Suddenly, on a tube train...

...something glorious.

We were squashed together, packed like sardines. My bulky suitcase got in everyone's way. "What have you got in there?" some one asked, attempting to heave it to one side to get a bit more room for feet. "Well, actually" I said "It's books. Prizes for a children's project." "What's the project?" he asked, so I told him. A handwriting and artwork thing: children have to write out the Lord's Prayer "So many just don't know it today, which seems a pity."  "Well, I know it" he said, and began, tentatively at first and then with growing confidence: "Our Father, who art in Heaven..." and then others joined in, and then others "...hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come...Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven..."

A chorus of men's strong voices, rising above the  rattle of the train, in the noisy rush-hour, in the heart of London, roaring towards Southwark tube station,..."Give us this day our daily bread...forgive us our trespasses..." and somehow, suddenly, it was a moment of transcendent glory.

We rattled into the station ("change here for Waterloo East") and they poured out, the last words of the prayer lost in the rush and the hubbub...and with a wave and grin it was all over...
Something glorious.
Amen.

The Bishops of Canada...

...speaking in unison, and with the support of leaders of Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities in Canada, have urged all Canadians to oppose government plans to legalise killing and "assisted suicide". Read here...

 “Killing the mentally and physically ill, whether young or aged, is contrary to caring for and loving one’s brother and sister.”

An excellent lecture...

...by Francis Campbell, organised by the Catholic Union...he tackled the whole question of the Catholic role in a secular society and I found it very inspiring..  I hope the lecture will be published in due course:.his approach is very much that of Benedict XVI. A vision for the future, a message of hope.

Deus caritas est...

...and a celebration of Benedict XVI's beautiful encyclical...read here...

In London's Trafalgar Square...

...on Good Friday, this will be happening

I spent today underground...

...or semi-underground. But with freshly-brewed coffee, around a pleasant table. We were in the crypt of the Church of our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More in Chelsea, and were busy packing and posting leaflets for the  Association of Catholic Women, The Association is holding a Lenten Day of Recollection on Saturday March 5th at St James Church, Spanish Place, 10 am - 4pm. All welcome. 

The ACW runs an annual project for Catholic primary schools and so we were also busy tackling the brochures for that. A quiet and useful day...

This crypt has a poignant history. During World War II it served as an air raid shelter but, tragically, in September 1940 the church took a direct hit...you can read about it here...

After the war the main part of the crypt was filled in, and the rest rebuilt as a parish hall. In recent years it has been remodelled again, with a modern kitchen etc...and has been named in honoured memory of a popular parishioner, a young husband and father, Jonathan Monckton, who was murdered by gunmen trying to burgle his home.

As we finished our work, parish catechist Patti Fordyce was busy setting things ready for the children's weekly class, which is following the Good Shepherd (Montesorri) plan. Beautiful home-made figures of  Mary and the Angel in a little Nazareth house. A Shepherd and his sheepfold, and lambs that follow him as they hear his voice...

...and re the BBC and St John Paul...

...read here...

A Cathedral Sunday...

....began for me in Westminster Cathedral, with a glorious sung Mass...I am not often at this great London cathedral on a Sunday, and I relished every moment. It was, of course, absolutely full, but I was able to get a place and it is so superb as the choir and clergy waft in from the sacristy, rounding their way to the main aisle and then up through to the the sanctuary, the choir apparently effortlessly singing their way into the apse...

Afterwards, a good chat with Canon Christopher Tuckwell,...various things to discuss re Catholic History walks etc...I mentioned that I would be going on to Chichester, and he reminisced about studying there back in the days of the  former (Anglican) Theological College...

And so to Sussex on a lovely train ride through wet but glorious countryside. Then Chichester,...and after an excellent and busy lunch with my fellow Committee members of the  History Walks project (planning for 2016...more of that later), I treated myself to a wander around the glorious Cathedral in the evening light.

They offer some attractive activities for children to help them understand the history. One is a Victorian afternoon, in which they  dress up in costume, learn about Victorian life in Chichester and also about the collase of that enormous spire, one of the most dramatic events of the city in that era...and in other similar workshops they can  learn about St Richard Wych, and about Bishop Luffa, and more...

It is a sad thing about the 1992 decision that smashed ecumenical hopes. Perhaps it was all inevitable. The Ordinariate has salvaged the best of it all.

