Saturday, April 30, 2016

800 years...

...of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) was marked on the feast of St Catherine of Sienna with a glorious Vespers at Westminster Cathedral.  It was a fine sight to see the long columns of  - mainly young -  Dominicans in their white robes, followed by  clergy including red-clad Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, various Bishops, and finally  Archbishop Vincent Nichols in cope and mitre, proceeding to the sanctuary in a packed cathedral.  A most heartening  afternoon - inspirational.  I had been reading about the prospects for Britain and for Europe generally...one of those feature articles that points to the inexorable rise of Islam and the prospects for our future...it was good to be reminded that we can, must and will keep the Faith alive here...

We had some splendid hymns including my favourite "For all the saints..." which we sang at Cofton Park, when beloved Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the beatification Mass for Bl John Henry Newman.... We sang with gladness, and it is a joyful hymn but has a solemnity about it which strikes a deep echo today: "The golden evening brightens in the west..."

Afterwards, much talk at a gathering in the Throne Room at Archbishop's House...and in fact the whole of the building, and more,  was being used as there was also a gathering in the Cathedral Hall, and in addition a room at the nearby Windsor Castle pub had also been pressed into service...and then later people were still chatting away as they made their final goodbyes in the piazza and Victoria Street.

This was one of those days when you could see English Catholicism in action and listen to its heartbeat. Pounding steadily with a strong and healthy rhythm, I would say.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Sound words on AMORIS LAETITIA...

...from a Bishop. Read here...

Monday, April 25, 2016

...and while thinking about all things English...re Shakespeare's anniversary...

...read Auntie here...

to Darlington....

...and thence to Gainford, where the Darlington Ordinariate Group is now based. An enchanting village church, and a wonderful neighbourly spirit...a grand Dinner for St George's Day, with Henry V's speech before Harfleur, and roastbeefandYorkshirepudding, and  the arrival of St George in full armour...We sang "Rose of England" which to my shame I had not heard before...and then finished with the National Anthem which  virtually lifted the roof from the village hall...

Next morning, a robed choir with crisp white surplices accompanied a most glorious Mass, with a full church and lots of altar servers and a great roar of voices for all the Mass responses.

Later at lunch, lively conversation and also thoughtful discussion about the future of things...Britain...the Ordinariate...evangelisation...challenges...

Saturday, April 23, 2016

The Bishops...

...have issued  a special prayer for the Queen to be used in all parishes to mark her 90th Birthday. It is rather moving and they are also recommending the book The Servant Queen and the King she Serves...

Leading students from...

....St Mary's Twickenham, on a Catholic History Walk around Westminster. A pleasant and friendly group - I explained that, if it rained, we'd get wet, and no point in worrying too much about it, and there were  general grins and goodwill.  Anyone who has been through a British education over the past few years has been taught very little history, and they enjoy learning: eager faces, much scrabbling for notebooks and jotting-things-down at various points. They were reverent in Westminster Cathedral, especially  before the Blessed sacrament,  kept pace as worked our way down Ambrosden Aenue and Great Peter Street talking through the events of the through the 19th, 16th, and  11th centuries, and joined in a good discussion about words and meanings as we explored the origins of Horseferry Road and thought about that word fer, which gives us transfer,  prefer, refer...

Most of today's school pupils are allowed to learn very little poetry: when I quoted Wordsworth  On Westminster Bridge it didn't register so they couldn't respond with any opinion  when I asked whether he was any good as a poet (daffodils?).

It was a two-hour walk.Over a well-deserved cup of tea near Westminster Bridge we continued the discussion about words. I asked about the ubiquitous "like" which patters its way into every senetence, every phrase, with incessant repetition. One girl ventured an explanation which I think is useful "It's really about paraphrasing" she said  "You can't always repeat a conversation verbatim, so you say 'she was like'  instead of  'she said' because you don't want to claim you're being completely accurate." I think this is a fair point, and at least explains how the thing began. We must hope that , like, it will, like, eventually, like. move on....

