For January...

... WEDNESDAY EVENINGS 7.30pm  at the Church of the Assumption, Warwick St, WI (nearest tube:  Piccadilly Circus). FAITH Movement.

Wed Jan 15th Fr Stephen Dingley "What makes man unique in God's creation?"

Wed Jan 22nd  Fr Dominic Rolls “The Evocation of the Word”

Wed Jan 29th Fr Chris Findlay-Wilson “God our Environer"

Wed Feb 5th Fr Tim Finigan 'How does Jesus Christ save us?'

 

ALL WELCOME.  No need to book - just turn up.  Come and find out more about the Catholic Faith. Come with questions. Come ready to listen and talk and think things through.  Come on your own or being some one else along too.

 

London as Christmas approaches...

..has some heart-warming sights. A troop of children in long golden robes and with circlets of golden tinsel on their heads, carrying carol-sheets and walking along two by two, with a teacher at the head and rear, heading for a nearby church for a Nativity play. An angelic choir, but giggling and excited and messing about...

Some shops have lovely window displays, and there are lots of Christmas trees including one in New Palace Yard by the Houses of Parliament, and of course the big one in Trafalgar Square.   But...some shops have ALREADY (BEFORE CHRISTMAS HAS EVEN ARRIVED!) taken down their Christmas decorations and put up signs for post-Christmas sales...aaargh!

We - that is LOGS, the Ladies Ordinariate Group - gathered in good numbers at London Bridge station to sing carols. This involved some  formalities beforehand, reporting to the Network Rail Office in Tooley Street and being given a formal Briefing ("In the Event of Fire, you must Leave by the Nearest Available Exit" etc)...and then there is always a moment of awkwardness as the group forms up on the station concourse and carol-sheets are distributed...but then once we really got singing, it was all absolutely superb.. We sang and sang, and there was lots of goodwill, people coming up to donate money, to thank us, to wish us a Merry Christmas. People especially like to bring their children up to put a coin in the box and to enjoy the carol-singing...

Our singing filled the station: we found that the acoustics worked really well if we stood facing outwards, with the trains behind us...and people in fact could also hear us even as they approached from the steps and escalators.

All heartily enjoyable, and then afterwards, a cheery gathering back at Precious Blood Church with mulled wine and mince pies...

Carol singing...

tonight (Fri 21st Dec) at London Bridge station. Look out for us...

And on Wednesday I joined a group singing at VICTORIA station, organised as ever by the splendid Yvonne with volunteers from various places including  the excellent parish of St Joseph's, Roehampton. The singing was really glorious - we had a good crowd, a couple of guitarists and we sang all the traditional carols, with some particularly lovely singing for "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World", and the most magnificent "Glooooorias" for "Angels we have heard on high"  and "Sing dong merrily..."  We sang "Adeste Fideles" in Latin and in English. Mindful of Papa Francis' call to evangelise, we sang  "Joy to the World" specially for him, and it went exceptionally well - and then we sang "Silent Night" for Papa Benedict, and it was so lovely that we sang it again, and then a third time.

It was all most heartily enjoyable, and the station - surging with massive commuter crowds - was filled with our music, and we had lots of people stopping to thank us, take pics, or even come and join in for a carol or two.

Now, this is all part of the real Christmas.

Last night, a group of us were due to sing carols around the streets of a corner of The Borough, but the terrific roaring thunderstorm made it completely impossible,  so after Mass, with the rain still hurtling down and thunder crashing, we settled in the parish room with some wine and snacks and had a very enjoyable time of talk and laughter.

Tonight, London Bridge station...

This morning...

I went to Mass at the lovely Catholic residence where a much-loved elderly relative lives. I normally visit in the afternoon or evening, and this was the first time I'd been at the daily Mass in the chapel. It was a beautiful experience. 

