SUNDAY...

...and I went to Mass at the Church of the Precious Blood at London Bridge, where an Ordinariate group has its base. They join with the longstanding parish for the 11am Mass. Like all RC parishes in England and Wales, we had the Mass for the Ascension today. DEAR BISHOPS: PLEASE CAN WE HAVE OUR PROPER FEAST-DAYS BACK? It's so absurd. Everything feels muddled. It is time to end this experiment of moving certain feast-days to the nearest Sunday. It has caused confusion, irritation, and annoyance without achieving anything.

A great get-together...

...organised by the Association of Catholic Women to meet ladies of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We had a delicious tea and much, much talk.A most useful as well an enjoyable afternoon.It was a particular pleasure to have the Sisters of the Ordinariate with us. We finished the day with a visit to the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, and one of the Sisters led us in prayer.

Tough times...

...may be coming for Christians. The Holy Father, speaking to bishops on an ad limina visit this week: "with the progressive weakening of traditional Christian values, and the threat of a season in which our fidelity to the Gospel may cost us dearly, the truth of Christ needs not only to be understood, articulated and defended, but to be proposed joyfully and confidently as the key to authentic human fulfilment and to the welfare of society as a whole.”

A STUNNING....

...and unforgettable NIGHT OF WITNESS organised by Aid to the Church in Need at Westminster to pray for all who are persecuted for their Christian faith. Watch the highlights here. Things began with a beautiful Mass in a packed Westminster Cathedral: Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi preached and a large number of priests concelebrated with Bishop Declan Lang, and then the vast crowds spilled out into the piazza for a rally with speeches, music, dance, and prayer that sent out a powerful and very moving message. We were welcomed by Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, and speakers included Bishop Joannes Zakaria of Luxor, Egypt, Archbishop Coutts,and Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali former Anglican Bishop of Rochester.There was music from the West End Gospel Choir and from the group Ooberfuse which sang at World Youth Day. On a great screen we watched news features about the abuse and cruelties suffered by Christians in Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, and elsewhere. As the rally drew to its climax, a team from the British Pakistani Christian Association carried a great cross around the piazza and we all slowly followed along behind, flowing into the cathedral where a candlelit Vigil of Prayer was held. This was possibly the most moving part of the whole event: we prayed the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary , and as each Mystery was announced, a candle was lit and a particular victim or group of victims of persecution was commemorated. Thus we commemorated Fr Ragheed Ganni from Iraq and Shabbaz Bhatti from Pakistan, and the victims of a Christmas Day church bombing in Nigeria...at each Mystery, the Our Father was prayed in a different language (Urdu, Aramaic...) and then the congregation prayed the familiar Hail Marys in English. A magnificent and powerful event: no one who was there will ever forget it.

In Solidarity...

Auntie adds her voice in support of this Christian blogger whose promotion of the Coalition for Marriage has brought him extraordinary harassment. Auntie fully supports the Coalition for Marriage, urges readers to support it, and prayerfully supports all who are working to uphold marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Here is an extract from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I intend to publish this and other extracts on my Blog from time to time especially as they are relevant to public debate and current issues. ...................................................................... FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: 2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. 2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. 2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

A nice American...

...telephones from a Catholic radio station, to interview me about my book on Blessed John Paul the Great. So American readewrs of this blog may have heard me on the (surely dreadfully-named?)"Son Rise show". BTW you can now get the book from ACN, which means that every copy you buy helps to raise funds for hard-pressed Christians in various prts of the world where they are suffering...

...

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM...

...is crucial. Pope Benedict affirmed this speaking to the Diplomatic Corps at the start of this year,noting that religious freedom is "the first of human rights, for it expresses the most fundamental reality of the person." He said that "religious freedom should be understood not merely as immunity from coercion, but even more fundamentally as an ability to order one's own choices in accordance with truth." And this freedom is widely under attack. Lord (David) Alton chaired a meeting in Parliament yesterday organised with Aid to the Church in Need, to draw attention to the plight of Christians in Pakistan and in Egypt. Bishop Joseph Coutts of Pakistan spoke about how Christians are bullied at work because of their faith - in rural areas they may be denied access to wells because they are deemed to be "dirty", and they are unable to get the educational opportunities they need because they are told that they should become Moslem in order to fit in. Pakistan was never envisaged as a fully Islamic state - the idea of true religious freedom and tolerance was firmly upheld by the nation's founder, Jinnah, back in the 1940s. But now a new form of militant Islamicism has taken hold and Christians cannot affirm and live their faith peacefully alongside their neighbours without fear. The Second Vatican Council's declaration Dignitatis Humanae forcefully emphasises religious freedom:"The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right." Christians are not asking for privileges, but rights. Join ACN and other defenders of religious freedom tomorrow, May 17th, at Westminster Cathedral piazza, 5pm This is your chance to make a stand. Come, and bring your friends. More info here.

Working...

...on an essay on Ecclesiology. Topic is the image of the Church as a Bride. Reading Ratzinger's Daughter Zion. "Marriage is the form of the mutual relationship between husband and wife that results from the covenant, the fundamental human relationship on which all human history is based." Bridegroom and Bride: Christ and his Church. Male and female.

,,,,

IN LOVING MEMORY

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ My dear father-in-law, Brigadier Bruce Lockhart Bogle, died yesterday, aged 90. A greatly beloved father, grandfather, husband, and head of the family. We honour and cherish his memory, and are so grateful for his long life and for all that he gave us. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This Blog will not be published for the next few days.

In the New Forest....

...there is a wonderful community of Dominican sisters. Nearest station is Brockenhurst (an hour or so from London Waterloo) and Sister Hyancinthe met us there and drove us through glorious woods and meadows, with New Forest ponies and donkeys grazing ("they often go out on to the road - cause huge traffic delays and muddles"), to the big house (Edwardian? late Victorian?) with its fine new chapel. I was accompanying Fr Christopher Pearson of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and he concelebrated the Mass with the community's own chaplain, while birds added a chorus from the meadows beyond the wide clear windows and the sisters in their white habits filled the choir-stalls beneath the great oak beams of the roof. We were there to discuss plans for the annual John Paul Pilgrimage for the New Evangelisation - it's a walking pilgrimage from Bury St Edmunds to Walsingham. Find out more and book in! It lasts over 3 days - be prepared to do some good walking, as you cover 20 miles a day for the first two days, and then another 15 or so on the last lap to Walsingham. Find out more from the Sisters: contact them here. The pilgrimage begins with a Mass in the ruins of the old abbey at Bury St Edmunds...that would also be a wonderful event for a parish to attend as a day-trip...

Auntie has been speaking...

...about Blessed John Paul the Great at various groups and conferences and meetings. Most recent was a talk to to the boys of FAITH Club at the John Fisher School, Purley. We have strong family associations with this school and it was a very special thing to be walking through the familiar gates and greeting the boys in their familiar blue blazers with the golden Fisher badge... and it was good to be talking about the great John Paul to a members of a new generation to whom he is already a hero-figure and part of Catholic culture...by long tradition, FAITH meetings at the Fisher conclude with substantial quantities of tea and buttered toast, and as I munched I remembered - and Dan Cooper, who runs the FAITH Club, told the current members - how my mother had for years presided at the teapot and toaster, passing round plates stacked high with delicious slices... Later in the evening, a happy time with Dan accompanying me on my usual evening time with my mother...talks, memories, the strength of the faith and of long and valued friendship...

PHYLLIS BOWMAN...

