To Runnymede...

...for the day. Something we'd often discussed was a visit to the Royal Air Force Memorial overlooking the river at Runnymede. I was taken there as a child, because an uncle's name is among the 20,000 commemorated - he was a young Flying Officer and was shot down over the North Sea in 1943...

In recent years, many times, driving past that way, we've said that some time we must make a visit. Today was that day.

It is a noble, airy, formal and worthy memorial, with the glorious words from the Psalm "If I ascend to the Heavens, thou art there..." cut into the glass that lifts your eyes up to the wide sky above the Thames, and a collonade surrounding a green lawn, with panel after panel of white stone bearing the names of those who died. I searched for Uncle John's name and there it was...Campbell J.M. There's a book kept near the entrance which lists family and other details.

When Mother speaks of him his memory is as fresh and clear to her as it was when she told us about him when we were children and explained about Remembrance Day. She still has some of the plays he wrote and amateur films he made. He was her oldest brother and his photograph has always been there on the shelf in her room.

Later, we went down to the river and looked at Magna Carta Island. There were families picknicking on the riverbank, a cheerful and friendly scene. Extraordinarily, at the Memorial, we'd run into people we knew - who said they read this Blog so if they are seeing this, I greet them again! - and somehow the whole of today had a special feeling. We went into the tea-rooms, and Jamie found they were selling good quality copies of the great document and thought it would be nice to have one...which gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, and I duly asked for "A pot of tea for two and a copy of Magna Carta please".

May traditions...

still linger. Mother described to me today the Wallington May Queen celebrations: the little May Queen was crowned at the Old Town Hall (where I took my seat as a borough councillor some years ago...) and then the procession went along the main road - past Mother's front window which gave her a grand view and much pleasure - with flowers and fun and a celebration of summer coming. It's been part of Wallington life since 1903. A tiny bit of Lark Rise to Candleford in a London suburb... read about it here: http://www.wallingtonmayqueen.co.uk/

London on a summer Sunday...

...was rather pleasant, and the air felt the sweeter for knowing we no longer have a Socialist overlord. Cycling across Westminster Bridge , I had the Sunday Telegraph with its gleeful analysis of the Boris Johnson victory and its aftermath smiling up at me from the bicycle basket...oh, BTW, for the commentators to this blog who berated me for my voting pattern: I suppose you didn't know about the transferable voting system, which enabled us to vote for Johnson, and an independent candidate. So there.

This is a Bank Holiday weekend: how horrid that we no longer have a holiday for Whitsun, but just this artificial one dumped arbitrarily upon us.

Westminster Cathedral was full for high Mass marking the Ascension. The superb choir always does something special for such a feast and today was no exception - but the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei were all by a modern composer and shriekingly unattractive. Good to be able to join in with full-throated enthusiasm, however, for the familiar Credo and Pater Noster - a cathedral full of Latin chant is a gladsome thing. Wanting a copy of the Cathedral magazine Oremus, ( has feature by JB about Catholic traditions for May) I went back in during a later Mass, which was even more packed, with people kneeling on the floor at the rear. A sign of the times: one of the readings was in Polish.

The Cathedral has a Quarant'Ore from May 22nd-May 24th, marking Corpus Christi. One should certainly go to that - if possible dropping in during one of the night watches. Silent prayer in a great candelit cathedral in a great city in the middle of the night.

While marking dates: here's a note to all Catholic Londoners: June 21st, Martyrs' Walk, starts at Tower Hill 11am. Be there!

We Londoners...

...were having our votes counted today, and the London free newspapers had hopeful headlines suggesting Red Ken's days as our mayoral overlord were passing away...

I bustled about London with a vast and heavy long-handled suitcase-on-wheels, carrying some 800 children's essays to the CTS office at Vauxhall...entries for the ACW Religious Education Project. The final judging will not be completed until the end of May, and I'll give the results on this Blog as well as to the press etc...The CTS is doing terrific work at the moment: click on that link and go to "News" to see what they are up to in Afghanistan and the USA as well as here at home...

London was cheery in the rain. There was a special Vespers at Westminster Cathedral, with the choir of Westminster Abbey taking part in a joint service. I had time for a cup of coffee and sandwich near Victoria, enjoying the excellent Ratzinger's Faith - The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI by Dr Tracey Rowland, by far the best book and most readable about the H. Father's thinking and ideas that I have read so far.

On the train, going to Mother's for the evening, I met a friend of hers, and as we sat chatting, another local friend came up saying "I thought I knew that voice!" and we all got out together at Wallington. This sort of thing gives one a sense of roots and belonging. As we made our way to the High Street, we got talking about...the fact that our wretched Bishops have abolished Ascension Day! "I don't know anyone who thinks it was a good idea" said A. "It was a daft thing to do" agreed R. "Do they think we hate having Feast Days? It's as if they've given up on the Church. But why do they think that we have, too?"

Two sisters...

...who share a home and have done so for years have been denied a tax advantage because they are not lesbians in a Civil Union...see this comment.

Yesterday, Ascension Day, marks the start of the original Novena - nine days before Pentecost. This is origin of the tradition of having a Novena, nine days of prayer for some special intention - because the Apostles spent the days between the Ascension and Pentecost in prayer.

So a friend and I have started a Novena to pray for our Bishops. We are meeting every day to pray together in London. Want to join us? You can do so anywhere. We meet at 5pm London time, and we pray the Rosary. Yesterday being a Thursday, we started with the Mysteries of LIght...

Over 2,000 Catholic children...

...at schools around Britain, have sent in entries for the School RE Project launched jointly by the Catholic Truth Society and the Association of Catholic Women. This is awesome! The children were invited to write about Christ performing miracles, and were given specific instructions: they had to look up certain New Testament references and show an understanding of the events involved (they were given specific miracles to study, including Christ calming the storm at sea).

Deadline for entries was yesterday, and sifting and judging is now taking place. We have two trophies to award, one for older children and one for younger, plus a large number of prizes and certificates. An initial sweep through a range of entries indicates that some are very good indeed - in fact, really touching and inspiring to read - some are poor, the vast majority show a grasp of Christ as God the Son and some one to be loved...

I suspect that this must be the biggest single venture undertaken by any Catholic women's organisation in Britain in recent years. We launched the RE Project a few years ago, and it has grown steadily. At first, we simply sent out brochures to schools, addressing hundreds of envelopes by hand. Then we got our website organised, and things grew a bit more. Then, this year, we decided to contact the CTS and see if they were interested...

Next time some one tells you that everything in the Church is hopeless, all-going-downhill, everything-has-gone-wrong-since Vatican-II etc etc, read them the above.

London Mayoral elections...

...IMPORTANT!!!!

I will be voting for the Christian Choice candidate, Alan Craig, with my first vote, and suggest that readers of this Blog do the same. We have two votes, so the second can go to another candidate.

A day of terrific rain...

...which I rather enjoyed. I took some printing to be done, and the rain was just too savage for an immediate journey back, so I enjoyed a mug of coffee and the newspaper while water hurtled down outside the coffee-shop.

St Patrick's, Soho Square, about which I've been writing a feature for a magazine is having a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament through Soho on May 25th - contact the link I've just given for more details. This is a great Catholic tradition and there will be a number of such processions in various parts of Britain in May, but having something in the centre of London seems especially valuable and important...

Tomorrow is ASCENSION DAY and it is absolutely infuriating of our Bishops to have diminished it by announcing that it must be observed on Sunday instead!!

Ascension Day has been observed in our country for over a thousand years. It is a something shared by all Christians - a glorious statement of unity in our common faith. Because it has such a long tradition as a holiday, Elections have traditionally been held on this day. This gave rise to the tradition of always holding elections on a Thursday.

Why chuck this rich tradition, a link with our heritage, an opportunity for united witness?

Of course, like many others, I will be at Mass tomorrow. PLease be there, too. And drop a note to your Bishop pointing out gently that trying to move special feasts to the nearest Sunday has been a flop: WE WANT OUR FEAST-DAYS BACK.

To the London Charterhouse...

...for the launch of the Art and Reconcilation project which aims to create a memorial in Chelsea to the Medieval shrines destroyed in the 16th century. This will take the form of a beautiful memorial depicting Mary holding the Christ-child, standing between broken arches, while on either side there are scenes of destruction. The sculptor is Paul Day, whose magnificent memorial to the heroes of the Battle of Britain stands on the Embankment.

The burning of some of England's most beautiful statues of Mary took place at Chelsea in 1538, in the presence of Thomas Cromwell. The planned memorial will emphasise reconciliation and promote the message that acts of deliberate destruction of such holy things cannot be right...today's launch brought together a very large and supportive gathering, and this is a project which is going to be of real value and significance. Want to help? Contact the website link I've given...