Sometimes - and this was such a time - there is this wonderful sense of being utterly at home in the Church, of knowing that this is where we all belong.  Celebrating the Mass was Bishop Howard Tripp - whom I have known since I was a teenager - and concelebrating with him was Fr Scott Anderson, of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, who was there at my suggestion because we had arranged to meet and this was a convenient place and time. Despite the age and frailty of many of the residents, all joined in the responses, and received Communion with great devotion...while other memories get confused, and life can seem very muddled when you are very old, the Mass remains a constant, and I found it a most powerful experience to be there witnessing that. And a kind volunteer visitor at the Home was serving the Mass - and came up to chat afterwards, reminding me that we had known each other years ago when I was a Borough councillor in the Borough of Sutton...it was so good to talk, and to reminisce...

The Advent candles glowed on the wreath - just one more to be lit next Sunday - and in the big room next door a large crib stood in the wide bay window, awaiting the Christ-child. Bishop Tripp spoke about St Joseph, and his role in the Christmas story, and the whole thing came alive...

This morning Mass gave a glow to the whole day.

Want to know more about Christmas?

And test your knowledge on what you already know?  Try the Christmas Quiz in this parish newsletter. Link here  and go to "Advent III" and you'' get the Gaudete newsletter complete with Quiz...

CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK...

...the last one of 2014. Meet INSIDE Westminster Cathedral this Tuesday at 3pm. A tour of the Cathedral, telling the story of the various side-chapels, the great events that have taken place there etc etc. New stone, recently laid by the great main door, commemorates Papa Benedict's magnificent visit in 2010 and his meeting with the crowd of young people in the piazza. New mosaics up by the High Altar. Mosaic of St David, finally honouring Wales after a century when only England Scotland and Ireland had their saints in the Cathedral. And more. Come and join us.

Gaudete Sunday...

...and after Mass, and a brief interlude for some coffee and biscuits, a team of volunteers set about cleaning the church and getting it ready for Christmas.

Precious Blood church at The Borough, London Bridge is a v. mixed parish. A lot of men - a pleasing sound of deep voices in the Mass responses - a lot of children (yes, and some yelling babies). Mix of races and ages. All sorts of people. Busy parish, and Christmas looks set to be busy.

Some of us got to work cleaning, while others started to clamber up into the attic and search out decorations, manoeuvre big Christmas trees into position and unpack the Nativity scene etc.  "If you find bubble-gum stuck under pews, don't use soap and water to get it off - come to me, as I've got the right stuff", said the Rector cheerfully. Bubble-gum? Yes, although stuck on to the floor, not under a pew. Only one piece. But - ugh!

We did a thorugh job of cleaning. Never thought of hoovering inside a confessional before, but if you think about it, it does get dust and mud and so on in there. We also tackled some high-up cobwebs in a side-chapel, using a mop with a looooong handle...

A couple of years ago, I fell down some stairs and broke my arm and after that I began to be wary of steep stairs or steps, so in order to conquer this fear I've been making a special point of  asking to go up ladders.  This meant that I got some v. enjoyable  jobs today, including putting the star on top of the Tree, and draping the lights, and fixing the golden bells and other ornaments on the highest branches.  Most satisfying.

Putting the finishing touches...

...to the next BOOK, due out in the Spring. I am writing it with a friend, Clare Anderson, with whom I have also made a TV programme, which you can watch on EWTN in due course. The programme is about the great John Paul, and we travelled in his footsteps from Wadowice to Krakow, visiting Czestochowa  and Kalwaria...we have just been sent a DVD and I went to Clare's house to watch it. We  sat rather nervously while her husband put the disc into the machine...but then when the programme3 started, we found we were pleased and even rather gripped.  Info about when it is to be broadcast will be announced on this Blog as soon as it is available...or you can keep checking the EWTN website, which will also of course be carrying info...

Pics arrive...

...from the official photographer at Auntie's Degree ceremony. The Apostolic Nuncio looks splendid, standing in the magnificent Cathedral, handing over a formal scroll, all tied up with ribbon...but who is the the plump jolly bespectacled lady in academic cap and gown, beaming at the camera, all rosy cheeks and hearty handshake? Golly, it's me.

J. says loyally "You look splendid!"  and nephews and nieces give kind affectionate hugs. But I remember a slimmer young woman, long long ago, in other formal photographs taken at dances and regimental dinners, with a waist and with light brown hair....golly, the years go by. And here I am. Different.

