To Chelsea...

...for a meeting with Josephine Robinson of the Association of Catholic Women to finalise the brochure for our 2013 Schools RE Project. This is a Project for all RC primary schools in Britain, involving children writing essays on various teachings of the Church: we take up a different theme each year and the 2013 project will of course be linked with the Year of Faith.  The brochure will feature the door of a church and we spent some time looking at suitable pix (clip art from the Internet etc). Supported by the CTS, the project has grown and grown and involves large numbers of children at schools across Britain. The brochures go out to schools in January and my next task is to bring together the team of volunteers who do this...actually it is all very enjoyable, as we sit at the CTS warehouse over mugs of tea and lots of chat as we put labels on envelopes and put a brochure in each one...

Earlier, a Catholic History Walk around St George's Cathedral, Southwark. This was the last History Walk of the year, although we will be going carol singing in December. NEXT walk is Monday Jan 28th 2013, in Chelsea. Meet at the church of Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, 6.30pm...

Eighty-five English Martyrs...

...were honoured today at Westminster Cathedral. They were beatified 25 years ago by the great John Paul II. Today, I dropped in to evening Mass at the Cathedral - and found it was a magnificent Mass honouring the anniversary of the Beatification. Archbishop Vincent Nicholls was the main celebrant and preached a fine sermon. And we had a glorious Ave Verum at Communion...the choir is in paritcularly fine voice at present.  We  sang Faith of Our Fathers very heartily. I am always a bit worried with that line "How sweet would be their children's fate/If they like them could die for thee"  because it just could be that this might be demanded of us....gulp...and I am not sure of my own courage...

I had gone to the Mass to meet Dan Cooper of the FAITH Movement. He ran the FAITH stall at the Towards Advent Festival and found some good opportunities to talk to people and make contacts. The FAITH Movement has its annual Winter Session in December...

Depressing...

...is the only possible word to describe the London of today, as revealed by the newspapers I was reading as I journeyed on various errands. Major news and features (I am not making any of these up) were: a bright cheery feature in The Times about how best to make use of the new technologies involving destruction of human embryos (should a woman routinely freeze some eggs for future use???etc...), a two-page celebration, in the Evening Standard, of how popular homosexual activity is among smart young financiers in the City, and news of how top officials in the Church of England are planning to find new ways to impose women bishops now that the laity have voted against them.

Coming up...

...on WEDNESDAY (Nov 28th) at 1.30pm,  Auntie leads a Catholic History Tour of St George's Cathedral, Southwark. All welcome. No need to book - just turn up.  Nearest Tube/train: WATERLOO or LAMBETH NORTH.

The Cathedral ius opposite the Imperial War Museum and is one of London's "hidden gems". Stacks of history - Gordon riots,  Pugin, and bombing in WWII. Come and find out more....

To Hatfield...

...to St Peter's Church. Evening Mass, with a good-sized and overwhelmingly young congregation - Auntie felt very much like...well...an auntie. Numbers of students from the University. Some good singing - was glad to have my new Missal which has the music for the Mass chants, both in Latin and in English, all simply included in the Proper of the Mass...

Afterwards, students gathered for a meeting, one of a regular series on Sunday evenings with speakers on the Sacraments. Auntie spoke on Marriage. A really delightful, friendly, interested group, a great atmosphere. Afterwards, Fr Mark gave me dinner, along with a couple of young people from the group - it was so good to relax over a meal and a glass of wine, and to talk about so many things. Above all, it is encouraging to hear about vocations to the priesthood...

It had been a lovely day, beginning with an early start and a train to Hertfordshire, for lunch with Philip Trower, distinguished Catholic author and a friend of many years' standing...we first met when we were both covering the visit of John Paul II to Britain thirty years ago. Philip has the most glorious collection of books - shelves and shelves of them all beautifully sorted and arranged, and a delight for browsing. He allowed me to borrow a volume of von Balthasar which will be of great use for my Maryvale work...and there was a very jolly family lunch, and then as the afternoon drew to a close he drove me on to Mass at Hatfield, through the November countryside on this Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church's year...

ADVENT...

...and the young team at St Patrick's, Soho Square, is running its annual Advent Mission. More info here..
In particular, don't miss the wonderful Procession through Soho on Sunday December 9th. This is now one of London's great events: starts with an International Mass at St Patrick's at 6pm, then the procession moves off at 7pm and goes through the streets to the Church of Notre Dame de France off Leicester Square. Come and join in! The Blessed Sacrament is carried aloft, there is singing, we go through the crowded streets of  theatreland - and last year we gave out little gift-bags with an Advent message and a medal as we went along...

