Explorations...

...with the Catholic History Walks, of WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL yesterday and ST GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL SOUTHWARK today.

The latter - a fine Pugin gothic church, badly damaged in an air raid in WWII but beautifully repaired - is disappointing in some of its recent additions. A ghastly, unsightly enormous yellow cross with ugly decorations stands several feet high in a side-chapel.Apparently it honours St Oscar Romero, but it is hard to see how or indeed why. He is not a local saint, and there is much important local culture that is ignored. The cathedral's regular congregation includes Londoners whose family origins are from Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and many European countries...and the story ofthe Church in Southwark  also includes heroes and martyrs from Saxon times (St Elphege was martyred by the Vikings, nearby) to the Gordon Riots (which were started on this site, when it was St George's Fields). And how about a bit more about St George, and his links with this loop of the Thames?

There is just one newish addition of real merit - a fine stained glass window near the Blessed Sacrament chapel, , honouring St John Paul's visit to the Cathedral in 1982. This is probably the cathedral's best item: it depicts the Holy Father anointing the sick, who were gathered in the cathedral for this historic visit...the whole scene was powerful and moving.

FOR CHRISTMAS...

...or for Advent, with ideas for Christmas activities, recipes etc...

Why not try my "Books of Seasons and Celebrations" ?

Send me a Comment with your EMAIL ADDRESS and your POSTAL ADDRESS - which I will not publish - and I'll send you the book: send me £5.00p when you've received it..

Kingstanding, on the outskirts of Birmingham...

...presumably takes its name because the Royalist Army massed there during the Civil War.  Today, the inhabitants seem to eat many of their meals out of doors, leaving the chip wrappers, beer cans and expanded polystrene burger-boxes around the Kingstanding roundabout.It's a depressing place in which to shop, but I often go there to get extra coffee because halfway through a Maryvale weekend I tend to run out...pleasant coffee-breaks in the Redford Room with a cafetiere and chat.

Maryvale is  some distance away on Old Oscott Hill...all Catholic territory as a recusant family long owned the land. There is a busy Catholic parish, big Catholic secondary school, convent (now home to the Sisters of the BVM, formerly of Wantage), the Maryvale primary school, and the Institute itself, once home to Bl John Henry Newman and now welcoming students who obtain diplomas in catechetics or missionary work, or degrees or doctorates  in theology or philosophy...

Maryvale is a wonderful oasis...Birmingham with its swirl of motorways, the noise and the traffic...and then the  cheery sense of welcome as you turn in at the drive...

"How charming!" I thought...

... last week,when I bought the gloves, and saw that they had a tiny heart, in reinforced material, on the tips of the thumb, forefinger, and next finger.

No. These are 21st-century gloves and the reinforcement is neccessary because most people spend so much of their time using the those fingertips to tap on their wretched mobile phones.

ADVANCE NOTICE...

...of the John Paul Walk for the New Evangelisation, next August (1st-4th).  This annual Walk to Walsingham is organised by the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph and is glorious.  We walk through the most wonderful countryside, we pray, we sing, we listen to superb talks on aspects of the Faith.  We are given overnight accomodation in halls and schools, and there is a hot meal when we arrive at each pilgrim destination...and a splendid welcome at Sunday Mass in Walsingham.

Book the dateds in the diary now, and note that link for further information, booking forms etc.

A relief...

...to discover the actual statement of the Bishops of England and Wales on the "transgenmder" issue. You can read it here...

I don't want to be rude, but...do our bishops know what they are doing?

...in fact I sometimes wonder if they are in charge at all...

What bureaucrat put out that ridiculous Tweet,and why?

On the wretched "trans gender" question...

...it is time to speak out in defence of children who are being treated with drugs and surgical mutilation.

The Catholic World Report has published this on the subejct. Please read.

Anti-Americanism...

...is ubiquitous  in some quarters. Read ...here...

and on a more cheery note, please put these dates in your diary for December and for 2019......

...London at Christmas

Sunday 16th December, 3pm. A walk through St James' Park and on to the Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square. Meet at Westminster Cathedral. Nearest Tube: Victoria.

