.
Cycled back to Wimbledon where I met Jamie and we had supper with a friend, who is a very sound Evangelical (St Helen's, Bishopsgate) and we talked about all sorts of things. He spoke warmly in admiration of Pope Benedict. There can be much useful common ground between Catholics and Evangelicals and we should keep this in our prayers.
Home at a late hour. I am trying to pray for the Holy Father every day in these weeks before his visit to Turkey, as I think we must all pray for his safety.
Cycled home from Mother's where I had stayed the night: we had a lovely evening, watching a DVD of some of James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" and I addressed a mountain of envelopes for the Assn of Catholic Wiomen's next education project for Catholic primary schools....the evening was punctuated by the sounds of fireworks, and in my naivety I assumed this was an early arrival of November 5th but it wasn't - it was the end of Ramadan.
On to Balham where I was to speak at a Marriage Preparation Day organised by the Holy Ghost church. A roomful of engaged couples is a happy audience! The idea is to communicate the Church's wonderful message about God's original plan for us in marriage, and how we are part of it....including the Church's teaching on sexual union, what it is for, why sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, how we can move forward if we are aware that we need to change our lives and our behaviour......the afternoon is carefully structured, with an excellent presentation from Nicole Parker, who runs the Fertility Care Centre in London, and explains about how we are made, and fertility as a gift from God......Afterwards, I stayed on for the evening Mass, at which I gave out leaflets promoting the Nov 4th Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster. There was much activity at the church, because Archbishop Vincent Nichols has asked all Catholic schools and parishes to lobby Parliament over the Govt's plans to wreck our Catholic schools by imposing a quota system for all new "faith" schools. The Holy Ghost parish has an popular school, which is right next to the church - Father Stephen Langridge explained the Govt's plans and the Chairman of the Governors was there afterwards to give further information and take contact-addresses for campaigning etc.
Cycled back to Wimbledon where I met Jamie and we had supper with a friend, who is a very sound Evangelical (St Helen's, Bishopsgate) and we talked about all sorts of things. He spoke warmly in admiration of Pope Benedict. There can be much useful common ground between Catholics and Evangelicals and we should keep this in our prayers.
Home at a late hour. I am trying to pray for the Holy Father every day in these weeks before his visit to Turkey, as I think we must all pray for his safety.
Saturday Oct 21st
Cycled home from Mother's where I had stayed the night: we had a lovely evening, watching a DVD of some of James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" and I addressed a mountain of envelopes for the Assn of Catholic Wiomen's next education project for Catholic primary schools....the evening was punctuated by the sounds of fireworks, and in my naivety I assumed this was an early arrival of November 5th but it wasn't - it was the end of Ramadan.
On to Balham where I was to speak at a Marriage Preparation Day organised by the Holy Ghost church. A roomful of engaged couples is a happy audience! The idea is to communicate the Church's wonderful message about God's original plan for us in marriage, and how we are part of it....including the Church's teaching on sexual union, what it is for, why sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, how we can move forward if we are aware that we need to change our lives and our behaviour......the afternoon is carefully structured, with an excellent presentation from Nicole Parker, who runs the Fertility Care Centre in London, and explains about how we are made, and fertility as a gift from God......Afterwards, I stayed on for the evening Mass, at which I gave out leaflets promoting the Nov 4th Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster. There was much activity at the church, because Archbishop Vincent Nichols has asked all Catholic schools and parishes to lobby Parliament over the Govt's plans to wreck our Catholic schools by imposing a quota system for all new "faith" schools. The Holy Ghost parish has an popular school, which is right next to the church - Father Stephen Langridge explained the Govt's plans and the Chairman of the Governors was there afterwards to give further information and take contact-addresses for campaigning etc.
Cycled back to Wimbledon where I met Jamie and we had supper with a friend, who is a very sound Evangelical (St Helen's, Bishopsgate) and we talked about all sorts of things. He spoke warmly in admiration of Pope Benedict. There can be much useful common ground between Catholics and Evangelicals and we should keep this in our prayers.
Home at a late hour. I am trying to pray for the Holy Father every day in these weeks before his visit to Turkey, as I think we must all pray for his safety.
Cycled home from Mother's where I had stayed the night: we had a lovely evening, watching a DVD of some of James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" and I addressed a mountain of envelopes for the Assn of Catholic Wiomen's next education project for Catholic primary schools....the evening was punctuated by the sounds of fireworks, and in my naivety I assumed this was an early arrival of November 5th but it wasn't - it was the end of Ramadan.
On to Balham where I was to speak at a Marriage Preparation Day organised by the Holy Ghost church. A roomful of engaged couples is a happy audience! The idea is to communicate the Church's wonderful message about God's original plan for us in marriage, and how we are part of it....including the Church's teaching on sexual union, what it is for, why sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, how we can move forward if we are aware that we need to change our lives and our behaviour......the afternoon is carefully structured, with an excellent presentation from Nicole Parker, who runs the Fertility Care Centre in London, and explains about how we are made, and fertility as a gift from God......Afterwards, I stayed on for the evening Mass, at which I gave out leaflets promoting the Nov 4th Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster. There was much activity at the church, because Archbishop Vincent Nichols has asked all Catholic schools and parishes to lobby Parliament over the Govt's plans to wreck our Catholic schools by imposing a quota system for all new "faith" schools. The Holy Ghost parish has an popular school, which is right next to the church - Father Stephen Langridge explained the Govt's plans and the Chairman of the Governors was there afterwards to give further information and take contact-addresses for campaigning etc.
Cycled back to Wimbledon where I met Jamie and we had supper with a friend, who is a very sound Evangelical (St Helen's, Bishopsgate) and we talked about all sorts of things. He spoke warmly in admiration of Pope Benedict. There can be much useful common ground between Catholics and Evangelicals and we should keep this in our prayers.
Home at a late hour. I am trying to pray for the Holy Father every day in these weeks before his visit to Turkey, as I think we must all pray for his safety.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Friday Oct 20th
When I am not Joanna Bogle, I'm "Julia Blythe" and my first children's book "We didn't mean to start a school" was published under that name. It's still selling...ideal Christmas gift for girls aged 9-14, a story about a girls' school in the English countryside. Regular readers of this blog will find bits of it familiar.....I wrote the book as I was so appalled by some of the sordid rubbish that passes for teenage fiction these days. This is a real alternative: it got good reviews and has proved popular. Not easy to buy it in the USA: easiest way is direct from me. Send a cheque for fifteen dollars and I'll post you one: cheque made out to Mrs J. Bogle c/o 34 Barnard Gardens New Malden Surrey KT3 6QG England. MAKE SURE THAT YOU SEND ME A NOTE OF YOUR FULL POSTAL ADDRESS! I would prefer that you write the address in block capitalks: decip[hering place-names can be difficult.....
I am v. grateful to all the kind people who comment to this blog: please note that unless you send me a note of your email address, I cannot reply to you! All comments to the blog pass through a "Comments Moderation" system which means that I read them first, and only publish them if they are suitable. If you want to ask for some specific information, please include your full email address - which I won't publish - and I'll write back to you.
To the lady who enquired about my "Does the Church oppress women?" booklet - yes, I can post you one, so please send a cheque for seven dollars to the address given above.....
Spent this morning doing housework....nephew and niece coming to stay at the weekend as its half-term.
When I am not Joanna Bogle, I'm "Julia Blythe" and my first children's book "We didn't mean to start a school" was published under that name. It's still selling...ideal Christmas gift for girls aged 9-14, a story about a girls' school in the English countryside. Regular readers of this blog will find bits of it familiar.....I wrote the book as I was so appalled by some of the sordid rubbish that passes for teenage fiction these days. This is a real alternative: it got good reviews and has proved popular. Not easy to buy it in the USA: easiest way is direct from me. Send a cheque for fifteen dollars and I'll post you one: cheque made out to Mrs J. Bogle c/o 34 Barnard Gardens New Malden Surrey KT3 6QG England. MAKE SURE THAT YOU SEND ME A NOTE OF YOUR FULL POSTAL ADDRESS! I would prefer that you write the address in block capitalks: decip[hering place-names can be difficult.....
I am v. grateful to all the kind people who comment to this blog: please note that unless you send me a note of your email address, I cannot reply to you! All comments to the blog pass through a "Comments Moderation" system which means that I read them first, and only publish them if they are suitable. If you want to ask for some specific information, please include your full email address - which I won't publish - and I'll write back to you.
To the lady who enquired about my "Does the Church oppress women?" booklet - yes, I can post you one, so please send a cheque for seven dollars to the address given above.....
Spent this morning doing housework....nephew and niece coming to stay at the weekend as its half-term.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Thursday Oct 19th
Just back from a MOST useful and enjoyable time with a young fellow-Catholic blogger who, in an Internet Cafe, took me through some basic blogging techniques, and also arranged for me to have a site-meter on my blog which is v. exciting as it means I can see how many people read it!! We also talked and talked....gosh, some of the young active Catholics in London just now are really very good value and make one feel quite cheerful about the future of the Church in our poor country.....
Had spent the morning with Jamie talking away on the telephone to all sorts of people in his capacity as Chairman of the Catholic Union re the Govt's plans for Church schools.....all most worrying, and the Catholic Union website now carries details of what we can and must do to make our opposition known.....
Yesterday I was at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire for lunch with the new headmaster. At Euston, catching a dreadfully early train, I saw a Capuchin Franciscan habit - and it was Fr Mark Elvins, who had been in London for the launch of his new book on chivalry(published by Gracewing )....he was travelling to Preston, too, on my train, so we had a very delightful journey: he is a v. good companion and we talked about a great many things. Fr Mark founded the St Thomas Fund for the homeless which now runs several houses. In Preston, he's involved with University chaplaincy work: he spoke with huge enthusiasm of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who are making a real impact on the Church in Britain.
Stonyhurst is breathtaking when you first see it - after a taxi ride through glorious countryside there is the great sweep of the view, with its wide green lawns and Rugby pitches and the ornamental stretches of shining water with the great house standing majestically beyond. We lunched in the Stuart Room, with pics of Henry Duke of York (Bonnie Prince Charlie's brother) and Clementina Sobieska looking down on us. The College has a strong Jacobite tradition. Girl pupils at Stonyhurst wear skirts of Bonnie Prince Charlie's tartan - a square of the original is one of the treasures in the vast collection of items in the College's vast archives and museum. Curator Jan Graffius, who is a friend of long standing, showed me some of them - fabulous vestments embroidered in the 16th century by loyal Catholic women who held fast to their Faith in the face of great trials,, small pewter chalices used by hunted priests, hand-written letters from St Robert Southwell, a prayer-book made for Queen Mary Tudor and subsequently used by Mary, Queen of Scots....
For over 150 years, Stonyhurst was rarely consulted by museums or galleries - it was part of the marginalised Catholic world, hidden in its Lancashire bastion. Today, Jan takes some of the fascinating and beautiful items to exhibitions around Britain and in the USA....and discovers, when consulted by all sorts of people including museum staff, deep wells of ignorance about not just Catholicism but Christianity, for example when explaining the use of various vessels for Communion:"The problem is that they aren't familiar with Christianity at all, not even, say, the Anglican Communion service. So one has to explain things from the basics. "
The new headmaster is the third layman to be appointed since the Jesuits gave up running the College some years back. He seems confident and full of energy - he will need both these qualities to be running a large modern Catholic boarding-school which, if it is to do its job properly, should be training and inspiring young people to challenge many of the values and ideas pushed at them by the rest of society.....
Just back from a MOST useful and enjoyable time with a young fellow-Catholic blogger who, in an Internet Cafe, took me through some basic blogging techniques, and also arranged for me to have a site-meter on my blog which is v. exciting as it means I can see how many people read it!! We also talked and talked....gosh, some of the young active Catholics in London just now are really very good value and make one feel quite cheerful about the future of the Church in our poor country.....
Had spent the morning with Jamie talking away on the telephone to all sorts of people in his capacity as Chairman of the Catholic Union re the Govt's plans for Church schools.....all most worrying, and the Catholic Union website now carries details of what we can and must do to make our opposition known.....
Yesterday I was at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire for lunch with the new headmaster. At Euston, catching a dreadfully early train, I saw a Capuchin Franciscan habit - and it was Fr Mark Elvins, who had been in London for the launch of his new book on chivalry(published by Gracewing )....he was travelling to Preston, too, on my train, so we had a very delightful journey: he is a v. good companion and we talked about a great many things. Fr Mark founded the St Thomas Fund for the homeless which now runs several houses. In Preston, he's involved with University chaplaincy work: he spoke with huge enthusiasm of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who are making a real impact on the Church in Britain.
Stonyhurst is breathtaking when you first see it - after a taxi ride through glorious countryside there is the great sweep of the view, with its wide green lawns and Rugby pitches and the ornamental stretches of shining water with the great house standing majestically beyond. We lunched in the Stuart Room, with pics of Henry Duke of York (Bonnie Prince Charlie's brother) and Clementina Sobieska looking down on us. The College has a strong Jacobite tradition. Girl pupils at Stonyhurst wear skirts of Bonnie Prince Charlie's tartan - a square of the original is one of the treasures in the vast collection of items in the College's vast archives and museum. Curator Jan Graffius, who is a friend of long standing, showed me some of them - fabulous vestments embroidered in the 16th century by loyal Catholic women who held fast to their Faith in the face of great trials,, small pewter chalices used by hunted priests, hand-written letters from St Robert Southwell, a prayer-book made for Queen Mary Tudor and subsequently used by Mary, Queen of Scots....
