Right on cue...

...just as I'd been writing about Hallowe'en, there was a knock n the door, and I was greeted by a group of children from further up the road...

They had buckets (!) for sweets, and were all in quite cheery costumes. I asked them if they knew what "All Hallows" meant. Mild puzzlement, shared by Mum who was with them, but hovering in the background (an understandable  precaution, alas,  these days, for mum to be around if children are chatting away to strangers...) .  I beamed and explained: All Hallows -  All Saints, and that we hoped, didn't we, that one day we'd all be saint in Heaven!   And did they know the lovely prayer "Our Father, who art in Heaven..."  Did they know the bit about "Hallowed be thy name"?   And here were sweets...(I was given an enormous bag of delucious chocs with peanut-butter centres, in the USA, so had them to hand)  - and they enjoyed catching them in their buckets...and shouted "Saints!".  I don't know if they knew the point at all, but Mum beamed and said "God bless you!"

Not all is gloomy on Hallowe'en...

Bid...

...from Maryvale.  Many thanks for your Comment to my Blog.  But I can't reply to you unless I have an actual email address...please do write again, this time with an email address embedded in the text of your Comment...which I will not of course publish...

The Eve of All Saints...

...All Hallows Eve...

I spent it collecting crab-apples from the pavement outside a (rather odd!) empty house, its blank windows and peeling paint looking weird alongside all the cheerful homes in the busy suburban street...and then washing them carefully, and chopping them up, cutting away any mushy or bad bits, and turning them into crab-apple jam.  While chopping and stirring, I watched, on my computer, Hercule Poirot in a deep Hallowe'en murder mystery. Excellent stuff...it ends w. Poirot noting that the real way to mark Hallowe'en is to look ahead to All Souls and to pray for the dead in a Christian way...all that spooky stuff has no control over us.

Tomorrow I shall be at Westminster Cathedral for Mass for All Saints' Day...and there  too and elsewhere on the next day, All Souls, I shall remember too all those I have loved and who have died, and will light candles and commit them to God.

Children who enjoy sweets and dressing-up and pumpkin lanterns on All Hallows Eve should be taught what All Hallows really means... and the lovely prayer in which we honour our loving God, with loving hearts:"Hallowed be thy name..."

Catholic women celebrated...

...at the 2016 Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, a tradition established in 1968 and thriving joyously....and guest speaker Clare Asquith gave us a magnificent description of  brave Catholic women of the 16th century who upheld the Faith and inspired William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale  with its theme of honour finally vindicated and truth rediscovered...a  reminder to us all of the heritage that has come down to us, the valour needed to uphold it, the moral and spiritual needs of our country today...

Every year, nonminations for Britain's "unsung Catholic heroines"  are invited, and they flow in from across the country: a committee drawn from representatives of Catholic lay organisations votes for four of them, and they attend  a Luncheon where they recieve flowers and where large numbers of Catholic ladies meet to celebrate, network, and honour the Faith.

This year's four women include a Sister in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a doctor specialising in natural fertility awareness and marriage preparation, an academic pioneering training for catechists, and a young musician campaigning on behalf of unborn and disabled children.  You can read about them all here...

The atmosphere at this annual gathering is one of shared faith and values. Among much else, it's a joyful, talkative place with lots of useful networking and swapping of ideas and news on plans and projects. It's also an astonishingly moving event: it's amazing to discover how much good work, neighbourly help, and useful enterprising activities are initiated by Britain's Catholic women...

It's a very traditional event: Grace, a letter from the Holy Father (this year's referred, of course to the Jubilee of Mercy and its importance), the Loyal Toast to HM the Queen...my happy task was to give the vote of thanks to our speakers, which I did with a glad heart...

So, what did Auntie Joanna do in America?

In New York, I stayed with the excellent Sisters of Life, and I am very impressed with their work and mission.  They offer accomodation, practical help, and care to pregnant women who might otherwise be tempted to abort their babies. The whole approach is one of friendship, love and neighbourly service.. I stayed in one of their convents in the city, which can house up to a dozen young women and their babies...each woman lovingly welcomed and made to feel warmly at home..  When I arrived the whole community had just been celebrating a "baby shower" for the latest new baby, with decorations and cards and gifts in the large pleasant room where the women spend their evenings...

I had first encountered the Sisters of Life at World Youth in Madrid in 2011, where they were running the great "Love and Life Centre" with talks and meetings....it was teeming with young people and the sisters were (and are) young, lively, and with a fresh, open and joyful approach which is immensely attractive...the Order is 25 years young and is large and flourishing and I loved every moment of my time with them...

