Tuesday, November 19, 2013

There is always a long queue...

...for confession at Westminster Cathedral, and they put extra chairs along the aisle that leads from the Lady Chapel down to the main door. In Lent and Advent the people waiting stretch right down the length of the aisle...and even on an ordinary Autumn weekday, there were quite a number of people sitting patiently down as far as the chapel of St Paul...

Question: can one get on with some writing while waiting?  Or read a newspaper? I badly needed to check and amend something I had written (and it was about two saints, honestly it was, and I'm working to a deadline...). No one corrected me, but I felt a bit impious. Opinions on this awaited...

Later, some almost-last-minute preparations for the Towards Advent Festival, which takes place on Saturday. Be there!  The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will have a stall, and it is your chance to come and find out more about this important development in Church unity, the healing of a 400-year rift...and there will be some glorious music from a girls choir, some 60 voices...and you can meet some of the great workers in many fields of Catholic action, and find out about prayers and pilgrimages, books and big social projects, care for the poor and persecuted, and education for the young in schools and parishes...Don't miss it! Westminster Cathedral Hall, Sat Nov 23rd - doors open 10 am...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also go to confession at Westminster Cathedral and have done so for many years.The queue about 2pm often seems shorter.I feel that it is ok to work quietly but not to read a newspaper.
I have not tried either.

Malcolm said...

No, it's presuming on the mercy of God. The wait is for examination of conscience.