I found these young people cheering. Some are going to World Youth Day. Two or three  plan to be RE teachers. Pottering home in the rain I felt a faint sense of comfort.


CHORAL EVENSONG...

...here on Thursday evening, with glorious music. Mass in the Ordinariate form.

This was the 5th anniversary of the South London Ordinariate group, and so much has happened in that time - an evening of celebration Supper aftewards and much lively talk...

Choral Evensong  and Mass will be celebrated every Thursday from now on through the summer term, all welcome: list of music here...


Thursday, April 21, 2016

I hurried across ...

... from St James' Park towards Pall Mall as I was due to lunch  with a kind friend at the Travellers' Club...

But the crowds around Buckingham Palace were so thick that it was impossible to cross the road at any point....bands were marching, people were taking pictures...

At first I felt a bit annoyed, wondering how to say "Excuse me...I want to cross the road..." in Korean, Japanese, and all the dozens of other languages...and then I stopped.   ENJOY!!!  HM's 90th Birthday is a day to take stock, give thanks for a long reign and the stability that we currently enjoy in Britain. The springtime sunshine, the Union flag waving out from the Palace flagpole (HM was at Windsor, so no Royal Standard), the cheerful crowds, and the sight of  Guards marching superbly... Deo Gratias.


A Catholic heroine...

...to whom I have a special devotion... it gave me real pleasure to be invited to write about her...read here...

Monday, April 18, 2016

Theology of the Body, Amoris Laetitia etc...

...read Auntie's report on a recent conference at the International Theological Institute here...

Sunday, April 17, 2016

A story that I cannot resist telling...

...had an important chapter in Cheltenham on Friday.

It begins 49 years ago.

As a Girl Guide, I wrote a feature for The Guide magazine, describing how, as a Patrol Leader (8th Carshalton Guides)  I had taken my Patrol camping  in the grounds of my school during the Easter holidays.  I had just acquired my Patrol Camp Permit (entitling me to wear a  green lanyard, which felt very important)  - and the school grounds were approved as being safe, with access to clean water etc. It seemed very exciting, and rather weird, to be , busy with making fires and cooking sausages and so on, in a place that we normally knew only in its formal setting with lessons and teachers and school uniform. Indeed, the very place where we were camping - up in The Meadow, beyond the lake - would normaly have been Out of Bounds.

The magazine published my feature, complete with photographs, and a short while later I received a letter from a Guide in Gloucester, suggesting that it might be fun to be pen-friends.

So began a correspondence which has lasted for nearly half a century. Ann proved to be a wonderful correspondent. Our early letters were all about Guiding  - camping and hiking and gaining badges, leading Patrol projects, being members of the Court of Honour... We both in due course  became Queen's Guides. We both took seriously the message about service and responsibility - all rooted in the immense fun of Guiding, the sense that this was all connected with learning that life should be  - as the message from HM the Queen put it on our certificates - "a joyful adventure"...

And the years whooshed on through "A" levels and the starting of careers - Ann as a pharmacist, me as a journalist - and then marriage...

We met briefly, once, in 1980, when Ann was in London...time was limited, we got on well, but there wasn't even the opportunity to have a proper long talk together...

And the years whooshed on again...and we were now writing mostly just at Christmas, and then it was emails...

Somehow we never telephoned, and even the arrival of Skype didn't change things...but the writing continued.

And then, a couple of months ago, Ann saw my name on the programme for the Cheltenham Christian Arts Festival (see Blog entry below). We fixed a date for lunch.

We later each admitted to a certain nervousness. Perhaps we just wouldn't get on, wouldn't have anything much to say to one another...

At the station, there was a momentary hesitation as these two ladies in late middle-age looked at one another and then:"Ann?" "Joanna?" and we shook hands. Then:"Let's do this properly!"  and we gave the Guide salute, and offered our left hands (is that still the tradition? it was so in our day...) and laughed...

