Auntie writing...

...and you might enjoy it. Read here...

The feast of theTransfiguration...

(Aug 6th) is also the day on which the Servant of God  Paul VI died, in 1978.

He was named a Servant of God by Pope Benedict XVI, opening up the way for beatification and canonisation.

He saw the Second Vatican Council through to its conclusion, he gave us Humanae Vitae - a prophetic and wise message, the truth and importance of which are daily more and more evident -  he endured consistent vilification and public criticism of a most vociferous and brutal kind, he was a man of faith and real moral courage. Pope Francis has recently spoken of him, and I am sure we will one day see him listed among the saints of the Church.

The Sisters are running out of space...

...because they have new members joining their community.  The Dominican Sisters of St Joseph badly need to expand the accommodation at their convent in the New Forest. They are not a large community, but are thriving and I was talking to one of their newest members the other day. She will be joined by another newcomer shortly. 

There is an abandoned stable-block on their property which could be turned into rooms for the sisters' work, retreats, conferences, youth activities etc, thus freeing up space in the main house for accommodation. The need is getting rather urgent. Can you help?  Read here for more info...

Fatima and Russia...

...and that mysterious promise "Russia will be converted".  Bl. John Paul took it seriously and  became the "Fatima Pope".  And...well...look what's happening.. churches full, Christian traditions and feast-days publicly honoured  with big celebrations...latest development : a relic of "St Andrew's Cross" was brought to St Petersberg  to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Russian fleet, and crowds have lined up in their thousands and thousands to venerate it at cities across Russia and Belarus, some waiting for up to nine hours,  in a massive display of public Christianity...read more here...

For years, people across the world prayed "for the conversion of Russia".  We didn't really imagine what it would be like when it happened...

Life for most Russians is fairly grim:  poor housing, poor healthcare, Mafia crime, high levels of alcohol abuse... Christianity is a message of hope and gives a sense of tradition and a framework in which to rethink Russian history and the ghastly events of the 20th century.  And it is in no small measure all bound up with Russian nationalism.

The promises of Fatima did not suggest that everything would be perfect, but stated that the conversion would occur. And it is occurring.

One irony is that it is now the West that needs conversion...

In the years...

...that I have been gathering blackberries from its hedgerows, our local cemetery has changed. Along the path that I wander, heading for the thick brambles, heavy with their fruit, there are now slanted rows of graves, all pointing towards Mecca. Over the next years, we will see fewer and fewer crosses in our cemeteries.  The newer graves that are non-Muslim sometimes have teddy-bears, footballs, or family mementoes on them, or the remains of floral arrangements spelling out "Our Mum" or similar.

Not many people gather blackberries in the London suburbs now - it tends to be an older-people thing. I take scissors to hack away the long wandering brambles with sharp thorns that rip into my legs, and the tall feathery nettles with their cruel stings. It's worth a few scratches, though, to bring home a bowl of fruit that will shortly be turned into jam.

The Ladies Ordinariate Group is running a stall at the Towards Advent Festival, so I'm busy making jam for that.

Pope Pius XII...

...has been cruelly and shockingly maligned over his wartime role. But the truth is steadily emerging, and no serious historian would now give credence to the lies circulated by the old East German regime. 

I spent a good deal of time researching the story of one particular family of Jewish refugees in Rome, and the results are in my new book Courage and Conviction  describing how the Brigettine sisters successfully hid this group and thus saved their lives.

Sitting in the parlour of the Brigettine sisters, and talking to the elderly Jewish gentleman who had lived there as a teenage boy, and hearing him describe what it was all like, is something I will remember for always...the stories of the atmosphere in the house, of the kindness of the nuns, of listening in secret to the BBC, of the tension of the final days of the war... and it was rather touching to see how the friendship with the sisters had continued down the years, as we sat chatting over drinks and little cakes with the Italian sunshine pouring in, and later joined the sisters and some other guests out in the courtyard...

Incidentally, one aspect of the wider story of how Jewish lives were saved in Rome during those ghastly years is the role of Mgr Montini, later Paul VI.  He worked with zeal and courage to find hiding-places for Jewish families, facing personal danger in doing so.

Want to know more? Get the book.

Australia...

 ...beckons.

Auntie's lecture tour. If you are an Australian reader of this blog you may be interested to come to one of the events in Sydney or Melbourne...info here...

I have been sent...

...an email urging me to join a lobby to intervene in a dispute within a branch of the Franciscan Order. As this dispute involves the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, a campaigner for the Extraordinary Form has decided to interfere.  He is not a Franciscan but a dedicated lobbyist for this particular form of the Mass.

But the dispute involves a situation within the Franciscans and to attempt to use as part of a campaign for the Extraordinary Form is quite wrong. 

The letter urging me to join the campaign  sheds light on why and how the problems within this branch of the Franciscans arose in the first place. It made me realise that the intervention by the Church authorities was probably right.

There is a useful analysis of the situation here.

I shall most certainly not be signing the round-robin letter

The Oratory School...

...at Woodcote, near Reading, is in a superb setting, the cool green cricket pitches surrounded by great sweeps of glorious countryside, the fine old manor house now transformed into the heart of a great array of school buildings approached by a drive from the main road.

Evangelium  now uses this fine setting for its conference every summer - sponsored by the CTS and drawing young Catholics in their 20s and 30s for a weekend of lectures and seminars, talks and workshops, centred of course on daily prayer and Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Some good speakers -  Bishop Mark Davies, who also preached at the Mass on Saturday, concelebrating with some of the many priests ,  Fr John Hemer on the Scriptures,  Sister Hyacinthe from the Dominican sisters (who will shortly  be leading the John Paul II Walk for the New Evangelisation shortly)  Fr Ed Tomlinson of the Ordinariate...

I was touched that Bishop Mark quoted Auntie's book on St John Vianney in his lecture on this dear saint. We chatted briefly later over tea...

The whole conference is well organised, with morning prayer followed by a Proper Breakfast with eggs and bacon and sausages and hash browns and fried bread...there is an Elevenses break and a Good Lunch, and a long afternoon in which to enjoy the grounds, or play some sport, or rest, or linger around talking with friends...

There were First Blessings from two of the newly-ordained priests from this summer's batch of ordinations. It is a special moment to be blessed by a young priest whom one met as a seminarian at World Youth Day...

Lots of workshops from which to choose: I opted for one on "Mary, Star of the New Evangelisation", led by one of the sisters of the Society of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity. I went because of the project "New Evangelisation" which is what the future of the Church in our poor country must be about if there is to be a future for the Church here at all. But part of me worried a bit - no, a lot - that it might just be a rather sentimental and predictable little feverino about Our Lady.  But it was a well presented theologically coherent and profound look at Mary's role in salvation history and in the life of the Church with a message of hope, with reference to  Louis Grignon de Montfort's "Total consecration", insights from Blessed John Paul...lots to ponder...

There was morning and night prayer in the chapel.  There was an extremely jolly, talkative social on the Saturday evening in a beautiful drawing-room in the old manor, giving out on to the gardens with their glorious great banks of lavender.  And while that was happening, there was also Adoration in the chapel and we were urged to make sure that Christ was never ignored...when I slipped in, there were good numbers of people there quietly praying. That mix of social cheer and deep prayer has something of the essence of Catholicism about it.

The conference ended with an excellent presentation on evangelisation by Frs Andrew Pinsent and Marcus Holden.  And then off to evangelise Britain...

The crucial World Youth Day you may have missed...

...the mainstream media, and alas most of the blogs, don't look at the real thing, only the bits that shout. I found this had some interesting info..

A Blessed Sacrament procession...

...in the beautiful grounds of  the school where the FAITH Movement held its week-long Summer Session this year.  There is a statue of Christ with arms outstretched in blessing on the main lawn, and this is a perfect setting for an outdoor Benediction.  We began, of course, in the chapel - very hot and crowded - and then, with young men carrying the canopy over the Blessed Sacrament, walked through the courtyards and out into the grounds of the school, praying the Mysteries of Light. In the  cool evening, with the great chorus of voices praying the Rosary, and singing "Ave, Ave..." it was all very stirring.. A choir of young FATH members  sang most beautifully as we knelt on the wide lawn for Benediction, and then we prayed the Litany of the Most Holy Eucharist,...."Jesus, the Most High...the Holy One...only Son of the Father...reigning in glory... Lord of all history... Lord of the cosmos... Master Key to the meaning of the universe...manna from Heaven...new and everlasting covenant...food for everlasting life...Holy Banquet...eternal sacrifice...Mediator of the New Covenant..."

The procession led us through the grounds and along the shaded main drive, and back into the chapel, where "Tantum ergo sacramentum..." rang out. After the second Benediction, we prayed Night Prayer. Singing "The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended..." is one of the things that brings back memories of so many FAITH sessions of past years, binding them with today...

THE PORTAL...

...is the on-line magazine of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Auntie writes in it each month...but if you don't want to read Auntie's material, there is a great deal of other good stuff there. Read it here.

Crowded, talkative, teeming with young people...

