...at Westminster Cathedral the other day, to meet the Vatican Cricket team, enjoying a most successful visit to Britain. They have played the Royal Household, and a team from the Houses of |Parliament, plus an inter-faith game in which they joined with the Archbishop of Canterbury's XI plus cricketers from the Sikh, Hindu and Moslem religions...
On Sunday J and I had the pleasure of spending the evening with John McCarthy, former Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, who initiated this whole venture. It is superb to see it all flourishing: the Queen attended the Royal Household match.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
In scorching heat...
...London's lawns are turning white, grass is dying, and feet are pounding dry baked earth.At St Mary's University the traces of the underground WWII air-raid shelter can be seen as the drought reveals the pattern beneath the scorched grass.
You can read Auntie's take on it all here...
You can read Auntie's take on it all here...
Monday, July 09, 2018
Recent news...
...a glorious First Mass for newly-ordained Fr Jonathan Creer at the Church of the Most Precious Blood on Sunday July 1st. He had been ordained the previous day at the Birmingham Oratory.
The Mass at Pr Blood was packed and was the last to take place in the church before big renovations begin with the laying of a new floor.
Afterwards, celebrations over fizz in the Redcross Gardens nearby: scorching sunshine across all of London so it was good to be in a place with some trees and greenery.The Gardens were initiated by Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust and much more...as she was a fervent High Anglican, it is somehow appropriate that the Gardens she created are now in regular use by the Ordinariate with that special heritage.
As the afternoon drew on, I made my way to London Bridge station where after a badly-needed cup of tea I travelled to Tunbridge Wells, and thence to Pembury for Evensong and the blessing of a beautiful stained glass window which completes the transformation of what was once a dreary hall on the village green into a charming little church, St Anselm's. A beautiful traditional Evensong with splendid singing, and then out into the gardens for more fizz and talk and celebrations...
An Ordinariate day...
The Mass at Pr Blood was packed and was the last to take place in the church before big renovations begin with the laying of a new floor.
Afterwards, celebrations over fizz in the Redcross Gardens nearby: scorching sunshine across all of London so it was good to be in a place with some trees and greenery.The Gardens were initiated by Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust and much more...as she was a fervent High Anglican, it is somehow appropriate that the Gardens she created are now in regular use by the Ordinariate with that special heritage.
As the afternoon drew on, I made my way to London Bridge station where after a badly-needed cup of tea I travelled to Tunbridge Wells, and thence to Pembury for Evensong and the blessing of a beautiful stained glass window which completes the transformation of what was once a dreary hall on the village green into a charming little church, St Anselm's. A beautiful traditional Evensong with splendid singing, and then out into the gardens for more fizz and talk and celebrations...
An Ordinariate day...
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
THIS BLOG...
...has been silent for the past two weeks.
Pray for the beloved soul of
Mrs Susan Gowan Bogle, much-loved wife, mother, grandmother and mother-in-law. "Far above rubies" (Prov.31:10).
This Blog will recommence shortly.
Pray for the beloved soul of
Mrs Susan Gowan Bogle, much-loved wife, mother, grandmother and mother-in-law. "Far above rubies" (Prov.31:10).
This Blog will recommence shortly.
Monday, June 18, 2018
The Eucharistic Congress...
...takes place in Liverpool in September and I'll be there...the ticketing seems unecessarily complex - there are meant to be 2 delegates from each parish, but of course that means lots of discussion and checking and fuss... Why don't they just say:"All welcome! Buy a ticket!"
Anyway, my ticket is all organised, and I'm looking forward to it all, especially as Bishop Robert Barron is to be a keynote speaker.
MASSIVE History Walk on Thursday...something like 100 people. We began at Westminster Cathedral and although we had a formal completion at the gardens alongside the Houses of Parliament, a large crowd wanted to continue down along the Thames to the Tower. A great atmosphere and a wonderful afternoon. Some of us peeled off at London Bridge for Evensong and Mass at Precious Blood church...and then afterwards I hurried across the river to the the pub near the Tower where the final group had agreed to meet for supper....and things finished at a very late hour...a hearty meal, prosecco, lots of lively talk...and then out into the summer night and I caught almost the last Tube trundling out to the suburbs...
It was a busy week...a LOGS meeting at Norwood on Monday evening...excellent talk from Fr James Clark, chaplain at the John Fisher School. A family connection with the school goes back a good many years...and in the chapel there are some altar-kneelers worked by Auntie Joanna...
LOGS has some good plans for the Autumn, starting with a three-day pilgrimage to Walsingham, staying at Dowry House.