...a brave woman and an inspiration to a generation, a leader in the fight to defend unborn children,has died. May God reward her for her dedication to a noble cause and for the leadership that she gave to so many of us. Phyllis gathered a team of younger people around her in the pro-life cause in the 1970s and 80s, and we all learned so much from her. She was courageous, hard-working, and professional,and an excellent journalist and communicator, working with skill, enthusiasm and good humour under pressure. Her love and concern for unborn babies drove her and this, combined with her Christian faith, made her some one to whom we looked with admiration and even awe. Britain is in her debt: she understood the great moral issues of our era and sought to make a better future. Just a short while ago, through unusual circumstances, I met Phyllis and her husband Jerry in a London hospital while visiting another friend...it had been a long time - too long - since our last meeting and I now cherish the time we had together, to talk, and to embrace. David (Lord) Alton writes:"For half a century Phyllis has been an indefatigable champion of the unborn child and for the sanctity of human life. Her tireless efforts, right up to her final illness and last days, serve as an inspiration to the next generation. She was an extraordinarily talented woman, utterly dedicated, highly articulate, politically shrewd and the possessor of an encyclopedic memory. Her early training as a Fleet Street journalist never left her short of things to say. Her Christian faith and her beloved husband, Jerry, kept her strong throughout years of having to fight endless battles against abortion, embryo experimentation, human cloning and euthanasia. Her name deserves to be associated with some of the great women who have given their lives to great causes - Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Cicely Saunders, Mother Teresa and Sue Ryder."

St Thomas More, the river, and Allen Hall...

...on a strikingly cold May Sunday. JB leading a Catholic History Walk that took us around Chelsea,honouring St Thomas More and thus telling the story of Henry VII and the frail sickly Prince Arthur and young Princess Catherine of Aragon and her subsequent marriage to Henry VIII and all that followed... Henry VIII's book on the Seven Sacraments is perhaps a classic example of a book that while attempting to defend doctrine somehow dramatically fails the Church. It's a mistake that today's self-proclaimed "Catholic traditionalists" also too often make. Prof Jack Scarisbrick described the book once in a lecture at Maryvale as "an unloving book" and he was right... In the end, St Thomas More did something far greater and nobler and of more lasting benefit to the Church with his heroic witness that culminated in martyrdom on Henry's orders on Tower Hill... We stood where Thomas More once lived, and walked along by the Thames to Chelsea Old Church where his first wife Jane has her tomb in a side-chapel where he had planned that he too would one day be buried. The church is not quite the one that More knew - Luftwaffe bombers removed most of that - but the More chantry was rebuilt from the ruins and today's church also includes a number of other retrieved features of the original building. Our walk finished at Allen Hall, the seminary for the diocese of Westminster. In what is now an annual tradition, we were welcomed to tea and a team of seminarians took groups around the building explaining its associations with Thomas More (it stands on the site of his garden) and with the later hero martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Rector, his team, and the students made us really welcome. We gave three hearty cheers for the students - it made a very rousing sound as we were a good-sized group and enjoying our tea after the cold walk! - and it is really good to meet them and to see the future of the Church in their strength and faith. We finished with Evening Prayer and Benediction in the chapel, the strong voices of the young men singing out the psalms and the Tantum Ergo...

Well, was he, or was he not, "the great"?...

...read here.

CATHOLICISM....

...and Father Robert Barron from the USA speaking about his evangelisation project which carries that name. He was at St Patrick's Soho Square and long beforehand a queue was forming outside the church. The place was absolutely packed, people sitting on the floor, cramming the gallery and squeezing in at the back. Obviously it was mostly young people, but some of us oldies were there too, and I met various friends. The Catholicism Project is excellent - a set of DVDs with the Faith being explained and taught in a glorious pilgrimage through some of the world's great Christian places of faith and pilgrimage - Namugongo in Uganda where the young martyrs died in the 1880s and where thousands now flock to honour their memory, Chartres Cathedral, Calcutta where Mother Teresa's nuns labour radiantly in the slums, the Holy Land, Notre Dame in Paris, Lourdes where vast crowds of pilgrims hold glowing candles aloft...

Trafalgar Square...

...at night, with people milling about, and a group of us making our way to the London Centre of Notre Dame University, which is just near the Square. This is where the Catholic Voices Academy meets, and the topic for the evening was feminism and the role of women in the Church. I am not sure that I did very well: I think I am too much conditioned by having to oppose the passionate anti-Church feminist campaigners of the 1980s and 90s. It was comparatively easy to "score off" against them in debates, but it didn't neccessarily win over the more neutral people who were listening in. Thus today there are young Catholics who know the feminist rhetoric, know that there are some answers to it, but do not find that the traditional Catholic teachings on this subject win hearts or minds. They seek ways to put the teachings more effectively - they like Bl John Paul's Mulieris Dignitatem and they like Pope Benedict's assumption that women can and should hold positions of influence in the Church, but they find it hard to give convincing sound-bite-sized arguments for the male priesthood, partly because they recognise that this requires a greater degree of genuine respect for the Christian faith than many of their listeners are prepared to give. They operate in a world where savage denunciation of Christianity is common - a tough world. They also know that there are many people who are genuinely seeking a way forward and who have been wounded by the messy break-up of families and relationships and who need love and help. I think my confident assertion about the Church valuing and honouring women - all those women saints, the central role of Mary etc - did not sound as convincing as they would have liked, and the bridegroom/bride nuptial reality of priesthood and Church is a deep mystery which can sound trite unless it is allowed to be discussed properly.

A strange...

...and angry photocopied brochure arrives in the post, lots of small print and odd little drawings. It's produced by a lady in Scotland who is very angry indeed about things in the Church, and very much dislikes Auntie Joanna. The brochure opens with a big tirade partly aimed at me. But the poor lady who writes it dislikes a lot of other people too, and emphasises throughout that this is because she is a Catholic who is responsible for defending traditional and true Catholicism against people like...well...JB among others. It was kind of her to send me the brochure but I am not very clear what her aim was in doing so. In any case, I have read it, and have now returned it with good wishes and thanks.

CATHOLIC VOICES...

...has been under fire again. The Tablet carries a criticism of the group for having invited a woman called Joanna Bogle to talk about the topic of women and the Church. The line is that JB is ignorant of women's needs and problems: the lady theology lecturer making these comments could contact me if she likes as it might be useful to talk. In any case, undeterred, CV - with which I have been involved for some while - will be running its Academy session tomorrow night in London, with speakers Sara de Nordwall and JB. Sara was recently on BBC Radio Woman's Hour and you can hear her here (it's the March 30th one). We'll be looking at a range of issues. The priesthood will be among them. Auntie has discussed this issue a lot, eg here...

Spent the evening...

...helping with envelopes for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, sending out info,inviting support etc. The Holy Father has just sent a generous donation. This is a project very close to his heart. Which is nice, as it's close to Auntie's heart too. Good to know that one is going along in the same direction... You can read Auntie in The Portal, the Ordinariate's on-line magazine. Click here and enjoy...

Tor Vergata...

...in Rome, where young people gathered for World Youth Day in 2000 was hosting another gathering this evening, as a new generation honoured Blessed John Paul on the first anniversary of his Beatification.

A solemn...

...feel to things as I led a Catholic History Walk this evening. A mild April day, rain having given way to gentle sunshine, and a beautiful sunset as we stood on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Our city. "Domine dirige nos" is its motto. We had begun the walk at St Mary Moorfields (my own Guild Church - it's the home base of the Catholic Writers' Guild), and the Walk took us to various City churches, and the Guildhall, and Bl. John Henry Newman's birthplace, and more. And as we finished at St Paul's, we had the steps of that magnificent monument to ourselves,and the sunset glowed over Ludgate Hill and the sweep down to Fleet Street and an overview of one of the most famous cities in the world... and we pondered those who had stood there before us - thinking about things like Churchill's funeral in that vanished Britain of the 1960s, and that impressive but ill-fated Royal Wedding of 1981, and the happy Golden Jubilee ten years ago which we will echo again this summer at the Diamond Jubilee...and then, as with all our History Walks, we ended with prayers. These were for our poor country, now stuck in a miserable doomed groove from which only Christian vigour can remove it: there's something so dead-end and bleak about foisting same-sex "marriage" on a people who have been heirs to a great civilisation and must now be part of its decline. Latest news, incidentally, is that, if this new law goes through, Catholic schools may be told that they cannot teach about Christian marriage. Will they be allowed to stock and use books such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states Christian doctrine on marriage and sexual integrity with particular clarity? I walked down Fleet Street and along the Strand and crossed the river to catch the train home from Waterloo. I remember my mother once describing how, when they had just got engaged and were talking and planning about their future, she and my father stood on that bridge and looked at London and he said "It's ours - they didn't get it", meaning the War and the city being saved from enemy invasion.They felt that Britain's freedom was secure. Bought a cup of coffee at Waterloo. Felt a bit bleak.