... in the setting of a large school in glorious countryside, with wide cool lawns dominated by an illuminated statue of Christ with his arms outstretched.  The FAITH Movement Summer Session.  I had booked in as a day visitor - this is an event for the young, and Auntie and others of a certain age tend to arrive for the evening, to join in Night Prayer in the chapel, to talk for long agreeable hours on the terrace with old friends, to swap news and ideas and - in Auntie's case at least - to feel a curious sense of deja-vu as young people surge about and talk and laugh and swap in-jokes and share in an annual summertime gathering which will be part of their memories for years and years...

On arrival, I had no time to greet friends as I was immediately swept into a circle of relatives...very young ones, a baby stretching out hands for a hug, energetic children imploring Auntie to come and see the fish in the pond, the hill where you can clamber up high, the places where you run and jump...

Later, over drinks in the cool evening, much talk, with friends such as Frs Hugh Mackenzie, Tim Finigan...and meeting lots of the young people, some of whom I have met through university Catholic groups, some as fellow pilgrims on the John Paul II Walk, etc.

Night Prayer, with the strong young voices praying the Psalms turn and turn about, and singing the Salve Regina...

There are always a good number of young men from various seminaries at the FAITH events, the priests of tomorrow.

"Russia will be converted..."

...was a central part of the mysterious message given to children at Fatima in Portugal in 1917, the year that an atheistic regime seized power in Russia in the wake of war.  For long years, it didn't seem likely that this would happen - following a further war, Russia's power and domination over its neighbours increased and massive efforts were made to impose atheism on them, too - Poland, Hungary...

Then in 1978 a Polish Pope was elected, who made a consecration of the world to Mary on the Feast of the Assumption in 1984...and the atheistic regimes crumbled,  extraordinary events began to unfold...and now, month after month, news such as this...

You will have seen...

...a lot of scenes from World Youth Day, and read a lot. But some of the most powerful bits were not highlighted by the mainstream media.  Did you see this?

..and it's summer and harvest, and ...

...various things come together.  At the weekend, I took my final exams after five years of study, with a sense of a project completed, an era coming to and end. It will feel strange not having a specific essay or piece of work always hovering somewhere in the mind. I have been studying on buses and on railway journeys, rarely going anywhere without a book and study guide and notes...

Then a great parcel arrived, and was opened with considerable excitement because it came from my publisher and marked the completion of another project, namely

AUNTIE'S NEW BOOKS

representing the past several months of work. Unusually, I have THREE books published this year. And here they all are, shiny and new and just arrived from Gracewing Publishing.

They are:

A BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROES FOR BOYS

A BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROIINES FOR GIRLS

and

COURAGE AND CONVICTION: The story of Brigettine nuns and Jews in wartime Rome.

An author, as part of a standard contract, receives six copies of each book on publication.  I sat holding my books for a satisfying few moments.  Then  I spent a happy half-an-hour wrapping and posting some copies to various people (godchildren, people who have helped w. the books, etc). And now I am on my way to visit an elderly relative, with a book for her tucked my luggage.

Watched World Youth Day...

...on the internet. Some 3 million young people, praying together. Although the mainstream media focused on the crowds and the sheer amazing spectacle of it all, the reality - as anyone who has been to WYD recognises - is in the prayer, the times of silence, the extraordinary experience of being at Mass with such a sense of unity of purpose among such a gigantic number. One commentator noted that during one time of utter silence, you could hear the swish of the waves on the sand...and this with some 3 million people present...

There was a sense of energy evident at Rio - and, despite (or perhaps because of?) the rain and cold, a sense of mirth. The dancing flash mob thing was fun : our Medieval ancestors would have approved. The jollity and the willingness of bishops and clergy to enter into the spirit of the thing - most of them rather stiffly raising hands and turning around and so on, but the thought was there - sent out a cheery message.  But the great reality of WYD is in the fact that people come together to show their faith in Christ and their bond with the Church: something needed more and more in a world in which Christians face immense challenges. Most of what goes on - early morning prayers, Masses in churches and  chapels across the WYD city and its suburbs, hymns and rosaries and hours of adoration, talks, catechesis, counsel, advice - doesn't get noticed by the TV or the bloggers. The latter includes the inevitable wannabe journalists who pick on an item highlighted by the mainstream media and add a comment and slant, usually missing the main point.

Sunday Mass at Westminster Cathedral...

...very crowded, lots of holiday visitors etc. The Cathedral Choir School has closed for the summer, so no young choristers, but a fine men's choir.

I had arranged to meet a young American couple - who had contacted me via this Blog - on the steps. They are visiting London to make arrangements for a longer stay, as work will ring them here for six months starting in September. We  ended up spending a very happy day together - Mass at the Cathedral, a walk around Westminster, then a boat trip to the Tower, prayers together at the site of the More/Fisher martyrdom...all this interspersed with much lively talk and breaks for coffee and sandwiches...they are of the JPII/Benedict/World Youth Day generation in America, for whom things like World Youth Days in Cologne and Sydney and Madrid, the annual March for Life, the local Pro-Life Dinner, are the background and sub-culture of a lively Catholicism.  Newly-weds, they had just come from Rome where they received a wedding blessing from Pope Francis - it was fun to hear about walking through the streets of Rome in wedding-clothes with people calling out greetings and congratulations, and lining up in the hot sunshine in St Peter's...it made me feel rather agreeably aunt-like and mature, married for over 30 years...

Today...

...began with exams at the Amigo Hall, at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Final exams after five years of study at the Maryvale Institute. It was in this same room, a couple of months ago, that Auntie and her family celebrated with friends after the investiture as DSG:  it was strange to be coming back here in the very different circumstances of a formal exam.Neat tables and chairs set out far apart in rows, people nervously chatting, then "Please come and take your seats",  and each of us allotted a place marked with a name and number.... One and a half hours for the first paper. I had bought four brand-new roll-point pens  at the £-shop in Deptford. A break for a cup of tea and then the next paper...

And then it was over, and we chatted and wished each other well...I lunched with a colleague, at a small café near Waterloo, a tradition established in our group over the years,  and we reminisced...

Then after handshakes and a "See you at the graduation!" we parted, and the second half of the day began. In the train out to Wimbledon, I hurriedly freshened up and donned my Best Hat.  This Hat was also last worn for the DSG (and before that, it was worn at Westminster Hall for the visit of Pope Benedict, which happened to coincide with Auntie and J's 30th Wedding Anniversary...).  It's a dear little hat, with a veil that goes over the front and swoops up at the side...v. trendy when I first bought it for my going-away outfit back in 1980 and now it's right back in fashion again!

And so to the Church of the Sacred Heart at Wimbledon, for the glorious wedding of some dear friends, William and Lucy. They are stalwarts of the Catholic Writers Guild and also of the Fellowship of St James, and it was suitable that their wedding was celebrated near St J's Feast Day.  Superb Music - a Byrd Mass. Scripture readings done by Christopher Howse, and by Fr Deacon Richard Downer. The bride wore a most beautiful dress and veil, there were two smart page-boys and a gracious Matron of Honour, and  we all sang the rousing hymns and the Mass was concelebrated by a number of clergy including a Jesuit, a Benedictine from Downside and a priest from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The day's oppressive heat melted into a magnificent rainstorm as we gathered for a superb reception in the parish hall, with delicious food and lashings of champagne and a wonderful joyful time of celebration. As things finally drew to a close I went on to visit a beloved elderly relation nearby, taking with me some of the lovely chocolate mousses in the tiny individual cups, and we sat and enjoyed these together, and talked of weddings and happy things...

...and on Saturday...

final major exams. If all goes well, Auntie will be attending an academic ceremony in Birmingham in October. Meanwhile, gulp...

Our Bishops, led by the Archbishop of Westminster...

... have  issued a strong message on marriage, sent to every Catholic Church in England and Wales for this Sunday.  It is a timely and inspiring call to be witnesses to the truth, noting that following the enactment of the new law on same-sex unions, Catholics may now feel "strangers in their own land".  The Church can never accept the validity of same-sex marriage.

"We try to present and live by Catholic teaching as given by God for the ultimate good for each person. This may indeed lead us to feel, in these matters, out of step with popular culture. But that is our calling and not a matter for discouragement. Rather, with the confidence of faith, we stay resolute, encouraging one another and all who recognize the values we wish to uphold."

Auntie's plans...

...for the next few days include a visit to the FAITH Movement Summer Session, and a talk at the Evangelium conference. Then to Bury St Edmunds, to join the team of pilgrims walking to Walsingham on the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage.  This Pilgrimage is in prayer for the New Evangelisation. Our country is thirsting for truth. We are called to deep prayer and to witness to the Gospel...

The old Abbey at Bury St Edmunds is the place where Magna Carta was first drawn up. King John in due course signed it at Runnymede Island. The Abbey was destroyed centuries later under Henry VIII. We will be having Mass in its picturesque ruins. The celebrant will be a young newly-ordained priest, Father Henry Whisenant, who has been a faithful pilgrim on the John Paul II Walk in previous years.

