HOME...

...after an Easter that included a magnificent Easter Vigil at the Oxford Oratory, a lot of family talk and fun with four generations of one side of the family and three of another, a trip on the West Somerset Railway (recommended), a good deal of chocolate, and the joy of wobbly-legged lambs in the wet fields, and primroses in lanes, and church bells and pub lunches and the sea and time to read.

We tried to watch the Pope's Urbi et Orbi message on TV (BBC) on Easter Sunday but it suddenly went off the air and we got Songs of Praise instead. Did anyone else have this problem? A phone call to the Beeb produced an assurance that I'd get an email about the matter within ten working days.

The current Catholic Herald has a feature by me about a painting of St John Fisher in the chapel of the school dedicated to him in Purley, Surrey. The feature, very nicely, concludes with a reference to this Blog and an invitation to people to read it...so here's a cheery welcome to anyone who has taken the CH's advice and is thus reading this...

After a beautiful Holy Week...

...in the local parish, I'm off with Jamie for a round of family visits for Easter. Not back at blogging till Low Sunday.

"THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS"...

...said our big placard, and with a cheery crowd of young people from St Patrick's, Soho Square, and a great team from the Association of Catholic Women, we greeted priests of the Westminster diocese as they arrived for the Chrism Mass this morning at the Cathedral. It was glorious: a chance to greet so many priests personally and exchange news and greetings, a joy to see the genuine pleasure given by our small holy cards - bearing a verse from Scripture and the thanks of women in the diocese for the service given by priests - and all in the wonderful setting of the great Cathedral at the start of Holy Week.

And...the ladies campaigning for the ordination of women, who used to hold a campaign at this event, calling for the Church to create priestesses, weren't there. That chapter is over.

Information...

...of various sorts:

A date for your diary: Sat Nov 8th, Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster Cathedral Hall. Yes, yes of course I know it's months ahead. That's the whole point. Put it in your diary now and then it's fixed and you won't plan other things on the same day. We had our first planning meeting a few days' back, lots of good ideas some fine speakers, choir etc lining up. The Festival is now in its 8th year, and I remember a gleeful report announcing, when the first was under way, that surely it would all be a terrible flop...(this was wishful thinking, from the don't-let's-ever-have-any-good-news-about-the-Church school of thought). Each year, attendance always tops the 1,000 mark...

If you are interested to hear Fr Aidan Nichols - author of, among many other books, The Realm, an unfashionable essay on the Conversion of England - consider getting a ticket for the 2008 Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, at which he is guest speaker, this Autumn. The date is Oct 10th, venue the Thistle Hotel, at London's Marble Arch. Details: send SAE to the Chairman, CWYL, 22 Milton Rd, WARE. Herts. Funds raised this year go to Youth 2000.

Domestic notes: an enquirer to this Blog asks how I manage to watch videos without owning a TV. You may be interested to know that you can get, v. cheaply, a flat screen, unconnected to any TV, enabling you to watch videos and DVDs. No TV licence required, of course. And the thing folds away under a desk so itsn't a dreary grey permanent presence. Try it.

This week...

...I walked in procession in our local parish to mark Palm Sunday (albeit only under cover from the hall to the church - it was raining hard) , and will tomorrow (Tuesday) attend the Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral where along with other members of the Association of Catholic Women I'll be handing out small thank-you cards to priests as they arrive for the annual blessing of the sacred oils.

Yes, I'm more or less recovered from flu - thank you for the kind enquiries.

I think one probably doesn't Blog on Good Friday, and after that Jamie and I will be at various family gatherings celebrating Easter, first in Oxfordshire and then in Somerset. Which brings me to a nice story about apples...

Last September in Somerset the trees were just laden with the most wonderful fruit, and at the Sacred Heart Church in Minehead, the nice parish priest urged anyone who wanted any apples simply to go into the presbytery garden and gather as much as they needed. I carried away a great bagful, and in due course chopped and bottled some in syrup. Last Thursday and Friday nights, when I coughed and coughed and couldn't sleep, I found that just a few spoonfuls of this lovely soft sweet fruit was the most delicious and soothing thing for a troubled throat. Seemed to carry a blessing from a Somerset garden. Thank you, Father.

Saturday...

...was lost in a blur. You have amazing dreams when you have a high temperature. At one point, I wrapped myself in a duvet on the sofa and watched a video of The Sound of Music. Most cheering. But then when I went back to bed, I found myself responding to endless requests from editors wanting me to work faster and faster, while the von Trapp children danced endlessly round Mother's new vacuum cleaner...

Auntie not very well....

...I've got 'flu, or something like it. High temperature, shivering, a bubbly sound in my chest.

