Sunday, June 29, 2014

Along by the river Thames...

...on a June morning...the tide was out, revealing wide stretches of foreshore, sandy and inviting, and with more than a thousand years of well recorded history all tossed around in there...the flotsam and jetsam of a great city, with so much happening along its banks down the centuries...

I stayed on the Embankment high above, relishing the walk and the breeze and the sudden bonus of some free spare time.  I had set off for Mass early, but the Sunday buses and trains were unexpectedly efficient, and I had half an hour in which to enjoy the riverside.  I'll be bring a group along this way soon... History Walk later this week...there's always more to explore and ponder...but this wasn't a research-and-study time, just a Sunday morning, and the riverside, and me.

The great reassuring dome of St Paul's is still a landmark as you look across the river from the south bank, but there are horrors as the gaze moves further east, with the vile "walkie-talkie" hideous giant block dominating all the other concrete slabs, and all beauty vanishing. You have to look at smaller things, in the immediate front-space before you, to get a sense of a living city again: the Millenium Bridge which any and every real London actually always calls the wobbly bridge, even though it honestly doesn't wobble any more...the Globe Theatre, new posh flats and restaurants, an old wooden jetty, people milling everywhere, some earnest joggers in hot tight lycra suits.  Children  running about and climbing on things. A jabber of different languages, lots of tourists. Islamic ladies swathed in dark face-covering robes.  And then, as I neared London Bridge, the bells of the Anglican cathedral ringing out and slowly changing to a tolling announcing that a service was about to start....which meant that Mass was starting at the nearby Catholic church, too, so I hurried, skirted the Borough Market with quickened steps, and got there just in time.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Come and be inspired and challenged...

...for the New Evangelisation.

A great day in London. July 5th. the new School of the Annunciation. details here: don't miss it, this will be something really special.

You simply MUST...

...look up the new FAITH MOVEMENT website.  It's superb. Do click on to it now.

I've just returned from speaking at the HULL Faith Forum (see link on the FAITH website). A good crowd, and a great atmosphere. I spoke about St John Paul, his life, his message, his significance...the towering figure of our era, with a message of hope for the era ahead of us...

I'm repeating the talk at the London Evening of Faith on July 16th. 7.30pm at the Church of Our Lady and St Gregory, Warwick St (entrance in Golden Square. Nearest tube: PICCADILLY CIRCUS). Be there!

Nightmare...

...my email address was hacked by thieves yesterday. So I spent this morning answering phone calls from friends and explaining, over and over and over and OVER again that no, I hadn't sent them an emergency message and, no, I didn't need help...

Horrible experience, and it has taken much of today to sort it out. It all happened while I was in Yorkshire, so the sorting-out had to be done - with difficulty - using my mobile phone on the train...then when I got Kings Cross, and searched in a panicky way for my ticket, the wallet flew out  and down into the gap between the train and the platform...quite bizarre...the railway team, were v..v. kind and a man was summoned who squeezed down into the gap and retrieved it. I've never hugged a railway official before: I think he was quite pleased.

Hurrying - a mistake, it was morning to take things slowly but surely - out from a bank a bit later, I slipped and fell. "Are you all right?" asked lots of kind people,  coming to my aid. "Not completely" I said "But I will be in a minute."  And they all helped me to my feet, and I was being offered a glass of water, opportunity to rest etc.

And now I'm at my computer, sorting out the hacking problem.

PLEASE don't telephone me or email me to say you have received an odd message and my email seems to have been hacked. I know. I am dealing with it.



Monday, June 23, 2014

...and all over Britain...

...Processions of the Blessed Sacrament were taking place on Sunday. The tradition slumped for a while but has now been revived  on a wide scale and there are processions in hundreds of parishes...

I missed the opportunity of taking part in a Procession in the morning, as I was busy with the Martyrs' walk (see below).  But  the splendid Fr Alexander and team at St Patrick's in Soho always organise an evening one, preceded by an International Mass. And so I hurried there and at 7pm, with groups from Brazil and from China and so on, we set off through Soho, an acolyte bearing a great Cross and attended by servers with tall candles, then a long train of us all, and then Fr Alexander, holding the Blessed Sacrament aloft in its monstrance, beneath a great canopy. Lots of singing, wafts of incense...

