Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Chris Cviic RIP

- a wonderful man, a fine writer and journalist, a man of great integrity. We attended his funeral yesterday at the Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon. Read about him here. I learned so much from him, as did so many younger people. He will be hugely missed.

The church has been recently refurbished and I was troubled by the lack of kneelers in the pews - was this a way of trying to stop people kneeling properly for Mass? Everyone was encouraged to sit instead, even for the Consecration - all wrong. However, it turns out that the problem is a temporary one, as the incomplete pews will get their kneelers shortly. All the refurbishment has been delayed, and for a long while Masses have been in the church hall, with the stage turned into a temporary sanctuary.

To Waterloo station in the evening, for a last round of carol-singing. Funds raised this time will go to LIFE, which helps mothers and babies. As we sang and sang, a friend, hurrying homer from work, saw us and came to join in. When her train was called, she said "Must rush - I'm taking the children to Reconciliation at the Sacred Heart church. We'll be home by the time you finish here. Come over for mulled wine and snacks!" So in due course I made my way to their house, and there was wine and good talk around the Christmas tree, with children drifting off sleepily, and delicious mince pies, and a happy atmosphere. The Reconciliation service had been rather impressive, with lots of priests hearing confessions, and the family joked about all being freshly shriven as we greeted them.

Just a couple of days now until the great feast: life has a feeling of Advent, and Christmas promise.

Watched...

...a DVD of the Papal visit, which I'd bought for Christmas. Really rather good - I was expecting to sneer at it, because it had a sort of "official" feel and I thought perhaps this meant it would be feeble. It isn't. It brings back memories of the joy and happiness of those days...and it includes a good viewing of the meeting between the Pope and leaders of other faiths, with a wonderful welcome from the Chief Rabbi, which was not something widely reported at the time because most attention focused on the great public Masses and the meeting in Parliament etc. Well worth watching. Order it now for a post-Christmas treat.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Out into the snow...

...for more carol-singing. A local parish gave wonderful support when I asked if people would like to come and sing carols at a local home for elderly people, and then go house-to-house in some nearby roads. I wasn't sure how many people from the parish would come - but a wonderful crowd arrived, mostly young, and the singing was magnificent! It was a joy to see all these cheerful faces in the lamplight as we stood in the extraordinary beauty of a snowy street and sang "O come, O come Emmanuel..." and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Good king wenceslas" with snowflakes softly landing on collars and hats and mittened hands...

It all goes to show that an ordinary traditional Catholic parish - this one is a big Jesuit parish in a London suburb - has wonderful people in it! And there is more...as we sang outside one big mansion-block of flats, a lady came hurrying out to invite us all in for wine and mince-pies. Turned out to be a stalwart of the parish, and had read about us in the newsletter and was so glad that we had come into her road - we had wine, and pies, and talk, and much convivilaity, and we sang "Silent Night" and were warmed and cheered...we went out again into the snow and sang to more houses and had a well-filled jar of donations when we finally called things to a close...

Sunday, December 19, 2010

A parish lunch...

...on a snowy Sunday. The parish centre - a beautiful building, opened just a couple of years ago, built by the generosity of parishioners - was bright and welcoming, and the food delicious. There are over a thousand people at Mass in this parish on Sundays.

Statistics for church attendance are revealed in today's press: apparently more people are now worshipping, Sunday by Sunday, in churches of all denominations, than was the case a few years ago.

Been reading...

... Verbum Domini, the new Papal document on the importance of the Scriptures. It is, obviously, centred on the Scriptures themselves, and also on the Second Vatican Council's important document, Dei Verbum. This interests me v. much, becuse this, almost more than other documents of Vatican II, has been central to our studies at Maryvale.

