Sitting in St James' Park...

...between meetings, reading moral theology, revising for exams. Groups of tourists surging past, hot sun beating down on the grass, making me glad I had found a cool place under the shade of a great plane tree...

At one level, everything in London SWI on a summer afternoon is more or less as I have always known it - crowds, ice-creams, Londoners looking busy, traffic roaring, the occasional siren squealing, flag flapping gently above Buckingham Palace. But at another level, it isn't. The police now wear heavy-duty padded bullet-proof jerkins and many carry weapons.People are fatter. Few people are dressed formally or smartly, and a number of women are poured into tight-fitting lycra clothing with flesh bulging out at waist and top. Others, of course, are hidden beneath burkhas - a news item in today's press notes that as France has banned this form of clothing, numbers of well-to-do Middle-Easteners have moved to London for shopping and social activities instead. The most elegant women are Indian ladies in saris. Sights once routine in London - men in bowler hats, for example - are now unknown.

You hear a lot more casual swearing and obscenity. There is a lot more litter - though less in a London park than in suburban streets which are often adrift with rubbish. Lots of people eat while walking around. Fewer people read newspapers: it's rare to see some one seated on a bench reading one. Many walk with i-phones plugged in to their ears. Many have a mobile phone clamped to an ear. Conversations are all routinely interspersed with the word "like", as in "So, I'm, like, at the bus stop, and I'm, like, hey, where's the bus, and he's like, hey, like, the bus is on its way..." and in anyone under about 30, all sentences go up at the end, as if every statement is, like,a question?

Pilgrimage...

There are a couple of places left in a pilgrimage to Durham, Lindisfarne, Hexham and other holy sites. Leaving London by train on Monday 12th Sept. and returning there on 16th September. Cost all in £255. Those interested call Brigid 02087638201 or Amanda 02086475021.

"Sweet Sacrament Divine"....

...is one of my favourite hymns, and we sang it this morning at Holy Ghost Church, Balham. I went to Balham because there is an 80-strong group from there heading for World Youth Day in Madrid in 3 weeks' time, and I wanted to check some details with the parish priest. Alas, he wasn't there, because, as Dean, he had had to hurry off to a neighbouring parish where the priest, Fr Bonvini, had just died...

Fr Bonvini...Fr Bonvini...on hearing the news, my mind went back over 30 years, to a summer evening at St Elphege's, Wallington, where Fr Bonvini, then the curate there, talked to Jamie and me about Christian Marriage. We had gone there to make arrangements for the wedding - a family friend, Fr James Tolhurst, was to celebrate our Nuptial Mass and marry us. But it fell to Fr Bonvini to deal with the neccessary paperwork - and to explain to us about the Sacrament we were to recieve and its beauty and importance. His talk was quietly full of wisdom, imparting the Church's teaching without cliches or frills, and with an emphasis on prayer and the spiritual life, and I have always remembered it. May this good priest rest in peace after a life given fully to the service of the Church and to hundreds and hundreds of ordinary Catholic families like ours in the London suburbs...

This morning's Mass at Balham was a swirl of incense and glorious music, with Latin chant, a beautifully sung Psalm, and, as mentioned, "Sweet Sacrament Divine" at Communion...a friend remarked recently that the thing he had noticed, on joining the Catholic Church, was the number of men in the congregation - "Sundays, and even weekdays. Always lots of men. In my previous denomination it was mostly just older ladies".

Afterwards, I treated myself to 20 minutes with coffee and a newspaper: grim headlines about the massacre in Norway, and various analyses about the situation in Europe with new tensions over Islamic immigration, and a worsening economic situation...

Feeling solemn, I headed for home. I spent yesterday evening addressing envelopes for the big mailing to all London parishes about the Towards Advent festival later this year. Somehow it seems more important than ever to affirm a strong Christian presence and a message of general goodwill and hope. Will World Youth Day help?

Went to pick blackberries and think.

There is a court case...

...running this week and next in which a judge will decide whether to make a patient in a hospital die of thirst. The patient is semi-conscious and deeply vulnerable. It has been suggested that water and food should be stopped. This is a gross and ghastly plan and the patient needs our prayers and support. Pray for "M", and for the judge who will decide whether to let this person live or force a particularly cruel death. And you might like to join in an act of solidarity which is planned for next Wed (July 27th) at 1pm at Old Palace Yard, WEstminster, London SW1, in which a woman who was once herself a patient in an intensive care ward is planning a demonstration.

Dropped in...

...to the St Paul's Bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, to discuss my forthcoming book on Blessed John Paul. Exciting to see the cover design and to talk about publication plans...

London has spme good things on at present. At the National Gallery you can see some magnificent altar-pieces in this exhibition. It's FREE, and well worth a visit. Beautifully presented with interesting and clear explanations.

Watching...

...this fascinating interview with Cardinal Raymond Burke, talking to the Association of Hebrew Catholics. He is really excellent.

As a journalist I occasionally get sent some vile anti-Jewish ranting material and to my horror I have realised that it has come from a source claiming to be Catholic. It has included nasty attacks on Jewish Catholics too. So I went to the Assn. of Hebrew Catholics website, and found it very helpful - see above.

The latest issue of Common Ground, magazine of the Council of Christians and Jews, has a review, by Auntie, of the book Light of the World, in which the Holy Father speaks on a wide range of topics, including this one. I was especially touched by his comment that his German birth gave him "a special reason to look with humility and shame - and with love - upon the people of Israel."

And this YouTube clip is also relevant....

Re-Reading...

Veritatis Splendor for some work on Moral Theology. You hear the timeless voice of the truth in its clear and thoughtful words, and in its gentleness and sense of proportion in tackling the great issues that confront us...

Great boxes ...

...of handbills and posters for the 2011 TOWARDS ADVENT Festival have arrived, reminding me of the work to be done in getting envelopes addressed to every RC parish in the South East of England, ready for the big mail-out that takes place in September. Meanwhile, today, packets of handbills went to the various groups and organisations taking part in the Festival, so they can be mailed to members. It looks set to be our best-ever Festival...click on that link and put the date in your diary now...

London in light summer rain...

...and very enjoyable. A party to launch Fr Nicholas Schofield's new biography of Fr William Lockhart - an excellent book telling the story of a leading figure in the Catholicism of Queen Victoria's England, and a man who helped to shape the Church that English Catholics know today.

It was a wonderful evening: guest speaker was Lord St John of Fawsley, with glorious anecdotes and much name-dropping - the latter being his trade-mark so he engaged in some self-mockery especially when it came to his description of being about to say to a Pope "As Her Majesty the Queen was telling me.." but decided to forego it...

Fr Nicholas is a good writer and a fine historian, very much at home in English Catholicism. Tom Longford of Gracewing Books presided, and guests included Fr Marcus Nolan - whose Evangelium conference is coming up in August - Fr Richard Whinder, and Antony Tyler, a former Master of The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild, with whom I shared a cheery bus-ride back to Waterloo and a cup of coffee and a snack there, swapping news and views very enjoyably before catching the train home...

Space travel...

...is the current interest of a small relative, so when I was at his house looking after him and his little sister and baby brother this weekend, we spent a good deal of time organising the creation of rockets from cardboard boxes in the kitchen, and hauling them around the floor on missions to Mars etc. It was hot work.

At bedtime I enjoyed browsing through the children's books on the pretext of choosing a story for them. Small girl wanted the Christmas story. I explained that we were in July...to no avail. We read the Christmas story. She particularly loved a picture of Mary drooping sadly at the bottom of a tall flight of steps while Joseph bounded up to ask for a room, and an innkeeper at a window made a glum face indicating that there was none to be had. She wanted to act it out, so I was by turns Joseph and the innkeeper and she drooped gleefully as Mary and then jumped up gladly at the news that there was a stable nearby...after about the eighth time of doing all this I called a halt, and we had prayers and then finally Auntie could stagger downstairs and flop in the kitchen amid the remnants of rockets. When the young parents returned from their evening out they were amused at my exhaustion, explaining that it's the norm.

Sunday morning saw us all cheerily at Mass in a packed church, one family among great numbers of others with small children, people crammed into every pew in the large church and standing at the back and all down the sides...we had that rather hideous version of the Gloria in which you are made to clap rhythmically twice after the first line. Could we all somehow get together to ban this particular piece of nonsense? Trying to make the Gloria fit into this sort of jerky, confused jazzy mode is horrible. But I loved being at Mass with the children, who were quiet and well-behaved, small boy's exuberance manfully restrained as he wriggled in the pew next to his Daddy.

In the afternoon, we all came back to Auntie's house. Small girl tenderly nursed my ageing dolls (dating from the 1960s and living rather quiet cupbord life these days: it was a joy to see them reciving real affection. She bandaged the broken leg of one of them, and tucked them all up in a bed improvised from kitchen towels). Entertainment possibilities are a bit limited in Auntie's modest home so I took the children out down the back lane and we picked blackberries. Most satisfactory, and we got a great bowlful and marched it gleefully back into the house, small boy bearing it aloft triumphantly and treading squelchy mud into the carpets and along the sofa.

