...and on visiting young relatives, I noticed that in the latest edition of the Sunday Missal this Sunday is of course officially listed as Divine Mercy Sunday. It felt rather splendid to look back and remember St John Paul and that encyclical on Divine Mercy, and all of us asking "What's all this about? Of course God is merciful...", and then the story of St Faustina becomg better and better known...
But it made me feel sort of old, too...the young First Communicant whose beautiful white-and-gold missal I was perusing will always see Divine Mercy Sunday as a normal part of the Calendar, and St John Paul the Great as simply one of the saints of the Church, a figure in Heaven and in history...while some of us remember him as the Pope, met him, talked to him...
Saturday, April 11, 2015
...among the experiences of this Easter...
...perhaps the most unusual was standing in a meadow on the edge of Exmoor with sheep baa-ing nearby, and the sun lifting the mist off the tops of the hills, and broadcasting via a radio network in Alabama about an inspirational French priest! I was interviewed by the Son Rise Morning Show following the feature on Cardinal Jean Danielou in this week's Catholic Herald.
The Danielou story is a fascinating one, and I plan to read more of his work, and help to get it better known...
The Danielou story is a fascinating one, and I plan to read more of his work, and help to get it better known...
I have been asked...
...the question "What is your next book?" a lot just recently. Although I usually give only a vague answer, I do in fact have a specific idea in mind, and this evening I discussed it a bit with a young relative who is a fellow-writer. She was enthusiastic and encouraged me to go ahead. So...this week the project will begin with the usual mapping out of the idea, correspondence with publisher, etc etc...
The Easter holiday provided peace and beauty in good measure, a grace-filled opportunity for pondering a new project.
Our Easter travels finished with a journey home via a joyful family gathering with children running about and demanding to be carried on shoulders, a talkative family supper, family prayers...
The Easter holiday provided peace and beauty in good measure, a grace-filled opportunity for pondering a new project.
Our Easter travels finished with a journey home via a joyful family gathering with children running about and demanding to be carried on shoulders, a talkative family supper, family prayers...
Thursday, April 09, 2015
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Moslem youth from Britain's cities...
...are flocking to join the Moslem armies in the Middle East...and this Easter the Church around the world has been praying for the Christians fleeing from the Moslem onslaught...
The West of England in Springtime - all along the grassy lanes are bright starry celandines and clumps of pale primroses. I walked this morning to this tiny chapel, accompanied by birdsong and the baa-ing of sheep as their lambs frolicked with wobbly legs...the chapel is open and is evidently in the care of people who cherish it: a posy of fresh primroses on the altar, everything clean and welcoming: an invitation to prayer.
Followinga family gathering in Oxfordshire for Easter, we are now continuing Eastertide with further family visits, this time on Exmoor...
I'm working on essays for the Catechist course (School of the Annunciation: warmly recommended) looking up from time to time to relish the most glorious views. I'm interspersing the work with tackling some envelopes to primary schools for this year's Schools RE Project run by the Association of Catholic Women. You can read about some of the previous Projects here...we always get good numbers of entries, and are glad to be supporting the work of Catholic schools in this way. This year's Project is on the Rosary, and the aim is to help children understand the value and importance of this prayer, learning about the four sets of Mysteries: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious. They have to study the Joyful Mysteries, and learn about them:"Each of these Mysteries describes an event. Choose three of them and tell us the story of each in yur own words. Tell us why each of these is important. You can illustrate your work, too, if you like."
The West of England in Springtime - all along the grassy lanes are bright starry celandines and clumps of pale primroses. I walked this morning to this tiny chapel, accompanied by birdsong and the baa-ing of sheep as their lambs frolicked with wobbly legs...the chapel is open and is evidently in the care of people who cherish it: a posy of fresh primroses on the altar, everything clean and welcoming: an invitation to prayer.
Followinga family gathering in Oxfordshire for Easter, we are now continuing Eastertide with further family visits, this time on Exmoor...
I'm working on essays for the Catechist course (School of the Annunciation: warmly recommended) looking up from time to time to relish the most glorious views. I'm interspersing the work with tackling some envelopes to primary schools for this year's Schools RE Project run by the Association of Catholic Women. You can read about some of the previous Projects here...we always get good numbers of entries, and are glad to be supporting the work of Catholic schools in this way. This year's Project is on the Rosary, and the aim is to help children understand the value and importance of this prayer, learning about the four sets of Mysteries: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious. They have to study the Joyful Mysteries, and learn about them:"Each of these Mysteries describes an event. Choose three of them and tell us the story of each in yur own words. Tell us why each of these is important. You can illustrate your work, too, if you like."
Monday, April 06, 2015
In the Thames Valley...
...with Easter eggs and daffodils, roast lamb and simnel cake, and a big family house-party, long talkative meals, long walks.
Stations of the Cross through the streets and lanes of Soho, kneeling on the street "We adore you O Christ and we praise you/Because by your holy Cross you have redeeedmed the world..."
Before going on to the Good Fiday liturgy, I wet to Trafalgar Square to watch the Passion Play. It was moving: the whole story coming alive before massive crowds in the heart of London. Going from there to the 3pm liturgy all fitted...
Rail travel out of London a bit complicated because of all sorts of engineering works at Paddington etc...but I made it to the family gathering, and to the glorious Easter Vigil at the Church of St Birinus in Dorchester-on-Thames.
A strange, and rather touching, thing happened to me on Good Friday. I hurried off the Tube at Oxford Circus and happened to look down. At my feet lay a small silver cross. I have it before me as I write - a slim, simple cross about one inch long and half an inch across. It is in perfect condition.
It felt strange, as I was just on my way to walk the Stations of the Cross through the streets of Soho with a group from a local church. So the Cross was very much in my mind.
I didn't know what to do. I'd love to find the owner of this cross. But thyere are about eight million people in Greater London at any one time. Did anyone lose a small silver cross in London on Good Friday?
Stations of the Cross through the streets and lanes of Soho, kneeling on the street "We adore you O Christ and we praise you/Because by your holy Cross you have redeeedmed the world..."
Before going on to the Good Fiday liturgy, I wet to Trafalgar Square to watch the Passion Play. It was moving: the whole story coming alive before massive crowds in the heart of London. Going from there to the 3pm liturgy all fitted...
Rail travel out of London a bit complicated because of all sorts of engineering works at Paddington etc...but I made it to the family gathering, and to the glorious Easter Vigil at the Church of St Birinus in Dorchester-on-Thames.
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Holy Week and Easter...
...began for me with Tenebrae at this church, which is famous for its beautiful Mary Garden featured on an EWTN history series...
There'll be the Mandatum, then the solemnities of Good Friday, the waiting-time on Holy Saturday, then the glorious fire of Easter...and for the Bogles a round of family visits...
...and good wishes for this holy season to my faithful Blog readers...
There'll be the Mandatum, then the solemnities of Good Friday, the waiting-time on Holy Saturday, then the glorious fire of Easter...and for the Bogles a round of family visits...
...and good wishes for this holy season to my faithful Blog readers...
Today is Maundy Thursday...
...and there will be the Mandatum in churches up and down the land...
It is also the 10th anniversary of a great saint's death: you can read Auntie on that subject here...
It is also the 10th anniversary of a great saint's death: you can read Auntie on that subject here...
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Southwark diocese Chrism Mass...
...at St George's Cathedral. It is always rather moving to see priests that I have known for years - including the parish priest of Wallington, where I grew up - plus many other friends, at the Chrism Mass at Southwark. The Cathedral was packed, people sitting and standing on the floor in the side chapels and at the back...
The Chrism Liturgy is beautiful, and it was touching to see the oil for anointing the sick being brought up accompanied by two nurses in uniform, and the Oil of Catechumens being accompanied by candidates for baptism, etc.
But oh,at Southwark the music is always ghastly. The Cathedral has a fine organ, but some of the hymns were instead accompanied by a tinkling piano. And the words were beyond banal. During the Offertory we were meant to sing: "We place upon your table, a gleaming cloth oif white/The weaving of our stories, the fabric of our lives/the dreams of those before us, the ancient hopeful cries/the promise of our future/our needing and our nurture lie here before our eyes". Does any reader of this blog have any idea of what this drivel could possibly mean? I think it is simply tripe.
It is unfair on the priests, deacons and seminarians, whose special day it is, to have this nonsense foisted on them.And people who have brought their children to this sacred liturgy - there were a good many young families there - deserve the best. This is a day on which to teach something of the beauty and mystery that is at the heart of the priestly sacramental ministry.
The Cathedral has a splendid choir, which for some reason is banned from the Chrism Mass. There are some superb school choirs in the diocese, and it would be splendid to have one sing for the Chrism Mass: a Missa de Angelis, or some special Mass learned for the occasion, something beautiful for the Offertory and again at Communion, a couple of good hymns for the long priests' procession in at the beginning...this is a day for glorious music...
The Chrism Liturgy is beautiful, and it was touching to see the oil for anointing the sick being brought up accompanied by two nurses in uniform, and the Oil of Catechumens being accompanied by candidates for baptism, etc.
But oh,at Southwark the music is always ghastly. The Cathedral has a fine organ, but some of the hymns were instead accompanied by a tinkling piano. And the words were beyond banal. During the Offertory we were meant to sing: "We place upon your table, a gleaming cloth oif white/The weaving of our stories, the fabric of our lives/the dreams of those before us, the ancient hopeful cries/the promise of our future/our needing and our nurture lie here before our eyes". Does any reader of this blog have any idea of what this drivel could possibly mean? I think it is simply tripe.
It is unfair on the priests, deacons and seminarians, whose special day it is, to have this nonsense foisted on them.And people who have brought their children to this sacred liturgy - there were a good many young families there - deserve the best. This is a day on which to teach something of the beauty and mystery that is at the heart of the priestly sacramental ministry.
The Cathedral has a splendid choir, which for some reason is banned from the Chrism Mass. There are some superb school choirs in the diocese, and it would be splendid to have one sing for the Chrism Mass: a Missa de Angelis, or some special Mass learned for the occasion, something beautiful for the Offertory and again at Communion, a couple of good hymns for the long priests' procession in at the beginning...this is a day for glorious music...
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
...and...
...the diocese of WESTMINSTER has its traditional Chrism Mass tomorrow (Tuesday) and the diocese of SOUTHWARK on Wednesday. And at both of these, there will be groups of us welcoming the priests and thanking them for their dedication and service to the Church. We have a big placard that says:
THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS
and we give them small holy cards with our thanks....
We began this some years ago and it is has flourished and flourished, with new people joining in each year and a sense of a strong tradition having been established. And a particular pleasure is being able to greet so many priest friends and exchange greetings and good wishes...
Attending the different Chrism Masses is also a good introduction to Holy Week. Somehow, it sets the tone - the reality of the Church and an ability to "see" the events of two thousand years ago, and the hugeness of it all...
THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS
and we give them small holy cards with our thanks....
We began this some years ago and it is has flourished and flourished, with new people joining in each year and a sense of a strong tradition having been established. And a particular pleasure is being able to greet so many priest friends and exchange greetings and good wishes...
Attending the different Chrism Masses is also a good introduction to Holy Week. Somehow, it sets the tone - the reality of the Church and an ability to "see" the events of two thousand years ago, and the hugeness of it all...
Warwick Street...
...is the home of this church, in the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Today, Ordinariate priests from across Britain came there to concelebrate the Chrism Mass. The chief celebrant was the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini. It was all very splendid, and the large crowd of priests just about fitted in to the church, using up both the side sections and all around the back. The congregation was in the main seating area in the middle...and when the priests made their public re-affirmation of theirvows, it was rather splendid to hear the voices in a deep roar all around us...
The oils were brought up to the altar for hallowing with great solemnity, there was glorious music, and the prayers of the Chrism Mass are so beautiful,..
"...For in the beginning you commanded the earth
to produce fruit-bearing plants,
and among them the olive tree,
to bring forth the great richness of this Oil,
that its fruit might serve
for the making of sacred Chrism.
David, too, foreseeing by the spirit of prophecy
the sacraments of your grace,
sang of oil making our faces radiant with joy;
and when in former days
the world's sins were washed away in the Great Flood,
the dove, showing forth by an olive branch
a figure of the gift to come,
announced that peace had been restored to the earth..."
The oils were brought up to the altar for hallowing with great solemnity, there was glorious music, and the prayers of the Chrism Mass are so beautiful,..
"...For in the beginning you commanded the earth
to produce fruit-bearing plants,
and among them the olive tree,
to bring forth the great richness of this Oil,
that its fruit might serve
for the making of sacred Chrism.
