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.,..