..the feast of Blessed John Paul. Once a person is declared Blessed by the Church, the feast-day can be celebrated - but only in the place(s) with which he or she has been associated, unless or until Bishops elsewhere make a special request. Thus today is a feast-day in Rome and in Poland. But the Bishops of the USA voted to ask the Church to have the feast celebrated in America and so today, it will be!
I think it would be great if it could be celebrated in England and Wales, too, so I am going to write to my Archbishop to suggest this. Why not join me, by writing a note to your Bishop, too?
There are a lot of plans for honouring Bl John Paul the Great, which will develop over the next years, and celebrating his feast-day will be an annual joy...let's get it well established in the calendar...
Monday, October 22, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Blessed Sacrament in procession...
...across the Thames, with about 1,000 people surging along in a great crowd...
We gathered at Westminster Cathedral and then, singing "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" processed out into the piazza and down Ambrosden Avenue and Horseferry Road to the river. Knights of St Columba - all wearing their formal ribbons of office and other insignia - guided us as we crossed Lambeth Bridge and walked on down through Southwark to St George's Cathedral. We sang "Sweet Sacrament Divine" and "How great thou art!" and other hymns, and said the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. The Blessed Sacrament was carried aloft under a canopy by Bishop John Sherrington, with accompanying clergy and altar servers, and Knights of Our Lady in splendid cloaks were in attendance.
At St George's Cathedral we all knelt in prayer - it took quite a while for everyone to pour in - and then there was a most glorious Benediction, a great roar of voices responding to the Divine Praises: "Blessed be God" "Blessed be his holy Name"... and things ended with a great singing of the Salve Regina, the sound surging up to the great arches and filling the whole cathedral...
It's now an established tradition: the Procession took place for the first time last year, marking the first anniversary of visit of Pope Benedict, and the new feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, and now it's definitely here to stay. Numbers seemed to me to be a bit lower than last year, but others said they were higher.We had nuns, priests, seminarians, the SPES team from Soho Square, and lots and lots of ordinary faithful people...there is a report, with lots of pix, on it all .here...and another here...
Pointers for the future: we need more unity in the singing - a good choir at the front and back of the procession? Some one suggested that we could all carry lighted candles (the sort that come in special procesional holders, as at Lourdes and elsewhere), which I would love, but it's difficult if there is a high wind.
As is traditional, the singing was a bit muddled - one half of the procession singing one hymn, others, further back, already embarked on another, while another set of voices had begun another Rosary...with large numbers, some incoherence is I suppose inevitable... Otherwise, no real hassles, oh, except that we also had, as we all departed:, some protesters (this time, from the Lefebvrists!) handing out leaflets denouncing the Church...
We gathered at Westminster Cathedral and then, singing "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" processed out into the piazza and down Ambrosden Avenue and Horseferry Road to the river. Knights of St Columba - all wearing their formal ribbons of office and other insignia - guided us as we crossed Lambeth Bridge and walked on down through Southwark to St George's Cathedral. We sang "Sweet Sacrament Divine" and "How great thou art!" and other hymns, and said the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. The Blessed Sacrament was carried aloft under a canopy by Bishop John Sherrington, with accompanying clergy and altar servers, and Knights of Our Lady in splendid cloaks were in attendance.
At St George's Cathedral we all knelt in prayer - it took quite a while for everyone to pour in - and then there was a most glorious Benediction, a great roar of voices responding to the Divine Praises: "Blessed be God" "Blessed be his holy Name"... and things ended with a great singing of the Salve Regina, the sound surging up to the great arches and filling the whole cathedral...
It's now an established tradition: the Procession took place for the first time last year, marking the first anniversary of visit of Pope Benedict, and the new feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, and now it's definitely here to stay. Numbers seemed to me to be a bit lower than last year, but others said they were higher.We had nuns, priests, seminarians, the SPES team from Soho Square, and lots and lots of ordinary faithful people...there is a report, with lots of pix, on it all .here...and another here...
Pointers for the future: we need more unity in the singing - a good choir at the front and back of the procession? Some one suggested that we could all carry lighted candles (the sort that come in special procesional holders, as at Lourdes and elsewhere), which I would love, but it's difficult if there is a high wind.
As is traditional, the singing was a bit muddled - one half of the procession singing one hymn, others, further back, already embarked on another, while another set of voices had begun another Rosary...with large numbers, some incoherence is I suppose inevitable... Otherwise, no real hassles, oh, except that we also had, as we all departed:, some protesters (this time, from the Lefebvrists!) handing out leaflets denouncing the Church...
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Pope Paul VI: to be declared Blessed...
...says a news story from Rome and I for one will be glad to have it confirmed, and to see the ceremony take place in Rome in this Year of Faith. Paul VI was a truly good and holy man, and one who suffered: his years fulfilling Peter's task were a sort of crucifixion for him. After the widespread opposition and denouncing of Humanae Vitae he must have felt horribly alone. And yet how true and prophetic and courageous that Encyclical was: today, we are watching Europe destroying itself: whole nations threatened with quiet, miserable, drawn-out disappearance, a refusal of new life, a big "No!" to the future by the simple and ghastly refusal to have children. Paul VI spoke with wisdom and dignity and valour. I remember, some time in the mid-1970s, recieving a letter from a priest who ended "...pray for the Holy Father in his Gethsemane."
Monday, October 15, 2012
Today...
...I hurried to the weekday 10am Mass at my local parish and arrived a bit late. The priest was just finishing his homily and saying "...and there are lots of ways in which we can witness to our Faith in modern London. For example, why not join the big Blessed Sacrament Procession next Saturday, October 20th, starting at Westminster Cathedral....". Which was Providential, because I had brought along with me a handbill, which I was seeking to photocopy in the parish office so that I could hand out copies all week. Perfect. After Mass, and various domestic chores, hurried up to London. You will see me handing out leaflets in and around Westminster Cathedral piazza all week.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Been reading...
...."The Secret Life of John Paul II" by Lino Zani. The title aims to get the book sold, and sounds tabloid-ish. But the reality is the thoughtful, vivid and rather piognant tale of Bl. JP's skiing trips in the mountains - he stayed at the ski-hut run by the author's family, went skiing with joy, prayed long and silently in the breathtaking beauty, came to know the family and to share in their joys and sorrows. And there is more: it was in this place that some of the most terrible battles of World War I were fought, soldiers suffering and dying in the bitter cold - JPII's father was among those who battled there.....there is a great significance in all this and in the great rugged Cross marking the battlefield: but do get the book and read for yourself. It's not great literature: the author is a mountaineer and ski instructor. But it's a good read and will get you thinking a bit.
The Year of Faith...
...is about seeking the truth in freedom. Pope Benedict, at Loreto this week, entrusted the project to Our Lady, and spoke about her "yes" to the Incarnation.
The Christian way is not to coerce or impose. Freedom is the key.
"God asks for mankind's 'yes.' He has created a free partner in dialogue, one from whom he requests a reply in complete liberty."
The Christian way is not to coerce or impose. Freedom is the key.
"God asks for mankind's 'yes.' He has created a free partner in dialogue, one from whom he requests a reply in complete liberty."
The Thames...
...with its choppy waters, winding its way in a series of great loops through London and Southwark, Middlesex and Surrey. Today a friend joined me to walk from Putney Bridge to Hampton Wick, checking out the route for the big John Paul II Walk on Oct 28th. It was a longish walk, over 15 miles, and we stopped for lunch at Richmond, dropping into a pleasant pub at the end of the lane where my mother lived as a child...
The full walk, from Westminster Cathedral to the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster at Hampton Wick, will be well over 20 miles and will take all day. Walkers need to know that much of the route is muddy: wear sensible boots or walking shoes. But it is a most glorious walk - trees meet overhead like a gothic cathedral's soaring arches, teams of rowers pass on the water with rhythmic splashes and with coxes calling out sharp instructions, there are families with children and dogs, and you pass places that echo with history: Kew Palace and Kew Gardens, Syon House, the Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill.
Along the way, we sought to work out any hassles that might emerge on the JPIII Walk, but actually the route is simple and it is just a case of "keep on". Hampton Wick is just across the river from Kingston, and as our walk today finished, D. caught the train back to London from there, and I caught a bus home.
Meanwhile, for those who want to take part in an act of witness, but aren't up for a 20-mile river hike: come to the Blessed Sacrament Procession through London NEXT Saturday (Oct 20th) starts 3pm Westminster Cathedral. We need you: come and pray for the New Evangelisation.
The full walk, from Westminster Cathedral to the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster at Hampton Wick, will be well over 20 miles and will take all day. Walkers need to know that much of the route is muddy: wear sensible boots or walking shoes. But it is a most glorious walk - trees meet overhead like a gothic cathedral's soaring arches, teams of rowers pass on the water with rhythmic splashes and with coxes calling out sharp instructions, there are families with children and dogs, and you pass places that echo with history: Kew Palace and Kew Gardens, Syon House, the Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill.
Along the way, we sought to work out any hassles that might emerge on the JPIII Walk, but actually the route is simple and it is just a case of "keep on". Hampton Wick is just across the river from Kingston, and as our walk today finished, D. caught the train back to London from there, and I caught a bus home.
Meanwhile, for those who want to take part in an act of witness, but aren't up for a 20-mile river hike: come to the Blessed Sacrament Procession through London NEXT Saturday (Oct 20th) starts 3pm Westminster Cathedral. We need you: come and pray for the New Evangelisation.
Friday, October 12, 2012
The light of hope...
...as crowds in vast numbers throng St Peter's Square in a torchlit procession to mark the Year of Faith, echoing that great vigil 50 years ago at the opening of the Second Vatican Council. And the Holy Father, like his predecessor Bl John XXIII, sends the children a kiss...read about it all here...
Is the Tory party is self-destruct mode?
...because at the moment it looks that way. Here we are in an immense economic mess, and with very considerable social dfficulties (massive crime rate, large numbers of school-leavers unable to read and write properly, households where no one has any experience whatever of having worked and earned a wage, a birth-rate that is below replacement level) coupled with a desperately worrying international situation (tensions - to use a mild word - in the Middle East, our Army stuck in a mess in Afghanistan)...and the Conservative Party, at its annual conference, gets a Minister to stand at the podium and talk about same-sex marriage.
...and for sane people...
...over 16 who care about the future, here's news and a petition to sign...
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson...
...is talking nonsense, which he does from time to time. It's often quite fun to read him, but not this time. He thinks - or does he? I'm actually wondering if this is a spoof - that marriage can be redefined legally to include two people of the same sex, and that it will all be terribly jolly to do this.
Dear Boris: a joke's a joke, but this one isn't that funny. The boy Cameron's daft plan to redefine marriage carries with it real dangers, especially to human freedom. Think about it. Under the proposed new law, a teacher who openly stated that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman could lose her job. Ditto a magistrate, or a police offcier. Do you really want that? And, if you do, do you think you are respecting people's freedom?
London has, within living memory, been a city famed for championing the cause of freedom. Boris: that heritage is yours to honour, not destroy.
Dear Boris: a joke's a joke, but this one isn't that funny. The boy Cameron's daft plan to redefine marriage carries with it real dangers, especially to human freedom. Think about it. Under the proposed new law, a teacher who openly stated that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman could lose her job. Ditto a magistrate, or a police offcier. Do you really want that? And, if you do, do you think you are respecting people's freedom?
London has, within living memory, been a city famed for championing the cause of freedom. Boris: that heritage is yours to honour, not destroy.
Brompton Oratory...
...and the funeral of Alexandra Eversole, large-hearted, generous, a much-loved teacher, a wonderful hostess, a tireless worker for many good causes, fund-raiser for charities ranging from leprosy-sufferers around the world to disabled ex-servicemen in Britain...the Mass was beautiful, the church full, and in tribute to Alexandra's life of care and service to the community, the Lord Mayor of Westminster led the congregation.