Glorious singing, a crowded cathedral hall, and...

...the 2012 Towards Advent Festival was under way! Pouring rain outside deterred no one - crowds of people came,  cheery ladies from the Association of Catholic Women with great trays of home-made cakes and sandwiches,  Franciscan friars in patched grey robes,  publishers like Fisher Press and the CTS with stacks and stacks of lovely books, volunteers for all sorts of charities with beautiful craft goods and  rosaries and Christmassy things...

Archbishop Vincent Nichols opened the Festival with an enthusiastic speech reminding us that this is the Year of Faith and giving everyone a sense of  welcome and inspiration. A choir of delightful children from  St Benedict's School, Ealing, sang a most beautiful Ave Maria and Panis Angelicus and then, led  us all in  O  Come O come Emmanuel, the first verse sung by a  boy solo.  EWTN was there and featuring Fr Robert Barron's Catholicism (superb). The Ordinariate was there with some beautiful hand-made Christmassy gifts and lots of literature, the National Catholic Library had a wonderful array of books, there were pro-life groups and liturgy groups and lots of excellent charities raising funds for work with blind children in India, and leprosy suffers, and children with all sorts of special needs at home and abroad...

It was all a joy...Sister Catherine Holum gave a spirited , inspiring talk about her journey from Olympic speed-skater to Franciscan Sister  of the Renewal - and she and her fellow Franciscan Sister John-Paul were such a delight  to have with us as their infectious joy spread itself to everyone they met. A lovely young team from the Centre for Faith and Culture in Oxford led  a marvellous celebration of Bl John Henry Newman's "Second Spring" - it was particularly good to have them as they were involved with the Festival over a decade ago as small girls in a drama production which rounded off our first-ever Towards Advent Festival...

Too many people to be thanked, but a special mention must be made of our excellent Chairman, Brian Towler and his team from the Catenian Association. They tackle all the admin, the hiring of the hall and the tables and taking bookings and more and more...

A cute baby yawning...

...caught on video.

This baby is in his mother's womb, which ought to be the safest place on earth. Today it isn't.: a child in the womb can be legally killed and this is promoted as a "woman's right".

We MUST return legal safeguards to protect human life.

To Parliament...

...for a large gathering addressed by Lord Alton, celebrating the 100th birthday of the Catholic National Library, treasure-house of a vast range of books, periodicals and archive material.  Launch of a new book by Fr Gerard Skinner telling the story of the Library.  One of the great committee rooms in the House of Lords was packed for this event, and it was a tremendous bringing-together of men and women from Catholic public life...MPs and peers and writers and educationalists and  leaders of Catholic groups and organisations, clergy and laity...afterwards a most agreeable Reception at the Commonwealth Club in Northumberland Avenue, following a walk down lamplit, rain-splashed Whitehall.

Government panic...

...is never edifying. The Cameron team is looking particularly silly at the moment. All running around in circles, unable to cope with the economic woes, ghastly situation for our army in Afghanistan, a growing sense that people know that things are going badly, they suddenly shrieked that they'll be rushing through a law to force same-sex marriage on the nation.  Uh? What? You can almost smell the oh-gosh-whatever-shall-we-do? about this. The polls are showing that people re abandoning the Tories in large numbers - the worst worry was the realisation there weren't going to be adequate numbers at the Party Conference and there had to be a phone-round to try to drum up some support...it's all looking very, very bad for the next election. Why the attempted rush to redefine marriage? I'm guessing that it's money. A couple of Very Big Donors are insisting on this crazy policy, and the thinking is that the money is desperately needed for the election...

Won't work. Chuck, it Cameron, and get on with the job for which you were elected.  You can't win an election if your policies are the same as those of the Opposition: same-sex  marriage comes massively into that category.

 Read here for more on this.

and further...

...to my post below, the prize for an inane and possibly slightly sinister remark goes to some one called Mr Tony Baldry who told the House of Commons today that:

"If the Church of England wants to be a national church, then it has to reflect the values of the nation."

The more you think about that statement the more horrid it seems. Values of the nation? Drunkness. Acceptance of pre-marital sexual relationships as the norm.  Wide use of pornography. Greed - to the point where obesity is a national disease.

