And this suicide ruling...

...was, by a ghastly irony, the last case ever to be heard by the House of Lords, sitting in its capacity as the High Court of Parliament.

A Court that has lasted for over a thousand years, establishing a nation run on principles rooted in the rule of law, given thence to a quarter of the globe, something cherished by generations and defended with sacrifice. Not a small thing to lose.

(Under the new system dumped on us by Tony Blair's government, we're getting a "Supreme Court" in the offices of the old Middlesex County Council across the other side of Parliament Square, beyond where the various protest-groups have erected their tents and shanty-towns.)

This is a dark day...

...for Britain and for all who love the heritage of British law.

The House of Lords has ruled in favour of assisted suicide. Read here and here.

Think about what this means, and weep.

When the great John Paul II spoke about a "culture of death" I thought perhaps he was using language that was rather too dramatic, rather too colourful. But now...

More about Australia...

...over the next few blog posts.The tour begins on Aug 17th and is essentially to launch the Australian edition of my Book of Seasons and Celebrations. Sponsored by Freedom Publishing, there'll be talks at bookshops in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane... Jamie and I will also be looking up lots of friends and rellies, when the tour ends I'm whizzing over to New Zealand for time with family there.

Taking our love and congratulations...

... Jamie went on the family behalf to Fr Tim Finigan's Silver Jubilee celebrations, at which Fr Roger Nesbitt preached.

Mother was invited to the Jubilee but can't really manage going out in the evenings now, so had to send her regrets...I was with her this evening and we were happily with Fr Tim in spirit, and in our night prayers. (Mother remembers Fr Tim as a schoolboy - "always was a nice boy" and we reminisced about going to his First Mass at Addiscombe...)

We have a long and joyful family association with the Faith Movement and Faith Magazine, edited variously by Fr Nesbitt, Fr Tim, Fr Patrick Burke, and Fr Hugh Mackenzie...

Next week sees the FAITH SUMMER SESSION and there is just time to book if you are young, Catholic, and/or searching and want to know more about the Faith. These Summer Sessions are hugely popular and have grown and grown...large numbers of young people, great speakers tackling a large vision of life and faith: this year's theme is "Thy Kingdom come: the future of religion and the future of the world". And the same spirit is there that I remember from long years ago: the summer days and the talks and discussions, the long evenings, the laughter and the friendships and the Night Prayer in the chapel with the Salve Regina...

As a traditional Catholic women's group...

...the Association of Catholic Women depends a lot on funds raised from things like selling home-made jam! So off to the local blackberry patch...which happens to be in the big cemetery. It's a peaceful, large, and interesting place. Among those buried there are victims of the Blitz who could not be personally identified - they lie in a garden grave flanked by a dignified, poignant monument. There are also graves of various notable Londoners - the cemetery dates back to the late 19th century. You can see the different trends in gravestones - weeping angels, crosses, images of Our Lady and of Padre Pio carved into headstones. In the newest section, up by the long blackberry hedge where I gather fruit every year, there is something different. Here, the graves are all on a slant, pointing towards Mecca - it's now the Islamic section, with names and dedications written in Arabic script. When I first started coming here a few years ago this was quite a small section but now it's large and making its own impact on the whole...

Today was an odds-and-ends day of various tasks. I needed a new spare key cut and in the shop fumbled in my bag and produced instead my rosary. "Can you cut another one of these?". The lady in the shop was delighted and laughed out loud as I realised my mistake and rummaged for my key instead. She had an Irish accent "Sure I'm always doing that myself. Still, it's good to have your rosary there when you need it, isn't it?" A sudden sense of a shared bond, and we both enoyed it.

A line of washing flapping satisfyingly across the garden. A broken picture frame mended. The kitchen cleaned. Tackling emails. Odd how it seems to give some people satisfaction to send me anonymous death-threats as Comments to my Blog. Please don't bother.

Auntie off to Australia...

...in August!

Various bookshops are launching my new "Yearbook of Seasons and Celebrations". In Sydney, there's a gathering at the Mustard Seed Bookshop on August 19th. Find out more here, and here. I'm also in Melbourne and Brisbane...