It was a gathering of so many people who knew Alexandra and know each other, and it was both moving and beautiful to be there at prayer together...Catholic and Anglican, friends and family. In a fine sermon, we were reminded to pray for her and were given a rich perspective on what it means to be a child of God with eternity awaiting...
Like so many others, I am grateful to Alexandra for her hospitality (she hosted meetings of the Catholic Cultural Group which we founded back in the 1990s), for her example of faith (so many Sundays when we'd meet at the Oratory) for her loyalty and great love of Britain (her never-failing organisation of poppy-sales for Remembrance Day). I knew she had been a teacher, but only recently discovered how much she was loved and honoured by the pupils she helped and inspired.
And with her passing a chapter of Catholic London life goes, too...
It was a gathering of so many people who knew Alexandra and know each other, and it was both moving and beautiful to be there at prayer together...Catholic and Anglican, friends and family. In a fine sermon, we were reminded to pray for her and were given a rich perspective on what it means to be a child of God with eternity awaiting...
Like so many others, I am grateful to Alexandra for her hospitality (she hosted meetings of the Catholic Cultural Group which we founded back in the 1990s), for her example of faith (so many Sundays when we'd meet at the Oratory) for her loyalty and great love of Britain (her never-failing organisation of poppy-sales for Remembrance Day). I knew she had been a teacher, but only recently discovered how much she was loved and honoured by the pupils she helped and inspired.
And with her passing a chapter of Catholic London life goes, too...
...and the next...
...Catholic History Walks are:
Sat Oct 20th the Blessed Sacrament Procession, starts Westminster Cathedral 3pm, crosses Lambeth Bridge, finishes with Benediction at St George's Cathedral, Southwark.
Thursday Oct 25th - tour of Westminster Cathedral. Starts 2pm INSIDE Westminster Cathedral. No need to book - just turn up.
Sunday Oct 28th - a BIG 20-mile walk along the Thames: the John Paul II Walk for the New Evangelisation. Bring packed lunch and dress suitably. Starts with 10.30am MASS at Westminster Cathedral. Finishes at the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster, Hampton Wick, approx 7pm.It would be useful to know if you plan to join us. Send a COMMENT to this Blog marked NOT FOR PUBLICATION, and include your email address.
Thursday Nov 15th. Meet 6.30pm at St Mary Moorfields, Eldon St London EC2. A City walk. No need to book, just turn up.
Sat Oct 20th the Blessed Sacrament Procession, starts Westminster Cathedral 3pm, crosses Lambeth Bridge, finishes with Benediction at St George's Cathedral, Southwark.
Thursday Oct 25th - tour of Westminster Cathedral. Starts 2pm INSIDE Westminster Cathedral. No need to book - just turn up.
Sunday Oct 28th - a BIG 20-mile walk along the Thames: the John Paul II Walk for the New Evangelisation. Bring packed lunch and dress suitably. Starts with 10.30am MASS at Westminster Cathedral. Finishes at the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster, Hampton Wick, approx 7pm.It would be useful to know if you plan to join us. Send a COMMENT to this Blog marked NOT FOR PUBLICATION, and include your email address.
Thursday Nov 15th. Meet 6.30pm at St Mary Moorfields, Eldon St London EC2. A City walk. No need to book, just turn up.
The YEAR OF FAITH...
...has begun, and Westminster Cathedral was packed with people and glorious music and great wafts of incense and a great, great procession of priests, for a special Mass that was celebrated in union with the Holy Father in Rome and bishops in cathedrals around the world.
In fact, I had forgotten that today marked the launch of the Year of Faith, and had simply planned to be at the 5.30pm Mass as usual before leading a Catholic History Walk. En route I fell in behind some young men, one of whom was saying "...so I got the von Balthasar book, but have only read four pages so far..." and I said "Golly I find von Balthasar simply terrific, couldn't wait to go on reading! " and they swivelled round: they are a group from the seminary whom I have come to know well, and it was fun to be talking and laughing with them as we crossed the rainy piazza. I dropped in to the bookshop (St Paul's) and found it unusually crowded: some one else noticed too and asked why, and then I felt rather daft when it was pointed out that the Year of Faith was about to be launched next door. I just managed to find a seat - next to some Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and behind some Maltese sisters - and the cathedral filled and filled, and the seminarians were among lots of others taking a special part in the ceremonies, which were headed by Bishop John Arnold as the Archbishop was in Rome with the H. Father...
We had Newman's "Firmly I believe..." at Communion: the words are splendid.
As the crowds slowly spilled out at the end of Mass a group gathered on the steps for the History Walk, despite teeming rain. And it turned out to be a particularly agreeable Walk: first the Cathedral itself, that great illuminated front facing on to the splashy piazza, then Ambrosden Avenue, and Archbishop's House (tales of Wiseman, Manning, Vaughan etc), and then down Great St Peter Street to the Abbey and Parliament, passing Abbey Orchard Street and the Grey Coat Hospital (girls still wearing grey uniforms, albeit blazers and miniskirts) and finally to Whitehall, and the Cenotaph (where we keep silence as we walk past) and Charles I...
At the core of this particular History Walk were young people from the SPES team at St Patrick's, Soho Square - undeterred by rain, cheerful, interested, enthusiastic: when I asked, on reaching Parliament, if they wanted to stop there or go on to Whitehall, they opted for the latter without hesitation. A great bunch: their year's work includes tackling a Maryvale diploma while active with evangelism, outreach, social projects, and more...
In fact, I had forgotten that today marked the launch of the Year of Faith, and had simply planned to be at the 5.30pm Mass as usual before leading a Catholic History Walk. En route I fell in behind some young men, one of whom was saying "...so I got the von Balthasar book, but have only read four pages so far..." and I said "Golly I find von Balthasar simply terrific, couldn't wait to go on reading! " and they swivelled round: they are a group from the seminary whom I have come to know well, and it was fun to be talking and laughing with them as we crossed the rainy piazza. I dropped in to the bookshop (St Paul's) and found it unusually crowded: some one else noticed too and asked why, and then I felt rather daft when it was pointed out that the Year of Faith was about to be launched next door. I just managed to find a seat - next to some Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and behind some Maltese sisters - and the cathedral filled and filled, and the seminarians were among lots of others taking a special part in the ceremonies, which were headed by Bishop John Arnold as the Archbishop was in Rome with the H. Father...
We had Newman's "Firmly I believe..." at Communion: the words are splendid.
As the crowds slowly spilled out at the end of Mass a group gathered on the steps for the History Walk, despite teeming rain. And it turned out to be a particularly agreeable Walk: first the Cathedral itself, that great illuminated front facing on to the splashy piazza, then Ambrosden Avenue, and Archbishop's House (tales of Wiseman, Manning, Vaughan etc), and then down Great St Peter Street to the Abbey and Parliament, passing Abbey Orchard Street and the Grey Coat Hospital (girls still wearing grey uniforms, albeit blazers and miniskirts) and finally to Whitehall, and the Cenotaph (where we keep silence as we walk past) and Charles I...
At the core of this particular History Walk were young people from the SPES team at St Patrick's, Soho Square - undeterred by rain, cheerful, interested, enthusiastic: when I asked, on reaching Parliament, if they wanted to stop there or go on to Whitehall, they opted for the latter without hesitation. A great bunch: their year's work includes tackling a Maryvale diploma while active with evangelism, outreach, social projects, and more...
Thursday, October 11, 2012
,,,Commentators to this blog...
...need to know the rules. I reserve the right not to publish any comment. Anonymous comments will not be published unless the writer sends a separate note giving his/her name. Coy nicknames count as anonymous.
Oxford...
...in pale Autumn sunshine. The Oxford Oratory Church is having extensive renovation and rebuilding over the next years, linked to its associations with Bl. John Henry Newman.
Lunch w. fellow blogger and friend Francis Phillips.
Walked through the War Memorial Gardens to Christ Church Meadows - with November coming and the evening falling, and the gentle beauty of the evening, thoughts of the young men of the First World War.
Evening with a young relative, sitting agreeably in a big window-seat in a cosy room overlooking the river and talking of many things.
Late bus home, the Oxford Tube, reading von Balthasar (paperback purchased at Oxford Oratory) and Ratzinger, and being much illuminated by both. Meanwhile Pope Benedict has been speaking about Vatican II.
Lunch w. fellow blogger and friend Francis Phillips.
Walked through the War Memorial Gardens to Christ Church Meadows - with November coming and the evening falling, and the gentle beauty of the evening, thoughts of the young men of the First World War.
Evening with a young relative, sitting agreeably in a big window-seat in a cosy room overlooking the river and talking of many things.
Late bus home, the Oxford Tube, reading von Balthasar (paperback purchased at Oxford Oratory) and Ratzinger, and being much illuminated by both. Meanwhile Pope Benedict has been speaking about Vatican II.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Spent the day...
...doing routine things (Mass, shopping, then to the computer and work, work, snack, work, work) so it wasn't really until evening, en route to an elderly relative, that I appreciated the golden glory of Autumn. Auburn and brown and bright yellow leaves scattering on the pavements along with shining horse-chestnuts. A chill in the air - wore a scarf for the first time and dug cold hands into my pockets to warm them. Glowing windows make homes look welcoming in the suburban dusk, A bus trundles into sight and the driver postively enjoyed seeing people get on board appreciatively after a cold wait. Just occasionally, you get these glimpses of the great beauty of ordinary things. Deo gratias.
The SSPX...
...have a rather horrid booklet that seems to be used for recruiting purposes: some one sent me a copy a couple of weeks ago. It has a section on Jews that is really nasty and various angry tirades which reveal a mixture of bitterness, sneers, anger and confusion over the Church and her teachings. I honestly didn't know that their official line was like this. Ugh.
The biggest meeting at the Tory party conference: ...
... the one supporting marriage. Watch this video - and write and tell David Cameron that this is the central issue of the moment. A country is based on families: attempting to redefine marriage is a project doomed to fester into social disintegration and to bring hardship, sorrow and social problems on a massive scale.
The Catholic Women...
...of the Year Luncheon always begins with a rising crescendo of noise as women gather and greet one another and talk and talk, and then more arrive, and more, and more....AND THE NOISE IS PRACTICALLY DEAFENING! Drinks, and photographs, and much bustling about as people make their way to the dining area and then the Top Table (the elected Cath Women of the Yr, plus chairman and speaker etc) walks in to great applause...it's all done in a very grand style.
Edmund Adamus, of the Department of Pastoral Affairs for the diocese of Westminster was our special guest speaker and was superb. He spoke about the special roles of men and women in the Church, quoting extensively from Bl. John Paul, emphasised the crucial centrality of family life and the sacred core of things in the home, the domestic Church, and ended up with a most moving and inspiring quotation from Mulieris Dignitatem...Auntie's job was to give the Vote of Thanks, and found her task delightful as both he, and Mary Killeen, speaker from the Maryvale Institute (to which funds raised by this year's Luncheon will go), really uplifted us all. Sitting at the high table at such an event enables one to see how the whole thing is going, and every year I am impressed by the lively chatter and the easy interchange of everyone - it really is an excellent event which brings together Catholic women who relish the chance not only to celebrate their shared faith but also to swap news and ideas and information...among the useful contacts Auntie made were a young student pro-life leader, a journalist working for a political website, a Maryvale graduate now planning to do more study and research, and of course friends old and new enjoying the day...
It was a pleasure to be sitting next to Jo Siedlecka, one of the Women of the Year. We have often overlapped at various events working as journalists and she is a talented and hard-working writer who has put her skills at the service of so many good causes: it was a real pleasure to see her recieve a well-merited honour.
After lunch, time for a quick cup of tea with Patti, fellow-member of the Association of Catholic Women, and fellow campaigner and worker for various causes, and a quick consulting of watches...would it be feasible for me to make a dash to Oxford, for the Newman Night Walk? The Luncheon was held at the Thistle Hotel near Marble Arch, so Paddington was do-able...I decided YES, and and s very very glad that I did.