And then we had the most wonderful, talkative, unforgettable lunch and the years peeled away and we reminisced about childhood,schooldays, Guiding of course, and so much more...

Forty nine years.

We found that we still had so much in common, a strong sense of shared values, the same sense of life as an adventure...

It is impossible to convey just what this day meant.

And if you have read this far and think it all just sounds a trivial story and isn't worth blogging about - well...you have simply missed out on the joy of life's adventure and the things that really matter.

Ann and I will keep on writing (we've already exchanged post-lunch emails with great joy). And it won't be another 49 years before we meet up again.

Thank God for Guiding and Scouting and all that it has given to the world.

Thank God for a happy day and a reminder that life should be lived as a joyous adventure...






SPIRIT IN THE CITY...

...is a summer event in London that is centred on Leicester Square and Soho and involves all sorts of events including the launch of a new fil about Mary...info here...

Saturday, April 16, 2016

...to the Cheltenham Christian Arts Festival...

...to the launch of a book SOMEDAY, by Corinna Turner.  This is a novel based on the grim events in Nigeria, where the Moslem terrorist group Boko Haram (which literally translates as "Books Forbidden", ie "Education Forbidden") kidnapped a group of girls from a Christian school. The book launch took place on the  2nd anniversary of the kidnapping.

Proceeds from the book are going to the work of Aid to the Church in Need, which is supporting Christians in Nigeria.

Corinna's book imagines the kidnapping taking place in Britain. Read it yourself: you can order it  here...

It was good to be part of the Christian Arts Festival  and  to support Corinna's initiative: there was an excellent turn-out for the book launch, which took place at The Old Priory, St Gregory the Great church.

The fate of most of the girls from the Nigerian school is unknown, altough  a number are known to have been killed...others were  presented in a propaganda photograph in long Moslem robes and it seems they are to be forced into "marriage" with some of the terrorists...

In Berlin...

...some years ago, studying wartime history, I came across the name of Bishop George Bell of Chichester, about whom I knew little at the time. As I stidied more, I came to admire this figure. There is something rather disturbing about the way his reputation has now been treated: read here...

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

On the document AMORIS LAETITIA....

...this is an excellent guide and analysis...

At the conference at the International Theological Institute, I asked the question about people in public life - judges, magistrates, local councillors, head teachers,  chairmen of school governing commitees, etc - who publicly, or even privately, affirm that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and who are denounced and excoriated, and risk losing their jobs.  How can we offer help and support? General consensus: this is a time for courage and things are going to be tough. We Christians  in what is generally called the West have had a very easy time of things in recent decades - no persecution, no hounding us out of our homes or churches etc. But that is not the common fate of Christians down the centuries. We need to face the reality of the way things appear to be going. An African bishop noted that the question had been raised by an English woman and spoke of St Thomas More...

All of which I already knew, really. But it's somehow rather chilling to have it all discussed in a matter-of-fact way.

Years ago, I remember discussions in which we said that examples of courage from eastern Europe were an inspiration to us and that we too should show courage if and when we needed to do so...

St John Paul, Bl. Jerzy Popieliszko, pray for us...

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

In Austria...

...the conference was superb and I have come away with so much to study and think about...among the best lectures was Dr Paul Vitz examining the complementarity of men and women, absolutely fascinating. Also Graham Hutton, whom I know well  through our joint work with  Aid to the Church in Need, spoke superbly on St John Paul's Theology of the Body.

I attended the conference with Patti Fordyce, chairman of the Association of Catholic Women.  It was fascinating to meet  Archbishop Gintaras Grusas of Vilnius, and the conversation we had with him is one I will never forget.  We were discussing the film - recently shown in London -  about the original "Divine Mercy" painting in Vilnius,  and he said gently "Yes...I know about this film...I directed it..."  Then as the conversation developed, we learned his story.  His parents met and married before WWII, and the events of the war separated them, his mother remaining in Lithuania while his father, after being captured by the Germans,  later remained in the West, finally making his way to America.  For over ten years neither knew where the other was. Finally, through various contacts, each discovered that the other was alive...and finally, following the death of Stalin and some meetings between Soviet and American diplomats and officials, they were reunited and settled in the USA.  He was born a year later, in 1961.