But in the packed and noisy streets of Soho, no one seemed to notice or care! When I first went on this procession, 6 or 7 years ago, we got quite a few people crossing themselves, bowing in respect, or simply standing still and looking interested. This year...nothing - just the talking and shouting, the rock music blaring out, the noise of Soho...and Christ unnoticed by the crowds  despite the bells and incense and singing and praying of the faithful walking along with Him...

We finished with Benediction in the churchyard of St Giles, where the Rector always makes us welcome. We had Benediction - the Tantum Ergo wafting up above the noise of Soho and traffic - and then the Rector and members of the parish served wine and fruit juices and there was friendly chat and it was good to be there...

...and in a sizzling, uncomfortable London...

...the annual Martyrs Walk, commemorating those who died in the grim years of the 16th and 17th centuries...and we prayed for religious freedom and a great revival of the Christian Faith in our poor country today.

The Walk takes us from Newgate to Tyburn, and we stop at the church of St Anselm and St Cecilia, thinking of Catholic martyrs who suffered at nearby Lincoln's Inn Fields...and at St-Giles-in-the-Fields (Anglican) where we commend to God all, Catholic and Protestant, who suffered in the tumultuous Reformation years...and at St Patrick's, Soho, where we completed the main part of our pilgrimage, dividing into smaller groups to make our way to Tyburn (impossible for a large group to go down Oxford Street with all the shoppers...)

At Tyburn Convent, we are always given a wonderful welcome by the nuns. We had a beautiful Benediction and then Tea.

Tyburn - at Marble Arch - is now a very Moslem part of London. The part of Hyde Park that adjoins the Bayswater Road and Edgware Road, is now packed with ladies in long dark robes, many with their faces covered, and all with children and large extended-family groups. I cannot imagine that any of them know of the history of the place: Speakers' Corner, the Tyburn Tree...

Speakers' Corner was established long years ago as a place where free speech is allowed - anyone can get up on a soapbox and say anything they like, at least in principle. The tradition goes back to the ghastly days when a man was allowed one last speech from the scaffold here at Tyburn, and could, if he wished, finally speak his mind - after all, he was about to die a grim and painful death, so he had nothing to lose...

The grim history gave way to something rather splendid. For much of the 20th century it was a rather jolly place, with lots of lively debates and some well-known speakers.  It doesn't have quite the same feel now, and I felt that its heyday has somehow passed. But I would like to think that freedom of speech is still a cherished tradition in our country. We must pray that this freedom, hard-won, is kept alive...

Sunday, June 22, 2014

By the sea...

...at Whitstable in Kent. Seagulls calling, and sunshine and a seabreeze, and  crowds and crowds of friends converging on the local church, where Fr Stephen Langridge was celebrating his Silver Jubilee with a glorious Mass and a most wonderful party. Great numbers of young people...and many of the young who buzzed around Balham when his parish was the home-base of Youth 2000 are now young-marrieds with babies of their own, so there was a wonderfully happy family-feel to the day. Baby noises of chirruping and gurgling and a bit of wailing during the Mass, but older children were beautifully behaved...and see note below about Communion.

And numbers of young men in training for the priesthod. Fr Stephen's work as Vocations Director is important, and it is so encouraging to meet the young men who will be tomorrow's priests.  The whole day was fun. There was lots of delicious food - a hog roast,vast salads, great ice-buckets of chilled wine. There were bowls of strawberries served with jugs of cream. There were old friends to greet... priests who had taught Fr Stephen long ago, or trained with him at the seminary, or worked with him...and people from Balham whose weddings he had celebrated, or whose children he baptised, or to whom he had simply been a popular and hard-working parish priest.

The Vocations Centre at Whitstable adjoins the church and forms part of a square around a wide lawn, with the parish school. It was all delightful with roses in bloom and bunting strung all around the garden, and so much happy talk and laughter...

Later, instead of going straight to the train, I walked along by the sea, and was hailed by two young friends from the party who with their baby were enjoying the late summer evening too...and we  had ice-creams and warm doughnuts, and paddled in the sea and it was all perfect...

Whitstable is the seaside as England best offers seaside, with the special addition of its famous oysters: pebbles and sand and families, a harbour with lots of boats, real activity with fishing and nets in proper muddly sheds and shelters, and  with oysters and fish-and-chips on sale, and real pubs with noise and beery men and nothing too posh or pretentious. As one chap said, stopping to admire the baby while carefully handing over a brimming plate of oysters to his own family "Who needs to go Abroad? This is marvellous, innit?"