Magna Carta begins with a strong message "that the English Church should be free".

Ramadam...

...means feasting and partying every evening, and so our big local supermarket has a large section devoted to Ramadam foods.

Posters on London buses  and at Tube stations by a Moslem organisation promote projects to be supported by Ramadam funds and urge the faithful to give.

Some local authorities are  supporting Ramadam and there is much officialdom in the form of memos and formal advice on how the rest of us must behave towards Moslems during this time.

I await with interest the memos from officialdom inviting respect and care for Christians during next Lent and Holy Week.

For the Feast of St James...

...a Mass at St James Church, Spanish Place, attended by the Spanish Ambassador and a vast congregation. The tragedy in Spain - the train crash with so many victims, among them large numbers of pilgrims about to celebrate St James Day at Compostella - gave a solemn note.  The Mass was  Haydn (Missa Sancti Nicolai) - with Credo III in which we could all join, and a special Salve Regina at the end of the Bidding Prayers, for the train victims...

The final hymn was "Jerusalem the golden", absolutely glorious, with its descriptions of Heaven "And bright with many an angel, and all the martyr throng..."

The Ordinariate had been specially invited, and the parish group from Precious Blood was there in force, with Father Christopher walking in procession with the other clergy, and all of us singing at the tops of our voices.

...and meanwhile...

...Pope Francis is in Rio with the great crowds for World Youth Day. You can get some interesting snippets of background on WYD here...

I am sure there will be some chaos and some big admin. problems at WYD in Rio, but the whole WYD event has over the past couple of decades been such a glorious celebration of faith and such a boost for the Church, and it has grown and grown and grown...the joy and goodwill of the young people is so attractive - literally, it attracts, it makes people see that this is what being a Christian can mean.

It is not merely that we as Christians live as many people once did - with a sense that life has a meaning and a hope and a purpose. It is not just that we are saying "We are what you once were - what you once believed, we still believe and love and cherish". It is much more than that: it is an affirmation of eternal truths, a sense of looking forward, of offering a message that holds the key to the future.

Watching the scenes in Rio brought back memories of Madrid a couple of years ago. The vast crowds, the dreadful heat, the dramatic thunderclaps and great zigzags of lightning, the calm presence of dear Papa Benedict amid the storm, the scent of the grass as it soaked up the rain, and the beauty of young voices, over a million of them,  singing together....this summer, some of the young men who were with the group with which I travelled to Madrid were ordained as priests for the diocese of Southwark. Deo gratias.

The next World Youth Day may be in Poland. In the more distant future...London?

A happy evening...

...as we gathered at Westminster Cathedral for Mass and then the History walk. One of the concelebrants at Mass was Father Julian Green, who is a lecturer at Maryvale. I went to find him to say hello after Mass, and we had a great chat.   I have so enjoyed my studies at Maryvale and hope to go on to do more...

But my big exams are on Saturday and a lot depends on that...

The History walk, planned months ago, was on a Royal theme and we went through St James Park, and had planned to finish at Buckingham Palace.  We told ourselves that it was absurd to join a great queue of people just to see a formal notice on an easel announcing the birth of the Royal baby...but we joined the queue anyway, and it was all fun and happy, with people taking photographs and everyone - including the police - hugely enjoying themselves. A little bit of history...

We always finish the History Walks with prayer, so gathered together in a small circle and prayed for the Queen, and the Royal family, and the new baby Prince, and our dear country...

A sense of celebration...

...in London, and the great blessing of glorious rain. Blissful, great splashy drops on the scorched earth and the brown grass.

The media has gone loopy about the Royal birth: people are so glad to have a sense of stability and something traditional around which to rally. You can read Auntie's take on the whole thing here...

Curiously, I booked, some months ago, a London History Walk for this evening, with a Royal theme. Meet 6.30pm (after the 5.30pm Mass) on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. All welcome, no need to book. We will be walking across St James' Park and looking at lots of Royal links...the plan was to finish at Buckingham Palace, but if the crowds are too great we may go into Green Park instead and finish with a short prayer there under the trees....

Dorset: cool lawns in shimmering heat...

...on Saturday, and a FAITH Family day organised by local members of the FAITH Movement. Father Dylan James  of Shaftesbury gave an excellent presentation on the central importance of the family, its spiritual significance, the rights of parents, the beauty of it all.

Auntie spoke about celebrating feasts and seasons, with info on all sorts of things like pub signs and nursery rhymes and the origins of old sayings and so on.

The venue was excellent: a school set in the most beautiful grounds, with a lovely chapel.  Children spent a happy time rolling down the sloping lawn.  Sheep baaah-ed in a neighbouring field. A big picnic lunch brought us all together on a pleasant terrace. It was a wonderful day, and later the organisers took me back to their home for a cheery family supper - much talk and laughter in the cool evening in a garden scented with roses and with raspberries ripening on bushes and a plum tree laden with green fruit promising a purple harvest.

Supper with...

...the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See and his wife,  currently visiting London. They are old friends and it was grand to catch up. We first met over 30 years ago, and Jamie and I have often been guests in their welcoming family home in Sydney. It was a pleasure to play host to them for an evening in London. I remember a previous visit when the idea of World Youth day in Sydney was first being suggested, and knowing then that it was a terrific idea and that it would be a huge success...it was a great highlight of beloved  Pope Benedict's pontificate, and it brought many blessings to Australia...

Today another World Youth day begins in Brazil. Pix of dear Pope Francis trundling his suitcase into the plane at Rome and heading off. It will go well.  It's encouraging to see the pictures of young people carrying high the great Cross, and singing and praying together.  What a rich legacy John Paul left us...

I am off to Australia in August. London is sizzling in a ghastly heatwave at the moment.  People are talking about the glorious sunshine etc. Hmmm.    Ants are flying everywhere and everything feels sticky and disagreeable. The prospect of swapping summer for an Australian winter is very attractive.

The trip to Australia begins with a flight to the USA. You can meet Auntie at this year's EWTN Family festival, which runs from August 17th-18th. More info here...

In fierce heat...

...to London. I really dislike hot weather, and today has been horrid.

Westminster Cathedral was however beautifully cool. Seated in the confession-queue, I felt peaceful and calm.  But it was too peaceful. Nothing was moving.  No priest hearing confessions. I whispered to the chap next to me that perhaps we should ring the bell and summon a priest from the sacristy?  No, he whispered back. Confessions don't start till 11.30 - and it was still just 11 am. Hmmmm. Half an hour to wait. I whispered back that I was going to go and have some coffee...and left my sandwiches on the chair to mark my place. He whispered back that he'd guard them.  Coffee and a pastry in the  cool downstairs café. Back to the confession queue. My place still marked, packet of sandwiches still there . "It did occur to me" whispered the chap "that I could have taken them, and then gone straight to confession about it..."

Later, shriven,  I dropped in to the bookshop next door. My book on Bl John Paul is still selling - should I produce a new version as he is due to be canonised soon?

Met Fr Mark Vickers in the bookshop, and we chatted about the success of the Day of Faith.  Tomorrow I am due at a FAITH Family day in Shaftesbury, and then the next big  event of the FAITH Movement   is of course the Summer Session: I hope to drop in at some stage...

And so on to Chelsea, and a meeting of the Association of Catholic Women.  Lots to plan for next year, which is our 25th anniversary. We have  many projects in hand, and there is a lot happening...but a big celebration would be fun!  And we talked about our recent visit to the Vocations Centre at Whitstable, a very happy day...

The choir of...

...St Philomena's, my old school, will sing at this year's Towards Advent Festival  (Sat Nov 23rd) and this morning, in searing heat, I went to talk to the headmistress, Miss Maria Noone, about it all and to make arrangements.  I have been back to St Ph's a good many times since I left, but it is still always a strangely moving experience. Today, the girls were evidently  having a celebratory end-of-term activities day: wearing their own clothes instead of uniforms, they were enjoying various games and cycle rides around the grounds, and as I sat in the beautiful old mansion planning the November festival, a lively group on the upper lawn was engaging in a tumbling race, apparently oblivious to the heat.

The school is evidently thriving, and has a bustling and cheerful feel. Everyone is polite and friendly. I slipped into the chapel - virtually unchanged since my own days. The only real difference was a notice reminding everyone to genuflect on entering, some cards with the Apostles Creed - all linked with the Year of Faith - and a strange device near the door which looked like a sort of beaded curtain draped over a hanger. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a long row of many rosaries, all ready and waiting for girls sort pick them up and use them.  Rather touching.

The grounds were scorching in the sun, and the lake and causeway, the island and  and the grotto and all the surrounding area, are now one great mass of brambles and thick tangled undergrowth. It's inevitable really, because the local water-table has gone down and there just isn't the water there now. But it  seems  pity: I remember when there was water in the lake, and back before my time, the girls took out boats...back in the mansion, a set of photographs in the staffroom shows girls from the 1920s - even their faces look utterly different from today, and one could just imagine their tight-vowelled voices - gathered self-consciously round the sundial for an "informal scene".

