Saturday, November 29, 2014

.The Advent wreath...

...on the table, and I've just been placing the candles carefully in it, and soon we will sing "O come O come Emmanuel..." and light the first candle and pray the Our Father...

It's over thirty years since we had our first Advent together. We bought some plastic Christmas crib figures by mail-order from an advertisment in the Universe  and said that these would do for a while, but that one day of  course we'd get some Really Beautiful Ones...but now I would hate having anything other than those very first figures, which I'll soon be unpacking and setting up for the 30-something-th time...

A group of young people...

...from Ealing Abbey, on a London history walk with Auntie. Great fun, and although it was a large group there was a sense of community and togethernesss...and starting at Westminster Cathedral we made our way down to the river, with golden and russet leaves, and Autumn sunshine, and enjoyed exploring Roman and Saxon and Norman and Medieval London...and Tudor and Victorian and more, and more...

And ended with snacks and drinks and a long talkative  late lunch/tea at a South Bank open-air cafe/restaurant, several tables  brought together, Auntie consuming several glorious large cups of tea and cake, young appetites enjoying food, and a grand time...finally as dusk fell I headed home  and they varioouslky to pubs and parties...a happy day.

Papa Francis at the European Parliament...

...read the actual text, as delivered,  here...

and here, also checked against delivery,  his speech to the Council of Europe.

I am honestly at a loss to find anything derogatory about grannies in either.

And watch here to see how he was received (14 interruptions fotr applause, and a standing ovation at the end...)






Friday, November 28, 2014

Latest issue of VOICES...

...the magazine of Women for Faith and Family in the USA, is now published...many tributes to the splendid Helen Hitchcock who launched the organisation some 25 years ago and went to her reward this year. She will be hugely missed. I was privileged to work with her, and VOICES carries my tribute among many others...

The magazine, as always, covers all sorts of topical issues, including a feature on Pope Francis and women...

"The Mad Bishop...

...and Bear" is the name of the pub at Paddington Station. And even though it's absolutely in the middle of one of London's busiest railway stations, it somehow has  a proper pubby feel to it...

Co-author Clare Anderson and Auntie meet here from time to time to work on our next book/TV feature/other projects. The team behind the bar know us:"How's the book progressing?"   "Did the trip to Poland go well?"  Today, over fish pie and gin-and-tonic we got to grips with our next (EWTN)  TV venture, which involves a good deal of planning and will be filmed (DV) next summer.

We start at 12 noon and are still talking and working as commuters start filling the pub for evening drinks and supper. People are tucking into fish and chips as we part and C. hurries home to rural Berkshire and Auntie crosses London to the southern suburbs. A useful day, and it is satisfying to have things (sort of) planned for our next two major projects...


Thursday, November 27, 2014

...and

...one of the silliest things I have yet read is a criticism of the Pope in The Guardian  for his recent poignant message to Europe at Strabourg, when he noted the continents tragic infertility and absence of new life. The writer, a self-styled Catholic Feminidst announces that this is an attack on grandmothers. I thought it was a spoof at first. No, I'm not giiving the link: some things are so daft it just isn't worth encouraging anyone to go there.

"In sixteen hundred and sixty-six...

...London burned like rotten sticks".  Children are still being taught history by using that rhyme - my small great-niece recited it to me the other day when I told her that I was about to lead a special History Walk in London exploring the route of the Fire.

We'll start at The Monument, which conveniently has a tube station alongside. We'll go to Pudding Lane where the fire started, and take a look at some other sites, and some post-fire Wren churches. A recent TV series on the Fire seems to hint at a "Popish plot"...for years the Monument asserted that Catholics had started the fire  ( Where London’s column pointing at the skies, /​ Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies’). This lying inscription was only finally removed in the early 19th century with Catholic Emancipation: how weird that it should be revived again via TV fiction in the 21st century...

Our Walk this evening will finish with Evensong and Mass at Precious Blood Church, across the river. The Fire stopped when it crossed London Bridge, as there was a firebreak on the south bank, in the form of open land beyond the bridge before the houses and shops and pubs of The Borough.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

...and here is...


...prizewinner Maddie Carling of St  Mary's School Bishops Stortford with her parents and Mgr Keith Newton at the 2014 TOWARDS ADVENT Festival.  She won a cash prize, a Missal (CTS, hardback, ribbons - something to keep and use for always) and books including, yes,  Auntie's book on St John Paul the Great.
pic: ©Oremus/DP

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Wisdom on Europe...