The idea of a National Church that reflects the Values of the Nation is actually quite sinister. The whole point of the Church is surely that it is not national, but is over and beyond all nations.

Undeterred by such spiritual realities, campaigners are now urging that Parliament forces the C. of E. to create women bishops. So any last notion that the C of E is a spiritual entity, resting on the word of God and subject to Christ's ordinances, must give way to the understanding that it is simply a British institution run by British law.

"...and on this rock I will build my Church. In addition, some day some one may invent a parallel body in a small and rather beautiful island, and  pretend it is a Church too. It isn't a Church. But there will be some fine and good people caught up in it. Your task will be to help them on their way home to the true Church, encouraging them to bring with them anything and everything of value and beauty that is theirs to bring."

Well, who would have thought it?

...The C. and E. has turned down women bishops. I must admit to a sense of satisfaction. I am  so glad that the Synod - which had seemed to be a seal and stamp on everything politically-correct and tiresomely ill-considered - turned out to have some people who thought outside the usual box of cliches.

I do not accept the theological thinking behind the "men are meant to be leaders, women not" idea, since women can certainly lead and teach. Priesthood is different from that, and it is this precise thing, the priesthood, that has not been fully explored and grasped.  But at least there has been some sort of ability to understand that there are some theological issues involved.

Given the tragedies and miseries of the world - some of which (war, hunger, injustices of various kinds) get raised at the C of E Synod -  it was rather ghastly to see comfortably-off ladies weeping inconsolably and seeking help and speaking of their agony, because they can't be made bishops.   Dear ladies, please be assurred that you will survive quite well, and may even one day think about all this quite differently.

Back in business...

...with my mobile. Same number. Family and friends please note. ALL IS WELL.

Went to a mobile-phone shop. Felt bleak. Lots of screens and gadgets. Lots of giant plasma TV screens to dominate the home.   Lots and lots of smaller plasma screens to dominate the car,  the office, the bus, the Tube, the train, the school, the park, the street,  the doctor's waiting-room, etc. Laptops and must-have handy-sized carry-around-with-you-at-all-times things so that you are never, ever, free from emails and Skype and Facebook and texting and tweeting. Cute unreal computer-generated figures  in a children's soap-opera on giant screens mesmerising small customers. Stacks of gadgets on shiny shelves mesmerising older customers.

Stared at display of mobile phones. Some modestly priced. Talked to helpful young assistant.  Human voice - sudden real communication: Auntie explained that she wanted something useful and simple, to make and recieve calls, take photos as required...showed shattered remnants of previous.

He removed the SIM card from my old phone, and talked about an Upgrade, explained that, mirabile dictu, I could keep the same number. We got chatting "You're Polish?" Yes, he was, and I told him I'd written a book about Bl. JPII. "A great man" he said "All Poles love him. But now is history. Not so many young Poles now go to church.  Now we think next Pope will be last one and then the end of the world."

Oh dear. Anyway I got my shiny new 'phone and he wrapped up the old one in a box with the new charger and instructions and things and I paid with plastic and left the shop. Odd times, these.

To Parliament...

...to arrange presentation of prizes for Schools Bible Project by Lord Alton. To CTS Bookshop to buy 40 prayer-books as souvenir gifts for the choir singing at Towards Advent on Saturday. To a celebratory evening organised by T! magazine...I have been involved with helping to run the Journalism Course sponsored by the magazine and it was a real pleasure to present the Certificates to the young people who have completed the course and shown such enthusiasm and dedicatiion.

Family and friends please note...

...my mobile phone has broken and I am about to get a new one!  So my old number is now DEFUNCT.

The 'phone dropped on to the pavement today in London...parts scattered everywhere, some crucial bits broken. Passers-by all started to help and picked bits up... offered consolation, advice, goodwill...Auntie settled down with cup of tea to try to piece the thing together...to no avail, will be buying a new one.

Our Lady's Convent School...

...in Loughborough welcomed Auntie this morning to present prizes won in the Catholic Young Writer project, run by the Catholic Writers' Guild and the Catholic Union of Great Britain.   Joint winners this year were two delightful young ladies, twins Cara and Iona McNeill, pupils at Our Lady's Convent School.