Came across...

this poignant comment-piece while trawling the Net this evening...

What was I reading...

...while at Walsingham? Two or three good things, but specifically this which, while not a deep or profound study of its subject, is well-informed, quietly inspiring and lifts the heart. Also, of course, my ever-faithful Magnificat, which gets taken everywhere and was especially good to have to hand on a pilgrimage. And I also took along - simply because I had been at a meeting on Friday where they were handed over to me - a big batch of entries for the Assn of Catholic Women's Schools RE Project for some initial reading. This year, the children were invited to write about certain of Christ's miracles. Some splendid spelling: "Ten leppers with horrabul woonds" and a "Roman offerser" who wanted his servant "heeled" were among my favourites...

Walsingham...

...in driving rain and wind. A pilgrimage with supporters of Aid to the Church in Need. We were small in numbers this year - just one coachload from London, and a few joining us from elsewhere. But, as always, it was beautiful to pray in the ancient shrine chapel, and to be at Mass in the big barn church. Walked with friends down the Holy Mile that links the Catholic shrine to the village...the planned procession was abandoned because of the high winds, and people went by coach , but we elected to enjoy the gusty challenge, and it was rather glorious. The surging and buffeting of the wind, the great beauty of the Norfolk landscape, and the reality of Walsingham with all its profound messages, drew us to talk of big things, and it was so good to do this with old and valued friends... Later, after a beautiful Benediction in the church in the village, I had a good meeting with Sister Camilla of the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham. They run a House of Prayer in the Brentwood diocese, but their aim has always been to be linked to Walsdingham. If you'd like to find out more, and help out, you can do so here... On a whim - and because J. was busy with various commitments over the weekend and there was no need for me to hurry home - I decided to stay overnight in Walsingham. The Pilgrim Bureau (Elmham House) is very comfortable.The village, on a wet and windy April night, was bleak, but that made being with other pilgrims in a cosy house all the more agreeable. There is a night-time Benediction for pilgrims in the church - which is right next to the pilgrim house - and this is usually followed by a candlelit procession into the garden and prayers by the statue of the Mary. It wasn't feasible to pray outside so we lit our candles and held them aloft as we turned towards the statue in the church instead. They are special candle-lanterns with little Walsingham scenes and the words of the "Ave, Ave, Ave Maria" hymn on them, so you gaze at your lantern and sing - it was all rather delightful. Later, a mug of tea with some Irish pilgrims who told me all about "Mass-pats" and answered my question about holy wells, with many stories of saints and miracles...and a long comfortable read in bed before a good restful sleep.

Blessed John Paul...

...was beatified a year ago...this link gives more on the subject...

More on that Ordinariate celebration...

...can be read here...

Been browsing...

...Fr Robert Letellier's book for Sunday and feast-days. A good read. I have so much enjoyed his excellent lectures at Maryvale. Enjoy the book: more about it here...

Priestesses and the TV version...

... and, as I predicted, a muddle. Some while back, I was invited to take part in a TV discussion about whether or not there were priestesses in the early Church. It was all quite pleasant and friendly - I was flown to Rome, and the filming was done in a church there. I explained the Church's position, gave information on the history, was asked "But surely there were women priests in the early Church?" so explained again, gave more informationm on the history, was asked again, explained again...and so on... The TV presenter was a pleasant young lady, but not at all well informed even about the basics of Christian doctrine, let alone the history of the Church. She seemed to know little or nothing about the Church of the first few centuries, and to be rather muddled about the centuries after that. In place of knowledge, she had a fixed opinion about the need for the Church to have priestesses, based on a rather 19th and 20th century view of the Church. It was tiresome explaining things as she didn't really grasp some of the central points...but she was friendly and pleasant and enthusiastic about working in TV, and on the whole I enjoyed doing the interviews even though I knew that the resulting programme would not be of particular value to anyone with a serious intterest in the subject of the priesthood. The programe was aired last week, and a number of people have been commenting on it. I didn't watch it, but many of the comments made echo my own thoughts at the time of the filming. This one , for example, seems to me relevant...

Lots to ponder...

...following recent visit to Poland...and I'm doing so partly through a series of talks for Premier Radio. Listen in to them daily, in the week beginning May 7th...

Glorious...

...really glorious. A beautiful church, magnificent music, strong voices united in the timeless words of the Liturgy, an atmosphere of great reverence and prayer with a packed-to-capacity congregation...that was St Patrick's, Soho Square, today as history was made with two new priests being ordained into the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. It is always moving and impressive to see a young man prostrate before the altar, pledging his life in service to God. And there is a sense of awe as the Bishop lays hands on the ordinand's head, a profound reminder of a unity in faith that goes all the way back to the Apostles... Mgr Keith Newton preached, long lines of communicant approached the altar rails with reverence, there was magnificent singing - I don't think I've ever heard the Pater Noster sound so superb - and the day sent out a message of youth and hope. Afterwards, the two new young priests dispensed blessings galore, and there was food and wine and talk and a happy time...

At the Shrine of Divine Mercy...

...there is silence and prayer, crowds and faith and peace. The candle glow and intimacy of the original chapel where you pray and where Sister Faustina lies at rest contrasts with the hugeness of the vast new church with its message of "Do not be afraid!", a statue of John Paul standing as if at the prow of a great barque putting out to sea...the whole combines to send a message of hope and certainty and strength.

Our trip to the shrine came at the centre point of a week's stay in Krakow, and this seemed just right somehow.

John Paul the Great gave many magnificent things to the Church, but opening up the message of Christ's limitless mercy was one of the most important. Britain has need of this message...

Krakow...

...is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and from the moment you fly in to John Paul II Airport, you know you are somewhere special.

Wawel cathedral and castle, St Mary's church where the haunting bugle-call still marks each hour, delicious pierogi with onions and butter, a bus ride to Wadowice and John Paul's boyhood home being turned into a pilgrim shrine... Krakow's streets and trams, the Jewish quarter, the river,the Divine Mercy shrine...and more...and more...

It's coming up to...

...the First Communion season. A couple of people have asked me about my book on Blessed John Paul II - ideal First Communion gift. You can order it here. DO get a copy: children enjoy it, and the illustrations, by Kati Teague, are absolutely enchanting.

STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM....

...and support those who are really suffering for their Faith.

Come to the Vigil at Westminster Cathedral piazza on May 17th.Bring a crowd!

Get information here - and spread it around. Tell your parish. Tell your friends and family. BE THERE!!!

Off to see Father Jim...

...who is a family friend, and celebrated the Nuptial Mass at Jamie's and my wedding over 30 years ago...

A delicious lunch, and lots of chat, and then...

FR JIM HAS STARTED A BLOG!!!

and you can access it here and find out about all the books that Fr Jim has written...especially of interest to fans of Blessed John Henry Newman...and for parishes and groups preparing to celebrate the Year of Faith and the Catechism...

St Andrews...

... is possibly the most beautiful setting for any university. On the train from London I was busy with books and letters for most of the time, but after Edinburgh the only wise thing to do is just relish the glorious ride along the Scottish coast.

I was speaking to the Cathsoc at Canmore. Topic was celebrating the Church's feasts and seasons - we'd titled the talk "How to evangelise using the calendar" and this turned out to be good because people were rather intrigued (one told me that he'd wondered if it was going to be some sort of weird advice like 'Never evangelise on a Thursday"!). Delightful young people. A beautiful Mass in the chapel of the big old house - which I first visited to give a talk over 30 years ago, before today's undergraduates were even born...

After the meeting, everyone crowded into the chapel again for Compline. Candlelight, and young voices, and outside the sea and the sky...

Planning...