For over 150 years, Stonyhurst was rarely consulted by museums or galleries - it was part of the marginalised Catholic world, hidden in its Lancashire bastion. Today, Jan takes some of the fascinating and beautiful items to exhibitions around Britain and in the USA....and discovers, when consulted by all sorts of people including museum staff, deep wells of ignorance about not just Catholicism but Christianity, for example when explaining the use of various vessels for Communion:"The problem is that they aren't familiar with Christianity at all, not even, say, the Anglican Communion service. So one has to explain things from the basics. "
The new headmaster is the third layman to be appointed since the Jesuits gave up running the College some years back. He seems confident and full of energy - he will need both these qualities to be running a large modern Catholic boarding-school which, if it is to do its job properly, should be training and inspiring young people to challenge many of the values and ideas pushed at them by the rest of society.....
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Wed Oct 18th
Yesterday a meeting of the Board of Aid to the Church in Need UK (look up their website!) - there is always a lot to discuss as this Charity is really thriving and doing so much good work. Sales of Christmas cards have been a bit slow due to the warm weather!! (WHY NOT ORDER YOURS FROM ACN NOW?) ACN helps Catholics wherever they are persecuted - including assistance to people in countries we can't even name in our publicity material etc because it would endanger people too much. In the past, much help went to Eastern Europe......we raised funds, for example, for the big church at Nowa Huta in the archdiocese of Krakow, where the foundation stone was laid, in defiance of Communist efforts to prevent the building, by the then Archbishop Karol Woytila.....today, Poland has its own branch office of ACN which collects funds to help Catholics suffering under Islam.....
We had a lively and talkative lunch after the meeting, and it was a delight to have with us Maria from the HQ in Konigstein who is in charge of the Children's Bible project, which has sent thousands and thousands of Bibles in over 60 different languages to children in Africa and Asia and Latin America..... here's idea for Christmas. Why not buy some nice book for your godchild/nephew/niece/grandchild and send an equivalent donation to ACN (it has an American office too! Look it up on Google!) to fund a Bible for child in Congo or elsewhere who has never possessed a book in his life and will treasure this little paperback? Tell your godchild that you have done this - eg by means of a nice note written in the front of your Christmas gift......We discussed this at our meeting and will probably in due course create a nice sticker/certificate for this sort of donation, but meanwhile why wait? Children in bitter poverty in some dusty African township could have the life-changing joy of books they can own and take home, sent to the local parish by ACN.....if you read some of the letters we get back from priests in such situations, you'd rush for your cheque book and want to do more.....
On to Victoria to catch the bus to OXFORD. I arrived in St Aldgates as the pells of the Cathedral were pealing out for Evensong. I walked into the gardens that lead to Christ Church meadow.....this first stretch of garden is dedicated as a war memorial, and somehow among the falling leaves one sensed the blood-red splash of poppies....all those irreplaceable young men......and the state of our poor country now.....
I was there to address the Newman Society at The Old Palace, the University Catholic chaplaincy. Warm welcome from the excellent Fr Jeremy Fairhead....a delicious dinner in the lovely panelled dining-room, and among the guests was a frind of Jamie's from Sandhurst, whom I last met 20 years ago when they were both cadets at the Royal Military Academy.
In the large and beautiful - and crowded! - drawing room in the Old Palace, I gave my talk on "Does the Church oppress women?" (from the CTS booklet on the same theme). I always want to emphasise the great and thrilling range of women saints, esp during the Middle Ages across Europe....and the martyrs of the early Church whose names we hear in the Roman Canon, Agatha Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, and our great English women saints.....women who founded hospitals and schools and leprosaria and religious orders, women who changed the histories of nations (Elizabeth of Hungary, Hedwig of Bavaria), women who died for the Faith, women whose husband's names and parish priests' names and fathers' names are forgotten, but whose own names live on in all the glorious work they did for God and for us......all this in a Church which is now accused of denigrating or "maginalising" women..... also important to note what we lost at the Reformation in England (all those abbesses who ran great estates, cared for the poor and sick in their territory and beyond, ran great centres of learning and art and agricultural and medical knowledge) and the injustice done to women when Mary's image was ripped out of our churches and women saints removed from our prayer-books and their wonderful life-stories from the history and traditions taught to the next generations.....
It's crucial, too, to emphasise that God didn'ty make two sexes by mistake. He doesn't make mistakes. And our bodies are sacred to him, and are part of his plan, which is why He took human flesh and lived among us.....so being male or female is obviously all part of his great scheme of things, and we ought to seek his wisdom and ask of Him what he wants for our lives.....
The priesthood? In Christ's day, all the religions in the Roman Empire and around it had priestesses....it was standard in the pagan religions of his day and Christianity was unique in NOT having them, something which God had planned from the beginning, as a male priesthood was always central to the Nuptial message he was giving the world....Bridegroom, and Bride....Christ and his Church....and this union is indeed fruitful, for all of us who are baptised are the children of Mother Church......this is crucial in our understanding of male and female, and of the dignity of each....
Some day, I really want to study and explore all this a lot more. It seems to me that what generally happens in Church history is that a heresy (in this case, women priests) comes along, the Church refutes it and gives the true teaching....and then over the next couple of hundred years or so, there is a great flowering of new and richer teaching so we grasp more profoundly the truth of what the Church had always taught....it's almost as if this is the way God wants us to understand the fullness of doctrine, like a father postively encouraging massive family discussion round the dinner table to get good teaching to his offspring.....
It was so encouraging seeing all the delightful young people, the packed room, the sense of a lively Catholic chaplaincy with so much going on....Fr Jeremy took me into the weekday chapel dedicated to St Thomas More, where a goodish number go to daily Mass....
Caught the bus back to London - it was late by this time and it is rather nice whizzing down the motorway in the dark. I am re-reading Newman's essays on "The current position of Catholics in England" (new edition, Gracewing Books, 2000, edited by Andrew Nash) as it felt right to be reading some Newman when visiting Oxon.....
In London, caught the last Tube to Wimbledon, where I collected my bike and cycled home. I was tired by then, so kept going by singing. It was 1.30 am by the time I got into bed, and I had to be up very early as I was due to catch the train to Lancashire.......
Yesterday a meeting of the Board of Aid to the Church in Need UK (look up their website!) - there is always a lot to discuss as this Charity is really thriving and doing so much good work. Sales of Christmas cards have been a bit slow due to the warm weather!! (WHY NOT ORDER YOURS FROM ACN NOW?) ACN helps Catholics wherever they are persecuted - including assistance to people in countries we can't even name in our publicity material etc because it would endanger people too much. In the past, much help went to Eastern Europe......we raised funds, for example, for the big church at Nowa Huta in the archdiocese of Krakow, where the foundation stone was laid, in defiance of Communist efforts to prevent the building, by the then Archbishop Karol Woytila.....today, Poland has its own branch office of ACN which collects funds to help Catholics suffering under Islam.....
We had a lively and talkative lunch after the meeting, and it was a delight to have with us Maria from the HQ in Konigstein who is in charge of the Children's Bible project, which has sent thousands and thousands of Bibles in over 60 different languages to children in Africa and Asia and Latin America..... here's idea for Christmas. Why not buy some nice book for your godchild/nephew/niece/grandchild and send an equivalent donation to ACN (it has an American office too! Look it up on Google!) to fund a Bible for child in Congo or elsewhere who has never possessed a book in his life and will treasure this little paperback? Tell your godchild that you have done this - eg by means of a nice note written in the front of your Christmas gift......We discussed this at our meeting and will probably in due course create a nice sticker/certificate for this sort of donation, but meanwhile why wait? Children in bitter poverty in some dusty African township could have the life-changing joy of books they can own and take home, sent to the local parish by ACN.....if you read some of the letters we get back from priests in such situations, you'd rush for your cheque book and want to do more.....
On to Victoria to catch the bus to OXFORD. I arrived in St Aldgates as the pells of the Cathedral were pealing out for Evensong. I walked into the gardens that lead to Christ Church meadow.....this first stretch of garden is dedicated as a war memorial, and somehow among the falling leaves one sensed the blood-red splash of poppies....all those irreplaceable young men......and the state of our poor country now.....
I was there to address the Newman Society at The Old Palace, the University Catholic chaplaincy. Warm welcome from the excellent Fr Jeremy Fairhead....a delicious dinner in the lovely panelled dining-room, and among the guests was a frind of Jamie's from Sandhurst, whom I last met 20 years ago when they were both cadets at the Royal Military Academy.
In the large and beautiful - and crowded! - drawing room in the Old Palace, I gave my talk on "Does the Church oppress women?" (from the CTS booklet on the same theme). I always want to emphasise the great and thrilling range of women saints, esp during the Middle Ages across Europe....and the martyrs of the early Church whose names we hear in the Roman Canon, Agatha Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, and our great English women saints.....women who founded hospitals and schools and leprosaria and religious orders, women who changed the histories of nations (Elizabeth of Hungary, Hedwig of Bavaria), women who died for the Faith, women whose husband's names and parish priests' names and fathers' names are forgotten, but whose own names live on in all the glorious work they did for God and for us......all this in a Church which is now accused of denigrating or "maginalising" women..... also important to note what we lost at the Reformation in England (all those abbesses who ran great estates, cared for the poor and sick in their territory and beyond, ran great centres of learning and art and agricultural and medical knowledge) and the injustice done to women when Mary's image was ripped out of our churches and women saints removed from our prayer-books and their wonderful life-stories from the history and traditions taught to the next generations.....
It's crucial, too, to emphasise that God didn'ty make two sexes by mistake. He doesn't make mistakes. And our bodies are sacred to him, and are part of his plan, which is why He took human flesh and lived among us.....so being male or female is obviously all part of his great scheme of things, and we ought to seek his wisdom and ask of Him what he wants for our lives.....
The priesthood? In Christ's day, all the religions in the Roman Empire and around it had priestesses....it was standard in the pagan religions of his day and Christianity was unique in NOT having them, something which God had planned from the beginning, as a male priesthood was always central to the Nuptial message he was giving the world....Bridegroom, and Bride....Christ and his Church....and this union is indeed fruitful, for all of us who are baptised are the children of Mother Church......this is crucial in our understanding of male and female, and of the dignity of each....
Some day, I really want to study and explore all this a lot more. It seems to me that what generally happens in Church history is that a heresy (in this case, women priests) comes along, the Church refutes it and gives the true teaching....and then over the next couple of hundred years or so, there is a great flowering of new and richer teaching so we grasp more profoundly the truth of what the Church had always taught....it's almost as if this is the way God wants us to understand the fullness of doctrine, like a father postively encouraging massive family discussion round the dinner table to get good teaching to his offspring.....
It was so encouraging seeing all the delightful young people, the packed room, the sense of a lively Catholic chaplaincy with so much going on....Fr Jeremy took me into the weekday chapel dedicated to St Thomas More, where a goodish number go to daily Mass....
Caught the bus back to London - it was late by this time and it is rather nice whizzing down the motorway in the dark. I am re-reading Newman's essays on "The current position of Catholics in England" (new edition, Gracewing Books, 2000, edited by Andrew Nash) as it felt right to be reading some Newman when visiting Oxon.....
In London, caught the last Tube to Wimbledon, where I collected my bike and cycled home. I was tired by then, so kept going by singing. It was 1.30 am by the time I got into bed, and I had to be up very early as I was due to catch the train to Lancashire.......
Monday, October 16, 2006
Monday Oct 16th
This Government gets worse and worse. It's unclear whether or not they will impose punishments on people who infringe new regulations on discrimination against sexual oreintation": Jamie spends much of this morning answering queries from the Catholic press on the subject. Can we can any hope that a Christian hostel or conference centre will not be punished if it refuses a shared bed to two lesbians who specifically demand one? What will happen in Catholic schools if there is a legal requirement to teach the full acceptability of homosexual activity?
There seems to be some hope that full legislation on this may be postponed, but the signs are not good. Meanwhile, our Bishops, who thought they had reached some understanding with the Govt on the question of Catholi schools, seem to have been double-crossed. It does seem that any new "faith school" (ie a Catholic or C of E school) will have to allocate a quarter of places to non-church applicants, if neccessary turning away practising Church members. And the matter of giving full legal force to all over-16 year olds to boycott any religious worship in school looks set to be part of the new law....
Email from an American correspondent who - like many across the pond - seems to think that Blair is a man of integrity who "may become a Catholic". For goodness' sake, let's get this right. Of course Blair will officially join the Catholic Church once he ceases to be Prime Minister - he knows perfectly well that it is the only Church with any power. There's no status or useful platform in Anglicanism. As a pro-abortion Catholic (he has a 100 per cent pro-abortion voting record) and a campaigner for the whole "homosexual-rights" agenda (he was chief guest at their debauched show at the Royal Albert Hall to raise cash for a militant gay-rights initiative), he will have massive scope for his new career, while Cherie will amost certainly have a role as some sort of roving ambassador for a revamped "Catholics for a Free Choice" type of organisation. Her big fund-raiser at 10 Downing Street in aid of Planned Parenthood a while back was a success: it ensured a great start tyo the scheme to distribute coloured and fruit-flavoured condoms (I'm not inventing this) to teenagers under the slogan "Lust for Life."
Blair has played a major political role in ensuring the collapse of morals in our country. He has led us into an appalling war which will result in the destruction of one of the few countries in the Middle East where there were reasonably strong Christian communities, which may well now disappear. Our Armed Forces are under extreme pressure, our crime rate soars, and Government policies openly promote schemes to smash traditional marriage and family life. Yet deluded Americans still talk about "Tony Blair, man of integrity".....please, please look at what is actually happening, and don't have an image of Britain that is based on 1950s films!
This Government gets worse and worse. It's unclear whether or not they will impose punishments on people who infringe new regulations on discrimination against sexual oreintation": Jamie spends much of this morning answering queries from the Catholic press on the subject. Can we can any hope that a Christian hostel or conference centre will not be punished if it refuses a shared bed to two lesbians who specifically demand one? What will happen in Catholic schools if there is a legal requirement to teach the full acceptability of homosexual activity?