I did manage to get out this morning to Our Lady Immaculate School in Tolworth, where I was due to speak to the children at morning Assembly about the ACW Schools RE Project. Absolutely sweet sight as the little ones came in - they'd been told to be quiet and put their fingers on their lips. A glowing candle beside a crucifix, and an open Bible. Pictures of Our Lord's miracles flashed up on to a screen most efficiently by a child organising the power-point as I spoke about Our Lord quelling the storm at sea and healing the paralytic man. The children's voices chorusing their prayers, asking for help in the day ahead: "...Father, I want to please you today in all I do and say".

Tolworth is not far away and and I had set out along the A3 quite cheerily - haven't cycled that route since my marathon ride to Brighton last year to raise funds for World Youth Day . But I was feeling wobbly and getting along seemed a great effort. I was glad when I arrived at the school and was sipping tea, along with a couple of aspirin.

Jamie worked for a while at Tolworth some years ago. It is frankly not a beautiful place - all traffic and motorway junction, dominated by that gross square office slab of Tolworth Tower. Our Lady Immaculate Church, a large welcoming building, is the great redeeming feature of the place and I remember dropping in there when meeting J. from work...it was lovely to spend a few quiet moments there this morning. There were a good number of people for morning Mass. Statues etc draped in purple cloth for Passiontide. A big formal banner outside proclaiming that the church is celebrating its Golden Jubilee.

I wobbled home and J. tucked me up in bed and made me a mug of tea.

A happy day...

...in Birmingham, where I was most warmly welcomed by the excellent Jackie Parkes and family, at a gathering of her Catholic women's Book Club. It was all huge fun - a buffet lunch on a table, people comfortably settled on chairs around the room, children milling about a bit, and general air of great friendliness. A joy to greet Father Guy Nicholls of the Birmingam Oratory, a friend of many years' standing.

I had been invited to talk about my Yearbook of Seasons and Celebrations and it was a very happy day in excellent company. I talked too much - am apt to chatter when suddenly relaxing in good company after a tiring time. Fell asleep on the train home.

The Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna...

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, spoke at a dinner at on Monday evening, to introduce the work of the International Theological Institute, based at Gaming in Austria. It was a wonderful evening, beautiful candlelit tables, white damask, etc, and it was hugely enjoyable to meet lots and lots of people involved with so many different aspects of the Church in Britain... I know the work of the ITI well, having spoken at one of their conferences, held at Sonntagberg. More on all this later...

Ooops...

...first it was the Hoover. At Mother's. It seemed to be making a nasty crackling noise, and anyway it needed a new bag, so I went to some trouble to get one (v. tiresome - you have to get the right-shaped bag for the right sort of vacuum cleaner. Traipsed round shops and supermarkets....) Today, brandishing the new bag in triumph, I arrivd at M's...got the Hoover going, and the nasty crackling got suddenly more exciting, and a spark or two flew from the rear of the thing, and the smoke alarm suddenly shrieked PHEEP PHEEP PHEEP! and there was a whiff of smoke and things got slightly scary...

We're getting a new vacuum cleaner.

Then it was the mobile phone. Westminster Cathedral. The queue for confession. There we all were, silent, prayerful, Lenten, in front of the Lady Chapel. Statues draped in purple for forthcoming Passiontide. People silently coming and going. A touching scene in one of the world's great churches. Suddenly the air was pierced by a HORRIBLY LOUD chirping, the sound jangling in the silent air, shrieking, throbbing, from my handbag . Hurried scramble to find it. Hoarse whispered conversation. (It was Mother, saying I'd left my keys at her house).

I am not very good at machines. I phoned M. back a bit later and we both enjoyed a laugh over all this.

I still don't know how to turn off my mobile, and last time I tried it turned on a video camera and I got lots and lots of film of the inside of my handbag.

Be there!

Come and join us at our annual THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS at the Chrism Masses at
Westminster Cathedral (Tuesday of Holy Week, March 18th, 12 noon)
Arundel Cathedral (Wednesday of Holy Week, March 19th, 6pm) - first time we've done it there
St George's Cathedral, Southwark (Holy Thursday, March 20th, 10.30 am)

We have placards saying "Thank you to our priests" and we hand out holy cards with a suitable Scriptural quote and a message of thanks. It's all sponsored by Catholic women. Come and join us! The Chrism Mass includes some glorious prayers as the oil is blessed that will be used in baptisms and anointing of the sick in the coming year...

The significance of this was brought home to me today when the parish priest brought my mother Holy Communion at home, and gave her the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. It was a very beautiful thing to be there as the wonderful prayers were said.

Incidentally, I will take this opportunity to thank people who have sent good wishes during this time that my mother has been unwell. She's now getting much better. She hopes to be able to get along to the local church for Mass fairly soon...