I was sad when the weekend was over and am sitting here with a glass of sherry feeling suddenly quiet after putting the dolls away.

At Allen Hall...

...in Chelsea, a good crowd met for for the annual Summer Gathering of the Catholic Union. Mass was celebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio. Then a meeting chaired by Lord Brennan, our President, and with a report from Dr Tony Cole on the the latest activities of the Parliamentary and Public Affairs committee of the Union...a good, serious, up-to-the-minute session which looked at the various projects currently on hand. Things are grim with regard to the Govt's gruesome schemes for reducing marriage to the same level as same-sex unions, and with the endless pushing of euthanasia at so many levels by so many campaigners who find supporters in, for example, the BBC. There are continuing problems in education - although the immediate threat for compulsory sex education for five year-olds seems to have receded temporarily. There are continuing, and increasing, pressures on Christians in public and professional life...

After lunch, further talks, which explored the issues raised by the latest (excellent) lecture sponsored by the Union in Parliament - Lord Griffiths, looking at banking and the economy - at the Catholic Young Writer Award sponsored by the Union,at the needs of Catholic schools especially with regard to improvements in RE...and more...and more...

It was good to be at Allen Hall , with its links with St Thomas More. He planted mulberry trees in his garden - because their name in Latin can be a sort of pun on his own name. It has a fine chapel, and a refectory with portraits of former Archbishops of Westminster, and a Roll of Honour of the Douai Martyrs, a sense of a great heritage for the English Church...outside the rain lashed down, and there were jokes about this being officially our Summer Garden Party, but somehow we never seem to be able to get into the gardens very much...

It was encouraging to see such a good attendance at this meeting, with people there from Catholic Voices, and the Catholic Medical Association and the Catholic Writers' Guild....there was a good spirit, a sense of solidarity and of purpose. As we face tough times in Britain, with Christianity and Christian values increasingly coming under attack, there is quiet resolution, good humour, and courage...

An unforgettable evening...

...with members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham! It began with the launch, at the old Friary building in Francis Street, just behind Westminster Cathedral, of the FRIENDS OF THE ORDINARIATE...the idea is to raise funds to help the clergy and their families,and this is badly needed as of course they are venturing out into new territory and leaving homes and secure incomes. You can find out more about it all here. Later there was a lively talkative supper, much goodwill and it was all so interesting and full of hope and plans...Mgr John Broadhurst, who is on the governing Council of the Ordinariate, was there, along with two of the younger clergy, one from Coventry and the other from the Isle of Wight, both of them married with families.This has been an extraordinary time for them...something of a rollercoaster ride, with big decisions made, lengthy family debates and discussions,then moving house, facing an entirely new future. It was good to get some understanding from the inside, so to speak, of how things are going: no great dramas so far, good relationships with local RC parishes and so on, but much uncharted territory still to explore...numbers involved are rather higher than I had thought and there will probably be more as things develop over the next eighteen months to two years...

Mgr Keith Newton and his team are very good company. There was so much talk, and laughter, and a sense of zest and purpose.

On Archduke Otto von Habsbburg....

...you may be interested to read this...

...and for a bit more on Auntie at World Youth Day...

read here...

Coming up...

..for Auntie over the next days and weeks are (in no particular order of importance), the reading of essays in an ecumenical Schools Bible Project, a morning with young would-be-journalists working on a magazine, some more Maryvale exams, babysitting,a day at the seaside, the Evangelium summer conference, and World Youth Day.

A dinner...

...at a London club in Piccadilly, all candlelight and beautiful portraits and crisply starched napkins. It was a school reunion dinner of J's old school, with suitable speeches and reminiscences and passing of port. We all enjoyed ourselves very much despite (because of?) realising that swapping memories and shared teenage/childhood jokes is a pleasure of old age, and one that is denied to the young...

Children...

...in vast quantities, at a suburban Family Mass, off my usual beat. Today J. and I were due to visit some friends, clashing with my normal late-morning Mass, so I found an alternative. Golly, what a packed Mass! Squeezed in near the back. Quantities and quantities of children...and then, just before the Offertory, more and more poured in, trotting quietly up the aisles to join parents and siblings, having been busy at their own instruction-classes during the Liturgy of the Word...

They mostly seemed remarkably well-behaved, except for one boy immediately in front of me, who seemed intent on being as disruptive as possible and encouraging his companion to do likewise, within the constraints of the crowded pew and the general reverent atmosphere. When the Consecrtion was about to happen, and he was having a busy time removing his sneakers and pushing his friend about, I grabbed him by the back of his hoodie and whispered savagely:"It's the Consecration. Kneel and pray!" And to my surprise, he did, or at least went through the motions of doing so. With one shoe off and one on.

There was music, beautifully played - even a violin - but it included a couple of hymns with awfully trite tunes, and a too-jazzy Gloria...there is so much beautiful, beautiful music from which to choose...we surely don't need to keep on flogging those tunes from the late 1970s?

One thing which was noticeable, however, was the very reverent way in which the children went up for Holy Communion, and the smaller ones for a blessing, arms crossed in front. They had obviously been told about this and were following an established parish tradition. That, plus the glittering candles and the incense, would impress this Mass on a child's mind, week by week. I can see why the numbers attending are high.

To Wales...

...and a delightful visit to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Port Talbot.

I travelled late at night, and had booked in to a b-and-b where there was a lovely welcome - a glass of sherry and some chocolate waiting for me in my room as a bonus,a hot shower, a comfortable bed, and in the morning a delicious breakfast...my fellow-guests were all enthusiastic cyclists, who were to spend the day as they had spent the previous ones, riding gloriously in the mountains. We all tucked in to bacon-and-eggs with enthusiasm, and I felt a bit feeble simply scurrying off to a school as they set out plans for a mountain-day in the rain...

St Joseph's is a lovely school - children's voices chorusing "Good morning!" in Welsh, and singing cheerfully together. It was a delight to be giving out the prizes for the ACW SChools Project, and the children were absolutely charming. The Sign of Cross is beautiful in Welsh.The school wins lots and lots of trophies for sports and these were all being presented too, and two little girls showed the medals they had won for dancing. A friendly chatty time in the staffroom - most useful to get ideas and feedback for future Projects.

The great hills rising up beyond the town, all misty with rain as I was drawn back to London by train...

...and I found this rather touching...make sure you have the sound on, too...

You MUST get...

...the latest issue of Standpoint magazine. It has some excellent stuff in it. Look out for the feature that began as a part of the glorious re-opening of St Patrick's, Soho Square...

I found this rather good...

A great man....

....Archduke Otto von Habsburg,eldest son of the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, has died aged 98. A truly good man, whose life was dedicated to public service in a genuine Christian spirit, and some one who sparkled with zest and good humour even in old age.

One of the most interesting afternoons of my life as a writer was the one spent with him, as he answered questions about his childhood memories and his father. His lively and interesting mind, his beautiful English - it had a hint of the pre 1914 flavour in its style and accent - his courtesy and his excellent memory and ability to communicate interesting information in a friendly and pleasant way made this an unforgettable encounter. He was charming and patient with us - and yet he must have had so many people, over the years, asking him questions about his extraordinary life, his childhood memories of being Crown Prince, of meeting Emperor Franz-Joseph, of being part of that vanished world of before the First World War...

And the Pope wants to hear more from us women writers...

...just read this:.

Over twenty years ago...

...some of us got together to form the Association of Catholic Women. It's gone from strength to strength.We've just completed our big annual Schools RE Project and you can read about that here on my EWTN Blog. Coming up in due course are a pilgrimage to Minster-in-Thanet (Benedictine nuns, history going back to Saxon days, links w. the landing of St Augustine on that stretch of coast in the 6th century, etc etc...), our Annual Meeting with guest speaker Dr Philip Howard on "Blessed John Paul and medical ethics" plus a new documentary film on JPII...then in the Autumn we're deeply involved with the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival of Catholic Culture, which we help to sponsor (Sat Nov 19th, since you ask. Westminster Cathedral Hall. Put it in your diaries now))...

If you want to come along to an ACW event, there is information on the links I've given, or you can send me a Comment to this Blog, with your email address included in the tetxt so that I can reply to you and send you info. I CANNOT REPLY TO YOU UNLESS YOU SPECIFICALLY GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS which, of course, I will not publish.

London's Evening Standard newspaper...

...has been running a campaign about literacy, with revelations about the large numbers of London children and young adults who cannot read. Just lately the emphasis has shifted away from the problems of children from deprived backgrounds and so on to the actual systems used in schools, specifically the examination systems. Did you know that a teenager can be deemed to have "studied" a Shakespeare play without actually reading it? They are taken to see a film of the play, they read perhaps a couple of scenes, and then they do things like (I'm not inventing this) making paper witches' hats because of the witches in Macbeth.

