...and my journey home...

...from Christmas visits, back to London, was partly by STEAM TRAIN, on this excellent railway...

Christmastide...

...and gratitude for so many things...

For  glorious Christmas singing of carols...for helpless laughter at absurd family games...for much-loved faces around the Christmas table...for the crisp fresh air of Exmoor in December, and the cosy warmth of an old inn...

A couple of years ago, a group of carol singers in a London suburb ...

...was told by their leader that they should not sing any Christmas carols because to do so would be offensive. This was rubbish - there is absolutely no legal or other requirement to ban the singing of the time-honoured carols that are so much part of Britain's traditional Christmas celebrations. But somehow, people have got the idea that there is some sort of restriction, that "it isn't allowed now" to have carols. This is partly why I have become particularly passionate about carol-singing at railway stations and in other public places. This year I was involved with a number of groups that sang at, variously, a large hospital (visiting every ward) and two main London railway stations. (And I'm glad to say that the group mentioned  in my first sentence above has now definitely reformed its ways).

Without Christ, there is no reason to celebrate Christmas. But today, even some Christians think they ought to drop references to Christ at this season: "In the name of a false respect that is not Christian, which often hides the will to marginalize the faith, it eliminates from the celebration any reference to the birth of Jesus. But, in fact, this event is the only true Christmas!"  

EXACTLY. 

AND A BIG THANK-YOU TO THE MAN WHO HAS JUST PUBLICLY SAID THAT. 

In 2018, freedom...

...to speak on a wide range of ideas, to challenge people out of cosy networks of convenient slogans, and to make people uncomfortable by raising issues that may affect them personally -  is going to be central to life in Britain, especially in our universities.

Shortly before Christmas, Prof Nigel Biggar at Oxford wrote a thoughtful essay on Britain and Empire in The Times. He was later denounced  by some lecturers and students at the University: it's not really clear why. They just disagreed with him, and were clearly uncomfortable with having to think through the issues that he raised - especially as he was giving voice to people from places which were part of the Empire and were commenting on the realities of colonial rule.

It is already noticeable that many young people simply can't accept the idea of people disagreeing with a world-view that is currently deemed to be politically correct. They are genuinely incoherent about it, saying things like "I can't believe you're saying that!"  Of course this has been a trait in young people in each generation - perhaps it is a necessary part of the journey to maturity, the need for a group-think that provides security before and during the process of discovering the wider world and its depth and width of ideas and information.  But if we are going to continue to expect vast numbers of our young to be urged into Universities, we must accept the need to widen, not narrow, their minds when they are there. They need to be helped and nourished into maturity, not trapped in group-think.

This is the major challenge in 2018 for all who care about the rising generation and the future of our country.

Much of...

... the media/journalism comment this Christmas consists of:
- suggestions and recipes for ever more lavish and luxurious food and feasting, some of it weirdly obsessive, sort of food-porn
- aren't-I-clever features on How I Hate Christmas and Will be spending the Day Loathing It/Doing Something Else/On a Luxury Holiday Abroad/ etc etc etc
- features on how to cope with suitable gifts for  step-parents, same-sex partners, not-quite-in-laws, and so on.

And the most stupid blurb of all came in a newspaper showing some people who were eating a celebration dinner on Dec 21st to mark the Solstice, a festival which the newspaper claimed is "celebrated worldwide". No it isn't.    Across Africa and the Americas, Australasia, much of South Asia, and even dying Europe, churches will be filled on December 24th/25th and carols sung and praise given to God for the birth of our Saviour. The number of people marking December 21st and the solstice is so tiny (at a guess,  few well-do-do British people dressing up as Druids) as to be irrelevant.

So the message from this blog is:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

because God Himself, the creator of all things, loves us so much that He came to be with us, to share in our lives, to love and suffer with us for us...

Feminism "gender" and the Church...

...discussed in an important feature in the new FAITH magazine. Also a feature from a teenager on why every Catholic should go to Mass on Sunday. Plus a feature on a recent revival of a traditional pilgrimage site.  And more.

Want a free copy? Send a Comment to this Blog - which I will not publish - giving your POSTAL address, and I'll send you a copy.Applies worldwide.

"Well ...." said the kindly elderly lady chattily...

...sitting opposite me in the railway carriage. "So we've got a lovely new Princess...."

The Royal Engagement had just been announced and she was making the conventional noises about it. Her companion nodded approvingly, appropriate  smiling things were said, and the conversation moved on to other topics...

It was 1986.

I was rather worried by my own mental response. I was working on a newspaper based in South London: Sarah Ferguson had been living in Clapham and so the worldwide coverage, glamourous pix of the couple etc,  had a local angle for us. It all ought to have been rather fun. Suddenly, I had the thought: but is this a suitable match? Will she be able to be a princess?

Innocent until proved guilty...

...a central tenet of our common law tradition.

The full implications  of the dreadful behaviour of CofE officialdom in the case of  Dr George Bell are now emerging. Read here.

Restoration of George Bell House and other commemorations of this good and decent man will be necessary in 2018 and beyond. Watch this space as details emerge.

Busy...

...at St Mary's University to review progress on the history project. It's going well, and it was good to talk through plans and ideas for 2018....

...which looks set to be a busy year. Just been busy with my 2018 diary. Already filling up.  Check out the dates for Catholic History walks.

And a major event that I am definitely planning to attend: see here.

More on...

...the Bishop Bell case, here. This is an absolutely apt comment.

Wonderful carol-singing at London Bridge station...

...by the LOGS group, based at Precious Blood Church, plus various members of the Pr Bl congregation, including a fine bass singer, and a delightful small girl with pigtails, who held the collection-bag through which we raised a goodly sum of money which will be split between two charities that we are supporting this year.

After our singing, we repaired to the parish house, where we were greeted with candles and prosecco and a large festive table....the youngest member of LOGS,  recently graduated from University, had volunteered to cook dinner for us all. It was most efficiently done: she prepared it, joined us for the singing while it was all gently cooking, then returned before us to do the final preparations.  We all enjoyed drinks and delicious nibbles first, and then before saying Grace the Rector announced that a generous benefactor had covered the entire costs of the dinner.  This meant that a donation that each of us had made could go instead to our charities....so this  further added to the funds raised...

It was a very, very enjoyable evening. Speeches and laughter and a celebratory poem noting the various achievements of LOGS since its foundation just a few years ago...and the distribution of this year's programme of events which includes our big annual project for London schools, a pilgrimage - by river - and various meetings and talks.

Conversation...

...on a bus this morning:
First Passenger (after noticing a prayer book in fellow-passenger's bag): I expect you are pleased with the new Bishop of London.
2nd Passenger:Well... um...it's not quite like that...
FP: And she was chosen just on merit.
2P: Well... no one merits it...
FP: That's a thought...
2P: Mmm...Christ chose twelve men. All the pagan religions had women priests.  It would have been more usual to choose women.  He was doing something quite specific...
FP: It's like the Jewish religion, isn't it? I mean, they only have men as rabbis...
2P: Yes.
FP: I hadn't really thought about it like that. Quite important really...
2P: Mmm.  Well...yes.

The shocking traducing...

...of the memory of Dr George Bell of Chichester  has produced much comment. The Carlisle Report fully vindicates those who had seen something very wrong in the acceptance by the CofE of crude allegations against this man. The next stage is to ensure that George Bell House and other memorials to him in Chichester and elsewhere are restored.

Standing outside Lambeth Palace earlier this week to hand in a petition concerning this, I had a strong sense of doing something that mattered. I am glad I was there.

Something slightly surreal...

...and rather bleak, about crossing Westminster Bridge at the moment. One instinctively looks up  to Big Ben - and instead there is this stack of closely-packed scaffolding, making the tower look from a distance like a ghastly distorted pretend vision of its real self. Odd, and eerily uncomfortable.

On Gaudete Sunday...

...glorious singing from the children's choir at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge. The church has a simply massive Christmas Nativity in the shrine chapel, created to be like a big cave, with a tiny waterfall, and great craggy rocks, with Mary and Joseph waiting, and an angel poised on high ready to proclaim the joyful news when the time comes...and around the church, the Three Kings are poised, making their steady way towards Bethlehem...

Up in the sanctuary stand  two massive glittering Christmas trees, one on either side of the high altar. And, outside, a beautiful Christmas Nativity in a stable, lit up with glittering stars - drawing people to enjoy it as they hurry to and fro. Immediately opposite the church is a night-club, which welcomed the church for celebrations when the latter's fabulous illumination was inaugurated by the Mayor of Southwark a few weeks ago. So the whole street has a cheery feel just at present, with a Christmas glow all around.