...but will they listen? Read here...and here...

Monday, November 24, 2014

The Catholic chatosphere...

...doesn't seem to have made much of this, preferring on the whole to follow the NBC line of silence...

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Do children in Britain today know the Lord's Prayer?

Often the answer is "Alas, no."

No reason to assume this should be permanent or acceptable.

Read here.

Torrential rain meant that...

...we were unable to have the planned Procession of the Blessed Sacrament in honour of today's feast of Christ the King, rounding off the Church's year. All the Sunday school children had been taught about Christ the King and made crowns to wear for the procession, so wore them for Benediction in the church instead.




Saturday, November 22, 2014

Superb singing....

...from the choir of the John Fisher School, a splendid welcoming ceremony with Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a hall filled with stalls and displays from a great range of Catholic groups and organisations, and lots of freshly-brewed coffee and delicious cakes and sandwiches to great people as they arrived...the 2014 TOWARDS ADVENT Festival was by any measure a really wonderful day!

It seems extraordinary to reflect that it is our 15th Festival.  Standing on the platform at Westminster Cathedral Hall  I was suddenly conscious of  the great adventure it has all been. When I first chaired a gathering of various Catholic groups (Aid to the Church in Need, Fisher Press, the Catholic Truth Society, the Catholic Writers' Guild,  Gracewing Books) to discuss the possibilities for such a Festival, we did believe that we were on to something worthwhile and rather exciting. And we've been proved right - but I honestly don't think that we realised just how deeply and confidently it would become embedded into the life of the Catholic community in London and its suburbs, or how easily it would adapt to the many and swift changes of the past decade and a half...the internet, swift desktop publishing, mobile phones, two changes of Pope, and the arrival of some wholly new things on the Catholic scene including the Ordinariate, a new translation of the Mass.

We celebrated the 15th Festival with the presentation of prizes in our special Schools Essay Project (see below) and with the blessing of a picture of St John Paul which will be carried on pilgrimage to Walsingham with the John Paul Walkers. The choir of the John Fisher School filled the great hall with glorious music. The talks and workshops proved hugely popular - these take place in the Hinsley Room on the opposite side of the Cathedral but no one seems to mind hurrying out into rainy Ambroiseden Avenue to get there - and the stalls reported good sales of books, Christmas cards, rosaries, home-made jam, and more...

We'll have the usual wash-up meeting shortly. There are many groups that ought to be at the Festival (we have a waiting-list now for participants).There were special successes this year (big new coffee-maker - my small nephew proved particularly useful in helping to fill it up with water as Auntie poured freshly-ground coffee in the percolator at the top). And there are lots of things to talk about...
but it was a grand day, and a happy atmosphere, and I've come home with some lovely cards from a craft stall, and some delicious cakes, and a glorious John Paul  mug from Youth 2000, and lots of reading material...

Friday, November 21, 2014

PRIZEWINNERS...the St John Paul/St John XXIII Essay Project 2014...


The organisers of the 2014 TOWARDS ADVENT Festival have pleasure in announcing the winners of the St John Paul/St John XXIII  Essay Project, organised in association with the Festival.

They are:

GEORGE EZEKIEL  and MADDIE CARLING of St Mary's School, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. The prizes will be presented tomorrow (Sat Nov 22nd)  at the Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall by Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. George and Maddie win a cash prize of £50 each, plus a commemorative Missal and other book prizes.

Runner-up prizes were gained by other pupils at St Mary's, and by pupils at St Augustine's School, Ealing. These will be presented in ceremonies at their schools over the next few days.

The Project was open to pupils at Catholic secondary schools in the diocese of Westminster, to mark the canonisation of Saints John Paul and John XXIII. We were impressed by the standard of entries and are glad to have played a part in enabling young Catholics to mark this very special year in the life of the Church.


Thursday, November 20, 2014

Britain's former Chief Rabbi...