David, too, foreseeing by the spirit of prophecy
the sacraments of your grace,
sang of oil making our faces radiant with joy;
and when in former days
the world's sins were washed away in the Great Flood,
the dove, showing forth by an olive branch
a figure of the gift to come,
announced that peace had been restored to the earth..."
Sunday, March 29, 2015
...Palm Sunday...
...and we gathered on the London street for the liturgy, much blessing of palms with holy water, and a sudden sense of unity across the centuries with all those who have commemorated Christ's entry into Jerusalem this way...and then we set off, the crowd surging along the street and under the railway arch (great accoustics), incense wafting from the front, rain clouds gathering overhead...inevitably some were singing one verse of the hymn, and others another, but it was all a grand surge...and so into church and the solemn reading of the Passion....
I had spent the previous afternoon with young relatives, making Easter cards for great-grandparents, and enjoying a ramble through local woodland and plans for the Spring and summer. A local ice-cream van was being mended and attracted much interest as sparks flew up from the welding and the workmen were amused to explain the technicalities of the door and wheels to two small boys. We explored along a local muddy stream, planned picnics and summer trips. Tangle brambles promised blackberry-picking much later in the year. Trees were climbed. Clumps of daffodils splashed yellow on the landscape. Spring is here.
I had spent the previous afternoon with young relatives, making Easter cards for great-grandparents, and enjoying a ramble through local woodland and plans for the Spring and summer. A local ice-cream van was being mended and attracted much interest as sparks flew up from the welding and the workmen were amused to explain the technicalities of the door and wheels to two small boys. We explored along a local muddy stream, planned picnics and summer trips. Tangle brambles promised blackberry-picking much later in the year. Trees were climbed. Clumps of daffodils splashed yellow on the landscape. Spring is here.
Awesome...
...an overworked adjective today..
But it was truly awesome. Nightfever. A church glittering with candlelight, with some lovely gentle singing and teams of young people, bearing lanterns, fanning out across Soho, inviting people in to pray. The young people each had a few unlit candles in their pockets - those small tea-lights that work well as votive candles - and simply asked "Would you like to come in and light a candle?"
We gathered beforehand in the crypt at St Patrick's, Soho - you guessed that was the church, didn't you? Where so many good things happen - for a briefing, and I wondered if I wasn't too old to be taking part in such a venture. Nightfever was created by young people, and there was a great crowd of them there, filling the church for Mass, and gathering with a sense of seriousness for the evening of mission. But I was welcomed. A brief explanation...some guidelines and intsructions...some tea and sandwiches on offer...and we were off on the project.
Prayer is the most important thing., You spend part of the night in prayer before the Blessed sacrament, and then go out in shifts into the street...and then as you bring people in to pray (yes, they do come, and in great numbers) you stay briefly to pray again...and so on...
"I'm an atheist" was a response I got more than once to my offer of a candle and dropping in to pray "That makes no difference, does it?" I pointed out, and she, shrugged, laughed, accepted a candle and came in. Mostly, they gasp a bit on entrance - the lanterns line the main aisle, on the sanctuary is stands the great Monstrance where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration, there are lots of silent kneeling figures, and some quietly coming-and-going. Having accompanied the new arrival slowly up towards the altar, there is no need to do anyting more. They can find a place for the candle, kneel, write a prayer on one of the slips of paper if they wish, maybe pick up a lttle folded gift of Scripture verse from the basket...one just finds one's own place to pray, and leaves them to it.
"I'm gay - your lot think I will burn in hell". We don't argue...the offer to pray is for everyone and we've already made that clear. Some that start by being a bit antagonistic do then come in. Mostly, people stay for longer than expected.
Many people are hurrying to meet a friend and haven't time to stop.Some want to chat. Some say "I haven't been into a church in years..." Several ask why we are doing this - most accept that the idea is attractive. No one seems offended by the offer of a chance to pray.
We finished on the dot of 10.30, strictly to timetable. Compline - sung most beaiutifully - and then Benediction. It was absolutely unforgettable
I loved Nightfever. I'll be volunteering again.
But it was truly awesome. Nightfever. A church glittering with candlelight, with some lovely gentle singing and teams of young people, bearing lanterns, fanning out across Soho, inviting people in to pray. The young people each had a few unlit candles in their pockets - those small tea-lights that work well as votive candles - and simply asked "Would you like to come in and light a candle?"
We gathered beforehand in the crypt at St Patrick's, Soho - you guessed that was the church, didn't you? Where so many good things happen - for a briefing, and I wondered if I wasn't too old to be taking part in such a venture. Nightfever was created by young people, and there was a great crowd of them there, filling the church for Mass, and gathering with a sense of seriousness for the evening of mission. But I was welcomed. A brief explanation...some guidelines and intsructions...some tea and sandwiches on offer...and we were off on the project.
Prayer is the most important thing., You spend part of the night in prayer before the Blessed sacrament, and then go out in shifts into the street...and then as you bring people in to pray (yes, they do come, and in great numbers) you stay briefly to pray again...and so on...
"I'm an atheist" was a response I got more than once to my offer of a candle and dropping in to pray "That makes no difference, does it?" I pointed out, and she, shrugged, laughed, accepted a candle and came in. Mostly, they gasp a bit on entrance - the lanterns line the main aisle, on the sanctuary is stands the great Monstrance where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration, there are lots of silent kneeling figures, and some quietly coming-and-going. Having accompanied the new arrival slowly up towards the altar, there is no need to do anyting more. They can find a place for the candle, kneel, write a prayer on one of the slips of paper if they wish, maybe pick up a lttle folded gift of Scripture verse from the basket...one just finds one's own place to pray, and leaves them to it.
"I'm gay - your lot think I will burn in hell". We don't argue...the offer to pray is for everyone and we've already made that clear. Some that start by being a bit antagonistic do then come in. Mostly, people stay for longer than expected.
Many people are hurrying to meet a friend and haven't time to stop.Some want to chat. Some say "I haven't been into a church in years..." Several ask why we are doing this - most accept that the idea is attractive. No one seems offended by the offer of a chance to pray.
We finished on the dot of 10.30, strictly to timetable. Compline - sung most beaiutifully - and then Benediction. It was absolutely unforgettable
I loved Nightfever. I'll be volunteering again.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Cherishing life...
...or do we think we can't and shouldn't? Was St John Paul right when he warned of a "culture of death"? Some good reading on this here...
Nightfever...
...at St Patrick's, Soho, tomorrow. I thought I might go along and see what it's like. Some info here
Pope Francis...
...on the Feast of the Annunciation, highlighted the importance of St John Paul's Evangelium Vitae, given to the world on this day in 1995. I recently studied this document anew as part of some academic work, and recognised all over again its foresight, wisdom, and truth. And how he was denounced for it at the time - it was commonplace to sneer at him as a "Polish peasant" who was "trying to impose his morality" on everyone. Today, we can see how things have developed, with a horrible sense of doom hanging over Europe as families disintegrate and the normality of marriage and children gives way to a muddle ofshould-gay-parents-buy-babies-from-surrogate-mothers and similar debates.
The Church is today's great defender of human beings, human dignity, and the common good, in the face of a sense of self-destructiive moral relativism. Through marriage and family life, human beings have always the hope of renewal and "The Church as a mother never abandons the family, even when it is disheartened, wounded, and mortified in so many ways: it will always do everything tosee to cure and heal it, to call it to conversion and to reconcile it to the Lord" (St Peter.s Wednesday)
The Church is today's great defender of human beings, human dignity, and the common good, in the face of a sense of self-destructiive moral relativism. Through marriage and family life, human beings have always the hope of renewal and "The Church as a mother never abandons the family, even when it is disheartened, wounded, and mortified in so many ways: it will always do everything tosee to cure and heal it, to call it to conversion and to reconcile it to the Lord" (St Peter.s Wednesday)
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
A splendid academic Mass...
...for the School of the Annunciation, at Buckfast Abbey in Devon.The academic staff,in an impressive array of robes, walked in procession, there was glorious singing, and a good attendance of people from across Britain...and afterwards there was a delicious lunch and lots of lively talk...a most enjoyable day.
Sadly, Archbishop Fisichella from Rome was ill and unable to attend, but his lecture was read by the Rector, and there';ll be a copy on the School's website in due course.
During the afternoon I took along some books for the Library - we've all been invited to make donations. I brought a selection from home, hoping this might relieve the pressure on the groaning bookshelves of the Bogle family...which it has, but only marginally...
The School is flourishing and looks set to play an important role in the Church and in the world of education over the next years. Events in the next months include short courses on Foundations of Philiosophy for Faith, Sacred Art and the New Evangelisation, Media and the New Evangelisation, and Ecclesiastical Latin...and there are Summer Schools on Scripture, Liturgy, and Apologetics, among other topics. Further courses in catechetics start in the Autumn, together with a Diploma course in the New Evangelisation...
Sadly, Archbishop Fisichella from Rome was ill and unable to attend, but his lecture was read by the Rector, and there';ll be a copy on the School's website in due course.
During the afternoon I took along some books for the Library - we've all been invited to make donations. I brought a selection from home, hoping this might relieve the pressure on the groaning bookshelves of the Bogle family...which it has, but only marginally...
The School is flourishing and looks set to play an important role in the Church and in the world of education over the next years. Events in the next months include short courses on Foundations of Philiosophy for Faith, Sacred Art and the New Evangelisation, Media and the New Evangelisation, and Ecclesiastical Latin...and there are Summer Schools on Scripture, Liturgy, and Apologetics, among other topics. Further courses in catechetics start in the Autumn, together with a Diploma course in the New Evangelisation...
Richard III...
...and Auntie was invited to write about him for a Catholic newspaper in the USA...read here...
Monday, March 23, 2015
....HISTORY WALKS....
...the next one is Monday April 13th, starts 6.30pm Westminster Cathedral. All welcome - just turn up, no need to book.
And note the date of the 2015 MARTYRS' WALK: Sunday June 21st, meet 1.30pm for 2pm departure, St Sepulchre's churchyard, near the OLD BAILEY (nearest tube: St Paul's). Come - no need to book. Bring your family, your friends, a group from your parish. We'll be walking the route to Tyburn, and stopping to pray at, among other places, SS Anselm and Cecilia in Holborn, and St Patrick's in Soho.
And note the date of the 2015 MARTYRS' WALK: Sunday June 21st, meet 1.30pm for 2pm departure, St Sepulchre's churchyard, near the OLD BAILEY (nearest tube: St Paul's). Come - no need to book. Bring your family, your friends, a group from your parish. We'll be walking the route to Tyburn, and stopping to pray at, among other places, SS Anselm and Cecilia in Holborn, and St Patrick's in Soho.
Encouraging....
....morning at the John Fisher School, Purley. The young chaplain, Fr James Clark, organises guest speakers for the VI form on Mondays. The boys looked smart in their blazers with the golden school emblem, there was a warm and friendly welcome, and it was rather moving to be speaking in the school hall where I have attended receptions following the ordinations of former pupils. May there be many more...
Topic was communication, writing, lnguage, truth...told them about smuggling in Christian books, history, social comment, Catholic doctrine, into Eastern Europe under Communism, about St John Paul's emphasis on truth, about how truth and freedom go together. Talked about today's Britain, need to seek and defend truth. Find out what the Church teaches, and what is really happening: don't rely on the BBC's version. And how how do we make good use of the internet? The biggest single use is people wasting their lives in porn...
This is a school I have known for over 40 years: there is now a Fawcett Building, named after Fr Fawcett who I remember so well and who taught at the school for so many years...
Chatting in the sunshine with Fr James, we were joined by a number of other priests, who had come to help with hearing confessions (the whole school goes, form by form). They included Fr Ian Vane, at whose church in Sussex I recently took part in a women's prayer event with a crowd of some 80/90 people on a midweek afternoon, impressive...
At John Fisher, the sunshine dappled on the lawn by the chapel, , the sky was clear, boys hurried here and there, a VI-former stopping to chat...everything somehow held promise and hope. Pray for this fine school and its future: it's just marked its 85th anniversary, celebrating a noble heritage.
Topic was communication, writing, lnguage, truth...told them about smuggling in Christian books, history, social comment, Catholic doctrine, into Eastern Europe under Communism, about St John Paul's emphasis on truth, about how truth and freedom go together. Talked about today's Britain, need to seek and defend truth. Find out what the Church teaches, and what is really happening: don't rely on the BBC's version. And how how do we make good use of the internet? The biggest single use is people wasting their lives in porn...
This is a school I have known for over 40 years: there is now a Fawcett Building, named after Fr Fawcett who I remember so well and who taught at the school for so many years...