It's being suggested that the way forward fotr exams is to move towards the "tick this box" system, where a student isseated at a computer and given three options as answers to a question, and moves the mouse to tick one of the boxes each time.

"Well, does it really matter whether people can communicate in handwriting? Everything is going to be computers from now on anyway" - thus runs the argument. No need to cook, either, some say - just buy instant-meals from a supermarket. No need to acquire any skills, really. Then if we are left for any reason to cope without constantly available electricity, easy transport to large shops, access to home-computers, we will collapse.

To find out about the small contribution towards literacy and sane education that some us are trying to make in Britain this year, take a look here. And before you sneer, what are you doing to help ensure that the next generation can read and write and enjoy the great literature produced by previous generations?

...and here's the programme...

..for Papa B.in Spain on the new Vatican website, which has Twitter and links and videos and everything. All launched for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul.

God bless our Pope!

Further to my last...

...I've succeeded in sending off the form! By re-reading and re-reading the instructions, and praying...and...FINALLY....it was achieved....

So I hope I'll be off to Madrid in August as planned...

The Holy Father...

....doesn't have to fill in a complicated form in order to get to World Youth Day. He just has to pack a toothbrush and his sermon-notes and his Breviary...but it's not like that for us, and I've just spent a v. frustrating evening trying to sort things out for my accreditation. Every time I press "send" it states that my attachments (passport information, letter from editor of Catholic Times affirming that I'm their correspondent, etc) don't match, or something. And then I have to start all over again.

Yesterday the boiling hot weather broke in a glorious thunderstorm. I was having coiffee with a friend and when it was time to go she lent me an umbrella and I squelched very happily along through the suburban roads enjoying it all. Gloriously cool, and everything felt refreshed and delicious. Today, the garden looks better, the house is a pleasant place in which to work, everything seems easier than it did in the heat....but the WYD press accreditation thingummy still won't connect properly!!!!

To Uxbridge...

...and a happy evening at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael. This is a really lovely parish, and there was such a good atmosphere as we all gathered in the hall. Fr Nicholas has been parish priest for just two years - he's cheerful, youthful, and hard-working, and combines his parish duties with a weekly column in the Catholic Times,writing books, and being diocesan archivist. A delicious and talkative supper after the meeting (at which Auntie was speaking re. the role of women and the Church).

A talk on Catholics and journalism...

...at the Salvatorian College, Harrow. Dropped in to the church next door for Mass first. I am always mildly astonished by the number of people who attend Mass on a weekday morning in the London suburbs...there they were,commuters hurrying off to work after Mass finished, or older people lingering for a while longer, or, as in my case, just resting for a moment before the day's activities...

The school was welcoming, the boys smart in green blazers. A good and intelligent discussion, everyone friendly and polite. I enjoyed it all.

Birmingham...

and Maryvale, and lectures on moral theology, and on the Fall and Redemption. A rather terrifying session on bioethics with information on some of the ghastly things that are now regarded as acceptable in our healthcare establishment...the great John Paul's naming of this as a "culture of death" was all too prophetic and accurate...

After the week ended, I stayed on for a further night at Maryvale, hurrying into Birmingham early on the Saturday morning to join fellow-supporters of Aid to the Church in Need on a pilgrimage honouring Bl. John Henry Newman, at the Birmingham Oratory. There is a rather grand new shrine to Bl John Henry there - very Oratorian in style - and then we gathered in the hall on the upper floor across the quadrangle for talks about him. In this very room he himself taught, as it formed part of the original Oratory School. I made an unhelpful contribution to the history of the place on a previous visit on a scorchingly hot day - I dashed enthusiastically to open a window, tugging on the sash, and down it came with a glorious crashing sound, glass everywhere, terrible mess. All replaced and mended now. Looking at it on this new visit, I wondered if the original window had been there in Newman's day and only my clumsiness broke the link with him...

An elderly Oratorian Father gave a most interesting talk on Newman and Afghanistan - did you know that General Gordon had a copy of the Dream of Gerontius with him on his last campaign, and had annotated it with various comments and enquiries? And there is an excellent exhibition lining the walls of the Hall telling the whole story of Newman's life and work....and his inkpot, and catechism, and other items, are all there on display. I warmly recommend a visit.

On to St Chad's Cathedral - a fine building, a strong and confident statement of faith, beautiful and much-loved, and with an excellent bookshop alongside where I spent some time...and thence by coach to Littlemore, the place where Newman lived and studied and made the great decision to enter the Catholic Church.

If you are interested in Newman you must visit Littlemore. The Sisters of The Work look after it all, and they make visitors very welcome, and it's all very delightful - the rooms, once stables, all fronting on to a small walled courtyard with a garden, and a sense of peace and quiet purposefulness.

By a pleasing arrangement of Providence, J. and I were due to meet friends in Oxford that evening for a dinner-party at a restaurant in Little Clarendon Street, so my day ended there, after a quick bus-ride from Littlemore. A talkative, happy evening marking a friend's 60th birthday. After the meal we dropped into the Eagle and Child for more talk and then J. and I went on to stay the night with relatives nearby.

Pacing...

...the grounds at Maryvale, saddened, anguished, at the latest revelations about sex abuse in the Church - involving Fr Kit Cunningham in the years, half a century ago, when he worked at a school in Africa. Fr Kit went on to become a well-known and popular priest at St Etheldreda's, Ely Place and in that capacity knew many journalists and his death drew obituaries celebrating his life. He was an eccentric and a true London character. St Etheldreda's was known as a centre for those who loved the Tridentine Rite. It was also the headquarters for many years for the Catholic Writers' Guild. All this and more...

And now these ghastly revelations.

Fr Kit clearly died penitent, writing to those he had abused and returning the MBE he had recieved from the Queen.

I remember that when Fr Kit died some one asked me indignantly why there hadn't been a proper big memorial Mass to honour him. I said I was sure there would be, and meanwhile we at the Writers' Guild remembered him at our monthly Mass and had a short talk paying tribute to him as Mass ended. Now the absence of a big event is explained - there were those who knew it would be unsuitable, and perhaps he had indicated that he didn't want it...

Inspiration at Invocation...

...and this despite a drenching in the rain and the fact that Auntie went on to her exams at Maryvale with a dreadful cold.

The Invocation event - big gathering of Catholic young people with priests, seminarians, and members of different religious orders - merited a proper lengthy report rather than the chatty stuff I put on this Blog, so you must settle down and read about it here.

I honestly had not thought there were so many young religious sisters and brothers: you hear so much about religious orders dying out and I know only well that lots of them are, but I hadn't known about some of the newer things. Didn't know, for example, about a group called the Fraternas, based in Manchester. Knew about the Dominicans but didn't realise they had so many younger ones. Remembered the |H. Father visiting the Little Sisters of the Poor but didn't know much about them.

Now I am at Maryvale - exams this morning, and then a new course of lectures starts this evening and lasts all week. No, I'm not going to tell you how I think I did in my exams. Post-mortems are a waste of time. Onwards and upwards...mornings at Maryvale begin with the sound of the Brigettine sisters (some of them were at InVocation too) singing their office in the chapel,and then one knows it is about half-an-hour to Mass. The chapel is the one that John Henry Newman knew - his room, still in use for visiting students, adjoins the chapel at an upstairs level, and he wrote about the consolation of having Christ so near...after our morning Mass there is breakfast and then people disperse - today, there were various examinations and ours was in the main lecture hall, a nun invigilating, papers solemnly unsealed before us and then distributed desk by desk. Then a look at the clock and the announcement: "You may start"...

Enthusiastic young sisters...

...talking and laughing, clad in simple grey habits, ropes knotted around their waists. We were in the glorious surroundings of St Mary's College, Oscott, where last year the Holy Father was pictured with the great crowd of young men from across England who are training for the Catholic priesthood.

The grounds are glorious, but the weather was distinctly cold and bleak - more like November than June, and the crowds of young people who were camping there for the Invocation weekend certainly appreciated the hot food served in the big tepees set up alongside the marquee where talks and workshops were held.

There were lots of young sisters there,but the ones I've specifically mentioned above were from the small community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, based in the diocese of Leeds. I hadn't known that there was a such a community in England, although like other Londoners I've known about the Brothers, working in the East End...it was a delight to meet the sisters, and to catch their infectious joy and enthusiasm. They are doing a lot of good work and, incidentally, they could do with some funds to help with their work for the poor. Contact their website and do what you can.

I loved InVocation. There were inspirational talks,and a beautiful Holy Hour in the magnificent Oscott Chapel,with opportunities for confession. It was moving to see a long queue of people forming for confession, and people quietly going to the priests who placed themselves around the marquee as the Penitential Service in the chapel concluded. Then - perhaps the best bit of the whole weekend - we gathered with glowing candles and a great procession was formed, taking the Blessed Sacrament out under the night sky, round a long route through the grounds as we sang and prayed. Unforgettable and beautiful, and it culminated in Benediction in front of the College - exactly the place, as it happens, where the H. Father gathered with those seminarians last year...