...for the next weeks and months.

I am off to Poland next week, a sort of Bl.John Paul pilgrimage...will be writing up some of the adventures on this blog.

BTW - for younger readers: if you want to take up Bl. JP's call for a fresh evangelisation of our country, contact here and ask about the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham this summer.

There are better things...

...to do on Holy Thursday and Good Friday than write blogs, so I have been doing those better things.

It is now lateish on Good Friday night. On Holy Saturday Auntie packs lots of chocolate eggs and other goodies and departs joyfully via Paddington Station for a big family gathering.

Went to the Maundy Mass at Precious Blood church near London Bridge - it's in a fascinating corner of London where every little side-street is crammed with history. The George tavern still flourishes - Chaucer describes his Canterbury pilgrims starting their journey there, and I enjoyed lunches there with my father over the years. There are other pubs with good old names - the King's Head and the Blue-eyed Maid and St Christopher's and the Rose and Crown. There is a poignant War Memorial - a WWI soldier running gallantly forward, a great list of names nearby. There are proper local shops.

During the Maundy Mass, Tube trains rumbled away beneath our feet. The main overground railway station is of course a major feature here too - and there is busy London Bridge teeming with traffic, and the old river. We knelt in silence before the Altar of Repose, and the priest led us gently in thought to the Upper Room, two millenia ago, in another city...

This morning, a Walk of Witness in the busy, pleasant suburb where we live. A much bigger crowd than usual. We gathered outside the United Reformed Church where there is a garden, and walked down the High Street, led by men carrying three big crosses. Outside the Methodist Church we held a short service. Somehow, it feels reassurring that in modern Britain you can still get a good-sized crowd to hold up the traffic in the suburbs and gather to sing "When I survey the wondrous Cross" on Good Friday. The local Anglican church provided a very good choir. There was a sermon with a thoughtful message. People prayed. It was the right way to start Good Friday.

I was in London later in the day so went to the Commemoration of the Passion at St Patrick's, Soho Square. Timeless, powerful. The Passion account from St John's Gospel was beautifully sung. Long lines of people moved slowly up the aisle to venerate the Cross. Then the stark silence as things finish and there is just the bare chancel and the thought of Calvary.

Now at home after Hot Cross Buns I'm about to start sorting and packing things for the joy that comes on Sunday. This will be a special Easter as it includes a Divine Mercy trip to Poland, about which you'll be reading in due course.

Periodically, I met readers of this blog and so I don't feel you are all anonymous. It's a very genuine message when I wish you all a very happy Easter.

...and today...

...the Westminster diocese had its Chrism Mass, in an absolutely overflowing Cathedral - we packed into every corner, most of us kneeling on the floor, crowding into side-chapels and around the back, stewards trying to make a route for the procession of clergy to reach the sanctuary. It is rather intriguing - the Chrism Mass isn't widely advertised, people aren't urged to come, there are no leaflets about it...but people just seem to hear about it and they pour into the Cathedral in vast, vast numbers. The Mass took two hours. Hearing the beautiful prayers over the oils - references to the dove bringing back an olive branch to Noakh and so on - in hushed cathedral with with tht vast crowd is,to use a sometimes overworked word, awesome.

We had our Thank You to priests organised as they arrived - see here.

A Chrism of history...

...as the Papal Nuncio concelebrated the first Chrism Mass for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Over 60 former Anglican clergy, and five former Anglican bishops, all now in full Communion with the universal Church, were joined by a packed congregation at St James', Spanish Place...it was a great priviledge to be there and something that I will never forget.

Glorious music, a beautiful and reverent liturgy, the roar of strong voices affirming promises of commitment to the sacred priesthood, a fine sermon by Mgr Keith Newton. As has become a little tradition at Chrism Masses, members of the Association of Catholic Women handed out small holy cards to all the clergy as they arrived, with a message of thanks for the service they give to the Church.

The Sacred Oils were brought up to the altar in procession with the hosts and wine before the Offertory - the Sisters of the Ordinariate in their blue religious habits and veils,were in the procession bearing the gifts.

The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Deo Gratias.

Do read...

this. Scroll down to the section headlined "Religious Freedom and Protecting Healthcare for Women".

Starting on...

Wednesday April 18th,6.30pm, and continuing every Wednesday for 8 weeks, at St Patrick's, Soho Square, is the brilliant CATHOLICISM series. DON'T MISS THIS! Open to all young people in their 20s and 30s. There's a light supper and then the presentation: God's Revelation through Jesus Christ and His CHurch. It's a great visiual multi-media presentation and tackles questions such as:
- Who is Jesus? Is he really the Son of God?
- Why does God allow suffering in the world?
- Do you worship Mary?
- What's the point of praying to saints?

and a lot more.

Register at stpatcatholicism@gmail.com or telephone 0207 434 9965.

Hurry!

During the week...

...I often go to Mass at this parish. This week, the numbers attending were even larger than usual. I mention this because I get tired of being told that everythingintheChurchisterrible when it just isn't so. Here is one suburban parish where often the numbers on a weekday would not disgrace a Sunday.The other day I took part in a Confirmation preparation class. There are some 40 young people being confirmed this year. They get a systematic preparation with classes on the Church's doctrine and teachings...I was there to give a talk about saints, with the idea of helping them to choose Confirmation names. A delightful group of young people, excellent catechist, two young men from the seminary were there helping out, and a nice chap from the local Baptist church along as an observer, as part of a friendly ecumenical interchange. As the evening ended, and all turned towards the Cross as the parish priest led prayers, I felt a sudden lump in my throat. This is the Church, the place where we all belong, where we are all at home.

Today, partly because of returning some books kindly lent by Ordinariate Deacon James Bradley, I went to the Palm Sunday Mass here. A very large crowd, and things began in the school yard where the palms were blessed and a procession started which went slowly into the church, with glorious singing. Mgr Keith Newton, of the Ordinariate, was the celebrant and preached.A memorable Palm Sunday.

Hot weather. Posters around London with the stark word "DROUGHT" and urging us to use less water. The posters look grim and show dark dusty earth. If the hot weather lasts and lasts, this looks set to be a horrid summer.

Somehow the drought reflects the spiritual state of much of our country at present: but to heal that there are deep wells of glorious fresh water here, and it only needs willing hands to help pump it out...

Meanwhile, however, Mr Dawkins...

... the leading atheist campaigner, asked a rally in Washington: "How is it conceivable that the laws of physics should conspire together – without guidance, without direction, without any intelligence – to bring us into the world?”

Indeed.Keep asking, Mr D. You are slowly getting there.

In great sadness...

...to Bedford Square, where a prayer-vigil was being held outside an abortion centre. We prayed, led by Bishop Alan Hopes, and young people took turns to read aloud Scriptural meditations for the Stations of the Cross. The idea was to express sorrow and repentance that none of us have been able to stem the tide of the killing of the unborn that is happening in our country, and to pledge ourselves to renewal and hope. But it was not possible to hear much as a large group of angry protesters with loud hailers and drums and various instruments had gathered to drown us out. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen: the protesters included a number of young women, angry and shouting, a picture of sadness and self-loathing such as I have never viewed before.

It used to be that even people who viewed abortion as a legitimate choice would emphasise that it was a sad thing, that no one really wanted it, that it could and should be avoided if at all possible. That was how people spoke in the 70s and 80s when I was first involved in debates on the subject. It is the saddest things on earth to see young women shouting things like "Get your Eucharist out of my uterus" and jeering when people pray.

I went to this vigil because it had been announced that some people wanted to prevent it happening: in the Britain I inherited, the right to pray in this way was cherished, so I felt I should be there. I met a great many friends and at one level it was, or should have been, a time of solidarity and and hope. The pro-life movement is strong and there were lots of young people praying earnestly, along with priests and Franciscan friars, and older people - like me - who have taken part in various such events for decades.

But my overwhelming feeling about the evening is one of profound sadness: the image that stays with me is of the young women on the opposite side of the barriers erected by the police, shouting angrily and sort of gleefully their support for the destruction of the next generation, affirming their right to eliminate their own offspring. Thus is a nation ending itself. Whatever comes next will be different. It all feels bleak.