Chatting in the sunshine with Fr James, we were joined by a number of other priests, who had come to help with hearing confessions (the whole school goes, form by form). They included Fr Ian Vane, at whose church in Sussex I recently took part in a women's prayer event with a crowd of some 80/90 people on a midweek afternoon, impressive...
At John Fisher, the sunshine dappled on the lawn by the chapel, , the sky was clear, boys hurried here and there, a VI-former stopping to chat...everything somehow held promise and hope. Pray for this fine school and its future: it's just marked its 85th anniversary, celebrating a noble heritage.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Depressing...
....discussion with an academic, about how history is no longer taught in schools. Having had a number of similar discussions with teenagers and with teachers on the same subject, I find the scene deeply depressing.
The standard secondary school system now teaches chiefly (1) the Tudors in England and (2) the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and the Second World War, I started to realise this a few years ago, when a bright teenager told me of her weariness in being made to "do" the Second World War and the Nazis for the fourth time..."I'm so tired of it. I want to find out about the Medieval period. I love history, and I always get good marks - but I'm just so sick of learning about the Nazis again and again and again." Another said they had been given the opportunity to study Martin Luther King and the American Civil Rights Movement as an extra. "And I thhink we might be doing Margaret Thatchjer and the Miners' Strike". But that was all.
In primary school children do "themes" such as the Atlantic slave trade, Norman castles, the Roman empire, the Victorian era and the children in factories, and Suffragettes. Darting about from one era to another across the centuries, with random scrapbook and colouring-in projects. There is no essential time-line and little attempt to connect anything. No wonder children are confused and bored. I have seen some very attractive work produced by children in schools, and they get them dressing up in Victorian costumes, and imagining what it would have been like to be in a Victorian school, and so on...but they are not given the essential tools for studying history, or much motive for doing so.
In tomorrow's Britain, society will have a very strong Mohammedan input. British history will not be something that is communicated in everyday culture - stories, and nursery rhymes and jokes and well-known bits of folklore. That sort of culture is being crushed by the overwhelming pressures of the computer/mobile phone/facebook/texting/sexting/soap opera world where history and family traditions and local community events play no part. Children won't 'absorb' the history and traditions of the country into which they have been born and which in a sense is their heritage...if they are to understand such things, it will have to be through conscious teaching. Will there be teachers willing and able to do it?
At present, teachers tend to emphasise only what is "needed" for exams. "You don't need to look at the section on the 18th century - it's not part of your exam work" etc etc. There is pressure to gain the required number of "passes" for the statistics.
And so we are being robbed of our sense of identity, of belonging, of community. And then we wonder why the young feel alienated, hurt, and cynical.
The standard secondary school system now teaches chiefly (1) the Tudors in England and (2) the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and the Second World War, I started to realise this a few years ago, when a bright teenager told me of her weariness in being made to "do" the Second World War and the Nazis for the fourth time..."I'm so tired of it. I want to find out about the Medieval period. I love history, and I always get good marks - but I'm just so sick of learning about the Nazis again and again and again." Another said they had been given the opportunity to study Martin Luther King and the American Civil Rights Movement as an extra. "And I thhink we might be doing Margaret Thatchjer and the Miners' Strike". But that was all.
In primary school children do "themes" such as the Atlantic slave trade, Norman castles, the Roman empire, the Victorian era and the children in factories, and Suffragettes. Darting about from one era to another across the centuries, with random scrapbook and colouring-in projects. There is no essential time-line and little attempt to connect anything. No wonder children are confused and bored. I have seen some very attractive work produced by children in schools, and they get them dressing up in Victorian costumes, and imagining what it would have been like to be in a Victorian school, and so on...but they are not given the essential tools for studying history, or much motive for doing so.
In tomorrow's Britain, society will have a very strong Mohammedan input. British history will not be something that is communicated in everyday culture - stories, and nursery rhymes and jokes and well-known bits of folklore. That sort of culture is being crushed by the overwhelming pressures of the computer/mobile phone/facebook/texting/sexting/soap opera world where history and family traditions and local community events play no part. Children won't 'absorb' the history and traditions of the country into which they have been born and which in a sense is their heritage...if they are to understand such things, it will have to be through conscious teaching. Will there be teachers willing and able to do it?
At present, teachers tend to emphasise only what is "needed" for exams. "You don't need to look at the section on the 18th century - it's not part of your exam work" etc etc. There is pressure to gain the required number of "passes" for the statistics.
And so we are being robbed of our sense of identity, of belonging, of community. And then we wonder why the young feel alienated, hurt, and cynical.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
...and from St John Paul:
...on March 25th it will be the anniversary of his magnificent document Evangelium Vitae. There will be a special vigil of prayer in Rome and we are all invited to pray, too...the threats to the sanctity of human life have grown horribly in recent years, along with the destruction of children's dignity and innocence, and the violation of the truth about marriage: "sexuality too is depersonalized and exploited: from being the sign, place and language of love, that is, of the gift of self and acceptance of another, in all the other's richness as a person, it increasingly becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and instincts".
A morning...
...with parents of First Communicants at the parish of Our Lady and St George, Walthamstow. I was invited to speak about the Church and women: it's a subject on which it is important to explain about Mother Church, the women saints and heroines, and the deep truth at the core of it all - the Bridegroom and His Bride, the nuptial meaning of the Eucharist...and more...
It's actually men who are too often marginalised in the Church, and this is something that needs to be addressed. An understanding of the essential complementarity of men and women is of central importance, and this document is useful in grasping this...as is the material produced at this conference...
It's actually men who are too often marginalised in the Church, and this is something that needs to be addressed. An understanding of the essential complementarity of men and women is of central importance, and this document is useful in grasping this...as is the material produced at this conference...
Friday, March 20, 2015
Discussion...
...should the Pope have gone to confession in public? Lent last year...see here). Was it showing off? Or trying to give an authentic example to others, to get people to go to confession, to show there is nothing embarrassing about it?
The Pope is popular with the media, but some people are disturbed by what they see as his displays of false humility.
It certainly got people thinking about confession, didn't it?
The Pope is popular with the media, but some people are disturbed by what they see as his displays of false humility.
It certainly got people thinking about confession, didn't it?
...and on the Feast of the Annunciation...
...March 25th, I will be in Devon, celebrating this importrant anniversary...
Theology of the Body...
...and this evening I'll be attending this lecture in London by Dr peter Kahn. All are welcome.
St John Pauls Theology of the Body offers answers to the muddle, misery and heartache that has permeated through people's lives following the sexual confusion of recent years. It's important to be informed on all of this - and this great Pope offers inspiration, hope and a sense of joy in life too.
Come along this evening: 6.45pm, Vaughan House, Francis St, Westminster - nearest tube VICTORIA.
St John Pauls Theology of the Body offers answers to the muddle, misery and heartache that has permeated through people's lives following the sexual confusion of recent years. It's important to be informed on all of this - and this great Pope offers inspiration, hope and a sense of joy in life too.
Come along this evening: 6.45pm, Vaughan House, Francis St, Westminster - nearest tube VICTORIA.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
On St Joseph's Day...
special greetings to this wonderful parish...
The Mary Garden at this parish recently featured on an EWTN programme tracing London's history along the Thames. The parish priest, and the wonderful family team who created and now maintain the Garden, were interviewed, and it was a delight.
I personally owe a lot to this parish, and whenever I am in the church there is a sense of somehow being at home.
The Mary Garden at this parish recently featured on an EWTN programme tracing London's history along the Thames. The parish priest, and the wonderful family team who created and now maintain the Garden, were interviewed, and it was a delight.
I personally owe a lot to this parish, and whenever I am in the church there is a sense of somehow being at home.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Prison...
...and the Catholic chaplain had led a well-attended teaching session this morning, and I was busy doing some follow-up this afternoon. Using the ANCHOR programme, and it works well...it has some of the most glorious art and explores Catholic teachings by using this, and opening up the truths revealed, backed by Scripture and the Catechism...
While all this was going on, the Moslems were having a session in a neighbouring room. They have a place for ritual washing and an arrow sign pointing to Mecca. The chaplaincy area offers space to the various groups, all the chaplains have good facilities, and prisoners help with running it all. Mass is celebrated in a large room where the Chaplain has placed a fine large picture of the Divine Mercy - a print of the original Lthuanian picture, not the later one from Krakow - Stations of the Cross, a good cruciifix etc. There is a proper and well-equipped sacristy: for Mass, an altar is erected and everything is brought out, candles, altar cloths, missal, chalice and paten etc etc...there are also vestments and everything neccessary, all of good quality. The room is large (needed, because numbers for Mass are substantial here) and doesn't feel prison-like...this is a modern prison and although there is a lot of security and locking and unlocking of doors etc, the place isn't as oppressive as older prisons are, and it's clean.
Religion is a big thing in prison. Catholic prisoners - and others - wear rosaries round their necks (often three or more of them). They like to have a Bible because the Moslem prisoners set great store by talking about the Koran, so Christians want to show that they know all about having a sacred book too. They like prayer cards and pictures, and Novenas and prayers to learn by heart.
The Moslem presence is strong and confident: it offers a forthright, apparently simple, gutsy sort of solution to the why-am-I-here-everything-is-horrible feeling which must be overwhelming in prison. The Christian message soaks through at a different - deeper? - level. Certainly for some Catholic prisoners, meeting the chaplain is an opportunity to reconnect with a faith abandoned or forgotten, and some speak movingly about what it means to rediscover the Church, to go to confession, to learn or re-learn prayers, to study the Faith.
Not sure if my efforts at helping with the programme are useful...but at least a visitor shows that the world of prison hasn't been forgotten by those on the "outside". And I can keep the prisoners in my prayers and would like to think that some readers of this Blog might now do so too...
While all this was going on, the Moslems were having a session in a neighbouring room. They have a place for ritual washing and an arrow sign pointing to Mecca. The chaplaincy area offers space to the various groups, all the chaplains have good facilities, and prisoners help with running it all. Mass is celebrated in a large room where the Chaplain has placed a fine large picture of the Divine Mercy - a print of the original Lthuanian picture, not the later one from Krakow - Stations of the Cross, a good cruciifix etc. There is a proper and well-equipped sacristy: for Mass, an altar is erected and everything is brought out, candles, altar cloths, missal, chalice and paten etc etc...there are also vestments and everything neccessary, all of good quality. The room is large (needed, because numbers for Mass are substantial here) and doesn't feel prison-like...this is a modern prison and although there is a lot of security and locking and unlocking of doors etc, the place isn't as oppressive as older prisons are, and it's clean.
Religion is a big thing in prison. Catholic prisoners - and others - wear rosaries round their necks (often three or more of them). They like to have a Bible because the Moslem prisoners set great store by talking about the Koran, so Christians want to show that they know all about having a sacred book too. They like prayer cards and pictures, and Novenas and prayers to learn by heart.
The Moslem presence is strong and confident: it offers a forthright, apparently simple, gutsy sort of solution to the why-am-I-here-everything-is-horrible feeling which must be overwhelming in prison. The Christian message soaks through at a different - deeper? - level. Certainly for some Catholic prisoners, meeting the chaplain is an opportunity to reconnect with a faith abandoned or forgotten, and some speak movingly about what it means to rediscover the Church, to go to confession, to learn or re-learn prayers, to study the Faith.
Not sure if my efforts at helping with the programme are useful...but at least a visitor shows that the world of prison hasn't been forgotten by those on the "outside". And I can keep the prisoners in my prayers and would like to think that some readers of this Blog might now do so too...
The Church: defending marriage and family...
...the World Meeting of Families in September, whi ch the Pope will attend, will be of great importance. A bit of preparatory reading here...
To Pembury...
...in Kent, where Fr Ed Tomlinson of the Ordinariate and his team are transforming a rather bleak hall into a real church. It's a busy place now, with well-attended Sunday Masses. But at present the Sunday school meets in the sacristy, the children jammed in on the floor, under and on the tables, and on any available ledge or worktop. Fun, but sort of impracticable in the long-term as numbers continue to grow. The tiny weekday chapel - we had a beautiful Mass there - has stacks of the embroidered kneelers that some of us are making, and which on Sundays are used for Mass in the main hall. I had brought a further kneeler, just completed: I wanted to deliver it in person as I had dedicated it in memory of a young relative and wanted to hand it over personally: Fr Ed blessed it and we used it as a kneeler for Communion, and now it takes its place with the others...
It was good to be at Mass in this little village on a Spring weekday,and afterwards to talk over news and ideas with Fr Ed. Outside, the land hs been cleared for the new extension that will enable a proper use of the church and halls and include a garden and a shrine. There will be a good entrance and the church, already a local landmark, will be a real presence in the area. There is a large Crucifix with its own roof that will stand as part of the new scheme. It will all have the look and feel of "a little English village church".