Throughout the first half of my adult life, I was often told that the Second Vatican Council had produced nothing of real value, that it would one day be regarded as irrelevant, or that it had been a dreadful mistake. There had been so much post-conciliar muddle that it was easy to accepot this view (although I didn't). Wiser voices, which urged the reading and study of the Council's documents, tended to be drowned out - but when you could hear them, they gave good advice and now we are beginning to see the Council's true fruits. Chief among these has of course been the Catechism of the Catholic Church - another crucial reference-point in Maryvale studies. But we can also note a fresh approach - a logical one, given the development of the Church's doctrine in this area - to religious freedom and to the relationships between Christianity and other faiths. And the message offerred by Benedict XVI on his recent visit to Britain - which proved so attractive, and which won over so many who had thought they were going to haye him - was soaked in the Vatican II approach...

John Henry Newman knew that the Church needed an educated laity: people who could give a good account of what the Church taught and why. It is interesting to see the opportunities for achieving this increasing, not only through the New Movements in the Church with their programmes of study and action, but also through the various educational institutions, and indeed through the Internet. The women who asked for advice and help from Newman as they sought to know more about the Catholic Faith and apply it to their lives were anxious to serve the Church but were limited in the possibilities open to them. Whereas today...

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Out in the snow...

...delivering leaflets giving the times of Christmas services at all the local churches of variouis denominations. The leaflets, produced jointly by the churches, wre at the back of church in by bundles, labelled road by road, and we were urged to take a couple of bundles and deliver them. I took a couple, and today was glad to have a good excuse to go out in the snow. Everyone was being friendly. I had brief snowball fights with every group of children I passed - sometimes it took a moment for them to realise that the missile that attacked them had come from the middle-aged lady in the green wellies, but they soon got the idea and swiftly retaliated. The sky had that pinkish glow that you opnly get on winter afternoons, and dusk was already falling as I got home shortly before 4pm. The only sad thing is that the carol service in our local church was cancelled - many of the roads really are impassable. But last night we sang carols at the local railway station, which was fun...after the main Rush Hour trains were over, we went to a local pub (ginger wine) and from there a final small group went on to the parish centre where we counted up the money and sat chatting...I enjoy these winter evenings and walking home through the frosted streets was rather lovely.

There's a good piece...

...about Pope Benedict XVI and the events of 2010 here. Do read it.


And this is an excellent and timely comment-piece too.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Oh, dear...joy and shadow...

...first, the good news. A happy snowy evening of carol-singing. We went from house to house in a residential area of London, and as our voices warmed up and we sang carol after carol, in a rather bitter wind and with drifting flakes of snow, there was a joy and unity and fun that was of the essence of Christmas...."We heard you coming as you sang down the road! It's lovely!" said one young mum, as she and her children stood in the dooorway to enjoy our carols, and one of the children came forward shyly with money for our collecting-tin. We had so many lovely encounters. One chap gave us £20. Many families brought their children down to hear us, in dressing-gowns and pyjamas. One elderly lady called out us us to wait, as she was disabled and it had taken her time to get to her front door, and she wanted to greet us. Another lady came hurrying down the road with a donation...

And we finished joyfully at a cheery pub, with red wine and lots of talk, and counting up the money - a goodly sum which we will divide between a couple of different groups working with the elderly.

Then the bad news. This morning I realised that my wallet was missing - must have been taken, I realised, during an earlier stage of the evening, possibly on the Tube...

Today happens to be a busy one - I had to hurry to London to deliver some Christmas presents, as well as tackling the various writing projects that have to be completed before Christmas... The last thing I needed was an extra hassle cancelling cheque-cards etc. All done now, and everything freshly organised. I'm writing this in an internet cafe, not far from St Paul's Cathedral. London is rather magnificent in its stark wintry glory, there are delicious things on sale in the coffee-shops, it's been fun sorting out the delivery of Christmas presents to various relations for opening on Christmas Day, and I happened to run into a friend, a monk, at Cannon Street station and we had a cheery chat. So life is good. But it would be even better if Britain was a country where a wallet was reasonably safe.

PS: I wonder what the thief will make of the holy cards and picture of the Pope, the little sewing-kit and and Rosary memo that he finds in my wallet?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

While carol singing...

