...with helicopters clattering overhead (lots of crowds,media activity around Kensington Palace because of the Royal baby) our Catholic History Walk through Chelsea in bright sunshine culminated in a warm welcome at Allen Hall for a Tea (excellent walnut cake!), tours led by the students, and a most beautiful Vespers and Benediction.
Allen Hall is the diocesan seminary for Westminster and is named for Cardinal William Allen who founded it in Douai in the years when the Catholic faith was banned in England. It is now operating at full capacity, and has also recently had some refurbishment . The library looks beautiful, with some graceful ceiling detail showing mulberry leaves - a reference to the famous mulberry tree in the garden, where St Thomas More is said to have relaxed with his family. The Chapel now has some proper heating - badly needed because of its height - and is about to get a new reredos. Vespers, with the strong young male voices singing the psalms was moving. There is a sense of confidence in the future here, inspired by the courage of the past...
The morning showed a different but also encouraging aspect of Catholic life in London, with the annual May Procession through the streets of The Borough, London Bridge, organised by the Church of the Most Precious Blood.. Four men carried the big statue of Our Lady aloft on its special platform, all decorated with flowers and ribbons, and in front of them walked the children of the parish, scattering flowers from ribboned boxes. The congregation surged behind, and people on buses along Southwark Street took pictures on their mobile phones, and a long line of people queuing at a popular restaurant gawped in silence. All very traditional: we sang "Ave, Ave..." with the front part of the procession singing one verse while the end had started on another, and people in the middle got muddled and struck out with a verse of their own...
A good day.
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