St ANDREW'S UNIVERSITY

A wonderful visit to St Andrew's, in Scotland, where I gave a talk to the Catholic Society at the University. Great fun, and a delightful bunch of young people. Mass first in the chapel - as we prayed, a glorious evening sun played on the silvery sea beyond the window and dusk fell gently...this really is a most beautiful corner of the world.

My talk was on "The Church and Women", looked at what Christianity has done for women, the role played by remarkable Catholic women down the centuries etc etc. We looked at the whole idea of the Church as the Bride of Christ, the meaning of the Cana miracle, Christ as the Bridegroom....and the Mass as having a "nuptial meaning" and that is why the Church is now Mother Church and we are all children of that union...it all gets v. interesting. There is a useful Catholic Truth Society leaflet about why the Church doesn't have women priests, and I was glad to see copies of this - and other excellent CTS material - at the Chaplaincy.

As evening ended, we had Compline in the chapel, by candlelight, with the sea now a gleaming vision of beaten silver in the distance. The young voices sang an evening hymn and said Compline beautifully, and it reminded me of evenings at summer youth gatherings of the FAITH Movement years ago, the same sense of youthful unity, of friends praying together at the end of the day.