....And so on to Tennessee, where the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia - better known as the Nashville Dominicans - welcomed me joyfully and where I once again felt warmly at home and surrounded by affection. It wasn't until the next morning (Mass at 6.15am!) that I saw them all, and just gulped in astonishment....here was this vast chapel, with over two hundred white-robed  Sisters, their voices ringing out confidently with the Mass responses and  sung chants. Nashville loves them: there is a large girls' high school, a popular kindergarten and primary school, plus Aquinas College...and I  spoke at the College and at the school, and also at the nearby Father Ryan High School...

The sisters have convents in various places in addition to this Motherhouse, and the newest venture is at Elgin in Scotland...they have great numbers of novices and postulants, the latter despite the fact that the girls wear a most hideous semi-habit for their first year or so, quite unlike the lovely full robes worn once they  make their first vows.

The Montessori Good Shepherd programme is used with the small children, and it was a sweet sight to be a sister on the floor surrounded by little ones all busy with a small, beautiflly-made minature altar and set of vessels, or drawing some bright pictures...all with a sense of cheerful, quiet, creative .purpose..that rare combination of peace and activity that is somehow the essence of a happy day.

There is more, but that was essentially what I was doing in America, and I flew home the better for it all. There is a sense of a flourishing Church there. And America is going to need that in the years ahead. The political scene looks grim, and uncertainty beckons for the future of religious freedom and for the right to give legal protection to unborn children...

...and, with the recent feast-day of St John Paul the Great...

...you might enjoy this post...

Autumn...

...the most glorious, the most enchanting, of all English seasons. And emblematic of our country, with its beauty and its sense of time passing, its vague feeling of nostalgic sadness,  its lack of heat and drama, its deep connection with homely things...

Autumn is a season of crisp fresh mornings,and sudden awareness of forgotten city trees as their leaves come cascading down, and the cosiness of buses glowing in twilight, and the value of everyday blessings like mugs of tea and pieces of buttered toast.

Why is it so short? In Heaven, obviously it will mostly be England - probably Sussex and near the sea -  and almost always teatime.    But I think it will also be Autumn, for great swathes  of time, and for whole eras and epochs... with the great harvest of everything all completed...

After a wonderful week...

...in America - of which much more later - I hurried from Heathrow into London by train and tube, fretting over delays  with luggage at Heathrow ansd the sloooooowness of trains on the Circle Line...

But all was well. My wonderful husband - following an urgent email message from me at Chicago airport - had taken by Dame of St Gregory Cloak and badge to Westminster Cathedral and left it, by arrangement, in the sacristy. Kind Cathedral staff  unlocked the sacristy door - all of us trying to be as quiet as possible as there was a lovely wedding taking place in the adjacent Lady Chapel - and I got the cloak, and trailed my luggage out into the piazza, thence into a taxi...and caught the great annual Procession of the Blessed Sacrament just after it crossed Lambeth Bridge. I scrambled into my cloak, which mercifully covered much of my luggage, and a kind volunteer took my other case - and there we all were, singing "Tell out my soul" and "Sweet sacrament Divine" along the streets of Southwark to St george's.  For more about the Procession read here...

Off to New York...

...and thence to Tennessee for various lectures ....

Gender ideology...and a bishop speaks...

...with wisdom, courage, and common sense.

Do read this excellent and helpful letter to Catholic teachers...

Knights and Dames of the Order of St Gregory the Great...

...together with other papal Knights and Dames, gathered at the Church of SS Anselm and Caecilia in Kingsway, London, for the annual Mass yesterday. Superb music from the Schola of the Cardinal Vaughan School. Knights in splendid uniforms, Dames in cloaks...

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor spoke at dinner. This year marks the 60th anniversary of his ordination.  He spoke  rather well, telling of the different Popes he had known during his years of priesthood....and then at the end he spoke about  going home, and the final Homecoming  of us all...and as he is rather famous for inviting people to sing together, we all ended up singing "Keep the home fires burning"....

The Catholic Young Writer Award...

...is sponsored by the Catholic Union Charitable Trust, and I am one of the organising team. I spent part of this week packing and posting prizes to the various winners. Info here...

Evensong....Evensong....

...I've become mildly addicted.  The evening light slowly fading behind the high windows, the church glowing with  candles on the altar and a choir singing the psalms back and forth up by the Chancel. The day's work  doesn't dither into a rushed muddle, it goes gently and firmly into evening with reassurances of God's care.