...some years ago at London's Victoria station, we were accosted by a man who had, I think, been to a rather good office party, and who told us that we weren't getting it right. We had spread ourselves out in a line on the concourse to try to make the sound spread, and were not doing very well at all. "No, no NO" he said. "Get together like this", and he formed us into a choir, standing together, shoulders overlapping. "Now get singing. Stomachs in, chests out, shoulders back." and he showed us to how to sing, really sing - and make the sound rise to the great arched ceiling above us, and out to the thousands of passengers teeming noisily into their trains.

And it worked! We were soon singing powerfully, and had attracted a considerable crowd, who were pouring money into our collecting-boxes and expressing delight at our performance.

Over the loudspeaker came the usual train announcements, and one of them caught the attention of our mentor "Bromley South!" he exclaimned "Bromley South! That's my train!" and off he dashed, heading for the platform...I swiftly followed him, and was just able to pant out "Who are you?" before the doors closed on him as the train made ready to take him away to the suburbs. "I run the choir at the Ministry of Defence" he called out. And then the train moved off and he was gone.

Each Christmas, as I form together a choir and get them singing, standing properly, shoulders overlapping, sound soaring upwards, I bless his memory. If he's reading this: THANK YOU!

Writers? Musicians?

You can enter for the competition to write the song for World Youth day 2011 - I came across info about this here.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I've written a review...

...of the Pope's new book for Common Ground, the magazine of the Council of Christians and Jews. It will appear in the next edition.

Organised my 2011 subscription to Magnificat, the now indispensable booklet which, beautifully produced and illustrated, arrives each month with Morning and Evening Prayer, lives of saints, useful information, inspirational reading.

Been writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, organising goodies to take to family gatherings, and doing other Christmas preparations. Two lots of carol singing this week, two lots next week. The Crib is now erected above our fireplace, minus the Bambino...he will be taken to Mass on Sunday to be blessed, in a tradition not long established in our parish but which has firmly taken hold and I think is delightful.

Went to an evening Mass at Westminster Cathedral - candles glowing on the Advent wreath, two tall trees at either side of the sanctuary.Now that Gaudete Sunday is past, there is a sense of Christmas truly being near.

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Holy Father...

...talking to Peter Seewald in the new book mentions in particular one of the New Movements in the Church : the Heralds of the Gospel. I was struck by this - because they have a London base not far from where I live, and I have had some contact with them, and they are splendid! In fact, just as I was settling down to read the book, they had been on my mind as I want to invite them to take part in one of the projects I am planning for the New Year. So it was particular delight to get their latest magazine - which came with a covering letter noting with joy the special mention given to them by the Pope in the new book!

BTW, Lefevbrists will not want to read the book, as it reveals the quiet wisdom of the Pope on significant issues where they will be at variance with him and with the Church. They will also not like an authoritative document now published: Verbum Domini, the Pope's new post-Synodical Exhortation on the Word of God. It quotes Vatican II extensively, highlights strongly the importance of the Church's friendship and dialogue with the Jews, emphasises the rich abundance of Scripture now offered to the faithful at Sunday Mass and gives good advice on how this is to be honoured in the liturgy, speaks well of ecumenical initiatives, and highlights modern saints (Teresa of Calcutta, Edith Stein, Josemaria Escriva) alongside older ones. Watch out for attempts to rubbish this document or belittle its authority. Meanwhile, get a copy and read it yourself - it's inspirational, and full of practical advice ( praying with the Scriptures, how to improve the standard of reading at Mass, importance of each family having a Bible, need to see the Scriptures as belonging to the Church, avoidence of fundamentalist interpretations.)

To anyone who is doing any sort of study of the Scriptures, this Exhortation speaks with a powerful personal message. It is somehow all shot through with prayer, and makes you realise how central, and how glorious, is the Bible that has been so faithfully handed down to us.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

What are the ethics...

..of a Catholic blogger using material taken from Wikileaks?