A wonderful traditional candlelit procession through London...

...rounding off the Mission Weekend organised by St Patrick's, Soho.  It was a superb sight - and sound - as the crowd came surging through the streets around Piccadilly, with the singing and the glowing candles and lanterns and the young faces.

The Sunday evening began with a great Mass at St Patrick's - this is an International Mass, with everyone singing the   Credo, Agnus Dei, Sanctus etc etc  in Latin, a rousing sound, and saying the Our Father together in lots of different languages. Then the procession moved out into the street, a great statue of Mary carried high by strong young men, and the whole thing led by a Cross-bearer and acolytes... lots of singing...people in pubs and restaurants staring and taking pictures, and teams of young people dispensing holy medals all around...

This year the procession finished at the Ordinariate Church in Warwick Street,  the Church of the Assumption, where there was a Litany, and then  Night Prayer - all the young voices singing, so glorious to hear.  And then there was mulled wine and mince pies for anyone who managed squeeze in and get some...my job was to dispense the mulled wine, and I hugely enjoyed doing this and the wonderful atmosphere of joy and friendship...

Soho...

...all of London needs the love of Christ, but Soho perhaps needs it in specially large doses. And will be receiving it this weekend, as the young team from St Patrick's Soho hold their Advent Mission. Prayer, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, street evangelisation, young people with lanterns taking the message of Christ out to the lost and lonely and the rich and the miserable and the muddled and the why-was-I-ever born...

Want to help? Join them in prayer...

The culmination of...

...a year's work.  The Prizegiving for the 2013 Schools Bible Project took place this week at the House of Lords. Baroness Cox, who is a Trustee of Christian Projects, the group that runs this big annual essay scheme for schools, presented the prizes.

This is a nationwide project, run on a large scale. Every secondary school in Britain receives a brochure, inviting pupils to study six different events in the New Testament. Each pupil must then choose one of the events and write about it as if he or she had been actually present. This year, the events included Christ raising Lazarus from the dead,  Christ calming the storm at sea, Mary Magdalene meeting the risen Christ...

As all the essays pour in, a team of judges is gathered and every essay is read carefully. The main winners are selected, together with a large number of runners-up. Prizes are posted  or delivered to all the schools - a mammoth task. During the Autumn term, I am also  kept busy visiting various schools to present prizes - a task I very much enjoy.

The main winners go to the Houses of Parliament, where they are given a tour and taught about the history (JB's task again) and then there is Tea and the presentation of the prizes - which include books for the pupils, and cash awards for their schools.

The winners this year:
1st prize: Megan Tyrell, St John Payne School, Chelmsford and How Turnbull, Hereford cathedral School.
2nd prize: Tyson McGuirk, St Joseph's School, Workington and Alice Cox, Our Lady's Convent, Loughborough
3rd Prize: Alex Meher. st John's C and E School Epping and Isabella Ward, St Mary's School, Ascot
4th Prize Binuri Wijesinghe Dr Challoner's High Schools, Bucks, Lindsay Marie Davis, Hillgrove School, Bangor and Harrison Tinley, Mayville High School, Southsea.

A full hall of...

...First Communion parents, at St Joseph's, Epsom. A most happy and heartening evening: this is a large and thriving parish, and every year when I am invited to talk to the First Communion parents, there is such a wonderful welcome...it is partly because this is all not far from my home, and also the home in which I grew up, and so there are all sorts of links, friendships, shared knowledge of schools and parishes and so on.  But it's mostly simply because this is a wonderful parish where good things are happening. This time, I had brought along copies of YOUCAT which had been specifically (and generously!) donated so that every parent could have a copy. I cannot recommend YOUCAT too highly...if you haven't got a copy. hurry and get one.