More info on the events at Invocation from that link given above, and I'm also planning a report for my EWTN blog in due course...

Children...

...at St Edmund's prep school, Ware, praying together at the start of a school day...it was a great joy to be there and to be handing the trophy for this year's Schools RE Project to young winner Joshua Best, whose essay on the Rosary won him First Prize in the Years 5-6 section. The school also won a large number of runner-up prizes. The Morning Assembly was beautiful - a boy read from the Scriptures, the Headmaster led everyone in prayer, and there was such a good and happy atmosphere.

Afterwards a group of children showed me round - they are very proud that this is England's Oldest Catholic School (recusant traditions, martyrs etc) but this doesn't stop it having all the latest computer equipment etc, small tots in red jerseys doing sums at computer screens, whiteboards in classrooms with all sorts of displays etc.

In every classroom, children automatically stood up as visitors entered, chorused "Good morning!" in response to greetings, shot up hands to answer questions...and everywhere there was a sense of welcome and friendlines...

On to London where I was due to meet a group gathering at Westminster Cathedral to board a coach for Birmingham for the InVocation event at St Mary's, Oscott.

Crowds of young priests and nuns and brothers, plus young visitors all jeans and packbacks, big marquees and tepees on Oscott's lawns, a hot supper waiting, Evening Prayer in the beautiful chapel...this extraordinary event is something you MUST learn about...auntie will be reporting over the weekend...

A round of prize-presentations...

...at Catholic schools, for children winning prizes in the Assn of Catholic Women's Schools Religious Education Project. (BTW, that link takes you to a full list of winners).

Amazing experience today. I hurried (through pouring rain, making everything fresh and green, badly needed) to St Joseph's Catholic Primary school in Kingston-upon-Thames. Met by a charming young lady who explained that she'd be taking the morning Assembly, and had been involved with getting the children involved with the RE Project. I started to explain about the background to it etc, and she shyly said "Well...I was your first prizewinner, back when I was a little girl! I'm Maria Byrne..." Young Maria was indeed our first-ever winner, when we launched the whole thing over a decade ago. We had raised some modest funds from coffee-mornings, produced a brochure,photocopied it and and mailed it out to schools, bought some Catechisms as prizes and a cup as a trophy...and young Maria, who was being home-educated, won that cup with an excellent essay on 'What happens at Mass'. And now here she is, working at a Catholic school, and the whole project has grown and grown since then, and this year we had some 2,000 entries from across Britain, and prizes donated by the CTS, and two trophies for children in different age-groups, and dozens of Catechisms sent out to children in schools from Inverness to Bexleyheath, from Manchester to Port Talbot!

A happy morning, and it was a pleasure to present young winner Tashlyn Pereira with her prizes (a celebration book commemorating the Papal Visit to Britain, a book of Gospel stories, a Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and a £50 cheque for the school). The children sang a Gospel song, to a rock-beat, led by Maria, with the words projected on to a screen.

Tomorrow I am off to present prizes at St Edmund's prep school in Ware, Herts.

Then I'm off to my own exams...at Maryvale! Two exams on Monday!More on Maryvale and Birmingham here...

A new novel...

...from a young author who won an award for her first, and this new one looks set to be the summer must-read of this year. It's terrific. Poor Banished Children has a courageous and adventurous heroine, good historical resonance, a gripping plot, and is written in clear and vivid English with a vigour which is fresh and enjoyable.

The young author is a relative, and it has been a delight to watch her writing develop over the years. The book is well-researched: I remember studing a 16th-century pirate ship with the author on a seaside visit a few summers back, and getting squeamish as we discovered the details, while she simply absorbed and noted everything...the story-line of this new book centres on the Barbary pirates who raided the coasts of parts of Christian Europe and took people off as slaves. Did you know that Britain's western coast, and parts of Ireland, were thus attacked? That a Devon village lost almost all its inhabitants this way?

Ordering books over the Internet is easy - this one is also available at St Paul's Bookshop, next to Westminster Cathedral.And there's more about the book here.

Read Auntie on ...

...the Ordinariate at St George's Cathedral Southwark...

On feminism...

....and the Church, and where we go from here, and so on. You might like to read this...

The Sisters...

...of the Gospel of Life run the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative in Glasgow. And they seem to know or be known by anyone and everyone in Glasgow! It was a revelation to spend time with these Sisters - they are greeted in the street, they get sudden gifts of babyware and prams and carry-cots and money and flowers and more, they get hugs and offers of help and requests for prayers...

I was staying with them as I was in Scotland for a visit to the new and excellent Scottish office of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, in Motherwell. The Director, Lorraine McMahon, is a terrific person with lots of energy and is doing extremely good work: the charity helps Christians wherever they are persecuted and is currently funding projects in, among other places, Sudan, Pakistan, and India, and its recent publication Persecuted and Forgotten is an important and troubling analysis of the state of religious freedom worldwide. Talking with Lorraine and discussing the work and all sorts of plans was immensely interesting. She took me to Carfin, where ACN recently had a pilgrimage - some 45,000 people visit this place of prayer annually. I suppose it would generally be described as simply a shrine to Our Lady, but it has so much more - a beautiful glass church where the Blessed Sacrament is honoured and where people were at prayer, shrines created by the Polish and Lithuanian and Irish communities, a great Calvary, a Way of the Cross, a new impressive statue of Blessed John Paul the Great, a shrine honouring Our Lady of Fatima complete with the little shepherds and their sheep, a big parish church...and more, and more...

And then I went on to stay with the Sisters. Their convent is on the south side of Glasgow, immediately opposite Holy Cross church, and they also have their own small oratory in their house where they say - and sing - the daily Office. Nearby is the headquarters of the Pro Life Initiative, where daily they dispense practical help and assistance to women who are pregnant and in trouble. A quiet comfortable room is set aside for interviews and counsel, and there is a main hall where, on the second day of my visit, volunteers were busy setting out great tables of toys and clothes and books for a fund-raising sale. Other rooms have stacks of babyware and beautiful prams and push-chairs, all donated, and all going swiftly to new homes and being replaced by fresh gifts. There's a St Joseph's Confraternity of men who meet together to pray and to mend and repair all donated equpment so that it is all as good as new.

But that's not the half of it. We went to the (recently beautifully refurbished) Glasgow Cathedral for a special Mass for the Knights of St Columba. (Impressive crowd of men - all ages, from across Glasgow and beyond - it was grand to hear the strong voices giving out the Mass responses, and we sung "Faith of Our Fathers" at the end). A collection was taken - and it was announced that it would go to the Pro Life Initiative. One evening when we arrived back at the convent, well-wishers had just finished setting fresh potted plants in the front garden. When the Sisters ate a meal with a group of young people in a restaurant the other day, the staff wouldn't take a tip, just asked the Sisters to pray for them. And it just seems to go on and on like that...

When Cardinal Winning announced the Pro-Life Initiative a little over ten years ago, his commitment was to any woman who was expecting a child and was frightened or alone or poor or in any sort of difficulty. And the promise has been made good: the help is there, and people have taken it to their hearts and the Sisters who are at the core of the work are faithfully carrying it out and are deservedly loved for it.

A heartening visit...

...to Allen Hall. It stands on land once owned by St Thomas More, and we began by visiting Chelsea Old Church where he used to go to Mass every morning...the churchwardens and guides there are v. friendly and our group recieved a warm welcome. On to Allen Hall where we split into three groups and were taken round by students who were knowledgeable and interested in the seminary's history. Then to the chapel, where the Rector led us all in Vespers and Benediction.Young men reading from the Scriptures. Strong young voices in the prayers and hymns. A tonic. Before we left, we gave three hearty cheers for the seminary, its staff and students.

Conspiracies and the Church...

...and Fatima and freemasons and things....you might find this of interest...

....And have you read....

...YOUCAT? You must. It's simply terrific. I was given a copy the other day, and have been devouring it on the Tube.

Concise, well-expressed, and with a beautiful Introduction by a man who knows how to teach. Get a copy into the hands of the Catholic teenager nearest to you.

What a week!

...the spectacular celebrations at St Patrick's, Soho Square, began with that wonderful Opening Mass (see previous blog post, below) then continued with a glorious Sung Vespers on the Eve of the Ascension, and a superb lecture by Papal biographer George Weigel, and concluded the next day with a magnificent Ascension Day Mass celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal George Pell who had come via Rome from Sydney, Australia...along with a great many other London Catholics I attended all of these events, and it was a great privilege and joy to be there.