It will be good having the choir to sing at Towards Advent.  And if you go to the old swimming bath building in the grounds, you will still find my name, as I carved it into the brickwork long, long ago...

...and tomorrow (Tuesday 16th)...

...a History Walk at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Strats 3pm, meet at the main entrance. All welcome. No need to book - just turn up...

London is drearily HOT...

...and I  was hurrying across the inner suburbs to give a talk at a crowded church hall near Croydon. However, the talk went well, and the ladies of the Townswomen's Guild seemed to enjoy it all. Topic: Caroline Chisholm.

I am off to Australia in August, some 35 years after I first went there and learned Carolin'e story...

Spent the afternoon in a cool garden with a beloved elderly relative, and am now about to hurry back to London again to collect essays for the Schools Bible Project: judging this week.

Date for your diary: Friday Oct 11th, Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon. Funds raised this year will go to the Maryvale Institute for scholarships for parish catechists. Your opportunity to help ensure that children in Britain learn the Faith. More info here, and the four Catholic Women of the Year 2013 are detailed here...

A family day...

...the baptism of a small great-niece. Some fine singing - led by one of  the baby's  young  uncles - a  former chorister of Westminster Cathedral -  who sang the psalm as the parents and godparents walked in procession from the church door where they had signed the child with the Sign of the Cross... the whole ceremony was the more touching and memorable because the celebrant was the baby's own grandfather,  a Deacon.... there were readings and a fine chanted Litany of the Saints...at the font small cousins gathered around to watch as the water was poured, and  the baby  anointed and so on, and then later we all joined in the prayers...

And then on to a family party, with pink balloons decorating a gazebo in the sunny garden, and a magnificent array of cakes, and champagne, and lots of happy talk, and children running about, and dogs, and the baby being cuddled by grandparents and aunts...

Later, much later, I caught the train home after a gentle wander around the beautiful town with its houses in mellow Cotsworld stone, and its big War Memorial in a l;ittle riverside park, and its fine old bridge with fragments of an ancient chapel...as the train headed towards London, the sun was setting over the land we call England, a great flood of crimson and pink staining the sky, and not fading until finally the dusk deepened into darkness. And now there is a new Christian to inherit it all, and she will be part of the new adventures of this new century.

In sizzling heat...Auntie gathers lavender...

...for a small embroidered lavender-cushion. The cross-stitch on the cover  has the name of my newest great-niece, and the cushion is a little commemorative gift for her Baptism, which takes place tomorrow. It goes into a bag of gifts - she's also getting a book about Jesus (from the CTS - they have beautiful things for children), and there are various useful baby-things...

The lavender comes from Joe's garden. He lives opposite us and his garden is a joy. Every year he brings  across great bunches of lavender, and I repay him with jars of home-made blackberry jam. We unite on neighbourly projects - he was a stalwart of the arrangements for the Street Party for the Queen's Jubilee, and leads the campaign to clean up the walkway that leads through to the main road and is too often used as a dumping-ground for rubbish (last week, a sofr - most weeks, beer-cans and pizza-boxes and greasy chip-bags. Oh, and dog-pooh...).

Earlier this week, Joe's lavender was still green. In the hot sunshine  it has bloomed, and  this afternoon I brought in a great bundle, scenting the kitchen as I prepared it for the christening gift...

Tomorrow morning I'll set off early to catch a Mass at Westminster Cathedral before hurrying on to a train to the west country for the family gathering. I've been asked to do a reading at the Baptism and I'm touched by this.

The years rush by as you get older-  they merge into one another...it seeems such a short while ago that we were gathering for the baptism of this baby's father, on a  happy morning in the early 1980s...just yesterday, but for him a lifetime ago, and now the next generation...

...and here in Britain...

... Parliament has gone ahead with enforcing the pretence that two men can marry, and we will find that anyone who wants to assert the truth about marriage will face all sorts of problems ranging from loss of a job to public humiliation and official reprimands. Thus will teachers, magistrates, clerical workers in everyday office jobs, trades union members, doctors and nurses, social workers, school governors, local borough councillors and all sorts of other people be nagged and harried and bullied into pretending to agree to the lie.

Things are going to be very dreary and horrid in the Britain of the immediate future.

The Irish...

...have had many sorrows over the years, and now their parliament has voted to allow the killing of Irish children in the womb. How horrible.

On the coast of Kent...

...in the charming harbour town of Whitstable, the Catholic diocese of Southwark has established its Vocations Centre, under the direction of Father Stephen Langridge. And he and his team gave a wonderful welcome to members of the Association of Catholic Women and the Ladies Ordinariate Group when we arrived today on pilgrimage.

Mass in the beautiful chapel, the young men leading the singing of  the psalms and the  Kyrie , Sanctus and  Agnus Dei...a delicious lunch - pasta and salmon, wine -  in the pleasant refectory... an excellent talk from Fr Stephen with a thoughtful and positive message on  assisting people to follow God's call for their lives...the Rosary in the sunlit garden around a statue of Our Lady...a walk by the sea and exploration of the harbour...

It is heartening to see positive things happening in the Church, and the enthusiasm of  men giving themselves in service to God.

Around the sanctuary of the recently refurbushed chapel are the words, written in gold "Duc in altum..." spelling out Christ's command to put out into the deep and lower the nets for a catch. It all resonates here. Down by the sea, the fishermen were just bringing in their latest catch - Whitstable is of course famous for its fish and especially its oysters. The New Evangelisation involves putting out into the deep. Watch the good things coming from Whitstable over the next years.

The value of every human person...

...including those with mental impairment. Baroness Hollins spoke of this at a meeting of The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild. As always, we began with Mass at St Mary Moorfields, our Guild church. It was the feast of St Benedict, and Fr Peter Newby preached about him, and how the foundation of the Benedictine Order allowed a Christian life and culture to surmount the collapse of the old Roman Empire and  usher in new chapters of history...as always, a friendly and convivial time over dinner, and then we gathered for the talk from Baroness Hollins.  This focused on her work with adults with learning difficulties - specifically, on the provision of illustrated books for those who cannot read, assisting them with specific issues relating to their health and welfare and daily struggles. She also spoke on the latest ghastly attempt to introduce legalised euthanasia - yet another Bill is being introduced in the House of Lords - and the need to oppose this with vigour.  Every human being has value.

With a warm and lively group such as The Keys, together for Mass and for a meal and for discussion of deep things centred on practical Christian care,  there is a sense in which one can see how a Christian culture can indeed trascend a collapsing one. There is a  "culture of death" in our country and the Western world - Baroness Hollins used the phrase - and the voice of Christian hope speaks with clarity, opening up towards something new...

Teaching...

...young people at a seminar on journalism and the media. They are polite and rather predictable...discussing topical events  I introduced the subject of the Royal Baby, and raised ideas about what could be written in a feature on the subject. Baby names, the resonances of history, the awkwardness of having a name that might turn out to have the wrong associations...the future of Royalty...does it have any role...what on earth will things be like when William is king, let alone when his child reigns...but the girls, when left to produce ideas, came up with things about which brand of baby clothes Kate would choose, and how long it would take to get her figure back again.

London in sizzling heat. The girls at the seminar were cool and charming in summery wear: still in school mode, they had dressed for a warm busy day in London, not for the beach.  Alas, moving on and  writing this in Oxford Street, I'm viewing a different and unattractive scene: a great many people are rather plump these days, and wearing tight skimpy clothing in a hot city doesn't flatter them. Tight teeshirts over bulging tummies,  tight shorts,...many look uncomfortably hot, some look scorched. Baseball hats make for a comedian-being-unfunny sadness, as do teeshirts with old slogans. Oh dear.

There's a feature in today's Daily Telegraph about my generation: 60 and up. It gloats that the over-60s are having a wonderful time, self-indulgent,  3 holidays a year, suntanned and relaxed, spending money that earlier generations either didn't have or felt should be passed to children and grandchildren. Oh, and apparently we're cheerfully abandoning marriages and finding "romance" via the Internet. It all sounds ghastly, and if that's what lots of us are really like, the young will loathe  and despise us and see no reason to care for us when we are fading and frail.

It is easy to offer some respect to  the generation that is 80-plus...childhood and teenage years in war and then a young adulthood coping with its aftermath.  We were taught to honour them.     But today's young people, who have in any case not been trained to think in terms of respecting older folk or honouring the status of parents/teachers/authority figures, will not necessarily see any reason to regard the  newly-emerging elderly of the 60s generation  as being of special worth.

Waddling about bragging about new sexual exploits in one's old age sounds simply horrible. 

Christianity is the only sanity, a call to that "more excellent way"...

Important...

...material on the website of the Coalition for Marriage.  The government's weird determination to impose new ways of talking and writing about everyday things is just horrible. And serious. Have you written yet to some members of the House of Lords, currently still discussing this?

And be prepeared for tough times ahead, big legal battles, a long hard campaign.

Christian truth and common sense will prevail, but  each one of us needs courage. And tenacity. This is a long one. Keep going.

Beside-the-seaside, beside-the-sea...