Yesterday was a strange day, in that it began in Willesden, at the Shrine of Our Lady, where I met members of the SPES team from St Patrick's for a pilgrimage. An early Mass, a short talk about the shrine, which is well worth a visit and then we set off on a Rosary Walk along the canal. It ought to be a lovely walk - and in lots of ways it was, a beautiful Autumn morning, a good spirit between us, and the voices saying the Rosary back and forth - but the path along the canal is spoilt by litter and horrible manic graffiti, and it somehow has a bleak feel to it. We were all perfectly safe, but it would be no place to go for an evening walk....

However...we finished at Tyburn convent, where we paid tribute to the martyrs, and prayed, and then went on to the site of the Tyburn gallows and said some more of the Rosary there (suitably, we were now at the Sorrowful Mysteries).  And so on to St Patrick's.  Here, Auntie acknowledged her age and was given an opportunity for a good rest. Then lunch, and a talk to the SPES team.  Then home, and a rush to pack things up and hurry to Epsom...

...and there is a rather delightful...

report from Rome describing  what it was like being one of the people selected to meet the Holy Father at the publication (good analysis of the thing, too...)

Papa Francis...

...who is of course simply splendid, has come up with a new Apostolic Exhortation, and it's excellent - warm, vigourous, challenging, orientated towards active lay apostles and not diocesan bureaucrats, and with an upbeat 21st-century feel. Full text here.  It tackles greed, the current obsessions with money and the sinister use of unjust power in unbridled money-making, our longing for truth and for beauty, the urgency of teaching the glorious message of the Faith...

At the start of this pontificate, a nasty Blog (USA-based, I think)  which asserts itself as being "traditional", said a number of horrible things about the Holy Father. Never apologised. Never posted a proper correction. Then the Lefebvrists weighed in with their nasty rants, as did a couple of quasi-Lefebvrist lobby groups. Ugh.  Meanwhile, there was a  grand turn-out for World Youth Day, some wonderful encounters in St Peter's Square, and more...

My only worry is that the joyful call for an invigorated evangelisation will fall, as did Papa Benedict's, on deaf ears.  For too many people, Catholicism is seen as a sort of tribal tradition, in which a passionate search for truth and a joyful discovery of God's huge love for us do not really feature.  Papa Benedict's message was centred on the love that God has for each one of us, and the life-changing things that can happen when we discover that love. To help people make that discovery, we must evangelise - and doing so is itself a joyful adventure.

Oh, and a memo to those who don't get what Christ's love is all about: it doesn't mean that the Church ever can, or should, or wants to, or seeks to,  change the deep meaning and purpose in God's plan for human life and love, as taught "from the beginning."  (Bet  they don't listen. While all sorts of great and good things happen, they'll still be moaning about why the Church is oppressive in saying that marriage is between a man and a woman...it must be so dreary for them).

And they never learn from  their mistakes, even the blatant and embarrassing ones. Remember all that talk about John Paul being a Polish peasant whose influence on world events was going to be fairly minimal? About how Communism, while it had irritating aspects,  was basically an economic success story which hadn't been allowed a fair chance to prosper?   About how an elderly Pole couldn't possibly talk to youth in the late 20th century?   And, for good measure, about how Benedict's visit to Britain wasn't going to be a success?   Their idiotic comments flashed through my mind as we stood in Hyde Park and heard the cheers and cheers of the vast crowd as he made his way towards us, and we saw on the TV screens mothers holding up their babies for him to bless, and people holding up placards of affectionate greetings...

Catholic schools...

Read some thoughts by Auntie here...

Whitstable...

...and the Vocations Centre there, now very much up-and-running, with young men at prayer in the chapel and busy at various tasks, good numbers expected at various planned events and conferences, a little Jack Russell dog keeping everyone lively, and a warm welcome for this guest...

Discussion of a school project, piloted a couple of years ago and now about to swing into action for Jan 2014.  A walk by the sea with the sun saying its farewell to the Autumn day in a glow of gold and silver.  Much talk and laughter, and news...

Read more...

...about the Procession here...

A Traditional procession for the Feast of Christ the King...