LOGS, the ladies' group based at the church - along with various other friends from the parish -  will be singing carols at London Bridge station this week.

at Lambeth palace...

...this past week, I joined the secretary of the George Bell Group to hand in a petition calling for the Carlisle Report to be published: in fact it was published later in the week. The Anglican Bishop George Bell was a distinguished churchman who championed the cause of the anti-Nazi Germans, saved many children's lives through his work for the Kindertransport which brought Jewish children out of Germany, and was a supporter of ecumenical projects in addition to fostering many other good causes.   Lord Carlisle has noted the gross errors and failures that accompanied the smearing of Bishop Bell's name - you can read the full report here.

In an incredibly packed Oxford Street...

...a splendid group from Youth 2000 gathered to sing carols. They had put out a call for any supporter to turn up and help, and it was a joy to do so. They sang, they jingled tambourines, they strummed on guitars, and they sang all the traditional carols...and handed out  striped Christmas candy-sticks to passers-by, with a joyful Scripture message.

As I left, the sound of their joyful "Sing Hosanna!" rose about the surge of the crowd beneath the glittering Christmas lights...a delight.

The entrance to Oxford Circus tube station was too packed to approach, so I went on to Piccadilly Circus. The lights in Regent Street depict glorious Christmas angels and are superb. Hopped on a bus, got to Piccadilly, but the station was similarly jam-packed -  no hope of getting anywhere near a train. I ended up walking to Westminster, past a silent and deserted Horseguards and a dark St James' Park.  The Foreign Office was dark, but all the lights were on in Downing Street - clearly people working busily there.

Home exhausted, carrying my own modest Christmas shopping (from M and S, and the gift-shop at Westminster Cathedral, since you ask - tho' I have also been doing lots of shopping elsewhere for various Christmassy things).  On a rainy night, gratitude for a warm home and mugs of tea.

"Gaudete, Gaudete...

Christus est natus, ex Maria virgine, Gaudete..."...carolled the choir of St Mary's University, Twickenham. It was the annual Carol Service - the choir is very good and the candlelit service was utterly delightful...but not crowded. Many students alas don't relate to the University's Catholic life - the chapel is always open and welcoming, the heritage is there for all to share, but for students who have never had any link with Catholicism, it all just seems remote, a world they do not know.

However there is a good core of active young Catholic students, and the traditional service was a grand start to what promises to be a satisfying amount of carol-singing for me, as a friend is organising singing at a big local hospital tomorrow, and then there is Youth 2000 in Oxford Street at the weekend, and LOGS at London Bridge Station next Tuesday...

After the carol service, we had wine and mince pies in the Shannon Suite and I met some local residents, former students who will be of help with my work on the University's history.

I stepped out...

...on Sunday morning into an enchanting scene: Oxfordshire in snow, church spire, Georgian street, Town Hall and square all softly clad and more falling thickly on to my face and coat as I drew my suitcase down the street making a long trail behind me. Of course this all meant the start of some minor adventures in order to get into London: buses cancelled, taxi summoned, roads blocked, and finally a loooooong wait in an immobile train. We all cheered as it finally set off - only to find ourselves dropped off again at Reading...I eventually made it to Paddington, and after further struggles with the Tube, was greeted with applause when I arrived at St Patrick's, Soho, to join the Emmanuel Mission Team.  All were gathered for lunch, and I did full justice to a well-filled plate. The team had been busy with mission activities, street evangelisation, a special Healing Mass, Night Fever, and more, and Sunday was the final day of the venture.

Out into the grey rain and slush, accompanied by Ambrose, Fr Alexander's dog: the aim was for the team to get a bit more  of London's history, plus some carol-singing in Trafalgar Square. We had a good afternoon, dropped in to St Margaret's Church at Westminster (recommended - worth a visit) and the National Gallery (ditto, obviously) and returned to St P's for hot drinks and to dry out shoes...

Then a glorious International Mass. A good attendance:  children moved on to parental laps, and people squeezed into already-full pews. And as Mass ended, out into the Soho streets, taking the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham in procession to Warwick Street. With lots of singing, and glowing candles, it was a wonderful experience, and we handed out hundreds of medals and little folded Scripture verses to people in the crowded streets and cafes. People mostly smiled and said "Thank you", a few kissed the medal, some crossed themselves. Some asked if we wanted money (we didn't), some said "What is this?" and we explained it was a medal depicting Christ's mother, Mary... One man said "My daughter was given a medal just like this for her First Communion the other day!" and hurried off to fetch her: she proudly showed me her medal on its ribbon round her neck.  A few people said "No thanks", one  rather crossly. Several said "Oh, I'm a Catholic..."

Prayers and litanies at Warwick Street, and more medals and Scripture distributed on the walk back...and then everyone gathered around the tables set in a large square in the big hall:  speeches of thanks, young missionaries invited to share experiences of the past few days...

An Oxford weekend...

...with the city shops bright with Christmassy things, and a warm welcome at the Aquinas Institute where I had tea  with Fr Richard Conrad. I needed to consult him on a theological point - and he was patient, helpful and logical, and just what a useful Dominican should be. Later I went to Blackfriars for an evening Mass for the  eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  at which he was the celebrant. He preached on the history of the church's understanding of this important doctrine.  There are usually a lot of Dominican friars in the choir-stalls, but on this Friday evening there were only one or two, and as Mass ended he explained that this was because on this feast day the Franciscans - "who were right about the Immaculate Conception all along" - invite the Dominicans for Vespers and supper..

On Saturday, I spoke at a study day at Winton - again a wonderful welcome. We were looking at the "gender issues" and the ideology now being rather rigidly enforced in many academic centres...
later, a meditation on the Feast Day in the beautiful chapel, an opportunity for Advent confession...

Oxford glowing in the evening dusk: it was bitterly cold but the city with its pre-Christmas feel was a delight, and just walking down  to get the bus at St Aldates was enjoyable.Some Christmas shopping at Waterstones, some coffee, and then a bus ride across Folly Bridge and off to stay with family...

It's not going to be fun for everyone in Britain this Christmas, though..While I worked on Christmas cards and wrote up this blog, a relative was cutting and folding scarves for the big distribution of clothes for the homeless...

A London Mission Team...

...with young people drawn from various European countries, arrived this week at St Patrick's, Soho. They will be doing all sorts of things, from carol-singing in Trafalgar Square to leading a procession through Soho following an International Mass.  I was invited to introduce them to London this morning, and we walked down to Westminster, the centuries unrolling as I told the history...Romans and Saxons and  Normans...fields and monks and Parliament and Empire and world wars and more...and on to modern topics, current issues...

They were great company and it was all fun...a cheery lunch followed back at St P's, and then I settled on a coffee-shop to tackle some work. Carrying a laptop around in a backpack is second nature now. A pleasing sort of camaraderie in coffee shops ensures that we keep watch if some one needs to leave his laptop to get more coffee or whatever...apparently it's the standard new way to work and such shops are known now as "coffices"....

...and a happy day....

...in Parliament!  Boys and girls from secondary schools across Britain who won the main prizes in the 2017 Schools Bible Project came to Westminster to receive their prizes from our Trustee, Baroness Cox. It is always a joy to meet the young prizewinners and their families. And on a winter afternoon it is rather awesome, somehow, to explore the story of our magnificent Parliament building, to ponder what it means to live under the rule of law, to talk through some of the history of the centuries...and to stand in Westminster Hall beneath that great hammerbeam roof that dates back almost a thousand years...

And then we crossed the road, walking down past the Sovereign's Entrance and  St Margaret's and the Abbey - looking glorious in the mellow light as dusk was falling - for Tea in the Millbank building, and a splendid presentation of prizes...a happy day.

...a lecture...

...at St Mary's University, held in the rather splendid Waldegrave suite. The University's Senior Common Room here has large signed photograph of HM Queen Mary and of Edward VIII - one of the few signed photographs of his short reign. Of course there is a picture of the present Queen in the entrance Hall. Clearly the tradition has always been to have a picture of the monarch...but I wondered why these two rather fine photographs in the Senior Common Room are actually signed. That's another bit of the University's history to research...

Meanwhile, I enjoyed giving the lecture, which was organised by the University's Cathsoc and preceded by an excellent lecture by Dr Jacob Phillips, on the significance of the University's name, and the message it carries for all us.  The splendid setting - the Waldegrave rooms are nobly proportioned  with magnificent ceilings and that sense of solid comfort that Victorian buildings convey - made for a good atmosphere, and there was a sense of belonging to a strong institution that has served the country well and has something new to offer in this new century....

On Bishop Robert Barron's website....

...there is a new post, well worth reading, on Humanae Vitae and Paul VI....

JUSTICE...

...and the reputation of a good man.