...is where I'll be on Friday, with other members of the Association of Catholic Women, and the Ladies Ordinariate Group. We are visiting the new Vocations Centre at Whistable,  Mass, lunch, a talk, and then  some time by the sea (ice creams, paddling...) and pottering around the very delightful town.  We'll finish with the Rosary and Tea at the little garden shrine in the Vocatons Centre...

On Monday, a big group from Precious Blood parish at London Bridge took part in a History Walk around the Borough. Catherine of Aragon,  St George, Sir Christopher Wren, Chaucer and Shakespeare are all part of the history here...it's right at the heart of some of the great events of our country's history and traditions and culture. On a golden summer evening, with the tide of the Thames lapping out to reveal old landing-stages and layers of history, and St Paul's standing majestically against the skyline on the opposite bank, and stories of Viking battles on London Bridge, somehow we all felt very much at one with the centuries past....

We finished at The George tavern, and after an evening of talking and explaining history to a large crowd against the general backgound London noise, Auntie relished the first glorious gulps of a cold gin-and-tonic with a chunk  of lemon...

In France...

...staying with dear friends...sunshine on villages with that sleepy shuttered look, lines and lines  of vines , long agreeable talks late into the warm summer night with the sound of crickets.  Lots of children at Mass this morning, several evidently due to be baptised and being catechised and invited to take part in a sort of pre-baptismal ceremony. "This is pagan France, and the priest is working hard, finding ways to evangelise" sighed my friends...

There is  good news in the French church - the New Movements are gathering strength and support: among the announcements at Mass was one about a forthcoming ordination in one of the new communities.  And there is a massive sense of opposition to the government's schemes to redefine marriage:  the "Everyone together" movement to support true marriage  has united people across divisions of race and religion and region...

But there are also huge challenges. Islam is growing and flourishing as it is here in Britain.  "Twenty years ago, I was working with Islamic friends and colleagues and  that was all normal and unremarkable" said a friend "It's different now: women in full-length veils, a very strong sense of Islamic identity and strength: it's a completely different situation."

While in France, news of the Pope's new encyclical, so we printed it off and read it. You can read the influence of BXVI all the way through, with the  references to Nietzsche, and  Dante, and with some of his favourite quotations ("Nous avons cru en l'amour").... The whole style and "feel" of it seemed to me to be v.v. BXVI, and I love it!  Also joyful, JOYFUL news that Papa Francis has approved the canonisation of John Paul the Great.

You can read The Portal...

...the on-line magazine of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, here  Includes a piece by Auntie about a recent visit to the church at Pembury...

There are news reports...

...of the progress of Bl John Paul's canonisation.  Joy.  John Paul the Great.

I am off to Poland again in Sept to continue research on him: more on this in due course...

...and...

...there's another report on the recent DAY OF FAITH conference here

You might be interested...

...to read Auntie's comments about freedom of speech etc here

In response...

...to enquiries: anyone and everyone is welcome to join in the History Walk at Precious Blood Church on Monday (July 8th). Starts 7pm at Precious Blood church. O'Meara Street, London SEI.

History...

...at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge, with a glorious Mass for the patronal festival, Mgr John Broadhurst of the Ordinariate presiding. Aftrewards, everyone crowding into the parish room for something fizzy and lots of cheerful talk...

I would love it if Pope Emeritus Benedict could know of the joyful things at the Ordinariate parish, and how Anglicanorum Coetibus has worked so well here...I actually wrote to him a little while back, and sent him a copy of the parish newsletter, and had a nice acknowledghement from the secretariat, so one hopes...

Celebrations at Pr Blood continue - some of the beautiful work done by children in the schools project run by the Ladies Ordinariate Group is on display, and this coming Sunday sees a visit by Mgr Keith Newton for Mass and a celebration parish lunch, and then on Monday there is a Parish History Walk, led by JB. I walked through the route today...this is a corner of London with so much history: the Bishop of Winchester's Palace and the Clink prison, and Guy's Hospital, and John Harvard, and St Mary Overie where Chaucer is buried...Shakespeare lived in this area (and the Globe theatre is of course here, too), and there are all sorts of other important links...the pubs alone are crammed with history(the George, and the Canterbury Tales...) and then there is the river...

This afternoon, another History Walk around Westminster Cathedral.  It is good to bring back memories of Bl John Paul's visit in 1982, and of Benedict's in 2010...the Cathedral is always a work in progress, and in recent years, we have seen the addition of the John Henry Newman mosaic, and the St David mosaic blessed by BXVI (speaking in passable Welsh!), and work has just started on addition to the St George's Chapel...

Of interest: the FAITH Movement web-page has a short report on the recent Day of Faith

...and don't forget...

...about the JOHN PAUL WALK for the New Evangeliusation. Details here...

Sunday...

...and a delicious traditional breakfast in the comfortable family-run hotel  outside the country town where I am staying. Mass in the local church:  reverent liturgy beneath glorious glowing stained glass, a number of (mostly Indian) young families, an excellent sermon about Saints Peter and Paul and the places in Rome associated with them... alas,  a choir, sitting up near the front, who chatted to one another before, during, and after the Mass, sang some truly terrible songs to a piano. Since they seemed uninterested in the Mass - none knelt, as far as I could see, during the Canon although this may have been because several of them were quite elderly -  it would surely have been better if they had been placed in the choir gallery at the back of the church? And, if some one could play an organ, and some proper hymns were announced, and if we could be allowed to sing the parts of the Mass as Vatican II urges...then the music would match the liturgy and good things would flow...

There really is no excuse for getting a group to shriek "When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?" during Mass. It has a value as a singalong with a cheery message but it has no - absolutely no - role in the liturgy at all.

The priest was v. kind and let me use the parish computer to tackle a couple of important items. Then I  enjoyed  a glass of cold wine in a local pub before catching the coach back to London. A long slow ride through stacked traffic - great crowds had been to the seaside over the weekend.  The lush green fields and mellow stone cottages looked so beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.

Rural England...

...and warm sunshine after rain and chill, Visiting a beloved elderly relation...a seaside town, lunch in the  park just off the High Street, with children having a Story Hour and flowers in neat rows in the ornamental flower-beds. In the afternoon a Garden Fete with a dog show and scones-with-jam-and-cream. Everything apparently traditonal. But somehow, there's an ache at the heart of it. There's a feeling of things going wrong. In the long warm evening, shouting and anger, obcenities, young people mooching about looking sullen. A lack of the laughter that used to be around.   I think it's simply there is so much family break-up, so many youg people not really feeling they belong in a settled home and with clear values, so things feel brittle...  and now with the imposition of a new law forcing everyone to pretend that two men can marry, and restrictions on what we are allowed to say about it...the old Britain has gone, and with it the good humour and tolerance that made us what we were.

Dusty feet...

...and some tiredness, but it was all well worth it...the 2013 Martyrs' Walk went well. I wrote a piece for my EWTN beforehand, which sets the scene: you can read it here...

As always, we met near the Old Bailey - site of Newgate prison, where many Catholic martyrs were held in the days when the Catholic faith was banned in Britain - and started with prayers and a short introductory talk as we gathered in the churchyard of St Sepulchre's.

The saga of our English Martyrs begins, of course, with Henry VII, who wanted to ensure that his Tudor dynasty flourished. Emphasising his family's right to the throne, and stressing their Welsh origins, he named his first-born son Arthur, after Britain's famed "once-and-future-king" (Knights of the Round Table, Camelot etc). And in what seemed a very wise move, he also arranged for young Arthur to marry a Spanish Princess, Catherine of Aragon, and the wedding was duly celebrated in London. But as both Catherine and Arthur were very young, they were not yet ready to live together as man and wife, so she remained in London, and he went back to Wales...where, sadly, he became ill just a few weeks later, and died.  It must have been a frightening and lonely time for the teenage Catherine, effectively alone in a foreign city. There were various plans for her to be married to other European princes...but  eventually her fate was to be that she married Henry VII's next son, who came to the throne of England as Henry VIII.

Well, the rest is rather well known...Henry VIII, the fine-looking, well-educated young man, a sportsman, a linguist, a man who loved music and was good company, gave way over the years to the figure that has become fixed in history: the bloated, arrogant cruel ruler  whose chief fame down the centuries has been the fact that he had six wives.

"Divorced, beheaded, died/ Divorced, beheaded survived" is how schoolchildren are taught to remember the wives today. And Henry,  an ardent supporter of the Latin Mass to the end of his days, and passionately and angrily supportive of all traditional Catholic doctrines, wanted to enjoy all these on his own terms. He took full advantage of the Medieval Church/State entanglement to announce himself as "Head of the Church of England", breaking with the successor of St Peter in Rome. Many could not see that this really mattered - monarchs and Popes had been at loggerheads before - and/or did not really want to see. Thomas More, the Chancellor of England, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester  not only saw the importance of the issues involved, but went to their deaths because they would not follow the king. Unity with Peter's successor, and full commitment to the unchangeable teaching of the Church on marriage - one man, one woman, for life - were the issues at stake.  More and Fisher gave their lives in defence of these.

