I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR....

....and I love rain and cold, and buses looking cheerful through the evening gloom, and the joy of everyday things that have sudden value in Autumn: mugs of tea, buttered toast, a house with a warm kitchen.

History Walks are satisfying: the Thames grey and surging, and sudden shafts of sunlight dappling the water. Come and join us!

CATHOLIC HISTORY WALKS

Join in a Catholic History Walk!

Friday Nov 8th ISLINGTON: meet at St John's church, Duncan Terrace 3.30pm

Tues Nov 12th WESTMINSTER Meet on steps of Westminster Cathedral 3.30pm

Thurs Nov 14th WESTMINSTER Meet on steps of Westminster Cathedral 11am

Sun Nov 17th  ISLINGTON   meet St John's church, Duncan Terrace 3.30pm

Wed Nov 20th THE CITY Meet at The Monument  EC3R 8AF 3.30pm

Each Walk last about one and a half hours. More information:07495205568

-Suggested donation: £10.

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The weekend...

...described below, with a wonderful Newman conference, began for me with a busy Friday. I  spent the afternoon helping to fold and pack letters for the Friends of the Ordinariate, inviting people to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Ordinariate at the Church of the Most Precious Blood on November 9th. We were a cheery group of volunteers, enlivened by fresh brews of tea and lively conversation.

On to Euston station for the trip north, with enough time to check some emails and do some proof-correcting, using my laptop in a station bar,....and then as it got more and more crowded, and news began to spread, came a growing mood of dismay....the whole station was closed, no trains were running at all, because some people (???we don't know who, or why, or what happened to them) had been trespassing on the railway track some miles up, and so all journeys were cancelled.

A vast trail of refugees began to make its way to nearby Kings Cross/St Pancras, as some journeys could perhaps be made from there, depending on the destination. And so, after various delays and the inevitable difficulty of obtaining information (St Pancras also serves the Channel Tunnel so most notice-boards seemed to be directing people for trains to Paris) I found I could reach Stoke-on-Trent via Derby...thanks to a mobile 'phone I could contact my hosts who met me at a small station at a late hour, and all was well...

To a fascinating Newman conference...

...at Thornycroft Hall, with speakers  examining aspects of  St JHN's  message on education.  Paul Shrimpton spoke extremely  well on  the Idea of a University which he noted was published in 1873 and written some twenty years earlier, but remains "a defining text to this day". He emphasised that Newman saw university education not as the acquisition of knowledge but the cultivation of the mind", and that a university is a secular institution "yet partaking of a religious character".  Roy Peachey, a teacher at The Cedars School   spoke about Dorothy L. Sayers ' Lost Tools of Learning in which she showed how the Medieval trivium - grammar, dialectic, rhetoric - could and should be rediscovered today. He mentioned the "pedagogy of place" which echoes Newman's  emphasis on the genius loci  which hands on "a tradition, a bond of union, an ethical atmosphere". And Mrs Lynch \Kelly of St Martin's Academy  Stoke Goulding spoke about how to do it all: the school aims to teach  pupils "the best that has been thought and said" and that they are loved by their teachers and by God...

It was a wonderful weekend, as I stayed with old friends nearby...delicious meals,  long and lively conversations, the warm welcome of an old farmhouse.  Torrential rain flooded parts of some roads so we made our way out to Thornycroft on a roundabout route. The next day we walked muddy lanes in sparkling sunshine, water gurgling in streams alongside.  Sunday Mass at St Wulstan's church , Wolstanton, with a superb choir...

THE FEAST DAY OF ST JOHN PAUL THE GREAT ....

....and an evening of celebration.  Well attended and in a mood of great goodwill and friendship. We heard the story of St John Paul, and had readings from his poetry, by Sarah de Nordwall.  Delicious refreshments provided by LOGS, a good video  reflecting on John Paul's life...all with a great atmosphere...

Things finished late and agreeably, with prosecco and talk...

...and you can listen to Auntie talking about Newman....

....here:

and also in an interview  on Vatican Radio, translated into German for the German Service!  Here

MAGNIFICENT!!!!

...the only way to describe the canonisation of St John Henry Newman in Rome this past weekend....

HRH the Prince of Wales spoke beautifully  and wrote a splendid piece for the press....read here and follow it all here....

And read here ... and here....  with lots of beautiful pics...and watch here...and here...

...and there's more from EWTN here...

and more!!!!

Best report, in my view, is here....

...but there was also the superb Colloquium at the Angelicum, with speakers including George Weigel, Dr Tracey Rowland, Archbishop Bernard Longley....and a glorious Thanksgiving Mass with the Bishops and crowds of priests from across Britain...

...and the fun of being in Rome and waving the Union Jack and meeting friends everywhere...

...and this is beautiful....

...our beloved John Henry Newman is to be canonised in Rome this Sunday, and there is a joyous feeling as pilgrims from Britain begin to converge...

Meetings with friends over the past few days  have tended to conclude with "See you in Rome!".  After evening Mass at Westminster Cathedral I was hailed by a group of ladies with suitcases...they included Kathy Kelly, longstanding proprietor of  a popular London Catholic bookshop and a 2018  Catholic Woman of the Year... We all chatted excitedly - and I unearthed from my suitcase some  paper Union Jacks, which I  ordered this week from a flag shop, specifically to distribute to pilgrims to wave at the celebrations. I  handed these around to the group, and in return  they  gave me a splendid teeshirt with a picture of John Henry Newman on it!  So we are all set...