We have Evensong every Thursday here. Of course one can  - clergy must, lay people  are encouraged to  - say the Liturgy of the Hours every day. Reading the evening office in a train has its quiet joy. One can use the excellent daily  Magnificat booklet  specifically designed for the busy person.   And it is glorious to sing Vespers and Compline when in a monastery or convent or simply with a group of friends....

But there is something lovely about Evensong: a gift to the Catholic Church from the Ordinariate.

In the October evening...

...A Thomas More Walk around Chelsea, part of the Catholic History Walks.  We began at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More. then headed down towards the river, and along through Roper's Garden to Chelsea Old Church and the More statue...ands then on down Beaufort Street to Allen Hall...

I had spent the day working on wrapping and posting prizes won by young people at Catholic schools in the 2016 Catholic Young Writer award, sponsored by the Catholic Union Charitable Trust.   Topic for this year was "Saints of the British Isles"  so after taking the batch of prizes to the Post Office at London Bridge, it was somehow suitable to head for a walk in the footsteps of Thomas More.

American readers of this Blog might like to know that I will be speaking at Aquinas College, Nashville, Tennessee in a few days' time...

...and while on the subject...

...of Weigel, this is worth reading...

George Weigel...

...author and columnist, best known for his biography of St John Paul and for his Evangelical Catholicism   spoke at St Patrick's. Soho, on Monday, on St Francis of Assisi,  as part of a series of lectures marking the Year of Mercy. It was superb, a well-researched exploration of the life and message of this most popular of saints, drawing out the profound and challenging messages of his life. A really good evening. The hall - in the crypt beneath the church - was full. Father Alexander Sherbrooke, in welcoming us, noted that it was five years since the church and halls were all removated and restored....Weigel had been a guest speaker during the various celebrations. And the chief guest during those celebrations, Cardinal George Pell, will be another speaker during this nw series of lectures...info here...

The Alliance of Pro-Life Students...

...has sent me a note about a forthcoming event which I am glad to promote:

Celebration & Fundraiser event on Thursday 20th October in a stunning central London location. We are pleased to welcome Dr Peter Saunders, CEO the Christian Medical Fellowship, as our Keynote Speaker. Attendees will also hear from Niall OCoinleain, Chairman of APS, who will share an exciting announcement you won't want to miss about the future of APS and its mission. Spaces are limited, and our RSVP deadline is 12th October!You can get your ticket at www.allianceofprolifestudents.org.uk/fundraiser2016 

This has been a Dominican week...

...culminating in  joyful afternoon in Portsmouth Cathedral today with Sister Mary Catherine of the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph  making her vows at a glorious Mass  celebrated by Bishop Philip Egan. 

Earlier, on Wednesday, I was in Oxford, visiting some young friends and their enchanting new baby, Joseph....recently baptised by Fr Richard Conrad of Blackfriars. It was a happy afternoon over tea and gingerbread, with the baby giggling and enjoying life, and all of us reminiscing and talking over lots of things...and then later I was myself at Blackfriars for Vespers.  The strong young voices singing the psalms back and forth, a sense of reassurance, of confidence in the Church and the future...and then a warm welcome and a  hearty supper in the Refectory , preceded by Dominican grace said in the Cloister. Over supper, a wonderful mixture of banter and good theological conversation...and then more good talk over wine  afterwards, ranging over St John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, evangelisation, academic work, the nature and purpose of post-graduate study, cookery, and the importance of ceremonial cakes ....home on a late train to London with a sense of a very well-spent day...

Then today, a cathedral filled with joy - glorious singing by a young girls' choir, fruit of the Sisters' wonderful work with young people through "Fanning the Flame"  and other youth gatherings. The moving and impressive sight of Sister Mary Catherine kneeling before the Bishop to make her final vows.Then a delicious tea with lots of cakes, and the great joy of meeting lots of friends...

While in Oxford I had been impressed by the youth of the Friars...but now today a group of novices were among the guests,  from  Blackriars, Cambridge - the newest and youngest of the Dominicans in England. Golly...the Dominican Order, in this 800th anniversary year, is thriving and is going to be a big part of the New Evangelisation of our country...

Read about...

...a Birthday, the "Our Father", carol singing, and a celebratory lunch...

All in Auntie's page in The Portal, on-line magazine of thre Ordinariate... Read here