Thursday, December 24, 2020

Perhaps because this Christmas feels so strange....

 ....and lacks the comfortable sameness of so Many wonderful family Christmases...the huge reality of the Incarnation hit me with tremendous force. God became one of us! God came to live among the human being he had created. God's love is what it is all about.

 I have always been taught this...but the familiarity of it, recited in the Creed, repeated, sung, discussed, emphasised, can make it just a formula.  It isn't.  The drama of the plan of God from the beginning, his  calling of Abraham, his choice of David...the temple planned by David and built by Solomon...the total fulfilment of it all in the birth, in David's city, in the fulness of time... of Christ.

The more you explore it all, the more it fits together, from Genesis through to the New Testament. All planned from the beginning. The Word that was spoken across the waters became flesh, and dwelt among us.


THE VATICAN IS , TO PUT IT MILDLY, FAILING...

 


...in justice and integrity, in failing to speak out against the appalling treatment of loyal and devout Catholics in Hong King, currently imprisoned by the cruel Chinese authorities.

Read here for info

Keep heroic Catholic  Jimmy Lai in your prayers this Christmas. Remember that when we meet God we will be asked what we did for the imprisoned.






Saturday, December 19, 2020

NEXT TIME YOU ARE FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF....

 

...or low and miserable, or fed up...



WATCH THIS...


and learn about courage and faith...

Bleak news from Spain...

 


....where euthanasia has now been made legal.

DON'T LET IT HAPPEN IN BRITAIN.  There is pressure to legalise "assisted suicide"  as a preamble. The Govt is resisting. Do write you MP and urge that this whole approach is extremely dangerous and utterly wrong.  Info here   and a  rallying call from our Catholic Bishops here ...their website gives up-to-date info on how to contact your MP and urges "Take action!"

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Monday, December 07, 2020

For a spiritual and intellectual boost in dark wintry days...

 

....you must read and watch this  on Gerald Manley Hopkins.

Brand-new and really good.



Saturday, December 05, 2020

....and the book I badly want to read over the Christmas break is...

 


...Cardinal George Pell's diaries...info here...

Friday, December 04, 2020

It's good to be back at Mass...

 


...and this church was warm and welcoming on a cold December day...



Tuesday, December 01, 2020

ARE YOU LISTENING TO....

 ...RADIO MARIA ENGLAND?

You should be, because it has some very good stuff....

There's a new series about the stories behind some of our best-known and best-loved hymns...and you can sing along, too....I chose some Newman's Praise to the Holiest, of course, plus other favourites...


And you don#'t want to miss Auntie's Feasts and Seasons programmes.


You can listen in on your mobile phone, computer, app, whatever...info here