There seems to be some hope that full legislation on this may be postponed, but the signs are not good. Meanwhile, our Bishops, who thought they had reached some understanding with the Govt on the question of Catholi schools, seem to have been double-crossed. It does seem that any new "faith school" (ie a Catholic or C of E school) will have to allocate a quarter of places to non-church applicants, if neccessary turning away practising Church members. And the matter of giving full legal force to all over-16 year olds to boycott any religious worship in school looks set to be part of the new law....
Email from an American correspondent who - like many across the pond - seems to think that Blair is a man of integrity who "may become a Catholic". For goodness' sake, let's get this right. Of course Blair will officially join the Catholic Church once he ceases to be Prime Minister - he knows perfectly well that it is the only Church with any power. There's no status or useful platform in Anglicanism. As a pro-abortion Catholic (he has a 100 per cent pro-abortion voting record) and a campaigner for the whole "homosexual-rights" agenda (he was chief guest at their debauched show at the Royal Albert Hall to raise cash for a militant gay-rights initiative), he will have massive scope for his new career, while Cherie will amost certainly have a role as some sort of roving ambassador for a revamped "Catholics for a Free Choice" type of organisation. Her big fund-raiser at 10 Downing Street in aid of Planned Parenthood a while back was a success: it ensured a great start tyo the scheme to distribute coloured and fruit-flavoured condoms (I'm not inventing this) to teenagers under the slogan "Lust for Life."
Blair has played a major political role in ensuring the collapse of morals in our country. He has led us into an appalling war which will result in the destruction of one of the few countries in the Middle East where there were reasonably strong Christian communities, which may well now disappear. Our Armed Forces are under extreme pressure, our crime rate soars, and Government policies openly promote schemes to smash traditional marriage and family life. Yet deluded Americans still talk about "Tony Blair, man of integrity".....please, please look at what is actually happening, and don't have an image of Britain that is based on 1950s films!
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sunday Oct 15th
The other day I was invited to lunch at St Anne Line church in Essex. If you don't know about her, it's time you found out. She was one of heroic band of women who, during penal times, helped priests to hide from the authorities and to celebrate Mass for hard-pressed Catholics. Fr Francis Coveney of St Anne Line parishhas sent me a lovely prayer-card which tells her story: it carries a pic of the large stone statue of her which he has in the church. She was a convert to the faith, and was disinherited by her deeply Calvinist father. She married a fellow-convert, Roger Line, but they had only a short time together before he was arrested for attending Mass and after a time of imprisnment exiled. Alone and ill, Anne nevertheless worked hard to do all she could for the Faith - she was finally arrested after Mass vessels were found at her house. Unbroken by imprisonment, she refused to renounce her Faith and was hanged in 1601. Next time some one tells you that the Catholic Church oppresses women ask why a woman like that would go to her death for it, and what the Faith meant to her.
I thought of Anne Line today as Mac McLernon - who gave a lift to my mother at yesterday's Rosary Rally - and I went on a delightful (and unintentionally hilarious) pilgrimage to find her shrine a couple of summers ago. Driving merrily along in the direction of what we hoped was Essex, two women happily chattering on a day out, we found we were going in precisely the opposite direction ("Er...Mac....isn't that Canary Wharf ahead of us? Um...I thought we were driving out of London?"). But we got there in the end, and Anne Line has become something of a favourite of mine ever since....
Spent this morning at Brompton Oratory handing out leaflets at all the Masses about....all right, all right, I won't mention its details again, but if you are in or near London on Nov 4th don't even think of missing the Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall......
Spent the rest of the day in domestic activity. Problem in kitchen.....massive damp area on floor near door, lino tiles gently rising and making as if to float away, doors of cupboard swollen and won't fit ....it turns out to be a leak from the pipe to the washing-machine... J. explored the problem, and we now have to keep the water turned off except when we are using the machine in which case a strategically-placed milk bottle, removed every half-hour to be emptied, tackles things We now have to call the local plumber - who rather endearingly is called Mr Plumb, and even has a son working with him, so it's just like Happy Families.
Have been sent a scary report Islam in Britain, produced by a group called The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, director Patrick Sookhdeo. It is a detailed survey of Moslems in Britain done in Feb 2005 and just published. Its quotations from The UK Islamic Mission, and its information on what it describes as "radical Islam" in Britain" are rather chilling to read. The most interesting section covers Government policies on Islam, and reveals how support and encouragement (and funding) have been given to precisely the groups that are the most extreme and which have the least interest in good community relations or any sense of shared values with others. There is a call for a new approach, which includes a recognition of the many disparate strands within Islam, the strong and well-funded tendency towards extremism, and the huge dangers this poses. It calls upon Moslems to accept the need for dialogue and for change , especially on issues such as the persecution of those who convert from Islam to other faiths (which at present carries the death penalty). I wonder if this report will get any publicity? So far I've seen none.
The other day I was invited to lunch at St Anne Line church in Essex. If you don't know about her, it's time you found out. She was one of heroic band of women who, during penal times, helped priests to hide from the authorities and to celebrate Mass for hard-pressed Catholics. Fr Francis Coveney of St Anne Line parishhas sent me a lovely prayer-card which tells her story: it carries a pic of the large stone statue of her which he has in the church. She was a convert to the faith, and was disinherited by her deeply Calvinist father. She married a fellow-convert, Roger Line, but they had only a short time together before he was arrested for attending Mass and after a time of imprisnment exiled. Alone and ill, Anne nevertheless worked hard to do all she could for the Faith - she was finally arrested after Mass vessels were found at her house. Unbroken by imprisonment, she refused to renounce her Faith and was hanged in 1601. Next time some one tells you that the Catholic Church oppresses women ask why a woman like that would go to her death for it, and what the Faith meant to her.
I thought of Anne Line today as Mac McLernon - who gave a lift to my mother at yesterday's Rosary Rally - and I went on a delightful (and unintentionally hilarious) pilgrimage to find her shrine a couple of summers ago. Driving merrily along in the direction of what we hoped was Essex, two women happily chattering on a day out, we found we were going in precisely the opposite direction ("Er...Mac....isn't that Canary Wharf ahead of us? Um...I thought we were driving out of London?"). But we got there in the end, and Anne Line has become something of a favourite of mine ever since....
Spent this morning at Brompton Oratory handing out leaflets at all the Masses about....all right, all right, I won't mention its details again, but if you are in or near London on Nov 4th don't even think of missing the Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall......
Spent the rest of the day in domestic activity. Problem in kitchen.....massive damp area on floor near door, lino tiles gently rising and making as if to float away, doors of cupboard swollen and won't fit ....it turns out to be a leak from the pipe to the washing-machine... J. explored the problem, and we now have to keep the water turned off except when we are using the machine in which case a strategically-placed milk bottle, removed every half-hour to be emptied, tackles things We now have to call the local plumber - who rather endearingly is called Mr Plumb, and even has a son working with him, so it's just like Happy Families.
Have been sent a scary report Islam in Britain, produced by a group called The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, director Patrick Sookhdeo. It is a detailed survey of Moslems in Britain done in Feb 2005 and just published. Its quotations from The UK Islamic Mission, and its information on what it describes as "radical Islam" in Britain" are rather chilling to read. The most interesting section covers Government policies on Islam, and reveals how support and encouragement (and funding) have been given to precisely the groups that are the most extreme and which have the least interest in good community relations or any sense of shared values with others. There is a call for a new approach, which includes a recognition of the many disparate strands within Islam, the strong and well-funded tendency towards extremism, and the huge dangers this poses. It calls upon Moslems to accept the need for dialogue and for change , especially on issues such as the persecution of those who convert from Islam to other faiths (which at present carries the death penalty). I wonder if this report will get any publicity? So far I've seen none.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Saturday Oct 14th
I love the way Brompton Oratory stands looking secure and sort of reliable, in the Brompton Road next to the Victoria and Albert Museum and with that lovely row of trees - today with just the merest hint of Autumn russet promise. Mother and I enjoyed coffee and cake in the small Italian cafe almost opposite the Oratory, and then went to watch the Rosary Procession arrive....they came at a measured pace down past Harrods, with a great Cross in front, and then clergy and altar servers and chaps (incl Jamie) in their robes, and a good crowd of people (a good social and racial mix - at a guess I'd say white middle class would be a smallish minority within it!), with small girls in white dresses scattering petals, and a statue of Our Lady borne aloft by burly members of the Catholic Police Guild wearing blue sashes....all most satisfactory, and as they approached the church and the group broke into sections to move inside, Fr Tim Finigan saw Mother and me and raised his biretta which we thought v. nice. Inside, the vast church looked magnificent with candles glittering on the altar, and soon became packed, with small children sitting cross-legged on the floor in comfortable corners, and people squeezing hospitably along seats to offer room for "just one more". We sang all the wonderful old hymns, and it was a glorious sound. Fr Tim preached about Our Lady, quoting Archp Fulton Sheen on the subject of Fatima - Mary is some one the Moslems honour, and so she can lead them to Christ. She does that with everyone, and this is the way forward. But we must all do our part, and renewal involves many important things: more people seeking mercy and forgiveness through Confession, commitment to daily prayer, an inspired liturgy......
During Benediction we said the Prayer for England, and I found my throat went tight when we got to the words "look down in mercy, upon England, thy dowry....."
Afterwards a kind friend gave Mother a lift to Victoria station (thanks, Mac! She was v. grateful and loved the chance to chat, as well as the comfy ride) and I stayed on to give out leaflets after the 6pm Mass re the Nov 4th Festival of Catholic Culture (oh, do come!)....this Mass always has glorious music from the Schola of the London Oratory School. I have a godson who used to sing in this choir - I would go to the Mass and he'd come back with me for supper and to stay the night with us. The sound of boys' voices is so terrific - that pure, clean sound with wonderful energy behind it, lacking prissiness. And it was so amusing to see the boys, newly released from choir, tumbling out of the Oratory House in their grey and maroon uniforms, with whatever craze was the latest thing - yo-yos, I remember, and minature skate-boards three inches long, and so on - and just being noisy and ordinary, and not angels at all......we'd catch the bus from Wimbledon, and often it seemed soooo long in coming, as we were hungry. "Oh, come ON, bus!" we'd mutter..... "As it's an omnibus" I suggested once "Perhaps it only responds to Latin" So we tried chanting "Veni, veni, omnibus" and it did seem to help.....and the other people at the bus stop enjoyed it too....and then the years went by and his voice broke and now we just exchange emails and I send him books about aeroplanes for his birthday.....
Last night a most enjoyable dinner with Fr Michael Cullinan, newly back from Rome this summer after a period of study, and full of interesting ideas and good conversation. He has a book coming out shortly.....much excellent reading material has come my way recently, including the superb Evangelium teaching pack from the Catholic Truth Society (look up their website, just tap the name into google). And a brilliant idea from their latest newsletter: a young Catholic bought - after raising funds from wellwishers for the project - 5,000 copies of the CTS booklet Cracking the Da Vinci Code and organised a team to leave copies in busus, trains, cafes, phone boxes, etc around Britain, each copy bearing a sticker saying "Pick me up and read me". It all sounds terrific fun: "Once, I and a friend spent our day on the Circle Line, changing carriages at each stop and leaving a booklet on empty seats every time we got up to move on....." It is suggested that others now offer ideas of their own: email r.brown@cts-online.or
Note to American readers: I hope this doesn't sound too London-ish. Useful background info: Circle Line=main loop at heart of London Underground system; Brompton Oratory=v.large Catholic church in Kensington, links with Frederick Faber and with John Henry Newman; Victoria=railway terminus for the Southern suburbs and trains to the Sussex coast. Prayer for England.....oh, look it up.
Important note: at the Rosary Rally, we were urged to pray for the safety of the Holy Father. Suggestion: all readers of this blog (incl me) undertake to pray for this every day, specifically covering his forthcoming next foreign trip?
I love the way Brompton Oratory stands looking secure and sort of reliable, in the Brompton Road next to the Victoria and Albert Museum and with that lovely row of trees - today with just the merest hint of Autumn russet promise. Mother and I enjoyed coffee and cake in the small Italian cafe almost opposite the Oratory, and then went to watch the Rosary Procession arrive....they came at a measured pace down past Harrods, with a great Cross in front, and then clergy and altar servers and chaps (incl Jamie) in their robes, and a good crowd of people (a good social and racial mix - at a guess I'd say white middle class would be a smallish minority within it!), with small girls in white dresses scattering petals, and a statue of Our Lady borne aloft by burly members of the Catholic Police Guild wearing blue sashes....all most satisfactory, and as they approached the church and the group broke into sections to move inside, Fr Tim Finigan saw Mother and me and raised his biretta which we thought v. nice. Inside, the vast church looked magnificent with candles glittering on the altar, and soon became packed, with small children sitting cross-legged on the floor in comfortable corners, and people squeezing hospitably along seats to offer room for "just one more". We sang all the wonderful old hymns, and it was a glorious sound. Fr Tim preached about Our Lady, quoting Archp Fulton Sheen on the subject of Fatima - Mary is some one the Moslems honour, and so she can lead them to Christ. She does that with everyone, and this is the way forward. But we must all do our part, and renewal involves many important things: more people seeking mercy and forgiveness through Confession, commitment to daily prayer, an inspired liturgy......
During Benediction we said the Prayer for England, and I found my throat went tight when we got to the words "look down in mercy, upon England, thy dowry....."