I had never been in the London Charterhouse before. It's magnificent. Feels like an Oxford or Cambridge college. We were in a large hall upstairs (drinks, lovely vol-au-vents, tiny tasty sandwiches, crisp white tablecloths)....downstairs there is much evidence of past Medieval glories...a newish chapel (18th cent? much panelling, Royal coat of arms, vaguely Inigo Jones feel) created out of much older buildings - it was all, of course, the home of London's magnificent Carthusians who died as heroes under the vicious Henry VIII...

Marriage preparation...

...involving talks to groups of young couples is something that is organised rather well by various London parishes, notably Fr Hugh Mackenzie at Willesden Green, and Fr Stephen Langridge at Balham. It is a priviledge to be invited to give such a talk.

At a recent session, the young people were invited to discuss why they were marrying in a Catholic church. Most of the responses started with "Well, my family is a traditional Catholic one, and though I don't go to Mass much, I still feel....." or "My girlfriend/boyfriend comes from a family that's traditionally Catholic and I felt..." Marriage can bring out all sorts of family feelings and memories. For many, too, a church wedding is an opportunity to reconnect with the Church which isn't unwelcome. And there can be great seriousness, especially from the non-Catholic partner, in discussing the understanding of marriage as a Sacrament...

It's interesting, incidentally, to note from meetings such as this - and other events - the reasons people have for not attending Mass. Most common among young single people are:
"It's all young families - I don't fit it."
"It's too noisy" ("young families" again)
"It's too quiet" (?? But it's a fairly frequent comment! I think it's not really 'quiet' or silence that is meant, but perhaps a sense of structure, ritual, formality. Do they really dislike this, or just feel they ought to say they do?)
"It's boring - same thing every week" (by far the most frequent comment.)
"It takes too long"

I have never yet heard anyone state any of the reasons often given by campaigners whose views are put forward in the media, eg the Church's opposition to female ordination, or condoms, or abortion. Nor have I heard complaints that worshipping God is itself pointless, or irrelevant in the modern age, or that the Eucharist is a meaningless ritual. On the contrary, there's usually a sort of recognition that it's all probably important and even valuable - but just not what the person wants to do most Sundays.

I think there is a feeling that it might be good to go to Mass - but not every week, because "life is all about choices", not about making a choice that lasts and becomes a commitment.

Finally: the reason I would put top of my list: silly songs, especially if led by a strumming guitar, doesn't seem to feature that much....though there is a reverse position: that people sometimes go to a place where there is beautiful music, eg Westminster Cathedral. So good music is a reason to go, but ghastly music doesn't seem to be a reason for staying away...or perhaps it's simply that, because they don't go, they don't know just how ghastly some of the music can be...

The Daily Mail

is currently giving away DVDs of British WWII classic films: Above us the Waves, Malta Story, We Dive at Dawn...presumably to lift morale and remind us that we have a heritage that contains greater values than the shoddy ones commonly accepted as the norm.

I don't think that people in the Britain of the 1940s could have imagined a Britain where it would be deemed controversial to give children hot cross buns (because the buns have crosses on them, a Christian symbol, disliked by Islam) , where hop-scotch and games of conkers would be banned in some schools because children might graze their knees or knuckles (contrary to "health and safety regulations"), where homosexual activity would be actively promoted by local authorities and schoolchildren instructed in sexual techniques with the aid of films enthusing over unmarried parenthood...and where voicing opposition to this is officially regarded as either quaint and a bit bigoted, or downright sinister...

At Mass...

..I was next to a dear little Korean/English family - enchantingly solemn baby boy on Daddy's lap, Mummy's hand occasionally proferring a finger to be held. A good-sized congregation sang a Missa de Angelis with Credo III and some of my favourite hymns. Then I cycled on to Mother's and we took ourselves out to a cafe for some coffee and raspberry-and-chocolate buns. A terrific thunderstorm broke out and it was rather satisfying watching it from the safe haven behind streaming windows - and afterwards the air was gloriously fresh and cool.

There is the most fabulous blossom on all the trees in London's surburban gardens at the moment, a promise of a good apple crop later in the year.

Only blots on the landscape were the groups of angry and blank-faced girls and boys in the shopping-centres, drinking and sullenly exchanging loud obscenities (snippet of conversation as I passed:"Yeah, so, like, I told her, to, like, f*** off, as she, like, f****ing annoys me...") and the cascades of litter on street corners, aound bus stops, in shop doorways, and anywhere else where it can cluster. April in England.

In sparkling sunshine, beneath a bright blue sky...

...we gathered in Parliament Square this morning for a solemn purpose. We were marking the 40th aniversary of the formal passing into law of the Abortion Act. And the commemoration was done in exactly the right way, with women giving testimony of how abortion had damaged them, causing heartache and misery... babies' lives destroyed and two generations of women wounded - what a tragic legacy.

"Silent no more" was the message, and as there were the usual crowds of people surging around that part of London, and we had large placards and a megaphone, I think some impact was made...

On to Westminster Abbey, where we held a short quiet service at the Monument to the Innocents, reading that powerful Psalm which reminds us how God knew us when we were still in our mothers' wombs. Flowers were laid and we said the "Our Father..."

Significant anniversary...

...this year in Britain, relevant to the previous blog-post about St George...read this item on Inside Catholic website.

Meeting of the Board of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. We hold our Board meetings at Brompton Oratory - in the Oratory House next door to the church. I've been to so many meetings of various sorts here over the years: it was in this room, over a quarter of a century ago, that, at our request, Fr Michael Napier blessed the engagement ring that Jamie had given me...we took a snapshot of ourselves afterwards, standing on the steps of the Oratory Church and it's in an album somewhere...

ACN is active in giving aid in many parts of the world at present. Here in Britain, supporters of the work can hear about current projects, meet aid workers, and be inspired by a fresh understanding of what it means to be a member of a worldwide church...Cardinal Keith O'Brien recently attended a big ACN event in Glasgow, even though he was still recovering after an operation, and spoke movingly and inspiringly. There will be an event at Westminster Cathedral on September 27th: mark the date now, more info in due course from the website...

St George...

...is a patron saint we all badly need in England today. But, oh, dear, it isn't possible to make St George's Day into anything real by giving people plastic hats and having commercially-sponsored posters and strings of flags in pubs. It all had a sad, flat feeling.

Pleasantly, however, I had been invited to give a talk on "Celebrating traditional feasts and seasons" to a coffee-morning gathering at the Catholic church in Chelsea - organisers had planned it without initially noting the significance of the date - and it was a very enjoyable (and well-attended) gathering with a friendly spirit and lots of lively talk and questions. Want to know more about how to celebrate various feasts? Try my book ....

Busy week. Last night a wonderful talk from Dom Aidan Bellenger of Downside Abbey at the Catholic Writers' Guild...he spoke of how the Benedictine Rule and the Benedictine idea had created and fostered the Christian civilisation, celebrating ideas of prayer, common life, stability...our Guild evenings start with Mass and then dinner, and in his talk he mentioned a topic we had begun at table, which was the whole significance of eating together, a shared meal - something which of course is not part of life's experience for many people in Britain today, where foods is consumed as a series of snacks, or while watching TV, and often alone even in a house full of people...

The apple blossom...

...is out on the little tree in our back garden. Now this is significant. This tree grew from a small cutting that I brought back from Fernyhalgh, the ancient shrine of Ladeywell in Lancashire. The shrine was the result of a vision by a sailor who was told to find it at a place where grew "apples without any core". So we must wait and see what apples our little tree produces. This is the first year it has really blossomed.

I've been asked by the Council of Christians and Jews to write a regular piece about Christian seasons and celebrations for their newsletter. I'm delighted to do this - a subject after my own heart. Oddly enough, the subject of Christian-Jewish relations has been on my mind, partly because of the H. Father's visit to the synagogue in America, which went so well, especially his meeting with the children, and the lovely speech from the Rabbi. The latter said that the H. Father has the face of a cherub and I agree!

This morning, in bright sunshine, I cut the grass on our tiny patch in the front of the house, and cleared the thistles and briars from the flower-bed...summer is on the way. Seasons and celebrations...

I remember writing...

...on this Blog about the beauty of the prayers used at the Chrism Mass, which mention the olive tree, the fruit of which makes the oil which is used for sacred anointings.

Today however, I caused havoc with olive oil. In a busy shop, my basket of heavy items, including a glass bottle of golden oil from Italian olives, crashed to the floor, shattering and sending glass and oil across a massive area. You simply cannot imagine how much mess it all made. Chaos. They poured flour on the floor to mop it up - apparently experience has shown that this works best - and waved me away when I tried to look helpful. I am hopelessly clumsy.

Coffee and talk in Chelsea...

