Saturday, September 30, 2017

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...

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

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....




Monday, September 25, 2017

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, September 24, 2017

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.


Friday, September 22, 2017

More on Holy Days...

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

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

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...

Saturday, September 16, 2017

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....


Friday, September 15, 2017

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...

Thursday, September 14, 2017

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.





Tuesday, September 12, 2017

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...

TRUTH...

...really matters. Pope St John Paul wrote an encyclical centred on its splendour. Read here to mark an impoirtant anniversary...

Monday, September 11, 2017

In response to enquiries...

...about the Catholic Women of the Year 2017, I draw your attention to the information about the four elected women, and tickets for the Luncheon (Nov 3rd, London): HERE

...and while you're about it...

...you could also read Auntie in the latest issue of The Portal, the on-line magazine of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham....

...and if you enjoy reading about London's history...

...then you will enjoy Auntie's feature in the latest issue of Westminster Cathedral's magazine OREMUS....

With a pilgrim group...

...from Trinidad, a gathering for Mass at Ealing Abbey. Much enthusiastic singing, and a very devout atmosphere. After a pleasant walk back across Ealing Common to the hotel, a delightful dinner with lots of good conversation, and a joyful atmosphere: welcoming speeches, and a sense of a shared adventure beginning. The group will be going to Fatima, and then on to Avila, returning to Britain to finish at Aylesford before flying home.

The next morning, I joined them again  to go to Westminster Cathedral where their chaplain  Fr Haseley King concelebrated the 10.30am Sung Mass. The Cathedral choir was just back after the long summer break, and Cathedral was, as always, packed, and it was a glorious Mass...and then, after some lunch, we set off on a great History Walk around Westminster, in which they learned about the Grey Coat Hospital and the Blew Coat and Green Coat  schools, the old horse ferry across the Thames, and of course the whole story of St Edward the Confessor and the great Abbey here on the western reaches beyond London that has given its name to this whole area and to the world's Mother of Parliaments.

We rested in St Margaret's, Westminster before heading for Buckingham Palace...and then the group returned to the hotel and I trundled home...I love being involved with pilgrimage groups and helping to ring history alive....but it is also good to be home, and having a big mug of tea, and taking off one's shoes...

Saturday, September 09, 2017

Every year...

...following the wonderful visit of Pope (now Emeritus) Benedict XVI to Britain in 2010,  we hold a great Procession of the Blessed Sacrament linking London's two Catholic cathedrals - St George's in Southwark and Westminster on the northern bank of the river. The Pope visited Pope during his historic visit - as did Pope St John Paul before him, in 1982.

This year's Procession will be on  SATURDAY September 30th, starting at St George's Cathedral Southwark at 1.30pm.  It is always a glorious sight as we cross the Thames, with the Houses of Parliament as a backdrop. Knights of St Columba guide us, and we carry the Blessed Sacrament flanked by altar servers and candle-bearers...

COME AND JOIN US! Be at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, a little before 1.30pm.  Things finish with Benediction at Westminster following the Procession across Lambeth Bridge and across Millbank...

Come and help make history! The Procession was first held in 2011 to give thanks for the success of the Papal visit, and by popular demand has continued annually. This year, for the first time, it starts in Southwark -come and help make it the biggest and best yet!

Friday, September 08, 2017

This weekend...

... (ie Sept 9th and  10th) I am guiding a pilgrim group from Trinidad around London. They are flying in from Fatima, and I'll be taking them to, among other places, Westminster Cathedral, and Ealing Abbey...and, looking ahead, my diary includes a school prizegiving, a London History Walk for Uniuversity students, and an Ordinariate gathering at Walsingham...

Yesterday brought my Birthday, and it was spent very happily. At this church, Evensong and an Ordinariate Mass began again after the summer break, so I offered to do pasta-and-prosecco afterwards (my kind husband provided the prosecco!). So after a beautiful time in church - where we had my favourite evening hymn -  a good number of us  gathered around one big long table in the parish room around a long table...I'd prepared two enormous dishes of pasta, plus olive bread etc and it all worked out well...

Earlier, I had spent the afternoon at the nursing home where my mother spent - very peacefully and contentedly - her last years. It had become a home-from-home for me during that time...a place where I was always welcome...