Afterwards a kind friend gave Mother a lift to Victoria station (thanks, Mac! She was v. grateful and loved the chance to chat, as well as the comfy ride) and I stayed on to give out leaflets after the 6pm Mass re the Nov 4th Festival of Catholic Culture (oh, do come!)....this Mass always has glorious music from the Schola of the London Oratory School. I have a godson who used to sing in this choir - I would go to the Mass and he'd come back with me for supper and to stay the night with us. The sound of boys' voices is so terrific - that pure, clean sound with wonderful energy behind it, lacking prissiness. And it was so amusing to see the boys, newly released from choir, tumbling out of the Oratory House in their grey and maroon uniforms, with whatever craze was the latest thing - yo-yos, I remember, and minature skate-boards three inches long, and so on - and just being noisy and ordinary, and not angels at all......we'd catch the bus from Wimbledon, and often it seemed soooo long in coming, as we were hungry. "Oh, come ON, bus!" we'd mutter..... "As it's an omnibus" I suggested once "Perhaps it only responds to Latin" So we tried chanting "Veni, veni, omnibus" and it did seem to help.....and the other people at the bus stop enjoyed it too....and then the years went by and his voice broke and now we just exchange emails and I send him books about aeroplanes for his birthday.....
Last night a most enjoyable dinner with Fr Michael Cullinan, newly back from Rome this summer after a period of study, and full of interesting ideas and good conversation. He has a book coming out shortly.....much excellent reading material has come my way recently, including the superb Evangelium teaching pack from the Catholic Truth Society (look up their website, just tap the name into google). And a brilliant idea from their latest newsletter: a young Catholic bought - after raising funds from wellwishers for the project - 5,000 copies of the CTS booklet Cracking the Da Vinci Code and organised a team to leave copies in busus, trains, cafes, phone boxes, etc around Britain, each copy bearing a sticker saying "Pick me up and read me". It all sounds terrific fun: "Once, I and a friend spent our day on the Circle Line, changing carriages at each stop and leaving a booklet on empty seats every time we got up to move on....." It is suggested that others now offer ideas of their own: email r.brown@cts-online.or
Note to American readers: I hope this doesn't sound too London-ish. Useful background info: Circle Line=main loop at heart of London Underground system; Brompton Oratory=v.large Catholic church in Kensington, links with Frederick Faber and with John Henry Newman; Victoria=railway terminus for the Southern suburbs and trains to the Sussex coast. Prayer for England.....oh, look it up.
Important note: at the Rosary Rally, we were urged to pray for the safety of the Holy Father. Suggestion: all readers of this blog (incl me) undertake to pray for this every day, specifically covering his forthcoming next foreign trip?
Friday, October 13, 2006
Friday Oct 13th
Golly. Home after a busy day yesterday and overnight stay with relatives. Quick chance to write blog....all lovely, kind comments noted. Will continue to try to do some good with this blog without further wobble.
Yesterday morning was spent in Purley, cycling round distributing copies of my book to members of Catholic Women's Group who had ordered them last week....thought this would save postage but probably, whatwith time spent away from desk plus money spent on cups of coffee for refreshment, it hasn't saved a thing. It was lovely, though. This is my home patch - my brother went to the John Fisher School in Purley and I have lots of friends living there. I had forgotten it was so hilly! It's really the foothills of the North Downs, especially as you get up towards Riddlesdown. Because of the hills (all old settlements of course are by rivers) I have always thought of Purley as "new" - mosts houses there are 1900s/20s at the earliest. I toiled up and down Foxley Lane, Purley Bury Avenue, etc....when all books delivered I thought of cycling over the hill and down to Wallington to see Mother but was too hot....and will be with her on Saturday when we go to the Rosary Rall (starts 2pm Westminster Cathedral, walk through London, finishes with Benediction at Brompton Oratory, sermon by Fr Tim Finigan. Why not join us?)
Hurried home, dealt with letters etc. Trying to encourage schools to take part in Catholic Young Writer Award (send message to this Blog if interested....sorry, UK schools only!). Then train to London as I had promised to care for small niece while her parents went out for the evening. E. is an enchanting child, and we had a cheery time doing school homework on ancient Romans. I explained what BC and AD meant. She is v. interested in Christianity....
Golly. Home after a busy day yesterday and overnight stay with relatives. Quick chance to write blog....all lovely, kind comments noted. Will continue to try to do some good with this blog without further wobble.
Yesterday morning was spent in Purley, cycling round distributing copies of my book to members of Catholic Women's Group who had ordered them last week....thought this would save postage but probably, whatwith time spent away from desk plus money spent on cups of coffee for refreshment, it hasn't saved a thing. It was lovely, though. This is my home patch - my brother went to the John Fisher School in Purley and I have lots of friends living there. I had forgotten it was so hilly! It's really the foothills of the North Downs, especially as you get up towards Riddlesdown. Because of the hills (all old settlements of course are by rivers) I have always thought of Purley as "new" - mosts houses there are 1900s/20s at the earliest. I toiled up and down Foxley Lane, Purley Bury Avenue, etc....when all books delivered I thought of cycling over the hill and down to Wallington to see Mother but was too hot....and will be with her on Saturday when we go to the Rosary Rall (starts 2pm Westminster Cathedral, walk through London, finishes with Benediction at Brompton Oratory, sermon by Fr Tim Finigan. Why not join us?)
Hurried home, dealt with letters etc. Trying to encourage schools to take part in Catholic Young Writer Award (send message to this Blog if interested....sorry, UK schools only!). Then train to London as I had promised to care for small niece while her parents went out for the evening. E. is an enchanting child, and we had a cheery time doing school homework on ancient Romans. I explained what BC and AD meant. She is v. interested in Christianity....
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Thursday Oct 12th
All the way back from Manchester on the train I read the Holy Father's book "Sing a New Song to the Lord" (Ignatius press - available in Britain from FAMILY PUBLICATIONS, King St, Jericho, Oxford) about music and the liturgy. It is simply superb. So enjoyable that every now and then I'd sit back give a little wriggle of comfort, and look at the rainwashed window and England whizzing past all damp and green and feel completely blissful.
And it couldn't have been a better preparation for the Catholic Cultural Group meeting which was held in Gloucester Street, at the home of a most generous friend, Alexandra, with Jeremy de Satge of The Music Makers as guest speaker. He was extremely interesting, had some wonderful examples (on CD) of glorious Church music, especially some Byrd, and also plainchant, helped us hear the different cadences, started an excellent and most useful discussion. He repeated, in his own words, something the H. Father says - that, in the presence of God, man finds that mere words are not enough - the soul soars up in music. Music Makers' latest CD, Regina Caeli would make a lovely Christmas present. Jeremy is currently doing a lot of useful work, including training seminarians to sing the Mass, has plans to do something for schools. He emphasised that it it not at all hard to get together a group to sing plainchant, and there is no reason why we should continue to have to endure the ghastly mess of silly noise that is presented as music in so many Catholic parishes. It was especially interesting to hear him on the subject of the Gloria :"It's such a superb prayer....the current translation doesn't do it justice. The way it should really be is all there in the original: the strong 'Glory to God' with its drama and majesty, and then the softer 'and peace.....'. And you can't - you really can't - do this great prayer by having people clapping a rhythm between the lines...no!"
Home late, and the house terribly messy even tho' I'd only been away for 24 hrs. Jamie looks sort of bleak, bed not made, great muddle of books, and the sink is full of the most horrid-smelling plates.....why eat cooked fish if you aren't prepared to wash up afterwards? J. has the (??male???) approach to washing-up: leave the things in the sink and eventually some one will do them. THE INFURIATING THING ABOUT THIS APPROACH IS THAT IT WORKS.
However, v. good to be home and talking about lots of things. Dealt with emails, messages on phone, sorted out muddle in kitchen, filled washing-machine.
All the way back from Manchester on the train I read the Holy Father's book "Sing a New Song to the Lord" (Ignatius press - available in Britain from FAMILY PUBLICATIONS, King St, Jericho, Oxford) about music and the liturgy. It is simply superb. So enjoyable that every now and then I'd sit back give a little wriggle of comfort, and look at the rainwashed window and England whizzing past all damp and green and feel completely blissful.
And it couldn't have been a better preparation for the Catholic Cultural Group meeting which was held in Gloucester Street, at the home of a most generous friend, Alexandra, with Jeremy de Satge of The Music Makers as guest speaker. He was extremely interesting, had some wonderful examples (on CD) of glorious Church music, especially some Byrd, and also plainchant, helped us hear the different cadences, started an excellent and most useful discussion. He repeated, in his own words, something the H. Father says - that, in the presence of God, man finds that mere words are not enough - the soul soars up in music. Music Makers' latest CD, Regina Caeli would make a lovely Christmas present. Jeremy is currently doing a lot of useful work, including training seminarians to sing the Mass, has plans to do something for schools. He emphasised that it it not at all hard to get together a group to sing plainchant, and there is no reason why we should continue to have to endure the ghastly mess of silly noise that is presented as music in so many Catholic parishes. It was especially interesting to hear him on the subject of the Gloria :"It's such a superb prayer....the current translation doesn't do it justice. The way it should really be is all there in the original: the strong 'Glory to God' with its drama and majesty, and then the softer 'and peace.....'. And you can't - you really can't - do this great prayer by having people clapping a rhythm between the lines...no!"
Home late, and the house terribly messy even tho' I'd only been away for 24 hrs. Jamie looks sort of bleak, bed not made, great muddle of books, and the sink is full of the most horrid-smelling plates.....why eat cooked fish if you aren't prepared to wash up afterwards? J. has the (??male???) approach to washing-up: leave the things in the sink and eventually some one will do them. THE INFURIATING THING ABOUT THIS APPROACH IS THAT IT WORKS.
However, v. good to be home and talking about lots of things. Dealt with emails, messages on phone, sorted out muddle in kitchen, filled washing-machine.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
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."
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."
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Tuesday Oct 10th Manchester
Frustrating day. I was due to speak at a school in Macclesfield, on the subject of TAMEZIN , the teenage magazine written by and for girls (excellent project: TAMEZIN, 1 Chelsea Embankment London SW3 - send SAE for a sample copy). I had been told I would be met at my destination, so on arrival at Manchester Picadilly I expected to see some one....but no. After a longish wait, and getting anxious, I started making phone calls....it finally transpired that I had been expected to arrive at Macclesfield.....but my train had not even stopped there, and my (pre-arranged) ticket was for Manchester only......well, these things happen. What is really quite extraordinary is that the girl who had been sent to meet turned out to be the one person on earth who could cope......she gives courses in creative writing! So , having discovered the mix-up, and realising that I just wasn't going to make it, she simply went to the school and did a workshop for them!! The teacher, who had been very very cross at the disintegration of the afternoon - it had been prsented to the girls as a special feature, and the Tamezin team have been at this school before and it had all been a great success etc etc - was thrilled and all went well! When we finally met up, we were both able to laugh over it....extraordinary and ridiculous day.
So now I'm in Manchester, staying overnight but having achieved precisely nothing. Fortunately I have access to a computer so will simply get on with some work here. Have already tackled e-mails and I have a feature to write for an American paper which has been slowly collecting itself in my brain......
Frustrating day. I was due to speak at a school in Macclesfield, on the subject of TAMEZIN , the teenage magazine written by and for girls (excellent project: TAMEZIN, 1 Chelsea Embankment London SW3 - send SAE for a sample copy). I had been told I would be met at my destination, so on arrival at Manchester Picadilly I expected to see some one....but no. After a longish wait, and getting anxious, I started making phone calls....it finally transpired that I had been expected to arrive at Macclesfield.....but my train had not even stopped there, and my (pre-arranged) ticket was for Manchester only......well, these things happen. What is really quite extraordinary is that the girl who had been sent to meet turned out to be the one person on earth who could cope......she gives courses in creative writing! So , having discovered the mix-up, and realising that I just wasn't going to make it, she simply went to the school and did a workshop for them!! The teacher, who had been very very cross at the disintegration of the afternoon - it had been prsented to the girls as a special feature, and the Tamezin team have been at this school before and it had all been a great success etc etc - was thrilled and all went well! When we finally met up, we were both able to laugh over it....extraordinary and ridiculous day.
So now I'm in Manchester, staying overnight but having achieved precisely nothing. Fortunately I have access to a computer so will simply get on with some work here. Have already tackled e-mails and I have a feature to write for an American paper which has been slowly collecting itself in my brain......
Mon Oct 9th
Jamie came home from a meeting of the Catholic Union - of which he is Chairman - with worrying news about Catholic education.....three-pronged Govt attack on Catholic schools. First, the quota" idea; a specific number of places at Catholic schools will be reserved for non-Catholic pupils. The Anglicans have already agreed to this for their schools. It will mean a mess: at present Catholic schools are v. popular and over-subscribed, and all priests know about the families who suddenly start coming to Mass and getting active in the parish as they want to get their children into a good local Catholic school.... this has its own absurdities, but it will be even more ridiculous if practising RCs are turnd away so that the school can fill the places with the neccessary quota of non-believers! And then, because non-believing families won't really be happy with aspects of Catholic teaching and practice, we'll get newspaper reports of complaints and protests :"My child was forced to take part in a weird ritual...." "This Catholic school insulted by family by attacking our [gay/divorced/cohabiting/] etc lifestyle.....".
Next, we have what has already been introduced: schools may not interview applicants for places as this makes the schools too "elitist". This means that if a Catholic family do manage to get within the possibilities of winning a place at a Catholic school, they won't be able to explain their specific needs and wishes at an interview....will have to rely on bluff and paperwork (this will militate against good families who aren't good at filling in forms and making their concerns look impressive in writing).
Finally - and this is really shocking - a Govt minister is about to introduce a Bill (in the House of Lords) establishing that teenagers from the age of 16 have the right to opt out of all religious worship in school, apparently on the grounds that he considers it's their 'human right' to do so. This has been in the offing for some time, and has been encouraged by the story of the college in S. London where there were complaints that pupils were "forced" (???) to take part in Mass and a May procession. As was pointed out at the time, if you attend a Catholic school, you can expect to find Catholic activities as part of the deal....like attending a sports college and finding you are expected to take part in sports.