...spoke superbly at the Humanum conference in Rome. Read  and watch here,

He defended marriage as the lifelong bond between a man and a woman, speaking with warmth, dignity, and truth:

"... compassion for those who choose to live differently should not inhibit us from being advocates for the single most humanising institution in history. The family, man, woman, and child, is not one lifestyle choice among many. It is the best means we have yet discovered for nurturing future generations and enabling children to grow in a matrix of stability and love. It is where we learn the delicate choreography of relationship and how to handle the inevitable conflicts within any human group. It is where we first take the risk of giving and receiving love. It is where one generation passes on its values to the next, ensuring the continuity of a civilization. For any society, the family is the crucible of its future, and for the sake of our children’s future, we must be its defenders."

The Catholic Union...

of Great Britain ...has been working to help support and encourage Catholics in public life in Britain for  somegthing like 150 years. The Annual Meeting began with Mass in Westminster Cathedral and then a gathering in nearby Vaughan House. The President, Lord Brennan, gave his retiring speech - he is handing over to Sir Edward Leigh MP. Lord Brennan has been an excellent President, and Sir Edward's strong and lively address gave us all a sense of confidence in the future. There is certainly plenty to do...the meeting was well-attended, the spirit good, but....oh my goodness there are grave issues facing us all and the mood when we tackled these was serious. Deliberate killing of the gravely ill. Imposition of a secularist agenda on all schools. Pressure on Christian doictors and nurses to accept gross and unethical procedures.

Lively talk over drinks and sandwiches...plans for 2015, no sense of abandoning hope or shrugging off the future as beyond our care.

The chairman is Councillor Robert Rigby, of Westminster City Council. Auntie is on the Education and Outreach Working Party. Among many other activities, there is a public lecture sponsored by the Catholic Union on Dec 4th, 6.30pm  at the University of Notre Dame, Suffolk Street, just off Trafalgar Square. Topic is Catholic education. Worth attending.

And there's more about the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival...

...here....and here...and here...and here...

At the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival....

...the winners of the special St John Paul II/St John XXIII   Project will be announced.  This is an essay project, a new venture for the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival. Pupils at Catholic secondary schools in the diocese of Westminster were invited to write essays about one or both of these great Popes, focusing on the question "What is a Pope?" and showing evidence of understanding the role and purpose of the papacy.

We have two winners, a boy and a girl, and each will recieve a £50 cash prize and a beautiful Missal. There are runners-up who will also receive Missals (for those of special merit) or other book prizes.

There were some good entries - choosing winners was not easy.

I am encouraged by the work produced in some of our Catholic secondary schools.

A sample: one entrant wrote:

"Jesus Christ appointed Simon Peter the first Pope, 'You are gthe rock and on this rock, I shall build my Church.' This means that the Pope is the Supreme Pastor which means he represents Christ's love and concern for every living being. All Popes are successors and descendants of Peter, although they are not blood descendants, they carry on Peter's work of spreading the good news across the globe."


After last night's Requiem...

...there was an Advent sale of craft goods to raise funds for the "Open House" that St Patrick's offers to the homeless - hot meals and companionship and a place to shelter. I bought some lovely Christmas decorations, and a bag of ginger cookies all tied up with ribbon. You can buy things after all the Masses this coming Sunday (Christ the King) and can also add names to those tucked into the greenery by the altar steps...

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

A Requiem ...

...Mass celebrated in a packed St Patrick's, Soho. Tomas Luis de Victoria's Requiem for six voices, sung superbly by the St Patrick's choir. At the back of the church, cards were provided on which we all wrote the names of  deceased family members and friends, and at the Offertory we walked up and tucked these into the thick greenery wreathing the altar-rails...

November and praying for the dead  means more and more each year as you get older. Long, long ago, it meant praying for the uncle-who-died-in-the-war-before-I-was-born, and then a bit later, year on year,  it meant praying for dear grandparents...then adulthood and then the inexorable arrival of middle age, and with it the deaths of those closer still...

Gleaming chalice and glittering candles, a great church filled with people praying, voices saying the Lord's Prayer, a choir singing "Lux aeterna luceat eis Domine..."

As I write this...

...in a cafe near Westminster Cathedral, a cross and sullen horde of  youngish people, some with balaclavas covering their faces, is shouting outside. They are carrying placards: one says "F--k fees" and another "Free education tax the rich".

What a depressing and horrid group of people they appear to be.  I am particularly nauseated by the sight of anyone trying to look like a terrorist with a face deliberately kept hidden by a black balaclava (I hope he is uncomfortable - it is warm and mild day, unsuitable for such gear).