The Night Walk is special. It commemorates the wet and stormy October night in the middle of the 19th century when Dominic Barberi arrived at Littlemore, having travelled there by stage-coach. He had recieved a message that the Rev John Henry Newman would like him to stop by. As he stood by the fire, with his soaking cloak, Newman came into the room and knelt at his feet, begging to be recieved into the Catholic Church...
We gathered at the Oratory in Woodstock Road, and walked to Littlemore, led by a couple of Oratory Fathers. We prayed the twenty decades of the Rosary along the way, and made a series of stops, each marking a significant event in Newman's life - Oriel, the University Church, St Clement's, the cottage at Littlemore where his mother and sisters lived, Littlemore Church which he built and from where he served the local poor people with such love and care...
A wonderful, wonderful walk. It is not far - perhaps four and a half miles. The rain which had fallen steadily all day had ceased. The lanes and meadows of Newman's day have given way, of course, to roads and streets of suburban-style houses, but we walked where he walked, and we prayed prayers he wrote, and sang his "Lead kindly light" as we set off for the final section, carrying lighted candles. The sisters The Work organise all of this, and when we got to St Dominic Barberi Church at Littlemore, they had hurried there ahead of us and we kneeling before the sanctuary, in their beautiful bridal-style Choir robes, with white veils.
Each of us took on that Walk our own special prayer-intentions, our hopes and our worries, and asked for Newman's intercession and laid it all before God...
Edmund Adamus, of the Department of Pastoral Affairs for the diocese of Westminster was our special guest speaker and was superb. He spoke about the special roles of men and women in the Church, quoting extensively from Bl. John Paul, emphasised the crucial centrality of family life and the sacred core of things in the home, the domestic Church, and ended up with a most moving and inspiring quotation from Mulieris Dignitatem...Auntie's job was to give the Vote of Thanks, and found her task delightful as both he, and Mary Killeen, speaker from the Maryvale Institute (to which funds raised by this year's Luncheon will go), really uplifted us all. Sitting at the high table at such an event enables one to see how the whole thing is going, and every year I am impressed by the lively chatter and the easy interchange of everyone - it really is an excellent event which brings together Catholic women who relish the chance not only to celebrate their shared faith but also to swap news and ideas and information...among the useful contacts Auntie made were a young student pro-life leader, a journalist working for a political website, a Maryvale graduate now planning to do more study and research, and of course friends old and new enjoying the day...
It was a pleasure to be sitting next to Jo Siedlecka, one of the Women of the Year. We have often overlapped at various events working as journalists and she is a talented and hard-working writer who has put her skills at the service of so many good causes: it was a real pleasure to see her recieve a well-merited honour.
After lunch, time for a quick cup of tea with Patti, fellow-member of the Association of Catholic Women, and fellow campaigner and worker for various causes, and a quick consulting of watches...would it be feasible for me to make a dash to Oxford, for the Newman Night Walk? The Luncheon was held at the Thistle Hotel near Marble Arch, so Paddington was do-able...I decided YES, and and s very very glad that I did.
The Night Walk is special. It commemorates the wet and stormy October night in the middle of the 19th century when Dominic Barberi arrived at Littlemore, having travelled there by stage-coach. He had recieved a message that the Rev John Henry Newman would like him to stop by. As he stood by the fire, with his soaking cloak, Newman came into the room and knelt at his feet, begging to be recieved into the Catholic Church...
We gathered at the Oratory in Woodstock Road, and walked to Littlemore, led by a couple of Oratory Fathers. We prayed the twenty decades of the Rosary along the way, and made a series of stops, each marking a significant event in Newman's life - Oriel, the University Church, St Clement's, the cottage at Littlemore where his mother and sisters lived, Littlemore Church which he built and from where he served the local poor people with such love and care...
A wonderful, wonderful walk. It is not far - perhaps four and a half miles. The rain which had fallen steadily all day had ceased. The lanes and meadows of Newman's day have given way, of course, to roads and streets of suburban-style houses, but we walked where he walked, and we prayed prayers he wrote, and sang his "Lead kindly light" as we set off for the final section, carrying lighted candles. The sisters The Work organise all of this, and when we got to St Dominic Barberi Church at Littlemore, they had hurried there ahead of us and we kneeling before the sanctuary, in their beautiful bridal-style Choir robes, with white veils.
Each of us took on that Walk our own special prayer-intentions, our hopes and our worries, and asked for Newman's intercession and laid it all before God...
Sunday, October 07, 2012
The Year of Faith...
... and prayer-cards being distributed after Mass, and a letter from the Archbishop read aloud. My mind went back fifty years, to the announcement of the Second Vatican Council, and prayer-cards with Pope John XXIII on them. It seemed exciting, back then, to be given something at church - this was in less prosperous times, and before photocopying and cheap printing - and I felt rather important walking home holding this. I stared at the picture: the Pope was plump and wore a fur-edged cape and looked comfortable and cheery. Inside was a long prayer, several paragraphs, asking God's blessing on the big Council that was planned. It was all obviously something that mattered to the grown-ups, but to me it was just something to put in my prayer-book as a sort of souvenir.
And this afternoon, settling down to some Maryvale study, the documents of Vatican II are core materials. The Catechism of the Catholic Church - its 20th anniversary is being celebrated as part of the Year of Faith too - is the central took for evangelisation. John XXXIII is honoured as Blessed, along with John Paul the Great, who was one of the Council Fathers and took a major part in its proceedings. And a young theologian who played an important role is now Pope and calling us to prayer as John XXIII did half a century ago. And I walked home from Mass with another prayer-card in another missal, and the Faith is the same in a changing world.
And this afternoon, settling down to some Maryvale study, the documents of Vatican II are core materials. The Catechism of the Catholic Church - its 20th anniversary is being celebrated as part of the Year of Faith too - is the central took for evangelisation. John XXXIII is honoured as Blessed, along with John Paul the Great, who was one of the Council Fathers and took a major part in its proceedings. And a young theologian who played an important role is now Pope and calling us to prayer as John XXIII did half a century ago. And I walked home from Mass with another prayer-card in another missal, and the Faith is the same in a changing world.
Glorious classical music...
...from talented young people, in a magnificent "Kids Prom" at St James Church, Islington. Among the talented young performers - all in their early teens - was a young relative. Auntie sat glowing with pride. Cello, piano, violin, flute, trumpet, clarinet, voice...some fabulous pieces of music, and all in the beauty of a lovely church on an Autumn evening, with home-made cakes (the young team had done those, too) in the interval. Afterwards, a talkative time at a family gathering, young people munching pizza, parents and grandparents and friends and neighbours enjoying wine and everyone in the afterglow of a wonderful concert...this is Britain at its best.
Home on the Tube. Slithered on the vomit on the floor, but managed toget to a seat. As new passengers arrived, we all - strangers, but united in mild adversity - united to warn them of the need for care. "Ugh!" "Yuk" "How gross..." . One girl, in a hurry, slithered and fell. As I passed tissues and commiserations, we all got talking. They askd me what I was reading. "um...well...theology. I'm doing some study - one of those part-time degrees. Loving it." We got talking about God, the Bible, Christ. "What's your take on it?" a girl asked, with genuine friendly curiosity, as one pondering some odd new information or weird piece of news. "Well...." I thought for a long moment. "I don't think Christ was lying....I think he was who he said he was. And I think it's stunning: that God didn't stay remote from us, but came and joined in...." And as we talked, there was an extraordinary bond., and somehow something beautiful, as we carefully made our way out past the vomit on the floor and the shrieking youngsters at the station, to the bus stop and our various homes.
Home on the Tube. Slithered on the vomit on the floor, but managed toget to a seat. As new passengers arrived, we all - strangers, but united in mild adversity - united to warn them of the need for care. "Ugh!" "Yuk" "How gross..." . One girl, in a hurry, slithered and fell. As I passed tissues and commiserations, we all got talking. They askd me what I was reading. "um...well...theology. I'm doing some study - one of those part-time degrees. Loving it." We got talking about God, the Bible, Christ. "What's your take on it?" a girl asked, with genuine friendly curiosity, as one pondering some odd new information or weird piece of news. "Well...." I thought for a long moment. "I don't think Christ was lying....I think he was who he said he was. And I think it's stunning: that God didn't stay remote from us, but came and joined in...." And as we talked, there was an extraordinary bond., and somehow something beautiful, as we carefully made our way out past the vomit on the floor and the shrieking youngsters at the station, to the bus stop and our various homes.
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Catholic humanism...
"Without God, man ultimately chooses selfishness over solidarity and
love, material things over values, having over being. We must return to
God, so that man may return to being man" Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at the shrine at Loreto, where he went this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Pope John XXIII went there on the eve of that great Council, and Papa B. told the 10,000-strong crowd this week that he was following in the footsteps of that "unforgettable Pope".
Various meetings took me to a suburban shopping centre for much of yesterday. It is a place which has been familiar to me from childhood, and ought to be rather nice now, as the old High Street has been pedestrianised. The shops are all large-scale chain-stores, and the street was filled with stalls selling cheap clothes and fake jewellry, and there was loud rock music blaring...but instead of a sense of friendly bustle, it seemed to be filled with people - among them many who were unusually fat! - with an odd listlessness, eating and shouting, throwing food wrappers on to the street, gazing at shop windows and in a weird way, despite the crowds, somehow disconnected from one another.
Various meetings took me to a suburban shopping centre for much of yesterday. It is a place which has been familiar to me from childhood, and ought to be rather nice now, as the old High Street has been pedestrianised. The shops are all large-scale chain-stores, and the street was filled with stalls selling cheap clothes and fake jewellry, and there was loud rock music blaring...but instead of a sense of friendly bustle, it seemed to be filled with people - among them many who were unusually fat! - with an odd listlessness, eating and shouting, throwing food wrappers on to the street, gazing at shop windows and in a weird way, despite the crowds, somehow disconnected from one another.
Friday, October 05, 2012
Catholic History Walks...
...and the Autumn season is well under way. Note these:
Thursday Oct 11th - Westminster, Parliament, and Whitehall. Meet 6.30pm on the steps of Westmnster Cathedral, after the 5.30pm Mass. No need to book, just turn up. Wear suitable clothing and shoes - we walk whatever the weather.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th. THE PROCESSION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT from Westminster Cathedral, across the Thames, to St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Starts 3pm at Westminster Cathedral. Don't miss this! Tell all your friends and family. Make this a great act of witness to the Faith!
Thursday October 25th - a tour of Westminster Cathedral. Meet 3pm inside the Cathedral.
Sunday October 28th - the John Paul II Walk along the Thames. From Westminster to the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster at Hampton Wick - a walk of some 20 miles. Join us: we are walking and praying for the New Evangelisation of our country. Bring your Rosary, a packed lunch, and water to drink. Starts at Westminster Cathedral after the 10.30am Mass.
Thursday October 15th. Meet 6.30pm at St Mary Moorfields, Eldon St, London EC2. We will explore the City and some of its old churches, finishing on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral.
Thursday Oct 11th - Westminster, Parliament, and Whitehall. Meet 6.30pm on the steps of Westmnster Cathedral, after the 5.30pm Mass. No need to book, just turn up. Wear suitable clothing and shoes - we walk whatever the weather.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th. THE PROCESSION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT from Westminster Cathedral, across the Thames, to St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Starts 3pm at Westminster Cathedral. Don't miss this! Tell all your friends and family. Make this a great act of witness to the Faith!
Thursday October 25th - a tour of Westminster Cathedral. Meet 3pm inside the Cathedral.
Sunday October 28th - the John Paul II Walk along the Thames. From Westminster to the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster at Hampton Wick - a walk of some 20 miles. Join us: we are walking and praying for the New Evangelisation of our country. Bring your Rosary, a packed lunch, and water to drink. Starts at Westminster Cathedral after the 10.30am Mass.
Thursday October 15th. Meet 6.30pm at St Mary Moorfields, Eldon St, London EC2. We will explore the City and some of its old churches, finishing on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral.
Prayer and fasting...
