Thursday, November 30, 2017

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!

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

...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.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

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.

Saturday, November 25, 2017

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.




Thursday, November 23, 2017

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.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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...

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

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.

Saturday, November 18, 2017

...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...

Friday, November 17, 2017

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...

Monday, November 13, 2017

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...

Saturday, November 11, 2017

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.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Been reading...

...brand-new book, just off the press: Fr Matthew Pittam's Building the Kingdom in the ClassroomIt'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.

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

...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...


Monday, November 06, 2017

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...

Sunday, November 05, 2017

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.

Saturday, November 04, 2017

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...


Friday, November 03, 2017

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...