How did...

...my exams (see post below) go? No idea. Don't ask - let's just wait and see.

One thing I did learn: people who do Maryvale degrees all unite in one thing: they all really love the courses, even though they are extremely challenging. Gathering at the London exam centre were people from different year-groups, and many of us had not met before. "You'll find it gets v.v. tough in your Third Year, but keep going - it's worth it!" "Just wait till you tackle St John's Gospel - it's just amazing!"

Interested? Find out more.

Maryvale exams...

...awaited me on my return from holiday. These were held at the parish hall in Deptford. A traditional Catholic parish (dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption) a really beautiful church, people coming out of weekday Mass, volunteers busy at various tasks, children's work displayed on the walls of the hall. The hall was all set up for our exams. The kind parish priest welcomed us and led us in a short prayer before distributing exam papers, explaining the time schedule etc. It was all v. efficient. I had spent much of the week reading and reading, with the sound of the sea as a backdrop....revelation...Dei Verbum...a copy of the New Testament borrowed from Exmouth library, stacks of papers brought from home...Church history...John Henry Newman...

A kind friend who lives in Deptford had invited me to stay the night so as to be ready for the exams. This was a bonus, and it was a real joy to have a lovely evening with her and be given hot chocolate and marshmallows and feel pampered...

Devon...

....in POURING rain and gusting winds. Beaches deserted. I left my waterproof along with some other items for J. to bring by car, as I had a lot to carry by train, travelling with Mother. J. is delayed by work in London and won't be coming. The weather in London is hot.

Crowded Mass on Sunday, lots of children, which ought to have been encouraging, but somehow wasn't, as the ones nearest me spent the whole of the most sacred part of the Mass giggling and chatting making paper darts from the newsletters while their younger counterparts ran about or were entertained with little games by their mum. As Mass finished, a great hubbub of talking and shouting.

I am getting a good deal of revision done for my Maryvale exams, which are next Saturday.

The HInsley Room...

...is an extra hall, set back from the road and with its own small garden, alongside Westminster Cathedral. We met there yesterday to plan this year's Towards Advent Festival.(Sat Nov 14th. Speakers include Prof Jonathan Riley-Smith on the Crusades). I enjoy being in and around the Cathedral. The small children at the St Vincent de Paul Primary school next door - whose playground lies right alongside the Cathedral so they play in its shade in an almost Medieval sort of scene - had just finished an end-of-term "graduation" ceremony and had even been given small-style graduation squares (mortar-boards) - v. sweet.

If you enjoy Auntie's Blog, you might also enjoy the Cathedral's magazine., OIREMUS, for which I write each month...

The Government...

...claims that it wants your views on its plans to instruct children in sexual relationships from the age of five and homosexual civil partnerships from the age of seven. You have until 4pm on Friday July 24th to give your views. There is a link here for the relevant Govt form. You will find useful information from this Christian group or from this excellent and well-informed group of concerned parents and teachers...

Don't just read the material and say "Ugh! How shocking!!" INSTEAD, PLEASE GIVE YOUR VIEWS ON THE FORM PROVIDED.

This is not something you can afford to ignore. And if you are going to say "Well, I haven't got children, so it doesn't affect me!" then think about the comfortable people in the 19th century who said much the same when Lord Shaftesbury was trying to reform the cruel child-labour laws.

An ecumenical...

...gathering in the country to arrange the judging of hundreds of essays sent in by pupils at schools across Britain in the 2009 Schools Bible Project.

This Project involves pupils studying the New Testament and then choosing specific events and writing about them. They have to imagine themselves actually present at one of the major events of Christ's life - either writing as one of the people mentioned in the Scriptures or inventing a bystanding character. The resulting essays then pour in - many of a very high standard, showing insights and sensitivity, and a real grasp of the significance of the events described. Some, of course, are not so good and are unintentionally extremely funny - and we get all the usual mispellings, especially with reference to Pontius and his aeronautical career.