...can bring evil things to an end, and can invite God's blessing into places where there was darkness and despair. The Forty Days for Life project is all about this, and you can find out more by following that link. Robert Colquhoun, leading organiser, has gathered numbers of young people to join in this campaign of prayer: It is worthy of support.
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Blessed Sacrament Procession...
...Saturday October 20th 2012, starts 3pm WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL, finishes with Benediction at St George's Cathedral, Southwark.
Come and witness to the Faith!
We will gather in Westminster Cathedral, and then move off down Ambrosden Avenue, and so down through Westminster, crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge.
Last year over 1,000 people took part...come and make the 2012 Procession as good or even better! It is a glorious and unforgettable experience to share in this great act of witness in the streets of London. Be there!
Come and witness to the Faith!
We will gather in Westminster Cathedral, and then move off down Ambrosden Avenue, and so down through Westminster, crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge.
Last year over 1,000 people took part...come and make the 2012 Procession as good or even better! It is a glorious and unforgettable experience to share in this great act of witness in the streets of London. Be there!
Vatican II...
...the theme of a talk given by Bishop Mark Davies to The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild, last night.
He speaks in a measured, low-key way, thoughtful and well-prepared. His talk was Christ-centred, warmly supportive of the Council, reflective: he emphasised the futility of seeing things in a "left/right" "conservatives/liberals" series of battles and conspiracies - what matters is the larger reality, the teachings that emerged, the message of hope and renewal, and the opportunity now offerred, by the forthcoming 50th anniversary, for new evangelisation drawing from the same prayerful faith as that shown by Bl. John XXIII in summoning the Council all those years ago. The Fathers of the Council were gathered, he stressed, not in a sort of Parliament, but in the service of the Church.
The overall message of his talk was that the 50th anniversary is something to celebrate and honour, and that the Council's teachings will serve the Church well in the years ahead. It was a view with a mature perspective: the Council seen in the light of Blessed John Paul and the Catechism.
I first met Bishop Mark years ago through the FAITH Movement, and his general approach very much chimes in with the message that I received through that Movement about Vatican II throughout the 1970s and 80s. He exudes a prayerful and calm sense of competence, and of confidence in the Church.
At the meeting, I was able to announce the winners of the 2012 Catholic Young Writer Award, which is run jointly by The Keys and the Catholic Union. We have joint winners this year - twin girls at a school in Loughborough. Info here. I will be going to the school the present the Award a shield, plus a modest cash prize, and books) in a few weeks' time.
Also: The Keys was one of the founders of the Towards Advent Festival: Sat Nov 24th. Join us there! Opens 10.30am, talks, music, stalls and displays by a wide range of Catholic groups and organisations...
He speaks in a measured, low-key way, thoughtful and well-prepared. His talk was Christ-centred, warmly supportive of the Council, reflective: he emphasised the futility of seeing things in a "left/right" "conservatives/liberals" series of battles and conspiracies - what matters is the larger reality, the teachings that emerged, the message of hope and renewal, and the opportunity now offerred, by the forthcoming 50th anniversary, for new evangelisation drawing from the same prayerful faith as that shown by Bl. John XXIII in summoning the Council all those years ago. The Fathers of the Council were gathered, he stressed, not in a sort of Parliament, but in the service of the Church.
The overall message of his talk was that the 50th anniversary is something to celebrate and honour, and that the Council's teachings will serve the Church well in the years ahead. It was a view with a mature perspective: the Council seen in the light of Blessed John Paul and the Catechism.
I first met Bishop Mark years ago through the FAITH Movement, and his general approach very much chimes in with the message that I received through that Movement about Vatican II throughout the 1970s and 80s. He exudes a prayerful and calm sense of competence, and of confidence in the Church.
At the meeting, I was able to announce the winners of the 2012 Catholic Young Writer Award, which is run jointly by The Keys and the Catholic Union. We have joint winners this year - twin girls at a school in Loughborough. Info here. I will be going to the school the present the Award a shield, plus a modest cash prize, and books) in a few weeks' time.
Also: The Keys was one of the founders of the Towards Advent Festival: Sat Nov 24th. Join us there! Opens 10.30am, talks, music, stalls and displays by a wide range of Catholic groups and organisations...
Monday, October 01, 2012
Vanishing...
...the England where I spent Saturday...
A much-loved regimental padre (C.of E), a who in retirement settled in hunting country, and was a generous host at wonderful lunch parties and dinner parties and tea-parties, died full of years and his funeral was in the village church. It was Michaelmas and the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the Anglican ministry. J. was unable to attend, but village loyalty and regimental loyalty - and ties of friendship - required a presence from us. A golden September day: bus and tube to Paddington, and thence out to the West Country, changing at Bristol Parkway and meandering on that lovely route through rural Somerset to the market-town where I would catch the local bus to the small seaside town where I would collect an elderly relative...and where we would both be met by a kind friends who would take us to the village. Yes, in modern Britain, it is still possible to do journeys like that: motorways are of no use if you don't drive.
The village church was packed. Elderly relative ushered into a suitable front pew. I joined people in the porch...and found myself unexpectedly sitting next to J's former CO. We hadn't met for years...not since Berlin in the 1980s, when J. was a troop commander under him...a vanished Berlin, with The Wall, and regular patrols along it, and East Berlin a strange and alien place with Marxist slogans, and we were in the West, and people could still be shot for trying to flee to us...
We whispered gosh-its-been-years and how-is-Jane? and of-course-little-Anna-must-be-grown-up-now and so on, and then the organ began and a procession of clergy, all white surplices and wide stoles with regimental crests, formed up outside and we rose and sang. How extraordinary, as a middle-aged woman, to be singing "All people that on earth do dwell" in Michaelmas sunshine and thinking back across half a lifetime to Berlin...and all in the village where I came first as a fiancee and then as a bride and daughter-in-law, oh, years and years and years ago...
And here was an afternoon of the old C. of E., the one that is passing and won't be here much longer....and we will all be the poorer. Glorious singing. A grand sermon - some very, very funny anecdotes, and then by gentle changes a move to a message that was stirring, and inspiring, important and worth hearing. Dignified prayers. A final hymn "Glorious things of thee are spoken..." that could be heard in the High Street (shopkeepers all talking of it later). And, as we crowded out into the sunshine the finest sound of all, the funeral-peal of the bells, solemn, beautiful, English, unforgettable.
A splendid Tea - not just proper sandwiches (triangular, no crusts, smoked salmon) and scones with jam and cream, and lemon cake, and eclairs, but also sherry and gin-and-tonic...and a garden of mellow Michaelmas slightly fading beauty, and quantities of Anglican clergy and their wives, and talk of Army things and country things, hunting and gardens.
Much later, booked into a b-and-b for the night, elderly relative safely delivered home, I walked along by the sea. The moonlight made a great silvered pathway out to the horizon over the waves. The small white cottages, once homes to fishermen and the harbour-master and so on, now all holiday-lets or comfortable retirement places, looked cosy with glowing windows.
Lying in bed, the shrieks and shouts of the local teenagers getting drunk and fighting brought me back to modern Britain and that's what life is like.
A much-loved regimental padre (C.of E), a who in retirement settled in hunting country, and was a generous host at wonderful lunch parties and dinner parties and tea-parties, died full of years and his funeral was in the village church. It was Michaelmas and the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the Anglican ministry. J. was unable to attend, but village loyalty and regimental loyalty - and ties of friendship - required a presence from us. A golden September day: bus and tube to Paddington, and thence out to the West Country, changing at Bristol Parkway and meandering on that lovely route through rural Somerset to the market-town where I would catch the local bus to the small seaside town where I would collect an elderly relative...and where we would both be met by a kind friends who would take us to the village. Yes, in modern Britain, it is still possible to do journeys like that: motorways are of no use if you don't drive.
The village church was packed. Elderly relative ushered into a suitable front pew. I joined people in the porch...and found myself unexpectedly sitting next to J's former CO. We hadn't met for years...not since Berlin in the 1980s, when J. was a troop commander under him...a vanished Berlin, with The Wall, and regular patrols along it, and East Berlin a strange and alien place with Marxist slogans, and we were in the West, and people could still be shot for trying to flee to us...
We whispered gosh-its-been-years and how-is-Jane? and of-course-little-Anna-must-be-grown-up-now and so on, and then the organ began and a procession of clergy, all white surplices and wide stoles with regimental crests, formed up outside and we rose and sang. How extraordinary, as a middle-aged woman, to be singing "All people that on earth do dwell" in Michaelmas sunshine and thinking back across half a lifetime to Berlin...and all in the village where I came first as a fiancee and then as a bride and daughter-in-law, oh, years and years and years ago...
And here was an afternoon of the old C. of E., the one that is passing and won't be here much longer....and we will all be the poorer. Glorious singing. A grand sermon - some very, very funny anecdotes, and then by gentle changes a move to a message that was stirring, and inspiring, important and worth hearing. Dignified prayers. A final hymn "Glorious things of thee are spoken..." that could be heard in the High Street (shopkeepers all talking of it later). And, as we crowded out into the sunshine the finest sound of all, the funeral-peal of the bells, solemn, beautiful, English, unforgettable.
A splendid Tea - not just proper sandwiches (triangular, no crusts, smoked salmon) and scones with jam and cream, and lemon cake, and eclairs, but also sherry and gin-and-tonic...and a garden of mellow Michaelmas slightly fading beauty, and quantities of Anglican clergy and their wives, and talk of Army things and country things, hunting and gardens.
Much later, booked into a b-and-b for the night, elderly relative safely delivered home, I walked along by the sea. The moonlight made a great silvered pathway out to the horizon over the waves. The small white cottages, once homes to fishermen and the harbour-master and so on, now all holiday-lets or comfortable retirement places, looked cosy with glowing windows.
Lying in bed, the shrieks and shouts of the local teenagers getting drunk and fighting brought me back to modern Britain and that's what life is like.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
OREMUS...
...as well as being the familiar Latin exhortation to pray, is also the name of the monthly magazine published by Westminster Cathedral. Auntie has a regular article in it, exploring the feast-days as they come up in the calendar, and some associated customs and traditions. The October edition features two recent beatified figures who are linked. One Beatus beatified the other, and both share a name.
Tried guessing?
OK, I'll tell you. Bl. John Paul - whose name, before he became Pope, was Karol - beatified Karl, the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Bl. JP's father served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and in due course named his baby son after the Emperor.
Both Blessed Karl and Blessed John Paul have their feast-days in October. And both, interestingly, find themselves in October for unusual reasons: a feast-day has traditionally been the day on which a saint has died, but Bl. Karl has instead been given his wedding-day, and Bl. John Paul the day on which he was elected Pope. Both these new Beati would otherwise have had feast-days that clashed with Lent and Holy Week and Eastertide.
Tried guessing?
OK, I'll tell you. Bl. John Paul - whose name, before he became Pope, was Karol - beatified Karl, the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Bl. JP's father served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and in due course named his baby son after the Emperor.
Both Blessed Karl and Blessed John Paul have their feast-days in October. And both, interestingly, find themselves in October for unusual reasons: a feast-day has traditionally been the day on which a saint has died, but Bl. Karl has instead been given his wedding-day, and Bl. John Paul the day on which he was elected Pope. Both these new Beati would otherwise have had feast-days that clashed with Lent and Holy Week and Eastertide.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Restrictions on religious freedom...
...are listed in detail in a most interesting - and very very worrying - feature in the latest VOICES magazine from the USA.
Americans have a choice in the election this Autumn. What choice does a British voter have, faced with both a Governent and an Opposition committed to rewriting the law on marriage and forcing on everyone the pretence that two members of the same sex can marry?
And, if my Member of Parliament is reading this: please, Mr Hammond, could you possibly reply to my request for a meeting to discuss the proposed legislation? The implications of the new law are becoming increasingly clear, especially as they relate to the position of teachers in Catholic schools, and the possibility that they could be told that they must not present to teaching of the Church on marriage and related issues.