Read about Bishop George Bell here, and then sign this petition here

Auntie Joanna writes in each issue of....

...THE PORTAL, monthly on-line magazine of the Ordinariate. You can enjoy the December issue here.

Spent the morning...

...at the offices of the Catholic Truth Society on the southern bank of the Thames, recording a podcast about Advent and Christmas customs. 

That link, just highlighted, will take you to the booklet, published by the CTS, and shortly after finishing the podcast I made my way to Westminster cathedral where I was due to lead the final History Walk of 2017 (see below).  As we stood on the steps, a voice said "Is that Joanna Bogle?"  and it was some one who had just bought a couple of copies of the booklet at the St Paul's Bookshop nearby! It was a lovely coincidence and he invited me to sign the booklet, which he had bought for his wife.

In bitter cold...

...but sparkling sunshine, we had our last Catholic History Walk of 2017. As we gathered on the steps of Westminster Cathedral, small children from the adjoining St Vincent de Paul School were walking in two by two, Shepherds and Kings and tinsel-crowned Angels plus lots of choir members, to rehearse their Christmas nativity play. A simply charming sight, especially as the children had been told to put their hands together prayerfully as they entered through the great doors.

There is a full programme of History Walks for 2018 - read about it here and put the dates, venues and times in your diary. All welcome - no need to book, just turn up!

...and on the Royal engagement...

...read Auntie Joanna here...

Parliament...

...looks weird all covered with scaffolding. Checking the time by Big Ben is so automatic - I looked up, and there it wasn't.  Clock face obscured by the network of metal struts and platforms...but as I walked down towards Black Rod's entrance, where I was due to meet David Alton, I looked back and just one face of the four was showing. Checked the time and was reassured.

The meeting with David was about a project that will, we think, come to fruition in due course. News on this Blog when it does.

Headlines today, plus much internet buzz, about Prince Harry and Miss Markle.

Mornings...

...at Maryvale begin with the sound of the Sisters chanting their Morning Office in the chapel. This is followed by Mass, concelebrated by priests on the staff and/or visiting lecturers. Today we had two deacons too. We sang hymns honouring Christ the King....and after all Masses at Maryvale, everyone joins in the Prayer to st Michael the Archangel.

The wonderful community of Brigettine sisters run everything at Maryvale, and in order to get the right numbers for breakfast, you are asked to make a tick on a chart on the notice-board if you want an egg...in fact you can  check a true Maryvaler if they know what "tick for an egg" means...

A morning walk in the crisp Autumn freshness, an opportunity to enjoy the library, a talkative lunch...and then New Street station and the train to London. The week ahead is full of good and useful things - and there is Christmas coming, with carol singing and family commitments and plans....but I am always sorry to leave Maryvale.

On the eve of the feast of Christ the King...

...I was researching for material on various things,  and came across this from the great St John Paul, exactly 20 years ago...

Next year, we will mark the 40th anniversary of his election to the Papacy. So, out of interest, I looked up the first sermon he preached on Christ the King, back in 1978...  very apt to be reading this at Maryvale, with its special emphasis on the apostolate of the laity...

Apologetics...

...and lecturing on this subject at Maryvale is a most satisfying and challenging task. Those taking the BA Divinity are an excellent group, and include a couple of men ordained as deacons... We looked at some of the notable apologists of the last century (Chesterton, Knox,  Belloc, CS Lewis, Frank Sheed) and at some who are proving notable in these first decades of the 21st, especially Scott Hahn, James Akin...).

We also looked at some of the main questions thrown at Catholic speakers today: science and faith, evolution, plus "Why does your Church hate gays?" (it doesn't) etc.

On science and the Church, I have been enjoying compiling a list of scientists who were also priests, and then found there is lots on Wilkipedia on the subject. Also a large number of Catholic laymen.  My list includes Niels Steensen, Georges Lemaitre, Grigor Mendel, Alois Alzheimer, Louis Pasteur and Jerome Lejune....but there are lots, lots more: those are just some that particularly interest me.   I had the privilege of knowing Prof Lejeune, a man of great wisdom, who was among much else a model of Christian courtesy and chivalry who honoured the ideas and contributions of others in conversation, and was always kindly and generous...a witness as well as a teacher of Catholic values.

A busy day - three lectures plus discussions etc. Well worth all the work and preparation.

I love Maryvale.

A reader...

...of this blog, after reading about Bishop Keenan (see the description of the Maryvale graduation),  has drawn attention to the joint Catholic/Jewish school  in his diocese. It sounds a really lovely school. Read more here...

Want to know about Christmas customs?

Why we eat/do/sing/ the things that we do?  How it fits in with the rest of the calendar?


See here

Something to ponder....

"Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection."

Who said that?

It seems extraordinarily prophetic, now that the ugly subculture of recent decades in Hollywood, the BBC, etc has been revealed by various women who have tales of molestation...

Click on to the Comments box to reveal who spoke so accurately over half a century ago.

And give him honour: he was bitterly attacked and hounded at the time, notably by people who should have been his staunchest allies.

You can listen to...

...the Redford Lecture here....Fr Richard Conrad on "Christ as the Father's face".

CAROL SINGING...

...at London Bridge railway station on Dec 19th, with the LOGS, Ladies Ordinariate Group. We've just been finalising plans - we always enjoy the singing and a tradition has developed in which we finish by having a celebration dinner together. This year, our youngest LOGS member has offered to cook it for us and it will be a full three-course event, and promises to be a real treat.

Come and hear us at London Bridge! From 6pm.

Where the sexual revolution has taken us...

...read this...

St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham...

...is a rather magnificent setting for a graduation ceremony. Maryvale holds its graduations there each year, with the Archbishop attending.  This was the first time I had taken part in such a ceremony as a member of the academic staff, and it was rather exciting to see it all from that perspective. A splendid array of academic gowns and hoods as we walked in - a great contrast to the grey concrete and car parks and traffic jams of Birmingham as the rain drizzled down on the city.

Bishop John Keenan of Paisley presented the Awards - a  large number of deacons in Scotland do their training at Maryvale - and spoke very well, linking us to the centuries of Christian history: Celtic saints and Bl John Henry Newman and more...

All the academic staff stood to make the full Profession of Faith. Rather powerful stuff: "Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect...." Things finished with Vespers: the psalms rolling back and forth, across the Cathedral...the Archbishop gave his blessing....we had a final hymn written specially for Maryvale and echoing the words of Bl John Henry Newman, sung to a grand old tune...and the Cathedral glowed with the candelight...

And then back to Maryvale for tea, the two main lecture halls opened up to create a large space with a generous buffet. It was a great delight to meet many old friends, including Fr Guy Nichols, who lectures at Oscott seminary as well as at Maryvale. We had enjoyed greeting one another in our academic robes, and it was fun later to be catching up on family news...

It was all countryside, meadows and lush fields...

...between Old Oscott and Birmingham when Newman first came to Old Oscott House in the 1840s. The house had been a Catholic family home for centuries, and had been a Mass centre in recusant times. Following the various Catholic Relief Acts and then Catholic Emancipation in 1829, its chapel had become more or less known.  John Henry Newman and his colleagues, newly received into full communion with the Catholic church, and needing somewhere to stay while they made plans for their future lives,  were made welcome in this old house....they formed a community and Newman named the house Maryvale.

Over a century and a half later, crunchy golden leaves cascade down on the garden paths, and the old house welcomes us in the November dusk, and we talk of Newman. A most agreeable dinner, and a sense of feeling at home - I love this place. On Monday morning we join the Bridgettine sisters for Mass, and then there is time for some quiet work as well as a meeting for associate staff. I always get a lot of work done at Maryvale: the house is peaceful, with good wifi access, and the presence of others quietly busy too...

An excellent lecture in the evening: the Redford Memorial Lecture, given by Fr Richard Conrad in the Maryvale chapel.  His topic was "the face of God", a rich Trinitarian exploration.

...and now I am off...

...to Birmingham, with my academic robes, to take part in graduation ceremonies at the Maryvale Institute: among those graduating are students to whom I have been lecturing over the past couple of years.

I will also be attending the Redford  Memorial Lecture : Canon John Redford was a superb teacher and a formative influence on so many of us...

ON a crowded Tube train yesterday evening ...

...a kind young lady offered me a seat. We got chatting, and her accent revealed her to be French. We started to talk in that language  (haltingly, on my part - haven't used French since last visit a couple of summers ago)  - and she suggested that I might be interested in the lectures held by a group of French academics in London, which she attended regularly.  The next  happened to be on Saturday, and on the subject of the Hugenots: would I like to join her there?  I gave her my email and she promised to send the information to me:  I didn't think I would follow it up but when the email arrived, it  sounded interesting so I thought I would go.