2019

London in the New Year

Wednesday 2nd January, 3pm. Enjoy London in the New Year, as we walk to Whitehall and Trafalgar Square, visiting crib-scenes along the way. Meet on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. Nearest Tube: Victoria.

The City and Tower of London

Sunday 13th January, 3pm. A walk through the city with its turbulent history, as we hear the story of brave heroes such as St Thomas More and St John Fisher, walking towards the Tower of London. Meet at Monument Tube Station.

The City and Tower of London

Sunday 20th January, 3pm. A walk through the city with its turbulent history, as we hear the story of brave heroes such as St Thomas More and St John Fisher, walking towards the Tower of London. Meet at Monument Tube Station.

A Royal Walk

Sunday 27th January, 3pm. A walk exploring the history of the Royal Family and Catholicism, through St James' Park and on to Buckingham Palace. Meet on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. Nearest Tube: Victoria.

Richmond-upon-Thames

Sunday 10th February, 3.30pm. Discover the history of this river-side town, with its pre-Empancipation Catholic Church and ancient royal history. Meet at St Elizabeth's Church, The Vineyard, Richmond, TW10 6AQ. Nearest station, tube, and overground: Richmond.

A recent gathering in Parliament...

...with a Cardinal: read about it here....

And meanwhile the ghastly fall-out from the sexual-abuse scandals in the USA grinds relentlessly onwards, with the Pope's recent actions showing a tragic failure to understand how people are feeling and reacting in the USA...

In pouring rain, to Maryvale...

...where there is now always a sense of coming home, of things feeling comfortable and familiar as one turns in at the drive.

Funeral Mass for Mgr Paul Watson in Maryvale's chapel, known and used by Bl JH Newman: like so many Maryvale graduates, I owe Mgr Paul a lot...

Refreshments and lots of chat...

Then the Redford Lecture, given this year by the Bishop of Northampton.

And now today, I've just been in the laundry, pressing my gown for the graduation ceremonies which will take place in St Chad's Cathedral. I enjoy wearing my St Mary's (Twickenham) MA gown, with its special lining of Challoner rose-coloured silk.

I return to Maryvale next weekend to lecture to the BA students on apologetics...

PRAY FOR THE POPE:...

...he's been getting this whole McCarrick business mostly wrong so far. Read here...and pray for the Pope. I wouldn't like to have his job. He merits and deserves our prayers.

Young nuns...

...were busy at St Elizabeth's Church in Richmond, raising funds which they badly need - because they have good numbers of young women expressing interest in joining them...but have insufficient space to ccomodate them! PLEASE HELP these wonderful sisters.They are the Sisters of  Mary Morning Star and you can find out about them here...

And you can help them by sending a donation :Sisters of Maria Stella Natutina, Harvey House,Headley Road, Grayshott GU26 6DP

I was at the church to talk to Fr Stephen the parish priest about CATHOLIC HISTORY WALKS in this beautiful riverside town in the spring. There is rich Catholic history here...evidenced by names like Friars Stile Road and indeed The Vineyard in which St Elizabeth's stands...and there is Bl John Henry Newman's childhood home at Ham...watch for info in due course on the Catholic History Walks website...

I stopped to chat to the Sisters - we met at Youth 2000 a couple of summers back. These are young nuns, and it is somehow fun to have that mix of youth -  the way they talk ("It's, like. amazing, like, to be, like, praying" etc) -  along with traditional nuns' robes...

I bought some of the sisters home-made produce (bikkies, cake, some Christmas gifts) , enjoyed a cup of tea with them...

Home on the bus with lots of cheery Twickenham  Rugby crowds...

WISDOM...

...on Church/State relations...an important matter: read here...

The sound of...