Americans have a choice in the election this Autumn. What choice does a British voter have, faced with both a Governent and an Opposition committed to rewriting the law on marriage and forcing on everyone the pretence that two members of the same sex can marry?
And, if my Member of Parliament is reading this: please, Mr Hammond, could you possibly reply to my request for a meeting to discuss the proposed legislation? The implications of the new law are becoming increasingly clear, especially as they relate to the position of teachers in Catholic schools, and the possibility that they could be told that they must not present to teaching of the Church on marriage and related issues.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth...
...ordained today in St John's Cathedral. Significant in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of reasons...just one of which was that this was the first time that the Internet has been used to enable every Catholic school and parish in a diocese to watch the ordination of its new Bishop, and thus to share in real-time in this great event. The diocese stretches across Oxfordshire and Hampshire, but also across the Solent and even further across the sea to the Channel Islands...and everywhere people gathered in schools and church halls to watch and listen.
It was thrilling to be part of this: once all the rather complicated technology was in place and I had mastered the bits that I needed, it was just a case of settling down to the task of providing a commentary that was as good as I could possibly make it. What an enormous privilege to be involved in this way: I will remember today as something special for always.
People started to arrive. Seats at the front were reserved for the Lord Mayor and Mayoress, the local Member of Parliament, etc. There was a massed choir with people from different parishes. Seminarians arrived, to act as altar servers.
The good Sisters from the New Forest were amused to see me disappear into my cupboard, with headphones and microphone, and took a pic (if they send me a copy, I'll post it here). Once the cathedral began to fill up, I closed the door to seal myself in, and we began.
The Liturgy speaks for itself and much requires no commentary: what was needed was an introduction, setting the scene ("In this cathedral, built in the reign of Queen Victoria, a new chapter opens in this 21st century: today the eighth Bishop of Portsmouth will be ordained here...") and listing, for example, some of the dignitaries present (to anyone with a sense of history, Portsmouth has delights: it was pleasing to be able to list "The Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight" and "The Commodore of HMS Nelson"). Then, when the great procession (over 20 Bishops, 4 Archbishops, and goodness knows how many priests deacons) had made its way up into the sanctuary, and the sacred ceremonies began, the aim was to give just enough information to bring out nuances or relevant pieces of information...for example, in the choice of saints invoked in the Litany (St Faustina, Blessed Pier Georgio Frassati, Blessed John Henry Newman...new names from the JPII and Benedict beatification and canonisations) or in the visual drama (Mgr Egan lying prostrate as the chant wafted over him).
The anointing was impressive - Bishop Hollis pouring oil on his successor's head - as was the sight of deacons holding the Book of the Gospels over the new Bishop...I suddenly though of the funeral of Bl John Paul, and that Gospel Book on his coffin, the pages slowly turned by the wind until the book itself closed of its own accord. "Recieve the Gospel and preach the word of God with unfailing patience and sound teaching" said the prayer in today's liturgy, and that is what every good Bishop does and must do...
And this one made a promise to do just that, in his words to us all at the end of the Mass. He spoke of the failure of politicians, educationalists and others to oppose moral relativism and the "culture of death" and pledged that he would be an orthodox bishop, clearly affirming his loyalty to Christ and the Church. Powerful stuff. We have a good man here at the service of the Church. Deo gratias.
It was thrilling to be part of this: once all the rather complicated technology was in place and I had mastered the bits that I needed, it was just a case of settling down to the task of providing a commentary that was as good as I could possibly make it. What an enormous privilege to be involved in this way: I will remember today as something special for always.
People started to arrive. Seats at the front were reserved for the Lord Mayor and Mayoress, the local Member of Parliament, etc. There was a massed choir with people from different parishes. Seminarians arrived, to act as altar servers.
The good Sisters from the New Forest were amused to see me disappear into my cupboard, with headphones and microphone, and took a pic (if they send me a copy, I'll post it here). Once the cathedral began to fill up, I closed the door to seal myself in, and we began.
The Liturgy speaks for itself and much requires no commentary: what was needed was an introduction, setting the scene ("In this cathedral, built in the reign of Queen Victoria, a new chapter opens in this 21st century: today the eighth Bishop of Portsmouth will be ordained here...") and listing, for example, some of the dignitaries present (to anyone with a sense of history, Portsmouth has delights: it was pleasing to be able to list "The Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight" and "The Commodore of HMS Nelson"). Then, when the great procession (over 20 Bishops, 4 Archbishops, and goodness knows how many priests deacons) had made its way up into the sanctuary, and the sacred ceremonies began, the aim was to give just enough information to bring out nuances or relevant pieces of information...for example, in the choice of saints invoked in the Litany (St Faustina, Blessed Pier Georgio Frassati, Blessed John Henry Newman...new names from the JPII and Benedict beatification and canonisations) or in the visual drama (Mgr Egan lying prostrate as the chant wafted over him).
The anointing was impressive - Bishop Hollis pouring oil on his successor's head - as was the sight of deacons holding the Book of the Gospels over the new Bishop...I suddenly though of the funeral of Bl John Paul, and that Gospel Book on his coffin, the pages slowly turned by the wind until the book itself closed of its own accord. "Recieve the Gospel and preach the word of God with unfailing patience and sound teaching" said the prayer in today's liturgy, and that is what every good Bishop does and must do...
And this one made a promise to do just that, in his words to us all at the end of the Mass. He spoke of the failure of politicians, educationalists and others to oppose moral relativism and the "culture of death" and pledged that he would be an orthodox bishop, clearly affirming his loyalty to Christ and the Church. Powerful stuff. We have a good man here at the service of the Church. Deo gratias.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Pornographic...
...images on a giant TV screen above the shopping centre, rock music pounding out, vast arrays of luxury goods on sale, a lack of any sense of friendly bustle, instead a mood of purposeless loitering and scowling...I found Birmingham's Bullring Centre on a Friday evening rather horrible. There are few buses out to Old Oscott and it's easiest to get a taxi...often there is a religious discussion with the Islamic taxi-driver when one asks for the Maryvale Institute, and more than once I've been warmly urged to convert to Islam, but this time we stuck to generalised observations about the weather.
Arriving at Maryvale always brings a sense of peace. Evening prayer, a cheery supper, the pleasure of meeting fellow-students who are now old friends.
Lectures this weekend focused on the Sacraments and were fascinating. Unwell with a bad cold, I went to bed early on Fri and Sat nights with a selection of books from the excellent library. On Sunday morning I was woken by music from the chapel - but it wasn't the sisters singing their morning office, it was our Mass just starting with its preparatory hymn. Gulp. I washedanddressedandbrushedmyhair quicker than you might imagine a middle-aged Auntie could ever do. Got into the chapel just in time.
During meals at Maryvale we always have excellent conversations. But, as is often the case in Britain in 2012, this weekend's tended to be on the serious side...the restrictions on religious freedom looming with the Govt's loathsome plans to redefine marriage, the grim state of our social fabric with its splits and tears and the resulting misery imposed on children. The people studying at Maryvale come from a wide range of jobs and professions, and tend to be unusually active in community life: youth work, local projects - not necessarily church-based - care of the sick and vulnerable, and of course lots of active involvement in Catholic parishes and schools. They are in general large-minded and tend towards a sense of wanting to be useful, are well-read and enjoy thinking things through. So you don't get cliches and jargon in conversation, and instead you get the rather frightening recognition of the realities of modern Britain, from people who know what's going on.
The Church's tasks in the years ahead in Britain are huge. As Islam forges ahead, growing in numbers and influence, its adherents will be boosted in their sense of zeal and confidence by the drunkeness and lechery on display in most town centres on Friday and Saturday nights. Violent crime continues to be a major feature of life. Institutions once justly admired are now tarnished: our police (remember how we used to be so proud of the fact that they were unarmed? That was long ago...), Parliament, local Councils, hospitals. The number of intact families, where a strong network of people love and cherish one another and foster opportunities for goodwill and service, seems to be diminishing in the general population year on year, and schools struggle to cope with angry, disorientated and sometimes violent children.
Lots to pray about.
Arriving at Maryvale always brings a sense of peace. Evening prayer, a cheery supper, the pleasure of meeting fellow-students who are now old friends.
Lectures this weekend focused on the Sacraments and were fascinating. Unwell with a bad cold, I went to bed early on Fri and Sat nights with a selection of books from the excellent library. On Sunday morning I was woken by music from the chapel - but it wasn't the sisters singing their morning office, it was our Mass just starting with its preparatory hymn. Gulp. I washedanddressedandbrushedmyhair quicker than you might imagine a middle-aged Auntie could ever do. Got into the chapel just in time.
During meals at Maryvale we always have excellent conversations. But, as is often the case in Britain in 2012, this weekend's tended to be on the serious side...the restrictions on religious freedom looming with the Govt's loathsome plans to redefine marriage, the grim state of our social fabric with its splits and tears and the resulting misery imposed on children. The people studying at Maryvale come from a wide range of jobs and professions, and tend to be unusually active in community life: youth work, local projects - not necessarily church-based - care of the sick and vulnerable, and of course lots of active involvement in Catholic parishes and schools. They are in general large-minded and tend towards a sense of wanting to be useful, are well-read and enjoy thinking things through. So you don't get cliches and jargon in conversation, and instead you get the rather frightening recognition of the realities of modern Britain, from people who know what's going on.
The Church's tasks in the years ahead in Britain are huge. As Islam forges ahead, growing in numbers and influence, its adherents will be boosted in their sense of zeal and confidence by the drunkeness and lechery on display in most town centres on Friday and Saturday nights. Violent crime continues to be a major feature of life. Institutions once justly admired are now tarnished: our police (remember how we used to be so proud of the fact that they were unarmed? That was long ago...), Parliament, local Councils, hospitals. The number of intact families, where a strong network of people love and cherish one another and foster opportunities for goodwill and service, seems to be diminishing in the general population year on year, and schools struggle to cope with angry, disorientated and sometimes violent children.
Lots to pray about.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
"The truth...
....
cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance
into the mind at once quietly and with power." Powerful words from the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae, on religious freedom.
This is the great ideological battleground of our era: those who believed that the battle was won when the Soviet Union, with its State-imposed atheisim, collapsed, failed to see that each new day brings new challenges. The Council Fathers knew this and, under God's guidance and inspiration, they took forward the Church's teaching on religious freedom and gave it a new dimension with a fresh understanding, fostered by the harsh realities of the Soviet tyranny which was raging as they gathered, but already looking ahead to whatever was to follow. Just over two decades after the ending of that great Council, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. But new threats to religious freedom were already arriving, and today the Council's words have a great significance than many who first read them could perhaps have known.
"It is in accordance with their dignity as persons - that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility - that all men should be at once impelled by nature and also bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth, once it is known, and to order their whole lives in accord with the demands of truth. However, men cannot discharge these obligations in a manner in keeping with their own nature unless they enjoy immunity from external coercion as well as psychological freedom. Therefore the right to religious freedom has its foundation not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature. In consequence, the right to this immunity continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it and the exercise of this right is not to be impeded, provided that just public order be observed."
No one, not the United Nations, not any great international consortium, not the Government of any state, has the right to prevent men and women from seeking what is true, and from following their consciences.
And: "There is a further consideration. The religious acts whereby men, in private and in public and out of a sense of personal conviction, direct their lives to God transcend by their very nature the order of terrestrial and temporal affairs. Government therefore ought indeed to take account of the religious life of the citizenry and show it favor, since the function of government is to make provision for the common welfare. However, it would clearly transgress the limits set to its power, were it to presume to command or inhibit acts that are religious."
The Church is firm about the message she gives to her own children: religious groups must not act in any way that seems to coerce people into religious practice. As Blessed John Paul once put it "The Church proposes, she does not impose."