The lecture was at More House, in South Kensington...the name was immediately familiar to me as a  Catholic chaplaincy residence  for the University of London. The French group meeting there has no Catholic connection - but More House is near the French Consulate, and the Lycee, and so it's  a convenient place. The room - under the solemn gaze of Thomas More, a large bust of whom stood by the door - was packed, and I squeezed into the last available seat. I couldn't see my kind Tube passenger. The lecture was fascinating - the Hugenot story is a grim one, but there  are many fascinating aspects including John Henry Newman's Hugenot  ancestry, a subject that I have actually coincidentally been researching...

When it came to questions and discussion, I  explained how I had come to be there....but the young lady from the Tube was not present! Much amusement. "Un ange, Certainement!"  I've now been warmly invited to attend future lectures.

On arrival home, I emailed my Tube friend...and have just had a cheery email back: at the last moment she had been unable to make it to the lecture. But some day we'll meet up....

Sometimes London feels like a sort of village...

THE CATHOLIC UNION...

...a voice for Catholics in public life in Britain for over 100 years, had a packed annual meeting this week, following the Sung Mass at Westminster Cathedral.  Big topic: Catholic schools, and the Govt's promise to lift the ruling that any new such schools cannot have more than 50 per cent Catholic children. President of the Catholic Union, Sir Edward Leigh, spoke to us on this:   the Govt's concern, of course, is Islamic schools and the creation of "ghetto territory". But this is not an issue for Catholic schools, and the 50-per-cent rule is most unjust as it will mean that Catholic families will not be able to have the schools they need.

 Other issues also discussed: rights of conscience for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, freedom to protest/offer counselling outside abortion clinics...also the rights of parents with regard to sex education...

I reported on the 2017 Catholic Young Writer Award - an initiative of the Catholic Writers' Guild, now run by the Catholic Union, and also the "Our Father" project, initiated by the Ladies Ordinariate Group and now also supported by the Catholic Union.  The Catholic Union Charitable Trust has funded a lovely Prayer Book for children - published by Gracewing -  to be used as prizes in the "Our Father" project, and I brought along some copies...they were quickly snapped up by people anxious to buy them for children/godchildren/grandchildren for Christmas, and I took further orders to be posted this weekend...

Remembrance Sunday...

...and we took part in the service at the War Memorial at The Borough, London Bridge, walking in procession from Precious Blood Church, J. wearing his medals. The memorial is a particularly fine one, and the service was all traditional:  The Mayor of Southwark,  the Deputy Lieutenant for Greater London, local Members of Parliament, "O God our help in ages past...".   And then back to the church for Mass...again traditional hymns...the children's choir sang a beautiful Pie Jesu...and then on to a long and talkative lunch...

In the evening, J. went to an Army gathering, and I walked back along the river to Westminster with a young friend. A cold, clear night, the Thames glittering.   Parliament, especially Big Ben, looks odd, lit up but all stacked with scaffolding.  We dropped in to the St Stephen's Tavern for a drink, and immediately got talking to people, ended up spending two hours there in good company...it was all older-chaps-with-medals, and it was the easy, comfortable,  feeling of a Britain that somehow gets numb and forgotten most of the time. Remembrance Sunday seems to unlock the inner normality of people.

read here for more of Auntie's thoughts on this...

One hundred and fifty years...

...of the Catholic Truth Society was celebrated with a gathering at Our Lady of Victories church in Kensington High Street this week. It was grand to be there. Old friends, new friends, lots and lots of talk, delicious food, some lovely music from young musicians, and a wonderful talk by special guest speaker Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow of Mary's Meals.  It was an inspirational idea to have him, talking about a new venture - just marking its 25th anniversary - as we were honouring one that has thrived for over a century. There was a sense of excitement, of the Church being very much alive and all of us uniting in something large and glorious...

Plans for new work for 2018: it was fun to talk in person after good email exchanges, and there is a delight in tackling new projects, seeing the challenges and the possibilities. When I first started writing for the CTS, it was one of my first ventures with a computer - it seemed semi-miraculous to be able to check spelling and put things into italics and move things about to create
Sub-Headings
and so on, and not have to rely on typewriter-correction fluid, and carbon paper, and complicated hand-written corrections or phone messages.  But none of us knew then about the Internet, or the horrors it would unleash, or the way it would change so many things...

Litter-picking...

...was organised by our two local Borough Councillors in our road and neighbouring roads today. Volunteers turned out - I joined in with a will. We were equipped with proper gloves and pick-up sticks with useful big tweezers.  Here we all are, standing by the local railway station, with just some of the vast bags of rubbish that we collected.

At 11 am we stopped, stood still,  and observed the Two Minutes Silence.I hope all my readers in Britain did too.

Been reading...

...brand-new book, just off the press: Fr Matthew Pittam's Building the Kingdom in the Classroom.  It's a fascinating diary of a school chaplain, and is full of human interest, some touching stories, and practical ideas for evangelisation... and in a down-to-earth way has a message of hope.  I put the book in my bag with a vague idea of reading it on the train but frankly not expecting to find it particularly interesting, opened it only when I had finished with the newspaper and had nothing else at hand...and found it really gripping!

Fr Matthew shows how much of what was once a standard line on Catholic schools no longer applies. As one obvious, but often ignored, fact: for many pupils today, school can be a place of structure and stability in a disordered world and often a disordered family. In the case of a Catholic school, it can be a place where prayer can be experienced, and where the spiritual life is recognised in a way that simply doesn't happen at home. And this isn't achieved by vague offers of a friendly chat. much less by superficial gimmicks, but by what the Church truly offers: the sacraments, structured prayer, the Rosary, the reality of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. Fr Matthew describes how praying the Rosary has proved popular and helped to nourish young people's faith, bring hope and consolation, and forge bonds of community and friendship. Friendship, kindness and availability of a chaplain also matter a great deal:  he cannot be a remote figure and he must be seen around the school.

A major problem in today's Catholic schools is the large number of  teachers who are either lapsed Catholics or are agnostic or openly atheistic. Another problem is the general sub-culture of modern Britain, which marginalises the whole idea of Christianity,  and makes it easy for teenagers who are interested in the Faith to be made to feel they are stupid, bigoted or just weird.

Fr Matthew's diary format makes the book very readable. There are some touching descriptions of pupils arriving for early Mass before school, taking part in quiet adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, or enthusiastically becoming altar servers and proud to wear their new robes.  But there are also strange paradoxes: a boy who is a loyal altar-server at school but doesn't go to Mass on Sundays - either because of family pressures or because the nearest parish seems dreary and unattractive...

This is a book that will open up many aspects of modern British school life to the reader, and is much recommended.

...and again, a good crowd...

...for the Evening of Faith, the first of a new series of talks, organised by the FAITH Movement, and held at  the Challoner Room, 24 Golden Square in the heart of London's Piccadilly (nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus). Fr Chris Findlay-Wilson spoke superbly on "Jesus - my way to the Father", a well-presented and beautifully illustrated talk which found an interested audience. These Evenings draw people from across London, all ages though mostly young, and offer an opportunity to tackle issues that do not crop up in Sunday homilies...in this case, the absolute centrality of Christ, who is not "just another teacher" or "a figure from history full of wisdom" or whatever other fashionable cliche is used about him, but is indeed God incarnate.

Interesting to have this explored with specific reference to the human body. God wants to draw us to him. We are made to hear, see, and touch - we have bodies, and Christ had a body, inviting Thomas to place his hand in his wounds...we are made in the image and likeness of God, and Christ had a body just as we do. The claims Christ  made, His statements in response to the questioning of His disciples, make it clear: to see Him was to see the Father. He and the Father are one. No other religion makes this claim: that God Himself came to join in the human race, the human race that He himself had brought into existence...

On a cold night...

...in rural Sussex, I didn't really expect that many people would turn out to hear Auntie Joanna speak on "The Church's traditional feasts and seasons".  But they did - the hall was full, and there was a great atmosphere: this parish, under the care of Fr Ian Vane, is evidently a wonderful community and there was a buzz of cheerful talk, many willing hands to brew and serve lots of tea, and a general enthusiasm for the topic with much interest being shown, and lots of copies of my book being sold etc...

Our Parliament...

...of which we are rightly proud, is surrounded with a blur of cynicism and sneering at the moment. When I lead History walks around London, we finish at the Houses of Parliament and reflect on our heritage, our constitution and what it means to live under the rule of law...

This piece by Michael Burleigh is a thoughtful read...

I have long wanted...

...to have a go with one of those machines that are used to scoop up leaves in the streets at this time of year. There was a chap using one in the street outside Precious Blood church and I asked him if I could be allowed to have a go. He was v. kind and let me. Most satisfying.