But above all, how sad it is to see a generation, the most expensively educated in our history, given every advantage and heirs to a freedom and prosperity unknwon to previous generations, ranting and complaining in this sullen way.

Oh, the spoilt, disgreeable, horrid, selfish narcissicism of it all...

And their freedom and prosperity was not of their making. It rests on sacrifices made by their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents...who for the most part never even dreamed of university and travel and the grand opportunities open to today's young......


More about...

...that picture of St John Paul the Great, and the Towards Advent Festival, here...

Studying and discussing....

Thomas Aquinas, all part of my post-graduate studies in theology. Loving it. The university of course teems with young people, and when I drop into the refectory for some coffee and a piece of cake, there are vast crowds tucking into burgers and beans and chips. The college specialises in sports-related things, and also in theatre studies... all this gives a great sense of pace and energy to the place. At the post-grad theology level, there is energy too, though it's rather different - a real sense of zest as we study.  We're a mixed group - a great range of races and ages. We include several priests, a deacon, a young teacher, a cheery nun, a young seminarian from India who has just flown home for ordination...and Auntie, who alas had ti hurry in late yesterday, following a family hospital visit. But I felt involved as soon as I sat down, and was soon deep in Aquinas :"...I answer that..."

Essay due in by Jan 28th. There's a system called Turnitin, which means that the essay goes through a sort of internet mesh to make sure you haven't plagiarised...


Auntie has just completed...

...an embroidered picture of St John Paul the Great. Quite hard work, in petit-point.

I bought the kit in Rome during the wonderful days that we were there for the Canonisation. I like to have some sewing project on hand, as quite a lot of my time is spent with elderly relatives, just sitting  and being companionable...and a lot of time is spent on buses and trains. But this particular embroidery was quite complicated, because each tiny stitch matters when you are working to illustrate facial features...and there are  sublties of  colours and shades for skin and hair...finally the thing was finished, and I bought a mount and a frame...

The idea is that we will carry the picture on the John Paul Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham next summer (Aug 6th-9th...put the dates in your diary, and come and join us! Info here).  So...I thought I'd take the picture to the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival on Saturday at Westminster Cathedral Hall, and get it blessed by Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham!  So you'll see me on the platform with him on Saturday...come and be there to share in it all...and please be polite about my embroidery: it may not be the most perfect piece of artwork, but it was done with love and enthusiasm!

...and find out about Auntie's latest TV series...

here...I think this series will be repeated at various times, so you may like to check the general website for information...

Read about...

...Auntie's next Catholic History Walk - the final one of the year - here.

Monday, November 17, 2014

"Children have a right..."

...“Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's development and emotional maturity"


Pope Francis, speaking today in Rome.


Do you realise that if he was  a Government minister, or a Mayor of a major city, or a senior police officer, or a judge, and he  made the above statement in Britain today, he would probably be hounded out of office?

THANK GOD FOR THE POPE!

Having a Christian leader who can speak out in this way is a guarantee of some freedom of speech.

More on his speech here.  But he is only saying what everyone, down all the generations, has always and everywhere known to be right and true. 


"Domine, salvam fac..."

...the traditional  prayer for the Queen, sung at the end of Mass. The subject came up on this Blog recently (see below, a few days back) and by coincidence -  Providence - I went to Mass on Sunday at a church I don't usually attend, and it was sung, and beautifully. It is sung there every Sunday at 11 am Mass.

Interestingly, almost eveything is sung at this Mass, including the Confiteor, and it works well. I used to attend this Mass regularly, and always loved it - the choir is now even better  and the congregation has perhaps also grown, although it was always large.

There was a cake sale after each Mass - the young people running it greeted Auntie, having met me at FAITH events - and I bought some to enjoy on a slightly complicated series of travels through the rest of the day...travelling via various errands to end up at Hatfield where I was giving a talk to the Cathoc of the University of Hertfordshire Cathsoc.  This was a joy: good numbers, a great atmosphere, reverent prayer, lively conversation.  They have a busy programme  and a number will be going to the FAITH Movement winter session at Stonyhurst...

Saturday, November 15, 2014

I went to...

...Tyburn Convent which stands as a place of prayer, penance and reconciliation on the site of the old Tyburn Tree (see below). 

The Tyburn nuns are longstanding friends of Auntie, and there is always a welcome there. I had gone on an errand for EWTN, and we also had a long talk about lots and lots of things...and we reminisced as Mother X recalled my first visit, back in 1978,  when I was organising an all-night vigil  to pray for Christians in Czechoslovakia on the 10th anniversary of the Soviet invasion... 