This is the great ideological battleground of our era: those who believed that the battle was won when the Soviet Union, with its State-imposed atheisim, collapsed, failed to see that each new day brings new challenges. The Council Fathers knew this and, under God's guidance and inspiration, they took forward the Church's teaching on religious freedom and gave it a new dimension with a fresh understanding, fostered by the harsh realities of the Soviet tyranny which was raging as they gathered, but already looking ahead to whatever was to follow. Just over two decades after the ending of that great Council, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. But new threats to religious freedom were already arriving, and today the Council's words have a great significance than many who first read them could perhaps have known.
"It is in accordance with their dignity as persons - that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility - that all men should be at once impelled by nature and also bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth, once it is known, and to order their whole lives in accord with the demands of truth. However, men cannot discharge these obligations in a manner in keeping with their own nature unless they enjoy immunity from external coercion as well as psychological freedom. Therefore the right to religious freedom has its foundation not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature. In consequence, the right to this immunity continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it and the exercise of this right is not to be impeded, provided that just public order be observed."
No one, not the United Nations, not any great international consortium, not the Government of any state, has the right to prevent men and women from seeking what is true, and from following their consciences.
And: "There is a further consideration. The religious acts whereby men, in private and in public and out of a sense of personal conviction, direct their lives to God transcend by their very nature the order of terrestrial and temporal affairs. Government therefore ought indeed to take account of the religious life of the citizenry and show it favor, since the function of government is to make provision for the common welfare. However, it would clearly transgress the limits set to its power, were it to presume to command or inhibit acts that are religious."
The Church is firm about the message she gives to her own children: religious groups must not act in any way that seems to coerce people into religious practice. As Blessed John Paul once put it "The Church proposes, she does not impose."
To Portsmouth...
...to make arrangements for the broadcasting of the Consecration of the new Bishop in St John's Cathedral. Auntie has been asked to do the commentary for the broadcast which will go out to Catholic schools across the diocese, organised by Heart Gives Unto Heart Radio. We rehearsed the use of the technology, which involves me sitting in a small soundproof cupbard with microphone, headphones etc. Usual system of green and red lights, monitor screen, etc but it's unnerving to be doing all this in a cathedral where the priority is not to allow anything to disrupt the sacred action: I was comfortable once I had checked and re-checked and realised that my commentary will not be audible anywhere within the church, not even by some one who stands right next to my tiny enclave. And what an enclave! It's a tiny cupboard where I will sit surrounded by Jesus, Mary, and Joseph...and the Three Wise Men, shepherds, a lamb or two, some big wooden crosses used for Lenten events, a couple of spare thuribles, boxes of candles, and more...there will be just enough room for the radio equipment, the monitor screen which will show me what is going on in the sanctuary a few feet where I am sitting, a chair, and me.
Portsmouth's history is all bound up with the Royal Navy, and there's something very sad about the feel of the city today with the days of Britain's great fleet long gone. It has a sunset feel. Walking back to the station, I had sudden memories of a dinner on a warship back in the 1970s, of a wardroom mess and young midshipmen making grapes explode in cigar-tubes over after-dinner coffee, of the look of great grey silent ships and the city lights shining on the water, and talk of Nelson and Trafalgar and of Arctic convoys and the Battle of the Atlantic and of NATO exercises and peacrtime, of generations linked by a shared heritage... all really gone now.
In a world where so much changes, the Church doesn't and in this cathedral a successor to the Apostles will lie prostrate while the Litany of the Saints is invoked and rise to be anointed and to recieve the laying-on of hands. And sitting in a cupbard explaining something of that to today's teenagers will be my job next Monday.
Portsmouth's history is all bound up with the Royal Navy, and there's something very sad about the feel of the city today with the days of Britain's great fleet long gone. It has a sunset feel. Walking back to the station, I had sudden memories of a dinner on a warship back in the 1970s, of a wardroom mess and young midshipmen making grapes explode in cigar-tubes over after-dinner coffee, of the look of great grey silent ships and the city lights shining on the water, and talk of Nelson and Trafalgar and of Arctic convoys and the Battle of the Atlantic and of NATO exercises and peacrtime, of generations linked by a shared heritage... all really gone now.
In a world where so much changes, the Church doesn't and in this cathedral a successor to the Apostles will lie prostrate while the Litany of the Saints is invoked and rise to be anointed and to recieve the laying-on of hands. And sitting in a cupbard explaining something of that to today's teenagers will be my job next Monday.
THIS IS A THREAT...
...to freedom, to children's health and wellbeing, to medical ethics.
Read this:
"Laws and policies that impede access to sexual and reproductive health services must be changed, including laws criminalizing certain services only needed by women; laws and policies allowing conscientious objection of a provider to hinder women’s access to a full range of services; and laws imposing third-party authorization for access to services by women and girls."
It comes from a United Nations report, just published, and translated it means: "Every country must enforce abortion as a part of routine health care, with any objections banned by law and young girls given abortions without their parents' knowledge or consent."
The report is labelled "Human Rights Council - Twentieth session - Agenda items 2 and 3. Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights,including the right to development".
You can read the report here . Your Member of Parliament needs to know that the UN is trying to crush our freedom to have laws that offer even some tiny degree of ethical standards in health care. Taken at face value, the statement above effectively bans any restriction on even the most sordid and ruthless of backstreet abortionists, removes the rights of all doctor and health-care workers to refuse procedures that involve killing babies, and under the guise of "access to services by women and girls" makes it illegal for anyone to be informed when a teenager is given a medical procedure about which she does not have full knowledge and to which she is too young to give consent.
The jargon of a "rights-based approach" means that the supposed "right" to have an abortion trumps any other right. So abortion can be subject to no legal restrictions whatever. The Report's aim is tro impose the killing of babies worldwide, with all opposition crushed.
Don't just mumur how "Oh, how terrible..." Write today to your MP: you can get his or her name on this link. Might be useful to write to the Foreign Secretary too. In your letter, explain that you do not need a standard reply: you need a specific assurance that this United nations report will be opposed. The issues here are not only the horror of imposing abortion but also the question of our freedom: to debate and make laws according to our consciences, to care for the young, to uphold medical ethics. And we must insist on freedom of speech: if we disagree with a United Nations report on abortion, we must be free to say so whenever we want and to teach others why we disagree with it, and to organise opposition to it. We need our legislators to state clearly their support for this freedom.
Read this:
"Laws and policies that impede access to sexual and reproductive health services must be changed, including laws criminalizing certain services only needed by women; laws and policies allowing conscientious objection of a provider to hinder women’s access to a full range of services; and laws imposing third-party authorization for access to services by women and girls."
It comes from a United Nations report, just published, and translated it means: "Every country must enforce abortion as a part of routine health care, with any objections banned by law and young girls given abortions without their parents' knowledge or consent."
The report is labelled "Human Rights Council - Twentieth session - Agenda items 2 and 3. Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights,including the right to development".
You can read the report here . Your Member of Parliament needs to know that the UN is trying to crush our freedom to have laws that offer even some tiny degree of ethical standards in health care. Taken at face value, the statement above effectively bans any restriction on even the most sordid and ruthless of backstreet abortionists, removes the rights of all doctor and health-care workers to refuse procedures that involve killing babies, and under the guise of "access to services by women and girls" makes it illegal for anyone to be informed when a teenager is given a medical procedure about which she does not have full knowledge and to which she is too young to give consent.
The jargon of a "rights-based approach" means that the supposed "right" to have an abortion trumps any other right. So abortion can be subject to no legal restrictions whatever. The Report's aim is tro impose the killing of babies worldwide, with all opposition crushed.
Don't just mumur how "Oh, how terrible..." Write today to your MP: you can get his or her name on this link. Might be useful to write to the Foreign Secretary too. In your letter, explain that you do not need a standard reply: you need a specific assurance that this United nations report will be opposed. The issues here are not only the horror of imposing abortion but also the question of our freedom: to debate and make laws according to our consciences, to care for the young, to uphold medical ethics. And we must insist on freedom of speech: if we disagree with a United Nations report on abortion, we must be free to say so whenever we want and to teach others why we disagree with it, and to organise opposition to it. We need our legislators to state clearly their support for this freedom.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Traditional...
...liturgy, glorious music, a rousing roof-raising hymn "Hold High the Cross!", a grand crowd, a packed church, and the Norfolk countryside in September beauty - this was today's Pilgrimage of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Magnificent. The Ordinariate has grown and flourished, and today resounded with joy, reverence, goodwill, and unity - and a certain confidence.
We set off early - it meant a 5 am start for the Bogles - from Precious Blood Church at London Bridge, with a packed minibus and a very cheery atmosphere. At Walsingham, large numbers had gathered from across the country, and there was much agreeable greeting and exchanging of news and so on...and there was time to pray at the Slipper Chapel shrine (there is a box for petitions to Our Lady, and that gentle smell of soft wax candles, and fresh flowers), and to go to confession, and to visit the Shrine bookshop... and then we crowded into the big barn church for Mass.
I was pressed against the wall at the very back, and as the great procession of clergy made its way directly past us, along to the central aisle it was a rather impressive sight. But what lingers most in the memory - apart from the beauty of the Mass, with the Host and then Chalice raised against that great window with its engraved angels and glorious backdrop of trees and sky, and the great roar of voices making the responses- was the singing. What singing! The last hymn "Hold High the Cross!" was unforgettable.
In the afternoon, a Rosary Walk, led by the Cross, with the clergy in white surplices, along the Holy Mile. The rosehips were ripe on the bushes, and the sky wide and blue with those faint trails of late-summer cloud. At the Anglican shrine where there was a beautiful welcome, and prayer, and we were each blessed with water from the ancient well....the water having been drawn in great buckets which were placed around the wide lawns, and we lined up to recieve the blessing one by one.
Today we saw the Ordinariate as it was meant to be, as a bridge across the divide between Anglicans and Catholics, as a promise of an achieved and achievable unity. A beautiful day.
We set off early - it meant a 5 am start for the Bogles - from Precious Blood Church at London Bridge, with a packed minibus and a very cheery atmosphere. At Walsingham, large numbers had gathered from across the country, and there was much agreeable greeting and exchanging of news and so on...and there was time to pray at the Slipper Chapel shrine (there is a box for petitions to Our Lady, and that gentle smell of soft wax candles, and fresh flowers), and to go to confession, and to visit the Shrine bookshop... and then we crowded into the big barn church for Mass.
I was pressed against the wall at the very back, and as the great procession of clergy made its way directly past us, along to the central aisle it was a rather impressive sight. But what lingers most in the memory - apart from the beauty of the Mass, with the Host and then Chalice raised against that great window with its engraved angels and glorious backdrop of trees and sky, and the great roar of voices making the responses- was the singing. What singing! The last hymn "Hold High the Cross!" was unforgettable.
In the afternoon, a Rosary Walk, led by the Cross, with the clergy in white surplices, along the Holy Mile. The rosehips were ripe on the bushes, and the sky wide and blue with those faint trails of late-summer cloud. At the Anglican shrine where there was a beautiful welcome, and prayer, and we were each blessed with water from the ancient well....the water having been drawn in great buckets which were placed around the wide lawns, and we lined up to recieve the blessing one by one.
Today we saw the Ordinariate as it was meant to be, as a bridge across the divide between Anglicans and Catholics, as a promise of an achieved and achievable unity. A beautiful day.
Friday, September 14, 2012
That Fatima secret and all that...
....is the subject of a new feature, which you can read here.
It really is getting to be worrying that people will believe all sorts of daft- and often wicked - nonsense about secrets and freemasons and the Pope being a liar and so on, and not bother to find out the real Fatima facts.
It really is getting to be worrying that people will believe all sorts of daft- and often wicked - nonsense about secrets and freemasons and the Pope being a liar and so on, and not bother to find out the real Fatima facts.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
London...