A vast crowd....

...was waiting on the steps of Westminster Cathedral for the Guy Fawkes-themed  Catholic History Walk,  At first I wasn't sure I could cope, as I didn't have a microphone...but it all went well. In order to understand the events of the reign of James I, it is of course necessary to set them in context w. the events from 1535 onwards...and in Westminster, walking along Great St Peter Street in what were once the Abbey lands, and crossing the Horseferry Road and then on down to Millbank and the river and Parliament, the events of centuries unroll...

More Catholic History walks coming up - see info here.

And - to anyone reading this who came on today's Walk, please note that the Walk this coming Thursday (Nov 9th) is NOT at Chelsea as I announced, but is a City Walk, starting 2pm at Precious Blood Church, O'Meara Street, Borough SE1.

Bonfire Night, and FIREWORKS...

...and the delights of glorious showers of  glittering stars of gold,silver, bright red and orange and green and blue, exploding into the night sky above suburban streets....

Joe, who lives opposite, invited us all to gather at the end of the road to enjoy fireworks together. A bunch of delightful children, various grown-ups, lots of fireworks and sparklers...the cheers and whoops as a rocket swooshed up into the sky, the smell of cordite, against the damp chill of a November night.... It was great fun. Jamie supervised the lighting of glittering sparklers. I produced sausages and rolls. Joe welcomed us all with wine and beer and snacks...the children ran about waving sparklers...it is a quiet cul-de-sac and ideal for neighbourly get-togethers.  Over the years, we've had great street parties for the Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilees...

Modern suburbia produces international gatherings: Polish, Filipino...the talk turned to the topic of languages. The children were impressed that I knew French and German. "What languages are you doing in school?" I asked. "Mandarin". And she could already say some phrases and count to 10 and so on. That's the future. Gulp

"Perhaps the best ever...."

...but people seem to say that every year after the Catholic Women of the Year Lunch.  It really is a great gathering, a big morale-boost to busy Catholics, hard-pressed priests, catechists, campaigners...Fr Stephen Wang spoke superbly, reminding us that being a Christians means being in communion and community with others, and citing great examples of saints who worked together and had networks and friends that connected and connected...Francis and Clare at Assisi...Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal...saints in families: Therese of Lisieux and her parents Louis and Zelie Martin...and we too must connect and pray and work together for the New Evangelisation...and strive to be saints.,..

Our four Catholic Women of the Year received bouquets and commemorative certificates.  There was a good lunch and much lively - noisy, laughing, enjoyable - talk, good networking, old friends reconnecting, new links forged. Ours was a young table, with members of LOGS, other friends, and a young staffer from the CTS   - we had invited the latter to run a bookstall at the event, and this proved immensely successful.

I had arranged to meet a dear niece in the evening - and she arrived to find some of us still talking and enjoying ourselves...settled in a pleasant corner in the hotel, over drinks...

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the CWOY Luncheon...we meet in January to plan...

ALL SOULS DAY...

...and solemn thoughts and prayers for the dead. At evening Mass we lit candles and placed them at the entrance to the sanctuary, by the box that will hold, throughout November, the names of those for whom we pray...

And then we went out into the London night, into the streets of The Borough,  to pray for the dead in local graveyards. People have been living - and dying - here for millenia. There is an old Quaker graveyard by the entrance to the church, long built over...and another, now commemorated by a stone memorial and a little herb garden,  under a nearby railway arch...and then there is the bombed-out ruin of All Hallows Church, now a public garden...and St George's Church - where soldiers stopped to sing a Te Deum as they marched into London after the Battle of Agincourt - of course had its graveyards stretching out towards the Marshalsea and beyond...

Fr Chris, wearing a stole and carrying a bucket of holy water, led prayers and blessed each place. We said litanies and prayers.  Things finished with a gathering in a local pub, with drinks and a hearty meal, and some soul-cakes. And that is the right way to mark All Souls Day.

At last Russia...

...is acknowledging the horror, the fear, the unspeakable things that were done to the men, women and children who suffered under Communism....read here...

Soul cakes...

...are an old tradition in England, all part of the marking of  All Hallows/All Souls. There's info about it all here.   I baked a batch of soul cakes this evening to take to church on All Souls...after evening Mass we will be visiting a local graveyard to pray...

A traditional soul-cake recipe produces a sort of old-fashioned rock cake, different from the rich sticky cakes that we relish today like fudge brownies or lemon drizzle or a spicy bun-loaf.  But, split and buttered, a soul cake is something to enjoy on a November evening.

The bus...

...from Westminster Cathedral trundled down Victoria Street and swept round past the Abbey, where chaps from the Royal British Legion were beginning to lay out the little white wooden markers for the annual Field of Remembrance.

I feel privileged to have grown up knowing the WWII generation, and indeed some of WWI.

It is increasingly difficult to convey the particular qualities of common sense and quiet moral courage that these people regarded as admirable and sought to reflect in their own lives as far as they could. The idea of self-promotion, as currently understood and celebrated, was seen as likely to result in misery, especially if it involved wallowing in victimhood, dishonouring marriage vows, being greedy or covetous,  using crude and vulgar speech, or expressing hatred and contempt for parents or country. To our generation, coming of age in the 1960s and early 70s, WWII language, accents, humour, and life-skills seemed anachronistic but in many ways admirable. Today, they are too often reviled and treated with contempt masquerading as moral  superiority. And important truths have been distorted in this process, so ideas of honour and freedom, neighbourliness and courtesy have been mulched and chewed up into nasty slogans and political jargon, or denounced as "hate crimes".

On November 11th, it is not just the war dead that we should remember but - if we can somehow discover something of it - the values and ideas of Britain two past generations really felt were worth defending.

As the political scene...

...gets more and more depressing, this is a trenchant and useful contribution to current disciussions and debates...

This sounds rather interesting...

...at Walsingham next year.  St Joseph has always been a popular saint, but rarely gets much deeper attention...

REDISCOVERING ST JOSEPH Dates: 16th – 20th March 2018 Venue: Dowry House, Walsingham A retreat which offers the opportunity to rediscover St Joseph, his role in the message of Walsingham and the conversion of England. To register your interest and receive further information and booking details contact: Retreat organiser: Clair-Mary Email: walsinghamclairmary@gmail.com Residential and day places available

Figures...

....published by the Church of England suggest that a quarter of all Anglican churches have no children at all in their congregations, and others have very few. It's depressing: always v. tempting to laugh/sneer/whatever at the CofE, but  every lessening of a Christian presence in Britain is to be regretted.

No point in being smug about RC churches. London is, in any case, different in lots of ways from the general trend of things. But...a church I attend has a  good-sized children's choir, a Sunday school, a lot of boy altar servers, and that still leaves a good many children in the congregation toddling, sleeping, yelling, or just settled there alongside a parent...

Pub lunch after Mass. Discussion about this. The choir troop up to Holy Communion behind the choirmaster like a long line of ducklings.They rehearse twice a week, arrive early for practice before Sunday Mass...today they sung the Missa de Angelis, but they also tackle other settings in both Latin and in English...have been rehearsing a setting of Binyon's "They shall grow not old..." for the wreath-laying on Remembrance Day...   

Received an important appeal...

...from nuns in Cobh, Ireland, who are in desperate need of help to renovate their convent building. It's in bad shape - damp and mildew, no proper heating, everything messy and run-down. These are Tyburn Sisters, young, prayerful, dedicated...we need their prayers and the strength they bring to everything that the Church does. They need some help. Here's the info...let's be generous.

MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT...

..and what a relief to hear it said clearly to a major European gathering.   It's hardly a very profound point, simply a statement of what everyone knows to be true, indeed startlingly obvious. But it's reassuring to have it said in such a matter-of-fact, old-fashioned, come-along-let's-talk-common-sense sort of way.

So: HEAR HEAR!!!

...and I also came across this, which is an encouraging message with news of an American group which I intend to contact...

and you might be interested in some thoughts on the 50th anniversary of Britain's horrible Abortion Act...

A lunch-time Mass...

...at a busy London church, a quick chat with a young friend, a  rush to the train, and then an afternoon in prison with a fine chaplain and an excellent young deacon.  The latter gave a clear, simple, Scripture-filled answer when asked to explain about Confirmation,, showing its link with Baptism...I was impressed. The young men in prison, along with so many others, tend to focus on the "extras" when thinking about  this sacrament, as with other aspects of Church life. One particular young man remembered "people all dressed up - you know, in their best. And you get a new name. Do you get to choose the name?  Can it be any name?"  Once the subject had been opened up, and the reality of Confirmation explained, he became interested...