...to round off the Year of Faith.  The  Blessed Sacrament carried aloft beneath a canopy held up by four very study young men, who responded to an appeal at the end of Mass and tackled the task of getting the whole thing through the church door with vigour...a large flock of people, Sunday School children  wearing brightly coloured crowns studded with glitter etc and with hand-written messages like "Jesus in our king"...all preceded by a loud ringing of the bell and a great Cross and  much swirling of incense, and candles held in those useful glass thingummys on poles, so they don't putter out.   We sang "Hail Redeemer King Divine - all eight (or it is ten? haven't got the sheet with me) verses again and again...this actually worked better than trying to cope with different hymns, and the volunteer stewards in day-glow jackets kept us moving...down the Borough High Street...Workmen at the War Memorial (being dismantled for repairs) stared a bit but none removed their helmets or showed any interest...

Only a few years ago,  a religious procession with servers and a cross and loud singing, would have meant some passers-by pulling off their hats and/or crossing themselves. Now, at least in The Borough High Street, you get indifference, except for lots of people snapping on mobile phones. It's as if people can't enjoy reality, only a picture of reality...

After Benediction, a gathering in the Parish Room with some delicious snacks and fizz...

An afternoon visit to a beloved elderly relation.  Yesterday at Towards Advent I was given a copy of Johnann Christoph Arnold's new book "Rich in Years" which has some wise and helpful thoughts on this subject. The Alliance of Pro-Life Students is distributing it around...warmly recommended...

TOWARDS ADVENT....

...and every year the Festival of Catholic Culture exceeds expectations.  This year, the choir of St Philomena's School, Carshalton,  sang most beautifully, first Panis Angelicus and then "A Gaelic Blessing". It was greatly enjoyable, as a Philomenian, to be there welcoming them at Westminster Cathedral, and then giving each girl a little thank-you gift (CTS Prayer Books). I asked them "Don't you think that your choir director should receive something special" and they chorused "Yes!" and applauded, and I handed over a gift-wrapped parcel (a gold-edged new Missal plus a book by JB)...

It is always a day mapped out in high-speed moves: arrival at the Cathedral Hall with every group - over 30 take part in the Festival - rushing to claim its table and set it up with books and gifts and posters and decorations...the organising of the refreshments that will be on sale all day (Deo Gratias for Josephine Robinson and the wonderful Association of Catholic Women, who have run this with superb efficiency since the Festival's foundation)...greeting the choir and showing them where to change and rehearse etc...unpacking all the things I have brought for various stalls,...finally also unpacking the books for my own stall, shared with a young relative who is an award-winning author  signing copies of her books...and then suddenly, it's time for the doors to open, and people are pouring in...and then at 10.30 the Archbishop arrives, the Chairman (Brian Towler, of the Catenians) makes the opening greetings - and the FESTIVAL BEGINS!

Archbishop Vincent Nichols spoke exceptionally well at the Opening ceremony, lifting our thoughts up to God and setting the tone for the day in exactly the right way.  The mood was friendly, bustling, open and cheerful. The speakers, Edmund Adamus of the diocese of Westminster and Sister Hyacinthe of the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph, were of a high standard. New features included  a stall (including some lovely Christmas cards) run by the splendid team at the Sons of Divine Providence at Hampton Wick),and the popular  craft stall run by the Ladies Ordinariate Group (I found it fun when a couple of people asked me "Have you met those Ordinariate ladies? They're really nice!")...and it was a joy, as always, to chat to the young team running Magnificat and Second Spring...during the day my only regret is that, as I am hurrying about on errands and making announcements, I am only able to have proper conversations with a small number of the friends and colleagues that I greet with a wave or smile too briefly...

...and then it's over, and I'm hurrying back from chairing Sister Hyacinthe's talk (Hinsley Room) to the main hall (Cathedral Hall) and finding people packing up and cleaning things...

...and then Jamie ( who always loyally arrives with gusto, greeting friends and relatives, hugging nieces, enjoying a good natter with various clergy)   joined me for supper with Dan Cooper of the Faith Movement in a restaurant across Victoria Street. I was too tired to eat much and simply began with cup after cup of delicious freshly-brewed TEA, a baffled waitress anxiously bringing a second pot and extra hot water...