At the weekend, a wonderful Silver Wedding party given by a couple whose wedding J and I attended...golly, it just doesn't seem 25 years ago...Saturday's gathering was joyful and full of friends and fun...
Anyway, my ticket is all organised, and I'm looking forward to it all, especially as Bishop Robert Barron is to be a keynote speaker.
MASSIVE History Walk on Thursday...something like 100 people. We began at Westminster Cathedral and although we had a formal completion at the gardens alongside the Houses of Parliament, a large crowd wanted to continue down along the Thames to the Tower. A great atmosphere and a wonderful afternoon. Some of us peeled off at London Bridge for Evensong and Mass at Precious Blood church...and then afterwards I hurried across the river to the the pub near the Tower where the final group had agreed to meet for supper....and things finished at a very late hour...a hearty meal, prosecco, lots of lively talk...and then out into the summer night and I caught almost the last Tube trundling out to the suburbs...
It was a busy week...a LOGS meeting at Norwood on Monday evening...excellent talk from Fr James Clark, chaplain at the John Fisher School. A family connection with the school goes back a good many years...and in the chapel there are some altar-kneelers worked by Auntie Joanna...
LOGS has some good plans for the Autumn, starting with a three-day pilgrimage to Walsingham, staying at Dowry House.
At the weekend, a wonderful Silver Wedding party given by a couple whose wedding J and I attended...golly, it just doesn't seem 25 years ago...Saturday's gathering was joyful and full of friends and fun...
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Meanwhile in Ireland...
...what on earth do the organisers of the World Meeting of Families think they are doing by inviting this priest to be among the speakers?
Ireland badly needs a large-hearted, open and joyful gathering to celebrate God's plan for love and life. For far too long in the last century, there was more than a hint of Jansenism in the approach to married life and to sexual communion. It created a whole sort of myth about the true nature of the Church's message, that bore sour and poisonous fruit in more recent years, with this ghastly result in the referendum on abortion. It's time for a fresh new approach...not stale rubbish from an American talking about lesbianism.
FOR GOODNESS' SAKE, IRELAND! Wake up! Look to the truth and beauty of the Christian teaching - and give it a fair hearing with open hearts!
Ireland badly needs a large-hearted, open and joyful gathering to celebrate God's plan for love and life. For far too long in the last century, there was more than a hint of Jansenism in the approach to married life and to sexual communion. It created a whole sort of myth about the true nature of the Church's message, that bore sour and poisonous fruit in more recent years, with this ghastly result in the referendum on abortion. It's time for a fresh new approach...not stale rubbish from an American talking about lesbianism.
FOR GOODNESS' SAKE, IRELAND! Wake up! Look to the truth and beauty of the Christian teaching - and give it a fair hearing with open hearts!
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Tuesday, June 05, 2018
"Why haven't you written up your blog recently, Auntie Joanna?"
I am flattered that people have been asking. It's only been a few days. But they have been busy days.
Minor adventure in Arundel. After a glorious Corpus Christi procession - packed cathedral, wonderful music, excellent sermon from the Bishop, fabulous procession across the moat and through the castle grounds, glorious gardens and meadowland, Benediction there and then again in the Cathedral - I took a lingering walk through this lovely Sussex town, dallied over a glass of wine, tackled some emails. Then went on to the station - and found there were no trains! A substitute bus would take me to Billingshurst, and the driver was kind and went on to Horsham for me. But the station there was also bereft - must have been engineering works, or something. Another stranded passenger said a mate ran a good hotel not far away and gave me the number...I phoned, got a room, and spent a very comfortable night with an excellent breakfast in the morning.
Trains were running by then, so on to London to meet a colleague to map out some more History Walks.Pub lunch at the Mitre, after Mass at St Etheldreda's...it was good to be back there, a favourite haunt when St E's was the Guild church for the Catholic Writers' Guild...
The weekend saw the regular First Saturday Mass at this church, honiuring Our Lady of Walsingham: I had invited a friend and we had an agreeable chatty lunch afterwards near the river. Then on to Night Fever at St Patrick's, Soho.Sunday saw another History Walk, and then the Procession from St Patrick's through Soho with the Blessed Sacrament, and giving out devotional cards to all the crowds...Benediction in the churchyard at St Giles-in-the-Fields and then, chatting afterwards, a sudden late-night and enjoyable Chinese meal nearby.
There's more. But that's roughly why I didn't have much time to blog.