Recent spillage of confidential memos sent from the British Ambassador to the Holy See to various recipients raises this issue. Should be "Catholic blogosphere" be so gleeful about gossiping that the more important question of the immorality of using sneaked material isn't tackled?

Friday, December 10, 2010

A happy day...

...at Westminster. It began early, as I hurried to the Houses of Parliament to see that all would be well for the event I was organising for later in the day. And all was well. Men were cleaning up the filth and graffitti left by rioters. Words cannot adequately express the contempt felt by most of us for the lout who violated the Cenotaph, dishonouring our war dead and ripping down the Union Jack, so I won't try to write about it. Let's just say that the cleaning up had been done swiftly, and the policemen at St Stephen's Entrance were just as jolly and friendly as ever, and reassured me that the young people coming to recieve their prizes for the Schools Bible Project needed no special passes or anything of that kind and should just turn up and would have a happy day.

On to Westminster Cathedral where I had been invited to the celebration lunch for OREMUS, the Cathedral magazine, for which I write. It was very, very enjoyable: a delicious meal, with mulled wine and mince pies and Fr Tim, our Editor, making a most gracious speech thanking us all. We were in the Hinsley Room, the small hall built a few years ago for Cathedral parish meetings and activities, and as we talked around the table, children at the St Vincent de Paul school ran about shrieking happily in the school playground in the shadow of the great Cathedral.

And so back to Parliament. The Schools Bible Project is a nationwide event run by an ecumenical Christian group of which I am chairman. It is a priviledge to be involved and a great joy to meet our young prizewinners as they gather at Westminster. Lord Brennan, distinguished lawyer and Chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain presented the prizes, and spoke most movingly about the Bible and its beauty, its strength and its message. The young people, their parents and teachers, were a delight. We had a tour of Parliament, and together pondered its great history, its longevity, the great events that have taken place within its walls. We had tea, and the young people recieved their prizes and Bibles, and photographs were taken and out beyond the latticed windows the London lamplight fell on the Abbey and its gardens as dusk fell on one of the most famous views in all the world.

Just for the record, the winners in the 2010 Schools Bible Project are:

BOYS:
1st prize: Daniel Kelly, Dalriada School, Ballymoney, Northern Ireland
2nd prize: Ethan Evans, Afon Taf School, Troedyrhiw
3rd prize: Harry Brownfield, Chesham High School, Bucks
4th Prize: Alexander Poole-Gleed, Oaklands Catholic School, Hants

GIRLS:
1st prize: Maria Czepiel, King Edward VI High School, Edgbaston Birmingham
2nd prize: Olivia Rugeley, West Hatch High School, Chigwell, Essex
3rd prize: Claire McDonald, St Paul’s High School, Glasgow
4th prize: Rosemary Walmsley, King Edward VI High School, Edgbaston


The Christian Projects team later met to review the 2010 project and plan for next year. A good and happy day.

PS The chap who violated the Cenotaph has apologised and expressed true sorrow. See here.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Students shrieking and waving placards with obscenities...

...made it impossible to get into the Houses of Parliament today, which was irritating as I badly needed to be there to check on arrangements for a meeting tomorrow. Police with shields were out in large numbers, and a number of over-excited people with Socialist Worker placards were hurrying around while the main body of demonstrators chanted and shrieked and threatened and ranted.

Tomorrow the young winners of a nationwide education project are due to arrive to be given their prizes at the House of Lords. I've arranged a tour of Parliament, and tea, and a ceremony where they get their prizes and celebrate with their parents and teachers...I needed to make some last-minute checks to ensure everything was in order, but couldn't. We must just hope and pray...

Unable to get into Parliament Square I made my way instead up towards Westminster Cathedral - always a source of solace - and in the CTS bookshop (copies of the Pope's new book in the window, and selling rapidly)I met a nice lady who had taken a photo of Patti Fordyce and me at the glorious Hyde Park gathering for the Holy Father. She had lost my email address...and now I was able to give it to her, and she has since sent me the pic and I'll be posting it on this Blog in due course!