"The truth...

... is a desire of the human person, the search for which always supposes the exercise of authentic freedom. Many, without a doubt, would prefer to take the easy way out, trying to avoid this task. Some, like Pontius Pilate, ironically question the possibility of even knowing what truth is (cf. Jn 18:38), claiming is incapable of knowing it or denying that there exists a truth valid for all. This attitude, as in the case of scepticism and relativism, changes hearts, making them cold, wavering, distant from others and closed. There are too many who, like the Roman governor, wash their hands and let the water of history drain away without taking a stand.

On the other hand, there are those who wrongly interpret this search for the truth, leading them to irrationality and fanaticism; they close themselves up in “their truth”, and try to impose it on others. These are like the blind scribes who, upon seeing Jesus beaten and bloody, cry out furiously, “Crucify him!” (cf. Jn 19:6). Anyone who acts irrationally cannot become a disciple of Jesus. Faith and reason are necessary and complementary in the pursuit of truth. God created man with an innate vocation to the truth and he gave him reason for this purpose. Certainly, it is not irrationality but rather the yearning for truth which the Christian faith promotes. Each man and woman has to seek the truth and to choose it when he or she finds it, even at the risk of embracing sacrifices.

Furthermore, the truth which stands above humanity is an unavoidable condition for attaining freedom, since in it we discover the foundation of an ethics on which all can converge and which contains clear and precise indications concerning life and death, duties and rights, marriage, family and society, in short, regarding the inviolable dignity of the human person. This ethical patrimony can bring together different cultures, peoples and religions, authorities and citizens, citizens among themselves, and believers in Christ and non-believers...

Christianity, in highlighting those values which sustain ethics, does not impose, but rather proposes Christ’s invitation to know the truth which sets us free. The believer is called to offer that truth to his contemporaries, as did the Lord, even before the ominous shadow of rejection and the Cross. The personal encounter with the one who is Truth in person compels us to share this treasure with others, especially by our witness...

Convinced that it is Christ who is the true measure of man, and knowing that in him we find the strength needed to face every trial, I wish to proclaim openly that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. In him everyone will find complete freedom, the light to understand reality most deeply and to transform it by the renewing power of love...

The right to freedom of religion, both in its private and in its public dimension, manifests the unity of the human person, who is at once a citizen and a believer. It also legitimizes the fact that believers have a contribution to make to the building up of society. Strengthening religious freedom consolidates social bonds, nourishes the hope of a better world, creates favourable conditions for peace and harmonious development, while at the same time establishing solid foundations for securing the rights of future generations."

Papa Benedict XVI, speaking today in Cuba. What he says is important for Britain too. Read more here...

I recently spent...

... some days sorting out medals and wristbands and parcels of books and posting them off to children who won them in a big Southwark Vocations Project. Read my latest EWTN blog

I have been nicknamed "Pollyanna"...

...because of being glad about too many things.

Papa Benedict is a Pollyanna Catholic too. Read what he says for World Youth Day:


"Joy has to be shared. Go and tell other young people about your joy at finding the precious treasure which is Jesus himself. We cannot keep the joy of faith to ourselves. If we are to keep it, we must give it away. Saint John said: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; we are writing this so that our joy may be complete” (1 Jn 1:3-4).

Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth. Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy side of faith. The Gospel is the “good news” that God loves us and that each of us is important to him. Show the world that this is true!"

And there's more: read it all here...

Latest issue of...

...VOICES, magazine of Women for Faith and Family in the USA, is published. Auntie has a feature in it, on a v. topical subject - you may be interested in it. Read it here.

Hate mail on the Internet...

...with a campaigning group for the homosexual lobby posting horrible, vicious anti-Catholic comments, including an announcement that Catholics should never have been allowed freedom in freedom, that the Catholic Emancipation Act should not have been allowed etc etc. Sample: one of the more mild and comments describes the Church as "an international criminal organisation committed to the grossest of immoralities, bigotries and nastiness. It should be closed down and prosecuted."

Can anything be done to stop this deliberate stirring up of hatred and prejudice? Does anyone have information on this?

Working on...

...current book( due out in 2013, must be with publisher this summer), and took some time out to do some planning and organising for this event later this year...

V. tempting to do a quick trail on the internet from time to time when working. Rome seems to be trying good-cop/bad-cop routine with the Lefebvrists, trying to get them to return to the Church.

Theology...

...at Maryvale. There was a Study Week,a wonderful opportunity to have hours of good library-time, work on essays, consult, think. A group of PhD scholars were there - much fascinating conversation at meal times. The chapel with the dear Brigettine sisters: morning Mass, Stations of the Cross in the evening, the Office. Afternoons on the Library with von Balthasar, de Lubac, Ratzinger.

...and so to...

...a Lenten Day of Recollection organised by the Association of Catholic Women. Fr Alexander Masters from Westminster Cathedral led us in an inspiring meditation, with glorious music, on the Seven Last Words from the Cross. The music included some from the St Matthew Passion, some by James McMillian, and a final rousing "When I survey the wondrous Cross" with a magnificent Welsh male voice choir...

Fr. reminded us that the Cross is a central part of all our lives - and it's there all the time, with crowds hurrying through Charing Cross station and not knowing how its name originates, or using words like "crucial" or expressions like "the crux of the matter"...

In the afternoon a thoughtful and beautiful talk by Sister Camilla from the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham, on seeking and following God's will. This is a new and young community, and we plan a visit to their House of Prayer in the summer...

A good day, and a neccessary one for me.

A place of sanity...

...in a Britain that is steadily feeling more and more alien to common sense. St Patrick's, Soho Square, had a Mass for the vigil of its patronal day. Packed, of course, but I managed to squeeze into a pew at the very back instead of sitting on the floor. As always at St P's, the Mass brought together people of every race and background - slightly surreal experience of singing "On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love" with a pewful of Chinese.

I never liked St Patrick's Day as a child because as an English Catholic I resented the enthusiasm of Irish nuns. Looking back, it was of course an important day for them and they had a right to sing and feel tribal. Today, that hymn about St Patrick had a solemn ring to it and was sung with fervour - that the Faith may not be lost in the land he evangelised.

Grim news re the Govt's ghastly plans for crushing marriage.These creepy politicians are now so frightened of the rest of us that they have announced that the pretence of a "consultation" won't make any difference - the cruel new law will be pushed through anyway.

Living as a Christian in Britain over the next years is going to be quite difficult - although awfully interesting - and watching bureacrats becoming increasing nasty to us all is going to be rather tiresome. How pointless their dreams are - to try to rewrite humanity's deepest realities. Like the gruesome Marxist experiment, theirs will fail. We will need courage and good humour as we live through what is to come: and when it all gets really ghastly, it will be Christians who will be around to pick up the mess and cope...

And about wearing a cross in public...

read Auntie here...

Read more about Britain and the ghastly Govt plans...

...here.

When you go...

...to Mass at Westminster Cathedral on a Sunday morning, you are assailed by various group urging you not to do so. There are earnest men with tracts explaining that all you need to do is say one prayer and then you are Saved and that's that. There are bright young girls with handbills inviting you to attend services at a new church somewhere else. And there is a Lefebvrist with leaflets telling you why he thinks the Church is all wrong. And the message from each of these is:please stop and talk instead of going to Mass.

But if you gently ignore them and walk up the steps and enter the Cathedral then the atmosphere of prayer greets you and folds you in. As Mass begins, the choir sings gloriously, the timeless reality of the liturgy sweeps you up into the hugeness of the mystery.

Today,instead of a sermon, a special Letter from our Bishops re marriage. As the priest started to read it out, the atmosphere became somehow more intense, as if everyone knew that something of particular importance was happening. You don't normally get that when a letter from a Bishop is announced - it's usually the signal for people to settle back comfortably and not really bother to engage. But today was different.