All the above will mean that Catholic schools will find it increasingly difficult to exist as proper Catholic, worshipping communities. And the argument will be: why should it be only 16-year-olds who have the right to opt out of religious worship? Don't younger children have human rights too? We'll get media hype about sobbing non-Catholic youngsters who are forced to attend Masses they don't understand or sing hymns which frighten them with tales of crucifixion and blood, or something.....
Govt argues that as Catholic schools are popular and successful,. it must be because they are "elitist" and must now be forced to equalise.
The irony is that, of course, from the Catholic point of view, many RC schools are in fact deficient: poor Religious Education, a low rate of pupils who actually practise their faith, etc. I know a number of Catholic families who are happier sending their children to other schools, because they feel it is better for the youngsters to learn to affirm and live their faith among people who make no pretence about sharing it....and who often have greater respect for the child from a practising Catholic family than does a semi-lapsed nominally RC teacher.....
Note to American readers: in Britain we have Catholic schools whioch recieve generous public funding, so they are free for pupils, just like all other state schools. (We also have Catholic independent schools for which parents can pay, and some of these are quite famous eg Stonyhurst, Ampleforth). In addition, there is meant to be teaching of (non-denominational) Christianity, in all schools....in fact of course this is invariably done in the context of teaching about all religions, and the result is often a mess, although there are some state schools (especially traditional grammar schools) which teach the basic facts about Christ's life and death and resurrection, and get the pupils studying the New Testament, etc, in a useful and systematic way.
Our Bishops are fond of sayin g that of course religious faith can't be implanted in school - it's all down to the parents. And of course they are right. There are too many nominally Catholic families that don't attend Mass but want to send their children to a Catholic school because they like its discipline, unform, sense of being part of a real community..... but at home they undermine any remote Catholicism that has been picked up at school by living like ordinary pagans on a diet of TV soap operas and with no prayer or Catholic life at all. But in a way that simply shows how useful and important a Catholi school could be....and the Church (which created our whole concept of education, and which ran all the schools in Britain for centuries....state education wasn't introduced until 1870!) surely should have a place, as of right, in running schools and the right to expect some support and encouragement in this task from those who recognise its contribution to the common good.....
Jamie came home from a meeting of the Catholic Union - of which he is Chairman - with worrying news about Catholic education.....three-pronged Govt attack on Catholic schools. First, the quota" idea; a specific number of places at Catholic schools will be reserved for non-Catholic pupils. The Anglicans have already agreed to this for their schools. It will mean a mess: at present Catholic schools are v. popular and over-subscribed, and all priests know about the families who suddenly start coming to Mass and getting active in the parish as they want to get their children into a good local Catholic school.... this has its own absurdities, but it will be even more ridiculous if practising RCs are turnd away so that the school can fill the places with the neccessary quota of non-believers! And then, because non-believing families won't really be happy with aspects of Catholic teaching and practice, we'll get newspaper reports of complaints and protests :"My child was forced to take part in a weird ritual...." "This Catholic school insulted by family by attacking our [gay/divorced/cohabiting/] etc lifestyle.....".
Next, we have what has already been introduced: schools may not interview applicants for places as this makes the schools too "elitist". This means that if a Catholic family do manage to get within the possibilities of winning a place at a Catholic school, they won't be able to explain their specific needs and wishes at an interview....will have to rely on bluff and paperwork (this will militate against good families who aren't good at filling in forms and making their concerns look impressive in writing).
Finally - and this is really shocking - a Govt minister is about to introduce a Bill (in the House of Lords) establishing that teenagers from the age of 16 have the right to opt out of all religious worship in school, apparently on the grounds that he considers it's their 'human right' to do so. This has been in the offing for some time, and has been encouraged by the story of the college in S. London where there were complaints that pupils were "forced" (???) to take part in Mass and a May procession. As was pointed out at the time, if you attend a Catholic school, you can expect to find Catholic activities as part of the deal....like attending a sports college and finding you are expected to take part in sports.
All the above will mean that Catholic schools will find it increasingly difficult to exist as proper Catholic, worshipping communities. And the argument will be: why should it be only 16-year-olds who have the right to opt out of religious worship? Don't younger children have human rights too? We'll get media hype about sobbing non-Catholic youngsters who are forced to attend Masses they don't understand or sing hymns which frighten them with tales of crucifixion and blood, or something.....
Govt argues that as Catholic schools are popular and successful,. it must be because they are "elitist" and must now be forced to equalise.
The irony is that, of course, from the Catholic point of view, many RC schools are in fact deficient: poor Religious Education, a low rate of pupils who actually practise their faith, etc. I know a number of Catholic families who are happier sending their children to other schools, because they feel it is better for the youngsters to learn to affirm and live their faith among people who make no pretence about sharing it....and who often have greater respect for the child from a practising Catholic family than does a semi-lapsed nominally RC teacher.....
Note to American readers: in Britain we have Catholic schools whioch recieve generous public funding, so they are free for pupils, just like all other state schools. (We also have Catholic independent schools for which parents can pay, and some of these are quite famous eg Stonyhurst, Ampleforth). In addition, there is meant to be teaching of (non-denominational) Christianity, in all schools....in fact of course this is invariably done in the context of teaching about all religions, and the result is often a mess, although there are some state schools (especially traditional grammar schools) which teach the basic facts about Christ's life and death and resurrection, and get the pupils studying the New Testament, etc, in a useful and systematic way.
Our Bishops are fond of sayin g that of course religious faith can't be implanted in school - it's all down to the parents. And of course they are right. There are too many nominally Catholic families that don't attend Mass but want to send their children to a Catholic school because they like its discipline, unform, sense of being part of a real community..... but at home they undermine any remote Catholicism that has been picked up at school by living like ordinary pagans on a diet of TV soap operas and with no prayer or Catholic life at all. But in a way that simply shows how useful and important a Catholi school could be....and the Church (which created our whole concept of education, and which ran all the schools in Britain for centuries....state education wasn't introduced until 1870!) surely should have a place, as of right, in running schools and the right to expect some support and encouragement in this task from those who recognise its contribution to the common good.....
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Sunday Oct 8th
These golden days are so enchanting: in mellow sunshine and crisp fresh air I cycled to Wimbledon: glorious music at 11 am Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Edge Hill and I was giving out leaflets afterwards re the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival on Sat Nov 4th at Westminster Cathedral Hall. It was lovely to meet a number of old friends - I haven't been to Mass here for a while as I frequently go to St Joseph's, New Malden, instead.
A walk on the Common: the pond, which looked fearfully dry for much of the summer, seems refreshed by recent rain. There are dozens of acorns and conkers beneath the trees - the press are saying it's been a bumper crop of both this year. A blue sky and that piercing sunshine that comes suddenly on an Autumn afternoon as it gets near tea-time ands things are going to start fading into a cosy dusk.
I'm writing this at home (email/internet unaccountably and blissfully on-line again: no explanations, no reasons. One is just grateful), and will shortly cycle back to the church for more leafleting at evening Masses.
Fr Hugh Mackenzie of FAITH magazine has asked me to do some reviews of CTS (google: cts-online.org.uk) booklets: there are some excellent new ones at £1.95p. I intend to recommend The Reformation in England, by Raymond Edwards, and Understanding the New Age Movement by Stratford Caldecott. Booklets like this are extremely useful: can be read easily, are light and good for train journeys etc, can be passed to a friend, are cheap, carry good references and ideas for follow-up reading, and don't seem too daunting.
These golden days are so enchanting: in mellow sunshine and crisp fresh air I cycled to Wimbledon: glorious music at 11 am Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Edge Hill and I was giving out leaflets afterwards re the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival on Sat Nov 4th at Westminster Cathedral Hall. It was lovely to meet a number of old friends - I haven't been to Mass here for a while as I frequently go to St Joseph's, New Malden, instead.
A walk on the Common: the pond, which looked fearfully dry for much of the summer, seems refreshed by recent rain. There are dozens of acorns and conkers beneath the trees - the press are saying it's been a bumper crop of both this year. A blue sky and that piercing sunshine that comes suddenly on an Autumn afternoon as it gets near tea-time ands things are going to start fading into a cosy dusk.
I'm writing this at home (email/internet unaccountably and blissfully on-line again: no explanations, no reasons. One is just grateful), and will shortly cycle back to the church for more leafleting at evening Masses.
Fr Hugh Mackenzie of FAITH magazine has asked me to do some reviews of CTS (google: cts-online.org.uk) booklets: there are some excellent new ones at £1.95p. I intend to recommend The Reformation in England, by Raymond Edwards, and Understanding the New Age Movement by Stratford Caldecott. Booklets like this are extremely useful: can be read easily, are light and good for train journeys etc, can be passed to a friend, are cheap, carry good references and ideas for follow-up reading, and don't seem too daunting.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Sat Oct 7th
A golden Autumn day - impossible to stay indoors - as email here at home still intermittent at best, raced off on bike to use library, internet cafe etc. It does feel a bit surreal sitting in an crowded cafe which smells of bacon sandwiches and writing about Limbo, reviewing muddled drivel on the Web in the world's media on this subject. It's the name that has always worried people - sounds so ghastly, babies floating in gray mist, unloved by anyone. I have met (older) women, esp those who have lost babies, very distressed by this notion: all that is required is assurance that all who die innocent and unbaptised are completely safe and loved by God in a place of peace and happiness....presumably this is what the H. Father will at some stage be explaining. At present, the debate is beginning to sound like those tiresome conversations which began with "Well, you Catholics used tio be told it was sinful not to eat fish on Fridays, but now....." and explanations such as "Well, it asn't a matter of eating fish, but -" were cut short with "Oh, I just don't want to know about your daft Church!"
It's interesting that the Irish press, in particular, seize every opportunity of attacking and insulting the idea of God and Church - each new media headline on a Christian-related subject is grabbed with glee. The Irish seem to be engaging in a great self-satisfying wallow of antiCatholicism, with everyone agreeing how wrong the Church and all its ministers have been down all the years.....there will be no end to this for a while, there'll be a good many more ihadaterriblecatholicchildhood paperbacks and much howdidweallowourselvestobesofooled stuff before there can be a wider, deeper and more realistic exploration of the things that really matter.
Dinner-dance at The Queens Stand, Epsom Racecourse! We went with friends to this very enjoyable celebration of 10th birthday of Oakwood, local Catholic prep school launched by a group of parents.....had our pic taken as we went in and gosh, we look v. middle-aged. Almost comical contrast to all those pix of young officer and bride at regimental dances and dinners in Berlin and elsewhere in the 1980s....
J. and I hardly ever dance together, so it was nice to do that, and to relax and enjoy ourselves with so many friends. We had a really good time.
A golden Autumn day - impossible to stay indoors - as email here at home still intermittent at best, raced off on bike to use library, internet cafe etc. It does feel a bit surreal sitting in an crowded cafe which smells of bacon sandwiches and writing about Limbo, reviewing muddled drivel on the Web in the world's media on this subject. It's the name that has always worried people - sounds so ghastly, babies floating in gray mist, unloved by anyone. I have met (older) women, esp those who have lost babies, very distressed by this notion: all that is required is assurance that all who die innocent and unbaptised are completely safe and loved by God in a place of peace and happiness....presumably this is what the H. Father will at some stage be explaining. At present, the debate is beginning to sound like those tiresome conversations which began with "Well, you Catholics used tio be told it was sinful not to eat fish on Fridays, but now....." and explanations such as "Well, it asn't a matter of eating fish, but -" were cut short with "Oh, I just don't want to know about your daft Church!"
It's interesting that the Irish press, in particular, seize every opportunity of attacking and insulting the idea of God and Church - each new media headline on a Christian-related subject is grabbed with glee. The Irish seem to be engaging in a great self-satisfying wallow of antiCatholicism, with everyone agreeing how wrong the Church and all its ministers have been down all the years.....there will be no end to this for a while, there'll be a good many more ihadaterriblecatholicchildhood paperbacks and much howdidweallowourselvestobesofooled stuff before there can be a wider, deeper and more realistic exploration of the things that really matter.
Dinner-dance at The Queens Stand, Epsom Racecourse! We went with friends to this very enjoyable celebration of 10th birthday of Oakwood, local Catholic prep school launched by a group of parents.....had our pic taken as we went in and gosh, we look v. middle-aged. Almost comical contrast to all those pix of young officer and bride at regimental dances and dinners in Berlin and elsewhere in the 1980s....
J. and I hardly ever dance together, so it was nice to do that, and to relax and enjoy ourselves with so many friends. We had a really good time.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Friday Oct 6th
Oh, dear....I do hope I got this one right. BBC (News 24) phoned and asked me to debate with a Muslim woman about wearing veils that cover the face, following comments by Member of Parliament Jack Straw. Well, of course, one is anxious to emphasise importance of religious dignity etc etc, but there are important issues here: faces matter - we can convey things by smiles and friendliness and a masked face is intimidating. The fact that each of us matters, that we are unique and unrepeatable, is part of the Christian thinking that underlies our ideas of community life and Parliamentary democracy. If followers of Mohammed really believe that women ought to cover their faces, they do need to know that for many of us this offensive and wrong: there is one God and Father of us all, and Christians do not believe that he asks his daughters to hide themselves in this way.
I tried to smile a lot and look friendly while I said all this, but it's a complicated debate.....also I wanted to say some much more important things, chief of which was that we hadn't yet an apology for the ghastly scenes at Westminster Cathedral where a mob was baying and shouting murderous threats when people went in to Mass....this was just unacceptable in our cathedral in our capital city. Well, the Moslem lady did say that she apologised for that, which was good, so maybe that's something achieved. I also said that I'm getting worried about where things go next....will Muslims announce that they are offended by the Cross on our country's flag? Or the Cross on my Rosary? (I held it up to deomonstrate). It's all getting a bit daft. We can live and work together, but we do need to stick to the Golden Rule, and also recognise that there is a specific Christian heritage in Britain, which gives us a concept of human worth which is simply central to our way of life.....