But much to ponder. While things are going well at Pembury, there is a general feeling of worry in the Church: the Synod this Autumn (prayers needed),the rising official pressures on Church schools with attempts to impose gross forms of propaganda under the guise of "sex education"....
Pray for the Pope. Pray for our Bishops.
It was good to be at Mass in this little village on a Spring weekday,and afterwards to talk over news and ideas with Fr Ed. Outside, the land hs been cleared for the new extension that will enable a proper use of the church and halls and include a garden and a shrine. There will be a good entrance and the church, already a local landmark, will be a real presence in the area. There is a large Crucifix with its own roof that will stand as part of the new scheme. It will all have the look and feel of "a little English village church".
But much to ponder. While things are going well at Pembury, there is a general feeling of worry in the Church: the Synod this Autumn (prayers needed),the rising official pressures on Church schools with attempts to impose gross forms of propaganda under the guise of "sex education"....
Pray for the Pope. Pray for our Bishops.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Church shools...
...Sir Edward leigh MP has made an excellent intervention in the House of Commons. read here...
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Rorate Caeli...
..."Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above..."
I was remembering those words today when reading about Ukraine.
In the last years of Communism, and especially in the last months, it became possible to make Christian radio broadcasts, and to send Christian literature, into countries which had been starved of good reading material for decades. Prayer books, explanations of Church teachings, devotional materials of all kinds poured into Ukraine and, later, into Russia. It wasn't random stuff. People who listened to various radio broadcasts could write to Aid to the Church in Need, and get a package of materials, and, where possible, specific answers to various questions etc.
ACN's founder, Fr Werenfried van Straaten, the "bacon priest" who had championed the cause of Catholics behind what was then called the Iron Curtain for decades, was in his element. The project was called "Rorate Caeli". He and the team running it were hugely moved by the letters can came pouring in, especially from the young - asking questions about Christian teachings, wanting Catholic books, hungry for information Many were unhappy, with lives that had been damaged by abortion or alcoholism....the same problems that were then (and now) affecting the young in the West. Many were simply confused, with a limited understanding of the Church but a great desire to know more.
Well, the project flourished, and meanwhile history was rolling on...the collapse of Communism...the end of the USSR... new independence of Ukraine...
I remember Fr Werenfried warning that the collapse of Communism didn't mean that everything would be glorious. There was going to be an ideological void - not a sudden ability to flourish with bright new hopes, but a confused what-comes-after-communism ugliness in which over-optimism and unrealistic expectations could jostle with weariness and cyncism, and in which old animosities could flourish and new ones emerge,..
And now it's 2015, and a new era and Russia and Ukraine are fighting and it seems as though the suffering or the Soviet years, with the starvation famines and the Gulag and the KGB and the horror were not enough, and now a new generation is barking out nationalistic slogans and the death toll rises.
Back in the 1960s and 70s and 80s, many of us prayed regularly for the people "behind the Iron Ciurtain" who were not free to practice their Christian faith: Communism was a big blanket-style ideological Enemy. Now, in the more confused era, it's harder to know how to direct our prayers. But it feels all wrong that we should ignore it all.
Reminder: let's pray for peace. "Drop dew, yea heavens..."
I was remembering those words today when reading about Ukraine.
In the last years of Communism, and especially in the last months, it became possible to make Christian radio broadcasts, and to send Christian literature, into countries which had been starved of good reading material for decades. Prayer books, explanations of Church teachings, devotional materials of all kinds poured into Ukraine and, later, into Russia. It wasn't random stuff. People who listened to various radio broadcasts could write to Aid to the Church in Need, and get a package of materials, and, where possible, specific answers to various questions etc.
ACN's founder, Fr Werenfried van Straaten, the "bacon priest" who had championed the cause of Catholics behind what was then called the Iron Curtain for decades, was in his element. The project was called "Rorate Caeli". He and the team running it were hugely moved by the letters can came pouring in, especially from the young - asking questions about Christian teachings, wanting Catholic books, hungry for information Many were unhappy, with lives that had been damaged by abortion or alcoholism....the same problems that were then (and now) affecting the young in the West. Many were simply confused, with a limited understanding of the Church but a great desire to know more.
Well, the project flourished, and meanwhile history was rolling on...the collapse of Communism...the end of the USSR... new independence of Ukraine...
I remember Fr Werenfried warning that the collapse of Communism didn't mean that everything would be glorious. There was going to be an ideological void - not a sudden ability to flourish with bright new hopes, but a confused what-comes-after-communism ugliness in which over-optimism and unrealistic expectations could jostle with weariness and cyncism, and in which old animosities could flourish and new ones emerge,..
And now it's 2015, and a new era and Russia and Ukraine are fighting and it seems as though the suffering or the Soviet years, with the starvation famines and the Gulag and the KGB and the horror were not enough, and now a new generation is barking out nationalistic slogans and the death toll rises.
Back in the 1960s and 70s and 80s, many of us prayed regularly for the people "behind the Iron Ciurtain" who were not free to practice their Christian faith: Communism was a big blanket-style ideological Enemy. Now, in the more confused era, it's harder to know how to direct our prayers. But it feels all wrong that we should ignore it all.
Reminder: let's pray for peace. "Drop dew, yea heavens..."
Friday, March 13, 2015
...and you will also enjoy....
...this description of how things are going. in the Ordinariate parish along by the Thames..
You might enjoy...
this, which updates you on a good project that will be a morale-boost for all who value Christianity in Britain...
Celebration...
...this weekend (mid-Lent, Laetare, opportunity to take a break and rejoice) with co-author Clare Anderson and her family. This is a long overdue celebration. When Clare and I produced our book about St John Paul the Great, we dedicated it to our husbands, grateful for their patience and good humour throughout the project. And we told each other that we'd have a lovely just-the-four-of-us dinner party...and meanwhile there were other commitments, with family and (in Clare's case) a house-move and two family weddings, and (in mine) a new academic venture with some post-graduate study, and (for us both) travelling, and work, and more...and finally, some six months after the book's appearance, here we are! So, armed with chox and wine, Jamie and I are off to the Andersons and a happy time...
Thursday, March 12, 2015
St Mary's University...
...at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, has an atmosphere of great friendliness. Tonight the lively Cathsoc met, over freshly-brewed coffee in the comfortable coffee-room...lots of pleasant chat as people gathered and were joined by the young chaplain in his Dominican robes...
It was a real delight and pleasure to be their speaker for the evening. Topic was St John Paul - a figure known to them only from their childhood memories, honoured and venerated but somewhat mistily, covered by the decade that has passed since his death and by the enormous changes that occurred in and through his pontificate...
Where to start? I began by explaining to them something of what Poland was like under Communism - and as I spoke the memories were suddenly back: the shortages of everyday items, the shop windows with displays of dusty paper flowers because the proper goods weren't available...it's strange what details one remembers. I first visited Warsaw in the 1980s under martial law, with a thumping heart, a suitcase crammed wth books and other materials for the then-banned Solidarity movement, some names and addresses hidden on my person, and detailed instructions about how to circumvent the secret police surveillance and ensure that the whole operation went well. Golly, it's all so long ago...
But St John Paul the Great was - is - about more, much, much more than just the collapse of Communism. More than just World Youth Day, more than just the radical Theology of the Body and the magnificent teaching of the Divine Mercy, more than just a great revival of Eucharistic devotion, more than just the fresh presentation of the Rosary, more than just great missionary journeys, more than just magnificent teaching and leadership . He was a hero was survived an assaination attempt - and forgave his would-be murderer, from his heart - he was a poet, a playwright, a great preacher,a philosopher, a mystic. He was a sportsman, a man of the mountains, a man of prayer, a priest whose celebration of Mass took him into such deep Communion with the Lord that he seemed oblivious to everything else even when he was with a crowd of millions.
When John Paul gave his first inspiring calls to the young, I was young. But his message still rings true for today's generation in the Church:"Young people: Christ calls you, the Church needs you, and the Pope believes in you, and expects great things of you."
This was a happy and very special evening.
It was a real delight and pleasure to be their speaker for the evening. Topic was St John Paul - a figure known to them only from their childhood memories, honoured and venerated but somewhat mistily, covered by the decade that has passed since his death and by the enormous changes that occurred in and through his pontificate...
Where to start? I began by explaining to them something of what Poland was like under Communism - and as I spoke the memories were suddenly back: the shortages of everyday items, the shop windows with displays of dusty paper flowers because the proper goods weren't available...it's strange what details one remembers. I first visited Warsaw in the 1980s under martial law, with a thumping heart, a suitcase crammed wth books and other materials for the then-banned Solidarity movement, some names and addresses hidden on my person, and detailed instructions about how to circumvent the secret police surveillance and ensure that the whole operation went well. Golly, it's all so long ago...
But St John Paul the Great was - is - about more, much, much more than just the collapse of Communism. More than just World Youth Day, more than just the radical Theology of the Body and the magnificent teaching of the Divine Mercy, more than just a great revival of Eucharistic devotion, more than just the fresh presentation of the Rosary, more than just great missionary journeys, more than just magnificent teaching and leadership . He was a hero was survived an assaination attempt - and forgave his would-be murderer, from his heart - he was a poet, a playwright, a great preacher,a philosopher, a mystic. He was a sportsman, a man of the mountains, a man of prayer, a priest whose celebration of Mass took him into such deep Communion with the Lord that he seemed oblivious to everything else even when he was with a crowd of millions.
When John Paul gave his first inspiring calls to the young, I was young. But his message still rings true for today's generation in the Church:"Young people: Christ calls you, the Church needs you, and the Pope believes in you, and expects great things of you."
This was a happy and very special evening.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
To Whitstable...
...via a lovely train ride through Kent and along by the sea. Whitstable has a PROPER seaside, with a greensward and beach-huts, as well as a little harbour and fish-and-chips and of course oysters...
I lunched with the team that are producing the Made for Glory Youtube films...
I lunched with the team that are producing the Made for Glory Youtube films...
Sunday, March 08, 2015
Sunday...
...and as I arrived at London Bridge with half an hour to spare before Mass, I walked along by the river.,...the tide was out, and the wide beach revealed so many hints of history, fragments of this and that, an old jetty long soaked in mud, some chunks of masonry that were once part of some dockside structure. A pleasure boat chugged by, with the announcer's voice coming across the water, telling people about Blackfriars and the Oxo Tower, and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre...
On to the Church of the Most Precious Blood for Mass.Afterwards, we had the parish Annual Meeting - as per Anglican Patrimony and the Ordinariate and all that...the news is good, the parish is on track for mission, numbers at Mass are rising (an extra Mass has had to be added during the past year), there was talk of how we'll celebrate the feast of the Precious Blood in July...discussion about encouraging people to come to Adoration on the First Friday of every month and, more prosaically, about the new floor now that the heating has been installed...
Later, over a pub lunch, much talk and other ideas about what could and should be done: Papa Benedict gave the Ordinariate a mission, and there is a great deal of love and enthusiasm in response...
Spent the rest of the afternoon with a beloved elderly relative, comfortably settled back in the (Catholic) care home where she lives, and where her family feel absolutely at home too. I sat sewing and chatting, my elderly relative enjoyed buttered toast and freshly-made soup, and there was a buzz of friendly talk and swapping of news.
On the bus home I finished the cross-stitch work on hassock I've been making, which will join others at this church.
On to the Church of the Most Precious Blood for Mass.Afterwards, we had the parish Annual Meeting - as per Anglican Patrimony and the Ordinariate and all that...the news is good, the parish is on track for mission, numbers at Mass are rising (an extra Mass has had to be added during the past year), there was talk of how we'll celebrate the feast of the Precious Blood in July...discussion about encouraging people to come to Adoration on the First Friday of every month and, more prosaically, about the new floor now that the heating has been installed...
Later, over a pub lunch, much talk and other ideas about what could and should be done: Papa Benedict gave the Ordinariate a mission, and there is a great deal of love and enthusiasm in response...
Spent the rest of the afternoon with a beloved elderly relative, comfortably settled back in the (Catholic) care home where she lives, and where her family feel absolutely at home too. I sat sewing and chatting, my elderly relative enjoyed buttered toast and freshly-made soup, and there was a buzz of friendly talk and swapping of news.
On the bus home I finished the cross-stitch work on hassock I've been making, which will join others at this church.
I looked at...
...the website of the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph to catch up with their news, and learned that Sister Hyacinthe and Sister Michelle had been leading a retreat in the UAE. "How suitable" I thought "A University...perhaps they mean UEA (University of East Anglia)". But no. They've been in the United Arab Emirates...where by all accounts the Church is growing rapidly. And it looked so joyful, and somehow exciting and invigorating: lots of young people, lots of joy - and, yes, the obligatory posing with camels...