And so to the Martyrs' walk.  We thought of Fisher and More, and of the Catholic Martyrs that followed them in the reign of Elizabeth I, and in our prayers we recalled all who died in the turbulent years of the Reformation in our country, including those burned at the stake in Mary's reign. We prayed for religious freedom in our country, and for courage to be given to all Christians in the years ahead.

The Martyrs' Walk follows the tradition established by the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, with the Tyburn Walk that began in the first years of the 20th century. It is not now possible to walk down Oxford Street - vast crowds jamming the pavements, heavy traffic, roadworks - so after our final stop for prayer at St Patrick's, Soho, we split into smaller groups to make our way to Tyburn. Here, we gathered at the site of the old gallows to pray, and then went to the Convent for Benediction, and for some refreshments provided by the good sisters.

Many thanks to Father Robert Nicoletti, MJ, our chaplain for the day, and to Bryan and Jayne Lock who take responsibility for much of the admin.

NEXT CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK: Tuesday July 2nd, meet at 3pm on the steps of Westminster Cathedral for a tour of the Cathedral, inside and out. No need to book - just turn up!

And, for serious walkers - join us for the John Paul II Walk for the New Evangelisation. details here

"Lift high the cross..."

...and we lifted it high as we walked  through the  Norfolk meadows and lanes, along the old railway track that marks the Holy Mile at Walsingham. This was the annual pilgrimage of the Ordinariate of  OLW, with people arriving from across Britain, on a day of sunshine and  surging skies and glorious breezes.

We had set off from London at an early hour, crossing Tower Bridge in traffic-free splendour, Fr Chris leading us in the Angelus as we headed eastwards. At Walsingham, the big Barn Church was filled to capacity, and - as always at Ordinariate events - the hymns were a glorious and rousing sound. There was a solemn feel missing from previous years: Mgr Keith Newton preached about Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, it being their Feast day. They died giving witness to God's law on marriage, because they would not bow to the insistence of a ruler intent on imposing his own line on matrimony. They died witnessing to Christian marriage and to the unity and freedom of the Church...

Picnic lunches at tables and benches on the lawns around the shrine...it's all rather picturesque, with children running about, and friends glad to meet up, and cassocked priests with their flocks...

Then, led by a great processional Cross, we set off down the Holy Mile...the breezes sent great rippling waves through the tall grass and green corn, and rustled the silky spinach-like tops of the fields of sugar beet... the bird-cries and baa-ing of sheep were our only rivals as we  said the Rosary, the voices going back and forth.   Down into the village and the Anglican shrine, where we were welcomed, and where we prayed and were blessed with water from the well...

"Bring your intentions for prayer, and take them to Our Lady", we'd been told, and I took a good many: there is a box at the Slipper Chapel where you write your prayer-requests on slips of paper and drop them in. I had also taken along my final essay for my Degree course, intending to read it through  on the long journey home...I took it with me as I prayed, and laid it for a moment before Our Lady's statue.  Later, on arrival at the Anglican shrine, the two words carved into the stone altar stood out starkly:  the topic of my essay.

Tea - with scones and jam and cream - and then home in the coach: I sat with a fellow LOGS member and we planned and talked: our forthcoming Children's Vespers, Autumn activities, a children's trip to Walsingham next year? And more...

Later, at home, Jamie found "Lift High the Cross" on the internet and we played it... dealt with some  emails, tackled some domestic things, checked and -rechecked my essay and then went out late to post it. Done.

EWTN and...

...the Ordinariate. A good combination. EWTN's Raymond Arroyo spoke last night at the Ordinariate parish, Precious Blood church at London Bridge. A lively and amusing talk, which went down well. He has all the patter.  An audience of people who love EWTN - people want to tell personal stories about why/how/when they watch it.  Some one asked about the daily Mass that is broadcast on EWTN and why Arroyo wasn't in the congregation...as I suspected, there are watchers who look obsessively for people whose faces they recognise.  Arroyo explained that he doesn't live in Alabama but works from a studio in Washington or elsewhere. EWTN tries to avoid showing too much of the congregation in the televised Mass - at one stage, when the nuns were still using the old convent and so were shown at daily Mass, people used to write in when their favourite sister seemed to appear downcast, or unwell, or unusually cheerful, or whatever...

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Ordinariate PIlgrimage to Walsingham.

It's horrid...

...living in a collapsing culture.

Children, and especially teenagers, long to belong - they need the peer group, the comradeship, the sense of adventure as they discover the world together.  And never more than now, when the world is a lonely place, and that sense of adolescent angst, of wondering where-I-fit-in which can so easily descend into self-massaging egoism and an obsessive belief in one's own importance and thence into misery and self-destruction.

They need a group that brings them together for great and good things, to meet God, to know about love and service  of neighbour, to seek out ways of helping others daily. They need a sense of belonging not just to one another, but to a loving Creator and to a tradition and heritage that has given them a home-base, a nation, a set of values that they did not invent for themselves.

And so a once splendid organisation, the Girl Guides, has opted to do the opposite. In place of lifting up girls' hearts and minds to the great, the true, and the beautiful, to service beyond self and to an understanding of the grand and good things they could do in the world, the organisation has decided to enforce a rule that there is no absolute truth, that a promise cannot be made to God, and that the only measure of anything is "me, Me ME".  A new promise is to be imposed, banning any reference to God and instead insisting that the children swear to be true only to themselves and their beliefs - including, presumably, belief in anything at all - and for good measure there is to be no notion of country either, as the children must only be committed to "my community".

I'm only too familiar with the processes that brought this about - the awkward committee meetings at which everyone tries to sound open and friendly and everything seems to be negotiable, so any specific commitment to a previous  certainty looks harsh and unhelpful...the blandness with its faint undertones of boredom...the genuine desire to update a good project, combined with the lack of faith in the project's deepest roots.    Oh, dear. Why couldn't  GirlGuiding have got a grip and recognised that belief in God is the one great certainty of the 21st century?

It won't work. A few years back, the same organisation announced that it was dropping the word "Girl" from its title because it seemed outdated. I well remember this, because I was in correspondence with them at the time about various daft ideas they were pushing forward, and a letter from HQ passionately defended the banning of the word "Girl".  Then, suddenly but without fuss, it was back again and is now so much part of the formal title that they've merged the two words together Girlguiding to form a trendy logo/slogan/marketing device.

Allow God back in, ladies, and get real.  Be part of tomorrow, not part of the collapse.

A DAY OF FAITH...

...organised by the FAITH Movement and held at St Patrick's, Soho Square. Superb speakers: Canon Luiz Ruscillo, Bishop Phillip Egan, and George Weigel.  The whole day was full of inspiration and encouragement on the theme of the New Evangelisation. Weigel is an excellent speaker, by turns amusing, interesting, and challenging - and he gave us a fine sweep of Church history, putting the Second Vatican Council in its full perspective  and offering a practical vision for the way ahead, centred on a Catholicism which is  rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Bishop Philip gave us a most inspiring address, emphasising prayer at the core of the New Evangelisation. And Fr Luiz opened the day with a sparkling look at the Church today, the sober realities, and the great possibilities for the future. All this plus a beautiful Mass, a time of Adoration, Benediction, opportunities for confession...and St Patrick's is in a corner of London with lots of history, so we had a short History Walk too...

Rather solemn talk...

...over a pub lunch after Mass...the future of Britain, and Islam. Conversions to Islam. In my experience of talking to young girls who convert, obviously the immediate cause is an Islamic boyfriend. Usually the girl is a formal but lapsed Catholic. She has been given just sufficient religion (eg in a nominally Catholic school) to give her a vague idea of God and an interest in the things of God,  but insufficient to enable her to have a personal relationship with Christ, let alone any desire for the sacraments. So the idea of praying five times a day and adopting a dress code, and all that, seems v. romantic and exciting, especially if it causes dismay at home...

We need to pray about this, and our own commitment to Christ and the Church is at the core of what the future holds. We are called to be missionaries, to be witnesses, to evangelise...

Do read...

this story. Click on the picture, and the tale will unfold - use the symbol on the left to turn the pages. I had vaguely heard of this story, but didn't know any details...

A good report...

...of Thursday evening's Ordinariate event with Charles Moore can be found here...

Been reading...

...a booklet giving the text of a lecture by Rt Rev Graham Leonard, former Anglican Bishop of London, telling of his spiritual journey.  He served for 45 years  - with great distinction, although he does not mention that - as an Anglican,  and following the events of 1992 and the C of E Synod's vote to create women priests, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church and was ordained. His account is touching and interesting in lots of ways...but it's huge relevance for today lies in the fact that the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was forged out of the discussions that he and others held back in the early 1990s with Cardinal Basil Hume and others.  The Cardinal had asked them what elements of their  Anglican heritage they could bring.. this was also discussed with .Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome... and the result, some two decades later, was Anglicanorum Coetibus.   And now we have the Ordinariate...

We haven't yet begun to examine fully...

