A busy morning...

...with a judging team reading entries for the 2011 Schools RE Project run by the Assn of Catholic Women. A good team of judges, careful, conscientious and dedicated. After the main work was done, we enjoyed a talkative lunch, and there were lots of ideas for future projects and other linked initiatives.

Rushed on by bicycle to Victoria station and caught the train to Ramsgate where the local parish was organising a St Augustine's Week. St Aug. landed on Thanet - then an island - in 597 and now a big granite cross marks the place. In Ramsgate, a superb Pugin church, formerly connected to the Abbey (which is relocating to Surrey) and now part of the local parish, together with St Ethelbert's Church. Young and energetic parish priest Fr Marcus Holden - I was at his ordination a few years' back - teeming with enthusiasm, showed me the Abbey Church, where everything is in beautiful order and people come for weekday Mass and Sunday Mass...then we went on to St Ethelbert's, where a good crowd had gathered in the hall for a talk on Christian Traditions. I very much enjoy giving these talks and it is fun to share information on history, show how the great events of our salvation are woven into our calendar, etc. It was a real privilege to be part of the St Augustine week...which looks set to be an annual event, with a great procession to the Cross, and a special Mass, and evening events, and more...

Fr M. drove me to Minster-in-Thanet where I was to stay, and we looked at at St Augustine's Cross on the way. Thanet is no longer a proper island, and the silting-up began, locals affirm, with Henry VIII's break with the Church and the events of the 16th century... but there is a still a faintly wild and remote feeling as you drive along the flat land with the sea not far away...although this stillness will change as a vast new motorway, up on great stilts, soared over our heads and will shortly have traffic roaring along it...

The sisters at Minster are friends, and there is always a sense of welcome...it was lovely to settle into the guest house, a Bible and a little book of inspirational thoughts from John Paul II in my room along with a friendly welcoming note on the door. Everything peaceful. The wind rustled in the trees and as I stood at the open window looking out on to the Saxon abbey buildings and the garden, the air was clean and fresh.