...are on the agenda this week, as I will be speaking on Wednesday at Holy Redeemer Church in Cheyne Row, SW3. Want to come? All you have to do is turn up! There's Mass at 10 am and then the coffee-gathering happens in the crypt hall below. Topic is "Seasons and Celebrations", explaining - and enjoying - the traditions and customs associated with the forthcoming summer feasts in the Church's year...

Latest issue...

of Catholic World Report has a feature (by JB) on the Church in Britain, with reference to Fr Aidan Nicholls' book The Realm, about the conversion of England. I had a note from Fr Aidan this week, accepting to my invitation to him to speak at the Festival of Catholic Culture in Westminster Cathedral Hall in November. (Sat Nov 8th - put the date in your diary now).

It's been a joy to follow, via YouTube,Internet sites of all USA newspapers, etc, the Papal visit to the USA. How beautiful his speeches and sermons are to read - his measured use of words enchants.

Ugly modern Britain...

...is so depressing sometimes. Children getting on an evening train today - instead of lively chatter it's sour, angry talk slotted with filthy epithets, spoken without passion. They were just chatting, swapping anecdotes, but, ugh, their talk was so ugly. Aged 12-14, with hunted, adult faces and no joy.

Feature in today's Sunday Telegraph laments the vanishing of individuality from England's towns and villages, the end of crucial parts of our lives and traditions. Every day, four pubs close. There are now few ordinary local shops in most High Streets - it's all identical, absolutely identical, brand-name firms with multi-national corporate logos and identical goods. The latest round of closutres of village Post Offices will be matched by the closures of village schools.

In our parish...

...we chant Latin every Sunday, at the 11.30 am Mass. There are some 40 young people being confirmed. There are quantities of children receiving First Holy Communion - numbers so large that they are being spread out over three separate Sundays. I mention this because I know things often seem depressing in the Church but there are also glowing points of light.

Sunday afternoon...

...is usually spent with Mother, sometimes a gentle stroll in the park and a visit to a teashop or perhaps, as today, a game of Scrabble over cups of tea at home.

Bike temporarily not available, so I took the train. Sunday means repair-work on the line, so there were buses to take us by road for part of the way. We trundled off from Epsom in absolutely the wrong direction... I wondered if the driver knew a shortcut but no - he was simply heading blithely out towards Reigate. After a while, he had second thoughts, turned the great bus round - with considerable difficulty in a narrow road - and trundled us back to Epsom. Then, uncertainly, slowly, hesitatingly, along the right road, with a worried air, evidently uncertain. I felt some one ought to take charge. With me giving directions, and calling out announcements ("Anyone for Carshalton? Change at Sutton!") we went along very efficiently. It was most enjoyable, all the passengers entered into the spirit of the thing and we all rather enjoyed the journey. I do wonder how he managed after I got off, though. I did show him the way on the map.

Early start...

...this morning. Car came to collect me from Mother's - where I happened to be staying overnight - to take me to the BBC for a discussion on the Today programme about the Holy Father's visit to the USA. I asked M. to say some prayers as I always get v. nervous.

The tone of the discussion was much more honest and realistic than many previous ones about Pope Benedict: there seems finally be to an understanding that this is a man of outstanding intellect and amiable qualities who as successor of St Peter has something useful to say...

For good commentary...

...and good coverage of the the Holy Father's visit to the USA, read this new link from the Catholic Herald . I also recommend Fr Richard John Neuhaus' Blog.

BBC Radio 2...

...invited me on to the Jeremy Vine Show yesterday to talk about the Holy Father's trip to America. Would we be able to give him the same huge welcome here - cheering crowds 30-deep along the roads of the capital, full-scale pageantry?...is America more religious than us? ....etc etc...a lady atheist campaigner (can't recall her name) was on the programme with me and ranted crossly about the usual things, Church opposes abortion, won't give out condoms to children, etc. People 'phoned in and talked...I detect a vague longing for something that would give poor mucky modern Britain a larger vision and a spiritual and moral uplift, as there was some wistful talk about great Royal events and the good community spirit that is engendered when people celebrate a valued heritage and sense of purpose...even a sense of envy of the Americans, who seem to allow themselves to look - together, as a country - upwards and outwards to the things of God more than we do...

I've been away from the computer, in Norfolk, at Walsingham, filming with an EWTN team. Extremely enjoyable - hard work, but fun. The new Catholic church in the town itself is now functioning - it has a nice traditonal-style round tower made with local stones, and a fine large crucifix by the door. Inside, it disappoints a bit, sanctuary looks unfinished, the tabernacle stranded to one side. I expect that this will change in due course, as an attractive feature of the church is a small round window, so placed that the passer-by can look in directly to the altar. But at the moment the view just misses the tabernacle!

There are good numbers for daily Mass, and for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament afterwards: with a glittering monstrance on the altar, directly beneath the stained glass and crucifix, everything suddenly looked exactly right.

Pilgrim groups walk the Holy Mile to the Slipper Chapel shrine, carrying a statue - it was enchantingly beautiful doing this, voices chorusing the Rosary back-and-forth, lambs in the fields, a fizz of green just emerging on the trees, sudden groups of primroses, birds calling, crunch of feet on the gravel walk and no traffic noise.

The train journey home from Kings Lynn (WHY WERE ALL THOSE WONDERFUL LITTLE BRANCH LINES CLOSED, BACK IN THE 1960s? I learned this week that Walsingham not only had its own station, but also a special Slipper Chapel Halt) took me via Cambridge. So I stopped off there to enjoy a happy afternoon with young relatives - cheery news and eager talk, delicious great-nephew tumbling with energy, cuddly small great-niece chuckling most gratifyingly at the sight of a great-aunt...

Mark this date...

...on May 19th Fr Luiz Ruscillo, from the Lancaster diocese which produced the excellent Fit for Mission? report is coming to speak at St Joseph's church, New Malden. Come and discover at first-hand about the ideas for the way ahead in Catholic education. May 19th, 7.30pm, at St Joseph's church centre, which adjoins the church in Kingston Road, New Malden (trains from London Waterloo, about a 20-minute journey).

The London Mayoral election...

...is coming up. If you are a Londoner, look at this website before making your decision.

I didn't fully grasp this before, but we have two votes under the new system. So your second-choice vote IS VERY IMPORTANT TOO.

Here is...

the "Slipper Chapel" at Walsingham, although this formal pic doesn't do it justice, because the charm lies in the gentle untidiness and greenery of the country lane, and the meadows opposite, and the little brook, and the splashy ford, and the feeling of coming on it all rather suddenly as you walk up from the village.

A memory: one summer night, during a Youth 2000 weekend, a group of us enjoying a walk in the moonlight...we started to say the Rosary and somewhere behind us in the lane, a couple of other voices joined in, and then a few more. We all walked along, the prayer going back and forth pleasantly in the summer night, no traffic noise to spoil it. As we drew near the shrine, we stopped in front of it, just by that door that you see above here, and sang the Salve Regina. None of us knew each other, we were just assorted pilgrims - until we gathered by the shrine we hadn't even seen each others' faces. And as we sang together, it was such a pleasant feeling of solidarity...and then we all got chatting for a while, then wished each other goodnight, and off to our various tents to sleep.

Entries are pouring in...

...for the Religious Education Project run by the Association of Catholic Women. We had a committee meeting today, and made plans for the judging etc. We have been running this Project for some years but this year we've expanded it hugely and are running it jointly with the Catholic Truth Society. The children study some of the miracles of Christ in the New Testament, and write about them...check out the ACW website if you are a teacher and interested in getting your pupils involved...

Our committee meetings are held at St James Church, Spanish Place and are lively and enjoyable. But the agenda includes serious matters for discussion and action : Govt bullying Church schools, horrible legislation on human embryos...

This weekend I'm off to Walsingham for work on another venture. It's one of my favourite places - I like the wideness of the Norfolk landscape contrasting with the cosy feeling in the village, the teashops, the creamy white blossom on the hedgerows.

The April commemoration

...of the coming into law of the infamous Abortion Act (which became law in April 1968) takes place at a number of London churches in the run-up to April 26th. Participating churches will have a candle, and special prayer-cards. Do join in. Check out this website for further information.

My bike and I...

...feature on a website which also includes a number of other features you might enjoy reading. Connect here.

Yesterday I cycled into Kingston to give a talk to a group at County Hall. A lovely bright day, and two barristers in wigs and gowns were standing talking in the gardens in front of the Court. I enjoyed a cup of freshly-made coffee before being taken to deliver the lecture: it all felt very civilised. On the surface of things, life in Britain on an April morning is a delight.

Email from a friend whose child is about to go to a big Catholic comprehensive school - the school feels obliged to be part of a ghastly official scheme called "Connexions" which offers (no, I'm not inventing this) "free condoms" and "advice for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people". Parents can sign an opt-out form - but surely no Catholic school should have anything to do with this horrible scheme in the first place? (Yes, she has taken it up with the school governors. But this also calls for action from our Bishops to make a clear and strong policy decision uniting all Catholic schools).