On Communion: I've noticed that today's small Catholics automaticaly  fold their arms in the form of a cross  and bow their heads for a blessing  as their parents recieve Communion - this was not done at all when I was small, and instead we were left stranded in the pew. The young Catholic children of today walk up with their parents, and can see what happens at the reception of Holy Communion and so have some knowledge when their First Communion classes begin.  In my long-ago First Communion lessons, we had a  "This-is-what-to-do" session, but in our parish we had a rather awkward handing of the plate from one communicant to another, instead of a server holding it. My well-founded fear of dropping the plate - I have always been clumsy - lingers in the memory...

Excellent...

...and haunting drama presented by the TenTen Theatre, on the theme of the misery of the sex-trade, or what is  fashionably but accurately called "human trafficking".  Well worth watching. It was presented on Friday in North London, at a hall near Arnos Grove tube station. A warm night, and the hall was packed. As the drama unfolded, there was  a great tension, a tremendous engagement with the audience. Gripping, challenging, and thought-provoking - this is drama at its best. Go to see this play if you get the chance. And get TenTen into your local school. They are professional and superb. And this all costs money - so a donation would help.  Like all top-quality arts work, this needs support and sponsorship. Go for it.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Graduation and hope...

...at St Patrick's, Soho. This year's students from SPES, the St Patrick's School of Evangelisation, graduated at a beautiful Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, who came to Britain specially for the event. As I have been among the lecturer for the students, and have also taken them on History Walks around London, and joined in pilgrimages and other activities with them, it was a joy to be with them at their graduation. Afterwards, a reception with delicious food and wine, and a great mingling of many friends...all a delight.

BTW, excellent feature by the Bishop here, reflecting on St John Paul....

Saturday, June 14, 2014

In an uncertain and frequently frightening world...

...Britain is having a rather panicky discussion about what "British values" are and how we can teach them.  This latest chapter in our identity crisis emerged after revelations about the schools in the city of Birmingham. A good number of them are now exclusively Moslem. It is logical, indeed inevitable, that they teach Islam and are Islamic in culture and message. This is not something artificially imposed: it comes with the Islamic families who populate the city and therefore the schools.

If this is the reality in some of our cities, how can we foster some sort of unifying set of values that will enable the young people who inhabit Britain to live together in peace, Islamic and non-Islamic creating some sort of common community?

So the debate is on. The Prime Minister makes noises about values and culture. There are letters in the newspapers.  But there are things that people find difficult to say. Here are some of them:

- Our British traditions and culture rest entirely and specifically on the family unit of a man and a woman united in marriage. We have no other family tradition, and this understanding of family is one that can unite people across the divisions of race, religion, and class.

- For well over a thousand years - in fact, for almost two thousand - our laws and culture have been based on the Christian religion and the Ten Commandments. Ignorance of Christianity and the Ten Commandments means ignorance of  the driving force of our history, traditions, speech, music, literature and customs, the names of our towns and cities, our annual calendar, and hundreds of every things ranging from pub signs to nursery rhymes.

- Children in schools in Britain today are not taught history. They are blocked from studying the time-line that takes the history of these islands from the Roman Empire, via the arrival of the Angles and Saxons, to the Norman conquest, the Medieval era, the Reformation, the Tudors and Stuarts and on to the Civil War, and then the 18th and 19th centuries. They do not know why people speak English in India, Africa, Australia, and North America. They do not know why there are places in London named Waterloo and Trafalgar. They are only allowed to study certain events of the 20th century, repeatedly and without any background information.

- Moslems increasingly see British society as vulgar, gross, and nasty and our young people as drunken and sexually immoral. This perception discourages  Moslems  from wanting to associate themselves with the traditions and heritage of the country where they now form a majority in parts of several cities.

- It is possible - difficult, but possible - to create some sort of community together over the next years. It  will require considerable courage and goodwill especially from Christians. Things are going to be difficult. The chief contribution from the public authorities should be to cease encouraging sexual activity among teenagers, and  to promote male-female marriage and the birth of children.

Planning the...