There were extra copies of the letter to take away at the end of Mass, but these all ran out quickly. (You can get a copy by following that link given above). Outside, as the crowds poured out, the groups in the piazza had been joined by another - a little lobby of people with a placard being rude about the Church for opposing same-sex marriage.

The Cathedral newsletter urged people to sign up to the marriage petition on the internet, giving the link. For those that don't have internet access, there are forms...I had some with me and a friend was keen to sign then and there - lots of other people then surged round to sign too.

What will happen about this new marriage law? I expect that the initial reaction to our Bishops' letter will be sneers - especially from those who for some reason seem to delight in arousing indignation about anything a bishop says.

It's also a grim fact that the Govt will only be swayed by one thing - the possibility that the ghastly plans to rewrite the definition of marriage will prove so unpopular that it might cost them the next election.

So one small thing you can do is to sign the petition, and get others to sign too.

Come to...

...St George's Cathedral, Southwark, on Monday evening for a talk on some of England's Catholic history. "From Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II"...come and enjoy. For info here...

Yes, the speaker is Auntie. BUt the topic is interesting, so do swallow your prejudices and come...

If you haven't already signed...

...the petition to HM Govt about marriage, hurry and do so now. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT>

Over 100,000 signatures already, but we need lots more. Sign up here.

I know...

...that it's a v.v. long way ahead, but can you please note adate for your diary?

Sat Oct 20th - the Two Cathedrals Procession, from Westminster Cathedral to St George's Southwark, carrying the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of London. Book it in your diary now.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee...

...will be celebrated in June and a neighbour stopped me in the street the other evening to ask what we were going to do about a street party. For the Golden Jubilee, we had a grand party - tables in the street, cakes, sandwiches, sausages rolls, drinks - and I worked with a nice girl from further down the road to organise a Quiz, with people gathering in teams to tackle questions on British history and local folklore...we ended up with some singing and with three rousing cheers for Her Majesty and a good time was had by all.

Oddly enough, I met this girl again just the other day...when we found ourselves exchanging the Sign of Peace at Mass! She had married and moved away, but still in the same local area...

What to do about the Diamond Jubilee? Britain is in a mess but that's not HM's fault, and a neighbourly get-together would do everyone good and might gently remind us all about some of the values that really matter...

BTW I found this piece a good read...

This evening, in Parliament...

...Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, retired Anglican Bishop of Rochester, gave a lecture on marriage. It was well-attended and the clear message was one of a robust and intellectually profound defence of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman, establishing a new family. Excellent stuff. There was much enthusiasm on the news that the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have urged support for marriage and opposition to the Government's plans to alter the law.

My London....

...is really Westminster and its environs - the Cathedral, and also Parliament and the places associated with it where meetings and conferences of various sorts happen - plus a good slice of the City where I take groups of history enthusiasts...and of course the southern suburbs where I have made my home for decades and where I've worked on local newspapers, the interlocking places that were once (long ago!) villages and now merge in a muddle of traffic in the loops of the Thames or out along the old roads that reach down to Surrey and Kent...

But there is another London out there to the east, where once the great Docks brought shiploads of goods to a great city, and where, long long years before, Romans and Saxons and Vikings made their way up the Thames to make bridgeheads and encampments and carve out their own chapters of our complicated history...

And that's where I found myself on Sunday. Walking along a great stretch of water,rain lashing down, silence all around broken only by the sudden splash of oars and cries of instruction and encouragement as a rowing team ploughed its way past me.

I was out beyond Docklands, at the University of East London - invited there to give a talk on London's Catholic history. Arrived early and no one - absolutely no one - was around on the university campus by the ancient stretch of docklands water. I walked with God in the rain, pondered history, said the Rosary, relished it all...

Made my way back to the station to be met by Father Thomas of the Community of St John, entrusted with the chaplaincy at the University. Warmth and friendship in the pleasant Chaplaincy room. Next door, a lecture hall transformed into a chapel with icons and altar and candles. Students - mostly Africans - gathering. Mass,with singing led by young men with strong voices. Atmosphere of great devotion. A cheery gathering afterwards for my lecture.

It was a wonderful morning, and then a ride to Canning Town where the Community of St John is based (busy parish, over 800 regular Massgoers, plus chaplaincy of a big secondary school etc etc...) lunch, much talk, and I borrowed a fascinating book about Mother Teresa for the journey home...

To Allen Hall...

seminary for the diocese of Westminster. As we arrived, we were asked to respect the silence - the men studying there were having a silent retreat all day.

The Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary was holding its annual meeting in one of the public rooms...superb lecture by Fr Aidan Nicholls. He spoke about Marian ecclesiology - I found it v. exciting to realise that it exactly chimed in with what I had been reading, studying and pondering in the light of Lumen Gentium (regular readers of this blog will know about this) and the significance of Bl John Paul's insights etc...

Think about Magnificat - it is the song of the Church, as well as of Mary...

And read my EWTN blog...

...here...

Read the latest...

...news and views from the Ordinarite of Our Lady of Walsingham here... (and Auntie has a feature in it).

A new approach...

...seems to have been signalled about something in London which has been all wrong for too long. Special Masses have been celebrated for people with same-sex-attraction tendencies. And it has been by no means clear that these Masses have been supportive of the teachings of the Church in this area.

But things look set to change. A statement from Archbishop's House says: "At the present time consideration is being given to the circumstances in which these Masses are celebrated to ensure that their purpose is respected and that they are not occasions for confusion or opposition concerning the positive teaching of the Church on the meaning of human sexuality or the moral imperatives that flow from that teaching,which we uphold and towards which we all strive.”

This is good news and what happens next needs our prayers.

From Power to Prison to Peace...

... the subject of a recent talk at the Catholic Writers' Guild. Speaker was Jonathan Aitken. It was spot-on - downbeat,thoughtful, honest, delivered with humour and insight.Nothing trite, nothing smug or insincere. The gifts that took him soaring up in public life are still hugely apparent.

Years and years ago, there was a big meeting organised in London by Lord Longford, on the theme "The crisis in our country - what can we do about it?" It was a typically well-intentioned Lord Longfordian sort of excercise - various people, all really unconnected, brought together in a spirit of general goodwill with the idea that together we might...well...do something about the economic, social, and spiritual decline of the nation. This was the late 1970s.I had been invited with some other representatives of youth and community organisations. A number of people, including the excellent Mary Whitehouse, spoke rather well about the spiritual state of things and the need to support marriage, family, and community values. Then a young v. good-looking chap came to the rostrum. He was a Member of Parliament and his contribution was to be on economic matters. "Today many people have spoken, very movingly, about God" he said "I am here to talk about Mammon..." That was Jonathan Aitken. And now here he is in 2012 speaking about God.

I was at that meeting back in the 70s, and at the Guild meeting the other day I was asked to give the tote of thanks and was able to bring the two events together...

If you get the chance to hear Jonathan Aitken speak, seize it. I think he is doing good work.

MInster-in-Thanet...

...and a happy day with the Sisters there. This was a longed-planned trip with a friend who had missed the pilgrimage organised by the Association of Catholic Women last year: we promised ourselves a day trip and finally made it this week.

We arrived for Mass at 9am - it was said by a young priest making his first visit to the Abbey since his ordination, and so as Mass ended we all lined up to recieve his blessing and kiss his hands - a moving and unforgettable scene. We joined the Sisters for the various Offices through the day - they file into the chapel two by two, with quiet dignity, including the newest novice in a white veil,and a postulant not yet robed, and there is such a peaceful and "grounded" feel to it all. In the afternoon, we walked by the sea - this is where St Augustine landed, and a Cross not far from the shore marks it all. Thus the Faith was planted here...will it now drift away after over 1,500 years? Prayers...New Evangelisation...courage...

There were young children visiting the Abbey - a school group, I think - and they trooped into the chapel for the midday Office. In the garden there were snowdrops all along lawns, and the first tentative buds of daffodils in clumps by the path.

Vespers, with candles glowing in the sanctuary, and the rhythm of the voices chanting the psalms turn and turn about...then the drive back to London and the train home via London Bridge...