PS to my post about the Isle of Wight...

...Fr Dwight Longenecker has some absolutely enchanting pictures of Isle of Wight churches on his blog. Look here.

In London...

...yesterday for a meeting of some of the team involved with Tamezin magazine. This is a magazine for teenage girls, full of some great features, produced by a talented young team with great artwork, layout, design. My involvement lies in recruting new young contributors by going to schools and doing journalism workshops...the whole venture is fun and it's enjoyable seeing the whole thing grow and give so much fun and pleasure to so many...

In the post...

...comes the magazine of St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde, Isle of Wight. I have a wonderful friend who is among the nuns at St C's, and her accompanying letter is so full of encouragement, quietly wise comments, and joy.

The magazine is joyful, too - there's a splendid account of the life of one of the oldest nuns, Sister M. Rose:"She never thought of herself as old. Still attending Christmas Midnight Mass in her eighties, she was asked if she would like to have her post-Mass hot chocolate in the infirmary, rather than the refectory, as it was nearer to her cell. 'It's very kind of you, but let's wait until I am old.' She had a common-sense approach to life, spiced with humour. After a refectory book had been full of some martyr's persecution and torture she commented 'And we grumble if we get a pimple.' "

The convent is on the hill on the outskirts of Ryde, overlooking the Solent with its white-whipped waves, and beyond is all the glorious island, with the lovely beaches at Ventnor and Sandown, and the castle at Carisbrick, and enchanting lanes and fields and tea-shops with cream teas and its own little railway.

I had written to Sister E. to beg for prayers for a priest I have mentioned previously in this Blog, who is in prison. He has now been granted an appeal. Please, please join your prayers to those of the sisters and others who are praying for him.

I've been asked...

...for the source of the quote from the Holy Father that I gave a couple opf days ago. I got it from a speech made by Cardinal Bertone which you can read here. In it, he quotes the Pope, from what he states is an interview given shortly after his election.

Sunday:

Snow. Walked to Mass through whirling whiteness. Jamie has a bad cough and cold. V. interesting sermon about the encounter with Christ on the road to Emmaus - had never really thought about this incident before and it suddenly came alive and assumed its true significance - as I write this I find myself thinking of that Caravaggio (sp?) painting...

To Mother's: I had got a video of some vintage Dad's Army episodes and it was 50p well spent. Watched and laughed and drank tea while addressing envelopes for the big mailing to all clergy in 4 dioceses for the Festival of Catholic Culture (one quarter of one diocese done - so am on track to get all completed by September!)

Talk this evening to local World Youth Day group. They start their meetings with prayer before the Bl. Sacrament, and Benediction. It was touching to see all these young people kneeling in silence in church when I slipped in at the back, rather rushed and breathless. Leading the group is Fr Dominic Allain of St Pius X church, next parish along from ours.

I had been invited to speak about the Holy Father (ref. my book on him). Extraordinarily, I just this week acquired an excellent book about his theology: Ratzinger's Faith, by Tracey Rowland. I'll be writing a lot more about this later. Tracey R. is a crunchy writer and thinker, Dean and Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at the JPII Institute in Melbourne. She's also a great friend and I'm thrilled to have got her book, fresh off the press from OUP.

I came across this quote...

...from the Holy Father and I love it.

"The generally prevailing idea is that Christians have to observe an immense number of commandments, prohibitions, precepts, and other such restrictions, so that Christianity is a heavy and oppressive way of living, and it would therefore be more liberating to live without all these burdens. But I would like to make it clear that to be sustained by this great Love and God’s sublime revelation is not a burden, but rather a set of wings – that it is truly beautiful to be a Christian. It is an experience that gives us room to breathe and move, but most of all, it places us within a community since, as Christians, we are never alone: first of all, there is God, who is always with us; secondly, we are always forming a great community among ourselves: a community of people together on a journey, a community with a project for the future. All of this means that we are empowered to live a life worth living. This is the joy of being a Christian; that it is beautiful and right to believe!”

The Holy Father...

...is visiting the USA shortly. You can read a most useful and well-informed commentary on the subject by George Weigel here.

Family time...

...with a dear niece L., arriving in London for a job interview. Jamie wanted us all to have dinner somewhere special, and after some wandering we settled on a French restaurant near the Strand - delicious mussels in cream sauce, lots of talk, a happy evening. We walked back across the Thames to catch the train home in a warm London teeming with people and with almost the feel of a summer night about it...this morning we drove out into Surrey and had a pub lunch, home via Epsom market where L. bought flowers, and then to the station for her to catch the train to have tea with Granny. Back at home I got on with domestic things, letters, work, and the rain suddenly pelted down and it's back to winter again.

Government attacks Jewish schools...

...as part of a general attempt to undermine all "Faith schools". Look at this report on the front page of today's Independent. Under the guise of a survey of religious-based schools in three local authorities, a Govt-sponsored body says it found six that invited parents to make a voluntary contribution towards books and equipment. Five of these were Jewish schools, and one was Church of England. Apparently, we are all meant to be indignant that schools might invite parents to make a contribution. Why? The schools made it clear that the funds were specifically for religious books. And for years the cry against religious schools has precisely been that taxpayers' money was going towards religious materials! Now, when some schools opt to invite parents to pay instead, we are being told it's somehow unethical.

This is all part of a concerted attack on the voluntarily-aided schools, and frankly I find it sinister. Combined with the outrageous interrogation of Bishop Patrick O'Donohue by a Parliamentary committee because of his robust defence of Catholic schooling, it's a sign of a trend that spells considerable danger to freedom of education in our country.

Watch out for further attacks: at a guess, there will be attempts to find parents who are angry/upset/'feel excluded'/etc because their children at a Church school have been told that they should attend Mass regularly, or that marriage is the foundation of family life, or that the Ten Commandments matter.

If you are a parent...

...of a child at a Catholic primary school in Britain, or a teacher at such a school, you'll be interested in the ACW Schools RE Project, which is offering attractive prizes in its 2008 event. Hurry, because the deadline is drawing near. Information here.

The Association of Catholic Women marks its 20th anniversary this year, and is thriving. It's one of the groups with which I most enjoy working: our committee meetings are talkative and fun, we get a lot done, there's a good blend of practical action and shared faith, and our activities are a good range of organising conferences, making sandwiches, raising funds at coffee-mornings, studying, reading, brainwork, brewing tea and slicing cakes for hundreds at a major Festival, brewing tea for just a few at a work-session, laughing, praying together, and getting into deep theology.

The origins of Doh, Re, Mi...

...are fascinating. Read about it all here. I came across this quite by accident, when I was trawling the Westminster Cathedral blog for something quite different. Because I recently watched The Sound of Music (see this Blog of a few days back when I was ill...) this story leapt at me...go on, find out for yourself.

It is forty years...

...since the Abortion Act came into force in Britain. It took effect in April 1968. Since then, so many unborn children have been deliberately killed. It's as if the nation had a sort of death-wish: the future, with all its bright promise, destroyed in clinics and hospitals. And human relationships, love, marriage, family life, are all horribly damaged and wounded and messed up in today's Britain, with consequences that are already ghastly and will get much worse.

On April 26th, at 12 noon, there will be a short ceremony at the West Door of Westminster Abbey, organised by Choose Life, bringing together representatives of a number of groups, at which a wreath will be laid and prayers said to markj this tragic anniversary. YOUR PRESENCE will help to make this significant event something which will linger in the memory and perhaps help to bring about change in this tragic situation. Do come.

While waiting...

...at the doctor's this morning, I read My Memories of Six Reigns by Princess Marie-Louise., which I recently borrowed from a friend. It's very poorly written ("There is one item of interest I should like to record with regard to a Scandinavian journey..." "There is so much more I could tell you of these dear musical friends..." etc etc) but it's deliciously scented with the whole sense and feel of some one born into British royalty in the 1870s, with memories of dear Grandmama at Windsor and Osborne, contrasting with the ghastly stuffiness of Prussian royal etiquette in Berlin...it took me miles and epochs away from an NHS waiting room in South London in the 21st century. Full of extraordinary bits of information, such as the Kaiser sending warm greetings to a Silver Wedding celebration of the author's parents at Windsor during World War I, while the slaughter was going on between the two nations...and of the author visiting General Jan Smuts in South Africa, bitter about the death of his child in British captivity in the Boer War, and having a deep conversation with him as she had lost a brother in that war...

Do read...

this account of our "Thank you to our priests" Chrism Mass event.

Jamie Bogle...