In between I was at the CTS, with a couple of wonderful and loyal volunteers, packing up and sending out the prizes won by children in the ACW Schools Religious Education Project. We still have a good many more to send out: great quantities of beautifully bound copies of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, some lovely books on the Rosary, a delightful book of Gospel stories, and more. The number of essays sent in by children this year was vast - the project has grown and grown, and it seems almost absurd to look back and remember how we began it by just ending out some leaflets to schools and raising funds for it all from some coffee-mornings. The great breakthrough came when the CTS generously offered to sponsor it all, and provide prizes...and this, plus the extraordinary enthusiasm of volunteers who collect and read the essays, pack and mail out the prizes, and so on, have turned it into a big nationwide event...

And when I wasn't at the CTS, or sorting out my bike problems (the chain has broken...ggrrrrh) I was at a committee meeting of the ACW where we planned future events (pilgrimage to Minster in September, Annual Meeting with Dr Philip Howard as guest speaker and a documentary film about Blessed John Paul the Great, contact here for info). And then on Friday evening there was a gathering at a friend's house for the informal Catholic Cultural Group: wine, snacks, reconnecting with various friends...

And then on Saturday at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, the first of a wave of ordinations for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The men lying prostrate before the altar, the great gothic arches soaring overhead. Glorious music surging, and history being made...

It was fabulous, magnificent, wonderful...

...at St Patrick's, Soho for the Re-Opening following huge renovations. The church is a glory of gold and white and paintings and beauty, with gleaming marble and glittering candles, and it was packed to overflow with people standing in every possible corner,and out into the street, while a choir poured out Mozart and Palestrina,a roar of voices joined in the Mass responses... and we had the Archbishop of Westminster plus a Bishop from Denver - the church has strong links to the USA - a great array of clergy, Franciscans and Missionaries of Charity, seminarians and office workers and teenagers and older people, distinguished guests from across Europe, and hundreds and hundreds of friends of St Patrick's from across London and across Britain...

We began outside in Soho Square, a vast crowd gathering around the church. After beginning the ceremony with prayers, Archbishop Vincent then called on Father Alexander to "Open the Door!" and the doors of St Patrick's slowly opened to reveal the glorious, new gleaming interior and the crowd slowly, slowly moved forward...

The Mass was glorious. James McMillan had written a special piece of music, there were fine old hymns like "Praise my soul, the king of Heaven", and lots and lots of glorious music from the Church's fabulous storechest of the centuries. It was the Feast of the Vistation - a most wonderful day on which to be celebrating, everything just sort of fitted together beautifully - and the Archbishop preached about Mary carrying Christ, the Light of the world, along the dusty hills and pathways of the Holy Land, on her way to meet Elizabeth and how we, and St Patrick's, must carry this Light, take it to every corner...

As Mass ended, Father Alexander thanked the architect, fund-raisers,designers,and more, presenting each with a commemorative medal...and then handed over to the final speaker, a homeless man who had found refuge at St Patrick's, and who spoke from the heart and magnificently, summing up all that St Patrick's means and will mean to so many people...

It's not just the church which has been been renovated, but the whole building, including the ancient warren of cellars and underground rooms, all now rebuilt with large comfortable spaces and a new kitchen and everything bright and clean and welcoming , so that the homeless and the students and all the people who belong to the various groups which have found a home at St Patrick's can flourish. We all surged down there - wisely there was plenty of water and fruit juice in addition to wine and snacks, because it was all dreadfully hot - and there was so much greeting of old friends, and the press of TV cameras and the clatter of hundreds and hundreds of voices...

The celebrations continue tonight with Vespers and a talk from papal biographer George Weigel, and as I write this I am about to hurry to be there...

Confident 2B Catholic...

...a series of talks at St Joseph's, New Malden, and a really superb initiative...I went along to the first of these yesterday (Sunday May 29th) and the speaker Dr Pia Matthews, on the subject of Marriage and Family, was excellent.She got us thinking about the whole idea of a family as a "domestic church", and we got quite deeply into all sorts of issues (male/female roles, transmission of life, the nature of a sacrament) without realising it... the tone was exactly right, and there will be more of these meetings exploring various aspectys of the Chuirch's teaching. More info. on the whole venture here. St Joseph's is a wonderful parish serving a busy suburban area: there are over 1,000 people at Mass on Sundays, and that morning the latest group of young people had been Confirmed, over 40 of them. Read the parish bulletin here.

A barbeque...and a promise of HEAT...

...and it began with a cycle ride through the Sunday suburbs to Balham. First the busy Islamic areas, lots of shops advertising halal products,crowds of people, women in heavy veils and robes,trays and trays of rich sticky sweets on sale. Then on past the Polish church in Balham High Road where there were lots of people standing outside around the doors, all facing towards the church - puzzling for a moment, then the realisation that it's because the church is so packed and this is the overflow. Then on to Holy Ghost Church, and families hurrying in as the music began, trailing children and shuffling along the pews, the church rapidly filling...

This is a very young parish, lots of families w. small children - this corner of S. London is known as "nappy valley" - so there's always a certain amount of baby-noise during Mass. But the choir soars above all this and really is superb - glorious Latin chant and a beautiful setting of the Psalm...and the Deacon, who chanted the Gospel,turned out to be a visitor from the Ordinariate of O.L. of Walsingham, who will shortly be ordained as a priest, and it was good to chat afterwards and catch up on the latest Ordinariate news...

There was a gathering - with a barbeque lunch - for people attending World Youth Day. The presbytery garden was filled with more and more young people, at first standing around rather awkwardly like they always do, but soon talking and chattering and with chicken and sausages sizzling on a couple of big barbeques...and paperwork for WYD was handed out and announcements made, chief of which is that Spain in August will be VERY VERY HOT and the place where we will be based will have no air conditioning, so no one should assume that this will be like camping in Scotland. Auntie's heart sank slightly - I really dislike hot weather - but she remains undeterred about going to WYD, and a cheery African nun said "Oh, these are just the temperatures I know best. It'll be great!"

Minster-in-Thanet....

...in rural Kent on a breezy, sunny morning. A number of us staying at the Guest House of Minster Abbey, including members of a craft group specialising in spinning and weaving!

At Minster, Benedictine nuns revived in the 1930s a Saxon community that had been dissolved many centuries before. Today, it is thriving, and in the simple chapel built out of local stone, the sisters gathered for Mass. It was lovely to walk through the quiet sunny garden and enter the cool chapel with its tall windows through which light poured from the wide Kent sky. The sisters sang, and one of them did the readings. Celebrant at Mass was Father Peter Geldard, chaplain of the University of Kent at Canterbury, and he preached about St Philip Neri, whose feast-day it was.

A young lady was due to arrive today to join the community, and by tradition newcomers spend their first night in the guest-house, where as it happens she was to be given the room in which I had been sleeping. This thought gave me quiet pleasure: I hope that long happy years lie ahead of her in this lovely Abbey, where they were preparing a warm and affectionate welcome for her...

A busy morning...

...with a judging team reading entries for the 2011 Schools RE Project run by the Assn of Catholic Women. A good team of judges, careful, conscientious and dedicated. After the main work was done, we enjoyed a talkative lunch, and there were lots of ideas for future projects and other linked initiatives.

Rushed on by bicycle to Victoria station and caught the train to Ramsgate where the local parish was organising a St Augustine's Week. St Aug. landed on Thanet - then an island - in 597 and now a big granite cross marks the place. In Ramsgate, a superb Pugin church, formerly connected to the Abbey (which is relocating to Surrey) and now part of the local parish, together with St Ethelbert's Church. Young and energetic parish priest Fr Marcus Holden - I was at his ordination a few years' back - teeming with enthusiasm, showed me the Abbey Church, where everything is in beautiful order and people come for weekday Mass and Sunday Mass...then we went on to St Ethelbert's, where a good crowd had gathered in the hall for a talk on Christian Traditions. I very much enjoy giving these talks and it is fun to share information on history, show how the great events of our salvation are woven into our calendar, etc. It was a real privilege to be part of the St Augustine week...which looks set to be an annual event, with a great procession to the Cross, and a special Mass, and evening events, and more...

Fr M. drove me to Minster-in-Thanet where I was to stay, and we looked at at St Augustine's Cross on the way. Thanet is no longer a proper island, and the silting-up began, locals affirm, with Henry VIII's break with the Church and the events of the 16th century... but there is a still a faintly wild and remote feeling as you drive along the flat land with the sea not far away...although this stillness will change as a vast new motorway, up on great stilts, soared over our heads and will shortly have traffic roaring along it...

The sisters at Minster are friends, and there is always a sense of welcome...it was lovely to settle into the guest house, a Bible and a little book of inspirational thoughts from John Paul II in my room along with a friendly welcoming note on the door. Everything peaceful. The wind rustled in the trees and as I stood at the open window looking out on to the Saxon abbey buildings and the garden, the air was clean and fresh.

Auntie's plans...

...for going to World Youth Day. Read more here....

"Reform of the reform"...

...has been a catch-phrase concerning the Church's liturgy for some years now. There are those who just can't bear it: I once saw some one covering her ears and shrieking, because she couldn't accept the idea. But things will continue to move in the r-of-the-r direction and this discussion is now under way...

