On Thursdays...

...there is all-day Adoratiion at a local Catholic Church. There are always good numbers here for weekday Mass, and then during the day people quietly come, and kneel, and linger, and light candles, and say the Rosary,or take out a prayer-book,or just pray quietly, and then potter off again...

With the Rosary, Thursday is the day for the Mysteries of Light, and this is especially appropriate for me at present as I'm reading through children's essays in the big project organised by the Association of Catholic Women, in which children wrote about the Rosary. We invited them to focus on specific mysteries, including two Joyful ones, and two Luminous ones. The main judging takes place next week, but the preliminary sifting has revealed a good many of very high quality, in addition to some very funny Howlers.

The essays come from Catholic primary schools across Britain. Next time you are told that Catholic schools are all hopeless and don't teach the Faith, be cynical. There are some fine schools out there doing good work. The children have been taught about the great events described in the New Testament, they have been taught about the Rosary and how to say it, and they have been taught in such a way that they appear to have enjoyed learning and have made the knowledge their own.

The project is sponsored by the Catholic Truth Society, which very generously provides some wonderful prizes - in addition to the main winners, we have lots and lots of winners of runners-up who get beautiful hard-bound illustrated Catechisms, and there are also holy pictures and certificates...