...was the speaker at the Catholic Cultural Group last night. This is an informal group which I run - meets about once a month, drinks, snacks, guest speaker, occasional visits to places of interest. Anyone is welcome who genuinely enjoys a good discussion of topics linked to a general Christian theme. Not all members are Catholics - anyway, we don't ask. No membership fee, but we pass a hat round to cover expenses. We meet in people's flats in central London. We have two Mastermind finalists among our members!

Jamie spoke about James II, our last Catholic king, and William of Orange.( Book on the subject recently re-published by Fisher Press. You can read about it here.)

HOME...

...after an Easter that included a magnificent Easter Vigil at the Oxford Oratory, a lot of family talk and fun with four generations of one side of the family and three of another, a trip on the West Somerset Railway (recommended), a good deal of chocolate, and the joy of wobbly-legged lambs in the wet fields, and primroses in lanes, and church bells and pub lunches and the sea and time to read.

We tried to watch the Pope's Urbi et Orbi message on TV (BBC) on Easter Sunday but it suddenly went off the air and we got Songs of Praise instead. Did anyone else have this problem? A phone call to the Beeb produced an assurance that I'd get an email about the matter within ten working days.

The current Catholic Herald has a feature by me about a painting of St John Fisher in the chapel of the school dedicated to him in Purley, Surrey. The feature, very nicely, concludes with a reference to this Blog and an invitation to people to read it...so here's a cheery welcome to anyone who has taken the CH's advice and is thus reading this...

After a beautiful Holy Week...

...in the local parish, I'm off with Jamie for a round of family visits for Easter. Not back at blogging till Low Sunday.

"THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS"...

...said our big placard, and with a cheery crowd of young people from St Patrick's, Soho Square, and a great team from the Association of Catholic Women, we greeted priests of the Westminster diocese as they arrived for the Chrism Mass this morning at the Cathedral. It was glorious: a chance to greet so many priests personally and exchange news and greetings, a joy to see the genuine pleasure given by our small holy cards - bearing a verse from Scripture and the thanks of women in the diocese for the service given by priests - and all in the wonderful setting of the great Cathedral at the start of Holy Week.

And...the ladies campaigning for the ordination of women, who used to hold a campaign at this event, calling for the Church to create priestesses, weren't there. That chapter is over.

Information...

...of various sorts:

A date for your diary: Sat Nov 8th, Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster Cathedral Hall. Yes, yes of course I know it's months ahead. That's the whole point. Put it in your diary now and then it's fixed and you won't plan other things on the same day. We had our first planning meeting a few days' back, lots of good ideas some fine speakers, choir etc lining up. The Festival is now in its 8th year, and I remember a gleeful report announcing, when the first was under way, that surely it would all be a terrible flop...(this was wishful thinking, from the don't-let's-ever-have-any-good-news-about-the-Church school of thought). Each year, attendance always tops the 1,000 mark...

If you are interested to hear Fr Aidan Nichols - author of, among many other books, The Realm, an unfashionable essay on the Conversion of England - consider getting a ticket for the 2008 Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, at which he is guest speaker, this Autumn. The date is Oct 10th, venue the Thistle Hotel, at London's Marble Arch. Details: send SAE to the Chairman, CWYL, 22 Milton Rd, WARE. Herts. Funds raised this year go to Youth 2000.

Domestic notes: an enquirer to this Blog asks how I manage to watch videos without owning a TV. You may be interested to know that you can get, v. cheaply, a flat screen, unconnected to any TV, enabling you to watch videos and DVDs. No TV licence required, of course. And the thing folds away under a desk so itsn't a dreary grey permanent presence. Try it.

This week...

...I walked in procession in our local parish to mark Palm Sunday (albeit only under cover from the hall to the church - it was raining hard) , and will tomorrow (Tuesday) attend the Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral where along with other members of the Association of Catholic Women I'll be handing out small thank-you cards to priests as they arrive for the annual blessing of the sacred oils.

Yes, I'm more or less recovered from flu - thank you for the kind enquiries.

I think one probably doesn't Blog on Good Friday, and after that Jamie and I will be at various family gatherings celebrating Easter, first in Oxfordshire and then in Somerset. Which brings me to a nice story about apples...

Last September in Somerset the trees were just laden with the most wonderful fruit, and at the Sacred Heart Church in Minehead, the nice parish priest urged anyone who wanted any apples simply to go into the presbytery garden and gather as much as they needed. I carried away a great bagful, and in due course chopped and bottled some in syrup. Last Thursday and Friday nights, when I coughed and coughed and couldn't sleep, I found that just a few spoonfuls of this lovely soft sweet fruit was the most delicious and soothing thing for a troubled throat. Seemed to carry a blessing from a Somerset garden. Thank you, Father.

Saturday...

...was lost in a blur. You have amazing dreams when you have a high temperature. At one point, I wrapped myself in a duvet on the sofa and watched a video of The Sound of Music. Most cheering. But then when I went back to bed, I found myself responding to endless requests from editors wanting me to work faster and faster, while the von Trapp children danced endlessly round Mother's new vacuum cleaner...

Auntie not very well....

...I've got 'flu, or something like it. High temperature, shivering, a bubbly sound in my chest.

I did manage to get out this morning to Our Lady Immaculate School in Tolworth, where I was due to speak to the children at morning Assembly about the ACW Schools RE Project. Absolutely sweet sight as the little ones came in - they'd been told to be quiet and put their fingers on their lips. A glowing candle beside a crucifix, and an open Bible. Pictures of Our Lord's miracles flashed up on to a screen most efficiently by a child organising the power-point as I spoke about Our Lord quelling the storm at sea and healing the paralytic man. The children's voices chorusing their prayers, asking for help in the day ahead: "...Father, I want to please you today in all I do and say".

Tolworth is not far away and and I had set out along the A3 quite cheerily - haven't cycled that route since my marathon ride to Brighton last year to raise funds for World Youth Day . But I was feeling wobbly and getting along seemed a great effort. I was glad when I arrived at the school and was sipping tea, along with a couple of aspirin.

Jamie worked for a while at Tolworth some years ago. It is frankly not a beautiful place - all traffic and motorway junction, dominated by that gross square office slab of Tolworth Tower. Our Lady Immaculate Church, a large welcoming building, is the great redeeming feature of the place and I remember dropping in there when meeting J. from work...it was lovely to spend a few quiet moments there this morning. There were a good number of people for morning Mass. Statues etc draped in purple cloth for Passiontide. A big formal banner outside proclaiming that the church is celebrating its Golden Jubilee.

I wobbled home and J. tucked me up in bed and made me a mug of tea.

A happy day...

...in Birmingham, where I was most warmly welcomed by the excellent Jackie Parkes and family, at a gathering of her Catholic women's Book Club. It was all huge fun - a buffet lunch on a table, people comfortably settled on chairs around the room, children milling about a bit, and general air of great friendliness. A joy to greet Father Guy Nicholls of the Birmingam Oratory, a friend of many years' standing.

I had been invited to talk about my Yearbook of Seasons and Celebrations and it was a very happy day in excellent company. I talked too much - am apt to chatter when suddenly relaxing in good company after a tiring time. Fell asleep on the train home.

The Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna...

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, spoke at a dinner at on Monday evening, to introduce the work of the International Theological Institute, based at Gaming in Austria. It was a wonderful evening, beautiful candlelit tables, white damask, etc, and it was hugely enjoyable to meet lots and lots of people involved with so many different aspects of the Church in Britain... I know the work of the ITI well, having spoken at one of their conferences, held at Sonntagberg. More on all this later...

Ooops...

...first it was the Hoover. At Mother's. It seemed to be making a nasty crackling noise, and anyway it needed a new bag, so I went to some trouble to get one (v. tiresome - you have to get the right-shaped bag for the right sort of vacuum cleaner. Traipsed round shops and supermarkets....) Today, brandishing the new bag in triumph, I arrivd at M's...got the Hoover going, and the nasty crackling got suddenly more exciting, and a spark or two flew from the rear of the thing, and the smoke alarm suddenly shrieked PHEEP PHEEP PHEEP! and there was a whiff of smoke and things got slightly scary...

We're getting a new vacuum cleaner.

Then it was the mobile phone. Westminster Cathedral. The queue for confession. There we all were, silent, prayerful, Lenten, in front of the Lady Chapel. Statues draped in purple for forthcoming Passiontide. People silently coming and going. A touching scene in one of the world's great churches. Suddenly the air was pierced by a HORRIBLY LOUD chirping, the sound jangling in the silent air, shrieking, throbbing, from my handbag . Hurried scramble to find it. Hoarse whispered conversation. (It was Mother, saying I'd left my keys at her house).

I am not very good at machines. I phoned M. back a bit later and we both enjoyed a laugh over all this.

I still don't know how to turn off my mobile, and last time I tried it turned on a video camera and I got lots and lots of film of the inside of my handbag.

Be there!