It's very important not to stir up angry feelings, or create tension when there isn't any need, so I hope I haven't made things worse all round. I keep thinking about the kindly Moslem who gave me a lift the other night, and indeed the sweet lady on the Tube who gave me her seat today (my feet were hurting terribly again - same shoes as yesterday as I hadn't had time to go home and change!). Plump, white, teenage boy sitting smugly next to her had obviously never been taught that it's polite to offer a seat to a grown-up who might need one.....
Back to a friendly office where, out of hours, I'm able to use a computer....can't get the bike home till 7pm so am seizing chance to write blog, deal with emails.
Jamie is at home, finishing his essay - I phoned to talk through the Muslim/veils issue with him. He said we should recognise there is something in the why-should-Jack-Straw-dictate-to-Muslims approach,which is important, too, of course, but he thought I was right to raise the other issues about freedom to get to Mass without being threatened.
Catholic Herald has an excellent leader re the Pope and the BBC. Have you sent in a letter yet??
Oh, dear....I do hope I got this one right. BBC (News 24) phoned and asked me to debate with a Muslim woman about wearing veils that cover the face, following comments by Member of Parliament Jack Straw. Well, of course, one is anxious to emphasise importance of religious dignity etc etc, but there are important issues here: faces matter - we can convey things by smiles and friendliness and a masked face is intimidating. The fact that each of us matters, that we are unique and unrepeatable, is part of the Christian thinking that underlies our ideas of community life and Parliamentary democracy. If followers of Mohammed really believe that women ought to cover their faces, they do need to know that for many of us this offensive and wrong: there is one God and Father of us all, and Christians do not believe that he asks his daughters to hide themselves in this way.
I tried to smile a lot and look friendly while I said all this, but it's a complicated debate.....also I wanted to say some much more important things, chief of which was that we hadn't yet an apology for the ghastly scenes at Westminster Cathedral where a mob was baying and shouting murderous threats when people went in to Mass....this was just unacceptable in our cathedral in our capital city. Well, the Moslem lady did say that she apologised for that, which was good, so maybe that's something achieved. I also said that I'm getting worried about where things go next....will Muslims announce that they are offended by the Cross on our country's flag? Or the Cross on my Rosary? (I held it up to deomonstrate). It's all getting a bit daft. We can live and work together, but we do need to stick to the Golden Rule, and also recognise that there is a specific Christian heritage in Britain, which gives us a concept of human worth which is simply central to our way of life.....
It's very important not to stir up angry feelings, or create tension when there isn't any need, so I hope I haven't made things worse all round. I keep thinking about the kindly Moslem who gave me a lift the other night, and indeed the sweet lady on the Tube who gave me her seat today (my feet were hurting terribly again - same shoes as yesterday as I hadn't had time to go home and change!). Plump, white, teenage boy sitting smugly next to her had obviously never been taught that it's polite to offer a seat to a grown-up who might need one.....
Back to a friendly office where, out of hours, I'm able to use a computer....can't get the bike home till 7pm so am seizing chance to write blog, deal with emails.
Jamie is at home, finishing his essay - I phoned to talk through the Muslim/veils issue with him. He said we should recognise there is something in the why-should-Jack-Straw-dictate-to-Muslims approach,which is important, too, of course, but he thought I was right to raise the other issues about freedom to get to Mass without being threatened.
Catholic Herald has an excellent leader re the Pope and the BBC. Have you sent in a letter yet??
Friday Oct 6th
Oh, dear....I do hope I got this one right. BBC (News 24) phoned and asked me to debate with a Muslim woman about wearing veils that cover the face, following comments by Member of Parliament Jack Straw. Well, of course, one is anxious to emphasise importance of religious dignity etc etc, but there are important issues here: faces matter - we can convey things by smiles and friendliness and a masked face is intimidating. The fact that each of us matters, that we are unique and unrepeatable, is part of the Christian thinking that underlies our ideas of community life and Parliamentary democracy. If followers of Mohammed really believe that women ought to cover their faces, they do need to know that for many of us this offensive and wrong: there is one God and Father of us all, and Christians do not believe that he asks his daughters to hide themselves in this way.
I tried to smile a lot and look friendly while I said all this, but it's a complicated debate.....also I wanted to say some much more important things, chief of which was that we hadn't yet an apology for the ghastly scenes at Westminster Cathedral where a mob was baying and shouting murderous threats when people went in to Mass....this was just unacceptable in our cathedral in our capital city. Well, the Moslem lady did say that she apologised for that, which was good, so maybe that's something achieved. I also said that I'm getting worried about where things go next....will Muslims announce that they are offended by the Cross on our country's flag? Or the Cross on my Rosary? (I held it up to deomonstrate). It's all getting a bit daft. We can live and work together, but we do need to stick to the Golden Rule, and also recognise that there is a specific Christian heritage in Britain, which gives us a concept of human worth which is simply central to our way of life.....
It's very important not to stir up angry feelings, or create tension when there isn't any need, so I hope I haven't made things worse all round. I keep thinking about the kindly Moslem who gave me a lift the other night, and indeed the sweet lady on the Tube who gave me her seat today (my feet were hurting terribly again - same shoes as yesterday as I hadn't had time to go home and change!). Plump, white, teenage boy sitting smugly next to her had obviously never been taught that it's polite to offer a seat to a grown-up who might need one.....
Back to a friendly office where, out of hours, I'm able to use a computer....can't get the bike home till 7pm so am seizing chance to write blog, deal with emails.
Jamie is at home, finishing his essay - I phoned to talk through the Muslim/veils issue with him. He said we should recognise there is something in the why-should-Jack-Straw-dictate-to-Muslims approach,which is important, too, of course, but he thought I was right to raise the other issues about freedom to get to Mass without being threatened.
Catholic Herald has an excellent leader re the Pope and the BBC. Have you sent in a letter yet??
Oh, dear....I do hope I got this one right. BBC (News 24) phoned and asked me to debate with a Muslim woman about wearing veils that cover the face, following comments by Member of Parliament Jack Straw. Well, of course, one is anxious to emphasise importance of religious dignity etc etc, but there are important issues here: faces matter - we can convey things by smiles and friendliness and a masked face is intimidating. The fact that each of us matters, that we are unique and unrepeatable, is part of the Christian thinking that underlies our ideas of community life and Parliamentary democracy. If followers of Mohammed really believe that women ought to cover their faces, they do need to know that for many of us this offensive and wrong: there is one God and Father of us all, and Christians do not believe that he asks his daughters to hide themselves in this way.
I tried to smile a lot and look friendly while I said all this, but it's a complicated debate.....also I wanted to say some much more important things, chief of which was that we hadn't yet an apology for the ghastly scenes at Westminster Cathedral where a mob was baying and shouting murderous threats when people went in to Mass....this was just unacceptable in our cathedral in our capital city. Well, the Moslem lady did say that she apologised for that, which was good, so maybe that's something achieved. I also said that I'm getting worried about where things go next....will Muslims announce that they are offended by the Cross on our country's flag? Or the Cross on my Rosary? (I held it up to deomonstrate). It's all getting a bit daft. We can live and work together, but we do need to stick to the Golden Rule, and also recognise that there is a specific Christian heritage in Britain, which gives us a concept of human worth which is simply central to our way of life.....
It's very important not to stir up angry feelings, or create tension when there isn't any need, so I hope I haven't made things worse all round. I keep thinking about the kindly Moslem who gave me a lift the other night, and indeed the sweet lady on the Tube who gave me her seat today (my feet were hurting terribly again - same shoes as yesterday as I hadn't had time to go home and change!). Plump, white, teenage boy sitting smugly next to her had obviously never been taught that it's polite to offer a seat to a grown-up who might need one.....
Back to a friendly office where, out of hours, I'm able to use a computer....can't get the bike home till 7pm so am seizing chance to write blog, deal with emails.
Jamie is at home, finishing his essay - I phoned to talk through the Muslim/veils issue with him. He said we should recognise there is something in the why-should-Jack-Straw-dictate-to-Muslims approach,which is important, too, of course, but he thought I was right to raise the other issues about freedom to get to Mass without being threatened.
Catholic Herald has an excellent leader re the Pope and the BBC. Have you sent in a letter yet??
Friday Oct 6th
A packed room and a great atmosphere at the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon yesterday. We have five Catholic women of the year,among them Abigail Witchells, the young mother stabbed in the neck and left completely paralysed by an attacker in rural Surrey - her courage and faith, her dignity in forgiving her attacker, shine with sparkling beauty in the bleak spiritual gloom of modern Britain. Sadly, she could not attend in person but her mother-in-law came to recieve the Award on her behalf. Among the other recipients was an 18-year-old enthusiast who had attended World Youth Day and become a volunteer at Lourdes and in community work, and a lady who had befriended a life-sentence prisoner and helped to bring her to faith and a sense of new hope and self-worth.....the guest speaker was Professor Paul Williams, whose book THE UNEXPECTED WAY (Continuum - a good read) tells the story of his conversion from Buddhism to the Catholic Faith. He was a fascinating speaker, especially in explaining why the doctrine of reincarnation is a destroyer of hope, and how the Christian understanding of the uniqueness of every human being is not only logical and true but productive of so much that is generous. He made us think - really think - about what it would mean if you truly believed that, if you died tomorrow, you would return to the world a bit later in the form of a cockroach.
The Luncheon raises funds for a different charity each year, and this time it was the turn of Cenacolo, a community which uses the traditional idea of Catholic religious life as a structure for helping people to abandon addiction to drugs and alcohol. We had two moving testimonies from Cenacolo community members, both young, both formerly addicted to heroin. The young voices, one Liverpool-accented, the other American, describing what it was like to be in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, to discover His love, to be part of a community daily praying the Rosary and the Divine Office and adhering to a strict regime of spiritual and physical activities, were immensely powerful.
Afterwards, it was a joy to meet so many people, especially the nice priest who had already communicated with me via this blog - hello, Father! - and people who enjoyed my programmes on EWTN etc.
I just wish the people who sneer at the Church could meet some of the Catholics who work in so many useful projects and taste something of the atmosphere of geniality, friendship, and large-hearted goodwill that is to be found when you get a big gathering of this kind. We had a beautiful and rather affectionate message from the Holy Father who thanked his "daughters" (we all rather liked that) for our work and commitment - it was nice to see the warmth with which people spoke of him and of how they are praying for his safety and thank God for his teaching and witness.
I had arrived by bike, thinking I was being rather clever in that I could cycle on to Victoria station, put it on the train, speak at the Catholic Women's Group meeting in Purley in the evening, and then cycle on to Mother's.....but of course it didn't work out that way. En route to Victoria I got stopped in Trafalgar Square - along with lots of other traffic - by a policeman waving his arms and blowing whistles, and as everything slowly ground to a halt a flotilla (if that's the word) of cars and motorbikes came down the Mall at a serene pace, culminating in a large black car with the numberplate "PW1" which whooshed off in the general direction of the City. I reflected that at least I could thus mention in my Blog that I'd just "happened to get a glance of the Prince of Wales" but it honestly wouldn't be true - it was pouring with rain, and getting dark, and my priority was going across that tricky corner past Whitehall and then off under Admiralty Arch, so I didn't actually see him at all.....and then of course when I got to Victoria I was reminded that bikes aren't allowed on trains between 5 and 7pm, so had to padlock the bike to some railings and head off with my rucksack full of books....
On arrival at St John the Baptist Church in Purley, I kicked off of my shoes, which had been pinching dreadfully (posh lunch, so first time I've worn proper shoes after all summer in squashy sandals) and explained that my feet were very sore. A kind CWG member said "Would you like me to massage them?" and did so, and it was absolute bliss.
A very good attendance at the meeting, and a real feeling of welcome. My talk was on Pope Benedict's life and work - again a warm sense of support and enthusiasm not just for the man and his office but for his teaching and the way he conveys the message of Christ and salvation - and afterwards they were all terribly nice and wanted to buy my book The Benedict Code (Gracewing)........I hadn't brought enough copies so will have to send some on by post to the people who have ordered them. Then the kind foot-lady gave me a lift on to Mother's, where we had a good gossip about the Luncheon (which she'd hugely enjoyed, especially arguing with a lady who said she didn't believe in Confession: M. said "I jolly well told her she was wrong"......golly, I bet she did!) and I collapsed into bed, hoping my bike was OK, all there in the wet and the dark chained to the railings in Buckingham Palace Road.....
A packed room and a great atmosphere at the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon yesterday. We have five Catholic women of the year,among them Abigail Witchells, the young mother stabbed in the neck and left completely paralysed by an attacker in rural Surrey - her courage and faith, her dignity in forgiving her attacker, shine with sparkling beauty in the bleak spiritual gloom of modern Britain. Sadly, she could not attend in person but her mother-in-law came to recieve the Award on her behalf. Among the other recipients was an 18-year-old enthusiast who had attended World Youth Day and become a volunteer at Lourdes and in community work, and a lady who had befriended a life-sentence prisoner and helped to bring her to faith and a sense of new hope and self-worth.....the guest speaker was Professor Paul Williams, whose book THE UNEXPECTED WAY (Continuum - a good read) tells the story of his conversion from Buddhism to the Catholic Faith. He was a fascinating speaker, especially in explaining why the doctrine of reincarnation is a destroyer of hope, and how the Christian understanding of the uniqueness of every human being is not only logical and true but productive of so much that is generous. He made us think - really think - about what it would mean if you truly believed that, if you died tomorrow, you would return to the world a bit later in the form of a cockroach.