I have long imagined that by the time I am old there will be a Mass that looks and sounds a bit like what Vatican II really wanted. Latin at Mass will be the norm, along with some vernacular, and among things retained from the 1969 changes will be: a general "dialogue" form with the congregation encouraged to sing or say various responses, the Scripture readings proclaimed towards the congregation and probably by a lay person, much more audibility of what is said by the priest than common in the standard 1962 Form, and everyone joining in the Pater Noster. Masses will have the Canon ad orientem, have the reading from St John ("The Last Gospel")at the end, and (probably)include the "Introibo ad altare..." at the beginning, probably in the vernacular. And there may be some (rather formal) Bidding Prayers, possibly tagged on to the sermon. And some form of the Sign of Peace although certainly not where it is now.

The Church's approach is to emphasise continuity , and one way of doing this is to sweep things along in a breezy sort of way by making a general statement that "this is the way it was always meant to be...", rather like the mother of a large and messy family who announces that "this is the way we've always done things" even if some members of the family know that there have been many messy times when they haven't.

HOORAY!!!....

...looks like we may be getting our feast-days back...

On Thursdays...

...there is all-day Adoratiion at a local Catholic Church. There are always good numbers here for weekday Mass, and then during the day people quietly come, and kneel, and linger, and light candles, and say the Rosary,or take out a prayer-book,or just pray quietly, and then potter off again...

With the Rosary, Thursday is the day for the Mysteries of Light, and this is especially appropriate for me at present as I'm reading through children's essays in the big project organised by the Association of Catholic Women, in which children wrote about the Rosary. We invited them to focus on specific mysteries, including two Joyful ones, and two Luminous ones. The main judging takes place next week, but the preliminary sifting has revealed a good many of very high quality, in addition to some very funny Howlers.

The essays come from Catholic primary schools across Britain. Next time you are told that Catholic schools are all hopeless and don't teach the Faith, be cynical. There are some fine schools out there doing good work. The children have been taught about the great events described in the New Testament, they have been taught about the Rosary and how to say it, and they have been taught in such a way that they appear to have enjoyed learning and have made the knowledge their own.

The project is sponsored by the Catholic Truth Society, which very generously provides some wonderful prizes - in addition to the main winners, we have lots and lots of winners of runners-up who get beautiful hard-bound illustrated Catechisms, and there are also holy pictures and certificates...

Some dates...

...for your diary. Wed May 25th - a History Walk at Westminster Cathedral. Meet you on the steps at 6.30pm, after the 5.30pm Mass. We'll be walking around the local area, ending at Holy Apostles Church - stories of Cardinal Manning, the Passage, and the Blitz. Come and discover Pimlico!

Thursday, May 26th - join us at Balham for a viewing of a wonderful film of Blessed John Paul II.We'll be at Visitation House, next to Holy Ghost Church, at 7.30pm. You won't want to miss this film - come and celebrate the Church's newest Beatus, bring your own John Paul story, and relax in a convivial atmosphere with some agreeable refreshments. We're inviting donations, £3 per head, and funds raised will go to the Maryvale Institute.

And mark this date for June: InVocation at Birmingham. Auntie will be looking in, and it sounds wonderful - take a look at the website.

And/or: join us on Sunday June 19th in London for the Martyrs' Walk - 1.30pm for 2pm at St Sepulchre's churchyard, opposite the Old Bailey.

An extraordinary story....

...and it happened like this.

I went into the St Paul's Bookshop, next to Westminster Cathedral, to browse among the books. I was looking for a children's book about Pope John Paul II - I needed one for a schools' project with which I am involved. There were a lot of attractive books about him, but nothing specifically for younger children.

I stood, leafing through a couple of books and thinking "Oh, I'd love to do a book about JPII...a book with really delightful illustrations, something a child would enjoy looking through again and again..."

At that moment the manager, Stephen, came by, and stopped to say "Hi - how's things?" in the way that people do. "I'm just looking at these books" I said "and thinking that it would be lovely to have a really good book about Blessed John Paul II, for children..." And he said "Would you like to write one for us?"

We talked. We agreed. We looked at the current series of children's books on various saints (John Vianney, Therese of Lisieux) and agreed it should match these - the illustrations are delightful.

And so it's happening. When I got home, I started on it. He's organising an illustrator.

Golly.

And because the TV and press...

...my present a confuised or distorted version of the new Church guidelines in the hideous problem os sexual abuse, you can get a good analysis here...

Papa Benedict...

...had a good meeting with representatives of a Jewish group the other day - read more here... And this is relevant too....

The Martyrs' Walk...

...through London will be on Sunday June 19th, starts 1.30pm for 2pm at St Sepulchre's, Newgate (opp. the Old Bailey - nearest tube: St Paul's).

We walked the route today to plan (it's the route to Tyburn taken by the English martyrs). We'll be stopping off at SS Anselm and St Cecilia, St Giles-in-the-Fields (Anglican church, where we pray for all those who died in the conflicts of the Reformation, and where we are always made extremely welcome), St Patrick's, Soho Square (about to re-open after massive refurbishment and restoration - Fr Alexander Sherbrook on excellent form as always). We finish at Tyburn with Benediction and Tea. It's always a special day. We'll be praying the Rosary en route, and at Tyburn there'll be Adoration, opportunities for confession...

The last stretch of the route, along Oxford Street, is a massive problem as it is jam-packed with people. Roadworks make for extra difficulties, and it is not possible for the street to be cleared of traffic as it is a major thoroughfare for London and would gridlock the entire capital if any such attempt was made...

However, we worked things out and made good plans, and ended at Tyburn where the dear Sisters made us extremely welcome and we talked long over tea. A good day. Check out that link in my first para. Or just turn up on the day - no need to book. Wear suitable clothes and good shoes - we'll be walking whatever the weather.

I heard ...

...yesterday about the news on the return of no-meat-on-Fridays.

And it's confirmed today. This is VERY good news - a revival of an authentic Catholic practice which will resonate with everyone. Excellent.

The dear face of Blessed John Paul...

...gazed serenely from a portrait placed by the sanctuary of Westminster Cathedral and was surrounded by candles and flowers as we gathered for Mass. I love the way that crowds seep into the cathedral, coming somehow as if from nowhere, on an occasion such as this: a Mass to give thanks for the Beatification of the great John Paul, on this Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. The dramatic link between the two - it being the 30th anniversary of that assasination attempt in St Peter's square in 1981 - was of course highlighted by Archbishop Vincent Nicholls in his address. Glorious singing from the Cathedral choir. As Mass ended, people went to light candles and invoke Blessed JP's prayers before the picture. Standing there I felt a sudden huge nostalgia for the days when he was Pope and addressing people in St Peter's and gathering young people together at great events around the world...

"But he's more close to us all now than ever!" was of course the response when I spoke of this as we gathered in the evening sunshine in the piazza, and of course that's true, and of course that's what the Communion of Saints is all about...

The scenes in the Cathedral piazza after a special Mass are always rather splendid - people were greeting the Archbishop and kissing his ring, and milling about chatting, the great doors of the Cathedral flung wide to reveal its darkened interior and then the glow of the great sanctuary, and a wafting breath of incense...

A time to linger.Greeted by friends I hadn't seen for a long while, joined by others, lots of talk. We chatted about many things, including the newly-published instructions from Rome encouraging and supporting the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, which were incidentally almost exactly what I had predicted they would be, when chatting about the subject with friends in Rome back in February. And we spoke of events shared, and things to come - the glorious Papal Visit last September, World Youth Day coming up in August...and we reminisced, and spoke of new things...and the man who was Pope when some of us were young, is now named mong the Blessed in Heaven...meanwhile in Rome, Pope Benedict used the anniversary to affirm Blessed John Paul's theology of the body...

Ugh....

...a nasty new slogan being foisted on us this summer - girls being encoouraged to be proud of being called "sluts", and urged to take part in noisy boisterous "slut walks". The idea, apparently, is to dress as provocatively as possible and to boast of having had innumerable sexual partners, parading with much noise and shouting together through city centres, bearing placards announcing with pride the status of being a "slut".

An elderly female journalist writes gloatingly about this in a national newspaper, saying that the walks will be "fun" and that it's all about affirming women's equality and celebrating liberation from years of having to be obsessed with cleanliness and housework.

Doesn't she know that already there are so many broken, unhappy young women, whose miserable initiation into a ferocious round of sexual activity began in their early teens, and whose sense of self-loathing is at the heart of all this? Turning the old insult of "slut" into a ghastly jokey jeering term that girls use about themselves has been one of the nastiest trends of the past few years, and among young people it's all regarded as sick.

This Friday, May 13th...

...marks exactly 30 years since the attempt to kill Blessed John Paul II, and is also of course the day of the Fatima apparitions. Blessed John Paul said that one hand shot the bullet, another guided it. He owed his protection to Mary, and he later took the near-fatal bullet that had been extracted by the surgeons, and placed it in her crown at Fatima...