Come and join us at our annual THANK YOU TO OUR PRIESTS at the Chrism Masses at
Westminster Cathedral (Tuesday of Holy Week, March 18th, 12 noon)
Arundel Cathedral (Wednesday of Holy Week, March 19th, 6pm) - first time we've done it there
St George's Cathedral, Southwark (Holy Thursday, March 20th, 10.30 am)

We have placards saying "Thank you to our priests" and we hand out holy cards with a suitable Scriptural quote and a message of thanks. It's all sponsored by Catholic women. Come and join us! The Chrism Mass includes some glorious prayers as the oil is blessed that will be used in baptisms and anointing of the sick in the coming year...

The significance of this was brought home to me today when the parish priest brought my mother Holy Communion at home, and gave her the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. It was a very beautiful thing to be there as the wonderful prayers were said.

Incidentally, I will take this opportunity to thank people who have sent good wishes during this time that my mother has been unwell. She's now getting much better. She hopes to be able to get along to the local church for Mass fairly soon...

When the Lord returns...

... "Why do we tell him he must come by car?" This was the urgent question put by a puzzled four-year-old to his Granny recently.

"Why do you think he might come by car?"

"Well, because that's what we sing in church. Come by car, O Lord, come by car...."

Auntie on the edge...

...of England. Yesterday I went to Dover, to speak to pupils at St Edmund's Catholic school, and later to address an evening gathering of local Catholics from neighbouring parishes in the school's new Carmel centre.

Topic for each meeting was "Celebrating feasts and seasons of the Church's calendar". The evening gathering was great fun, everyone v. friendly, hugely enjoyable. I had been more worried about the afternoon one - talking to an RE class of teenagers is always a challenge, because the faces say "Aaaargh...just know that this is going to be booooorrriiiiing..." But after a while most sets of eyes indicated "lights now on inside this head" and a connection was made. Of course in question-time there had to be "Yeah, but, like, all those miracles of Jesus....like, well, I mean, like, we've done science and philosophy and that [???] so I know that, like, well, miracles aren't, like, miracles really, are they?" but I don't mind that sort of question because it does get a discussion going. It all takes me back: we too were cynical, assumed the Church was slightly out-of-date, were certain we were knowledgeable. But they are more assertive, if less articulate, in their ignorance and assumptions than we were in the 1960s/70s, more moulded by TV/media-driven jargon, more certain that the Church is likely to be wrong...

I was glad to see some good CTS booklets and materials on a display stand in the room...hope they get picked up and read...

The school has had massive funding and has a Media section, studios for recording music, a top-class Business Centre. I was made v. welcome, everyone was most hospitable - tour of the whole place, delicious tray of snacks and sandwiches etc...I also went into the town and pottered about...seagulls calling, and a whiff of the sea. France is only 22 miles away. Exploring, I walked up the hill beyond the school, with a view of the town and castle in the setting sun...there is a huge cemetery there, with many military graves, soldiers of the Great War, brought back here from France, wounded, to die in the military hospital- just a few months older than the teenagers in the school below: "aged 18" "aged 19". White gravestones against the fresh green grass of early spring, and evening falling.

A traditional Catholic parish network ...

...can be a great support, I have discovered. During a recent hospital stay, my mother was visited over various days by the Legion of Mary from her local parish, and by the hospital chaplain - who is priest of the parish in which the hospital is situated - and by a kindly nun. In addition, she had visits from friends from her parish Bible Study group (which meets at her home, Mother usually presiding with tea and buns etc). It has all been a great support and help and contributed very substantially to her good morale.

Making a list of things for which one is deeply, heartily, utterly, grateful, I would currently include the following: family, a free Health Service, international phone calls, pain relief, mobile phones, good coffee, a free Health Service, friends, large-print books, a free Health Service, email, washing machines, taxis, bicycles, a free Health Service.

I know - the Health Service isn't free, we all pay for it through our taxes. Well, given the daft things for which we are also obliged to pay (European Union corruption and bureaucracy, grants of cash to ghastly lobby groups...) the Health Service is in a different league.

A Confirmation class...

...at my local parish last night, and then another one in a nearby parish this morning. It's good to see teenagers coming in good numbers. Last night's group was very lively - much end-of-week exuberance - and I was impressed by the energy and commitment of our young curate, and two seminarian volunteers who were in charge. Fr Richard spoke about the Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, using a flip chart to help focus on the various points. There were talks about young saints, with thoughts being directed to choosing a Confirmation name. All the young people were going to go to confession the following week as part of their preparation for Confirmation. A lot of thought and care goes into the whole of the Confirmation programme. My contribution, both at last night's session and this morning's, was to talk about how we got the annual calendar and the round of the Church's seasons, with linked information which always leads on to all sorts of things ranging from names of flowers and origins of old customs to pub signs and place-names and more...along with the bigger information about things like the foundation of Oxford and Cambridge universities and the great London hospitals...being a Catholic isn't a private sort of "add-on" to life, something stitched on at the edges. It means being part of the Church that has shaped our country and our world, and we need to know how much, and on what a deep scale, our country owes to its Christian roots...

This afternoon, a very different audience, a conference organised by the Union of Catholic Mothers. This was in Billingshurst in Sussex, a charming town in one of my favourite parts of England. Sussex was enchanting in spring sunshine. Again, we looked at feasts and seasons, old traditions and customs, and the value of the "domestic church"...

It's exhiliarating to speak to such different groups in one day. Home to mugs of tea and the ironing, phone calls, arrangements for next week. Oh, and sound common sense from Rome on feminist language and baptisms.

Catholic education...

has been in the news. Domestic responsibilities this week have made blogging a bit optional. But I've managed to keep up with other writing work, and if you want a taste of what I think about current controversies in Catholic education, you can read about it here.

And Oremus the magazine of Westminster Cathedral, has my feature about Australian pioneer heroine Caroline Chisholm, which I've linked to World Youth Day, coming up in Australia this July...there is renewed interest in her story, because of the Papal visit and WYD, and I've been asked to give some talks about her. She was virtually forgotten - and certainly so here in England when I wrote my book about her in 1995 (it's currently enjoying a new boost of sales).

Life this week has centred around hospital visits and family phone discussions, planning domestic arrangements. It all makes one so grateful for family and friends.

I've been asked...

to help publicise a series of talks on Love and Responsibility, taking place in Central London over the next few weeks, and I'm very happy to do so. These are the issues that get people thinking, talking, arguing, wanting to know more...and often surprised and challenged by the discovery of what the Church gives and teaches. Topics include "Building the civilisation of love in a media-driven world", "The Gift of Life and Christian Discipleship". Find out more here.

Newspapers full of debate about what to do about "binge drinking" and the evident sense of a flat empty pointlessness in life that gives rise to it. Daft to pretend that making wine and beer more expensive will do anything to change that. Charles Moore in today's Telegraph makes some good points on this.

Young people want - need - to know they are loved and lovable, necessary, valued, and capable of great things. They need to know that life can be full of huge challenges and tasks, and adventures in doing them, and they need the structures that come with all that. How horrible that in modern Britain all this is being denied to so many.

Today in the High Street, a team of Christian singers were braving the cold and the weary who-cares-anyway of shoppers, and singing cheerily about the love of Christ. Their joy was suddenly contagious, and I felt warmed by it. It also made God seem real: he came here, lived among us all, joined in. Cares hugely about every single individual one of us. Easy to forget that.

An American magazine...

...called VOICES, which is produced by Women for Faith and Family has published a feature by me about Bishop von Galen, whose beatification ceremony I attended in Rome a while back.

Today I worked on a couple of features on different topics for the National Catholic Register, also in the USA. I've been working at Mother's, as she isn't feeling too well. The skills and kindness of an affectionate grandson have ensured that she has an up-to-date computer with Internet access, and so I'm able to continue my work while doing various things that are needed. M. and I have been enjoying a book about Queen Victoria. However did people cope with illness and all its attendant difficulties 150 years ago...it is such a blessing to have modern medicines and things like a telephone, Internet, access to automatic banking machines for cash, taxis, trains, even my faithful bicycle...

The East Riding...

...of Yorkshire was dramatic in hard white frost and freezing fog, with the sun a dull red glow as the train from Doncaster pulled along into Hull by the wide Humber river on Monday evening.

In due course I was in the cheerful kitchen at the presbytery of West Hull with Fr William Massie, enjoying shepherd's pie and breshly brewed coffee, and then off to speak at the Hull Faith Forum, which is linked to the Faith Movement. A full room, with a good many young people squashed together on the seats in good spirits: I spoke on "Feasting and Fasting", talking about the calendar of the Church's year, and the wonderful traditions, especially those associated with Lent and Holy Week and Easter...and in the wide-ranging discussion which followed, the younger element got especially interested in the references I had made to Shakespeare's Catholicism, (because of doing Shakepseare at school) and we got quite deeply into this, and found we were exploring A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Hamlet, and asking questions about The Tempest. Of course, Clare Asquith's book Shadowplay, has lots on this and is opening up a new debate...

