Monday, September 14, 2009

Spent the day...

...at the Catholic Truth Society headquarters in Vauxhall on the south bank of the Thames. I was doing some sorting and tidying up after the big Schools RE Projects run jointly by the CTS and the Association of Catholic Women.

Later, to Westminster Cathedral. They were chanting evening prayer and then as it finished there was a time of brief quiet bustle as people drifted in for Mass, took their places in the queue for confessions, lit candles, prayed,gawped. I was standing in the Lady Chapel as the procession emerged from the sacristy heading for the High Altar for the Sung Mass - was unprepared for the force and clarity and beauty of soaring music as the choristers surged forward, two by two, singing and singing. Was suddenly struck by the timelessness of it all, of the now-and-always Mass.

Last night we watched Conspiracy of Hearts which I obtained on DVD via that link on the Internet. A powerful film, recommended.. Highly popular in its day, seems to be unknown now, features nuns rescuing Jewish children from a wartime concentration camp. It's relevant to the true story of Mother Riccarda (see blog post below). I am now getting stuck into research into the stories of M. Riccarda and Mother Kitty, sandwiching this into other writing projects and my Maryvale studies. A nice link is that the house at Maryvale - where we are all made so welcome on our study weekends - is run by the Brigettines. It's nice to feel this link with the Order as I embark on the detective work of this biographical research.

1 comment:

Jeremy de Satge said...

Joanna, you would have seen my son Louis process in on his first full day as a Full Chorister of Westminster Cathedral! He and six little colleagues were all inducted into the choir during Sunday Vespers two days ago. The singing of the Introit in procession is one of the things the choir is most proud of - and rightly so.