The full message of Fatima was later revealed to the world at John Paul II's instruction. And we all learned of the vision of a Pope, dressed in white,staggering and falling, under savage attack in the midst of a great crowd.

And now John Paul II has been beatified. Tomorrow, Friday May 13th, there will be a special Mass in Westminster Cathedral, at 5.30pm. I shall be there.

CATHOLIC HISTORY WALKS...

...there is one tonight (May 12th) starts St Paul's Cathedral, 6.30pm - meet you on the steps!

Next one is WEDNESDAY May 25th. 6.30pm on the steps of WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL (after the 5.30pm Mass). Note that it is WEDNESDAY MAy 25th, not Thursday.

Book the date in your diary now...

Sunday June 19th, the Martyrs' Walk in London. Meet at St Sepulchre's Church, near the Old Bailey, 1.30 for 2pm. No need to book - just turn up. We will be walking the route taken by Catholic Martyrs to Tyburn, and will finish with Benediction at the convent there. Join us.

Chelsea on a summer evening...

...and a great gathering in the Monckton Room in the crypt of Holy Redeemer Church. These are the parents of First Communion children, and while the youngsters were in the church with their parish priest having instruction about the Sacraments, the mothers and fathers had a talk about the feasts and seasons of the Church's year and the traditions associated with them...a cheerful and very happy evening, with a most wonderful and friendly atmosphere. This is a really delightful parish.

The Monckton Room is a an attractive and welcoming parish centre, bright and pleasant, created in the crypt of the church. It is named in honour of Jonathan Monckton, a young husband and father who was murdered in front of his family by burglars who shot him as they tried to force their way into his home. He was a faithful member of the parish at Holy Redeemer Church and served as an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist.

Why not come to....

St Bede's Church at Clapham Park tomorrow evening (Thursday May 12th) and join us in watching a film about the great John Paul II? Mass 8pm, and then come to the parish club-room, where we'll watch the film over coffee and cake. It's all sponsored by the Union of Catholic Mothers, who meet regularly on Thursdays, and there'll be coffee and cake and donations (£3) which will go to the Maryvale Institute.

Incidentally, if you want a really vivid account of what it was like to be among that million-and-a-half strong crowd in Rome for the Beatification, read this blog. The pics of Mass celebrated on the train from Poland are really touching.

AAAARGH!!!

Are you the teacher who sent in big batch of entries for the Association of Catholic Women's Schools RE Project - and forgot to put the name of the school? And gave no useful identification of any kind? All we have is "Primary 4". Who are you, and can you get in touch?

We can do nothing - none of the essays evenm have children's names on them!

Meanwhile we are busy reading all the essays sent in from schools across Britain.
Some gems so far:
"Christmas is an immaculate celebration"
"Hallow be thy name. I will be done on earth as it is in Heaven".

Family time...

...a visit to young relatives, a baby's First Birthday, singing, cake, fun. Young godmothers and aunties playing with small children, a noisy bathtime, children tucked up in bunks, a dolly cuddled safely in small arms. Prayers, and the sound of voices together "Our Father, who art in Heaven..."

Overwhelmed...

...with entries for the ACW 2011 Schools RE Project. It is now quite difficult to negotiate my way past the great stacks of them in my study awaiting delivery to the final judging-session in London in a couple of weeks' time. They have simply poured in from Catholic primary schools across Britain. Pupils were invited to study the Rosary, focussing in particular on the Joyful and the Luminous Mysteries. It will be hard to choose winners from among the great number of entries, but teams of judges have been reading and re-reading all the essays as they have arrived. A large number of runner-up awards are given, in addition to the main prizes. The Project is sponsored by the Catholic Truth Society, and prizes are books from their excellent current catalogue.

Underwhelmed...

...by a statement from some Lefevbrists about the new Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. It's a little pompous of them to be issuing pronouncements giving their opinions in this way and it shows a rather worrying tendency on their part to assume that they have an authority to do so.

Rome has been generous to the followers of Archp Lefebvre, and will continue to be. The right approach from the SSPX should be (1) apology for having gone into schism and (2) gratitude for any offer that is made for a way back.

For insights...

...into Auntie's lifestyle, try this...

Lift up your heart...

...and enjoy this.

And let's try to get this DVD into Britain...

...it looks terrific:

I emailed a friend...

...Dr Tracey Rowland, of the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne, Australia, to send congratulations on the Beatification of John Paul II. She sent me a reply from Rome, where she has of course been at the celebrations. And she's written the most magnificent piece for a Melbourne paper - you absolutely must, MUST read it. Go on, enjoy it here....

And...

...still trawling the Web to get more on JPII and that wonderful Beatification, I found much to enjoy on this blog...

Lunch with...

...Father James Tolhurst,prolific author, and a family friend of longstanding: he married Jamie and me back in 1980 at St Elphege's, Wallington. We had a delicious lunch and talked and talked...we share a publisher, and swapped news and info on current projects: Fr Jim's latest book on prayer has become deservedly popular. He's also something of a Newman scholar...

Back at home, busy sorting through some of the huge stacks of entries from children at Catholic primary schools across Britain in the Association of Catholic Women's Schools' RE Project. Children were asked to study and write about the Rosary, focussing specifically on some of the Joyful and Luminous Mysteries. The standard of work is high: we are always being told that Catholic schools don't teach the Faith, none of the children know anything, etc etc but that is just not true - here are great stacks of essays from children who have been taught all about the Rosary and been set to study it in some depth.

The suburbs...

...in bright sunshine,and a morning Mass at Holy Ghost Church, Balham.A class of children from the parish primary school were there,filling the rows of pews at the front, beautifully attentive, looking smart in their school uniforms, reverent, delightful. This wasn't a special occasion - weekday Masses are evidently a fairly regular part of school life. Good numbers of people in the rest of the congregation too - it all made a very cheering start to the day. Feast of the English Martyrs and the priest spoke beautifully to the children, explaining about the importance of learning about the Faith and being able to talk about it with confidence and be a witness...

A cheering chat w. the parish priest, who is also diocesan Vocations Director. Check out this event which will bring together young people this summer.

And you might enjoy...

this feature with Auntie's thoughts on Blessed John Paul, and on celebrating the Divine Mercy...

Watch and rejoice...

Just to enjoy...

....I am posting the Holy Father's homily at that glorious beatification Mass...read it again here....

Oh, dear...

...after an extremely busy few days, I came home to tackle a massive amount of email. There is always a certain amount of ranting nonsense, but it seems more menacing when seen in bulk. I sat pressing "delete" as I scrolled over innumerable offerings scattered with underlinings and italics and exclamation marks, telling me that President Obama's birth certificate was written in Chinese, that John Paul II was secretly a freemason, that there was a Conspiracy to Block the Full Truth about all this... etc ...etc..etc...

And before you write in to tell me that you didn't know about these bits of information, and please would I reveal more - OK, I made up those two items. My inventions are on an exact level with the gobbledegook being sent around the Net. The invention of e-communication was a terrible gift to the conspiracy-theorists, and they will blight our lives for years to come.

Auntie's thoughts...

...on The Wedding, on John Paul II and on Divine Mercy, are here....

Walsingham...

...was a wonderful place at which to celebrate the Beatification of John Paul II. A pilgrimage led by Aid to the Church in Need, and then I stayed on for the next day's beautiful Divine Mercy devotions.

Wasn't that great Beatification in Rome just magnificent? Over one and a half million people flocking there, filling the streets and squares, praying and singing and honouring the man whose legacy to us has been so rich: the man who took the Church across the threshold of the new Millenium, who opened up new frontiers in evangelisation, who founded World Youth Day and gave us the Mysteries of Light in the Rosary, and more, and more...I was touched to read the enthusiastic comments by the excellent Cardinal Raymond Burke, in Rome which I echo:"He gave the world hope".

Before heading for Walsingham, I was in Oxford to watch the play The Quality of Mercy presented by a young drama group at the University Chaplaincy. Magnificent. It brought out the glory of the message of mercy, weaving this into a gripping story following the adventures of a group of young pilgrims en route to "seek the face of Christ" at Manopello. beginning at Rome where they have just encountered John Paul...I plan to write a full review of this play - which I hope will be presented in a number of other places in due course.Meanwhile, you can find out more about it here and here.

Like millions of others...

...Auntie spent the day watching the Royal Wedding, with 3 generations of family gathered round the TV.

We loved the hymns and prayers - I was touched when a young niece spontaneously joined in the Our Father - toasted the Royal couple in champagne as they went off to sign the register, and we rose as one for the National Anthem.

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales issued a special prayer for the Royal Wedding, which I thought it would be suitable to post here:


Heavenly Father,
we ask your blessing
upon his Royal Highness, Prince William and Catherine
as they pledge their love for each other in marriage.
May your love unite them through their lives.
Grant them the strength to serve you, our country and the Commonwealth
with integrity and faithfulness.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen

...and on the subject of the great JPII...