It's so strange pondering the future: Mohammedans gleefully growing stronger and stronger in Europe, and Christianity on the march in what were once the desert heartlands of the Mohammedan faith.
But the Sisters are renewing the Faith here in England too - there's no stopping them. Want to be part of it? Prepared to do a lot of praying and walking? Click here for getting on to the St John Paul II PIlgrimage for the New Evangelisation. Book yourself in: remember John Paul 's call:"Young people: Christ calls you, the Church needs you, and the Pope believes in you and expects great things of you." For those who were young when the great JPII made that call - come and show the way to the next generation. And for those who are young today:come, come - there are great things ahead...
It's so strange pondering the future: Mohammedans gleefully growing stronger and stronger in Europe, and Christianity on the march in what were once the desert heartlands of the Mohammedan faith.
But the Sisters are renewing the Faith here in England too - there's no stopping them. Want to be part of it? Prepared to do a lot of praying and walking? Click here for getting on to the St John Paul II PIlgrimage for the New Evangelisation. Book yourself in: remember John Paul 's call:"Young people: Christ calls you, the Church needs you, and the Pope believes in you and expects great things of you." For those who were young when the great JPII made that call - come and show the way to the next generation. And for those who are young today:come, come - there are great things ahead...
Friday, March 06, 2015
Dietrich von Hildebrand...
...and his facinating diaries of life in Germany and Austria in the 1930s...read Auntie's review here...
I'm impressed by...
...our big local hospital.
I spent the day at one of HM prisons, using the catechetical skills taught me here. The young men were v. kind and took part w. apparent interest - though this may have been because the Chaplain told them that I was doing this as part of a training test, and would be marked on it (which was true: we have to send in a report and account of how each lessons goes, ideas for improvement etc...). This appealed to the innate sense of let's-help-this-poor--thing-out...
Then after mugs of tea and good conversation, I went on to church for Evesong and Mass...and while there recieved a telephone message saying that an elderly relatives had been taken to hospital....by Providence, I was virtually on top of a major tube station, so hurried along on the Northern Line and was soon at the hospital. I cannot speak too highly of the care and attention that this beloved elderly relative received, all carried out with great goodwill and gentleness. There was also much kindness and a freshly-made cups of tea for me, and all of this in a busy department with people being rushed in for emergency care etc...
When my elderly relative was comfortably settled for the night - crisp fresh sheets, a calm atmosphere, great care taken to check all sorts of small details even down to her watch and specs being put just where she wanted them to be etc - we said prayers together as we always do, and I looked up to see the nurse quietly joining in in with the "Hail Mary", and crossing herself at the end...
Sometimes, just sometinmes, modern London surprises with its goodness...
I spent the day at one of HM prisons, using the catechetical skills taught me here. The young men were v. kind and took part w. apparent interest - though this may have been because the Chaplain told them that I was doing this as part of a training test, and would be marked on it (which was true: we have to send in a report and account of how each lessons goes, ideas for improvement etc...). This appealed to the innate sense of let's-help-this-poor--thing-out...
Then after mugs of tea and good conversation, I went on to church for Evesong and Mass...and while there recieved a telephone message saying that an elderly relatives had been taken to hospital....by Providence, I was virtually on top of a major tube station, so hurried along on the Northern Line and was soon at the hospital. I cannot speak too highly of the care and attention that this beloved elderly relative received, all carried out with great goodwill and gentleness. There was also much kindness and a freshly-made cups of tea for me, and all of this in a busy department with people being rushed in for emergency care etc...
When my elderly relative was comfortably settled for the night - crisp fresh sheets, a calm atmosphere, great care taken to check all sorts of small details even down to her watch and specs being put just where she wanted them to be etc - we said prayers together as we always do, and I looked up to see the nurse quietly joining in in with the "Hail Mary", and crossing herself at the end...
Sometimes, just sometinmes, modern London surprises with its goodness...
Thursday, March 05, 2015
Watched...
...the new film version of Testament of Youth.
Do watch it.
The walk home took me along by the Common, silent and dark, the trees still wintry. This morning: hurrying to work, the reality of modern Britain.
Do watch it.
The walk home took me along by the Common, silent and dark, the trees still wintry. This morning: hurrying to work, the reality of modern Britain.
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
It was disconcerting....
...and not a little scary. Working busily in a library on my laptop, a figure hurried in, black-clad and masked. It is rather horrible to be suddenlyconfronted with some one who will not reveal his or her face. I jumped for a moment.
My next thought: I must not, I dare not, show any fear. Even a slight expression of concern might get me into serious trouble.
She used computer next to mine and, without any of the usual exchange of smiles - absolutely impossible when masked - speedily clicked on to whatever she wanted, and then left. No face visible, only eyes in a slit above the fully masked face, and a vast black robe cloaking her to the floor.
In everyday life, a masked face sends a message of hostility: in present circumstances it is particularly unpleasant. Probably the most fearsome thing, however, was my immediate realisation that if I were to show any normal fear or worry in the face of such hostility I could be punished. In theory at least, there is a possibility of the masked figure denouncing me for having shown an emotion she regarded as offensive and to demand that some form of official actio be taken against me.
I am rather glad that the tradition in whch I was brought up encouraged me not to give way to fear and not to make a fuss when something unpleasant suddenly came my way. This has stood me in good stead over the years and will continue to do so.
The Britain in which I learned these things was one in which no one could have imagined my need of it in these circumstances.
My next thought: I must not, I dare not, show any fear. Even a slight expression of concern might get me into serious trouble.
She used computer next to mine and, without any of the usual exchange of smiles - absolutely impossible when masked - speedily clicked on to whatever she wanted, and then left. No face visible, only eyes in a slit above the fully masked face, and a vast black robe cloaking her to the floor.
In everyday life, a masked face sends a message of hostility: in present circumstances it is particularly unpleasant. Probably the most fearsome thing, however, was my immediate realisation that if I were to show any normal fear or worry in the face of such hostility I could be punished. In theory at least, there is a possibility of the masked figure denouncing me for having shown an emotion she regarded as offensive and to demand that some form of official actio be taken against me.
I am rather glad that the tradition in whch I was brought up encouraged me not to give way to fear and not to make a fuss when something unpleasant suddenly came my way. This has stood me in good stead over the years and will continue to do so.
The Britain in which I learned these things was one in which no one could have imagined my need of it in these circumstances.
Sunday, March 01, 2015
Read Auntie in....
The Portal, the on-line magazine of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Latest issue here...
Devon...
...and a wonderful weekend at Buckfast Abbey, attending a study course run by the new School of the Annunciation. This course is for catechists, and the theme is the New Evangelisation - the aim of the school is to train up catechists who bring the message of Christ, as the Angel brought Christ to Mary...
We were a mixed group of students, from varius parishes and groups, and we all found that it was rather powerful to be studying in the Benedictine atmosphere of the great Abbey: we joined the monks for the main offices of the day (although not the one at 5.45 in the morning!) and especially loved being in the great Abbey Church each night for Compline, and being blessed with holy water by the Abbot before we all retired for the night...
We were staying in the extremely comfortable Guest House, and there was delicious food in The Grange, which welcomes vast numbers of tourists every year. The Abbey is extremely popular and seems to be on the Devon tourist trail - even on a cold wet February weekend there were a good many people there, and in summer they get vast crowds enjoying the various gardens (one dedicated to medicinal herbs, another to lavender, etc). The setting of the Abbey is just superb, and each night I was lulled to sleep by the rushing waters of the river that was first channelled by the monks who arrived almost a thousand years ago...
The School of the Annunciation is well organised, and the course was excellent - hard work, but immensely interesting. The days are long gone when it could be assumed that children can simply "pick up" the Faith and be happily at Mass in their teens through a combination of family tradition and school RE. The School of the Annunciation will be playing a majr role in many people's lives over the next few years. BTW, is is running various Summer Schools that sound rather good - and the experience of staying at the Abbey in this most glorious part of Devon is simply wonderful.
After our final session on Sunday morning I thought I'd go for a wander around the grounds before Mass - I was enjoying this as the Abbey bell started to peal, and the crowds at Mass were such that I only found a seat with some difficulty. A fine choir and absolutely superb music. Then a final lunch and farewells...
We were a mixed group of students, from varius parishes and groups, and we all found that it was rather powerful to be studying in the Benedictine atmosphere of the great Abbey: we joined the monks for the main offices of the day (although not the one at 5.45 in the morning!) and especially loved being in the great Abbey Church each night for Compline, and being blessed with holy water by the Abbot before we all retired for the night...
We were staying in the extremely comfortable Guest House, and there was delicious food in The Grange, which welcomes vast numbers of tourists every year. The Abbey is extremely popular and seems to be on the Devon tourist trail - even on a cold wet February weekend there were a good many people there, and in summer they get vast crowds enjoying the various gardens (one dedicated to medicinal herbs, another to lavender, etc). The setting of the Abbey is just superb, and each night I was lulled to sleep by the rushing waters of the river that was first channelled by the monks who arrived almost a thousand years ago...
The School of the Annunciation is well organised, and the course was excellent - hard work, but immensely interesting. The days are long gone when it could be assumed that children can simply "pick up" the Faith and be happily at Mass in their teens through a combination of family tradition and school RE. The School of the Annunciation will be playing a majr role in many people's lives over the next few years. BTW, is is running various Summer Schools that sound rather good - and the experience of staying at the Abbey in this most glorious part of Devon is simply wonderful.
After our final session on Sunday morning I thought I'd go for a wander around the grounds before Mass - I was enjoying this as the Abbey bell started to peal, and the crowds at Mass were such that I only found a seat with some difficulty. A fine choir and absolutely superb music. Then a final lunch and farewells...
Friday, February 27, 2015
...on Monday...
....March 2nd, at 6.30pm the Ladies Ordinariate Group (LOGS) meets at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, for a tour, finishing with the Stations of the Cross....anyone is welcome to join us. Nearest tube: LAMBETH NORTH or WATERLOO....
...at Paddington station...
...there's a place where my co-author Clare Anderson and I meet, starting with morning coffee and working on through lunch, tackling our various projects. So far, two TV feature programmes on St John Paul II, one telling his life story and one exploring his legacy and its message. The first was broadcast a while ago (we've had some good feedback) and the second will be broadcast shortly - info from EWTN.
As regular readers of this Blog will know, we've also produced a book...
And we spent yesterday working on the next project. Not telling what it is - let's get the work done first. The staff at the cheerful and friendly place where we meet are delightful, and know us well, asking us how the book/TV/whatever projects are going, and keeping us supplied with pots of tea...
As regular readers of this Blog will know, we've also produced a book...
And we spent yesterday working on the next project. Not telling what it is - let's get the work done first. The staff at the cheerful and friendly place where we meet are delightful, and know us well, asking us how the book/TV/whatever projects are going, and keeping us supplied with pots of tea...
Last night...
...we gathered for a Lenten meditation and discussion, focusing on evangelisation. We're using this document...
It took me a while to "get" St John Paul's call for a New Evangelisation. Now I'm committed. Our cynical, unhappy and worried culture needs a new hope and new life. A local church isn't there to serve consumer-needs but to create disciples of Jesus Christ...
Read here to get the idea...
It took me a while to "get" St John Paul's call for a New Evangelisation. Now I'm committed. Our cynical, unhappy and worried culture needs a new hope and new life. A local church isn't there to serve consumer-needs but to create disciples of Jesus Christ...
Read here to get the idea...
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
..and this is good news...
Philip Booth is a distinguished economist, who has written extensively on Catholic social teaching.It is excellent that he has been appointed to this university.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
And here's wisdom and common sense on the topic of sex education...
We've had crude, inaccurate, ill-informed material foisted on young pupils for far too long. We need a fresh approach, respectful of children, mindful of what is age-appropriate, valuing them as individuals with needs.
One day, there will be great anger and bitterness launched by men and women who were victims of the hideous experiments in sexual coercion and propaganda imposed over recent years.
Read here...
...and next weekend...
...Auntie is off to Devon, to attend a Catechist course at the new School of the Annunciation at Buckfast....
Monday, February 23, 2015
How weird...
...it is to sit in an English village and read of girls in our capital city enthusiastically hurrying to support Jihad against our country.
How fearsome to realise that girls and boys in our country's schools have been given little or no vision of the civilisation they have inherited here, or the beauty of the Christian faith on which is based and with which it has been nourished.
The followers of Mahommed include many misguided souls, and many angry young ones, hungry for some spiritual food.
