Jan 3rd
Man came re our Internet problems. Jamie talked to him, and to British Telecom and to Orange (Internet provider) etc etc on the telephone. I said Hail Marys in another room while pretending to tidy up and do housework. Oh, I do hope the wretched thing is sorted out....preferably without people coming to blows or meeting in court......

Newsletter "Consortio" arrives from the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, based at Gaming on Austria: I spoke at their conference in March which was a wonderful gathering at a glorious mountain location in Austria (Sonntagberg, where a pilgrimage house next to a fabulous baroque basilica has been restored by friends of ours, the Doblhoffs, and is now being run as a retreat house and conference centre). After the conference, Jamie and I visited the Theological Institute at Gaming - a restored medieval Charterhouse which also houses the European campus of Steubenville's Franscican University. There are some great young people involved with the Institute, and a sense of life and enthusiasm and working for the future of the Church. There are also some very distinguished experts in a number of fields, and a list of recent lectures is tantalising: topics ranged from "What has Rome to do with Brussels? The European Union, Human Rights, and the Dignity of every member of the Human Family", to Christian-Jewish dialogue, celibacy, the Roman Rite, and Good Shepherd Catechesis Training. A number of people from Britain attended the March conference, which is a good sign - the Institute is going to play an important part in developing and fostering sound thinking on marriage, family life, family policy, and projects for communicating this to young couples and to the whole Church, especially in Europe. It's all light years away from the the dreary material on these subjects that we have been recieving from other Catholic sources in recent years, such as the pointless "Listening 2005" expensive paperwork produced, alas, from the Bishops' Conference bureaucracy in Ecclestone Square here in London......

Today, J and I are beavering away at our respective computers, and J has just "burned on to a disk" (official correct term, am v. pleased w. myself for using it) my latest book, which will go by post to GRACEWING my publishers today.

HURRAH!!!!

It is a lovely feeling to start a New Year and have a book safely away....

What is the book? Glad you asked. It is "The Yearbook of Feasts and Seasons" a completely rewritten, reworked, updated handbook for celebrating all the traditional feasts of the Christian year at home, in school, in a parish or religious community.....packed full of recipes, games, songs, information, snippets of history etc etc. Am indebted to all sorts of people, such as Mrs Evelyn Birge Vitz - whom I met at that conference at Sonntagberg and whose excellent cookery book has been a most useful source - and the dear nuns at Minster-in-Thanet in Kent, for ideas and inspiration.

While lots of families do have a great time at Christmas with games and music and fun, too many - even Catholic - people have no idea of the richness that is theirs by right, and have cross unhappy irritating experiences watching TV, playing computer games, bickering, and feeling let down, with a sense of disappointment that what should have been memorable and pleasant was rather horrid. For the proper celebration of the feasts of the year people need things to do: Christianity is an incarnate Faith and living it doesn't just mean vaguely knowing what it is about, but marking it throughout life with signs and symbols, food, music, games, talk, arts and crafts, indoor and outdoor activities......

When I go out to post the disk to Gracewing, will cycle on to Mother's for cup of tea. My Christmas gift to her included the beautiful new Calendar produced by Italian magazine Famiglia Christiana with lovely pix from Rome of our dear Pope Benefdict.....superb shots of gardens at Castel Gandolpho, and of Papa Benedict at prayer, working on papers, on the telephone, etc. He does look so reassuring. I like to see pix of him doing everyday things, although it's a terrific workload for a man of almost 80.....