...the ghastly things that are going to happen over the next years, as the reality of  the destruction of marriage finds its way, into the everyday reality of  a muddled and collapsing society. Already, we are all too uncomfortably aware of the miserable attempts by fatherless boys to find some relief and identity in brutality and gang-culture. We are conscious of the social chaos of children who lack identity, a family structure, a knowledge of who they are, commitment. We know, with a growing sense of horror, that it is going to be extremely difficult to care for people as they get old and frail, with family structures disintegrating.

Read this - be warned that you need a strong stomach - on the frightening things that are happening in the world of  "sperm selling".   Read here  to find out more about the reality of  the plight of the fatherless.

Trendy clichés and gooey fashionable attitudes have masked a descent into a dreadful and cruel situation.  Over the next years, Christian charity will be a beacon of hope - living it, sharing it, teaching it, will require courage and generosity. Ready?

From EWTN in Alabama...

...to London Bridge.  Raymond Arroyo, presenter at EWTN, will be speaking at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge, this coming week, June 20th, 6.30pm.Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments.   More info here...

Goodwill...

...as Pope Francis met Dr Justin Welby in Rome today.  We can rejoice that animosities from 4 centuries ago have given way to friendship and neighbourliness...it is possible, and crucial, to affirm truth with kindness and courtesy. The whole mood was one of great goodwill  and mutual respect.  Worth reading media reports of this meeting.  Note in particular the Vatican News Service report...

Pope Francis spoke  beautifully about the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, giving clear support: just the right message

Yesterday evening,  there was a beautiful Ordinariate Evensong held at Brompton Oratory...the first time that Evensong in the Anglican rite has been sung there.  Afterwards, a reception was held and writer Charles Moore spoke: he mentioned the forthcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Dr Welby...I think it is a nice piece of Providence that the two events came together like this, as it hadn't been planned...

There are pitfalls and huge possibilities for awkwardness ahead, but we need to be courteous and friendly, and cherish all possible goodwill.

I am not impressed by attempts to suggest that  official encounters emphasising goodwill and  politeness between Anglicans and Catholics are wrong or silly. On the contrary, in this often ugly world, it's simply heartening to see some decent friendship. Let's keep on...

More on Auntie Joanna's summer plans...

here...

On June 23rd...

...the Martyrs' Walk takes place in London. This is in a long tradition, following the route to Tyburn and honouring the memory of the English Martyrs. Come and pray for our poor country. Meet 1.30pm at St Sepulchre's church, near the Old Bailey. Nearest tube: St Paul's.  We will walk right through London, stopping to pray at the Church of SS Anselm and Cecilia in Holborn, at St Giles-in-the-Fields (Anglican - where we are always made most welcome) and St Patrick's, Soho. Things finish with Benediction and then Tea at Tyburn. 

SUNDAY JUNE 23rd...be there...our country needs your prayers.

Words, words, words....

...surrounded by them, writing, reading them...

Three sets of proofs to correct (new books coming out in August). Lecture tour coming up in Australia. And I'm speaking at the EWTN Family Festival in Alabama (August 17th-18th) so there will be a lot of travelling this summer...

Meanwhile, some academic work, a Long Essay due by the end of June.

A vocation to the Carmelites...

...is a precious thing. And here is one that needs some help.

At the weekend, while at Maryvale, I met a lady who has been accepted as a postulant in the Carmelites, and all was going well...but she has a problem. She owns a small house on the outskirts of Birmingham and has been unable to sell it.  She is not allowed, under Church law, to enter a religious order until she has sorted out obligations of this sort. The house is a modest one, and she needs to sell it in order to pay off the mortgage and be free to follow her call.

Can you help? The convent has released her until the sale goes through. She is working as a supply teacher...and is desperate for help in getting this small house sold!  Any offers of help/advice would be appreciated. Send a COMMENT to this Blog marking it "Not for publication" and INCLUDING IN IT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS so that I can contact you.

London...London...

...I took a group of school pupils from a big London comprehensive school round Westminster Cathedral today. They were delightful, well behaved and friendly, and looked nice in their blue blazers. They don't know much history, but get eager and interested once you start to explain it...the key is to get them to answer up and repeat things. "Christ was born in...?" and they are too shy to answer so you repeat the statement and then one shyly mumbles "Jerusalem?" and you say "Not quite..." and you tell them "Bethlehem" and there's a vague murmur of "Oh, yeah...of course" and so you  then start again "Christ was born in...?" and you get a chorus of the right answer...and so it goes on. They knew the name of the first Pope - a big chorus of "Peter" and they eagerly searched for the name of Pope Benedict on the big plaque listing all of them...and they knew about him and about Pope John Paul, and of course about Pope Francis...They didn't know about Pope Gregory and St Augustine and "Non angli sed angeli"  but they liked the story and were able to repeat it back to me in due course. Odd gaps in children's knowledge, though...when I talked about St Paul one of them asked what a shipwreck was.

The main interest arose as we stood at the foot of the nave and I commented that it would be a superb aisle to walk up as a bride...one commented thoughtfully that you'd need a long hymn because the walk would be a long one, another asked how much a wedding like that might cost...(I noted that the cathedral would be free, but it would right to make a donation...and then afterwards, giving champagne and cake to all those people would cost a bit...best to start talking to her dad about it now, so as to get saving...)

And then, after a quick coffee-and-emails break in a nearby café, a change of mood.  I hurried to London Bridge. Here, a couple of us had agreed to meet at Precious Blood Church to do a Rosary Walk. We were doing it all last summer, a little group of women quietly walking around the parish, praying the Rosary. This evening, a Rosary in thanksgiving for many blessings received...

There is so much history in The Borough, along this little bit of the Thames. Borough High Street and Redcross Way... the little garden established by Octavia Hill with its rush-pond and little bridge... Guy's Hospital chapel and a lady came in to pray, and asked if we had any matches as she wanted to light a candle...

We are having a Parish History Walk on July 8th as part of the Patronal Festival. Watch this blog for more on that...

...and don't forget...

...the DAY OF FAITH, with Bishop Philip Egan and author George Weigel among the speakers. June 18th at St Patrick's, Soho Square. There is still time to book your ticket, but HURRY...info here...

We celebrated...

...the conclusion of our Evangelisation course with a party on Saturday evening, wine and snacks and cake and a general spirit of unity and merriment. There is a Maryvale Mythology that binds together all who have ever studied here, and cannot really be conveyed except by a general reference to  the culture of the place...

This weekend had a special mood of its own, set against the background of the horrible legislation now going through Parliament, and the all too obvious schemes by campaigners dedicated to wrecking any public teaching or affirmation  of Christian sexual morality. There was serious, thoughtful discussion, some inspirational teaching, beautiful moments in the chapel, and a great sense of growing unity and friendship among members of the group...

Fresh Evangelisation...

...oh, how badly our poor country needs it...

And doing it is joyful.

Spent Friday afternoon packing up prizes for the children taking part in the Schools Project run by the Ladies Ordinariate Group at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge. This was great fun: coffee brewed, sandwiches shared, and much agreeable talk and laughter as we worked. The LOGS group contacted all the Church of England and Catholic primary schools in Greater London - that's a large number, stretching from Barnet in the North down to Kent in the south - and invited the children to take part in a handwriting and artwork venture. They were given some Psalms to read, and were to choose one, and copy out some lines they particularly liked - minimum of 4 lines, max. of 6 - and illustrate them any way they liked. Then in one paragraph, to give reasons for their choice.

We received some absolutely beautiful work - wonderful illustrations of deer by running streams, and the Lord being a shepherd, and a cup overflowing, and so on and so on...and the children's reasons for choosing particular lines were touching and often truly inspiring. Reading through the entries was a big team effort and we loved it...and sending out prizes and arranging for a display of the children's work has been a most enjoyable exercise.

We were still busy and enjoying ourselves when Fr Chris came through and noted that it was 6 pm...and we all had homes and families and evening commitments...I was catching a late train to Maryvale from Marylebone...

On the train I relaxed with another thoroughly enjoyable project, embroidering a sampler to mark the birth of a new great-niece. The arrival of this baby has given much joy...

Maryvale, and the welcome that awaits as soon as you go through the gates and up the path beneath the arching trees. The grounds look particularly lovely this weekend because there is to be the annual Mass and Procession honouring the feast of the Sacred Heart...as the weekend progressed, the preparations gathered pace, with a great outdoor church created in front of the pillars and verandah at the side of the house where a lovely statue of Mary stands in front of a large flower-bed in the shape of a Cross, with the Stations alongside. Great stacks of flowers, chairs arranged in row after row stretching back towards the main lawn...and while we were at lectures tackling Evangelisation and discussing ways of  doing Confirmation preparation or youth work or talking about the problems and challenges and opportunities, with the Scriptures and the Catechism, Maryvale was readying itself to welcome large crowds for what is evidently a major local event...

The Coronation chair...