Minor adventure in Arundel. After a glorious Corpus Christi procession - packed cathedral, wonderful music, excellent sermon from the Bishop, fabulous procession across the moat and through the castle grounds, glorious gardens and meadowland, Benediction there and then again in the Cathedral - I took a lingering walk through this lovely Sussex town, dallied over a glass of wine, tackled some emails. Then went on to the station - and found there were no trains! A substitute bus would take me to Billingshurst, and the driver was kind and went on to Horsham for me. But the station there was also bereft - must have been engineering works, or something. Another stranded passenger said a mate ran a good hotel not far away and gave me the number...I phoned, got a room, and spent a very comfortable night with an excellent breakfast in the morning.
Trains were running by then, so on to London to meet a colleague to map out some more History Walks.Pub lunch at the Mitre, after Mass at St Etheldreda's...it was good to be back there, a favourite haunt when St E's was the Guild church for the Catholic Writers' Guild...
The weekend saw the regular First Saturday Mass at this church, honiuring Our Lady of Walsingham: I had invited a friend and we had an agreeable chatty lunch afterwards near the river. Then on to Night Fever at St Patrick's, Soho.Sunday saw another History Walk, and then the Procession from St Patrick's through Soho with the Blessed Sacrament, and giving out devotional cards to all the crowds...Benediction in the churchyard at St Giles-in-the-Fields and then, chatting afterwards, a sudden late-night and enjoyable Chinese meal nearby.
There's more. But that's roughly why I didn't have much time to blog.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
On the train to...
...Arundel, where every year there is a glorious Carpet of Flowers in the cathedral to honour the feast of Corpus Christi. Things culminate in a procession through the town, with Benediction in the castle grounds. I'm on the train whooshing through the London suburbs and in due course we'll be in the Sussex countryside. Knights and Dames of St Gregory take part in the procession and I have my green cloak etc with me.
Yesterday evening an excellent meeting of the Catholic Writers' Gyuild, held as usual at Farm Street. Topic was Hanna Chrzanowska. No, I hadn't heard of her either. But it's a fascinating story: she is the woman who, among much else, organised and ran a system of home-nursing in Krakow in the difficult years under Communist rule, transforming the liives of sick and handicapped people who were marooned in grim conditions in dingy flats, unable to get out and lacking proper care. With teams of volunteers, Hanna gave practical care and also organised day-trips, singalongs, gatherings for prayer and celebration...all this with the support and encouragement of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla. We in the West are now only just beginning to grasp the significance of how the Church provided for human and spiritual needs under Communism, and these stories are emerging...lessons for us to absorb and examples to follow......
Yesterday evening an excellent meeting of the Catholic Writers' Gyuild, held as usual at Farm Street. Topic was Hanna Chrzanowska. No, I hadn't heard of her either. But it's a fascinating story: she is the woman who, among much else, organised and ran a system of home-nursing in Krakow in the difficult years under Communist rule, transforming the liives of sick and handicapped people who were marooned in grim conditions in dingy flats, unable to get out and lacking proper care. With teams of volunteers, Hanna gave practical care and also organised day-trips, singalongs, gatherings for prayer and celebration...all this with the support and encouragement of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla. We in the West are now only just beginning to grasp the significance of how the Church provided for human and spiritual needs under Communism, and these stories are emerging...lessons for us to absorb and examples to follow......
Sunday, May 27, 2018
A tragic...
... and alas not unexpected, result in Ireland.
One of the most baffling comments in the post-referendum round-up of interviews: a jubilant lady who announced that she had voted for repeal "for my daughters...I have two daughters, and I want it for them" Can she really be saying that she cheerfully assumes her daughrers will want to abort their babies? Does she really want to tell the world that is how she expects her daughters to behave? Ugh.
One of the most baffling comments in the post-referendum round-up of interviews: a jubilant lady who announced that she had voted for repeal "for my daughters...I have two daughters, and I want it for them" Can she really be saying that she cheerfully assumes her daughrers will want to abort their babies? Does she really want to tell the world that is how she expects her daughters to behave? Ugh.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Thursday, May 17, 2018
An excellent lecture...
...by Fr James Tolhurst, who has just brought out a new edition of John Henry Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.
Fr J. is a great Newman scholar, and his lecture illuminated Newman's message. Newman's journey into full communion with the Catholic Church was of course bound up with his understanding of the development of doctrine - and through his work the Church has been enriched.
The lecture - extremely well attended, every seat filled and people standing at the back - was in the Challoner Room at the Church of Our Lady and St Gregory, Warwick Street. The Church is in the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and the evening was chaired by Mgr Keith Newton, the Ordinary, who noted that this was in fact the first Catholic Church that Newman ever attended - he went there when young with his father, to hear the music at the sung Mass. Newman is now a Patron of the Ordinariate.
