FERNYHALGH

It was a real priviledge being at the ancient and lovely shrine of Fernyhalgh at the weekend. This is Ladyewell, a place dedicated to Our Lady since before the Norman Conquest, a place of pilgrimage, and of staunch loyalty to the Catholic Faith even in the most difficult times. I splashed my face with water from the well, prayed, filled a bottle to take home to Mother and to Jamie... I was at Ladyewell to give a talk on "Traditional feasts and seasons" to a Family Day organised by a local priest. Numbers attending were not large, but the atmosphere was friendly and it was especially good to have young people in the group. On such a sunny day it was impossible to stay indoors, so we gathered on the lawn. I stood, most people sat on the chairs provided,the younger ones flopped on the ground, lay on their tummies, or sat cross-legged. It was a happy day. We had enjoyed a picnic lunch, and things finished with a most beautiful Corpus Christi procession, down the lane beside the golden fileds, with the bell ringing out to tell the land of Christ's presence, and a priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament in its Monstrance, and all of us saying the Rosary interspersed with Latin chant. At the church, we joined members of the local parish for Mass.


CATHOLIC LANCASHIRE?

The next morning I visited an old friend, Sister Catherine, who used to work for
Aid to the Church in Need and now lives in Preston. It was a joy to be with her and we talked and talked. Back in the 1970s, ACN in Britain was a very small and relatively unknown charity, struggling to convey to people something of the huge needs of Christians suffering under Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. We reminisced about those days...before we had our Polish Pope (how thrilling it was when he was elected!! Remember?)...international gatherings with ACN's founder Fr Werenfried van Straaten...the first tiny British office in Kent and then later the one at Chichester...

Of course we spoke of current things, of the local scene, of the Church. Here in Preston the problems of the Church are all too evident, numbers for Mass slumping, fewer and fewer First Communicants and most of them from families that are not really practising...parishes closing, mosques being built...

But I slipped into St Wilfrid's church, which I last visited for a glorious family wedding nearly thirty years ago, and found it as beautiful as I remembered, and as welcoming. There was Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, people were dropping in to pray...oh, we do need Catholic Lancashire and all that it means...