Wednesday, April 30, 2014

...and there's a brief interview...

...with Auntie here...

...and read...

here   to get some good insights into all sorts of events over these past days in Rome...

A particular pleasure: at a magnificent dinner given in honour of Lech Walesa, I was at one end of the long candlelit table, and Jamie was almost at the other end...as we were all being seated and everyone was milling about and chatting,  EWTN's Joan Lewis came hurrying up: "I've just discovered that the delightful man sitting next to me is your Jamie! We're so glad to meet up at last!"  I've stayed with Joan in Rome, worked on projects with her, had meetings in London - and always of course talked about J. but they've never managed to meet until this wonderful time in Rome...

And somehow, all of these past special days have been like that. We have been spending time with longstanding Australian friends...Jamie relishing long chats over cigars on a cool terrace late into the night...and with Ordinariate friends (among much else, visiting together the church of St George, Bl John Henry Newman's titular church in Rome)...and we prayed with the Emmanuelle Community, which we last met in Paray-le-Monial back in the 1990s...

Good summary...

...of the great "Four Popes" event in Rome...

view here

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Magnificent scenes...

...as history is made in Rome and two saints are sealed for ever into the life of the Church...

Crowds of people were  camping out, sleeping in shop doorways or in makeshift camps in the piazzas of Rome, ready for the opening of St Peter's Square in the early hours for the canonisation Mass. 

And I do mean crowds...over a million in St Peter's Square, and there must have been at least another million in the Piazza Farnese and the Piazza Navone and the various other places  around the city where vast TV screens had been erected and everyone joined in the Mass that way.

 J. and I joined the huge throng in the Piazza Navone, where the screen came courtesy of Polish TV - everyone followed the Mass, and at the consecration there was complete silence, the crowd had fallen in its knees, as if in a great cathedral.

The crowds have been joyful, and the weather perfect - a cool and pleasant morning, with the efficient Red Cross teams left with little to do as no one fainted or felt ill, and the great stacks of bottled water still standing like enormous green haystacks in their green wrappers. At St Peter's, the Holy Father celebrated the Mass with great dignity: there was a touching moment as he greeted Papa Benedict on arrival, and a sense of the timelessness of the Church mixed with the sense of something huge and memorable happening.

You can get a flavour of the thing by looking here 

and here...

and, well, just about every other media outlet, too.  Most have commented on the huge crowds, and on the enormous numbers of Poles - "Is there anyone still at home in Poland?" some one asked...there have been white-and-red flags everywhere, many carrying the names of Polish towns, some carrying messages saying 'Thank you' in Polish and also in English...also on the joy, and on the youth and resilience of the people, sleeping out on cobblestones, praying and singing late into the night...

Most mainstream media commentators, however, have failed to note the most impressive scenes: in Rome's churches, young people in huge numbers kneeling in silent prayer, or lining up to confess to priests, or singing together, or saying the Rosary. These are not tourists or people attending an event - they are pilgrims.  As they go around the city, they carry their flags and banners with pride. Priests leading groups have a sort of fatherly concern as they scurry about. There has been a great sense of energy and vigour in Rome over these past few days, with so many young nuns, and priests, and backpackers, and family groups. And so much goodwill - despite apparent discomforts, everyone seems cheerful and the mood has been friendly and upbeat...

This afternoon, as people dispersed for late lunches  in various cafes and restaurants (I've met so many friends, spent lots of time introducing people, reconnecting with friends from Australia, from various parts of Europe, from London, from my own corner of South London...)  and then, gently, the rain fell, glistening on the cobbles, ushering in a cool evening.

There are all sorts of events, gatherings, celebrations, parties, this evening, as people make good use of their time in Rome.And it feels as though the Church of all the ages is celebrating with us, the joy echoing through the magnificent great churches and the cobbled passages and the glowing chattery rooms and the talk and the friendship and the fundamental happiness of it all.

Saint John Paul...

The thrill...

...and the beauty, of Rome with its mellow evening light, and packed street cafes and restaurants around the large piazzas all teeming with people, and the streets with the thousands of square cobbles, and the vast cool churches and sudden great chunks of ancient buildings jostling with souvenir shops.

I'm writing this on Sunday morning as helicopters hurtle around overhead, and everywhere - everywhere around the city - there are tramping feet and chattering voices as pilgrims head for St Peter's, and a great moment in the history of the Church...

Last night, we prayed with the Emmanuel Community in one of Rome's great churches, then drifted through the city and were caught up in a wonderful crowd of singing, joyful Poles in the Piazza Navona. The city of Rome is pulsating with joyful people, and feels like the centre of the world.