When the Lord returns...

... "Why do we tell him he must come by car?" This was the urgent question put by a puzzled four-year-old to his Granny recently.

"Why do you think he might come by car?"

"Well, because that's what we sing in church. Come by car, O Lord, come by car...."

Auntie on the edge...

...of England. Yesterday I went to Dover, to speak to pupils at St Edmund's Catholic school, and later to address an evening gathering of local Catholics from neighbouring parishes in the school's new Carmel centre.

Topic for each meeting was "Celebrating feasts and seasons of the Church's calendar". The evening gathering was great fun, everyone v. friendly, hugely enjoyable. I had been more worried about the afternoon one - talking to an RE class of teenagers is always a challenge, because the faces say "Aaaargh...just know that this is going to be booooorrriiiiing..." But after a while most sets of eyes indicated "lights now on inside this head" and a connection was made. Of course in question-time there had to be "Yeah, but, like, all those miracles of Jesus....like, well, I mean, like, we've done science and philosophy and that [???] so I know that, like, well, miracles aren't, like, miracles really, are they?" but I don't mind that sort of question because it does get a discussion going. It all takes me back: we too were cynical, assumed the Church was slightly out-of-date, were certain we were knowledgeable. But they are more assertive, if less articulate, in their ignorance and assumptions than we were in the 1960s/70s, more moulded by TV/media-driven jargon, more certain that the Church is likely to be wrong...

I was glad to see some good CTS booklets and materials on a display stand in the room...hope they get picked up and read...

The school has had massive funding and has a Media section, studios for recording music, a top-class Business Centre. I was made v. welcome, everyone was most hospitable - tour of the whole place, delicious tray of snacks and sandwiches etc...I also went into the town and pottered about...seagulls calling, and a whiff of the sea. France is only 22 miles away. Exploring, I walked up the hill beyond the school, with a view of the town and castle in the setting sun...there is a huge cemetery there, with many military graves, soldiers of the Great War, brought back here from France, wounded, to die in the military hospital- just a few months older than the teenagers in the school below: "aged 18" "aged 19". White gravestones against the fresh green grass of early spring, and evening falling.

A traditional Catholic parish network ...

...can be a great support, I have discovered. During a recent hospital stay, my mother was visited over various days by the Legion of Mary from her local parish, and by the hospital chaplain - who is priest of the parish in which the hospital is situated - and by a kindly nun. In addition, she had visits from friends from her parish Bible Study group (which meets at her home, Mother usually presiding with tea and buns etc). It has all been a great support and help and contributed very substantially to her good morale.

Making a list of things for which one is deeply, heartily, utterly, grateful, I would currently include the following: family, a free Health Service, international phone calls, pain relief, mobile phones, good coffee, a free Health Service, friends, large-print books, a free Health Service, email, washing machines, taxis, bicycles, a free Health Service.

I know - the Health Service isn't free, we all pay for it through our taxes. Well, given the daft things for which we are also obliged to pay (European Union corruption and bureaucracy, grants of cash to ghastly lobby groups...) the Health Service is in a different league.

A Confirmation class...

...at my local parish last night, and then another one in a nearby parish this morning. It's good to see teenagers coming in good numbers. Last night's group was very lively - much end-of-week exuberance - and I was impressed by the energy and commitment of our young curate, and two seminarian volunteers who were in charge. Fr Richard spoke about the Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, using a flip chart to help focus on the various points. There were talks about young saints, with thoughts being directed to choosing a Confirmation name. All the young people were going to go to confession the following week as part of their preparation for Confirmation. A lot of thought and care goes into the whole of the Confirmation programme. My contribution, both at last night's session and this morning's, was to talk about how we got the annual calendar and the round of the Church's seasons, with linked information which always leads on to all sorts of things ranging from names of flowers and origins of old customs to pub signs and place-names and more...along with the bigger information about things like the foundation of Oxford and Cambridge universities and the great London hospitals...being a Catholic isn't a private sort of "add-on" to life, something stitched on at the edges. It means being part of the Church that has shaped our country and our world, and we need to know how much, and on what a deep scale, our country owes to its Christian roots...

This afternoon, a very different audience, a conference organised by the Union of Catholic Mothers. This was in Billingshurst in Sussex, a charming town in one of my favourite parts of England. Sussex was enchanting in spring sunshine. Again, we looked at feasts and seasons, old traditions and customs, and the value of the "domestic church"...

It's exhiliarating to speak to such different groups in one day. Home to mugs of tea and the ironing, phone calls, arrangements for next week. Oh, and sound common sense from Rome on feminist language and baptisms.