The walk to and from the prison is peculiarly depressing, even though today it was dusted with golden leaves beneath a clear blue sky. The mix of quantities of rubbish, roaring traffic, and a skyline of a McDonalds, a mosque and a motorway is somehow bleak. The motorway underpass is evidently used as a lavatory.    

On a rainy afternoon...

...busy at home with domestic tasks, I listen to Bishop Robert Barron, warmly recommended.

...and just look at...

...the latest London landmark to be floodlit...

Read here...and I'd value your thoughts and comments on this.

The Church's Traditional Feasts and Seasons...

...offer a rich annual round of celebrations, prayer, and activities for families. Recipes, songs, games,  and all sorts of other things ranging from nursery rhymes to pub signs, are rooted in the annual cycle of the seasons. Of course some things are well known - but others are worth discovering or celebrating in some new way, offering opportunities for hospitality and family gatherings.  Want to know more?  Since producing my first book on the subject over twenty years ago, and several updated versions  (fifth edition is now in print)  I have relished learning more and passing it all on...there are ideas here for schools and parish groups as well as families and get-togethers of friends. If you live in Sussex, you could come and hear all about it on Monday Nov 6th, 7.30pm  at St Philip's Church, Uckfield.

Learn about the significance of the number 40 and why it is so central in Scripture and in the life of the Church...find out why we celebrate Christmas on the date that we do...discover the origins of the Advent wreath and how to make one...and why it's absurd to think Christmas finishes at teatime on Dec 25th...and more...

Cruel and wrong...

... attempt by the Scottish government to criminalise ordinary families. A relevant comment is here. What deserves greater legal scrutiny is the use of drugs on children who are deemed to be too lively and don't pay attention in class. Also the increasingly fashionable cruelty of hormonal drugs and surgical mutilation for young people who are deemed to be in need of switching to living as a member of the opposite sex.

There will be some grim legal cases in the years ahead as people try to reclaim their lost childhood and punish those who experimented on them in these horrible ways when they were too young to understand what was happening...

On December 4th...

...the CathSoc at St Mary's University, Twickenham,  is holding a special evening dedicated to exploring the significance of the University's name (speaker: Dr Jacob Phillips) and the history of the University (speaker: Joanna Bogle DSG). All welcome: 6pm, Senior Common Room, in the Waldegrave wing at the University.

Golden, orange and russet leaves glowing...

...in the afternoon sunshine...and the Thames lapping along, and  I walked from Teddington down to St Mary's University, and settled in the Senior Common Room with the history project. .  No one uses the Senior Common Room for its official purpose - it's a fine room in the Waldegrave part of the Strawberry Hill mansion, and it's used for conferences and meetings.  The whole idea of a Senior Common Room just doesn't fit into the way things work any more -  and all the teaching staff simply go to the refectory and the coffee-bar in the modern part of the University like everyone else.  But  when it's free, its dark heavy wallpaper and wide windows,  fine paintings, and reassuring bust of John Henry Newman make it a pleasant room in which to work, and a young student was playing the piano in the Waldegrave drawing room nearby, and I had a good-sized table on which to spread my notes and books. After a couple of hours or so I felt the need of Tea, and plunged back into 21st century life, with on-line topping-up of my refectory card, and fitting a plastic lid on the top of an expanded-polystyrene cup and lining up with the lads in baseball caps and girls in ripped jeans.

I continued my work in the more prosaic surroundings of the library. I needed a list of the St Mary's men who died in WWII, and asked a student if he could possibly help me by photographing the War Memorial with its list of names, on his mobile phone. He couldn't have been more helpful, and we went into the large silent chapel together, and found the Memorial and he got a good picture of it. Three long columns of names, and I started to look some of them up on the Commonwealth War Grave Commission website.

In the dusk, solemn thoughts as I swished through the golden and brown leaves in the lamplight, walking down towards the river...

Busy at...

...a meeting of the Catholic Union Education and Events Committee. Planning a day-conference for 2018, good discussion...

Partly because of something I was writing, I was thinking about the great St John Paul... the anniversary of his election fell this week.  J and I, chatting in the kitchen, raised a glass together in his memory. He is sort of our family patron saint...

The FAITH Movement...

...is holding another series of EVENINGS OF FAITH.

All welcome.

Theme: Lord, teach us to pray

Tuesday 7 November: Jesus, my way to the Father Fr Christopher Findlay-Wilson

Tuesday 21 November: Meeting God in the Liturgy of the Church Fr Dylan James

Tuesday 5 December: Life in the Spirit: A call to continual conversion Fr Luiz Ruscillo

TIME  7:00 pm   Venue: The Challoner Room, Basement,
24 Golden Square, London, W1F 9JR Tube: Piccadilly Pizza & wine / juice served

Many thanks...

...to all who have sent kind wishes on hearing that I was unwell....

I am fine now, and back on form. I had a wonderful time relaxing w. family in the country - this  Autumn so glorious, and the company excellent!  We walked to the prehistoric (Iron Age)  White Horse at Uffington...the party included a good archaeologist and historian... we pondered Iron Age Britain...hundreds of years BC...

Also visited Wantage with its splendid statue of  King Alfred the Great...more history, all good to discuss...

We had comfortable evenings, watched the film classic  Roman Holiday (a delight - saw it on video 20 years ago, loved it then, and loved it again on DVD this time)...

I made some jam (yes, I enjoy doing that, so it was truly relaxing), bought some new shoes and even organised some Christmas presents. So it was a good time and almost worth being unwell beforehand to get this bonus holiday...

Towards the ending...

...of a busy week, I realised that it had been too busy.

Mildly enforced rest. Opportunity to catch up on reading. Recognition, on looking through the diary, that it had indeed been rather hectic. The problem is that I wouldn't have missed any of it.

A delightful visit to a delightful school to present prizes won in the 2017 Schools Bible Project.   A talk to a packed gathering of the Pure in Heart group in London.

Earlier in the week, two London Catholic History Walks...and each time there are new links with history to discover, origins of  words or place-names, folklore, battles, traditions...info on the next Walks is here

And, all week, when not otherwise engaged, busy on research work at St Mary's University and loving it.

...and then...

...a Newman Sunday....after Mass here, and a convivial lunch w. friends, off to Evensong at this church, to mark the feast-day of Bl. John Henry Newman.

There is a Night Walk through Oxford every year, retracing Newman's steps...Oriel....the University Church...and finishing at Littlemore. You can read a first-hand account of it all by Auntie here...

St Pius X...

...Church at Merrow in Surrey, is a modern building, not large, not specially beautiful, well-filled for a Saturday eve-of-Sunday Mass. Auntie Joanna is not usually among the congregation, but was there with family. If any of the congregation are reading this, and might have been puzzled by the sight of a lady carrying a small bag of squashed mushy-looking berries....it was simply that we had all been out on a last-of-the-season hunt for rosehips.  After a disappointing haul, we hurried home across the park, and there was a rush of tidying-up and getting ready for Mass...but Auntie kept the bag of hips because there might just be some more growing somewhere near the church...and in the last of the evening light, great nephew A-H and I went hunting. Alas, to no avail. We joined the rest of the family in the pew and in due course Mass began....

As a childless aunt, I am not often at Mass with family...one child was serving Mass, two more brought up the Offertory procession, another wriggled her way along the pew and snuggled up to her mother just as small children have done at church down all the years...and then at home there was a chicken supper and lots of talk...

This is the sort of day that Auntie loves best.

...and here is what Auntie Joanna has been doing at the seaside...

read here...

Auntie in action!

...giving out prizes at a school assembly. Goodness, I didn't realise I waved my arms about so much. Read here for an account of a recent prizegiving at a boys' school in Kent. I was giving out prizes won in the 2017 Schools Bible Project. More info, and a list of all the schools that won prizes, is here.   The main prizewinners will be coming to London in December to receive their prizes from one of our Trustees, Baroness Cox, at the House of Lords.

While feeling...

...some sympathy for the poor Prime Minister, who was obviously unwell yesterday , my main concern is for our country, which must endure the nonsense which formed part of her speech. What on earth did she mean by suggesting that reinventing the legal base of marriage can in any way be regarded as compassionate? It was a cruel and mean-spirited thing to do, and has helped to undermine further the central institution on which a just society is based.

The Tories did a great deal of harm by forcing same-sex "marriage" on Britain.  The only possible thing for a just and fair government to do now is to ensure that those who defend marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman are given a fair hearing and not penalised. That means teachers, magistrates, school governors, youth workers, church leaders and others whose work includes teaching and guiding the young.

Mrs May is a Christian woman who personally honours marriage: it was touching to see her husband hurry to hug her as she finished her unfortunate speech. But she is Prime Minister: what matters is not her personal views on marriage, but the policies she is promoting for the rest of bus. If she cannot refrain from continuing to promote the cruel undermining of marriage, then it is probably time for her to make way for some one who will at least remain silent on the subject, and allow true freedom for policy-discussion to flourish.

The CATHOLIC YOUNG WRITER AWARD...

...launched by The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild, some years ago, is now sponsored by the CATHOLIC UNION CHARITABLE TRUST.

We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2017 Award, who wins the coveted Keys Shield with a cash prize and a selection of books. Two runners-up also received book prizes.  A number of other book prizes were won by pupils at various schools. You can read more here: and as one of the organisers I record my special thanks to the excellent Catholic Union Charitable Trust which makes this Award possible.

Today...

...the memory of Dr George Bell, Anglican bishop of Chichester, was honoured, at Evensong in the church of St Martin-within-Ludgate in the City. I went along, as I wanted to be there to honour his memory, which has been cruelly smeared in recent months by a crude and unsubstantiated allegation of sexual abuse. A number of people have been involved in seeking to clear Bell's name, and a full investigation  may well do so....but it is cruel and horrible that these smears were ever publicised. At Evensong one of his sermons was read - calling for a strong Christian renewal in the years immediately after the Second World War. He had been a courageous friend of the anti-Nazi Germans, and with equal courage spoke out against the massive slaughter of civilians in the bombing roads on German cities.

In a Traditional ceremony...

...going back centuries, Fr Alexander Sherbrooke became a Canon of Westminster Cathedral this evening. A letter was read out from the Cardinal Archbishop "by the grace of God and the favour of the Apostolic See" and then Fr Alexander and another new Canon-to-be made their solemn profession of faith and promises, and were vested with their canonical hoods... the sung Mass at the Cathedral is always glorious, but this evening had something special about it...a further chapter in the long story of the Church in our land...   After the Mass, all was joy and congratulations - there was a grand party back at St Patrick's, and when Fr Alexander arrived, we broke into "For he's a jolly good Canon!". Celebrations were unconfined - a packed, talkative, and cheery evening.

On a London pilgrimage, with a delightful...

...international group of students from Kings...honouring the English Martyrs. We began at this church, just by the Tower of London. A magnificent  church by the younger Pugin, and an active parish, with an interesting history in its own right: one of the people involved in its early stages was a nurse with Florence Nightingale and later went on to found a religious order caring for London's poor...

We stopped, of course, at the site of SS Thomas More and John Fisher's martyrdom. This area where the land rises up beyond the Tower - it's still called Tower Hill -  has remained open land down all the centuries. Once the ghastly place of executions, where crowds gathered to watch the grisly scenes,  it has long been a garden honouring the dead. Today, the execution site, adjoins the Memorial to men of two world wars who died at sea...they are honoured here, along by the Thames, because here their ships came bringing the food to this beleaguered island.

On to St Paul's and thence to Holborn...walking the route along which St Edmund Campion and others were dragged on hurdles, to face an agonising death at Tyburn.

At the convent, a beautiful Mass and a warm welcome from the good sisters...

The students were good company: sincere in their faith, open and interesting in their conversation, enthusiastic about learning the history. It was moving to be kneeling there in the lovely chapel at Tyburn, and hearing their strong young voices singing the Gloria...

This was my second walking-pilgrimage in 24 hours - my third, if you count the Blessed Sacrament Procession (see previous blog post).  After the Procession, I went with a Catholic youth group from a London parish for a Night Walk along the Southwark reaches of the Thames...again, lots of history, from the Bishop of Winchester's old palace, via the Clink Prison, to the little house where Catherine of Aragon stayed on first arriving in Britain - and on across the Millenium Bridge to St Paul's...

Late on an Autumn night, hurrying home through darkened streets, there is a curious sense of  feeling at once very comfortable and familiar - this is my London, my city, known since childhood - and faintly bleak.  A city and its history can all be very delightful - but late at night, the one corner of it that matters is home...long ago I might have travelled there by river, today it can be bus, tube, or train...having a home waiting is a mighty blessing for which to give thanks.,..

More on...

...that LOGS pilgrimage to Walsingham here

...and in Tradition, Splendour and Prayer...

...as the annual "Two Cathedrals"  Procession of the Blessed Sacrament made its way across the Thames. This started back in 2011, in thanksgiving  to mark the first anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's wonderful visit to Britain. It usually starts at Westminster and goes to St George's Cathedral in Southwark - but this year  we began at St G's. As we gathered, numbers seemed a bit bleak - but then as the procession started off, with Knights of St Columba marshalling us along the way, and the Bishop holding the Monstrance firmly, and  Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in white robes etc, it was all fine. Inevitably, we at the rear of the procession were out of time with the singers at the front...but that's all part of the tradition too....

A couple of people crossed themselves as we made our way through Southwark and across Lambeth Bridge. Several stared. Lots took photographs. Some asked each other what it was all about. At Westminster it was rather a fine sight as we swung out from Ambrosden Avenue and made a big loop around and into the piazza before a final approach up the main steps and through those great doors. Knights and Dames went right up into the choir stalls at the base of the sanctuary - the first time I have ever been there. A glorious Benediction with  Bishop Paul Mason of Southwark in fine voice.

An afternoon of Autumn sunlight and cascades of golden and brown leaves.  A sense of time passing. After disrobing  I made my way back to St George's to collect luggage etc...chatted to loveyl M.Teresa nuns and to various friends... it's all now become pat of this season in London...can it really be a full year since the last time I took part in that Procession?

At the Cathedral, a very grand wedding had just taken place, and I was able to duck out of sight just in time as the bride and groom emerged to a storm of cheers and rose petals.

This evening I am meeting a Catholic youth group for  Night Walk along the Thames...I'm writing this over a glass of wine and some supper beforehand...

and in joy and in peace...

...we went on pilgrimage to Walsingham. We were sent off following Mass at London Bridge, with the traditional ...blessing "May Our Lady and all the saints pray for you, an may Almighty God bless you..." and a sprinkling with holy water...and we packed everything into the coach, including a massive water-carrier - of which more later.

It was a cheerful journey. We in LOGS, the Ladies Ordinariate Group, have become a real team over the past five years, and it was joyful to be celebrating our first half-decade of friendship and  prayer and work and good humour together...

The Pilgrim Bureau, Elmham House, is welcoming and extremely comfortable. It has been my home on many a visit, notably this summer, and it was good to be back again. Our first evening was spent, after supper, simply relaxing together, enjoying a local pub, meeting other friends. The next morning's Mass opened a wonderful day. A morning of talking and planning, an overview of recent work - and of the work of the past five years - with ideas for the immediate future and for 2018, our projects for schools, our meetings and events.  For this, we gathered in the agreeable surroundings of Dowry House, run by the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham,  and concluded with time together in the lovely chapel there.

Then, in golden mellow September sunshine, we walked the Holy Mile to the Shrine, praying the Rosary. We had brought petitions with us from the parish, and added of course our own, and left them all  in Mary's good care in the Slipper Chapel. We lingered in the peaceful atmosphere of the Shrine - which I last visited when it was teeming with the buzz of hundreds and hundreds of young people at Youth 2000, and then tumbling with hordes of young families at the New Dawn event. I thought then that it was at its most delightful when busy with all these pilgrims - but somehow in peaceful September light it had a glow that held a glory of its own...

And then we picked blackberries from the hedgerows on the way back - agreeing that it was the last opportunity to do so as it was Michaelmas the next day...

And more. This has been a wonderful few days.In all sorts of ways, a time of refreshment. And then, on our final day, we filled the great water-carrier with holy water from the shrine and brought it back to London...

and I refer my readers...

...to this useful analysis of recent publicised events in the Church...

On Oct 2nd we will mark the 25th anniversary...

...of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

This is one of the best fruits of the Second Vatican Council, and a magnificent achievement of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus, and Pope St John Paul the Great.

Come and celebrate!

Bishop Mark O'Toole will be speaking on HOW TO BE A DISCIPLE-MAKING DISCIPLE, at St Patrick's Church, Soho Square, London W1D 4NR, at 6.30pm.

You can book your place at guildofourladyandstjoseph@gmail.com

The Catechism has now become central to Catholic life. At the big Youth 2000 gathering at Walsingham this summer, a copy was given to every young person. Copies have been sent as prizes to winners of the 2017 Catholic Young Writer Award. The  YOUCAT Youth Catechism and the Compendium of the Catechism  have proved hugely popular: the former is now standard-issue in Catholic schools in Britain, and the latter is a standard Confirmation gift...

Come and help celebrate, and learn about how to evangelise....

Not as advertised....

...and a story that collapsed.

Some media reports said that a letter had come come from leading Catholic academics, addressing the H. Father and suggesting that they were giving him some sort of formal reprimand.. But it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

The signatories aren't leading figures in Catholic academia. Many aren't active academics at all, none are bishops in communion with the Church, none are leaders of religious communities, colleges, seminaries or universities.The thing wasn't at all as had been advertised.

Papal statements don't have to be beyond criticism. But making a public campaign denouncing various Papal statements is not the way to help him in his pastoral office.  And getting together an assorted group of people to do such public campaigning is  a rather dreadful way to spend time.

Sunday Mass...

...at the Church of the Most Precious Blood at the Borough, London Bridge. There is a children's choir which is now singing beautifully. Before every choir practice, they line up in front of the sanctuary and genuflect together, before making their way to the choir loft, where they say the Prayer of the choristers of the Royal School of Church Music "Bless O Lord, us Thy servants..."

Today  at Mass we gave thanks for the harvest, and gifts of food and other necessities, collected for the Manna Centre, were stacked on a table.I made a  modest Harvest contribution selling home-made jam, rose-hip syrup, and other goodies. It was also the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, so we sang a hymn in her honour, which I had never heard before joining the Ordinariate, and is rather lovely. I cannot find it anywhere on the internet so cannot provide a link - can anyone help?

The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham...

...held its annual Festival yesterday. A glorious Mass in Westminster Cathedral, using the Ordinariate Form. Splendid, hearty singing. Conference in the big Hall at Westmnster City School . The entrance has a fine War Memorial listing the names of former pupils who fell in the 1914-18 war, with, written in gold above, "They died for England. Thou for England live."  It was fitting that the first talk of the day was on England's Christianity and the role of the Ordinariate in evangelising our country today, with an emphasis on the culture and patrimony of the centuries...Fr Ed Tomlinson spoke well, with some images of the architecture and people who have written the story of the Faith in our land...

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith spoke in the afternoon about the blight of internet porn and how to counter it - a challenging important talk.

More on Holy Days...

...and with some interesting information on the importance of the number 40. Read here

We are seeing...

..new forms of abuse of children and young people. Fearsome things are happening. Read here...

John Henry Newman...

...took on the care of the impoverished village of Littlemore, on the outskirts of Oxford, as the Anglican vicar of the parish that included this area. Littlemore had no church, and he raised funds and built one, his mother laying the foundation stone. It was to Littlemore that he later retreated to pray and ponder the whole question of the  nature of the Church as founded by Christ...and it was here, on a rainy night that he was received into the Catholic Church by Bl Dominic Barberi....

The rooms that Newman established for himself in a former stables at Littlemore are today a retreat centre where his memory is kept alive and cherished. A community of sisters of The Work flourishes there, and welcomed a good crowd of us last weekend for a study day honouring their foundress, Mother Julia Verhaege.

Things began with Mass in the church of Bl Dominic, and then after a buffet lunch, a talk by Fr Joseph Welch of the Oratory. It was rather fine to sit in Newman's library, surrounded by a magnificent collection of books by and about him - many people come here to do research - hearing an inspirational talk, and to follow this with Benediction in the tiny chapel he established...

WITH CO-AUTHOR...

...Clare Anderson - we worked together on this book about beloved St John Paul the Great -  a busy afternoon working on the Catholic Young writer Award, sponsored by the Catholic Union Charitable Trust.  The winners are to be announced next week - I'll be putting up a link on this Blog.

Clare and her family live in the country - different pace of life from mine...dogs, a big kitchen, family meals, vegetables fresh from the garden...

The first part of the day was spent helping out at a local lunch-club for the elderly,  organised by volunteers in the local Catholic parish hall. We had a grand singalong, enormously enjoyable. I  used to love ding this at the nursing home where my dear mother spent her last years...everyone singing  away together.  The songs  change as generations pass.. Mother's generation sang "The white cliffs of Dover" and "Lily Marlene" and "We'll meet again. Now it's "Edelweiss" and "My Favourite things", and "All I want is a room somewhere".

...at Paddington station...

...I settled with some coffee to tackle emails...looked up at the  TV news on the screen, and saw that the next train on the tube line I had just used had halted at Parsons Green with a great explosion...

It now emerges that the wretched terrorist's hope was to get the thing to explode at Westminster tube station, where it most certainly would have killed great numbers of people....its premature explosion while the train was not yet underground was thus a life-saver....

Don Bosco...

...the great saint of education established schools across Europe...and there has been one in Battersea since the 19th century, and one of my uncles was a pupil there in the 1940s.

Today's St John  Bosco College at Battersea is a brand-new building opened just a couple of years ago, and it was a great privilege to be there yesterday evening to present prizes at a splendid ceremony attended by pupils and their families.  I was made very welcome - there was a glass of prosecco with staff and other guests in the Headmaster's study, and then entry into a packed hall with a great atmosphere of friendliness and goodwill.

Always daunting to be the guest speaker on such occasions - but any anxiety dissipates into the general mood: things began with prayers and the blessing of the new hall, named in honour of Bl Michael Rua, Don Bosco's assistant and successor, and speeches by the Head Boy and Head Girl...

London is one of the great cities of the world and I wanted to convey to the boys and girls that this is their inheritance - their city, the city where Shakespeare wrote his plays, where St Thomas More faced death on the scaffold for defending Christian marriage and the freedom of the Church, where Elizabeth Fry launched prison reform amid the horrors of Newgate, where  Florence Nightingale established modern nursing at St Thomas's Hospital,  where Winston Churchill led the allies to victory in World War II... and where there are great things to be done, a great inheritance to cherish, great hopes for the future, great needs to be met.

South London has its own particular heroes -  among them, William Wilberforce leading the campaign to ban the slave trade from the oceans of the world, and Violette Szabo parachuting into occupied France in WWII...

We need to think about the great adventures that await us tomorrow and to be ready to serve and to do great things...and at St John Bosco College pupils are taught the Faith that is the true foundation on which real achievement can be based, and real values established...

Oh, dear...

I have just been sent a magazine about music in church.

Its front cover  offers, all unwittingly, exactly the image of church that is most dreary and repellent to the young.

A small group of  plump cheery ladies, not young, looking rather pleased with themselves,stand, wearing their best frocks, at a lectern in the sanctuary. They look as though they have just come from a chatty lunch at Peter Jones or a weekly grocery-shop at Waitrose. They are about to sing at us. One has her hand lightly raised, in that gesture such ladies use when indicating that you must now sing the refrain of a psalm at her direction.

The message is:  Mass is about  middle-class ladies who want you watch them as they sing. They are in charge of things.

It absolutely sums up a notion of the Mass that is utterly at variance with the great reality of Christ's redemptive action and our call to worship him. It reduces the whole glory of the Mass to a ladies coffee-morning.

A more effective way of saying "DON'T COME TO MASS; IT LOOKS LIKE THIS!"  could scarcely be imagined.

After a morning at...

...St Mary's University (history project progressing slowly but satisfyingly thus far), I hopped on to a bus and crossed the river to Richmond, for a cup of tea with Fr Stephen Langridge at this church...

St Elizabeth's  is a church with lots of young people, a busy parish life, and a message of evangelisation and mission  - and also a rich history, dating back to the 18th century, before Catholic Emancipation.

I used to drop in here during my lunch-hour, when I was a junior reporter on the Richmond Herald newspaper - my first job after leaving school, the beginning of a life in journalism.

The Herald office in George Street has gone, of course, as has  the baker's shop  that was almost opposite,where I used to hurry to buy doughnuts, with one of the senior reporters timing me from the window  as I sped from the office, seeing if I could break my record for speed - I always dashed everywhere...

This evening I settled in one of the many comfortable coffee-and-smart-pastries places, and tackled some emails. Somewhere, the ghost of a teenager scurried about with a notebook and a passionate conviction about being a writer, giving everything an enormous amount of energy...oh, long, looooooong ago...

There is one book that I simply must read, as it is about one of the greatest men of our era...

...and I have ordered it as a birthday treat as it is published this month. Info about it  here...

and off to the seaside...

...at Bournemouth...to the magnificent church here, where a new Oratorian community  has been established.

This church - familiar to me from a wonderful family wedding held there a few years back - is ideally suited to the Oratorians, established by St Philip Neri in the 16th century and brought to England by Blessed John Henry Newman in the 19th.

We had a happy day, and it was a particular pleasure for me to catch up with a former parish priest, now an Oratorian, and to give him - as  I did when he was our popular local priest , and was glad to do again to keep up the tradition - a jar of my home-made jam, and to catch up on news and talk over so many things...

A delightful talkative lunch, lots of news to share, lots of good things to discuss...and this beautiful church, with good family memories for me, now sees a new chapter of its history...