How fearsome to realise that girls and boys in our country's schools have been given little or no vision of the civilisation they have inherited here, or the beauty of the Christian faith on which is based and with which it has been nourished.
The followers of Mahommed include many misguided souls, and many angry young ones, hungry for some spiritual food.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
...after Sunday Mass in London...
...some hurried packing at home, and then off to Somerset on a family visit. I'm writing this overlooking Exmoor, a wild wind blowing, and that huge darkness beyond the glow of the house-lights across the lawn. The house wher we are staying is snug and I have books to read, work to do, and some sewing with which to relax. And wellies packed for a good walk tomorrow.
I'm reading Rebuilt...hugely enjoyable, with useful things to learn. Wise in that crunchy, American-don't-let's-waste-time style.And a sort of exciting story too...
I'm reading Rebuilt...hugely enjoyable, with useful things to learn. Wise in that crunchy, American-don't-let's-waste-time style.And a sort of exciting story too...
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Along the City Road...
... a corner of London all rich in Dickens and centuries of history...to Ashwell House to give a lecture. This University Hall of Residence has young women from all over the world as well as from Britain: I gave them a Tube map and explained the origins of the place-names: Angel, Blackfriars, Westminster...and we looked at the centuries of history, Saxons and Normans, and the Medieval era, and the arrival of the Tudors with Henry VII attempting to evoke powerful folk-memories by naming his first son Arthur...then the tragedy of Henry VIII and so on and so on...
We tackled important historical events and ideas, but there was also room for other stuff, and they knew about the local pub, the Eagle, featuring in the famous nursery rhyme, and I told them about the horrid origins of the jack-in-the-box toy: it seems to date back to militant anti-Catholicism and be a mockery of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Taberbacle (old versions of the toy have thw words "Hocus Pocus" on the lid, a corruption of the words of the Consecration)...
We tackled important historical events and ideas, but there was also room for other stuff, and they knew about the local pub, the Eagle, featuring in the famous nursery rhyme, and I told them about the horrid origins of the jack-in-the-box toy: it seems to date back to militant anti-Catholicism and be a mockery of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Taberbacle (old versions of the toy have thw words "Hocus Pocus" on the lid, a corruption of the words of the Consecration)...
Chichester...
...and a cheery meeting to plan various History Walks and associated projects. But first a visit to that glorious Cathedral: it's been lovingly restored and cherished in recent decades, and has a warm sense of welcome. The shrine to St Richard is flanked by candles and icons. Every side chapel is clean and well cared-for, some set aside specifically aside for silent prayer, some displaying discreet notices explaining some item of interest. There were children scurrying about doing half-term activities learning the history and finding out about saints and shrines and things, and there were volunteers dressed in Historical Costumes waiting to be asked to talk. It felt like the sort of Britain one used to know.
On to a tasty and talkative lunch: lots of good plans for the year ahead (watch this Blog for info).
On to visit an elderly aunt a few miles along the coast: Tea (served formally and properly, so it merits a Captital Letter) and buttered buns and coffee-and-walnut-cake... and we talked of family news and old times...her daughter was one of my bridesmaids, and we recalled that lovely wedding and many other family gatherings over the years...
And finally back to Chichester. The driver was friendly and helpful - I thanked him for coming a long way out of the city to get me "Only too glad" he said "I was sitting waiting by the station, with drunken girls shouting horrible, slutty stuff, swearing obscenities - can't repeat them. I was glad to get away." In the waiting-room, a man and child lurched out, rather awkwardly. I settled with a book after exchanging a sort of nod to two other passengers, as one does..."Glad you're here" one said "It's been vile. Some woman came in, dead drunk, and shouting at her daughters on her mobile phone, Horrible language.Some row about a party they were having . Then a man came in with his little boy: the man was drunk, and the child was made to carry a bag of clanking bottles.They've just left."
Chichester, Sussex, on a February night. What are our big cities going to be like this summer?
On to a tasty and talkative lunch: lots of good plans for the year ahead (watch this Blog for info).
On to visit an elderly aunt a few miles along the coast: Tea (served formally and properly, so it merits a Captital Letter) and buttered buns and coffee-and-walnut-cake... and we talked of family news and old times...her daughter was one of my bridesmaids, and we recalled that lovely wedding and many other family gatherings over the years...
And finally back to Chichester. The driver was friendly and helpful - I thanked him for coming a long way out of the city to get me "Only too glad" he said "I was sitting waiting by the station, with drunken girls shouting horrible, slutty stuff, swearing obscenities - can't repeat them. I was glad to get away." In the waiting-room, a man and child lurched out, rather awkwardly. I settled with a book after exchanging a sort of nod to two other passengers, as one does..."Glad you're here" one said "It's been vile. Some woman came in, dead drunk, and shouting at her daughters on her mobile phone, Horrible language.Some row about a party they were having . Then a man came in with his little boy: the man was drunk, and the child was made to carry a bag of clanking bottles.They've just left."
Chichester, Sussex, on a February night. What are our big cities going to be like this summer?
A joy-filled letter...
...from a Sister of St Cecilia's Abbey on the Isle of Wight. They keep busy there...and have six new novices and are thriving. Their newsletter is full of good things - but also solemn ones, including letters from sisters in the Middle East, , forced out of Iraq along with so many other refugees, pursued by bombing and slaughtering...
There is also a fascinating and profound meditation on silence...referencing St John of the Cross..."God utters only one Word. He utters Himself in that Word totally, interiorly, in an eternal silence..." "Everyone has a sacred stillness at the core of their being, the place where they are present in secret to God and God is present to them..." As a terrible chetterer, Auntie is gently soaking herself in this meditation....
There is also a fascinating and profound meditation on silence...referencing St John of the Cross..."God utters only one Word. He utters Himself in that Word totally, interiorly, in an eternal silence..." "Everyone has a sacred stillness at the core of their being, the place where they are present in secret to God and God is present to them..." As a terrible chetterer, Auntie is gently soaking herself in this meditation....
Friday, February 20, 2015
Lent...
...and ashes distributed at a crowded Mass in a London church. Years ago, I remember dear Fr Michael Napier of Brompton Oratory saying that the day that drew the largest crowds was Ash Wednesday. More than any Holyday of Obligation, more than any popular saint's day. I think it's because people like something tangible - ashes on the forehead, the reality of it, the thingness of it. Very incarnational.
And from there, with smudged forehead, to the train... and thence to the prison, where they'd had a distribution of ashes that morning, too...and talking to a couple of prisoners. One, in particular, is in a particularly distressing position, a young man from a devout family, caught up in ghastly events: please pray for him: no need to know his name or anything, just Carpenter will do (that isn't his name, and he isn't a carpenter).
Next day, to college for some work in the library...along the corridors there were still a couple of notices left from the previous day, from the Chaplaincy, reminding people about getting ashes. I hope they got good numbers too. In the evening, a gathering at St Paul's Bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, where the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini, blessed the new Website project and, clicking on to a computer, set it in motion. It was all rather delightful, and again, incarnational - holy water sprinkled about, in the shop and on us, and on everything, Scriptures read, prayers said...and then we all enjoyed some light refreshments.
It's hopeless having an event like that in a bookshop - the shelves are so full of good things and it's all irresistible. I bought Scott Hahn's Evangelizing Catholics, and it's a good read.
And from there, with smudged forehead, to the train... and thence to the prison, where they'd had a distribution of ashes that morning, too...and talking to a couple of prisoners. One, in particular, is in a particularly distressing position, a young man from a devout family, caught up in ghastly events: please pray for him: no need to know his name or anything, just Carpenter will do (that isn't his name, and he isn't a carpenter).
Next day, to college for some work in the library...along the corridors there were still a couple of notices left from the previous day, from the Chaplaincy, reminding people about getting ashes. I hope they got good numbers too. In the evening, a gathering at St Paul's Bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, where the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini, blessed the new Website project and, clicking on to a computer, set it in motion. It was all rather delightful, and again, incarnational - holy water sprinkled about, in the shop and on us, and on everything, Scriptures read, prayers said...and then we all enjoyed some light refreshments.
It's hopeless having an event like that in a bookshop - the shelves are so full of good things and it's all irresistible. I bought Scott Hahn's Evangelizing Catholics, and it's a good read.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Snub for homosexual lobbying group...
...in Rome today. They had wanted to be welcomed publicly and give themselves a cheer - standard procedure for any group visiting St Peter's and crowding in to one of the big Papal audiences in the vast Paul VI Hall. Instead, the nearest the group got was a mention of their geographical area - which may have meant them and may not - while at the gathering in St Peter's Square where the Pope greets pilgrims, they got no mention at all.
Anyone can go to the gatherings in the Paul VI Hall and it's not hard to get seats near the front if you persevere. An official reads out the names of groups, and it's traditional to stand and get some applause - maybe even sing a song or call out a rousing greeting.
Failure to get a mention is a snub - not a particularly cruel one, just evidence of a prudent concern by the papal bureaucracy to ensure that loopy groups are, as far as possible, gently avoided.
Embarrassed, the organisers of the group contacted the media, and posed in St Peter's Square, announcing that they were greeted at the Vatican - untrue - and claiming that the Church's teaching on the wrongfulness of homosexual activity will change, which it won't.
All are welcome in the Church, lobby groups and all. But they need to be truthful: if they get invited in for tea it won't mean that Church teaching can change. As it happens, they weren't. And it won't because it can't.
Anyone can go to the gatherings in the Paul VI Hall and it's not hard to get seats near the front if you persevere. An official reads out the names of groups, and it's traditional to stand and get some applause - maybe even sing a song or call out a rousing greeting.
Failure to get a mention is a snub - not a particularly cruel one, just evidence of a prudent concern by the papal bureaucracy to ensure that loopy groups are, as far as possible, gently avoided.
Embarrassed, the organisers of the group contacted the media, and posed in St Peter's Square, announcing that they were greeted at the Vatican - untrue - and claiming that the Church's teaching on the wrongfulness of homosexual activity will change, which it won't.
All are welcome in the Church, lobby groups and all. But they need to be truthful: if they get invited in for tea it won't mean that Church teaching can change. As it happens, they weren't. And it won't because it can't.
...and the Dominican Sisters...
...of St Joseph (see pic below) invite young women to share the Sacred Triduum (ie Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday, 2nd to 4th April) with them in the New Forest...
Their motto is "To Praise, to Bless, to Preach".
You can find out more by emailing them: dominican.sisters@talk21.com
Their motto is "To Praise, to Bless, to Preach".
You can find out more by emailing them: dominican.sisters@talk21.com
Shrove Tuesday...
...and for most people in Britain it's Pancake Day. I'm glad the tradition still flourishes. Pics in the press of children at a choir school running, fully robed, wth frying-pans in a Pancake Race. Advertisments reminding people to buy flour, sugar, lemons. And delicious pancakes on offer at various eateries, with syrup or with chocolate sauce or with ce cream.
The "Shrove" doesn't, of course, refer to pancakes, but to confessing our sins and being shriven: ie receiving absolution. And with Ash Wednesday Lent begins, the season of penance and prayer leading up to the great events of Holy Week and Easter...
The carnival tradition, Mardi Gras, celebrating and partying before Lent begins, still lingers: our British pancake day is a rather - well - British version of it.
I've often wondered - comments welcome - does the tradition of the clown-with-a-tear, the harlequin with a sad face, somehow echo the idea of the partying that ends with Ash Wednesday? Somehow the song "The Carnival is over" echoes the theme too...
Auntie marked Shrove Tuesday with sticky chocolate cake enjoyed with a young relative, then pancakes-and syrup at home very late.
I'm writing this after midnight, so now it's Lent.
The "Shrove" doesn't, of course, refer to pancakes, but to confessing our sins and being shriven: ie receiving absolution. And with Ash Wednesday Lent begins, the season of penance and prayer leading up to the great events of Holy Week and Easter...
The carnival tradition, Mardi Gras, celebrating and partying before Lent begins, still lingers: our British pancake day is a rather - well - British version of it.
I've often wondered - comments welcome - does the tradition of the clown-with-a-tear, the harlequin with a sad face, somehow echo the idea of the partying that ends with Ash Wednesday? Somehow the song "The Carnival is over" echoes the theme too...
Auntie marked Shrove Tuesday with sticky chocolate cake enjoyed with a young relative, then pancakes-and syrup at home very late.
I'm writing this after midnight, so now it's Lent.
...and further to my recent blog post about conspiracy theorists...
...(for which see below), I found this comment by Mark Shea to be of interest.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Cardinal Jean Danielou...