...is faintly Autumnal, some leaves just beginning to turn golden. Sunshine sparkling on the Thames, and the clouds gather and splashy rain gives the whole scene that authentic look of, well, London. It all looks so very traditional. Small girls in school pinafore-dresses of grey or navy blue with slightly oversize blazers ("You'll grow into it") and brand-new schoolbags signal the start of a new term. At Westminster Cathedral the choir has reassembled after the summer break. I'm hurrying to a hall in Hammersmith to give a lecture to a branch of something called the University of the Third Age (topic is "Caroline Chisholm: forgotten heroine". You might enjoy the book...). I'm having coffee with a friend in Wimbledon as some riders clip-clop past on glossy horses, heading for the Common.
Everything feels normal and this-is-the-way-things-have-been-for-years. But the horrible proposed new law on marriage - and the restrictions that will be imposed on criticisms of the new laws - give a nasty haunting feeling to everyday things.
There is nothing more everyday than marriage: a man and a woman united for life and starting a new family. It's what has made London a city. It's what establishes a civilisation, a nation.
Under the proposed new law, not only will marriage be redefined so that it will state that two people of the same sex can "marry", but a teacher or a public official who openly states that this is absurd, or who wishes to teach the (sane, normal) view that marriage is between a man and a woman could face dismissal. This could mean that a clergyman who is employed by the health service or the Armed Forces or the prison service as a chaplain could be told that he may not preach the Christian doctrine of marriage openly in the course of his duties. It could mean that a teacher who teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman - for example in a Reeligious Education class - could face dismissal. It could mean that pupils, knowing this, could deliberately instigate a classroom discussion that results in a teacher saying something that some one could deem "homophobic" and get the teacher into trouble.
This Autumn, this London doesn't feel as it should.
Everything feels normal and this-is-the-way-things-have-been-for-years. But the horrible proposed new law on marriage - and the restrictions that will be imposed on criticisms of the new laws - give a nasty haunting feeling to everyday things.
There is nothing more everyday than marriage: a man and a woman united for life and starting a new family. It's what has made London a city. It's what establishes a civilisation, a nation.
Under the proposed new law, not only will marriage be redefined so that it will state that two people of the same sex can "marry", but a teacher or a public official who openly states that this is absurd, or who wishes to teach the (sane, normal) view that marriage is between a man and a woman could face dismissal. This could mean that a clergyman who is employed by the health service or the Armed Forces or the prison service as a chaplain could be told that he may not preach the Christian doctrine of marriage openly in the course of his duties. It could mean that a teacher who teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman - for example in a Reeligious Education class - could face dismissal. It could mean that pupils, knowing this, could deliberately instigate a classroom discussion that results in a teacher saying something that some one could deem "homophobic" and get the teacher into trouble.
This Autumn, this London doesn't feel as it should.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan...
...beams cheerily from a book cover as I unwrap the parcel that arrives by today's post.
I was just leaving the house when the postman arrived and in fact I had just been pondering what to take to read on the train. With excellent timing, HM's mails produced the answer.
A People of Hope is a good read: honest, uplifting, informative. In a sense, it was just what I needed as I embarked on a day of sundry errands but also much pondering...Cardinal Dolan is a wise and cheerful man, with something Chestertonian about him. A good read.
Today: grim news concerning the Govt's renewed efforts to force through a redefinition of marriage: Nick Clegg's branding of us as "bigots" and then hurriedly having to explain that...er...he didn't of course mean that...C'mon, Nick, who are you trying to fool? You honestly do seem to think that those who disagree with you are simply bigoted, and you cannot seem to grasp the real issues at stake.Oh, dear...
I was just leaving the house when the postman arrived and in fact I had just been pondering what to take to read on the train. With excellent timing, HM's mails produced the answer.
A People of Hope is a good read: honest, uplifting, informative. In a sense, it was just what I needed as I embarked on a day of sundry errands but also much pondering...Cardinal Dolan is a wise and cheerful man, with something Chestertonian about him. A good read.
Today: grim news concerning the Govt's renewed efforts to force through a redefinition of marriage: Nick Clegg's branding of us as "bigots" and then hurriedly having to explain that...er...he didn't of course mean that...C'mon, Nick, who are you trying to fool? You honestly do seem to think that those who disagree with you are simply bigoted, and you cannot seem to grasp the real issues at stake.Oh, dear...
I love my...
...new Missal. Its useful prayers in preparation for Mass, and before and after Communion, its beautifully laid-out Latin and English for all the feasts and Sundays of the year, its ribbon markers and gold-embossed front, its quotations from Pope Benedict and Blessed John Paul as inspirational teachings week by week. I love its solid feel and its beautiful binding, its pleasing use of enchanting illuminated Medieval images. I love its practicality - it's got the Stations of the Cross, and the Mysteries of the Rosary, and the rite of Benediction, and it's all in a solid, usable size.
I got it from our parish bookshop, which ordered a good number from here, and I think all parishes should do the same. Banish those ghastly messy "missalettes"...
I got it from our parish bookshop, which ordered a good number from here, and I think all parishes should do the same. Banish those ghastly messy "missalettes"...
Monday, September 10, 2012
Mother Teresa...
...a film about this much-loved and remarkable woman: COME AND ENJOY! It stars Olivia Hussey, and it's terrific.
Venue: Visitation House, Nightingale Square, Balham, London SW12. MONDAY Sept 17th, starts 7.30pm. Coffee, tea, snacks: donation £5, and funds raised will go to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Nearest Tube station is Balham: Nightingale Walk is about 5 mins walk from the station.
Venue: Visitation House, Nightingale Square, Balham, London SW12. MONDAY Sept 17th, starts 7.30pm. Coffee, tea, snacks: donation £5, and funds raised will go to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Nearest Tube station is Balham: Nightingale Walk is about 5 mins walk from the station.
An Olympic skater...
...will be our special guest speaker at this year's TOWARDS ADVENT FESTIVAL, on Saturday November 24th at Westminster Cathedral Hall. Read more about it here - and come and join in the Festival, in this Olympic Year in London!
Sunday, September 09, 2012
The Tower of London...
...is the venue for the next CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK, the first after the summer break. Come and join us! No need to book, just turn up. THURSDAY September 13th, 6.30pm, meet at the EXIT (note EXIT - there are various entrances,m but we meet at the EXIT) of Tower Hill tube station.
We'll be walking along by the Tower and learning its story, and then walk into the City and see some of the churches there.
We'll be walking along by the Tower and learning its story, and then walk into the City and see some of the churches there.
The message of Fatima...
...included that mysterious promise about Russia's conversion. Immensely puzzling to a trio of Portugese country children who knew nothing of Russia or the 1917 revolution, or the horrors that were to come in the USSR and in Europe with WWII and more... And then we got a Polish Pope, and the consecration of the world in 1984. And today a new Cathedral of Our Lady of Fatima is consecrated in the heart of what was once Russia's Gulag Archipelago. Watch this...
I came across this news item as I was looking for various other news items on the Internet. Watching it, I thought again about Solzenhitsyn's Gulag Archiplego back in the 1970s, and then being in Berlin one Spring Sunday in 1984 and talking about the significance of the Pope's world consecration in Rome. And now, with the collapse of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall already history, this is happening, something unimaginable to those suffering in the Gulag decades ago...
Earlier this year I wrote a review of the new book on Fatima with a Foreword by the excellent Cardinal Raymond Burke in which some of these issues are explored.
I came across this news item as I was looking for various other news items on the Internet. Watching it, I thought again about Solzenhitsyn's Gulag Archiplego back in the 1970s, and then being in Berlin one Spring Sunday in 1984 and talking about the significance of the Pope's world consecration in Rome. And now, with the collapse of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall already history, this is happening, something unimaginable to those suffering in the Gulag decades ago...
Earlier this year I wrote a review of the new book on Fatima with a Foreword by the excellent Cardinal Raymond Burke in which some of these issues are explored.
London's river and John Paul II....
...and a warm September Sunday. After the glorious John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham this summer, perhaps it's not surprising that there has been so much interest and enthusiasm for the River Pilgrimage planned for Oct 28th...and today one of the enthusiasts joined me on mapping out the route and getting things organised, and we had a wonderful day. We set out after the 10.30am Mass at Westminster Cathedral (beautiful: the Choir is back now after the summer break, wonderful music) and a good brunch. My original plan had been to walk down to Westminster Bridge and start from there, but Ellie suggested that a much better plan would be to avoid the tourist crowds and head down Vauxhall Bridge Road, and turning along through Pimlico. We did so, and it turned out to be excellent. Under the gaze of MI5 (vast HQ on the Vauxhall bank with weird green windows) we walked all along the river, noted a park which will be a perfect lunch-stop, and on, via Chelsea, Battersea and Wandsworth (where the Wandle,river of my suburban childhood, joins the Thames) and on to Putney...en route we worked on various arrangements for the Pilgrimage, which will be led by the excellent Dominican Sisters of St Joseph, with a Chaplain from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Pilgrimage will end at Hampton Wick, at the shrine of Our Lady of Westminster, with Evensong, Benediction, and a hearty Tea.
This will be a good pilgrimage - walking along one of the most famous rivers in the world, praying for the New Evangelisation, in good company and with the heavenly aid of the recently-beatified John Paul the Great. Come and join us! Send a Comment to this Blog, with an email address at which I can reach you (I can't reply to any Comment unless there is an email address incorporated into the text of the message). You will need sensible walking shoes, a packed lunch, and suitable clothing (today was HOT and I had a big hat. October may be cold and wet...).
This will be a good pilgrimage - walking along one of the most famous rivers in the world, praying for the New Evangelisation, in good company and with the heavenly aid of the recently-beatified John Paul the Great. Come and join us! Send a Comment to this Blog, with an email address at which I can reach you (I can't reply to any Comment unless there is an email address incorporated into the text of the message). You will need sensible walking shoes, a packed lunch, and suitable clothing (today was HOT and I had a big hat. October may be cold and wet...).
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Readers may recall...
...that Auntie was in Poland earlier this year. Reflections on the visit are in the latest issues of VOICES. Read here
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Sons of...
Divine Providence. What a very suitable name. They run homes and accomodation for people with special needs, notably at Hampton Wick along by the Thames near Kingston. I went there today, because I had it in mind to ask if our John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage along the Thames could finish there.
As I arrived, a couple of Gentlemen of the Road were sitting outside the house, one of them tucking in to a nice plate of supper, the other sitting looking hopeful. They greeted me with a cheery "Good Evening" and I rang the doorbell. A priest came out, carefully carrying a plate all nicely set out with meat pie, potatoes and vegetables "Hallo - good to see you. Just got to give this gentleman his supper..." and then he welcomed me in for a cup of tea. I had earlier telephoned and talked about the Pilgrimage plan, and he just immediately said "Yes, of course!" and we'll have Evensong and Benediction in the chapel, and then a good Tea.
But there's more. The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of Westminster: in the 1950s the Sons were was given a Medieval statue of Our Lady which had some link with London and so they gave it that dedication, and it was blessed by Cardinal Godfrey in Westminster Cathedral. So this is a real place of pilgrimage. I hadn't known that. Providence.
The John II Walking Pilgrimage sets off from Westminster Cathedral on Sunday October 28th and will walk some 20 mile down-river to Hampton Wick. From Westminster Cathedral to Our Lady of Westminster. What could be more appropriate...and we'll be praying for the New Evangelisation of our country.
"Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man’. He alone knows it.” Blessed John Paul.
As I arrived, a couple of Gentlemen of the Road were sitting outside the house, one of them tucking in to a nice plate of supper, the other sitting looking hopeful. They greeted me with a cheery "Good Evening" and I rang the doorbell. A priest came out, carefully carrying a plate all nicely set out with meat pie, potatoes and vegetables "Hallo - good to see you. Just got to give this gentleman his supper..." and then he welcomed me in for a cup of tea. I had earlier telephoned and talked about the Pilgrimage plan, and he just immediately said "Yes, of course!" and we'll have Evensong and Benediction in the chapel, and then a good Tea.
But there's more. The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of Westminster: in the 1950s the Sons were was given a Medieval statue of Our Lady which had some link with London and so they gave it that dedication, and it was blessed by Cardinal Godfrey in Westminster Cathedral. So this is a real place of pilgrimage. I hadn't known that. Providence.
