......AND LOOKING TO LENT

The Association of Catholic Women will be holding its annual DAY OF RECOLLECTION on Saturday February 24th at St James' Church, Spanish Place London W1 (nearest tube: Baker Street). This is always a day of inspiration and a time to think about the things that really matter as Lent begins: having the beautiful church of St James - soaring arches, peaceful atmosphere, sense of timelessness - at our disposal helps a good deal, and we have inspiring talks, time for prayer, and Mass and Benediction. All welcome - bring a packed lunch, tea and home-made cake provided......

ALSO.....
In Holy Week a group of us come thank our priests as they gather for the annual CHRISM Mass....at Westminster Cathedral this is on the Tuesday of Holy Week and at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, it is on the morning of Maundy Thursday. This all began as an initiative of Mulier Fortis who leads the group at St George's in Southwark, and this year ladies from the Westminster diocese want to affirm their thanks, too......

If you want to join us on either occasion, send a message to this Blog WITH AN EMAIL ADDRESS AT WHICH I CAN CONTACT YOU.

For those who don't know: the Chrism Mass is the one at which the holy oils which will be used during the year (to anoint babies at baptism, and candidates for Confirmation, and the sick) are blessed and distributed, emphasising the common bonds which unite all priests with their Bishop and with Rome.

We hand out holy cards which carry a prayer and a message of thanks to our priests, and we have a big placard which announces our thanks, which they can see as they walk in procession to the Cathedral. It's always a joy that young families come to join us - the children like to see their own parish priest and give a wave to "Farver" as he goes by, and are usually quite impressed impressed by the procession with bishops and croziers and candles and so on.....

All this began because a few years ago we heard that tiresome campaigners were turning up with a banner demanding that women be ordained, and we felt it was all wrong that on this holy day they should be spoiling a sacred rite by idiotic (and frankly, to many of us, deeply offensive) campaigning. So things got moving....and since the numbers and style involved in our efforts are...well....greater and fresher and more youthful than those of the priestess-campaigners generally, and with a genuine positive note and so on....it's all grown and flourished and we believe it's really important and worthwhile. We are touched to see that our holy cards are always well-recieved: a good deal of thought and care goes into the design each year. For more info, go to the blog of Mulier Fortis: I've given you the link above.

And if nothing like this is happening in your diocese, have you considered launching it? Contact me for ideas and information.....