...this conference looks excellent, and it's rather exciting that it's happening in Britain. Young Catholic leaders, priests, teachers, parish catechists...

Come and celebrate the great John Paul...

...at Blackfen (Our Lady of the Rosary) on Sunday May 1st at 7pm. Fabulous film of JPII's life - parish lounge, O.L. of the Rosary Church. Everyone welcome - the film is suitable for all ages. Refreshments (Incl. popcorn!) served. Funds raised will go to the Maryvale Institute.

OR: at St Mary Magdalene, Willesden Green, on Monday May 2nd, 7pm. Again, no need to book - just turn up! Children welcome. Delicious refreshments, and a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the Beatification with other Catholics, in a great atmosphere of friendship and goodwill. The film will be shown in the church itself, so there is plenty of room for everyone. Funds raised will go to Maryvale.(Nearest tube: Willesden Green, and the church is in Peter Avenue).

And do read...

...this account of life in an American parish, because it echoes something of my experiences in London suburbia. Next time you are told the Church is dying, or hear sneers at the notion of a Springtime in the Church, remember this.

You will enjoy...

...and benefit from, this sermon given to an Ordinariate group this Easter.

Auntie is involved with this particular group and is following their journey with interest.

After I'd mentioned...

....that I might go to Madrid this summer as a (definitely not youthful!) journalist, I was contacted by various people planning to go, and/or able to help with various arrangements so...Auntie started to make arrangements re. World Youth Day, booking in as a journalist.

I've been thinking about going to a WYD ever since I read a pompous piece denouncing it, written by a very cross American some years ago. His splutterings were laced with hatred and a sort of bitter Jansenism - the poor chap v. indignant, urging people Not to Go to This Dreadful Event, as it brought young people together with much informality in a noisy cheerful messy way and with the Holy Father at the heart of it. It all made me think that World Youth Day was rather good and that it might be excellent to attend one day.

Then a niece attended World Youth Day in Cologne and loved it, giving an excellent report on it all at a meeting in London, and I subsequently met people who'd hugely enjoyed the great WYD in Sydney...so this year I'd like to go and see for myself.

I was amused to note that anyone booking in as a journalist has to be over 18. I'm OK on that score...

Springtime...

...and a long line of people to be baptised and recieved into the Church at the packed Easter Vigil in our local parish.

I got soaked walking to church as a thunderstorm broke overhead - it felt a bit surreal to be standing steaming in church with a lighted candle pressed against my neighbours as more and more people squeezed in, and the priest sang the Exulstet while the thunder outside rolled away and children wriggled in the seats in front. Year after year, the great story of salvation from Genesis onwards unfolding in the Vigil Readings is overwhelming. Then the blessing of the water in the font, and people coming forward for baptism... this year a very large number, and from where I was sitting at the back it wasn't possible to see the action, but only hear the priest's voice, which somehow gave the event an added drama "Cecile, I baptise you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit....Thomas, I baptise you....John I baptise you..."

When the rest of us renewed our baptismal vows and were sprinkled with the water from the font, Father had to walk not just down through the crowded church but out through the doors and into the porch because of all the people crowded in there...

After the Mass was over, there was a gathering the parish hall with cake and wine and joyful congratulations, and then I walked home in the blissful cool of the post-thundery rain. But the sky promised a clear day to follow, and Easter Sunday was one of the sunniest we've had for years.

An Easter family gathering at the home of a young nephew and his wife, who were married last summer: this was the first time that they have hosted a substantial tribal get-together in their home, and it was all great fun and most beautifully done, with tender roast lamb and delicious puddings, and so much good talk and laughter...

In the warm sunshine some of us went for a lovely post-lunch wander in Windsor Great Park, the cool green gress so delightful beneath our feet that shoes were kicked off and we walked barefoot, the stunning Castle a backdrop to our talking. One of the great joys of Auntie's life at present is the wisdom and commonsense that comes from the next generation, unafraid to challenge and discuss all sorts of things, reassurring and upbeat when Auntie raised issues that worried her, energetic and good-humoured and thoughtful.

Home at a very late hour, with a wedge of chocolate fudge-cake and some lovely Easter eggs.

Awaiting the Easter vigil...

...on a warm, sticky evening with thunder rolling around the London suburbs.

Auntie has spent much of the week in the West Country, attending to sundry family responsibilities (prayers, please, for elderly relatives in poor health...). Traditional Maundy Thursday and Good Friday devotions at a small church in a seaside town. The Maundy Mass was not well attended, but Good Friday saw a very full church,the traditional prayers and Reading of the Passion gathering us all in solemnity...and the children of the parish placed a cross in the garden, and later rolled a stone across the mouth of a little garden-tomb...

Newspapers today are full of the Royal Wedding. Somehow it all has a slightly unreal air - or is it the thundery weather, and the sense of stillness that Holy Saturday always brings? I travelled home through countryside smothered in heat-haze.

This Holy Week and Easter have a solemn feel. There has been the dramatic and joyful welcoming into the Church of the new Ordinariate groups - I'll be putting up a link shortly to a feature I have written about that, following the beautiful and unforgettable evening in Kent as some 70 people were recieved into full communion. Tonight the Easter Vigil at our local parish will be packed and joyful, people squeezing up to make space, choir in good voice.

But for millions of people in Britain the greatness of this season is a barely-noted sideshow. It's just a holiday time, with more to come as the R. Wedding approaches.

The words of the Holy Father at the Rome Chrism Mass echo here: "Is it perhaps the case that the West, the heartlands of Christianity, are tired of their faith, bored by their history and culture, and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ? We have reason to cry out at this time to God: "Do not allow us to become a ‘non-people’! Make us recognize you again! Truly, you have anointed us with your love, you have poured out your Holy Spirit upon us. Grant that the power of your Spirit may become newly effective in us, so that we may bear joyful witness to your message!"

...and in the evening...

...to Tunbridge Wells, for the Reception into full communion with the Catholic Church, of an Ordinariate group. Some 70 people were being recieved at this Mass, and Hayley, the young wife of the formerAnglican and soon-to-be-RC priest who is leading the group, had asked me to be her sponsor. It was an unforgettable moment standing there, my hand on her shoulder, as she was anointed.

The Anglican Patrimony includes, of course, glorious hymns, and we finished the Mass with a rousing one honouring Mary, as the candles glowed alongside her statue: Our Lady of Walsingham, under whose name and protection the new Ordinariate has been established.

The local Catholic parish had turned out in good numbers, and there was a youthful, welcoming, and warm atmosphere as the crowd poured out of the church and into the hall for drinks...later, a long late talkative supper, so much to discuss and mull over...

The Chrism Mass...

...at Westminster Cathedral drew hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, streaming across the piazza, and packing out the cathedral, its aisles, its side-chapels, all the spaces at the back by the doors... Auntie ended up, squeezed very happily between others, perched on a stone step near the tomb of Bishop Richard Challoner...

And it's all strange, in a way, because the Chrism Mass isn't particularly advertised or promoted, and people aren't specially urged to go...word just seems to get around, and the crowds arrive and arrive and arrive...

For some years now, a group of us ladies have gathered to welcome the priests and to give each one a card thanking him for his service as a priest and assuring him of our prayers. At this Mass, the oils that are to be used for baptism, Confirmation, and anointing of the sick during the year are blessed and distributed to the priests, who take them back to their parishes. It's all rather moving, and the long, long procession of priests in white vestments, coming up Ambroseden Avenue and across the piazza, is impressive...

Our group from the Association of Catholic Women was joined by a young team from St Patrick's, Soho Square. The latter cheered and sang, while we were rather more staid, but we all united in our feelings and it was a real joy to be there...

Auntie had not planned...

...to go to World Youth Day in August (too middle-aged, too tired, much dislikes heat) but an opportunity has arisen to go as a journalist and it's beginning to look tempting...

Also this feature article made me want to be there...

Palm Sunday...

...and a great gathering of a large parish, quantities and quantities of families with small and larger children, at Balham in South London, palm fronds held aloft and the choir singing as the procession moved off from the school playground through to the church and the beginning of Holy Week.

As the prayers unfolded, I had the sighing thought that I seem to have every year:"Oh dear, I do wish I'd made a better Lent..."

And it's a sign of getting older that the gaps between each Lent become smaller, the memories of many Holy Weeks and many Easters begin to crowd in: a sudden memory of standing as a child to listen to the long reading of the Passion, with sturdy pride in not being tired or feeling any need to sit down, and then of Palm Sundays down the years in different churches and cathedrals, in London, in Berlin, and elsewhere...

Then the ordinariness of things: after Mass, people milled about in bright sunshine. Teenagers in the parish were selling cakes and books to raise funds to help them get to World Youth Day in Spain this summer, and were doing a good trade. And I bought some goodies and went on to Mother, to chat and relax and arrange domestic Easter plans...for the first time this year, the Easter Sunday family gathering is to be hosted by the next generation, a recently-married grandson and his bride...