Cardinal George Pell...

...is a  truly great man who serves his country and the Church with honour, courage, and thoroughgoing decency. He is a great Australian, a great Christian and a noble servant of the Church. In attacking him, his enemies iinsult and attack the Church.

Give him the support of your prayers. 

The BBC and Saint John Paul...

...read here...

In Oxfordshire...

...visiting family...

On  Sunday March 13th there will be a Traditional Passion Play in the town  centre of Abingdon. beginning with the arrival of Christ and  a donkey across the town square, with plam branches and a cheering crowd, and going through the drama of Christ's death and resurrection, complete with Roman soldiers, Pharisees, Pontius Pilate presiding at the trial, three Crosses erected by the Town Hall,,...read about it here or, better, simply join the crowds in Abingdon on Palm Sunday (11.30 am, repeated 2.30pm)...

Beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict....

...will be the subject of a talk at the CTS Bookshop in Westminster Cathedral Piazza on Wed February 24th, at 1pm (following the 12.30pm Mass)...all are welcome...admission free.

This is one of a series of lunchtime talks, and follows one given last month of Pope St John Paul the Great.The bookshop is small, the talks are often crowded...it's enjoyable, and it is all designed to fit into a busy lunchtime schedule....so do come and join in....

MERCY...

...and a most inspiring day conference - really more like a day's retreat with a contemplative and prayerful mood throughout - exploring the theme of God's mercy.

Held at St Joseph's, New Malden (famous for, among much else, its Mary Garden, loved by local people of all faiths and featured on EWTN), the day was held to mark the Year of Mercy. Sponsored by the Guild of Our Lady and St Joseph, it began with an excellent explanation of the great Mercy Door, created in 1949 and  opened by Pope Francis to launch this special year. Each panel on this door tells about God's great love and, telling the story of our redemption from the beginning. Incidentally, the speaker as also produced a rather good booklet on the theme  of mercy, available from the CTS...

We were then introduced, Fr Father Dariusz Mazewski, to the story of St Faustina, and the Divine Mercy prayers. This brought back memories of visits to Krakow, and that big Mercy shrine on the road leading out towards the quarry and factory area where St John Paul worked as a labourer in the grim years of WWII.  What I had not pondered, until this talk, was how innovative  and important Sister Faustina's message was...and how magnificent that, half a century later, she would be canonised as the first saint of this 21st century, by the young labourer whose daily trudge to work had taken him past that convent...the labourer recalled his personal memories when dedicating the great shrine...

The day's talks were interpersed with prayer and with a good soup-and-sandwiches lunch, and the final session of the day was devoted to a talk by Fr Dominic Allain of Grief to Grace, showing a practical work of mercy in action. And then we finished with Vespers and Benediction...

Shrovetide and Lent....youth and age...

...began for me with young relatives in the West of England. A delicious breakfast, and a small great-niece about  to be introduced to the seasonal traditions with a Pancake Race planned for the village later in the day.  There was much discussion about the weather, because with the river in flood it looked as though the bridge might have to be closed and the traditional race re-routed or abandoned...somehow time merges into history when  a new generatiion is told about an old custom, and a new cycle of seasons rolls on...

I had to return to London and the train swooshed past flooded fields ...and so home in mild sunshine...and a minor flood in the house, where an ageing radiator had sprung a leak. Much mopping of carpets and telephoning for a plumber and so on...

Then Ash Wednesday, and  ashes at the nursing home where a beloved elderly relative  lives. A quietly beautiful ceremony, the traditional cross of ashes places on our foreheads by a kindly visiting  Bishop I first knew as a teenager...again a sense of time and history merging...

...There is something about getting older...

...that gives you a longer perspective, a telescope to see much further. You can look further back, and it gives you insights into the way things work and the way time rolls on. 

Some day, probably in about 20 or 25 years from now, there will be people taking out lawsuits because they were given as children to enthusiastic homosexual campaigners as part of a massive drive to boost what is today called "gay adoption". They will want to know who they really are, and what unknown uncles and aunts and cousins they may have. They will want to know why they were obliged to be brought up in a lifestyle that they were never allowed to criticise and why anyone who expressed sympathy for them or challenged the absolute correctness of the "gay adoption" schemes were threatened with punishments.