And John Paul II and John XXIII will be declared as Saints in an hour's time...

The eternal city...

...and unforgettable days....

For us, these glorious days in Rome began on a solemn and impressive note: April 25th is ANZAC Day and early in the morning my Australian husband attended, with the Australian ambassador to the Holy See, the service at the military ceremony just outside the city. Then, in the evening, we gathered at Domus Australia for a Mass in the magnificent chapel there.  Concelebrated by Cardinal George Pell, with priests from different parts of Australia all gathered here in Rome for the Canonisation, it was attended by a large congregation of Australians...glowing candles, beautiful music, and the homily spoke about the  thousands of men who died at Gallipoli, and the Christian faith in resurrection...

The Domus Australia is a real home-base for Australians in Rome - a large comfortable residence with cool courtyards and large airy rooms, and a chapel which honours Australia's saints and heroes and heroines... from Mary McKillop and Caroline Chisholm to Cardinal Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, shown in his grim prison cell in Vietnam.

After Mass, there was a reception, with sandwiches and wine (and lamingtons)...

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

auntie is off to Rome...

...shortly, for the canonisation of Popes John XXIII and JPII.  A useful commentary on the canonisation can be found here...

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Eastertide...

...blossom on trees everywhere, fluttering down in the stiff chilly wind of  an English April. A round of family visits, Auntie laden with boxes of chocolate eggs and goodies. And, warmly glowing on tomorrow's horizon, a great Canonisation in Rome on Divine Mercy Sunday, a time to reflect and rejoice.

Friday, April 18, 2014

As evening falls on Good Friday...

...it was a quietly memorable London day.  Starting at the Anglican Cathedral alongside the Thames, we went on a united  Walk of Witness, the leaders taking turns in carrying a large wooden Cross, and all of us following in silence, stopping at various places to pray...the Stations of the Cross brought to London's riverside. The tide was out, and the wide beaches of the Thames were revealed. The Borough Market and all the Thameside restaurants were crowded and noisy, teeming with talk and shopping and street-theatre and music. At a Greek restaurant, some one was clipping the olive trees fronting the terrace, their grey-green leaves scattering alongside us as we walked.  Back through the Borough: one of the Stations was in a beautiful garden, once the chancel of a church. The church was damaged by bombs in WWII but one small section of it remains in occasional use: the garden is lovingly tended. We finished at Precious Blood Church.  There, after final prayers, we had Hot Cross Buns and coffee...

No point in going home before the 3pm Liturgy, so I went back to the riverside: the tide had now rolled  in, the great grey river surging along...I asked the Greek restaurant if I could have some sprigs from the olive trees, and brought some back to church with tiny olives on them, to put at  the Garden Altar from where, in due course, the Blessed Sacrament would be brought for Communion.

The solemn Good Friday liturgy, and the Rector carrying a great wooden Cross up the central aisle, later, after veneration, to be hauled into permanent position up behind the High Altar  (earlier, much work had been done with block-and-tackle, ropes, and heavy brackets, etc  to make this happen). . Beside me, a small child who had  been brought into church with - regrettably - a crumbly biscuit to munch, sat transfixed as, moment by moment, the heavy cross was hauled upwards into position. Her hand, plus biscuit, remained in mid-air, her mouth open not to receive it but in wordless amazement.

And after Communion we departed in silence...here at home I am packing things and preparing for an Easter family gathering, with chocolate eggs and bottles of wine...

...and if you want to see...

...us with our "THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS" at the Westminster Chrism Mass, you could look here...

...and so to Holy Week and Easter...

....the Passover of the Lord....Maundy Thursday and the Mandatum, and the Mass of the Last Supper....and Good Friday, and the Cross...and then the tomb on Holy Saturday....and then the great joyful glory of the Easter light...

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

...and...

...while on the subject of Chrism Masses (see report on the Westminster Chrism Mass, below)....I also went to the Chrism Mass of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. This took place at the church in Warwick Street, just off Piccadilly Circus. Some good photos of the Mass here.

The church was packed so Auntie joined friends in the gallery. First time I've ever been at a Mass that I've viewed from above. All rather stunning. A choir sang a very grand Mass setting, but almost more impressive was the absolutely magnificent singing of hymns by the congregation: "Praise to the Holiest in the Height", accompanied by trumpets in the last verse, was marvellous...oh, please could we have something of this great tradition passed on to the rest of the Catholic Church in our country?  We have such feeble hymn-singing, and many Catholics seem to take it for granted that when a hymn is announced, you open the relevant page and then do absolutely nothing.

St Francis...