...a roomful of young men saying the Creed together. Rather impressive. I was at the Faith Club at the John Fisher School. It meets every Friday, in a room marked with pictures of St John Paul. An enjoyable meeting, good questions and a lively atmosphere. The boys relish buttered toast after the talk, a tradition established by my mother some 40 years ago.  The school's chaplain, Father James Clark, is a former Fisher boy. The chapel has recently been repainted, in cream and white, much lighter than before, with  pictures of the patrons  of the various Houses, done in stained-glass style on the arches leading up the aisle. The great Pilgrim Cross, which founder members of Faith carried annually to Aylesford on pilgrimage, hangs on the wall at the back, with the date of each pilgrimage hammered into it in nails...

Been busy working on issues of "gender ideology"...

..and realised that we must see this wretched thing as part of the crude damage that is being done in so many ways to the natural world.  We understand the horrible mess that is being made in our oceans with the dumping of plastic waste and so on. The horrible mess that is happening to human beings with this wetched gender-rubbish also needs to be addressed.

 "Valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it". Pope Francis, in Laudato Si.

Useful analysis...

...of the situation in which the American bishops have now been placed...here...

Difficult days for the Church. Pray...

The work of the Church goes on. Today, a gathering in Parliament organised by Catholic MPs and peers, at which Cardinal Peter Turkson spoke, tackling issues of human dignity and human trafficking. There is some good work being done by Catholic groups on this...including nuns who run places of refuge for young women caught up in this ghastly life of prostitution...

The recent Catholic Women of the Year lunch raised funds for Bakhita House...

Today's meeting was in the Speaker's House, approached via a rather grand staircase and entrance just off New Palace Yard. We gathered in rooms lined with enormous portraits of bewigged former Speakers. A gentle reflective  moment of history before the talk turned to the matters in hand:  Cardinal Turkson recalled singing "God Save the Queen  at school as a child in Ghana...

...and this is what it is like...

...going on a Catholic History Walk with some of Mother Theresa's nuns...read here...

The Glasgow Herald newspaper...

...has printed a short feature about the FAITH Movement, written by the Editor of the magazine. Might be of interest: read here...

REMEMBRANCE DAY..and ONE HUNDRED YEARS...

...since the Armistice of 1918 was signed.

J. joined his regiment for the march-past in Whitehall. I went to the local ceremonies at London Bridge. Later, to Westminster Abbey to hear the great pealing out of bells and to see the beacon lit, one of a great number across the whole country.

The bond that unites people in Britain for a short while each November is something quite extraordinary - and ordinary. People feel somehow normal: there is a sense of neighbourliness. In a packed pub, a kilted piper started to play and everyone applauded and called for more. Older men wearing medals - and especially really elderly men wearing  a row of medals - were greeted everywhere with respect. At Waterloo, taxi drivers wearing special "poppy rides" jackets offered free transport to Remembrance events to any Forces chaps, serving or retired.

People chatted, spoke of family members who had served in the Great War for the Second World War.. I thought of my grandfather, wounded twice on the Western Front...he reurned home finally to his wife and baby son...my Uncle John who in turn went on to serve twenty years later with the RAF in the Second World War and was killed, shot down over the North Sea...

As I write this, the beacons are still burning. When I am very old, I will remember that I was in London to mark the centenary of the Armistice, and that I remembered conversations with my grandfather who fought in that war.

NEXT CATHOLIC HISTORY WALKS...

...will be:


SUNDAY 18th November, 3pm:  on a ROYAL theme, starting 3pm Westminster Cathedral, finishing at BUCKINGHAM PALACE



Monday Nov 26th   A tour INSIDE Westminster Cathdral: meet at the main doors 3pm



Tuesday Nov 27th  INSIDE St George's Cathedral Southwark:  meet at the main doors, 3pm


NO NEED TO BOOK: just turn up!

On the USA Bishops' crisis...

...read this comment 

ALL SAINTS DAY...

...and  evening Mass at Precious Blood Church at London Bridge - not as crowded as the lunchtime Mass, but beautiful  with music (Merbecke - the Mass was in Ordinariate Form) and a cheery gathering afrerwards for anyone who wanted, with prosecco and chat before going out into the rainy night...

Come and hear the LOGS group sing carols:  Flat Iron Square, Dec 17th, from 5.30pm.