DO listen to this Vatican Radio broadcast! I won't spoil it by explaining why you may find it amusing...https://www.vaticannews.va/de/welt/news/2019-10/kirche-heiligsprechung-newman-interview.html

This is horrible...

...read here, and  keep praying for true justice.

Thinking about Britain and the future...

...can be rather sobering.


You may find this of interest....

An interview with VATICAN RADIO...

....about John Henry Newman.

Because I am old-fashioned  and don't have a new-style mobile phone with lots of gadgets on it, I contacted young relatives who are much more up to date, and who wisely have the right equipment for their busy lives. So it was in their cosy kitchen that I made use of What's App and was able to be interviewed from Rome, dog jumping around my feet, family info, artwork etc pinned on crowded notice-board...

My last visit  was to join in making jam with the blackberries and rosehips and elderberries of this year's hedgerow harvest. An odd 21st-century experience to be sitting at the same table, this time using the latest technology to broadcast to the world.

To Oscott....

....St Mary's College , for the launch of Fr Guy Nicholls' new book on John Henry Newman.  which sounds a wonderful read, and I am hugely looking forward to getting into it this evening...

Rev Deacon Stephen Morgan gave an excellent address to a large gathering in the rather fine hall at Oscott, and brought out Newman's understanding of the centrality of beauty in the transmission of the Faith. It was an inspiring day and a splendid start to the celebrations for Newman's canonisation.

Oscott is of course where Newman preached his "Second Spring" sermon. It was encouraging to be with such a good crowd, to be celebrating with Fr Guy, to meet so many friends - and make new ones - and to have that sense of unity and continuity with Newman...

There is too much dishonesty among left-wing media-types...

...over Brexit and related matters. Here is a good analysis of a particular example:


Read this...it's important

Newman and the Pope...

...and a very timely analysis of this is here...

Meanwhile, Prince Harry...

...is behaving rather badly. He is a Prince married a popular and beautiful actress, whose fame rested on TV work and much media interest. They live in enormous luxury and media coverage of their various meetings with the public has been hugely supportive and favourable. Of course much of what they do has a faint absurdity about it: flying at enormous expense with substantial staff to various places to tell people not to fly, and taking their own opinions very seriously indeed and so on. And we should be allowed to say so from time to time.  But that doesn't matter very much because the wider significance of royalty matters much more: it has been a stable and even sacred core of our country and our heritage over the centuries  and today unites us as nothing else could ever do.

The Prince's call for curbs on what newspapers are allowed to say is bad behaviour. He needs to think again. He and the Duchess should read this  and perhaps also this...and reflect on the reality of what our monarchy is all about. 

...for trenchant comment and useful analysis....

...of events in Britain, I tend to drop in to the Spectator Coffee House, with its fresh and thoughtfully brewed material.

MUCH recommended. It's a real discussion, not just lotsofpeoplewithnmoreorlessthesameviews. It opens up debate and discussion, challenges cliched opinion.

Come and give this excellent venture your support...

PRAYING FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

Catholic Women Praying Together 2019

A special Mass for Catholic women from across Britain, gathering to pray for the young people of our country.

Wednesday, November 6^th

11.30am

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, London W1K 3AH.

Celebrant: Rt Rev Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

With so many young people losing their lives and their happiness through violence, suicide, drugs or addictions to social media, Catholic women’s organisations have combined to organise this Mass and the opportunity to pray together. This initiative arose following the 50^th and final Catholic Women of the Year event which marked a long tradition of Catholic women gathering to seek ways to serve the common good.

ALL WELCOME. Mass open to all. Buffet lunch following: tickets £25 each from: Catholic women Praying Together, 8 Duloe Road, St Neots, Cambs PE19 8FQ. Email: aemblem@btinternet.com

Sponsored by: Association of Catholic Women, Catholic Women’s League, Life Ascending, Ladies Ordinariate Group, Union of Catholic Mothers

We had planned to walk along the Thames...

...but the Thames had already  made its own plans...and came flooding up over the towpath and harbour at Richmond to greet us.

It had retreated with the evening tide, but for this walk, organised with Fr Nicholas Schofield for his parishioners at St Michael's church, Uxbridge, we decided to be prudent and contented ourselves with  St Elizabeth's 18th century church,  the Tudor palace, a riverside walk  to the White Cross, tales of Henry VIII and the old friary, and a bus ride to Ham where we finished at Cardinal Newman's childhood home.  The rain fell in torrents! We were all drenched, despite brollies and rainwear...and it was a simply wonderful evening!  The laughter and the fun, the sense of solidarity, and the real delight of it all - and its absurdity - made it all a delight.

Just occasionally - and often it is exactly when you need it - there comes an unexpected joy, and a time of absurd enjoyment. This was one such....I arrived home soaked and the pleasure of a big mug of tea.  It all felt gloriously British and I loved every moment.

Come and share in your own adventure on a Catholic History Walk!