He grew up to be - no surprises - a campaigner for human and religious rights in Lithuania, and through  the early 1980s organised various activities in the USA and abroad...later, on following a call to the priesthood, he foiund that, in the extraordinary circumstances following the fall of Communism, he would finally return to his family's native land and in due course become Archbishop of its capital city...

The Divine Mercy story is all connected with this history - when St Faustina first had the visions of Christ, it was in what was then the Polish city of Wilno....today Vilnius...

There are Polish/Lithuanian loyalties: Poland rightly claims St Faustina as a daughter of Poland, but Vilnius cherishes its unique and special claim to be the place where this most powerful and important message was given to the world, and where the image of Christ was painted according to St Faustina's specific instructions....an image subtly but importantly different from the various sentimental popularised versions which became known in the years when Vilnius and its treasure were effectively  hidden from the wider world by the Iron Curtain....

Saturday, April 09, 2016

And Mother Angelica...

...was commemorated on the BBC's obituary programme Last Word and you can listen to it here...

Friday, April 08, 2016

Vienna...

...and a train through glorious mountain scenery to Baden, for a  conference at the International Theological Institute., discussing Papa Francis' new Exhortation Amoris Laetitia...

The Exhortation is a good read, a clear message affirming the beauty of marriage between a man and a woman, the central importance of fatherhood and motherhood - and the difference between the two - the joy of family life, the  glory of the gift of children, the need to honour and respect our parents and to give special honour to the elderly, and more...and more...there is good material on the importance of helping young people to prepare for marriage,  on the family as a true community embracing in-laws and aunts and uncles and so on, there is joyful emphasis on how families must protect and cherish the young, and a strong message on why some current forms of sex education are so wrong...and there is a whole wide vision of what is really meant by family and human dignity... homosexual unions are specifically excluded as absolutely in no way analgous to marriage...kindness and goodwill are emphasised...there is a vision of the whole human community and how we must all help one another...

And, no, it doesn't say that remmarriage after divorce is acceptable to the Church or that people in such unions should go to Communion. So those who are poring over it desperately trying to announce that the Pope is about the initiate changes in Church teaching should stop wasting their time.

At the ITI we'll be hearing from Cardinal Christoph Schonnborn tomorrow - he  is Grand Chancellor of the Institute and is flying here straight from Rome to be with us...

Thursday, April 07, 2016

...and a trip to the BBC...

...to do a piece for an obituary programme about Mother Angelica. Radio 4: "The Last Word". Not sure when it will be broadcast.

It's been a while since I've done anything at Broadcasting House. They've moved the reception desk but otherwise it hadn't changed much.

But I had a few moments in which to sit and ponder in the entrance hall, and suddenly it did somehow feel quite poignant staring again  at that magnificent inscription by Sir John Reith, dedicated this "temple of the arts and muses" to God with the prayer, echoing that of St Paul, that "all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished thence, and that the people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely and honest, whatsoever things are of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom."  That was placed there in 1931. The Beeb that I have known in my working life has sometimes been of a rather different message. But today's discussion went well, and it is something to note and remember: Mother Angelica of EWTN was given a BBC obituary.




Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Staggering to...

...the Post Office with parcels of books, prizes gained by children who have entered the 2016 Children's Handwriting and Artwork Project, which involves them writing out the Lord's Prayer. Hot work going back and forth, but there's something very satisfying about posting books to children....

Over the past couple of years we've all become used to the new machines at Post Offices. These are steadily replacing the humans who used to do things: and how horrid it is.  Today the one young man who was around to assist was hard-working, enthusiastic and extremely helpful: he obviously enjoyed knowing what to do and how to do it, and was quietly efficient and authoritative - and  very kind to this irritating muddled lady who put the wrong stamps on her parcels and needed to be calmed down and helped. WE ALL APPRECIATE SUCH ASSISTANCE: it's what we humans are all about. And the Post office is a great British institution: it was a British invention, with the Penny Post and the glories of an efficient postal communication system which spread across the British Empire.