It meant an early start for Auntie...kind friend Amanda Hill, who earlier helped with the administration of the Project, had offered to give me a lift to Loughborough and collected me at 5.30am, and with a brief stop for breakfast we arrived in good time for the school's Morning Assembly in the beautiful chapel. A lovely school, with a happy and confident feel to it, clear about the Christian values it seeks to transmit. It was real pleasure to talk to the girls, to present  the trophy and prizes, and to meet the parents of the winners and runners-up. A family atmosphere. We all chatted over coffee and pastries, and Amanda and I were made to feel so welcome and  were given a tour of the school (fabulous 19th century buildings, links with Ambrose de Lisle, Pugin, etc)  before I addressed an RE class tackling the Scriptures and ethical issues. It was beautiful and moving to hear a strong affirmation of the value of every human life from a teacher, sharing a personal story. It was a delight to talk about great issues in an atmosphere or respect and reverence for God, for marriage, for human life and for faith. It was grand to be with an RE teacher who relishes teaching the Scriptures and engaging young minds in philosophy and discussion of large and interesting ideas...

A happy morning. We had planned, before travelling back to London, to visit  Mount St Bernard Abbey nearby, and when we mentioned this, the headmistress arranged for us to be given a packed lunch to enjoy as a picnic...so we  chose sandwiches and drinks from the (excellent!) school refectory and went off  in a holiday mood. Mount St Bernards is a magnificent Cistercian Abbey, in the most glorious countryside, and the monks - a good-sized community from the sound of them - were singing the midday office as we arrived, the great Abbey bell having tolled out to announce the timing. We prayed with them in the Abbey church - a fine building, with a great central altar and a sense of strength and of prayers soaring up to God - and later walked up to the Calvary shrine on the rugged pathway, and then enjoyed our picnic...

A look at London...

...get a flavour of things as Advent approaches  here...

Marriage...

...is the lifelong union of a man and a woman. The Church knows that marriage between baptised Christians is a sacrament - Holy Matrimony - a source of grace, a rich and living reality linked to Christ's union with his Church, a mystery at the heart of our Faith.

If the Government wants to impose on Britain  the notion of marriage as a union between two people of the same sex, it is going to be neccesary to explain that there can be no question of this ever involving any sort of event or ceremony linked to the Church. The most efficient way to do this would be simply to break the link of the Church with any form of legal marriage: the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony in Church would be unconnected with any civil ceremony taking place in a local registry office. A Catholic man and woman marrying in church might or might not choose to go through a legal ceremony too: as far as the Church is concerned, only the Church's sacramental marriage is valid anyway.

Until now, the Church has sought to co-operate with the civil authorities because it makes sense for the Church to act as legal registrar for marriages that take place in church. But this will change if the civil authorities redefine marriage.

There are a number of practical advantages in simply de-registering churches, and it will of course also save the clergy the bother of extra paperwork. The Church's own paperwork  already neccesarily keeps them busy: each bride and groom have to show evidence of baptism, of being free to marry (ie not married already, not under a vow of celibacy etc), and so on.

In the past, some people sought to marry in church who were not eligible to do so - eg people who were divorced and whose previous spouse was still living. But when the Church gently explained that this was not possible, they did not sue. Under planned legislation, and in the current climate, the Church could be vulnerable to legal challenges unless it is made clear that there can never be any offer of any form of legal marriage in a Catholic church, and that all that the Church can offer is Holy Matrimony, on the terms God offers.

A Church-married-but-not-state-married couple might feedl they had some legal need to consolidate their status by going through a legal procedure, eg for tax purposes, and the Church would not prevent them from doing this. If they wanted to divorce, that would not alter their being married in the eyes of God. With today's divorce practices, which are often unjust (fathers denied the right to see their children, etc) , the Church does well to remain unconnected with the tangles of  it all.

Freedom for the Church is going to be a major issue in the years ahead, both in Britain and in other Western nations. For a useful comment on the position in the USA, read here.

Important...

...words on the subject of Catholics and Jews here... 
and I draw the attention of some of my readers to this...especially the chap who wrote offering to send me a copy of an anti-Jewish diatribe. Please note: the Church specifically denounces material of that kind. In this Year of Faith the documents of Vatican II are being given renewed attention and invested with renewed and long-term significance. Read the link just given, and also here...

Wisdom...

...from Papa Benedict, visiting a set of homes for the elderly run by the S. Egidio community. He spoke about old age as a blessing.

"One who makes room for the elderly, makes room for life. One who welcomes the elderly, welcomes life.”

for British people...