Hull was badly hit by the floods last year, and some families are still not back in their homes. I heard first-hand stories of adventures, and felt a bit mean at how quickly the rest of us had forgotten all about it after a few days of headlines.

I stayed overnight - talkative and enjoyable gathering in the pub after the meeting. Next morning, a beautiful Mass at Corpus Christi Church, a small and snug building with a good-sized congregation for a weekday, and a welcoming feel. As we left, a passer-by stopped to talk to Fr W. and said "this church has been a beacon for me" - is interested in the Faith.

As the fog and mist lifted, there were the most glorious views of frosted fields and white-rimed trees stark against the wintry sky.

You have got to see this...

....at Goring-by-sea in Sussex there is a complete, hand-painted, magnificent Sistine Chapel ceiling.

It is in a completely ordinary Catholic church in this unremarkable small seaside community on the coast, between the South Downs and the English Channel.

It is awesome! Read about it here.

I met the artist, Gary Bevan, who took five years to paint the ceiling, having put up scaffolding in the church, obtained the paints, and gone into dedicated detail to ensure that what he was painting was exactly, in every tiny way, the same as on the ceiling of the chapel in Rome. As he finished the work, he realised that the dimensions of the ceiling here in Sussex were exactly those of the famous Roman one. You walk into the church, which adjoins an old Sussex barn which is now used as the church hall, and you gasp. There it is. In brilliant colours, just as Michaelangelo painted it, the magnificent piece of art that has drawn people to God for centuries.

It's about four minutes' walk from Goring-by-sea station, on the Worthing line.

I was in Goring to give a talk to the parish on "Celebrating traditional feasts and seasons". It was a happy gathering in the little warm oak-beamed Sussex flint barn, with a good crowd, and tea and lovely cakes to finish things...and then afterwards the Bevan girls took me to the sea...all in the wide breezy evening, with the waves crashing on to the shore, and the breakwaters, and the memories of happy childhood on just this very stretch of Sussex coast, and the Downs behind us, and those seaside-houses with green tiled roofs, and the sun setting.

If you haven't yet read...

Fr Aidan Nichols' new paperback Realm,you are warmly recommended to do so. It's "An unfashionable essay on the conversion of England" and is written with warmth, and a light touch, and is difficult to put down. The chapter on the Coronation ceremony is especially goofd. It's published by Family Publications, which you can reach here.

A busy week...

...ended comfortably at Mother's yesterday evening with a glass of sherry, and supper, and an evening of sewing and chat and relaxation. We watched a video of the classic TV series All Gas and Gaiters. Remember it? You won't if you're under 40. It's set in an Anglican cathedral close, with Derek Nimmo as the Bishop's chaplain, and everything chintzy in a drawing-room-comedy sort of way, with the Dean as a humourless figure with a scary wife...all gently amusing. Golly, what an utterly different Britain it was in 1971. In retrospect it looks like an era of vanishing innocence. The collosal social changes of the late 60s - pop, pot, and the Pill - were just beginning to be fully assimilated in our culture. I remember older people disliking our denim jeans and pop music. But there was still a sense of people sharing a common set of assumptions and memories, a view of themselves and of one another, which made it possible to laugh at national institutions and human relationships in a way that would be impossible today.

Hurtling about...

...on trains en route to various speaking engagements, waiting on cold platforms, life has been hugely, gloriously, enlivened by Frank Muir's splendid autobiography A Kentish Lad. Chortling in a crowded railway carriage, I had to explain myself to other passengers ("I'm so sorry - it's just that this is one of the funniest books I've ever read"). It was published about ten years ago, and I just grabbed it from the local library when I rushed in for emergency reading material...

A C. of E. ladies' group in South London last night, a Women's Institute in Surrey today, and this weekend I'm off to Sussex. I sometimes take sewing to do on trains, but it's difficult in the rush-hour.

Oooops...

There's a giant new red poster on a hoarding along the main road near here which says "SOME PEOPLE ARE GAY - GET OVER IT". Well, yes, I found myself thinking - there are people who announce that they are gay, and then get over it. In the past couple of years I have read two features in (non-religious) newspapers by people who, having previously announced themselves as lesbians, later came to a different conclusion and subsequently married very happily and had children.

The poster is produced by Stonewall, a homosexualist lobby group. They've made a big mistake on this one. An absolutely key part of successful advertising is to remember that people don't read subtle details - they just respond to what seems to be the basic message. And the basic message of this poster is that people who are gay will get over it. I don't think that's what Stonewall wanted to convey at all.

A Catholic Religious Education Project...

...for primary schools, run by the Association of Catholic Women, has now been flourishing for several years. This year, we've teamed up with the CTS to make the whole venture even bigger. There are two trophies to be won, for different age groups, and some lovely prizes, and Catholic primary schools across Britain are invited to join in...one invited us to address the children, so this morning I went to St Vincent's primary school in Acton, to speak at Morning Assembly.

It's a joy to come in from litter-strewn streets and graffitti and the general cheerlessness of much of today's London, and find a school buzzing with a sense of purpose and small children. They walked into Assembly in neat lines, looking very nice in their school uniforms, sat cross-legged on the floor in rows looking bright-eyed, and led by a teacher put their hands together and closed their eyes for prayers. The chorus of children's voices in prayer was moving - I suppose teachers get used to it, but to this jaded journalist it was so sweet. Then I was introduced and told them about the RE project, and how we were doing it to help children all over Britain learn about our Catholic Faith...I mentioned the Pope and asked if anyone knew his name, and a lot of hands went up and I chose one at random and he was spot-on with the name of BXVI...

It's fun doing something like this, but facing a whole school assembly is surprisingly scary - all those faces. Much more challenging than last night's marriage preparation group, but more enchanting too. A joyful start to the day.

Afterwards I got the Tube to Victoria and relaxed for ten minutes with a cup of coffee and a roll and the Daily Telegraph - excellent commentary today by Simon Heffer about the Govt's Stalinist imposition of its own horrible version of "culture" on schools.

Young love in Chelsea...

Crowded room, filled with young engaged couples. They all look rather sweet, though when one gets talking to them of course they all turn out to be terrifyingly high-powered people in money and fashion journalism and things like that. And they've come for a Marriage Preparation Course and are all consciously being Deeply Serious about it. But once the talks start, the slightly artificial feel gives way to something more genuine - the discovery that this isn't a lot of woffle about relationships and caringandsharing but the real thing, which can be slightly startling: God and the reality of marriage as a sacrament, and what this means, and the practicalities of a lifelong commitment in a society that isn't going to do much to sustain you in that.

We were at St Mary's, Cadogan Street, Chelsea, where this Marriage Course has now been running for several years. If you are reading this as a much older person, and concerned for today's young people, and the general mess that Britain seems to be in at the moment in its family life, why not pray for the young couples I met tonight?

Dates to note...

...in your diary. Yesterday I met with the young team from Miles Jesu/Continuity, who organised last year's excellent Martyrs Walk in London. We're going to do it again this year, so mark the date now: Saturday June 21st. We'll start at Tower Hill, where Sts John Fisher and Thomas More met their deaths, and we'll walk through London to Tyburn, stopping on the way at St Patrick's, Soho Square, for Benediction and Tea.

Appropriately, we met yesterday at Tyburn to have our planning-session: we prayed in the convent chapel, and then went for a cup of coffee nearby. Tyburn Convent has adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all day, and there is always one of the Sisters praying...

While I'm about it, I'll mention another date - way ahead, but worth booking into your diary now so that nothing clashes: Sat. Nov 8th will be the 2008 Towards Advent Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster Cathedral Hall...it sounds daft, but we'll be holding our first working meeting to make preliminary arrangements in March...

A vignette...

...of life in suburbia: in a Britain of ugly crimes, violent groups gathering to shriek and hit one another in the streets, and a general sense of unease, there is another life plodding along, slightly beleagured, conscious of an air of menace, but getting on with things valued and enjoyed for a long time and not to be given up lightly....

There are groups in the suburbs that still thrive with a faintly pre-TV, pre-fast-foods, pre- WWII sort of feel to them: clubs and societies catering for different hobbies, little groups with Minutes and Chairmen and Annual General Meetings. They invite people like me to speak to them. Tonight, I was speaking to a local Wine Making Circle. They - well - make wine, and take it along and taste it and win prizes and certificates. They have a Guest Speaker and nibble snacks and wait to be entertained. I was invited to speak on "Celebrating Feasts and Seasons".