Also in the shop was Fr Stephen Langridge, from Holy Ghost Church, Balham - I had wanted to talk to him about a possible event in his parish and we had a useful talk over a cup of coffee.

Attempting to get to Waterloo by road was impossible. So I went to evening Mass at the Cathedral - where I met another friend and had a good chat in Ambrosden Avenue. And so home via Victoria. I wonder if the people are still shouting and ranting?

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

How much do you really know....

...about the Anglican Ordinariate? There is an informative account of a recent meeting here

A website magazine, about to be launched, The Portal has Auntie among its contributors...

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Today...

...a useful meeting with a team who are involved with one of the projects at World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011.

WYD is such a vast event - I don't know if the Spaniards do any panicking, I think their general approach to life is not to fret and freak out but to assume that things will work well in the end... There will be tough times ahead: in Australia there was a barrage of anti-Papal hype in the media, and all sorts of practical and political worries - but then everything worked out gloriously.

There are all sorts of plans for young people from Britain to attend. They deserve our full encouragement and support. Back in 2005 I managed a sponsored cycle ride from London to Brighton to raise funds. Not sure what I can manage in 2011. But after hearing about the Madrid event I began to think about ideas and possibilities...

Read some of the H. Father's thoughts about World Youth Day here.

Tradition rules...

...as Christmas draws near. The fields are white with frost as a train carries me down to Sussex through the dusk, to a warm welcome and mulled wine and a family meal. We were meeting to plan the 2011 programme of Catholic History Walks and Talks...lots of v. good things, including a Mass in the Undercroft chapel in Parliament, and the now annual Martyrs' Walk through London finishing with Benediction at Tyburn. We talk until late, and then it is a joy to snuggle down with a book in a lovely room with the calm of Sussex and the scent of the sea...

On train journeys, I'm reading Light of the World, and hugely, hugely recommend it.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

A Sunday in South London...

... as I went to Mass at Holy Ghost Church, Balham. It's a very big parish, lots of young families, and I knew the Mass might be crowded so I arrived in good time...and it was simply packed, and I was lucky to find a place in a pew, as many people had to stand at the back. Turned out to be the final day of a great Parish Mission, led by the Emmanuel Community which has a Mission Team based in Rome, and the Archbishop was coming to celebrate the Mass and preach.

By a happy piece of Providence, I was joined in the pew by some friends - we suddenly noticed each other as Mass began and hymn-books were opened and so on, and it was so good to be there together!

The music at the Mass was simply superb, and included Mozart's Ave Verum at H. Communion...

Later - while waiting to meet Jamie - I dropped in to the Polish Church on Balham High Road. This is a former Congregational or Methodist church, and has been the Polish RC Church of Christ the King for some years. They evidently keep busy, because there was an afternoon Mass as well as the morning Masses, and families were pouring in...

I remember going to Mass in this church some years back, simply because there was an evening Mass and it happened to be convenient, and at that time there was still a conscious presence of elderly Poles, of the WW11 generation. I remember elderly chaps taking a collection for the veterans of the Armia Krajowa, the heroic Polish resistance group which fought the Nazis in the Warsaw Uporising. Today, the church has a different feel, with a great many families and young children, as a new generation of Poles has found its way to Britain. And the building has become more Polish: there are now beautiful stained glass windows, with the Ven. John Paul 11, of course, among those depicted, along with Bl. Faustina, and various other Polish figures, together with St Padre Pio, and St Therese of Lisieux, and more...and there are memorial plaques and so on that show the ongoing reality of parish life over the decades. Pleasingly, they have also retained the old panels and memorials from the church's earlier use, so as not to dishonour the Christian men and women who worshipped here long ago...

BTW, at Holy Ghost Balham, there is a big youth gathering for the New Year: info here. Pass it on.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

A Traditional Advent...