The John II Walking Pilgrimage sets off from Westminster Cathedral on Sunday October 28th and will walk some 20 mile down-river to Hampton Wick. From Westminster Cathedral to Our Lady of Westminster. What could be more appropriate...and we'll be praying for the New Evangelisation of our country.
"Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man’. He alone knows it.” Blessed John Paul.
Croydon Airport...
...was once the air port of London, and world-famous because it was from there that Amy Johnson flew solo to Australia, and Lindbergh arrived after his great solo flight across the Atlantic... During the Second World War it was the Headquarters of No. 11 Group in the Battle of Britain, crucial to our survival as a nation.
The airport closed in 1959 - the last commercial flight out was piloted by a Captain Last! - and when I was growing up in the 1960s in a house not far from what had once been the most famous aerodrome in the world, it was just a great glorious endless grassy territory that stretched gently uphil towards Purley. Then a big housing estate was built on it, and in 1974 I was elected as borough councillor for the district. I was, I think, an irritating young woman - the youngest councillor in Britain and enthusiastically aware of the fact. But among my few redeeming traits was a passion for local history, and over the next years, a team of us produced a series of books on the history of the airport. You can find out about them here and here and there's a pic of a Mayor holding one of the books here and...oh...trawl the Internet with "Croydon Airport" and "Joanna Nash" and see what you get...
And last night, at the John Fisher School in Purley, there was a showing of a film, made by pupils, about the history of Croydon Airport. And a very good film it is - a good piece of work from boys at a very good school. They had interviewed all sorts of people who remembered the airport, had worked there or lived nearby, or were caught up in the big air raid of Augut 1940s, and also some other people, including Auntie, and they also found some fascinating old archive footage of aircraft taking off in the 1920s and 30s (the HP42, a wonderful machine, on the 12.30 flight to Paris...).
The school hall was packed - actually almost to discomfort, as it was very warm - and there was enormous interest and enthusiasm. The Croydon Airport Society, and a local history group, the Bourne Society, had combined to support the venture, and the teacher who had initiated the project spoke, and there was a great feeling of local pride...
An evening of nostalgia for Auntie...made me feel a bit solemn and full of memories. I started to make my way to the station, but then on a whim suddenly turned back and knocked on the door of some local friends, the Phillips family and am so glad I did as they welcomed me in and we had a long happy time of chatting. They have a lot of children, now all in teens-and-twenties, and lots of other young people always visiting, so it's a place where there is always a welcome and a mug of tea...
The airport closed in 1959 - the last commercial flight out was piloted by a Captain Last! - and when I was growing up in the 1960s in a house not far from what had once been the most famous aerodrome in the world, it was just a great glorious endless grassy territory that stretched gently uphil towards Purley. Then a big housing estate was built on it, and in 1974 I was elected as borough councillor for the district. I was, I think, an irritating young woman - the youngest councillor in Britain and enthusiastically aware of the fact. But among my few redeeming traits was a passion for local history, and over the next years, a team of us produced a series of books on the history of the airport. You can find out about them here and here and there's a pic of a Mayor holding one of the books here and...oh...trawl the Internet with "Croydon Airport" and "Joanna Nash" and see what you get...
And last night, at the John Fisher School in Purley, there was a showing of a film, made by pupils, about the history of Croydon Airport. And a very good film it is - a good piece of work from boys at a very good school. They had interviewed all sorts of people who remembered the airport, had worked there or lived nearby, or were caught up in the big air raid of Augut 1940s, and also some other people, including Auntie, and they also found some fascinating old archive footage of aircraft taking off in the 1920s and 30s (the HP42, a wonderful machine, on the 12.30 flight to Paris...).
The school hall was packed - actually almost to discomfort, as it was very warm - and there was enormous interest and enthusiasm. The Croydon Airport Society, and a local history group, the Bourne Society, had combined to support the venture, and the teacher who had initiated the project spoke, and there was a great feeling of local pride...
An evening of nostalgia for Auntie...made me feel a bit solemn and full of memories. I started to make my way to the station, but then on a whim suddenly turned back and knocked on the door of some local friends, the Phillips family and am so glad I did as they welcomed me in and we had a long happy time of chatting. They have a lot of children, now all in teens-and-twenties, and lots of other young people always visiting, so it's a place where there is always a welcome and a mug of tea...
Monday, September 03, 2012
Spread the word...
London’s
PROCESSION
OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
Saturday
October 20th 2012
Starts: 2.45pm, WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL
Finishes: St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, with
Benediction.
COME AND WITNESS TO THE FAITH!
The Procession will go down Ambrosden Avenue, and
cross the river at Lambeth Bridge. Bring
a group from your parish, or just come on your own or with family and friends.
More info from: www.westminstercathedral.org.uk
Youth 2000...
...is a splendid group with which I have had contact over the years...there is an excellent description of their recent great summer gathering at Walsingham, here...
A depressing Monday...
...although September is my favourite month, and there are lots of good things happening in it this year. I dislike hot weather, and the Autumn invariably brings joy. I love the cool mornings and the feeling of things bustling again as long hot days end and schools return and social groups meet again. Even clothes are nicer as people stop trying to squeeze themselves into tiny tight ugly things, and start to cover up: skirts, jackets, dresses, reappear.
But as the summer ends, the politicking starts anew with vigour. It is so very depressing watching our country slither into social misery. The long drawn-out dreariness as the politicians wreck our laws, destroy the heritage of generations, and attempt to redefine marriage is horrid to watch. Of course we must fight on to protect human values, and we'll do so: Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien is magnificent in this weekend's Mail on Sunday.
But as the summer ends, the politicking starts anew with vigour. It is so very depressing watching our country slither into social misery. The long drawn-out dreariness as the politicians wreck our laws, destroy the heritage of generations, and attempt to redefine marriage is horrid to watch. Of course we must fight on to protect human values, and we'll do so: Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien is magnificent in this weekend's Mail on Sunday.
Sunday, September 02, 2012
...and read about us...
...here!
Today I went to Westminster Cathedral - glorious Mass, and then afterwards I talked to the Cathedral clergy to check about arrangements for the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage on October 28th. All now organised: our chaplain for the day, Fr Simon Heans of the Ordinariate, will concelebrate the 10.30am Mass at the Cathedral and then we'll all set off from the Cathedral steps...unfurling our Walsingham banner as we go.
In addition to Fr Simon, we will have a deacon, Henry Whisenmant, with us, and the pilgrimage will end with Evensong and Benediction - and a hearty Tea, which we'll need as we will have walked some 20 miles.
Today I went to Westminster Cathedral - glorious Mass, and then afterwards I talked to the Cathedral clergy to check about arrangements for the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage on October 28th. All now organised: our chaplain for the day, Fr Simon Heans of the Ordinariate, will concelebrate the 10.30am Mass at the Cathedral and then we'll all set off from the Cathedral steps...unfurling our Walsingham banner as we go.
In addition to Fr Simon, we will have a deacon, Henry Whisenmant, with us, and the pilgrimage will end with Evensong and Benediction - and a hearty Tea, which we'll need as we will have walked some 20 miles.
Saturday, September 01, 2012
Walsingham walkers reunite...
...ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 28th.
Join us for the Big Walk along the Thames. Starts with 10.30am Mass at Westminster Cathedral. This is a John Paul Pilgrimage Walk for the New Evangelisation, and we'll be walking along the Thames, praying the Rosary, singing, and talking and learning and being together...and praying for our country, and giving Him our hearts. We'll have our own chaplain with us, from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We'll walk approx 20 miles, following the river...and we'll hand out small cards and medals to anyone we meet...finish with Evensong and Benediction.
This is a big reunion for all of us who walked to Walsingham in August in the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage - but anyone and everyone is also welcome to join us. Interested? Send a comment to this Blog marked NOT FOR PUBLICATION, including an email address to which I can reply to you.
Join us for the Big Walk along the Thames. Starts with 10.30am Mass at Westminster Cathedral. This is a John Paul Pilgrimage Walk for the New Evangelisation, and we'll be walking along the Thames, praying the Rosary, singing, and talking and learning and being together...and praying for our country, and giving Him our hearts. We'll have our own chaplain with us, from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We'll walk approx 20 miles, following the river...and we'll hand out small cards and medals to anyone we meet...finish with Evensong and Benediction.
This is a big reunion for all of us who walked to Walsingham in August in the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage - but anyone and everyone is also welcome to join us. Interested? Send a comment to this Blog marked NOT FOR PUBLICATION, including an email address to which I can reply to you.
Walking to Walsingham: do read...
...THE PORTAL, the on-line magazine of the Ordinariate. September edition is just out. It has an account of the JPII Walsingham pilgrimage - Auntie splashing her way across a ford in Norfolk, young people saying the Rosary as they walk along by golden cornfields - and it updates you on the Ordinariate generally. They now have some 80 priests, and more to come...
Croydon is not a beautiful town...
...in fact parts of it are downright ugly. (Yes, I am allowed to say this: I grew up locally, and I know Croydon well and love it as one loves whatever has been close and and important in one's life). But the Catholic Church at West Croydon has never looked better, and was filled to capacity today for a new chapter of history as three priests were ordained for the local Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.Their ordination means that this church, always a busy place, will now have EIGHT Masses every Sunday, starting at 7am, to accomodate all the people that want to worship there.
My childhood and teenage memories of St Mary's are of a rather dark interior: not so now, all is light and fresh and beautiful, and at Mass the eye is drawn to the candlelit sanctuary with its great Cross. A great procession as Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate, and the Archbishop of Southwark, and a large contingent of priests, came up the aisle. There was - as always at Ordinariate events - much glorious singing: a Missa de Angelis, a beautiful Ave Verum at Communion, and some fine hymns. Archbishop Peter Smith ordained the men - as always, it was very impressive to see them lying prostrate before the sanctuary as we prayed the Litany of the Saints, and then to watch as each one was ordained, knelt to promise obedience, exchanged the Peace with fellow-priests, recieved a chalice, and so on...the Mass was beautiful, the prayers inevitably punctuated by the shrill screams of children and babies, especially at the most sacred moments...but then, that seems to be a tradition of Catholic suburbia, and one parent did actually take a screaming child outside only to have its shrieks redouble in effort and anger, the sound piercing the hastily-closed doors...
Afterwards, a delicious and substantial buffet, great crowds of people settling at tables set with white cloths and golden paper napkins, wine, the cutting of a cake, much joy.
And so a new chapter opens for the Church in Croydon, where there has been Christian worship for over a thousand years of recorded history, and where perhaps the best is yet to be as a divided Church regathers itself and prepares for fresh evangelisation in this new century...
My childhood and teenage memories of St Mary's are of a rather dark interior: not so now, all is light and fresh and beautiful, and at Mass the eye is drawn to the candlelit sanctuary with its great Cross. A great procession as Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate, and the Archbishop of Southwark, and a large contingent of priests, came up the aisle. There was - as always at Ordinariate events - much glorious singing: a Missa de Angelis, a beautiful Ave Verum at Communion, and some fine hymns. Archbishop Peter Smith ordained the men - as always, it was very impressive to see them lying prostrate before the sanctuary as we prayed the Litany of the Saints, and then to watch as each one was ordained, knelt to promise obedience, exchanged the Peace with fellow-priests, recieved a chalice, and so on...the Mass was beautiful, the prayers inevitably punctuated by the shrill screams of children and babies, especially at the most sacred moments...but then, that seems to be a tradition of Catholic suburbia, and one parent did actually take a screaming child outside only to have its shrieks redouble in effort and anger, the sound piercing the hastily-closed doors...
Afterwards, a delicious and substantial buffet, great crowds of people settling at tables set with white cloths and golden paper napkins, wine, the cutting of a cake, much joy.
And so a new chapter opens for the Church in Croydon, where there has been Christian worship for over a thousand years of recorded history, and where perhaps the best is yet to be as a divided Church regathers itself and prepares for fresh evangelisation in this new century...
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