...is currently on display in Westminster Abbey, in a side chapel near the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior , close to the great west door. A thick band  of blood-red  Flanders poppies surrounds the tomb, and people gather round, falling silent as they read the inscription. Nearby the monuments include one to Lord Shaftesbury, whose great work for the poor including freeing children from work in mines and factories, and one to Winston Churchill.  Then as you turn your gaze to the sanctuary there are gleams of gold, and above you the great arches soar...all this in just a few short minutes taken from a busy morning, and the images linger in the mind throughout the day. We lunched in a pub near St James' Park and then made our good-byes - my sister will shortly be returning to New Zealand after this family visit - and I went on to Charing Cross, and thence to Pembury.

Pembury? It's a village in Kent, reached via a train journey through countryside all green and lush in June sunshine after months and months of rain. In Pembury Fr Ed Tomlinson of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham ministers to a growing flock...the church of St Anselm operates in a hall which functions as a nursery during the week and so has to be transformed for worship, with much unpacking of altar and arranging of chairs and collecting of hassocks etc from cupboards. Hassocks...now there's Anglican patrimony for you. "Couldn't you have proper tapestry hassocks, done by the ladies-of-the-parish?" I asked.  Of course, came the cheery reply, and here's-one-that's-been-done-already, and he showed a fine piece of work commemorating the Queen's diamond jubilee. I badly want to help: I'm currently just finishing a small cross-stitch sampler for a new baby ( enchanting new great-niece arrived just recently)  but when that's done, I hope the parish follows up on the hassocks plan and invites volunteers...

Mass, once the hall was transformed into a church. Then I gave my talk on saints - the latest in a series of talks organised by Fr Ed for the Year of Faith. A good attendance, and a good spirit among them all. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a sign of hope in sad and difficult times for our country.  As we sat talking later, we looked at reports and analyses of the tragic House of Lords vote to impose a redefinition of marriage on us all. It's grim: several Anglican bishops actually abstained, apparently unable to bring themselves to oppose this ghastly thing. The Catholic bishops have issued a statement emphasising opposition and saying they will fight for the rights of  conscience etc.

Whenever Christians gather to talk about saints today some one mentions martyrdom, and people start to quote that recent remark by Cardinal George of Chicago...

But there is everything to play for.  We need hope, courage, prayer, wisdom, common sense,  unity with Peter's successor in Rome...and trust in God...

London, sixty years after...

...the Coronation, with all its rich Christian symbolism.  And today Parliament voted to impose a new law stating that two men can marry.  A tragic day, a sense of something ending.

London was beautiful today - the tide was far out along the Thames, revealing wide beaches,  and while boats chugged past out in the deeper water, people on the shore sipped drinks and chatted and packed out the bars and restaurants...

I have been busy with family things all week, and this afternoon we went to The Globe, and stood in the Yard to enjoy an absolutely stunning presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Act 1, where Lysander is arguing with Demetrius about who should marry Hermia, he notes that Demetrius seems to get on very well with Hermia's father Aegeus, so why doesn't he marry him instead?  When Shakespeare wrote that, he could never have imagined...

With the Holy Father...

...the Church around the world today prayed in unity before the Blessed Sacrament.  He had organised it for 5pm, Rome time, and for us in Britain that meant 4pm - an ideal time, just completing a Sunday afternoon...

I went to morning Mass at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge -  it was the parish  First Communion Mass and a vast congregation, standing-room only.  There were a lot of friends-and-neighbours of the First Communicants, and  a number were all too obviously unfamiliar with being in church: a good deal of talking and Father made a plea for silence before Mass began. He preached extremely well - an easy, informal style, standing at the sanctuary steps... over the high altar are the words "Christus dilexit nos et lavit nos in sanguine suo"  and he asked for help to translate it. A child volunteered: the word "Christus" is obviously a fairly easy start...and together they did it, and as they did so, the congregation was hooked...

The children  behaved impeccably, the girls in white dresses and the boys in jackets-and-ties...the Mass ended with a great Blessed Sacrament procession surging out into the streets - we went  under the big railway viaduct, and along Borough High Street, past the War Memorial and down Union Street and so finally back to the church for Benediction... the girls strewed flowers before the Blessed Sacrament, the boys formed an honour guard, there was the usual muddle with singing as it's impossible to keep a straggly  crowd like that in unison, and several people said that next year we should have a brass band!  Then, after Tantum Ergo and a traditional Benediction, a terrific squash of people in the Parish Room where there was not only a celebration cake and lots of  snacks, but great platefuls of rice and chicken (this is a v. African and West Indian parish) and wine...

Then, later, after the clearing-up (including removal of  some chewing-gum from the carpet, ugh)...the quiet church, and the Blessed Sacrament, and a reminder that we were gathering there to pray in union with Pope Francis and the worldwide church: in America it was  11 in the morning, in Japan it was already night...

Then I went on to St Patrick's, Soho Square, because I had a longstanding commitment to go to the Procession there, too. I always love this Procession, because the Blessed Sacrament is taken right through Soho, and we give out little gifts of Miraculous Medals wrapped in Scripture verses. There are some wonderful encounters. "What is this? What is that parade about?" When I explain about the Blessed Sacrament, most people vaguely understand. One said "I'm a Catholic - but we don't have this in Ireland" (they do, they do, but evidently not enough, and not in his parish). Several others also said "I'm a Catholic..." but appeared unfamiliar with the idea of the Blessed Sacrament... light sort of dawning as I mentioned the Mass, and Holy Communion...

This Procession - a very large one, preceded by an International Mass in St Patrick's - always finishes with a grand Benediction in the churchyard of St-Giles-in-the-Fields, a nice ecumenical gesture. The Rector and his team made us all most welcome, and we all chatted agreeably over wine and fruit juices in the evening sunshine...

And then finally home. That was a lot of  procession and singing for one Sunday. But I loved it.

...and...

...looking ahead to the summer, don't forget to book in for the JOHN PAUL WALK to Walsingham, starts August 7th with a Mass in the ancient abbey at Bury St Edmunds. It's organised by the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph: find out more from their website here.

Summer is on its way...

...and Auntie is planning her summer activities - or rather, her winter ones, because part of August will be spent Down Under, where it will be wintertime.

First, however, to the USA, to take part in EWTN's Family Celebration,  and then on to Australia, for a rather rusharound lecture tour...I have three new books coming out, two are books of saints for children, and one is about Brigettine nuns and helping to save Jewish people in wartime Rome. An exploration of this tragic chapter of history reveals some poignant stories...and restores the truth about the maligned Pius XII, who actually saved a huge number of lives. Along with him - literally, working alongside, and making the necessary visits to places to arrange hiding-places etc,, often in dangerous conditions - was the young Mgr Montini,  better known to history as Paul VI.   Both of these men have been the object of sneers and abuse, and it is important to set out the truth and  give honour where it is due.

Working on the book about the Brigettine nuns has been difficult: by definition, hiding people secretly in wartime is not something that involves written records or publicity...but it was exciting once I got some breakthroughs, and now the thing has been written, and in a couple of months I will hold the book in my hands.

The feast of the Visitation...

...in Sussex, on a perfect May evening in the church of Our Lady Queen of Peace in the Adur Valley, an ordination, and  a packed church singing "Veni, veni Sancte Spiritus..."

It was all a bonus for me, as I had arranged to be with friends who organise the Catholic History Walks: we meet from time to time at their home in Sussex, to plan the next set of walks, check on how the whole venture is going, etc. We generally start with evening Mass in their local church, then enjoy a family supper and talk. But this time Jayne telephoned to say there was an ordination in their parish and asked if I'd like to go...

It was glorious. AS the long stream of clergy processed in, to the sound of our singing, bells were pealing out across the village, as the local Anglican church was also having an ordination that evening (and, pleasingly, mutual prayers were offered amid general goodwill: a nice gesture), and evening sunshine streamed in through the church windows.  The new deacon, Stephen Sharpe,  was ordained by the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton...it is always so moving when the ordinand prostrates himself before the altar and the saints are invoked in chanted  prayer. Here in this corner of Sussex, St Cuthman ("The boy with the cart")was invoked along with the other saints - including Blessed John Paul,  which gave a sense of the great sweep of time and history...

The Bishop was wearing new vestments - very beautiful, richly embroidered - and the new deacon was invested with a new dalmatic of the same design, the stiff material being unfolded as the garment was put over his head.  The prayers of ordination are magnificent, and there was a sense of a new surge of strength coming to the Church.

This is a good parish: lots of  families -  children's names on a notice-board announcing First Communion, each child's name inscribed on a pictured candle, inviting parishioners to pray. Fr Sean Finegan, the parish priest, spoke at the end of the Mass and invited everyone into the parish hall, where there was the most magnificent spread...the chocolate truffles were so especially delicious that we were invited to take some home with us, and Auntie did so, and they are waiting in the fridge to be enjoyed during the week ahead.

It was all so very beautiful and happy that we lingered, and it was late when Bryan and Jayne finally took me back to their house and over mugs of tea, we finally tackled the History Walks...more info shortly on these, but be assured that there is a full programme for the months ahead, and we're starting a new initiative for London Catholic schools