Some day, probably in about ten years or so from now, some of the people who were born as a result of various forms of artificial insemination will be angry and want to know who they really are, whether they have brothers and sisters, whether any brothers and sisters were destroyed as embryos, and why.

Some day, probably a little further ahead, social commentators and historians will be asking why children were made to parrot nonsense about "gender fluidity" at school, and troubled children were given powerful hormone drugs while awaiting mutilation to "change their gender". There will be lawsuits there, too...

Today, we are appalled to view the advertisments for slaves, once commonly displayed in newspapers and at markets, listing for sale men and women, boys and girls, deemed to be just what might be needed for brutally hard work and no pay. We are disgusted to know that you could buy a postcard depicting a runaway slave being hanged. It all seemed politically correct at the time.

Back in the 1970s a group promoting paedophilia was affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties, Somehow, in those days, having sexual activity with children was seen as connected with freedom. Today, there is revulsion about it and the people who were then leadimg figures with the NCCL say they "regret" that  the paedophile lobby group was affiliated to their organisation. It's a start.

There will be a great need for mercy in future years: Christian love and mercy as people repent of things that they will say they honestly didn't fully understand at the time. The Year of Mercy is important, teaching us ways to admit wrongdoing and repent. It's going to be a message that a desperately unstable, angry, divided and broken nation will need. We must hope that we are allowed to grasp it: the strangehold of today's nasty ideas is supported by the legal structures of the sort that once upheld slavery, and by attitudes and official regulations banning  criticism of things deemed politically correct even if inhumane.

Kyrie eleison...

Through storm Imogen.....

...to Bristol to the University  Cathsoc on Sunday evening. A packed Mass, lines of young people receiving Communion w. great reverence. A  warm welcome, a delicious curry supper, and then a talk on  our Christian feasts and seasons...

During the night, staying in the warm and  comfortable chaplaincy - a fine old house 19th century, I think formerly the local rectory - rain and wind lashed Bristol, and getting to the station in the morning meant a drenching...trains were delayed, but everyone was pleasant and helpful. What a blessing it is to be able to get a decent cup of coffee...back in my younger days the food at railway stations was revolting!

MERCY - THE WAY OF THE FATHER...

...a day of devotion sponsored by the Guild of Our Lady and St Joseph.

St Joseph's Church Hall, Montem Road,  New Malden KT3 3QW

To book: guildofourladyandstjoseph@gmail.com
Cost £20.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 13th  
10.30 am (Mass 10am in the church)

Talks: 
THE DOOR OF MERCY

DIVINE MERCY: MORE THAN A DEVOTION

MERCY AND HEALING

Opportunities for confession and adoration...

The day finishes with Vespers at 3.30pm

)

On beauty and renewal in the liturgy...

... the timeless Mass,...the importance of the sacred...read here...

Candlemas....

marks the final end of the Christmas season.

Christmas is 40 days long...like Lent, like Easter...

Numbers are very important in Scripture, and in the life of the Church and our lives.

A child spends 40 weeks in the womb before he is ready to be born. The Istraelites spent 40 years in the desert...Christ spent forty days in prayer and fasting before beginning his public ministry.

Even in folklore we find this number is important: we speak of having "forty winks" when we have a short necessary rest in the daytime.

Auntie Joanna's book gives more information on the Calendar and how it all works...

The Chevalier Wogan...

...was the man who, in the 18th century, succeeded, after various adventures, in securing the hand of Maria Clementina Sobielska, of the Polish royal family, in marriage to James Francis  Edward Stuart, of the British royal family.

The child of that marriage is known to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

And the Wogan family cherish their heritage and are proud of their ancestor's adventures and chivalric exploits.

I learned of this from Terry Wogan, with whom I had a fascinating conversation in a BBC radio studio, after an interview on his morning radio show.  I knew about the Chevalier story - my husband is a keen member of the Royal Stuart Society - and asked him about it, wondering if there was a family link...and of course he was keen to talk about it all...

A delightful, genuine, and throroughly nice man: he knew the Jacobite stories and the conversation was fun.  A rare, rare thing among modern broadcasters: a genuine sense of humour, plenty of self-mockery,a good general knowledge and a sense of history. And a Catholic, who attended Mass with his wife even though he claimed to have all sorts of doubts about his faith and was cynical about many aspects of Church life. A good man.

and read about a 5th birthday...

here...