Mother's Birthday was September 10th, and we liked the fact that our birthdays were so close together. In recent years we often merged the celebrations...so it was very special thoughts that I went to St Teresa's on my Birthday afternoon - my first since Mother died -  taking with me some home-made jam, just as I have done on all the previous Septembers...on arrival I was enveloped in the warmest of welcomes...hugs, birthday greetings, and so much love and care.

It was one of the most beautiful experiences, and a perfect way to spend my Birthday afternoon..."and your Mother is marking the day too - safely in God's care..." kind Sister P. reminded me...

Thursday, September 07, 2017

Tuesday, September 05, 2017

On the feast of St Gregory the Great...to Winchester...

...for a gathering of Knights and Dames of St Gregory and of the Holy Sepulchre.

We processed - robes, swords,cloaks etc - into St Peter's Church for Mass. A fine large church with a glorious stained glass window dominating the sanctuary...

Afterwards, an excellent Lunch, and  a talk by Dr Michael Straiton telling of the origins of "Peter's Pence" - did you know that it originated with silver pennies collected by Offa of Mercia from among his prosperous farmers and tradesfolk?

Odd to be in Winchester...city of King Arthur, of St Swithun, of Jane Austen... pondering  St Gregory and his sending St Augustine to us...and to be doing so in this 21st century, with ghastly world events centred on North Korea...and the sense of a collapsing West, and fewer and fewer people in our land naming themselves as Christians..




Monday, September 04, 2017

ALLELUIA!!!

REJOICE!!!

REJOICE!!!!!!!!!

The Holy Days of Epiphany and the Ascension have been returned to us!!!

They are reinstated on their proper days, with effect from the First Sunday of Advent this year, 2017

Read here...and rejoice!

Sunday, September 03, 2017

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller...

...has given an interview in the latest FAITH magazine....

Want a copy? Send a Comment to this blog with your FULL POSTAL ADDRESS (which I will not publish). Offer limited - first come, first-served.

The summer...

...draws to its close....I spent Friday gathering blackberries and rosehips with young great-nephews and nieces. We also gathered lots of scratches and nettle-stings, but weren't bothered - we returned to the kitchen in triumph to spend a most satisfactory time producing a grand stocks of jams and syrups which will, as great-nephew A-H. put it "see us safely through the winter". He wrote the labels and the jars all look splendid stacked on the shelf, and a younger brother recorded the whole thing, plus Auntie Joanna's commentary at each stage with cookery instructions etc, for us to watch again later ....for such is the way things are in the 21st century.


Pope Francis: marriage can only be between a man and a woman...

... "we cannot change it. That is the nature of things" and he is rather emphatic about it. Also about how  teaching children they can change gender fosters mistakes about the truth... read here...

Saturday, September 02, 2017

THE CATHOLIC WOMEN OF THE YEAR....

...for 2017 have been announced. Info here...

Friday, September 01, 2017

Home...

...and I caught the train from Kings Lynn to  London Kings Cross, which was somehow pleasing...

At Kings Cross, a quick Tube ride to The Borough, where I was due to lead a Catholic History Walk - in pouring rain after Walsingham's golden sunshine. But somehow it was all great fun - splashing through the London puddles to glorious Wren churches and enjoying the riches of St Magnus the Martyr, and  The Monument, and on past the old Billingsgate Fish Market...

We finished at All Hallows by the Tower - saved from the Great Fire which didn't reach this far.

Back to Southwark and just time for a quick mug of tea before an evening Walk covering the same route...this time finishing at the site of Sts More and Fisher's martyrdom. It has its own small garden, with a plaque bearing their names and those of others who perished there. This whole area, never built over, is a place of solemn memorial...much of it dedicated to the men who died at sea bringing food to this island in two world wars. London is no longer a great port, but even in my childhood there were ships and docks and the Merchant Navy here...

At Walsingham...

...for the EWTN gathering, we stayed at Dowry House in the High Street. WARMLY RECOMMENDED It's run by the delightful young sisters of the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham, and has fascinating layers of history, from Medieval beams to a later Dutch-style gable (lots of Dutch influence on this stretch of the East Anglian coast)...and the Sisters have their own chapel across the courtyard where we gathered for early morning Mass. The community is growing fast and although they turn away many of those who apply, they badly need a new convent as their own accommodation is too cramped...