This was a very enjoyable evening, with a celebratory feel - and a particular joy for our family as Fr J. is a good family friend of many years' standing.
Fr J. is a great Newman scholar, and his lecture illuminated Newman's message. Newman's journey into full communion with the Catholic Church was of course bound up with his understanding of the development of doctrine - and through his work the Church has been enriched.
The lecture - extremely well attended, every seat filled and people standing at the back - was in the Challoner Room at the Church of Our Lady and St Gregory, Warwick Street. The Church is in the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and the evening was chaired by Mgr Keith Newton, the Ordinary, who noted that this was in fact the first Catholic Church that Newman ever attended - he went there when young with his father, to hear the music at the sung Mass. Newman is now a Patron of the Ordinariate.
This was a very enjoyable evening, with a celebratory feel - and a particular joy for our family as Fr J. is a good family friend of many years' standing.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
at St Mary's....
...University,Twickenham, in strong sunshine. The exam season - students busy with papersstudying everywhere, in the refectory and grounds and library and so on...
Want to learn something of the |University's history - and the history of the extraordinary house created by Horace Walpole, which gives this whole district its name?
Next WEDNESDAY, May 23rd, meet 12.30pm at the main entrance. Bring some sandwiches if you like: there ius also a refectory and coffee-bar where you can buy some. We will look around, enjoy the beautiful grounds, and learn the story. There is Mass at 1pm for those who wish.
Want to learn something of the |University's history - and the history of the extraordinary house created by Horace Walpole, which gives this whole district its name?
Next WEDNESDAY, May 23rd, meet 12.30pm at the main entrance. Bring some sandwiches if you like: there ius also a refectory and coffee-bar where you can buy some. We will look around, enjoy the beautiful grounds, and learn the story. There is Mass at 1pm for those who wish.
Friday, May 11, 2018
A Mass, a parish barbeque...
...for the feast of the Ascension (see previous blog post) and then an overnight train to Scotland for a meeting today of the editorial team for FAITH magazine. The Caledonian Sleeper has all modern comforts - a cabin with freshly laundered duvet, washbasin, welcome-pack with soap etc - and there is just a hint of the Great Railway Age as the train rumbles its way up through England and across the border, to arrive at Edinburgh's Waverley station by 7 am...it's not WH Auden, but there are faint echoes...
Thursday, May 10, 2018
HURRAH!!!
WE ARE TODAY CELEBRATING ASCENSION THURSDAY.
We are celebrating it on the right day, and the churches will be well-attended.
WE LOVE OUR FEAST DAYS!
At this church, there will be Masses at 10am and 1.05pm, and the children's choir will be singing at a special Mass at 6.30pm in the Ordinariate Form, preceded by Evensong at 6pm. Come and join us!
It is a great relief to have the Feast of the Ascension back on its proper day.
We are celebrating it on the right day, and the churches will be well-attended.
WE LOVE OUR FEAST DAYS!
At this church, there will be Masses at 10am and 1.05pm, and the children's choir will be singing at a special Mass at 6.30pm in the Ordinariate Form, preceded by Evensong at 6pm. Come and join us!
It is a great relief to have the Feast of the Ascension back on its proper day.
Monday, May 07, 2018
Give your support to...
...the Cardinal who is urging that schools help children to accept their biological identity as boys and girls and thus find their true joy.
...and watch this video...
...and watch this video...
Friday, May 04, 2018
Local elections in Britain...
...and some relief on Auntie's part that her reflections shared in advance proved to be rather gloomier than the actual events...
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
...and on to the offices of ...
...the Catholic Union, which has a Charitable Trust sponsoring some useful projects for schools. This will mean another day of packing and posting prizes in due course...this will happen, not at the Catholic Union office but at this church which has hosted many such gatherings in recent years.
And then an afternoon at the computer tackling various writing ventures
Want to see the latest FAITH magazine? Feature on pro-life event at Westminster, announcement of a new initiative, The Humanum Institute, book reviews , and more...if you are interested, send a Comment to this Blog (which I will not publish) with your POSTAL address and I will send you a complimentary copy.
The Catholic History Walks are flourishing: read here for info on the next Walks coming up in May and June...
And then an afternoon at the computer tackling various writing ventures
Want to see the latest FAITH magazine? Feature on pro-life event at Westminster, announcement of a new initiative, The Humanum Institute, book reviews , and more...if you are interested, send a Comment to this Blog (which I will not publish) with your POSTAL address and I will send you a complimentary copy.
The Catholic History Walks are flourishing: read here for info on the next Walks coming up in May and June...
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