...like me who need to know a bit more about this whole Obama/religious freedom thing: here is a good piece to read.

"O God our help...

...in ages past..."  We gathered at the War memorial in Borough High Street to observe Remembrance Day. The War Memorial there is particularly poignant, as it depicts a First World War soldier in full kit, gallantly going forward,  in the mud of the Western Front - and because it was erected just months after that War ended, it is accurate in every detail. This particular Memorial has become familiar since I started going to Evensong and weekday Mass with the Ordinariate group at the nearby Church of the Precious Blood. It seemed the right place to observe Remembrance Day. Under a clear sky,  a crowd gathered, the bugle notes of the Last Post rang out, the police stopped the traffic, and we were silent.

It's an utterly different country from the one for which the men of the Great War fought and died. In the crowd, a number of young men failed to remove their wolly hats or baseball caps. The crowd was adequate but not huge.  When we prayed the Our Father, many people didn't join in: they all too evidently simply didn't know thre words.  The singing was good, led by the excellent Ordinariate priest and congregation in fine voice. The bugler was superb. The  wreaths were laid, the dead honoured, the tribute to our history paid. And the young men like the one on the fine monument before us will never grow old, and we will remember them...we will remember them.

Ordinary...

...life goes on, even though somehow the knowledge that America has voted for same-sex marriage and compulsory funding of abortion through insurance schemes, and that our Govt is busy with similar horrible ideas,  covers  everything a slightly unreal feeling.  While keeping up with the news on such things, Auntie spent recent days at various events and meetings. An excellent day-conference of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, culminating with a Mass at which the liturgy was in the particular Anglican-rite form.  If you are an Anglican reading this, and you long for familiarity and good English worship, you should have been at this Mass. Echoe and echoes of 1662 plus dignified chant and resounding hymns...

In the evening I went to a friend's house in Chelsea for supper and we watched the extremely good film Karol .  Haven't yet seen it? You simply must.

And on Saturday I was giving a talk to a Marriage Preparation group at St Mary's, Cadogan Street. Lots of delightful young people, great atmosphere, a sense of great joy and hope. Walked back through Chelsea with Father Innocent, a priest from the diocese of Lagos in Nigeria who is currently studying in London and has joined the parish team for a year, and with a student from Allen Hall who had been on a placement in the parish for a week or so...we spoke of St Thomas More as we walked along where he once lived, and stood by the great Thames, his river and ours...Allen Hall is thriving at the moment, good numbers of young men training for the priesthood.  In the Spring my Catholic History Walkers will be making their annual visit there  for the now traditional history-tour,  and tea, and joining the men for Benediction...

Interested in carol-singing in central London? Contact me, by sending a Comment to this Blog, with an email address at which I can reply to you. Date is Monday dec 17th, time: 6.30pm...

PLEASE...

....would the kind correspondent from Australia write to me again with an EMAIL ADDRESS TO WHICH I CAN REPLY written into the actual text of his Comment?I would love to be in touch!

PLEASE NOTE:  if you write a Comment to this Blog I have ABSOLUTELY NO WAY OF REPLYING TO YOU UNLESS YOU GIVE ME AN EMAIL ADDRESS.

Deeply, deeply worrying...

...and things are going to be horrible. The election results in America are very bad news.
Courage and wisdom are needed for the future. Read  here  for a good analysis.

Vatican II...

...and a discussion group at the home of a lovely, lively London Catholic family. An excellent presentation on Dei Verbum. A delicious supper (platefuls of Polish bigos with creamy mashed potato. Wine. Choc cake). Much talk: thoughtful,challenging, analytical, positive. A strong sense of a desire to seek Christ. A chorus of young voices in prayer. A busy priest (hospital chaplain, tough job) who had joined us for the evening. A senser of a Church alive and missionary. The Year of Faith.

Women ...

...meet at a Christian group called the Wives Fellowship. Auntie has been invited to give various talks, and yesterday's , at a Surrey gathering, was about Hallowe'en.  Explored the story: pagan ideas about death as Autumn comes, the Christian message, All Saints, All Souls...

A friendly group, with women sharing Christian values and ideas...

The latest MAGNIFICAT

...by which I mean the excellent monthly prayer-manual that arrives by post and is a joy to use and handle - has a feature in it by Father James Tolhurst. Fr Jim is a family friend - he married Jamie and me at St Elphege's, Wallington, back in 1980. He is the author of a number of books, and something of an authority on Bl John Henry Newman...