...of Assisi died in 1226 and was canonised two years later. St Anthony (of Padua - the popular saint whose intercession people invoke for finding lost things) died in 1231 and was canonised less than 12 months later.  Just thought I would mention this because of complaints that Bl. John Paul is being canonised less than ten years after his death and there are complaints that this is non-traditional and unknown. Incidentally, recent saints like Padre Pio (d.1968), Therese of Lisieux (d.1897) and Pius X (d.1914)  have been canonised about 30-40  years after their deaths. So for JPII a little under a decade seems fair enough.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Sitting on the floor of a great Cathedral...

...is all part of the experience of the Chrism Mass at Westminster. Vast crowds, every seat gets taken long, long before the Mass begins at 12 noon, and every side-chapel is packed out too, in addition to every spare corner at the back, or around a pillar...I usually find a corner of the chapel at the back, which has a pleasing mosaic of St Gregory the Great and the Saxon slave-boys in the Trajan Market ("Non Angli sed Angeli..." etc) and sit there on the marble step, next to where Bishop Richard Challoner is buried...

Our team of ladies with our "Thank you to our priests" placard, plus a young team from SPES at St Patrick's, Soho, arrived at about 11 am to greet the clergy as they arrive, and give them our small thank-you cards. Without every really planning to do so, we have become part of the Tradition of Holy Week. Our placard announces "THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS" and this year's thank-you card, produced by Patti Fordyce  of the Association of Catholic Women, carries a Eucharistic picture and some words from soon-to-be-saint John Paul.

Part of the tradition is that it is always cold standing in the shadow of the cathedral on a chilling Spring morning, but the atmosphere is warm and it is fun being part of a great event as hordes and hordes of people stream in across the piazza. Clergy arrive from various directions, and we run up to them to give them our cards, and it is great to meet old friends and swap news and jokes...

Then we gather around the Cathedral steps as the great procession of clergy makes its way up Ambrosden Avenue.  "Is this something special?" asked an American tourist, guide-book in hand "We just dropped by...what is happening?" Some one started to explain that these priests were all gathering to renew their vows and to receive the sacred oils for anointing the sick etc in the year ahead.... "So this great line of priests is all the priests of England? Wow, there are a LOT..."  No, we assured her, this is just the priests from London. (And only half of London at that - the Southwark ones have their Chrism Mass at St George's tomorrow)...

The Chrism Mass is always glorious. Solemn choir-boys chanting, the beautiful prayers recalling the dove that came back to Noah as the flood receded, and  God's promise brought to fulfilment in our baptism...the deep roar of voices as the priests affirmed their vows, the soaring music, the lines of priests fanning out to distribute Holy Communion, and then the final hymn and the procession down the aisle with the  Cardinal dispensing blessings...we are at one with Peter's successor in Rome, and it is good to be part of the Church, and it is springtime and Holy Week.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Priest in biretta...

...Processional Cross (swathed, because it is Passiontide), children with home-made streamers, everyone with palm crosses, mothers pushing prams and strollers, people singing hymns - although not necessarily the same verse at the same time! -  and all of this making a good-sized crowd....that's what you would have seen and heard if you were on the Southern end of London Bridge this Sunday morning. The parish of the Most Precious Blood was processing down the Borough High Street, honouring Palm Sunday in the traditional way.

We were reminded that such a procession is more than a mere "remembering" of the events of the first Palm Sunday. All of Holy Week  is about now, and not just about "then": this is all about the great reality of our salvation in Christ...

Saturday, April 12, 2014

A highlight...

of working in Krakow, along with co-author Clare Anderson,  was the morning spent with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz,now the Archbishop of this ancient see, and earlier and for many years the secretary of  dear John Paul II.  You can watch some of our interview with him on EWTN over the weekend of the canonisation. Meanwhile he's been writing down his own reminiscences too...read here...

...and so to Uxbridge...

to this church.

A full hall, a warm welcome, and Auntie on the subject of John Paul.  There is so much that the mainstream media gets wrong, or simply doesn't understand and cannot report properly...the significance of his having been taught about prayer by a layman (Jan Tyranowski), his style of leadership as Archbishop  and as Pope (one hundred per cent opposite to the myth that he was dictatorial), his intellectual gifts, the Fatima bond, the influence on Humanae Vitae.  And his life is itself an adventure story...

Friday, April 11, 2014

A Spring evening, and over a thousand years of history...

...and we walked through what was once Thorney Island, the land drained by the monks and turned into fields and orchards, the land that, under the safe shadow of the great Abbey, became the home to the Mother of Parliaments, the place where men gathered to parley and to offer advice and counsel on matters of state...

In a lamplit Westminster, with the Abbey illuminated, and the Houses of Parliament in their gothic glory all glowing with light too, history comes alive.