Post Offices can make money by selling items that we need,..the service they provide is central to people's lives and is going to stay that way.  Trying to save money by using robots instead of humans isn't a real saving,and lacks a sense of enterprise and forward thinking.

Working on...

...some research on catchetical materials. One "Childen's Liturgy" resource book is bad to the point of dark comedy.

There is an obsession with  cutting and sticking and getting children to put glitter on to the cardboard tubes from the centres of lavatory rolls, and so on. This sort of thing, if it teaches children anything, teaches them about cutting and sticking and glitter.

On the other hand, I came across some children's work which involved them learning some basics about Lent and Easter: "Lent is a time for...
Loving God more,
 saying sorry,
finding hope and forgiveness,
cleaning up our lives,
making new beginnings." Which seemed a good summary and worth learning.




Baptism...

...was the subject of the firat talk in the new series of Evenings of Faith, held this evening at the hall at St Mary of the Angels Church in Baywater. This new series of talks is being held at two venues alternately: Bayswater and Brompton Oratory. The talk this evening  filled the room, extra chairs brought in etc. Sister Andrea Fraile was the speaker and tackled the subject well, exploring first the nature of what a Sacrament is and emphasising the reality of Christ among us, with us, in us, in the Church...

As with all FAITH events, things went on in a lively talkative way over wine and pizza...in due course Sister Andrea and I made our way to The Borough London Bridge where she was being given accomodation for the night before returning to Glasgow the next day. Again, a warm welcome, hospitality, and lots of good and useful talk...out of such discussions, mny good ideas often emerge, swapping of information and initiatives...

The FAITH Movement has always attracted a lot of men, and has been a focus for many priestly vocations over the past three or four decades. Of course women attend too...and the Sisters of the Gospel of Life - of which Sister Andrea is a member -  the first new religious order to be founded in Scotland since the 16th century, has direct links with the FAITH Movement.

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

...and on Saint John Paul the Great...

...a Catholic news agency has posted this beautiful tribute on the anniversary of his passing to glory...

News that...

...the Lefebvrist leader has had a meeting with the Pope seems to indicate that they, or some of them,  are thinking of submitting to the Church...

They have various internal factions, but have invariably been united on one thing: a passionate denouncing of Saint John Paul. This has been a major part of their message for years, and in trying to oppose his canonisation they became postively obsessive...but the great saint was closer to God than they were, and so on the anniversary of his passing to glory, they find themselves evidently having a rethink...

Monday, April 04, 2016

Travelling by Tube...

...which I have done routinely since my teens, is rather depressing at present because there are so many rather horrible advertisments. There is one for men's perfume which is vaguely sinister in its attempt to blur sexes so you can't tell if those pictured are male or female. And its huge and somehow attempts to fill all the space so even if you move further down the platform it still leers. There are several that are simply vulgar and sort of pornographic. I tend to read most of the time when travelling but it's annoying on a platform when you have to be alerrt to secure a place as the train arrives - the the nasty ads are omnipresent.

Children's Handwriting and Artwork ...

...has been arriving  from various schools across Greater London in recent weeks for an ecumenically-sponsored project encouraging children to learn the Lord's Prayer. Today a team began the task of reading project entries and awarding prizes...my task was to help with wrapping and packing, which I enjoy as it involves lots of paper and sellotape and so on and is somehow very satisfying.

Saturday, April 02, 2016

...and a gathering in London...

... or, rather, beneath London, in the crypt of St Patrick's Church in Soho, to view a new film about the original Divine Mercy painting.

St Faustina had the visions of Christ while at a convent in what is today Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania,  once part of Poland.  The message from Christ was to paint a picture, a very specific image about mercy, with rays of light streaming out from His heart...