Magnificat is a must-read: it always carries a particularly beautiful work of art which is discussed and explored by a good art historian - the Nov. writer is Elizabeth Lev. It has Morning and Evening Prayer for each day, information about the feast-days of the various saints as they come up (with lots of interesting snippets about obscure saints from long ago, or local saints in particular corners of Britain or the world), the Mass texts for each day, and some good features, meditations, and extra prayers...

Pouring rain and a crowded cathedral...

...on a November morning. I went to Westminster Cathedral for Mass because I thought it might be useful to hand out some leaflets about the Towards Advent Festival to people as they left (Saturday November 24th, Westminster Cathedral Hall: BE THERE!). I certainly chose the right day - it was the annual Catenians' Mass (all Catholic groups and guilds etc have All Souls Masses for deceased members etc at the Cathedral in Nov.)  and there were hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS of them, all with their wives and families, packing out the Cathedral.  The Catenian Association is a main supporter of the Festival, really its backbone  and our excellent chairman Brian Towler is a Catenian...the Mass was glorious, with the choir in excellent voice...

I handed out all the leaflets to people as they poured out after Mass, and could have handed out more, wished  I'd brought twice as many...and then  went round to the Cathedral Hall, which was jammed with Catenians swapping news, and was welcomed by many friends. They are a super bunch, among them several who are v. active with the Catholic Union: much talk of  current events,  religious freedom, the Govt's ghastly plans for new law on marriage etc.

Sent off FINAL corrected version of my latest book to the publisher.  Computers have changed the whole relationship with publishers: chatty lunches, the excitement of the arrival of the first proofs, the skills of printers, all gone, and now it's emails back and forth, and the author doing all sorts of techno-things herself...this book will perhaps be among my last to emerge as a book at all, as over the next years it will all be downloads and read-it-on-your-ipod. It feels bleak, like getting a voucher at Christmas instead of a parcel, or chatting to a friend on the phone instead of meeting over a drink.

Bl. John Paul, Pope Benedict, and Vatican II...

...and an evangelical approach to the Faith.  Lots of  good material in Maryvale studies (in addition to academic work, I decided to take a course in Evangelisation, and am loving it).   The Second Vatican Council emphasised the importance of every baptised Christian being a missionary, bringing the message of Christ to the world.

For years, I  heard a sort of general  message that "before Vatican II everything was going well - we didn't need this Council", and in a way I sort of accepted this without thinking about it very much. I  took the attitude that, well, the Council happened and we had somehow  to make the best of it. But I also knew that this was a lazy approach and that the reality was all rather different. When I actually studied the documents and also related them to my own experiences of being an active Catholic, I realised how crucial and valuable it all was and is.

And now, here I am, celebrating the 50th anniversary of that Council and seeing the hugeness of it . And the Catechism, the 20th anniversary of which we mark this year: our family copy, much used, is on the ledge beside me as I write this.

Islam, and evangelisation...

...and Maryvale.

Arriving at Birmingham, en route to Maryvale, the first priority is always to buy a packet of those useful coffee-filter-in-a-cup things, which allow you to brew some REAL coffee by simply pouring the hot water through the filter. Everything about Maryvale is splendid, except the coffee.

Armed with sufficient supplies - it looks mean just to pour a cup for oneself, so there always has to be enough to share around  a bit  - I then headed for the bus-stop,  but the crowds were so huge that I gave up and got a taxi. Another part of the Maryvale arrival routine is being evangelised by the taxi-driver: most Brummy taxis seem to be driven by kindly, courteous and enthusiastically Islamic drivers. We invariably get on well, and they invariably try to urge me to read the Koran and/or consult various Islamic websites etc. Conversations usually begin with "So you're a Christian?" and then a question such as "Why do you Christians have two Bibles?" (by this he means the Old and New Testaments) or "How can you say Jesus was God's son if he died on the Cross?" or "Why do you Christians believe you need to confess to your priests?" I tackled these and asked him various questions  myself. His knowledge of Christianity was scant. We ended up having a really quite profound conversation.  And this is not the first, second, or even the third or fourth time that this has happened: it is literally the case that almost every time I get a cab in Birmingham, the driver turns the conversation to religion and urges me to consider the claims of Islam, while I in turn gently try to suggest something of the claims of Christ, no mere prophet but the One promised from the beginning, God himself...