The Luncheon raises funds for a different charity each year, and this time it was the turn of Cenacolo, a community which uses the traditional idea of Catholic religious life as a structure for helping people to abandon addiction to drugs and alcohol. We had two moving testimonies from Cenacolo community members, both young, both formerly addicted to heroin. The young voices, one Liverpool-accented, the other American, describing what it was like to be in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, to discover His love, to be part of a community daily praying the Rosary and the Divine Office and adhering to a strict regime of spiritual and physical activities, were immensely powerful.
Afterwards, it was a joy to meet so many people, especially the nice priest who had already communicated with me via this blog - hello, Father! - and people who enjoyed my programmes on EWTN etc.
I just wish the people who sneer at the Church could meet some of the Catholics who work in so many useful projects and taste something of the atmosphere of geniality, friendship, and large-hearted goodwill that is to be found when you get a big gathering of this kind. We had a beautiful and rather affectionate message from the Holy Father who thanked his "daughters" (we all rather liked that) for our work and commitment - it was nice to see the warmth with which people spoke of him and of how they are praying for his safety and thank God for his teaching and witness.
I had arrived by bike, thinking I was being rather clever in that I could cycle on to Victoria station, put it on the train, speak at the Catholic Women's Group meeting in Purley in the evening, and then cycle on to Mother's.....but of course it didn't work out that way. En route to Victoria I got stopped in Trafalgar Square - along with lots of other traffic - by a policeman waving his arms and blowing whistles, and as everything slowly ground to a halt a flotilla (if that's the word) of cars and motorbikes came down the Mall at a serene pace, culminating in a large black car with the numberplate "PW1" which whooshed off in the general direction of the City. I reflected that at least I could thus mention in my Blog that I'd just "happened to get a glance of the Prince of Wales" but it honestly wouldn't be true - it was pouring with rain, and getting dark, and my priority was going across that tricky corner past Whitehall and then off under Admiralty Arch, so I didn't actually see him at all.....and then of course when I got to Victoria I was reminded that bikes aren't allowed on trains between 5 and 7pm, so had to padlock the bike to some railings and head off with my rucksack full of books....
On arrival at St John the Baptist Church in Purley, I kicked off of my shoes, which had been pinching dreadfully (posh lunch, so first time I've worn proper shoes after all summer in squashy sandals) and explained that my feet were very sore. A kind CWG member said "Would you like me to massage them?" and did so, and it was absolute bliss.
A very good attendance at the meeting, and a real feeling of welcome. My talk was on Pope Benedict's life and work - again a warm sense of support and enthusiasm not just for the man and his office but for his teaching and the way he conveys the message of Christ and salvation - and afterwards they were all terribly nice and wanted to buy my book The Benedict Code (Gracewing)........I hadn't brought enough copies so will have to send some on by post to the people who have ordered them. Then the kind foot-lady gave me a lift on to Mother's, where we had a good gossip about the Luncheon (which she'd hugely enjoyed, especially arguing with a lady who said she didn't believe in Confession: M. said "I jolly well told her she was wrong"......golly, I bet she did!) and I collapsed into bed, hoping my bike was OK, all there in the wet and the dark chained to the railings in Buckingham Palace Road.....
Friday Oct 6th
A packed room and a great atmosphere at the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon yesterday. We have five Catholic women of the year,among them Abigail Witchells, the young mother stabbed in the neck and left completely paralysed by an attacker in rural Surrey - her courage and faith, her dignity in forgiving her attacker, shine with sparkling beauty in the bleak spiritual gloom of modern Britain. Sadly, she could not attend in person but her mother-in-law came to recieve the Award on her behalf. Among the other recipients was an 18-year-old enthusiast who had attended World Youth Day and become a volunteer at Lourdes and in community work, and a lady who had befriended a life-sentence prisoner and helped to bring her to faith and a sense of new hope and self-worth.....the guest speaker was Professor Paul Williams, whose book THE UNEXPECTED WAY (Continuum - a good read) tells the story of his conversion from Buddhism to the Catholic Faith. He was a fascinating speaker, especially in explaining why the doctrine of reincarnation is a destroyer of hope, and how the Christian understanding of the uniqueness of every human being is not only logical and true but productive of so much that is generous. He made us think - really think - about what it would mean if you truly believed that, if you died tomorrow, you would return to the world a bit later in the form of a cockroach.
The Luncheon raises funds for a different charity each year, and this time it was the turn of Cenacolo, a community which uses the traditional idea of Catholic religious life as a structure for helping people to abandon addiction to drugs and alcohol. We had two moving testimonies from Cenacolo community members, both young, both formerly addicted to heroin. The young voices, one Liverpool-accented, the other American, describing what it was like to be in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, to discover His love, to be part of a community daily praying the Rosary and the Divine Office and adhering to a strict regime of spiritual and physical activities, were immensely powerful.
Afterwards, it was a joy to meet so many people, especially the nice priest who had already communicated with me via this blog - hello, Father! - and people who enjoyed my programmes on EWTN etc.
I just wish the people who sneer at the Church could meet some of the Catholics who work in so many useful projects and taste something of the atmosphere of geniality, friendship, and large-hearted goodwill that is to be found when you get a big gathering of this kind. We had a beautiful and rather affectionate message from the Holy Father who thanked his "daughters" (we all rather liked that) for our work and commitment - it was nice to see the warmth with which people spoke of him and of how they are praying for his safety and thank God for his teaching and witness.
I had arrived by bike, thinking I was being rather clever in that I could cycle on to Victoria station, put it on the train, speak at the Catholic Women's Group meeting in Purley in the evening, and then cycle on to Mother's.....but of course it didn't work out that way. En route to Victoria I got stopped in Trafalgar Square - along with lots of other traffic - by a policeman waving his arms and blowing whistles, and as everything slowly ground to a halt a flotilla (if that's the word) of cars and motorbikes came down the Mall at a serene pace, culminating in a large black car with the numberplate "PW1" which whooshed off in the general direction of the City. I reflected that at least I could thus mention in my Blog that I'd just "happened to get a glance of the Prince of Wales" but it honestly wouldn't be true - it was pouring with rain, and getting dark, and my priority was going across that tricky corner past Whitehall and then off under Admiralty Arch, so I didn't actually see him at all.....and then of course when I got to Victoria I was reminded that bikes aren't allowed on trains between 5 and 7pm, so had to padlock the bike to some railings and head off with my rucksack full of books....
On arrival at St John the Baptist Church in Purley, I kicked off of my shoes, which had been pinching dreadfully (posh lunch, so first time I've worn proper shoes after all summer in squashy sandals) and explained that my feet were very sore. A kind CWG member said "Would you like me to massage them?" and did so, and it was absolute bliss.
A very good attendance at the meeting, and a real feeling of welcome. My talk was on Pope Benedict's life and work - again a warm sense of support and enthusiasm not just for the man and his office but for his teaching and the way he conveys the message of Christ and salvation - and afterwards they were all terribly nice and wanted to buy my book The Benedict Code (Gracewing)........I hadn't brought enough copies so will have to send some on by post to the people who have ordered them. Then the kind foot-lady gave me a lift on to Mother's, where we had a good gossip about the Luncheon (which she'd hugely enjoyed, especially arguing with a lady who said she didn't believe in Confession: M. said "I jolly well told her she was wrong"......golly, I bet she did!) and I collapsed into bed, hoping my bike was OK, all there in the wet and the dark chained to the railings in Buckingham Palace Road.....
A packed room and a great atmosphere at the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon yesterday. We have five Catholic women of the year,among them Abigail Witchells, the young mother stabbed in the neck and left completely paralysed by an attacker in rural Surrey - her courage and faith, her dignity in forgiving her attacker, shine with sparkling beauty in the bleak spiritual gloom of modern Britain. Sadly, she could not attend in person but her mother-in-law came to recieve the Award on her behalf. Among the other recipients was an 18-year-old enthusiast who had attended World Youth Day and become a volunteer at Lourdes and in community work, and a lady who had befriended a life-sentence prisoner and helped to bring her to faith and a sense of new hope and self-worth.....the guest speaker was Professor Paul Williams, whose book THE UNEXPECTED WAY (Continuum - a good read) tells the story of his conversion from Buddhism to the Catholic Faith. He was a fascinating speaker, especially in explaining why the doctrine of reincarnation is a destroyer of hope, and how the Christian understanding of the uniqueness of every human being is not only logical and true but productive of so much that is generous. He made us think - really think - about what it would mean if you truly believed that, if you died tomorrow, you would return to the world a bit later in the form of a cockroach.
The Luncheon raises funds for a different charity each year, and this time it was the turn of Cenacolo, a community which uses the traditional idea of Catholic religious life as a structure for helping people to abandon addiction to drugs and alcohol. We had two moving testimonies from Cenacolo community members, both young, both formerly addicted to heroin. The young voices, one Liverpool-accented, the other American, describing what it was like to be in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, to discover His love, to be part of a community daily praying the Rosary and the Divine Office and adhering to a strict regime of spiritual and physical activities, were immensely powerful.
Afterwards, it was a joy to meet so many people, especially the nice priest who had already communicated with me via this blog - hello, Father! - and people who enjoyed my programmes on EWTN etc.
I just wish the people who sneer at the Church could meet some of the Catholics who work in so many useful projects and taste something of the atmosphere of geniality, friendship, and large-hearted goodwill that is to be found when you get a big gathering of this kind. We had a beautiful and rather affectionate message from the Holy Father who thanked his "daughters" (we all rather liked that) for our work and commitment - it was nice to see the warmth with which people spoke of him and of how they are praying for his safety and thank God for his teaching and witness.
I had arrived by bike, thinking I was being rather clever in that I could cycle on to Victoria station, put it on the train, speak at the Catholic Women's Group meeting in Purley in the evening, and then cycle on to Mother's.....but of course it didn't work out that way. En route to Victoria I got stopped in Trafalgar Square - along with lots of other traffic - by a policeman waving his arms and blowing whistles, and as everything slowly ground to a halt a flotilla (if that's the word) of cars and motorbikes came down the Mall at a serene pace, culminating in a large black car with the numberplate "PW1" which whooshed off in the general direction of the City. I reflected that at least I could thus mention in my Blog that I'd just "happened to get a glance of the Prince of Wales" but it honestly wouldn't be true - it was pouring with rain, and getting dark, and my priority was going across that tricky corner past Whitehall and then off under Admiralty Arch, so I didn't actually see him at all.....and then of course when I got to Victoria I was reminded that bikes aren't allowed on trains between 5 and 7pm, so had to padlock the bike to some railings and head off with my rucksack full of books....
On arrival at St John the Baptist Church in Purley, I kicked off of my shoes, which had been pinching dreadfully (posh lunch, so first time I've worn proper shoes after all summer in squashy sandals) and explained that my feet were very sore. A kind CWG member said "Would you like me to massage them?" and did so, and it was absolute bliss.
A very good attendance at the meeting, and a real feeling of welcome. My talk was on Pope Benedict's life and work - again a warm sense of support and enthusiasm not just for the man and his office but for his teaching and the way he conveys the message of Christ and salvation - and afterwards they were all terribly nice and wanted to buy my book The Benedict Code (Gracewing)........I hadn't brought enough copies so will have to send some on by post to the people who have ordered them. Then the kind foot-lady gave me a lift on to Mother's, where we had a good gossip about the Luncheon (which she'd hugely enjoyed, especially arguing with a lady who said she didn't believe in Confession: M. said "I jolly well told her she was wrong"......golly, I bet she did!) and I collapsed into bed, hoping my bike was OK, all there in the wet and the dark chained to the railings in Buckingham Palace Road.....
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Thursday Oct 5th
Have you SENT IN YOUR COMPLAINT TO THE BBC yet re the Panorama programe on Saturday evening which claimed that the Pope was involved in covering up crimes of pederasty?
All you have to do is to tap "BBC complaints" into Google and you will be given clear directions.
Please don'ty just sit at your computer whizing comfortably around the Catholic blogs....that is not how things are achieved. Write to the BBC now instead.
Have you SENT IN YOUR COMPLAINT TO THE BBC yet re the Panorama programe on Saturday evening which claimed that the Pope was involved in covering up crimes of pederasty?
All you have to do is to tap "BBC complaints" into Google and you will be given clear directions.
Please don'ty just sit at your computer whizing comfortably around the Catholic blogs....that is not how things are achieved. Write to the BBC now instead.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Wed Oct 4th
Getting into my stride for the day....plans for a launch of the Tamezin Young Writer Competition for 2007, at the Tamezin HQ at Chelsea Embankment, coffee and pastries and a chance to meet the team of journalists who run the project, plus music from a young singer, Sara Mellor. Sara is blind, and through my friendship with her I have learned to write Braille....while she was visiting us, we met a neighbour and got chatting. He lives two doors down, is a Catholic, and helps a group called the Church Blind Society (or something - may have got the name wrong) by storing their Braille machines in his flat. So he offered to lend me a machine and teach me Braille..... thanks to him I was in due course out the words of the "Ave Maria" and Pater Noster in Latin in Braille for Sara ......Braille is quite a noisy thing to write, as it involves punching through paper with a heavy machine. Incidentally, if anyone has any tape or DVD about saints - especially Saint Joan - could they send a comment to this blog as Sara is terribly keen to find out about St Joan and can't find any tape about her........imagine being blind and wanting information and every book in the world is just a set of blank pages.
For American readers of this blog: do you read the National Catholic Register? I have a couple of features coming up in it....Also, Jamie and I are speaking at the Coming Home Network conference in Columbus, Ohio.....brochures about this arrived today. I am looking forward to it, because of all those nice American breakfasts with pancakes and syrup and eggs and bacon all on the same plate (weird, but delicious if you eat them in the right order).