....2014 Towards Advent Festival. It always seems odd to be hurrying off in summer heat to a meeting to organise brochures, check on speakers etc for this big November event. But it takes a lot of planning - and this year's looks set to be one of the best yet. We are unable to take any more bookings for stalls - the  hall is now full. More info here

Friday, June 13, 2014

Summer events...

...to be noted include:

June 22nd, at Westerham in Kent, a grand CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION  with the Guildford friary Brass Band. All welcome. Info here

The ORDINARIATE Pilgrimage to Walsingham, June 28th. Travelling from London?  Contact this parish and travel in comfort on the coach.

Join in a really special History Walk on Wednesday July 2nd, starting at Westminster Cathedral (which is dedicated to the Precious Blood), and walking along the banks of the Thames to the Church of the Most Precious Blood at London Bridge. Meet 5.30pm (NOTE TIME) on the Cathedral steps. Mass at Precious Blood Church at 7pm. No need to book - just turn up at the Cathedral, and walk with us...

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Rome...

...and  some unforgettable days in hot summer sunshine.

Sunday Mass at the Venerable English College, with a liturgy of great dignity and beauty with magnificent singing from the young men who are training to be our future priests, serving the English mission in the footsteps of the English Martyrs...

A conference in the Vatican, with representatives of Eastern European countries, including Poland's Lech Walesa, marking 25th anniversary of the extraordinary events of 1989.

A magnificent concert at the residence of the Australian ambassador to the Holy See - his wife is an accomplished concert pianist.

And much more, including a final evening with helicopters clattering overhead while an extraordinary gathering for prayer was taking place at the Vatican...

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

"Our Father..."

Do children in today's Britain know this prayer?  Are they taught it in school? How can we help children to know it and to pray it?

Read a bit more here...

A report on...

...the recent visit of the LOGS to the Vocations Centre is here with a rather charming formal pic of us by the shrine...

London is getting uglier...

...and uglier.

Leading some young people from SPES on a Catholic History Walk along the Thames from London Bridge to Tower Bridge, I noticed the large grey shields on the vast sheets of glass of the viciously ugly giant  "mobile phone"  block which now dominates the City skyline. These square grey shields are there because the fierce light blistering through the glass on this vast curved monstrosity had melted the cars in the street below and made it impossible for anyone to work in the shops or approach the area on foot. The shields are an attempt to mitigate the horror of the heat, but they won't work very well, and the whole street below has been blighted.

The ugly tower is just one of  the horrible, huge, dominating chunks of masonry to wreck our city. The towers are not owned by Londoners, and do not contribute to the city's life. Across the river, great blocks of flats are being built, which are not offered for sale in Britain, but advertised overseas, and will not be family homes but simply used for overnight stays by rich potentates from far away.

The rich mix of people who felt that London was their home, and who knew and loved their own special corner of it, and who identified with London's history...all this is disappearing.

Some day, the ugly towers may come down, and the city be allowed to operate on a human scale again. Meanwhile, it is sad to walk along by the river and to know that the rich history...Saxons and Viking battles, and kings and saints and soldiers and heroes and families...is being crushed by concrete and by the loss of ordinary homes in which Londoners can afford to live..

Sunday, June 01, 2014

The latest...

issue of The Portal has, among much else, a review of Auntie's latest book...

...and...

...after a beautiful day at the Vocations Centre in Whitstable, I've come to understand more and more the urgency with which we must pray for more priests, young men of faith, courage, piety and zeal, committed to the New Evangelisation and inspired by Saint John Paul the Great to do great and holy things in this new Millenium...

Dear Bishops: WE WANT OUR FEAST-DAYS BACK!!!

PLEASE!!!

Today we had to celebrate the Feast of the Ascension. But the message got a bit lost: this is a wonderful Feast and it just melted away as it all just felt like an ordinary Sunday.

It just isn't working out. The idea of "moving a feast-day to the nearest Sunday" has muddled everyone. It means that  Catholic schools miss out: they can't celebrate the feast with the children. And it's no use saying that the  children will celebrate on the Sunday because in too many cases THEIR PARENTS DON'T TAKE THEM TO MASS ON SUNDAYS.  So a Catholic school must evangelise them. Why rob the school of this task?

And how do you teach about what a "Novena" is? It's all based on the Scriptural account of the days between the Ascension and Pentecost - and we've been robbed of those days.

Please, dear Bishops of England and Wales: GIVE US BACK OUR FEAST-DAYS.