We meet at Ufton Court, a most wonderful old house, hugely recommended for school visits - it is superbly run and brings history alive. In the magnificent old barn where we were working, tables were set for a Tudor Banquet which children - already busy learning about the relevant costumes and customs - were to enjoy that evening, complete with formal dance and the entrance of a Boar's Head etc.

I can't reveal the winners of the 2009 Schools Bible Project yet - names and schools will be posted on that website link in due course - but I can say that the teams of judges had a most difficult task, because there were a number of really excellent essays meriting prizes. In response to this, a new range of prizes was launched last year, to be given in addition to those for the four main winners. With a couple of kind volunteers, I shall be spending several days packing and mailing these, along with the special certificates that are being printed...

The group sponsoring this Project brings together people from different Christian denominations and I am always touched by the amount of time, enthusiasm and interest willingly given.

Do you remember...

...when people used to say "I disagree totally with what you say, but would defend to the death your right to say it"? Not any more.

Read here for info the next bit of legislation on this...

Things are getting scary now.

I have been reading...

...the Holy Father's new Encyclical about Love and Truth.

Love is God's greatest gift to humanity, it is his promise and our hope.



This theme of love is so important and fundamental that everyone is ignoring it.

Isn't it ridiculous (and rather horrible) that when the Pope makes a short aside stating - with obvious truth - that giving out condoms isn't helping to solve the AIDS horror but rather making it worse , the Western media erupted in a frenzy of screaming headlines and radio phone-ins and denunciations from groups and organisations and governments...and when he speaks out about the great issue of hunger and justice and the plight of the world's poor, very little notice is taken?

No phone calls from Jon Snow imploring me to take part in a TV debate. And not, alas, much interest in the Catholic blogosphere. Now, if he'd talked about birettas...

To Ross-on-Wye...

...on a glorious cool summer's day, with the countryside lush and green and achingly beautiful. To St Joseph's School to present a young pupil with her prize gained in the Association of Catholic Women's Schools RE Project. A group of children sang "Dona Nobis Pacem", the headmistress welcomed us all, prizes and certificates were distributed to warm applause, a retiring school governor spoke of the school's 75-year history, children played - to a high standard - some delightful musical pieces on, variously, a trombone and a trumpet and a piano, there was a most wonderful atmosphere of neighbourliness and goodwill... we finished with a short prayer and a blessing, after which the nice young parish priest showed me round the nearby St Frances church (some entrancing woodwork, recently beautifully restored with touches of gold). A happy afternoon.

I'd travelled there by train and taxi. The railway line from Birmingham through Worcester and on to Hereford passes theough some entrancing countryside. With a wonderful week at Maryvale behind me (lectures from, among others, a visiting professor from Rome's Gregorian University, lively evening discussions on all sorts of topics, morning and evening prayer in the lovely chapel) there was much to ponder.

Home via Birmingham, with thoughts somehow solemn as the train whirled through the darkening countryside...so beautiful a country, and a rather sad time in its history. More and more of our young soldiers being brought back in coffins from Afghanistan. Here at home the crime rate still steadily rising, and more and more cruel bureaucracy stifling old values and customs and traditions (the papers this week have the now-usual crop of summer stories of country fetes and fairs and shows cancelled due to new "health-and-safety" regulations, need for various licences and paperwork etc), and politicians and all public officials committed to a secularised worldview that is somehow so bleak and crude...

To Tewkesbury and Harvington...

...while at Maryvale. We are having a magnificent week of lectures and talks, covering all sorts of topics. On Church history, Michael Hodgett leads a trip to Tewkesbury Abbey - history all bound up with the Wars of the Roses, Prince of Wales buried in the chancel, etc. Then on to Harvington Hall, fascinating recusant house...one of our number clambers into one of the priest-hides (accessed by clever hinged beam hidden behind loose panel, only discovered in 19th-century...) and we linger in the beautifully restored house, exploring the attics where the priests stayed, praying in the later Georgian chapel, finally gathering on the lawn for late picnic tea as the afternoon slips gently into evening...

