...on Thursday evening, the Brigettine Sisters hosted a delightful celebration to mark the canonisation of St Elisabeth Hessleblad at Maryvale on the outskirts of Birmingham. Archbishop Bernard Longley celebrated Mass, along with several priests from the diocese, in the fine chapel that John Henry Newman knew and loved. Then followed a grand buffet supper, with a great many delicious things to eat and drink. And later, in the warm summer night, I took a quiet walk around the gardens, following the paths I took when studying at Maryvale...
Next morning I was woken - as I used to be on our student mornings - by the sound of the sisters singing in the chapel two floors below me...I had to make an early departure, as I needed to be in London for a major History Walk later in the day...
Taxi to New Street station through the morning rush hour, train to Euston...and then as I made my way to Precious Blood Church, there were helicopters clattering overhead, and I was greeted by the news that "the Queen just passed along the road - on her way to St Paul's!" And indeed she had - the big Thanksgiving Service was about to start, and we duly watched it on the TV in the parish room. Archbishop Welby preached extremely well, and the great cathedral looked splendid...and it was one of those occasions when, just for that hour or so, things felt vaguely to be as they ought...
And for me that feeling continued, as by pleasing coincidence, this was the day chosen by the Richard Challoner School in New Malden for a special History walk in London culminating in a pilgrimage through the Jubilee Door of Mercy at St George's Cathedral. A splendid bunch of young men, looking extremely smart in their school uniforms, they were reverent at Mass in Precious Blood Church, cheerful and talkative eating sandwiches by the river, and a wonderful and enthusiastic audience as I explained about Saxon/Viking battles at London Bridge...and the origins of place-names with endings like -minster and -chester.... and the ambitions of the Tudoir monarchs...and more...
We went along the riverside, and then down along the Southwark Bridge Road, pausing at various places of interest - and I left them at the Cathedral, ready for a final special service of prayers to mark their Pilgrimage. I made a quick visit to the Blessed Sacrament, pausing at my favourite window - a fine stained glass depicting beloved St John Paul, blessing and anointing the sick, gathered in the Cathedral for that purpose during his great visit in 1982....
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