The EVANGELIUM conference...

...for young Catholics, was held at The Oratory School near Reading this weekend and was superb. Dr Matthew Ward - whose lectures at St Mary's University, Twickenham, I have recently been attending - was in charge of the music, and we sang Morning and Evening Prayer each day in the lovely old chapel in the school grounds. Of course there was also a daily sung Mass - again with glorious music, the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus etc chanted, some lovely motets, and  splendid hymns to round things off...

Among some excellent talks and workshops I enjoyed Fr Andrew Pinsent looking at numbers, computers, and how we measure time - absolutely fascinating and absorbing. Among much else, he noted that science is impoversished if those involved are unaware of the wider riches of life - music, art, history.  He also mentioned the great advances in science that came through the Catholic Church - Mgr Lemaitre who discovered the Big Bang theory etc...

Auntie's contribution was a workshop looking at theologians of the 20th century, notably Henri de Lubac, Jean Danielou, and of course Joseph Ratzinger...and a talk on  the complementarity of men and women (more on that later...all part of a lengthy piece of research and writing which is my main work for this summer).

Of course part of the delight of Evangelium is meeting old friends and making new ones...lots of lively talk, long discussions in the warm summer evenings with a glass of wine, in the lovely setting of the fine old house, with banks of lavender alongside the wide lawns and the great vista of the cricket field.