...and so to...

...Harrow in Middlesex, where a large and crowded Confirmation class was waiting. This is a very big parish - the crowded class was only half of the Confirmation group, and I return on Thursday to repeat my talk to the other half.

Talk on "Catholic heritage". They need to know - have a right to know, want to know, enjoy learning about - how the Faith came to Britain. They need to know  how it travelled through the routes of the Roman Empire, about the evidence of Romano-British Christianity here (St Patrick etc), about how the pagan Angles and Saxons arrived (our days of the week are named after Saxon gods) and how the Pope in Rome saw the Saxon slaves and wanted to send missionaries to their lands, and how Augustine and his monks set off but got scared when they heard about these ferocious pagans and turned back, only to be told by good Pope Gregory to set out again and not to return until they'd done the job...

We tackled the calendar: the crucial central reality of the Incarnation, centred on God's huge love for us. March 25th, and why this date is so important, and how our calendar has revolved around it for nearly two millennia...we tackled pub signs, nursery rhymes, old sayings, what Shrovetide is, and why saints' days occur when they do, and why we eat eggs at Easter...

This is a parish which is instructing its young, and they are open to it all. They all had copies of YouCat in their hands. They all joined in the prayers at the beginning and end of the session: it is so good to hear young voices praying together. They knew about World Youth Day and about the worldwide Church, about recent Popes... and now they know a bit more about the Church in their own land, and how, in these extraordinary days of 2013, they are living through an adventure in the Church's history too....