Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The feast of St Edward the Confessor...

...and I went to the morning Mass at Westminster Cathedral, as I was due to meet ladies from the Tolworth branch of the Union of Catholic Mothers to take them on a Catholic History Walk. It was a golden October morning with a fresh winter-is-coming zest to the air, a perfect day for walking.  After Mass we enjoyed a good look at the Cathedral and discussed its history and that of its Archbishops from the present down down through Bourne and Vaughan etc to Wiseman...and then we went off down towards the Horseferry Road and along Great Peter Street, noting the names of streets that date back to the Westminster monks of old...St Matthew Street...St Ann Street...and so to the Abbey and Parliament...

We stopped outside St Matthew's Church   and had a notable encounter:  John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need, and the Archbishop of Aleppo in Syria who is visiting Britain to talk about the plight of his people, suffering under fanatical Moslem fighters...the Archbishop was on his way to Parliament to talk to MPs, and had just given a press conference...

As the morning ended, and I made my way to my next meeting, the glorious bells of Westminster Abbey were creashing and pealing out in celebration of St Edward.

Our last Saxon king, a saint, and one of the great names that echo through our long history. St Edward, pray for England!


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