With no personal talent or training in art, Faustina was helped by her confessor who found a painter who produced, under  the nun's daily and detailed directions, a powerful image. Christ is seen in a white, simple but vaguely liturgical, robe, against a dark background, his eyes  lowered and serious, one hand gently indicating his breast from where bright white and red light flows. It is subtly different in lots of ways from all the subsequent Divine Mercy images. One significant change is that his right hand, raised in blessing, is held at shoulder-level: apparently this was the liturgical rule at the time, and it is a different style from the larger generous sweeping gesture shown in the popularised images.

As the film explains, the events of World War II and its aftermath meant a complicated series of journeys for this picture - hidden in an atttic, displayed for years in a remote country church,...meanwhile devotion to the Divine Mercy swept Poland and a number of other paintings were commissioned by various people, but none were strictly accurate.

After the fall of Communism, the whole full story was pieced together: the original picture is now at the shrine in Vilnius.

I detected a faint Poland/Lithuania tension as the tale unfolded, though this was not mentioned by the (American) narrator or any of the other people and may not really have occurred...on reflection I think it was all just part of the tragedy of those years of the 1930,40s,and 50s and on through the 70s. The film features interviews with Lithuanian bishops, priests, a nun, historians, an art expert..., some speaking in English, others with sub-titles, who tell the whole story rather well and explain the background to each complicated chapter of the picture's history.  Then as the discussion widens to include the whole Divine Mercy story, there are a  number of  well-known Catholic commentators (Cardinal Schonborn, Fr Leo Masburg, George Weigel): it is a fine and most interesting piece of work, well researched.

It was odd to hear Lithuaniians talking, in a grim but everyday way, about people arrested and sent  to Siberia for years in prison-camps. For them, it is a normal thing to discuss. In a ghastly and somehow drab, ordinary sort of way, life in a Soviet-dominated land suddenly became real, instead of something dramatic about  Iron Curtain Prisoners.

After the film, we went outside, to gather in a side-street by the church's Mercy Door. Fr Alexander led us in prayer, and as we trooped inside, singing a hymn, I glimpsed the faces of two workmen standing nearby, who were singularly unimpressed.   We must have looked rather ridiculous, and I suddenly realised that's how so many religious events and processions must appear...

Then prayer before the Blessed sacrament, and confessions, and the Divine Mercy unfolding....


Nominations are invited...

... for the Catholic Women of the Year in Britain 2016. 

The Chairman of the CWOY committee writes:
Any Catholic woman in Britain can be nominated - we are looking for the "unsung heroines": these may be women who are active in their local parish or community, in visiting the sick or imprisoned, in preparing children for First Communion or helping with projects for the aged or housebound. There are  women upholding Catholic values in education or in public or professonal life. There are Catholic women who raise funds for charity, take sick pilgrims to Lourdes, or are simply good friends and neighbours to those in need and joyful examples of Christian living at work and at home. Nominators may think of women who have been particularly helpful to them in their own journey of faith or, in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, women who particularly exemplify one of the corporal or spiritual works of mercy.

All that is required is a letter, setting out, ideally on one page, the reasons why the person concerned is worthy of nomination.  We are glad to receive nominations for women of all ages and backgrounds - single, married, consecrated religious.

There is no financial reward, but the chosen Catholic Women of the Year are special guests at the annual Luncheon, which will be held in the Autumn.

Nominations should be sent to:
Catholic Women of the Year 2016
33 Ashburnham Tower
Worlds's End Estate
London SW10 0EE

or by completing the form on our website: 

Patti Fordyce
Chairman
Catholic Women of the Year Committee


Friday, April 01, 2016

The problem with...

...April 1st in 2016 is that you really find it hard to know what is a spoof and what isn't.

Thus The Times today...

I was told in advance: but what did you think when you read it?

The Queen's 90th birthday...

...is being much discussed. Auntie was asked for her thoughts and they are here...