...was one of the great forerunners of the Second Vatican Council, in the sense that his ideas and writings hugely influenced it. And he spoke with passion and wisdom about how the message and teachings of the Council were lost and distorted in the immediate post-Council years. He is now coming into his own...read here to find out more.
His thinking was in tune with that of Fr (later Cardinal) Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI...over the next years, students for the priesthood will be hugely influenced by both, to the great good of the Church.
His thinking was in tune with that of Fr (later Cardinal) Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI...over the next years, students for the priesthood will be hugely influenced by both, to the great good of the Church.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
For those who relish conspiracy theories...
...this will be something of a blow. But it's important to read it all the same.
The vile Ratzinger-is-a-liar line has long been peddled by the posers of the there's-a-deep-dark-secret-about-Fatima-that-he's-kept-from-us groupies, and it's now been extended.
Remember that line about Pope Paul VI being held as a prisoner in the Vatican basements and another man replacing him for public occasions? Popular among the they're-tunneling-under-your-house types in the 1970s. (I think the idea was that you could check by looking at his ears, or something).
The vile Ratzinger-is-a-liar line has long been peddled by the posers of the there's-a-deep-dark-secret-about-Fatima-that-he's-kept-from-us groupies, and it's now been extended.
Remember that line about Pope Paul VI being held as a prisoner in the Vatican basements and another man replacing him for public occasions? Popular among the they're-tunneling-under-your-house types in the 1970s. (I think the idea was that you could check by looking at his ears, or something).
and here is auntie...
with the lovely Dominican Sisters of St Joseph who came to London for their Day Out, enjoying Westminster Cathedral and then Tea with the ladies of the Ordinariate...
They are the most enormous fun. Whennever I am with them, we seem to spend so much of the time in laughter. And its infectious - they really do spread joy wherever they go...
A MUST-READ...
...is the superb talk given by Mgr Mark Langham to the priests of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham when they gathered last week. Read it here...
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Chelsea...
...and an afternoon of Marriage Preparation at St Mary's Church, Cadogan Street - or, strictly speaking, in the new St John Southworth Room in the church/school grounds. Several young couples all taking part - Auntie's role was to speak on the Catholic understanding of marriage. Over the years, this talk has grown more theological, and I have found that they like this: God's original plan, Christ and his Church: the Bridegroom and the Bride, Cana in Galilee, water into wine...the nuptial meaning of the Eucharist...the Marriage Feast of the Lamb...
St Mary's is a most beautiful church, popular for weddings...although many of the couples I meet at these sessions are marrying abroad: this is London and many are people from two different countries who met here. There is a sense of real commitment to this Preparation Course..they attend talks on prayer, the Church's teaching on marriage, family life, and more...
St Mary's is a most beautiful church, popular for weddings...although many of the couples I meet at these sessions are marrying abroad: this is London and many are people from two different countries who met here. There is a sense of real commitment to this Preparation Course..they attend talks on prayer, the Church's teaching on marriage, family life, and more...
Friday, February 13, 2015
Been re-reading...
...Rowland's Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, Excellent. Also von Balthasar's To the Heart of the Mystery of Redemption - the influence of von Balthasar on Ratzinger, Wojtila, and Vatican II is going to be one of those standard things-to-write-about in seminaries and theology departments over the next decades.
Hugely busy with various projects for schools - the first entries have started arriving in the big "Our Father" venture organised for primary schools...
Lent starts next week: pleasingly, I have a a long-booked engagement for Shrove Tuesday with a young niece, which promises pancakes and chocolate and other delights in great abundance...
And at this time of year the summer diary starts to fill up: although Auntie relishes winter and dislikes hot weather, the prospect of mild sunshine and long outdoor days is not unattractive, and some lovely things are planned for 2015 including a trip to Ireland, and a glorious walking-pilgrimage through Norfolk...
But meanwhile, the wallpaper of everyday life at present is all Stephen Fry and his horrid ramblings, plus posters and advertisments everywhere for a film celebrating sado-masochism, plus one news story after another about teachers engaging in lesbian relationships with pupils...oh, it's all so ugly,
Hugely busy with various projects for schools - the first entries have started arriving in the big "Our Father" venture organised for primary schools...
Lent starts next week: pleasingly, I have a a long-booked engagement for Shrove Tuesday with a young niece, which promises pancakes and chocolate and other delights in great abundance...
And at this time of year the summer diary starts to fill up: although Auntie relishes winter and dislikes hot weather, the prospect of mild sunshine and long outdoor days is not unattractive, and some lovely things are planned for 2015 including a trip to Ireland, and a glorious walking-pilgrimage through Norfolk...
But meanwhile, the wallpaper of everyday life at present is all Stephen Fry and his horrid ramblings, plus posters and advertisments everywhere for a film celebrating sado-masochism, plus one news story after another about teachers engaging in lesbian relationships with pupils...oh, it's all so ugly,
A brief note...
to say that there will no Catholic History Walk on Feb 16th: the next is MONDAY MARCH 2nd, at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Meet 6.30pm at the main door. Nearest tube: WATERLOO or LAMBETH NORTH. We will have a tour of the Cathedral: this is being organised in association with the Ladies Ordinariate Group.
Tradition and history, ...
.. and a sense of good new things happening...
On Wednesday evening, a meeting of The Keys, the Catholic Writers Guild. Speaker: Jacon Rees-Mogg MP. An excellent evening, Our Guild Church is St Mary Moorfields, and things begin with Mass, followed by drinks and much talk, and then a hearty Dinner, after which we gather round for the talk. This evening's topic centred on Britain's relationship with the European Community, our tradition of law, the tensions involved with other traditions...
Members of the Guild can bring guests, and this evening was particularly popular. J. and I had invited Patti Fordyce, of the Association of Catholic Women (and the Ladies Ordinariate Group)..Delia Gaze, secretary of the Guild, had invited Fr Christopher Pearson of the Ordinariate of OL of Walsingham.
The next day was an Ordinariate Day, big time. The Ordinaries from Australia and the USA are visiting Britain, and all the Ordinariate clergy were invited to a gathering at Westminster Cathedral Hall. The Ladies Ordinariate Group (LOGS) had volunteered to organise the food. Patti (see para above) did a magnificent job with a delicious array of sandwiches, and I brought to the Cathedral Hall the large coffee-machine that we use at the annual TOWARDS ADVENT Festival.
People carry coffee-machines around on buses and Tubes all the time, don't they? I mean, it's perfectly normal to wrap one up in layers and layers of plastic bags and trundle it about, looking helpless at the bottom of stairs and escalators?
One feels awfully silly lugging the awkward thing about...for the final lap I hailed a cab. Worth every penny.
During the afternoon I broke away from the conference to lead a splendid group of nuns on a tour of Westminster Cathedral.It was their annual Day Out in London, and they were having a wonderful time: among the best bits was the sight of them all munching sandwiches on benches near the Cathedral, with people hurrying to take photographs...if you haven't experienced a Pilgrimage or some other event with this hilarious team of Dominicans, you ust make arrangements to do so as soon as possible...
Great good cheer when the Sisters met Fr Christopher (see above) who has worked with them on pilgrimages etc...
Things were rounded off with tea (provided by LOGS) and photographs...I'll post one here in due course...
The Ordinariate gathering was excellent - it was actually rather moving to see all these priests together, and especially so in the evening when they walked in a great procession for a concelebrated Mass...
Later, exhausted, the LOGS team settled at a pub with glasses of wine. Most satisying.
On Wednesday evening, a meeting of The Keys, the Catholic Writers Guild. Speaker: Jacon Rees-Mogg MP. An excellent evening, Our Guild Church is St Mary Moorfields, and things begin with Mass, followed by drinks and much talk, and then a hearty Dinner, after which we gather round for the talk. This evening's topic centred on Britain's relationship with the European Community, our tradition of law, the tensions involved with other traditions...
Members of the Guild can bring guests, and this evening was particularly popular. J. and I had invited Patti Fordyce, of the Association of Catholic Women (and the Ladies Ordinariate Group)..Delia Gaze, secretary of the Guild, had invited Fr Christopher Pearson of the Ordinariate of OL of Walsingham.
The next day was an Ordinariate Day, big time. The Ordinaries from Australia and the USA are visiting Britain, and all the Ordinariate clergy were invited to a gathering at Westminster Cathedral Hall. The Ladies Ordinariate Group (LOGS) had volunteered to organise the food. Patti (see para above) did a magnificent job with a delicious array of sandwiches, and I brought to the Cathedral Hall the large coffee-machine that we use at the annual TOWARDS ADVENT Festival.
People carry coffee-machines around on buses and Tubes all the time, don't they? I mean, it's perfectly normal to wrap one up in layers and layers of plastic bags and trundle it about, looking helpless at the bottom of stairs and escalators?
One feels awfully silly lugging the awkward thing about...for the final lap I hailed a cab. Worth every penny.
During the afternoon I broke away from the conference to lead a splendid group of nuns on a tour of Westminster Cathedral.It was their annual Day Out in London, and they were having a wonderful time: among the best bits was the sight of them all munching sandwiches on benches near the Cathedral, with people hurrying to take photographs...if you haven't experienced a Pilgrimage or some other event with this hilarious team of Dominicans, you ust make arrangements to do so as soon as possible...
Great good cheer when the Sisters met Fr Christopher (see above) who has worked with them on pilgrimages etc...
Things were rounded off with tea (provided by LOGS) and photographs...I'll post one here in due course...
The Ordinariate gathering was excellent - it was actually rather moving to see all these priests together, and especially so in the evening when they walked in a great procession for a concelebrated Mass...
Later, exhausted, the LOGS team settled at a pub with glasses of wine. Most satisying.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
We met at...
...St Patrick's, Soho, for a lunchtime Mass, to be followed by a Catholic History Walk.
On appropriate feast-days, the Mass at St P's is said at an appropriate side-altar - thus today being the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, Mass was at an altar dedicated to her. But because there are always good numbers for Mass at this busy London church, most of us had to use the main pews, which face the main altar - so we were all kneeling sideways to be at the Mass...however, this gave a sort of awkward intimacy which was not without its charm....afterwards a group gathered outside and we set off to explore the area and learn the history... At St Giles-in-the-Fields the Rector made us welcome (he and his congregation welcome the procession of the Blessed Sacrament from St Patrick's every summer, allow Benediction in the churchyard, and offer wine and refreshments afterwards...) . At Bloomsbury Baptist Church we were again greeted in a most friendly way and the kind lady at the desk was very helpful and the visit ended with us all saying the Lord's Prayer together...
The Walk finished at SS Anselm and Cecilia, Holborn, and the nearby Ship Inn, where Bishop Richard Challonger used to say Mass and meet his flock, in recusant times...
NEXT HISTORY WALK: Monday March 2nd, meet 6.30pm at St George's Cathedral, Southwark (nearest tube: Lambeth North or WATERLOO). We will make a tour inside St George's.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: Sunday June 21st, 1.30pm meet at St Sepulchre's Church, near the Old Bailey for THE MARTYRS' WALK. Nearest tube: St Paul's.
On appropriate feast-days, the Mass at St P's is said at an appropriate side-altar - thus today being the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, Mass was at an altar dedicated to her. But because there are always good numbers for Mass at this busy London church, most of us had to use the main pews, which face the main altar - so we were all kneeling sideways to be at the Mass...however, this gave a sort of awkward intimacy which was not without its charm....afterwards a group gathered outside and we set off to explore the area and learn the history... At St Giles-in-the-Fields the Rector made us welcome (he and his congregation welcome the procession of the Blessed Sacrament from St Patrick's every summer, allow Benediction in the churchyard, and offer wine and refreshments afterwards...) . At Bloomsbury Baptist Church we were again greeted in a most friendly way and the kind lady at the desk was very helpful and the visit ended with us all saying the Lord's Prayer together...
The Walk finished at SS Anselm and Cecilia, Holborn, and the nearby Ship Inn, where Bishop Richard Challonger used to say Mass and meet his flock, in recusant times...
NEXT HISTORY WALK: Monday March 2nd, meet 6.30pm at St George's Cathedral, Southwark (nearest tube: Lambeth North or WATERLOO). We will make a tour inside St George's.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: Sunday June 21st, 1.30pm meet at St Sepulchre's Church, near the Old Bailey for THE MARTYRS' WALK. Nearest tube: St Paul's.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
LOGS...