And so to Maryvale - for a course of lectures on evangelisation!

A Mass for All Souls Day, a tasty supper provided by the dear Brigettine nuns, a late-night chat in the students' common-room during which the talk turned to the DVD shown to the Bishops at their recent Synod indicating Europe's demographic slide into an Islamic future...and later still, looking out from my window into the moonlight with Birmingham's city lights on the horizon, much to ponder and pray about...

My room was next door to the one which, in recusant days, was used as a secret chapel. Today we use a newer chapel (built in the late 18th century, when the penal laws were not so savage) and the All Souls' Mass was well attended by local people: Maryvale has a long tradition of devotion to the Sacred Heart and on the first Friday of every month the traditional devotional prayers are said, and people like to come. The altar on which Mass is celebrated is the one that Bl. John Henry Newman used when he made Maryvale his home in the mid 19th century.

There was no one else sleeping in this part of the house this weekend, and it felt very, very silent and the corridors are very, very dark and the stairs creaky.

Vatican II...

...and the Holy Father's important words, pointing to the documents and message that will guide us on this 50th anniversary and Year of Faith: here...

All Saints, All Souls...

...and vast crowds in Oxford Street and Auntie struggling along with them. Impossible to move at one point - sheer pressure of humanity. No, they weren't celebrating All Saints' Day. They were there to shop.  Christmas decorations already hanging up above the street, but not yet lit up.Half-term, and huge, HUGE numbers of people shopping and shopping and shopping...

I needed to reach a bank -  had promised to get some figures for a small charitable group which needs info in order to complete its annual statement of accounts - but the vast crowds made it very difficult to get down Regent Street and the bank had closed by the time I arrived. Swept back into the crowd, I managed to break off into a side-street and walked through Chinatown to reach Soho Square, where I was celebrating All Saints at St Patrick's Church, and watching the young members of the 2012/13  St Patrick's Evangelisation School make their formal commitment. A beautiful Mass, Fr Thomas from the Community of St John concelebrating with Fr Alexander  the parish priest, and young Fr James Bradley of the Ordinariate acting as cantor for the chanted Kyrie, Gloria, etc. Afterwards, a cheery celebration in the big room up in the church tower - wine and snacks and lots of talk. A most useful talk with Marianne Cuthbertson of Maryvale, looking at the difference between evangelisation and catechesis, and the need for both. It made me  appreciate anew  the role of lay people in the Church's mission in the sense that Vatican II sought to promote and develop it: Maryvale is  central in all of this for Britain.

At St Patrick's, as elsewhere, a table at the back of the church where one can write the names of family members and friends who have died, who will be commemorated in Masses for the dead in this Month of All Souls. Every year, my list grows a little longer. Nearly twenty years since my dear father died, and as I wrote his name I had sudden beautiful memories of him.  And this year, a dear cousin died - remembered with very special affection, as she was one of bridesmaids thirty years ago...

Auntie is hurrying...

...off by train for the weekend. Her destination is here...

NEXT Catholic History Walk...

....Thursday November 15th, meet 6.30pm at  St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street, London EC2.  We will walk around the City and learn something of its history, finishing on the steps of St Pauls's Cathedral....

Not merely an auntie...

...but a GREAT Auntie, and this for the fourth time. A lovely new great-niece arrived this morning, a joyful addition to the family.

Hurried out to post a parcel of celebratory goodies.

 Overdue domestic duties: much of the day was spent sorting through old books, and a great suitcaseful went off to the local church for the Parish Fayre. How old is "old"?  Several of the books that went to the Fayre dated from the 1970s and 80s, paperbacks detailing the plight of Christians in Russia (v. grim in the 70s - we used to stand outside the Soviet Embassy and shout out the names of people imprisoned in the gulag, collect signatures for petitions, organise vigils of prayer). Several were books on pro-life and pro-family topics, also from the 70s, 80s, and 90s - same debates and arguments as today, all predictions made by pro-life campaigners back then have come true, and we are still lobbying and praying and campaigning.

Will my new great-niece know about books or will it all be downloads from computers, with illustrations that jump about , and all history and biography accompanied by music and sound effects?  She will be growing up in a world where words unknown a decade ago will already seem old-fashioned: ebook, download, tweet, facebook. Will she  ever write a letter by hand, sew a seam, make jam?

Auntie is in THE PORTAL...

...which you can read  here...