Evensong....

...with the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Anglican-style Evensong, chanted in the church of the Holy Ghost, Balham, in full communion with the Catholic Church. We chanted the psalms, had the Scripture readings,chanted the canticle, said the Creed, prayed for the Pope, prayed for our country...

"It's a new initiative - I'll be glad if we get ten people" said Deacon James Bradley, who organised it. We got twice that number, a devotional atmosphere, and for me at any rate a quiet sense of history being made.

Certainly C.of E.-style psalms and "Endew thy ministers with righteousness" and so on would be unfamiliar territory to the young families with small children who make up the bulk of Balham's congregations for the packed morning Masses. But to have Evensong in this way is a blessing for the parish, a good initiative for the Ordinariate and a sign of what can be done...numbers will quietly grow, and I for one will certainly be attending again. 5pm, every Sunday in Lent.

Conspiracies, Blessed John Paul, Fatima....

...read more on this by Auntie here...

Go on...

...listen to this sermon. This in the Church in America speaking with courage and faith and offering hope.

Ashes and crowds...

...at St Patrick's Soho Square. I was there to give a lecture at the St Patrick's Evangelisation School and stayed on to recieve ashes at the midday Mass. Large numbers of people came streaming steadily into the church - by the time Mass was under way the place was full, and it was rather haunting to see everyone filing up the aisle silently and to hear Fr Alexander's voice to each one as he distributed the blessed ashes on foreheads. A server stood alongside him, having to replenish the dish of ashes as they got used up. And immediately after that Mass was over, people were pouring in again and Fr A. began to celebrate the next one. More crowds.

I ate a frugal Lenten lunch (mashed potato and baked peppers, since you ask) with the SPES students and various members of the parish team - and then spent the afternoon at home working on my current book project. Have just had a how's-it-going? chivvy from the publisher but am not so far panicking as I think we'll be on schedule...

Found these pix of Ash Wednesday scenes from around the world...

I feel very proud and glad...

...to be associated with EWTN. Read this and you'll see why.

I've just read...

... a truly frightening report about the American Air Force. I honestly thought it was a spoof at first. The chap in charge of the US Air Force has announced that any endorsement of a religious faith is banned: so a course on leadership that quoted some verses from the Bible has been stopped, any announcements about any religious activities must be made by a chaplain and not by any commander, and even ordinary conversations that appear to offer any sort of religious support are forbidden.

The only link that I - or most other British people - have with the American air force is this one. Now what are they going to do to remove the religious symbols there? Would the current Chief of Staff of the US Air Force like to begin work on the project, explaining to us all why he is doing so and how he is going to tell the families involved?

Our good team...

...of workers for Aid to the Church in Need gathered in London for the annual conference and training day. These are the men and women who go from church to church to raise funds for the people who are being persecuted for their faith in various countries. There were presentations on a range of topic including a report from field worker John Pontifex, focusing on the Middle East. Mass, lunch, sessions tackling the practicalities of fund-raising.

As the day drew to a close we gathered in the beautiful chapel - we were at a conference centre run by nuns in Roehampton - for a Holy Hour and Benediction. This was led by an Eastern-rite Deacon. As we entered, he was pacing the chapel with the thurible: instead of merely incensing the altar and the sanctuary, he was filling the whole church with incense, and his measured, prayerful pace and the swish of the thurible and the scent and sound of it drew us in, and conveyed a message that the whole place was holy and sacred. This is an idea that we in the Western rite can take up instead of stopping short at the sanctuary steps.

Benediction was beautiful - we sang the O Salutaris and Tantum ergo with joy and were led in an Eastern-rite prayer, and the Divine Praises...

Shrove Tuesday - pancakes at suppertime, with lemon and sugar. Lent starts tomorrow. A friend and I have covenanted together to maintain our Lenten resolutions and be accountable to each other. We have invited Blessed John Paul to be our patron for this season.

So here goes...

Auntie on Britain and the YEAR OF FAITH...

Read here...

For much of my adult life...

...I was told that the Second Vatican Council was "all a dreadful mistake" "didn't achieve anything worthwhile" etc etc, and I suspect too many - especially young - people are still being told that. But it's just not true. This weekend, attending at Maryvale a series of lectures on the Church, I realised again the huge importance of Lumen Gentium and its profound perspective on the reality of the Church. Instead of presenting the Church as a sort of super-society, a structure with rules, this offers much more profound understanding of the Church, all richly connected with Christ.

I hadn't fully grasped the significance of 19th century history - when Garibaldi's army helped to ensure a swift ending to the First Vatican Council, there was much that was left undone - and many years, and two world wars, later, the Second Vatican Council took on the task with a renewed understanding of its urgency. We are only now, fifty years on again, able to see that - like all great Councils of the Church - the full significance of what it discovered and taught has an immense importance over and beyond what its actual participants imagined.

Maryvale is a wonderful place at which to study. You are woken in the morning by the sound of the Brigettine sisters singing their morning office in the chapel. Mass follows - academics, students, sisters, everyone, together filling the chapel, priests concelebrating, an atmosphere of great devotion. Then we say the morning Office together, after which comes breakfast and then lectures begin. The old house, large and rambling, always seems to yield up new secrets - this time I found that I could get to the lecture room speedily through a tiny slip of a corridor I hadn't even known existed, connecting one section of the house with another, near what was once Bl. John Henry Newman's room. Outside, rain lashed down but we were snug and at meals crowds of students chattered and nattered in the pleasant refectory over plates of pasta and sausages. The only grim thing is the coffee, but I always bring my own(and share it with anyone and everyone who happens to be at my table)so that problem is solved.

The library is full of good things, the grounds, rain-washed but agreeable summoned me for some fresh air under rustling trees. On Sunday morning we listened to the Gospel about the paralysed man being lifted down through the roof: an image of how it's the faith and support of others, and not neccesarily our own, that can bring us to Christ. A rich sense of being part of the universal Church, the timelessness of the Eucharist, of the Church, of God, a strong unity with the Holy Father in Rome. The Church: Lumen Gentium.

Oh, our poor country...

...read this and start praying...

Never has this document seemed more relevant...

And do...

...read this...

YES!!!!

YES YES...to the statement supporting religious freedom, issued jointly by the Vatican and the visiting British delegation to the Holy See...

Busy morning - led a workshop....

...for students sponsored by this magazine for girls. It feels odd playing the role of Veteran Journalist Offering Wisdom. And the world of mass communications is changing so rapidly that it is hard to know is there is anything of value that one can offer...

On to Westminster Cathedral. Led History Tour. I always enjoy doing these. My favourite mosaic is the one of St Augustine being sent to evangelise England - he is there in Rome's Trajan market in the 6th century, with the Saxon slaves in their leggings. The story is that he and his monks set off at the behest of Pope St Gregory,to evangelise the land from which these poor slaves came, but on arrival in Gaul they heard such frightful stories about Britain - its cold weather, brutal people, stewed tea, Marmite sandwiches, whatever - that they hurried back to Rome and had to be told sternly to get on and do as they were told. So they dutifully set out again and...well....here we are, in Westminster Cathedral, and the evangelisation continues...

Evening meeting helping to plan the TOGETHER IN FAITH VIGIL organised for May 17th with Aid to the Church in Need. Book the date in your diary now!

Piers Paul Read's...

...latest book is just out and is a must-read. Get out of your comfort-zone and get a copy and get reading...

Remember...

...the headlines in 2010 about the Vatican being sued because of the sexual abuse perpetrated by a priest in Milwaukee? The case has now been withdrawn. But you won't hear about it from the media pack - read it here.

The Milwaukee priest was involved in abuse of children at a school for the deaf from the 1950s until 1974. Campaigning lawyers tried to make out that the Pope was responsible. It was all used in an attempt to destroy the 2010 Papal visit to Britain. Didn't work.

Weekday Mass...

...in this local parish with a good-sized congregation. Its a beautiful Mass, we chant the Kyrie, Agnus Dei etc properly, there's a sense of reverence and unity. Whenever I go it's the same - even today's raw weather failed to deter people...