...aka the Ladies Ordinariate Group. A lively and useful meeting, at which we made plans for the year ahead...the first entries have arrived for our 2015 Schools Project and it all looks set to be a big success. We enjoyed looking at the children's work: this year's project involves copying out a well-known prayer and answering some questions to show an understanding of it, and so far the entries look very good...the work of reading through all the entries, allocating prizes, posting them off, and/or visiting schools to present them will be a major activity this summer. We also plan a weekend in Walsingham, talks on a number of topics ranging from the work of a uniuversity chaplain to the state of the Church in Zimbabwe, our annual summer outing to Whitstable - Mass, lunch, talks, and a garden Rosary at the Vocations Centre, plus a visit to the sea - and some fund-raising for various good causes...
The leaders of the Ordinariates in the USA and Australia are currently visiting Britain and a LOGS team led by the splendid Patti Fordyce has understaken to tackle all the neccessary refreshments for a big gathering at Westminster.
And we're already looking ahead and booking our place at a big railway station to sing carols in December - a lot of groups like to sing (which is good) and it's important to book ahead...
The leaders of the Ordinariates in the USA and Australia are currently visiting Britain and a LOGS team led by the splendid Patti Fordyce has understaken to tackle all the neccessary refreshments for a big gathering at Westminster.
And we're already looking ahead and booking our place at a big railway station to sing carols in December - a lot of groups like to sing (which is good) and it's important to book ahead...
Monday, February 09, 2015
The Synod on the Family...
...needs and deserves our prayers.
People often see the Church's teaching as harsh or as unrealistic. Not so...the Church seeks tobe Christ's bride, and a mother to all he faithful, born in baptism. We don't seek to turn her into a nagging mother, or one who fails to understand her children's problems or the hardships faced in trying to sort them out. She cannot compromise on offering what is good, true, and beautiful. She is the custodian, not the inventor, of God's loving plan for humankind...
People often see the Church's teaching as harsh or as unrealistic. Not so...the Church seeks tobe Christ's bride, and a mother to all he faithful, born in baptism. We don't seek to turn her into a nagging mother, or one who fails to understand her children's problems or the hardships faced in trying to sort them out. She cannot compromise on offering what is good, true, and beautiful. She is the custodian, not the inventor, of God's loving plan for humankind...
Sunday, February 08, 2015
...and if you would like to experience a Catholic History Walk...
...join us this Wednesday (Feb 11th) at St Patrick's, Soho. Mass 12.45 and the Walk starts afterwards. We'll look at St-Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn, and the pub where Bishop Richard Challoner used to preach, and more...
...and here is Auntie...
with young people from various countries (Croatia, Nigeria, Latvia) who were in London to discuss plans for the 40 Days for Life campaign. Organiser Robert Colquhoun asked me if I would take the group on a London History Walk, and so we gathered for Mass at Westminster Cathedral and then went off down Ambrosden Avenue, and on towards the river...looking at Parliament and the Abbey and more...
We finished with a late and hearty lunch with much lively talk...v. interesting to hear the Croatians talking about their country's recent history, the civil war etc etc...
They were all rather well-informed about Britain,having studied English since primary school and being familiar with topics ranging from Henry VIII to Big Ben. They picked up nuances of language, enjoyed my dislike of "Uwwazyke" (as in some one describing a conversation concerning something astonishing: "Uuwwazyke 'yeh, that's amazing, and eewuzzyke 'yeh whatever' and uwwazyke 'yeh'...and so on and so on...). They recognised the realities of life in Britain: I dislike giving cliche versions of British history or of our current problems. The conversation was open, honest, challenging, filled with good humour, and I learned a lot.
As a thank-you gift I've been offered to choose any book I like, and I'm going to get something by von Balthasar (see previous blog posts)...
Walking back down Victoria Street after this enjoyable day I had another delightful encounter - a cheery group of sandalled grey-clad Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, just crossing the Cathedral piazza after Vespers. Warm greetings, and it was a particular pleasure to meet three new postulants, newly arrived from the USA...
...and it was all rather providential, because on my "to do" list from last week's meeting of the Towards Advent Festival planning group was "Contact Franciscan Friars of Renewal and see if they will come and speak." They are keen, so we'll have a team of them speaking at the Festival and telling us what it means to be a friar and why anyone would ditch all material luxuries, wear a patched grey robe, and pledge to serve God and the poor for the whole of life in complete obedience to whatever the mission field demands...
Saturday, February 07, 2015
More on that pic of St John Paul the Great...
...and Auntie, and embroidery, and the Ordinatriate, and a pilgrimage to Walsingham....
Scarborough...
...at its most beautiful in sparkling winter sunshine.
St Peter's is a fine church and there were a large number of people at weekday Mass - so many, in fact, that I thought it was some sort of a special day...but no, it was just the normal nmber for a Thursday morning. Fr William Massie is a hard-working and cheery priest and we were soon busy on a couple of projects for the FAITH Movement...this involved a lot of checking things on the internet. The splendid 19th century Rectory is a fine building of four storeys and thick walls but the latter poses some problems for internet access when you are on the higher storeys, so I sat on the comfortable thickly-carpeted staircase where all worked well.
While Fr went off on various home-Communion visits, I took letters to post and enjoyed the sands and sea. The sun was glittering so sharply on the gleaming silver of the water that it hurt the eyes - I had to walk with the light behind me, heading out around those glorious cliffs topped with the fortifications... here the sea was blue'grey, cold and swooshing, and along the Parade the seaside-in-winter feeling was in full force, the sellers of ice-cream and local seafood all closed up...but there was delicious coffee and shortbread at a friendly coffee-shop and people sitting in the sunshine. A group of workmen in blue overalls had been busy with enormous rebuilding projects further along the shore and were tucking into a large fry-ups. It was lovely. I sat tackling some letters and enjoyed the latest Scott Hahn (called, with an agreeable nod to the fitness of things Consuming the Word).
An evening train to Leeds. The White Rise eaterie at the station is one of many places where you can get good food, and it had the irreistible offer of eggs-on-toast and freshly brewed coffee between 5 and 6pm at a special price. Delicious.
Lecture on St John Paul the Great. This took place at Holy Trinity Church in the city centre, a fine building with wonderful monuments to local worthies, solid pews, and good accoustics. The shopping centre is named in honour of the Trinity too, which gives a pleasing irony to the splendid gothic Unitarian Church which stands at its entrance.
St Peter's is a fine church and there were a large number of people at weekday Mass - so many, in fact, that I thought it was some sort of a special day...but no, it was just the normal nmber for a Thursday morning. Fr William Massie is a hard-working and cheery priest and we were soon busy on a couple of projects for the FAITH Movement...this involved a lot of checking things on the internet. The splendid 19th century Rectory is a fine building of four storeys and thick walls but the latter poses some problems for internet access when you are on the higher storeys, so I sat on the comfortable thickly-carpeted staircase where all worked well.
While Fr went off on various home-Communion visits, I took letters to post and enjoyed the sands and sea. The sun was glittering so sharply on the gleaming silver of the water that it hurt the eyes - I had to walk with the light behind me, heading out around those glorious cliffs topped with the fortifications... here the sea was blue'grey, cold and swooshing, and along the Parade the seaside-in-winter feeling was in full force, the sellers of ice-cream and local seafood all closed up...but there was delicious coffee and shortbread at a friendly coffee-shop and people sitting in the sunshine. A group of workmen in blue overalls had been busy with enormous rebuilding projects further along the shore and were tucking into a large fry-ups. It was lovely. I sat tackling some letters and enjoyed the latest Scott Hahn (called, with an agreeable nod to the fitness of things Consuming the Word).
An evening train to Leeds. The White Rise eaterie at the station is one of many places where you can get good food, and it had the irreistible offer of eggs-on-toast and freshly brewed coffee between 5 and 6pm at a special price. Delicious.
Lecture on St John Paul the Great. This took place at Holy Trinity Church in the city centre, a fine building with wonderful monuments to local worthies, solid pews, and good accoustics. The shopping centre is named in honour of the Trinity too, which gives a pleasing irony to the splendid gothic Unitarian Church which stands at its entrance.
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Been reading...
...Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Marvellous stuff.
Long years ago, I discovered that the measure of a good book is wishing a train journey to be longer in order to be able to go on reading undisturbed...or, sometimes, missing one's station and whoizzing on because of being so absorbed in the book...
Long years ago, I discovered that the measure of a good book is wishing a train journey to be longer in order to be able to go on reading undisturbed...or, sometimes, missing one's station and whoizzing on because of being so absorbed in the book...
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
Candles...
...at Westminster Cathedral for Candlemas, but alas I was late for Mass because of various meetings...everyone had lovely guttering candles, I was sorry to have missed getting one...
And so the 40 days of the Christmas season ends...and I spent part of the afternoon at Premier Radio, doing an interview about Ash Wednesday.Why do we get ashes on our foreheads? The interviewer asked "I've seen Catholics with crosses marked on their forehead with ash on that day, and often wodered about it..."and so we went on, and tackled Shrove Tuesday, pancakes, Lent...
Sat in a cafe to tackle some emails, and a chap was reading a large Hebrew Bible opposite me. We got talking - long intense conversation. He came from the Czech Republic...to one of my generation (he was rather younger) there is something interesting, and rather depressing, about meeting people formed by the aftermath of post-Communism. They are not atheists, certainly not socialists, they are not paricularly idealistic although they are interested in spiritual things, and they are almost as ignorant about such things as their counterparts in Western Europe. This one was a bit different from most, being uninterested in the sex-and-shopping cult that dominates life for so many.I remember Fr Werenfried van Straaten in the early 1990s talking about the people who belonged to "what-comes-after-Communism", the emptiness and the sense of not particularlybelonging anywhere, of not havng a spiritual home...now we are into the second generation of that experience.
And so the 40 days of the Christmas season ends...and I spent part of the afternoon at Premier Radio, doing an interview about Ash Wednesday.Why do we get ashes on our foreheads? The interviewer asked "I've seen Catholics with crosses marked on their forehead with ash on that day, and often wodered about it..."and so we went on, and tackled Shrove Tuesday, pancakes, Lent...
Sat in a cafe to tackle some emails, and a chap was reading a large Hebrew Bible opposite me. We got talking - long intense conversation. He came from the Czech Republic...to one of my generation (he was rather younger) there is something interesting, and rather depressing, about meeting people formed by the aftermath of post-Communism. They are not atheists, certainly not socialists, they are not paricularly idealistic although they are interested in spiritual things, and they are almost as ignorant about such things as their counterparts in Western Europe. This one was a bit different from most, being uninterested in the sex-and-shopping cult that dominates life for so many.I remember Fr Werenfried van Straaten in the early 1990s talking about the people who belonged to "what-comes-after-Communism", the emptiness and the sense of not particularlybelonging anywhere, of not havng a spiritual home...now we are into the second generation of that experience.
Monday, February 02, 2015
Stilll...
...getting Comments sent to my SPAM box. If you have sent a Comment in the last 12 hours and not had it printed, do send it again...
Sunday, February 01, 2015
You might enjoy...
...Auntie's description of the 4th anniversary celebration of the Ordinariate of O.L. of Walsingham, in the latest issue of The Portal...
Dublin on a Sunday morning....
...and Mass in the Pro-Cathedral. The Palestrina Choir sang gloriously: lots of - well - Palestrina, and also Credo III with a special elaborate bit added for the "incarnatus est". It was St Brigid's Day and she got a special mention in the sermon and in the Bidding Prayers...
A largely middle-aged-to-elderly congregation, some young people but almost no children, except for the boys in the choir, who were reverent in their blue robes and white cottas: it was a touching sight to see them coming up for Holy Communion. They will be singing in Washington and New York in the Spring - USA readers note.
It probably doesn't really matter...but I think it's a great mistake to have too many ladies of Auntie's age and upwards, pottering about, distributing Holy Communion. They are not needed, and somehow it just looks sort of fussy-ladies-wanting-to-do-things-ish. When they first got out of their seats and went to put their handbags down by the side of the sanctuary, I thought perhaps they were getting a special blessing for St Brigid's Day or something...but no, it was just fussing-about-when-not-really-required...there were no large crowds for Holy Communion, and two priests were present, plus an adult altar server...
A largely middle-aged-to-elderly congregation, some young people but almost no children, except for the boys in the choir, who were reverent in their blue robes and white cottas: it was a touching sight to see them coming up for Holy Communion. They will be singing in Washington and New York in the Spring - USA readers note.
It probably doesn't really matter...but I think it's a great mistake to have too many ladies of Auntie's age and upwards, pottering about, distributing Holy Communion. They are not needed, and somehow it just looks sort of fussy-ladies-wanting-to-do-things-ish. When they first got out of their seats and went to put their handbags down by the side of the sanctuary, I thought perhaps they were getting a special blessing for St Brigid's Day or something...but no, it was just fussing-about-when-not-really-required...there were no large crowds for Holy Communion, and two priests were present, plus an adult altar server...
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