It is interesting to be at Maryvale - the house where John Henry Newman lived - in this particular week in history. It is announced from Rome that the Pope has approved the miracle attributed to Newman's intercession. I am contacted by an American newspaper wanting a feature about this...rather pleasing to be able to write it in this place. I am now writing this Blog in this same library...

...and on to Birmingham...

..to Maryvale. I am reading Dei Verbum for my studies, and it is a fascinating document that makes the Scriptures seem so alive and important. Because of being so frequently told, especially in the late 1970s and early 80s, that "everything has gone wrong since Vatican II" I had never given the actual documents of that great Council their due place, and it is a great thing to realise how much richer they are than I had been led to believe.

Sunday...

...with friends...attended an open-air church service with them in the beautiful Cotswold town of Burford, as part of the Burford Festival (excellent sermon on the storm at sea, linking it with Jonah in the Old Testament). Plenty of young families at the service, which had a strong Evangelical feel which was somehow reassurring and encouraging...

In the evening, after a happy day, back to Oxford to collect my mobile phone. Benediction - very well attended - in the Oratory,candles glowing and voices affirming the Faith "Blessed be God...Blessed be his holy name..."). Nourishment for the week ahead.

Oxford...

...in bright sunshine, and a wonderful gathering at the University Chaplaincy for a conference on G.K. Chesterton. A splendid talk by Fr John Saward who emphasised Chesteron's joyfulness, his childlike sense of wonder, and his gratitude for life itself, for "being". This last is especially relevant in today's debates about the horrible idea of "assisted suicide", and the tragedy of a country caught up in the sort of death-wish also discussed by Charles Moore in an excellent article in the Daily Telegraph.

Fr Aidan Nichols - who will, incidentally, also be speaking at the annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Women in October - spoke superbly, and showed how Chesterton's work has profound theological messages and insights. It was a grand day - grand conversations, a great atmosphere, a and good crowd gathered together...later I went to evening Mass at the Oratory (St Aloysius) where, because it is a church I have so often attended on family occasions (many happy Christmasses and Easters in recent years)there is always somehow a sense of "coming home". Alas, it was perhaps a bit too much like home, for after lingering for pleasant chat left my mobile phone there! Consternation on arrival at Oxford railway station...panic...I was on my way to friends for a weekend stay, and on arrival they were helpful, calming, wise...over a mug of tea I tracked back to all the places I had visited, recognised the Oratory as the 'phone's most likely resting-place and was soon in contact with kind Fr Jerome, who went back into the locked church, found it, and kept it safe for later retrieval...

It is depressing...

...to see the plight of our country at the moment. In the heat and humidity, daft political speeches, and cruel plans for future policy.

Life is busy: off to another primary school today to distribute prizes in the ACW Schools RE Project. To Oxford tomorrow for a Chesterton conference, William Oddie, a longstanding friend, among the speakers... To Maryvale on Monday.Exams, lectures. It will be good to be out of London. There's an ache in the heart.

Enjoying this Blog?

Then you might enjoy reading Auntie's views here too...

A summer evening...

...and a concert at St Joseph's Church, New Malden, given by the Aurin Choir from Hungary. Enchanting. The girls sang sacred music - an Agnus Dei, an Ave Maria and more...and a lovely setting of "For the beauty of the earth", and a psalm in Hungarian...

We had wine and snacks in the interval, and friends met and chatted, and it was all delightful.

St Joseph's, which has a beautiful Sung Mass every Sunday, is developing its music and this was the latest of several concerts. A joy to hear glorious music in a busy suburb on an ordinary weekday evening, after a hot sticky working day.

Here's an event...

...worth attending. Click here for info on a massive World Congress of Families, with top speakers and a chance to get informed and inspired,establish contacts, and make a stand for marriage and family life in modern Europe. I have attended a couple of these Congresses in the past and they are really excellent. You'll be inspired,m encouraged, and renewed...and you will be right at the cutting-edge of the most important issue facing Europe today, which is families and children.