Tomorrow: a Catholic History Walk around Westminster Cathedral. Come and celebrate the heritage of this London landmark. Starts 2.30pm - meet us on the Cathedral steps, or just inside.

Been re-reading A Freedom Within, the prison memoirs of Stefan Cardinal Wyszinski. When I first read this book, back in the early 1980s, it was with faintly smug sense of oooh-how-terrible-to-live-in-Eastern-Europe. Now, in the changed and changing circumstances of modern Britain, my reaction is rather different. Arbitrary official decrees that make it impossible for the Church to function normally, bureaucratic restrictions on Christian work for the sick and the poor, jargon-ridden language in Government circles that seeps into a loss of everyday freedoms...it doesn't seem so remote or far-away now...

"Forty Days for LIfe"....

...is an excellent initiative, and today I had the priviledge of taking the founders of this movement on a history tour of London...we began at Westminster Cathedral,went on to the Abbey, took in all sorts of bits of history like the Grey Coat Hospital and St Matthew's...lunched at the Albert pub, later went on to the Tower...

A most useful meeting at Holy Trinity Brompton - good, ecumenical friendly discussions, shared prayer, an atmosphere of warmth and welcome.

Good things happen when Christians get together to defend human life and human dignity. HTB has a bookshop with some good material on supporting marriage and family life, and I also found myself gripped by a new edition of C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity, which I remember reading long ago and which stirred and helped me hugely...

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year..."

This is one of those all-time quotes. A previously unknown piece of prose was quoted by King George VI in his broadcast to the nation on the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The words became identified with the King and with the noble cause to which he was rallying the nation - giving voice to the sense of moral purpose which would would sustain them in the months ahead..

"...Go out into the dark, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."

But today, if you quoted those words as an inspiration at the beginning of a borough council meeting in Britain it would be illegal. A judge ruled this week that prayers before council meetings contravene the law. He claims that this is based on a law passed in 1972. In 1974 I was elected to the council of the London Borough of Sutton. We began every Council meeting with prayers, and opened the year with a Civic Service in a local church, walking there in procession headed by the Mayor with his mace. I don't think there had ever been meetings of the Council, or of any of its predecessors (Borough of Beddington and Wallington, Urban District of Carshalton, etc) that had not begun with prayers.

This latest court ruling is nonsense and must be overturned.

Britain in the 21st century is looking-glass land. Can we get back to reality, please?

On the situation in America...

...do read this.

And this...

Supporting the Holy Father...

...and, specifically, his plan for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Read here for an update. Last night another fund-raiser, this time in Croydon where the vicar and a good number of parishioners from St Michael's Church are Ordinariate-bound. The church is a magnificent great red-brick mountain of Victoriana in the otherwise quite ghastly tower-block-and-concrete ugliness of Croydon. I don't know what will happen to the building in the long term: the area is very Islamic now.

We had a wonderful evening, and it was lateish as I went to catch the tram home. Croydon draws in people from all the neighbouring suburbs for Saturday nights. Girls were tottering out of the clubs on the six-inch high platform shoes that are currently a fashion obligation, along with very tiny shorts, tights, and lots of bling. They find it hard to walk - the shoes are like the pattens worn long ago by people who had to work near muddy rivers, but they don't work well on smooth sloping pavements and amid busy traffic. The girls shriek and cling on to one another, cursing and swearing with sexual expletives - their vocabulary is rather limited - trying to sort out arrangements about buses or taxi-rides home while staying upright and talking on mobile phones.

The trams leave from Reeves Corner - a confusing area at present because it was all destroyed in the summer's riots and is still being rebuilt. There is a Baptist chapel nearby with the date, 1861, nobly carved into its stone frontage - I wonder what its founders would have made of modern Croydon? There's still a whole biggish section of the Reeves shop which is thriving. A tram was waiting nearby and it was warm inside and I settled with book, the funds raised from the Ordinariate evening safely tucked somewhere way down inside my backback.

There is talk of London hosting World Youth Day - looking ahead to beyond 2013. Let's do it. We need it.

Farm Street...

...is London's famous Jesuit church and it is magnificent. A beautiful Mass there this evening to mark the centenary of the National Catholic Library (founded 1912) and to see the presentation of the Bene Merenti medal to a longtime volunteer staff member. Celebrant at the Mass was Bishop John Sherrington. The church gleams and glitters - it's in superb condition and, on this bitterly cold evening, was gloriously warm. There are several Masses there every Sunday including the sung Latin one which is noted for its fine music.

Back in 1992, I was in the Catholic Library - then based in Westminster, just behind the Cathedral - on the day the Church of England Synod debated the ordination of women. The librarian asked the two people - one was me - working in the reference room if we minded if she listened to the debate on the radio. We rather wanted to hear it too. We listened. I was underwhelmed by the arguments put for priestesses. I thought the people explaining how Scripture and Tradition pointed to the continuity of the Church's teaching in this matter had the better of the debate. I had to leave the library before the discussion ended. As I walked down Victoria Street I saw people coming out of the Synod, and two gleeful ladies told me they had won. I was sad.

But things have moved on and now, twenty years later, we are watching with awe the opening chapters of the next part of the history of Christianity in these islands - the unity for which so many have prayed, the fruit of ecumenical efforts over the years. We have the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Deo GRatias.

A meeting of the...

...CATHOLIC VOICES Academy, on "Morality and the Markets". A useful and stimulating discussion.

Earlier, I spent the day packing up prizes and certificates for a school project run by Southwark Vocations Children were invited to interview a priest or a Sister and then write it up. There were some excellent essays, many showing the real affection and admiration that children have for their parish priest. There were also, as always,some splendid howlers and some glorious spelling. Every child taking part gets a small religious medal and a wristband. Some of the young winners are getting this book as a prize, which is pleasing.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee,...

...and the state of Britain.

Try reading this, and add your comment.

"If we do not act now, the consequences will be grave..."

....thus the Archbishop of New York, speaking about the Obama/religious freedom issue. Read more here.

What is happening in the USA is frightening and disgraceful. No less fearsome are the plans of our Government here in Britain to force same-sex "marriage" on the nation, with the clear possibility that churches that refuse to offer such ceremonies could be subjected to legal action.

This is a time for courage and the American bishops are showing the way.

Students...

..at University College London are being told they can't hold a pro-life meeting. And the plans for banning them from doing so are utterly unjust as well as ludicrous. There's a good analysis of the situation here.

The point that we need to make repeatedly is that no one has any right to abortion: I don't just mean morally, which is obviously the case - I mean, even under the present law. Abortion is available effectively on-demand in Britain, but the law doesn't state that it is a right: there are various (ineffective, but nevertheless existing) restrictions on it. The law doesn't say that you have a "right to choose" to kill a baby. So students are in no way trampling on anyone's "rights" when they affirm how evil abortion is, and call for an end to it. We should assume that one day abortion will be banned in Britain: a civilised country protects its unborn babies and that is what our country should do.

An evening of poetry...

...yes, you read that correctly. Organised by Oliver House School in South London, and it was absolutely delightful. A packed hall,great enthusiasm, delightful children reciting some wonderful verse,a roar of applause greeting Roald Dahl's magnificent tirade on the subject of TV. I had the unenviable task of being one of the judges, and the delightful task of presenting the prizes and the Trophy to the final overall winner. Everyone entered into the spirit of the evening with great goodwill - it was honestly one of the happiest of gatherings I've ever attended in the London suburbs. There was a joyful and solid timelessness about it - thus might our ancestors, down through the centuries, have rallied to enjoy themselves on a February evening of bitter cold. With wine and snacks, and friendship and laughter, this was just such good fun. And the children had learned their poetry well, and declaimed it with clarity and enthusiasm. The school was founded just over half a dozen years ago and no wonder it is thriving.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Sadly, the Study Day organised by the Association of Catholic Women for Feb 7th has had to be CANCELLED. We hope to reschedule it for the summer term. Those who had booked places have been notified.