...in London has to include Westminster Cathedral. Went there for confession - you always meet friends in the confessional queue and this was no exception. Always vaguely reassurring - and the Sung Mass was beginning, with its glorious music and solemn procession. It turned out to be a special Mass of thanksgiving for the work of The Passage, the centre for the homeless run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which has strong links with the Cathedral. Rather touchingly, The Passage's banner was carried in procession. Three big candles were lit to mark The Passage's 30th anniversary...

The Cathedral magazine, Oremus, has some lovely Advent and Christmassy things in it, including a delightful piece about homecoming, centred on that bit in The Wind in the Willows where Mole scents his home, his old home...

I dropped in to the CTS bookshop in the piazza, to get a copy of Light of the World the new book in which the H. Father is interviewed by Peter Seewald. It is a superb read.

On to St Patrick's, Soho Square, where the young team were holding an all-night vigil of prayer. The snowy Square with its wintry trees is currently dominated by the renovation work being done at St Patrick's, huge boards blocking off the church, all rather dramatic. Masses are being held in a small makeshift chapel in the presbytery, the simplicity and poverty somehow adding to the drama. You come in from the bitter cold into the hall with its sense of news and activities and then open the door with a simple paper notice "Chapel", and there is silence, and Fr Alexander at prayer, and gradually the place fills up for Mass...

There was soup in the kitchen after Mass ended, and it was good to catch up on the news. The Prayer Vigil was specifically for young people, for vocations,and for the work of the evangelisation teams in the parish. The church will be ready for use in the Spring, and a big celebration Mass is planned...meanwhile Masses are being held at the other nearby Catholic churches, including Warwick Street and Notre Dame de France off Leicester Square. The regular Masses include those for the Spanish, Cantonese, and Portguese and Brazilian communities, and there is a whole range of other activities including of course the outreach to the homeless, and an Advent Festival, and regular talks sponsored by SPES, the Evangelisation School...

Thursday, December 02, 2010

I've just been sent ...

...this, and you simply must watch it and pass it on...

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

And for some background...

...on the Ordinariate, read here...

You must, MUST read...

... this moving address by the Bishop of Ebbsfleet,as he preaches his farewell sermon, and leaves his mitre and crozier at the feet of an image of Our Lady.

When you have finished reading, you will want to be silent for a moment...you have just shared in something very important in the spiritual life of our country. Pray for him and for all involved in the Ordinariate over these next days and weeks...

London in the snow...

...looks glorious, and Trafalgar Square, with Nelson staring stonily down Whitehall, and the National Gallery grey and stately with whirling flurries of showflakes, was the stuff of tourist brochures. But students were gathering for another round of shouting, and in the adjoining streets were lines of policemen. They were friendly and cheery and when I expressed the hope that the rioters wouldn't become violent as happened last week, they were tolerant and British about it "They've got a right to make their protest, that's only fair. But there's no need for them to throw things and endanger lives."

Feels odd, in a way, discussing student grants when one is a mature student. When I left school, I was excited about becoming a journalist and although there were long discussions about university, I made the decision to go for a job on a newspaper, and an apprenticeship in what was to become a lifelong career, and have never regretted it. But I never felt that I had a "right" to go to university in a sense anyway - I always felt it was a priviledge, and one that those who took up the opportunity should regard as such. So I am rather ambivalent on hearing shouts and seeing banners that announce that attendance at university should be something that is regarded as a sort of fundamental thing, like a right to water or shelter or food.

This week, busy in the evenings with essays and reading (5th century, Council of Chalcedon. Christology. Gospel of St John. And more....) I am conscious of gratitude for the chance to do some studying late in life, via a Catholic institute which charges modest fees.

Another train of thought: studying some of the dramas in the Church's long history makes you ponder more recent events rather deeply. The Councils of the Church have a sense of continuity about them: you see the Second Vatican Council as having a greater importance than I had imagined, its documents a greater richness (I had always been encouraged to think of them as rather dull - as just "pastoral" and rather unimportant, but the reality is quite different). To become familiar with this sense of the consistency of things is to see how odd and out-on-a-limb the Lefebvrists have been...something which I imagine they are coming to see too.