I  had arrived breathless to start the  Catholic History Walk, having  decided to walk - rather than catch a bus or Tube - from a meeting at London Bridge. The Thames was at low tide, people sitting on the grey sandy beaches or packing into the bars and cafes: London in Springtime.  But the stalwart group of walkers, including a couple of holidaying Poles plus some native Londoners, had waited for me on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. And so we set off, from Westminster Cathedral, down Victoria Street -   a good look at the  at the (hideous, modern block) Westminster City Hall with its coat-of-arms displaying Our Lady holding the Christ-child - down to Westminster Abbey and Parliament.  We went via the back roads, each name telling us something: Horseferry Road, Abbey Orchard Street, and the little alleys named after saints (St Matthew, St Anne).  And so to Parliament. And I reminisced about Papa Benedict XVI speaking there - one of the most important lectures of his pontificate, and of huge significance for the future pattern of Church/State relations as this century unfolds - and we spoke of this, and of Parliament, and of its noblest traditions, and of the good that Britain has done and could do, and the evil.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

...and read Auntie's EWTN blog...

...on John Paul and the canonisation, and more...read here.

Monday, April 07, 2014

Listen to Auntie on Vatican Radio...

... just by clicking here...

Sunday, April 06, 2014

I have no intention...

...of voting for our local MP at the next election. He has supported the Government's ghastly imposition of same-sex marriage, and it would be highly irresponsible to encourage him to continue in public office. When I went to see him, he was unable to supply any reason for thinking that two men could marry each other. He just said that as a minor member of the Govt - he is Minister for paperclips or something - he would be supporting the policy.

So it is quite pointless for the Conservative party propaganda department to keep sending me emails, purporting to be from David Cameron, telling me how wonderful the government is. I assume the party machinery was fed with my email address following my correspondence with the MP. This was pointless and counter-productive. Once they imposed this cruel law, there never was any question of my voting for them, and now that I am sent silly propaganda, I have become quietly determind to do what I can to discourage others from voting for them too. (Actually, this has proved rather disappointing: I have yet to encounter anyone who needs any discouragement - so far, anyone I have approached on the subject has said, usually rather emphatically "I'm not voting for THEM!" or words to that effect).

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Been doing some recording...

for this Catholic Internet radio station...

This coming week...

...a CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK  in London. Wednesday, April 9th. Starts 6.30pm (after the 5.30pm Mass on the steps of Westminster Cathedral.

Auntie spent today doing some spring-cleaning, finding humiliating fluffy fronds of dust behind cupboards.. Hoovered, wiped, reorganised, tidied.  Took a caseful of books to a charity shop.

Cut the grass on the front lawn for the first time this year: sure sign of Spring having arrived.

All this fits well with the mood of these last days of Lent. 

Friday, April 04, 2014

Stations of the Cross in the City of London...

...on the Tuesday of Holy Week (Tuesday April 15th) , staring at 12 noon at Paternoster Square, next to St Paul's Cathedral.  Come and join in following Christ in the heart of this great city. The Procession will move  to Bow Church (approx. 12.30pm) and then make further stops outside the Royal Exchange and in Guildhall Yard. It will finish outside the Guildhall at 2.30pm.

London is rich in historic sites, and this ecumenical initiative offers an opportunity to make this a really memorable  Holy Week. Come and join in...you can join or leave the procession at any time. More information from the City of London Times at 0207 247 2524.

HM meets Papa Francis...

...and you can read about it here  (Daily Mail, a rather British, not particularly well-informed take on the subject, but with good pix)   and here   (quite a good analysis)  and here, and, well, just about everywhere else really.  As they left, the H. Father asked the Queen to pray for him, and she said "I won't forget".

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Rome is getting ready...

...for the canonisation on Divine Mercy Sunday. It looks set to be one of the biggest events ever held in the Eternal City. You can read a bit about the preparations here.

Auntie will be part of the vast crowds there...

You might be interested in a commemorative prayer-book that is published by the Catholic Truth Society today. More here...

April 1st...

...presents increasing problems every year, because so many news items read as though they are spoofs. I assumed, at first, that the announcement of the imposition of a law punishing parents who - according to their children - fail to show adequate emotional attachment and affection, was a spoof. 

A friend remembers an amusing incident when her daughter was discovered, sitting on the stairs and looking gloomy, by a rather distinguished writer who was visiting the family for dinner. "None of my family understand me" announced the child dramatically. She was about four at the time.

And, just for the record, the family was and is a very happy and united one, and the daughter, now long married and with child of her own, enjoys the story too.

I suppose, under the planned new law...

Auntie writing in The PORTAL...

...read here...