...is all getting very exciting. I'm writing this Blog at Maryvale, where I'm preparing for my exams which start tomorrow.
Yesterday began at 5.30am when I rose early to cycle across the suburbs to meet John Pontifex and Margaret Regan of Aid to the Church in Need to travel to the Birmingham Oratory. ACN holds regular days of talks and information, and this one would be tackling the Middle East, Pakstan, and the work of ACN in Ukraine, among other places. On arrival we busied ourselves getting the hall ready: it promised to be a day of sizzling heat so I enthusiastically seized the ropes to open the sash windows. The first two opened with a swoosh but the third crashed down again with immense force and a great shattering of glass across the floor. Golly. Much sweeping up and apologising and reorganising....however, after this the day went well, and there were some superb talks.
Special guest speaker was Father Khalil Samir, SJ who gave an overview of the position of Christians in the Middle East, and in particular the relationship with Islam. It really was an eye-opener - there were many aspects which I think most of us had never considered before. It is particularly interesting to grasp the idea that most Moslems believe that they already know about Christ and Christianity, because there is material about Christ in the Koran. There is of course also the assumption that the West is Christian and that the current lack of morality and cultural values in the West is proof that Christianity is not the true faith and that Islam is God's real and final message...all this and much more was discussed in some depth and it really was a most illuminating afternoon.
John Pontifex then brought us up to date on the situation among Catholics in Pakistan - where he makes regular trips as a link between the local churches and ACN - and we were also updated on Haiti and on Ukraine...this last was partly because the congregation at the Birmingham Oratory has been generous in raising funds to help build the now thriving new seminary there. Neville Kyrke-Smith, director of ACN, described how just a few years ago he stood on a grassy plain where a cross marked the place where the seminary was to be built, and how on his most recent visit he joined the thronging seminarians in chapel and for meals...he had brought back CDs of their glorious singing, which filled the hall as the day ended...
On to Mass - again some glorious singing - in the Oratory Church, and the good news, formally announced by Father Richard Duffield, of the Holy father's planned visit to Birmingham. Jack Valero was there, and we had a good chat - and it was a special joy also to run into Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe, who was there to take part in a TV programme about John Henry Newman. We had a good chat - our friendship goes back many years and this was the first time we'd had a chance to talk since she gave up her Parliamentary sea at the General Election and retired...although the retirement seems to be busy with books and a regular newspaper column and more...
The announcement about the Holy Father's visit coincided with a letter from Archbishop Bernard Longley, currently en route to Rome to recieve the Pallium. Afterwards, lingering in the sunny courtyard and chatting to Jack Valero about the Papal visit, with people coming and going, I suddenly thought about Newman, and how he had begun it all here, amid so much controversy and difficulty, in the vanished years of the mid-19th century. The newspapers reported about his mysterious building plans, hinting at underground cells and dungeons, and his gentle explanations about the Oratory, and its ordinary rooms and plumbing arrangements, make for amusing reading...there are parallels here perhaps with Pope Benedict and the way in which he is consistently misrepresented and misunderstood in the media...
On to Maryvale, where it was bliss to hear the kind Sister's voice at the entrance, and so see the gates swing wide, and open up the path to the old house, where there was a welcome, and the chance of a shower and glorious rest. This morning, special prayers at Mass for the Papal visit - perhaps Papa B. will drop in here at Maryvale while in Birmingham? - and as I write this, the big shady trees around the lawn invite me to take my books there for final study before tomorrow's exams...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment