...for a quiet day at Minster Abbey with a friend. We arrived early so as to join the Sisters for their morning office (they had already been up for a good while, having sung an earlier office and had time for silent prayer....). By mutual decision, D and I had agreed not to chat during the day, but to spend the time in reading or quiet work. It is beautiful to pray with the Sisters in their lovely chapel which in its simplicity blends seamlessly into the original Saxon buildings of the Abbey. A particularly fine carved dark wooden statue of Our Lady stands to one side of the chancel: light gleams on the single central jewel in her crown, aligned with the golden cross that forms the halo of the Christ-child who sits enthroned on her lap. It is an image at once serene and queenly.
A new young postulant was among the Sisters and will be clothed with the white veil shortly. They all enter the chapel quietly from their various tasks and take their places in the choir-stalls to chant the psalms of the Offices, one Sister accompanying them on an instrument which somehow has a Medieval sound. Beyond the altar - the base of which is one large gnarled and polished tree-trunk, matching the lectern and the wooden stand that holds St Mildred's relics - tall trees rustle in the wind from the sea, and birds sing. As evening falls, Vespers has a more formal feel: the sisters enter in procession, the chanted psalms are in Latin. Compline is after dark and we had set off for home by then, rain lashing the car as we drove back to London.
I have begun work on a long cross-stitch kneeler, designed for the bridal pair at weddings. Starting the work the evening before the trip to Minster was pleasing - the long folds of material drape down to the floor as one sews, and it all has a restful, and dignified feeling. Busy with it again at Minster I realised that it really is going to be a mammoth task - and D observed that her mother made a similar cushion which is now in her possession "It took her the whole of the Second World War..."
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Want to know what it's like...
...on a London Catholic History Walk?
There's an insider's story here (scroll down to page 28).
And why not discover what London is like south of the Thames? Southwark is undiscovered territory for some Londoners and for most visitors. Come and discover it!
Friday March 24th and Friday April 28th - a tour inside St George's Cathedral. Meet 3pm at the Cathedral door. Nearest tube: WATERLOO. The Cathedral is opposite the Imperial War Museum.
SUNDAY May 21st 3pm and FRIDAY June 2nd 6pm. A walk around Southwark, starting at the door of St George's Cathedral. Come and discover where the Marshalsea prison - made famous by Charles Dickens - stood. Come and stand where the English soldiers sang when they returned from the victory at Agincourt. Come and see where the Gordon riots began...
There's an insider's story here (scroll down to page 28).
And why not discover what London is like south of the Thames? Southwark is undiscovered territory for some Londoners and for most visitors. Come and discover it!
Friday March 24th and Friday April 28th - a tour inside St George's Cathedral. Meet 3pm at the Cathedral door. Nearest tube: WATERLOO. The Cathedral is opposite the Imperial War Museum.
SUNDAY May 21st 3pm and FRIDAY June 2nd 6pm. A walk around Southwark, starting at the door of St George's Cathedral. Come and discover where the Marshalsea prison - made famous by Charles Dickens - stood. Come and stand where the English soldiers sang when they returned from the victory at Agincourt. Come and see where the Gordon riots began...
Saturday, February 25, 2017
KIndness...
...and honesty...
On Thursday, a telephone call from London's Amba Hotel, where the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon was held last October. They had suddenly discovered a red wallet which had been dropped behind a fixed corner seat...only discovered when everything was removed for some renovations...
Yes, it was mine, and today I went to collect it. Everything intact, including £40 in cash. And much else including a small but particularly special picture of our wedding, a snapshot taken by the apple trees at our family home...
The hotel staff were as pleased as I was to have the wallet back, and an ordinary February morning was suddenly quietly transformed by shared human joy and solidarity.
On Thursday, a telephone call from London's Amba Hotel, where the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon was held last October. They had suddenly discovered a red wallet which had been dropped behind a fixed corner seat...only discovered when everything was removed for some renovations...
Yes, it was mine, and today I went to collect it. Everything intact, including £40 in cash. And much else including a small but particularly special picture of our wedding, a snapshot taken by the apple trees at our family home...
The hotel staff were as pleased as I was to have the wallet back, and an ordinary February morning was suddenly quietly transformed by shared human joy and solidarity.
Friday, February 24, 2017
The MARCH issue of ....
FAITH magazine is now published. It includes a feature on the Sisters of Life, with whom the Editor was privileged to stay while on a recent visit to New York....
As always, a limited number of magazines are available for new readers. Interested? Send a Comment to this Blog WHICH I WILL NOT PUBLISH, giving your full postal address, and a copy will be on its way to you...
As always, a limited number of magazines are available for new readers. Interested? Send a Comment to this Blog WHICH I WILL NOT PUBLISH, giving your full postal address, and a copy will be on its way to you...
High winds and glorious countryside...
...and chanting monks in a great abbey church of austere grandeur...the FAITH Movement has been holding its annual Symposium all this week at Ampleforth Abbey,and it has been splendid. We had an excellent series of lectures exploring St John Paul's Man and Woman he created them...I had not known that this was a lengthy book on which he worked during the years that he was Archbishop of Krakow. When he became Pope, he used the material for Papal lectures over a period of several months. These were interrupted by the assassination attempt in 1981 but later continued and were published and popularised under the title of Theology of the Body. But the full importance of this work is only now beginning to be realised.
The subject would at any time have been a significant and useful one for the Church. But in this as in so much else Karol Wojtyla had a prophetic understanding of the "signs of the times". Campaigners in Western nations who have for years have been successfully promoting forms of sexual crudity, celebration of abortion, and abandonment of any authentically human understanding of marriage, are now going through a period of almost complete intellectual meltdown in attempting to ban any acceptance of differences between male and female. St JP's timely work opens up precisely the insights the Church needs...and his courage will be an example to us as we take this forward...
Ampleforth is a grand place in which to meet and pray. There is a sense of everything taking place within the enduring round of the monastic hours...I didn't rise in the dark to join them in the early offices of Matins and Lauds...but it was wonderful to be gathering in the great church as the bell rang out for Mass. There is a great sense of the "Mass of all the ages", a sense of time and history, of the long years of Christianity in our country and of being part of the Church around the world and in the next world too...
We had another chapel for our own use, but one night I joined the monks at Compline...a sense of strength in the darkened church with wind roaring outside...
The subject would at any time have been a significant and useful one for the Church. But in this as in so much else Karol Wojtyla had a prophetic understanding of the "signs of the times". Campaigners in Western nations who have for years have been successfully promoting forms of sexual crudity, celebration of abortion, and abandonment of any authentically human understanding of marriage, are now going through a period of almost complete intellectual meltdown in attempting to ban any acceptance of differences between male and female. St JP's timely work opens up precisely the insights the Church needs...and his courage will be an example to us as we take this forward...
Ampleforth is a grand place in which to meet and pray. There is a sense of everything taking place within the enduring round of the monastic hours...I didn't rise in the dark to join them in the early offices of Matins and Lauds...but it was wonderful to be gathering in the great church as the bell rang out for Mass. There is a great sense of the "Mass of all the ages", a sense of time and history, of the long years of Christianity in our country and of being part of the Church around the world and in the next world too...
We had another chapel for our own use, but one night I joined the monks at Compline...a sense of strength in the darkened church with wind roaring outside...
Friday, February 17, 2017
Distressed...
...Anglican friends are praying that voices will be raised defending, teaching and honouring the truth about God's plan for marriage and family. Yesterday's debate in the Anglican synod had a tragic quality. There were some courageous voices: read here
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Are there two different sexes?
YES. And it matters. Come and learn more. Discovering the truth about humanity is central to living in the truth. And truth and freedom go together: that is one of the lessons we learned from the experiences of people living under the lies that were part of the structures of the Soviet Empire, and the freedom they gained through a courageous commitment to truth in 1989...
You can be part of this discovery and truth and freedom by taking part in this conference in London in April.I intend to be there and am looking forward to it...
You can be part of this discovery and truth and freedom by taking part in this conference in London in April.I intend to be there and am looking forward to it...
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Sunday, February 12, 2017
New Evangelisation...
...means new people arriving in church, for whom it is deeply unfamiliar territory. At a recent baptism in a packed church, the extended family and guests of the candidate were all dressed up - posh hats, bow ties, spangly stuff, heels - and well-equipped with mobile phones/cameras etc. But the essential nature of what was going on was evidently a matter of confusion. Lots of getting up and greeting friends, and much anxious checking-to-see-what-to-do-next when it came to the actual business of prayer...evident mild astonishment at the length of the whole thing...
But it was extraordinarily touching to see the priest with the newly-baptised baby (beaming with gummy smile), followed by parents godparents with glowing candle, and parade of relatives, walking up the aisle from the font...
But it was extraordinarily touching to see the priest with the newly-baptised baby (beaming with gummy smile), followed by parents godparents with glowing candle, and parade of relatives, walking up the aisle from the font...
Oh dear...
...the poor Anglicans are coming under pressure to abandon any stance defending Christian marriage, and submit to the ideology "same sex" unions as currently imposed by the government.
They slammed the door on any hopes of reunion when they invented priestesses. But there were still opportunities for some occasional useful co-operation on issues connected to some form of Christian witness in our country. Now that's getting less and less possible...
They slammed the door on any hopes of reunion when they invented priestesses. But there were still opportunities for some occasional useful co-operation on issues connected to some form of Christian witness in our country. Now that's getting less and less possible...
Thursday, February 09, 2017
Come along...
... on a London Catholic History Walk...
LONDON
CATHOLIC HISTORY WALKS
Spring
2017
Come and enjoy a
London Walk, focusing on the centuries of Christian history that have
shaped this great city. All are welcome! No need to book – just
turn up!
We suggest a £5.00
donation for each Walk.
Tuesday March
14th 2pm meet on the steps of St Paul’s
Cathedral, London EC4 (nearest tube: ST PAULS). We’ll
explore the City, some famous churches, and the birthplace of John
Henry Newman.
Tuesday March
21st 2pm meet on the steps of the Church
of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, Cheyne
Row, London SW3 (nearest tube: SLOANE SQUARE) . We’ll
trace the footsteps of St Thomas More.
Tuesday March
28th 2pm meet on the steps of Westminster Cathedral,
Victoria Street, London SW1 (nearest tube: VICTORIA). We’ll
walk to Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Whitehall.
Tuesday April 4th
2pm meet on the steps of St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar
Square,London W2 (nearest tube: CHARING CROSS). We’ll
discover the story of the Strand, the river, Blackfriars, and more.
SUNDAY WALKS:
Sunday March 5th,
meet on the steps of the Church of the Most Precious Blood, London
SE1 O’Meara Street, off Southwark Street, 3pm (tube: LONDON
BRIDGE)
Sunday March
19th, meet on the steps of the Church of the
Most Precious Blood, London SE1, O’Meara Street, off Southwark
Street, 3pm (nearest tube: LONDON BRIDGE)
More information:
www.catholichistorywalks.com
Rumours...
...that the Lefevbrists will be reconciled to the Church...my own contacts have been telling me this for some while - indeed I thought it would happen last year. We must hope that, having banished their more extreme and weird members, they will become good Catholics.At least we can pray they will stop saying insulting things about St John Paul the Great, against whom they railed loudly for years. Their anger there was partly what made them blind to the need to be part of the Church...but with his canonisation a certain statement has been made against which their railing could only fade away.
The report I received last year was that they now feel that there is nothing to stop them returning. In a sense, this has always been true: but for their own pride, they could have submitted to the Church long ago. But I think they feel an affinity with Pope Francis - in many ways, their approach is his. A certain relish for random statements, an apparent enjoyment in clashing with opponents and a tendency to denounce opposition in passionate terms...I think they find a sense of fellow-feeling.In any case, if they come back, some of them at least may find some peace and can journey in faith along with the Church rather than prowling outside...
The report I received last year was that they now feel that there is nothing to stop them returning. In a sense, this has always been true: but for their own pride, they could have submitted to the Church long ago. But I think they feel an affinity with Pope Francis - in many ways, their approach is his. A certain relish for random statements, an apparent enjoyment in clashing with opponents and a tendency to denounce opposition in passionate terms...I think they find a sense of fellow-feeling.In any case, if they come back, some of them at least may find some peace and can journey in faith along with the Church rather than prowling outside...
Sunday, February 05, 2017
PREMIER RADIO...
...ran an interview about the Catholic History Walks: the presenter was particularly glad to do so, as her parents had originally met at a Catholic ramble years ago! Premier website is here...
The Premier studios are in Chapter Street, just off the Vauxhall Bridge Road...I went from there across the river and on to London Bridge, for a meeting of a local branch of the Walsingham Association...lots of news about developments at the shrine, extension of the "Barn Church" as it is not large enough and anyway needs renovation and improvement...and Community of Our Lady of Walsingham is now running the Dowry House in the village High Street as a centre for retreats and a place where pilgrims can stay...
In the afternoon, on to a useful meeting to plan the next round of Evenings of Faith, organised by the FAITH Movement...and then a talk to a lively youth group, with pizza and games and a very happy atmosphere....they went on to join in prayer at Nightfever at St Patrick's, Soho. Auntie travelled back (exhausted!) to the suburbs for mugs of tea...and reading this book on John Henry Newman, some fascinating insights...
The Premier studios are in Chapter Street, just off the Vauxhall Bridge Road...I went from there across the river and on to London Bridge, for a meeting of a local branch of the Walsingham Association...lots of news about developments at the shrine, extension of the "Barn Church" as it is not large enough and anyway needs renovation and improvement...and Community of Our Lady of Walsingham is now running the Dowry House in the village High Street as a centre for retreats and a place where pilgrims can stay...
In the afternoon, on to a useful meeting to plan the next round of Evenings of Faith, organised by the FAITH Movement...and then a talk to a lively youth group, with pizza and games and a very happy atmosphere....they went on to join in prayer at Nightfever at St Patrick's, Soho. Auntie travelled back (exhausted!) to the suburbs for mugs of tea...and reading this book on John Henry Newman, some fascinating insights...
Friday, February 03, 2017
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
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