CONGRATULATIONS to the winner (in Ireland) of my Quiz....prize will be on its way by post. Two winners so far, and a couple more prizes available: remember, I can't comunicate with you unless you give me a NAME and POSTAL ADDRESS. Anonymous entries to the Quiz are a waste of time! Er....and I'm still looking for some British winners! Ireland and America re great, but what about the poor old UK???
A reader of this blog has sent in a most useful reminder: PLEASE DO TELL THE BBC that you are angry about the dishonesty and distortions in the recent Panorama programe which accused the Pope of using top-level tactics to cover up hideous cases of child abuse. SEND YOUR COMENTS NOW to the BBC: www.bbc.uk/complaints. It would also be useful to write to your MP: the BBC gets its money from public funds.
There is a LOT of useful information on this as various Catholic blogs have provided detailed material showing where the programe was dishonest and confused: look up "Cafeteria closed" and "Hermeneutic of Continuity" and "Joee Blogs".
PLEASE LET ME KNOW what response you get from the BBC.
Getting into my stride for the day....plans for a launch of the Tamezin Young Writer Competition for 2007, at the Tamezin HQ at Chelsea Embankment, coffee and pastries and a chance to meet the team of journalists who run the project, plus music from a young singer, Sara Mellor. Sara is blind, and through my friendship with her I have learned to write Braille....while she was visiting us, we met a neighbour and got chatting. He lives two doors down, is a Catholic, and helps a group called the Church Blind Society (or something - may have got the name wrong) by storing their Braille machines in his flat. So he offered to lend me a machine and teach me Braille..... thanks to him I was in due course out the words of the "Ave Maria" and Pater Noster in Latin in Braille for Sara ......Braille is quite a noisy thing to write, as it involves punching through paper with a heavy machine. Incidentally, if anyone has any tape or DVD about saints - especially Saint Joan - could they send a comment to this blog as Sara is terribly keen to find out about St Joan and can't find any tape about her........imagine being blind and wanting information and every book in the world is just a set of blank pages.
For American readers of this blog: do you read the National Catholic Register? I have a couple of features coming up in it....Also, Jamie and I are speaking at the Coming Home Network conference in Columbus, Ohio.....brochures about this arrived today. I am looking forward to it, because of all those nice American breakfasts with pancakes and syrup and eggs and bacon all on the same plate (weird, but delicious if you eat them in the right order).
CONGRATULATIONS to the winner (in Ireland) of my Quiz....prize will be on its way by post. Two winners so far, and a couple more prizes available: remember, I can't comunicate with you unless you give me a NAME and POSTAL ADDRESS. Anonymous entries to the Quiz are a waste of time! Er....and I'm still looking for some British winners! Ireland and America re great, but what about the poor old UK???
A reader of this blog has sent in a most useful reminder: PLEASE DO TELL THE BBC that you are angry about the dishonesty and distortions in the recent Panorama programe which accused the Pope of using top-level tactics to cover up hideous cases of child abuse. SEND YOUR COMENTS NOW to the BBC: www.bbc.uk/complaints. It would also be useful to write to your MP: the BBC gets its money from public funds.
There is a LOT of useful information on this as various Catholic blogs have provided detailed material showing where the programe was dishonest and confused: look up "Cafeteria closed" and "Hermeneutic of Continuity" and "Joee Blogs".
PLEASE LET ME KNOW what response you get from the BBC.
Wednesday Oct 4th
At last! A cool fresh Autumn morning, and the pleasure of pulling on my guernsey - untouched since early May - and cycling off to the Internet Cafe (Library closed in this Borough on Wednesdays....) to collect emails and work on my blog.
I can't - I really CAN'T ! - reply to all the kind people who are sending in comments, especially those from America who all sound so nice and have good memories of England from time spent working or holidaying here.....oh, dear, it sems awfully rude but I do hope you all understand.....just try to imagine me here in a busy cafe, with exactly 59 minutes in which to write all sorts of things, including features for the Catholic press, administrative messages about the Festival of Catholic Culture on Sat Nov 4th at Westminster Cathedral Hall, and about tomorow's Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, and more....
Next week I start a new series of talks in schools with the Tamezin magazine team. This magazine for tenage girls was launched as an alternative to the pornographic/gross/vulgar/semi-literature rubish that is on offer from the main promoters of teenage sub-culture today. It's taken off, and is thriving. SEND FOR A COPY NOW. Send £5 and ask for a couple of back isues: they're all a good read: Tamezin magazine, 1 Chelsea Embankment, London SW3. We have a team that goes into schools, where I do a talk/workshop on journalism, and the girls have a chance to try out their interviewing skills, learn a bit of shorthand, attend a mock press conference, and work in writing headlines....then we offer ideas for features that we need for Tamezin, explaining that we are looking out for bright writing talent....we get some good features sent in, and some girls also come to London to take part in art-and-design workshops, learn how to do page layouts, etc. Schools are enthusiastic, and we are getting a great many requests to bring the team in: I hugely enjoy being in the classroom and engaging with pupils and it sems to bring a fresh stimulus to my own writing and journalism too.....next week I'm off to Manchester and Macclesfield, and we also have some return visits to a number of schols in and around London.....
On Monday I spoke to a friendly local branch of the Mothers' Union, the Anglican women's organisation founded in the first years of the 20th century: a pleasant and welcoming mood as I spoke about "Celebrating Traditional Feasts and Seasons" but a slightly sad feeling of nostalgia and 'things-aren't-what-they-used-to-be.' As always when talking to older ladies - many grandmothers, retired teachers, women who have travelled and lived in interesting places, women with good stories to tell and lots to share - I picked up many useful snippets of information and enriched my store of knowledge on ways of celebrating the great round of the seasons that mark the Christian year. The sad thing is that there is also much wisdom on things like family discipline, coping with toddler (and teenage!) tantrums, passing on traditions - but it's not easy to find ways of communicating this to the next generation of young parents.....
At last! A cool fresh Autumn morning, and the pleasure of pulling on my guernsey - untouched since early May - and cycling off to the Internet Cafe (Library closed in this Borough on Wednesdays....) to collect emails and work on my blog.
I can't - I really CAN'T ! - reply to all the kind people who are sending in comments, especially those from America who all sound so nice and have good memories of England from time spent working or holidaying here.....oh, dear, it sems awfully rude but I do hope you all understand.....just try to imagine me here in a busy cafe, with exactly 59 minutes in which to write all sorts of things, including features for the Catholic press, administrative messages about the Festival of Catholic Culture on Sat Nov 4th at Westminster Cathedral Hall, and about tomorow's Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, and more....
Next week I start a new series of talks in schools with the Tamezin magazine team. This magazine for tenage girls was launched as an alternative to the pornographic/gross/vulgar/semi-literature rubish that is on offer from the main promoters of teenage sub-culture today. It's taken off, and is thriving. SEND FOR A COPY NOW. Send £5 and ask for a couple of back isues: they're all a good read: Tamezin magazine, 1 Chelsea Embankment, London SW3. We have a team that goes into schools, where I do a talk/workshop on journalism, and the girls have a chance to try out their interviewing skills, learn a bit of shorthand, attend a mock press conference, and work in writing headlines....then we offer ideas for features that we need for Tamezin, explaining that we are looking out for bright writing talent....we get some good features sent in, and some girls also come to London to take part in art-and-design workshops, learn how to do page layouts, etc. Schools are enthusiastic, and we are getting a great many requests to bring the team in: I hugely enjoy being in the classroom and engaging with pupils and it sems to bring a fresh stimulus to my own writing and journalism too.....next week I'm off to Manchester and Macclesfield, and we also have some return visits to a number of schols in and around London.....
On Monday I spoke to a friendly local branch of the Mothers' Union, the Anglican women's organisation founded in the first years of the 20th century: a pleasant and welcoming mood as I spoke about "Celebrating Traditional Feasts and Seasons" but a slightly sad feeling of nostalgia and 'things-aren't-what-they-used-to-be.' As always when talking to older ladies - many grandmothers, retired teachers, women who have travelled and lived in interesting places, women with good stories to tell and lots to share - I picked up many useful snippets of information and enriched my store of knowledge on ways of celebrating the great round of the seasons that mark the Christian year. The sad thing is that there is also much wisdom on things like family discipline, coping with toddler (and teenage!) tantrums, passing on traditions - but it's not easy to find ways of communicating this to the next generation of young parents.....
Monday, October 02, 2006
Mon Oct 2nd
Last night's TV programme (BBC) covering homosexual-abuse by clergy and the way it has been tackled by the Church seems to have used the "tell a half-truth" system that is very tempting for all working in the media, but makes for deeply dishonest reporting.....there was tendentious use of Vatican documents. I want to return to this topic, but meanwhile it is covered well in The "Hermeneutic of Continuity" blog and the RC Bishops of England and Wales have put out a statement on their website.
Last night's TV programme (BBC) covering homosexual-abuse by clergy and the way it has been tackled by the Church seems to have used the "tell a half-truth" system that is very tempting for all working in the media, but makes for deeply dishonest reporting.....there was tendentious use of Vatican documents. I want to return to this topic, but meanwhile it is covered well in The "Hermeneutic of Continuity" blog and the RC Bishops of England and Wales have put out a statement on their website.
Sunday Oct 1st
To Wickenden Manor in Sussex for a conference discusing family life and ideas for enriching it....my contribution was a talk on the Calendar, celebrating traditional feasts and seasons of the year.....it is exactly 20 years ince the first edition of my Book of Feast and Seasons (Gracewing publishers) came out and it is now in its fifth edition, and has given rise to a radio series a TV series on EWTN (watch this Advent, Nov/Dec, and you''ll see me in the kitchen, busy with mince pies and Advent wreaths, and Lucia crowns and all sorts of things). New book "The Yearbook of Feast and Seasons", a companion volume to the (still popular!) first book, is due out in 2007. In the pleasant sitting-room at Wickenden, after a delicious lunch, we were able to discuss practical matters in a constructive atmosphere, with some good ideas coming from busy families. How to cope with the modern lavish birthday party at which the birthday child is given huge quantities of presents that he can barely even acknowledge adequately, let alone enjoy and appreciate? One idea: birthday child chooses a couple from among the (still wrapped) parcels, and the others are donated to children in need. How to cope with TV/computer pressures? Succesful practical solutions by families present ranged from having a "No TV on weekdays" rule, to locking the TV except for a limited set of programmes, and keeping the TV in a cupboard so that viewing it involved a specific decision. There was a general agrement on no-TV-and-no-internet-access-in-child's-bedroom, also on having filters (regularly updated) operating on various key words and phrases, and having a family acknolwedgement that parents viewed the hard-drive so that all websites visited would be known. What also emerged is that one or two families can have a significant impact on local network of family groups, eg can help to damp down a culture of ever-more-lavish parties by simply refusing to join in.....
It is interesting to note that most of the problems raised at this, and other similar discusions I have attended in recent years, always end up focusing on the problems of affluence. It's actually not porn, drugs, alcohol or invcolvement in weird cults that present immediate problems, but the deadening reality of childhoods threatened by massive consumerism and the destruction of innocent pleasures by the fostering of greed.....all this within living memory of an era when many parents in Britain worried about saving enough money to buy just a few modest gifts for the children and treats for birthdays.
We drove back through green evening countryside, saying the Rosary. It's good that we've been getting rain these past few days: the reservoirs in Susex and Kent have been terribly low, and perhaps wil now begin to look normal again. The lawns at Wickenden were green, and logs were stacked in the doorway for winter fires - a comfortable sight.
To Wickenden Manor in Sussex for a conference discusing family life and ideas for enriching it....my contribution was a talk on the Calendar, celebrating traditional feasts and seasons of the year.....it is exactly 20 years ince the first edition of my Book of Feast and Seasons (Gracewing publishers) came out and it is now in its fifth edition, and has given rise to a radio series a TV series on EWTN (watch this Advent, Nov/Dec, and you''ll see me in the kitchen, busy with mince pies and Advent wreaths, and Lucia crowns and all sorts of things). New book "The Yearbook of Feast and Seasons", a companion volume to the (still popular!) first book, is due out in 2007. In the pleasant sitting-room at Wickenden, after a delicious lunch, we were able to discuss practical matters in a constructive atmosphere, with some good ideas coming from busy families. How to cope with the modern lavish birthday party at which the birthday child is given huge quantities of presents that he can barely even acknowledge adequately, let alone enjoy and appreciate? One idea: birthday child chooses a couple from among the (still wrapped) parcels, and the others are donated to children in need. How to cope with TV/computer pressures? Succesful practical solutions by families present ranged from having a "No TV on weekdays" rule, to locking the TV except for a limited set of programmes, and keeping the TV in a cupboard so that viewing it involved a specific decision. There was a general agrement on no-TV-and-no-internet-access-in-child's-bedroom, also on having filters (regularly updated) operating on various key words and phrases, and having a family acknolwedgement that parents viewed the hard-drive so that all websites visited would be known. What also emerged is that one or two families can have a significant impact on local network of family groups, eg can help to damp down a culture of ever-more-lavish parties by simply refusing to join in.....
It is interesting to note that most of the problems raised at this, and other similar discusions I have attended in recent years, always end up focusing on the problems of affluence. It's actually not porn, drugs, alcohol or invcolvement in weird cults that present immediate problems, but the deadening reality of childhoods threatened by massive consumerism and the destruction of innocent pleasures by the fostering of greed.....all this within living memory of an era when many parents in Britain worried about saving enough money to buy just a few modest gifts for the children and treats for birthdays.
We drove back through green evening countryside, saying the Rosary. It's good that we've been getting rain these past few days: the reservoirs in Susex and Kent have been terribly low, and perhaps wil now begin to look normal again. The lawns at Wickenden were green, and logs were stacked in the doorway for winter fires - a comfortable sight.
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