The meeting was in a church hall, and while they set up the tables and talked about blackberry wine, I looked into the church. High Anglican. Two people, one a robed clergyman, saying the Stations of the Cross. They were just approaching number 12. "We adore Thee O Christ and we praise Thee". "Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world." It was suddenly good to be there and just quietly to join in: they swivelled round when they heard a third voice but then just nodded and carried on. Later I read the parish newsletter and there it was, "Stations of the Cross every Monday evening during Lent". I hope they get more people next week.

A fine Edwardian church, beautiful stained glass with a Burne-Jones feel... I've passed it dozens of times and never dropped in.

Then the meeting: a cheery gathering. Gave my talk and, to my pleasure, sold a number of books. Good questions and chat afterwards. Home through the dark streets to a mug of tea, and plans for tomorrow, and writing this Blog.

YES!!!

"There are certain places and cultures where women are discriminated against and undervalued just for the fact that they are women, where recourse is even had to religious arguments and family, social and cultural pressures to support the disparity between the sexes, where there is consumption of acts of violence against women, making them into objects of abuse and exploitation in advertising and in the consumer and entertainment industries. In the face of such grave and persistent phenomena the commitment of Christians appears all the more urgent, so that they become everywhere the promoters of a culture that recognizes the dignity that belongs to women in law and in reality.

"God entrusts to women and to men, according to the characteristics that are proper to each, a specific vocation in the mission of the Church and in the world. I think here of the family, community of love, open to life, fundamental cell of society. In it, woman and man, thanks to the gift of maternity and paternity, together play an irreplaceable role in regard to life. From the moment of their conception, children have a right to count on a father and a mother who care for them and accompany them in their growth.
The state, for its part, must sustain with adequate social policies all that which promotes the stability of matrimony, the dignity and the responsibility of the husband and wife, their rights and irreplaceable duty to educate their children. Moreover, it is necessary that it be made possible for the woman to cooperate in the building-up of society, appreciating her typical 'feminine genius.' "

Pope Benedict, speaking to a conference of women in Rome this weekend.

Daffodils...

...in the parks and gardens, and white blossom on the trees...suddenly Spring in suburbia today as I cycled to Mother's after Mass. On Sunday afternoons we often have a game of Scrabble and then tackle the Catholic Herald crossword. We are getting much better at the latter, but haven't yet managed to finish it and send it off in hopes of a prize. This week, we got the clue about the French Protestants of the Reformed Tradition, and the one about St Paul's Letter to the Galatians, but got hopelessly stuck on the clue that simply said "discombobulated". Is there another word for that? Can't think of one.

Masses in our parish are crowded, and it got rather warm in church. The weather seems crazy - today could have been April. But it's only the first Sunday of Lent...Fr P. suggested a booklet called A Rule of Life (CTS) and I picked one up...

...and I've been asked

...by a (rather sulky-sounding!) anonymous correspondent to this blog, whether I "have any life outside narrow religious activities". Other readers may have noted that I promote this Blog as being a Catholic one, connected with my work as a Catholic journalist and broadcaster. So I don't write much about personal thing unconnected with that - with the quiet conviction that perhaps the details of my personal social life aren't, in any case, terribly interesting.

However, to satisfy Anonymous, I'll give a brief run-down on my other activities over the past couple of weeks or so. These have included (in no particular order of importance): an enjoyable lunch with a dear friend of my late father, girl-talk time over coffee with a niece and one of her friends discussing dresses they were to wear at a College Ball, an agreeable and rather giggly lunch with said niece, tea with a wonderful aunt (cream cakes), an evening watching a 1940s film (chocolate, hankies), a concert (Schubert, Brahms), a couple of extremely satisfying hours in a library (biographies, 19th century history), tea with a Marchioness (smoked salmon, scones), a drinks party with a great many journalists (champagne), a discussion about summer holiday plans with family, and an early morning bike ride with one of the most glorious sunrises I have ever seen.

Happy now?

I had an email...

...about the Holy Father's amending of the "Prayer for the Jews" in the Extraordinary Form of the Good Friday prayers. The Holy Father is absolutely right to respond to Jewish concerns, and with his deep understanding of liturgy wants to ensure that the Church's prayer is at one with the heart of Christ. If we are to obey Christ's command to spread to Gospel to all people, nothing could be more daft than continuing to use a prayer that - even accidentally - caused offence, thus clearly putting people off, rather than attracting them! And all concerned could benefit by taking this in the spirit of the Golden Rule. The new version has clearly been produced with the intention of eliminating offence, so if offence is taken now, it will be unjust.

Meanwhile the Ordinary Form of the prayer, which like other middle-aged and young Catholics I have known for all my Good Fridays, is beautiful and impressive - and it is that version which will be used in the vast majority of Catholic churches across the world.


God bless our Papa Benedict!

An ecumenical venture...

...with which I have been involved for some years is Christian Projects/OCU - we run an annual Schools Bible Project, involving schools across Britain, offering young people an opportunity to study the New Testament and write essays which can win prizes... I spent today with two long-time supporters of this venture, going through old papers and sorting them...for some years our records have been kept in their house in the country, and now it was time to decide which to keep and which to throw out...a day of nostalgia as we talked of old times, remembering past achievements, crisies, hilarious moments, daft things, good things. As I was taken to the station at the end of the day, carrying a big plastic bin-bag filled with some empty files which I can put to good use here at home, and a head and heart full of memories, I was aware of a chapter closing.

The 2008 Schools Bible Project is set to be the biggest ever - do keep it in your prayers.

I've been at...

Fawley Court in Oxfordshire, at a conference organised by the British section of the international charity Aid to the Church in Need.

It was for ACN's team of diocesan secretaries, who visit parishes to give appeals on behalf of ACN, explain its work, encourage support for its projects, and sell items such as the rosaries made by Christians in the Holy Land, devotional books, DVDs of sacred music, etc. Excellently organised, it included a talk on the current situation of the Church in China, with news on the relationship between the underground and the "official" Church there, and the general scene as the Olympics approach...

Fawley Court is a conference/retreat centre run by Polish Marian Fathers. This morning we all attended Mass and recieved ashes for Ash Wednesday - done in the Polish fashion by sprinkling them on our heads rather than the British style which is to mark a cross with ash on the forehead. Yesterday evening we had delightful pre-Lent drinks at the home of a generous benefactor to ACN, who welcomed us to a wonderful party in her beautiful home.

Our conference was mostly in a modern building in the grounds of Fawley Court, but we used the beautiful chapel for Mass - an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa and other Polish items mingling with the Jacobean panelling of an old English country house.

Oh dear...

... when I started this Blog, I decided I wouldn't, as a general rule, merely comment on things I had read in the press. But sometimes it's irresistible.

Two items:

- after praising the excellence and high standards of Britain's small village schools, the Government is going to close a large number of them - up to a third of the total - across the country. Such schools are the heart of village and rural life, they have consistently good records in teaching reading, numeracy, and the basic subjects of a primary curriculum, they teach a wide range of other things including community traditions and local history (at the fair in my in-laws' village last summer, little girls from the school led us all in country dancing - a joy) and they foster strong links across the generations...all absolutely crucial at the start of this new century. In a nation of increasing viciousness and crime, they are core centres of real values and achievement, of shared enterprise and useful activity. So our Labour masters plan to close as many of them as they can.

- local authorities are going to start charging fees for collecting rubbish. And they are claiming this will improve the environment! Are they completely daft? Quite obviously, if people have to pay for having rubbish removed, they'll simply dump it somewhere without paying.

A central responsibility of a local Council is ensure basic public services to prevent rats and filth from stacking up in streets and alleys and open spaces. It is what local authorities are for. It is why local taxes are taken from us. Making people pay for this basic service is a negation of what local government is all about. We may as well revert to the 18th-century system of having rich people pay to get things cleaned up in the areas around around their nice homes, while the main public streets are where the poor dump their rubbish.

No, I'm not just an armchair-grumbler. I go up and down our street and collect the rubbish that people drop as they return from the fast-food places nearby, and I have even bought paint-stripper and scrubbed graffitti off local walls. And I'm active with a number of schools, urban and rural. And yes, I do know something of the costs involved in running education and local authorities.

St Robert Southwell...

...heroic Jesuit martyr, who died with quite extraordinary courage after vicious torture, has his feast-day in February, so I was writing about him this morning for a feature in the Catholic Times. I hope that Jesuits today (yes, I am thinking of the pro-priestess ones!) learn from him.

The Jesuits...

...at London's famous Farm Street church sponsor an event called "Theology on tap", in which young people meet at a pub and discuss some aspect of the Catholic faith. Yesterday I was invited to be their speaker: "Women and the Church", at a pub in Grays Inn Road. A lively discussion, not without its amusing moments...at one point, a (male!) Jesuit was putting the case for priestesses, and was roundly opposed by the young women in the room, who said they supported the Church's traditional teaching!