The commnity is growing steadily -  there are now convents in all sorts of places and their DVD tells the story

Tyburn....

... the site of the ghastly Tyburn Tree where for many years people were hanged,on a vast triangular gallows that could take several victims at once. People gathered in vast crowds to watch, and there are descriptions of them doing so, bringing packed lunches and with jugglers and musicians to entertain them during the wait for the victims to arrive from Newgate,  Sometimes the victims were very young Sometimes they were  swindlers or had forged coins, and were unpopular as swindlers and forgerers are today. Sometimes they were good-looking or behaved with remarkable courage, and so got a cheer from those watching them writhe and choke and die. Sometimes they were members of a religious body deemed to be a threat to the State (including of course, the RC Church), and sometimes they were thugs or murderers. Hanging - and in some cases mutilation and butchery while still alive after a partial hanging - was a public spectacle that drew immense excitement and people travelled long distances to watch it all. Nor does there seem to have been any opposition to the notion of  families spending a day in this way: along with watching public burnings at the stake,  it was apparently an acceptable way for a Christian to spend a London afternoon.

 Next time you are told that we are living today in  a particularly gross and horrible era,  remember that.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Come and meet...

...the Ladies Ordinariate Group.

On Monday Dec 8th, one of our young members, Daisy Powles, who walked to Compostella on a traditional walking pilgrimage this summer, will be telling of her adventures. Come and enjoy the talk, and the hospitality of LOGS...6.30pm, St Mary's Church, WEST CROYDON.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

...and an evening studying...

...St Thomas Aquinas, and pondering von Balthasar's point about a theologian really needing to be a saint...echoing St T's own need to be near the Tabernacle when working...


Apparently......

Papa Francis is keen to have prayers after Mass for the persecuted Church: the St Michael Prayer (of which he is particularly fond) and the "Hail Holy Queen". This seems a good idea.  For some years there were "Prayers for Russia", but they were often said in a great rush with a let's-get-this-over feel.  A revival would benefit from the gap:  there would be a sense of freshness, and of urgency -  the prayers would feel intimately connected with the tragic news that we hear almost daily of the savage persecution of Christians.

The Bidding Prayers enable us to have public prayers for specific issues.  When they were first introduced they were structured, and worked well: they almost invariably included one for the Queen  (which we'd not had as part of normal parish Masses in Britain before)  and for those in public office, and for the poor, and for various other needs at home and abroad.    Then things went through a very messy stage when some priests would say "Does anyone have anything they'd like to pray about?"  which invariably produced awkward silence or some mumbled and incoherent plea, or some  statement  about a fashionable cause..  Dreary.  Now the trend is towards formal Bidding Prayers again. Of course the persecuted are often - in recent months always - mentioned. But something specific after Mass would be very much in Papa Fr's style. If it happens, you heard it here first.

The number of Catholics...

....in the world  has more than tripled over the last century. Did you know that there are now nearly 1.1 billion of us?


Find out more about...

...that John Paul Walk and the statue from Poland that accompanied us. Read here...

Monday, November 10, 2014

As I walked along the Thames....

...people were streaming towards the Tower of London  and the poppies....

My destination was across the river, at The Borough, where the congregation of Precious Blood church walked in procession, led by the churchwardens carrying staves,and the Rector in cope and biretta, to the War Memorial in the High Street.  Here, all was done very well and in full traditional style, with "O God our help in ages past" and the Last Post - and the police stopped all the traffic for the Silence, giving us a rather beautiful  experience of a London High Street at peace, The Mayor is a Sikh and his  local Sikh leader read splendidly from the Bible about swords being beaten into ploughshares. The Mayor is extremely nice - we met him the other day when setting out for the John Paul II Walk along the Thames,as he happened to be finishing some other formal event, all in red robes and golden chain of office, and  he greeted the young JP Walkers and it made a very good start to the day...Today, laying the first of a great series of scarlet wreaths, he was again resplendent in formal robes, and there was  Autumn sunshine, and the voices uniting in "We will remember them..." and the  Lord Lieutenant and  local MPs  and councillors and  so on all coming forward one by one to place their wreaths and stand for a moment...

I spent the afternoon with family out beyond London, a magnificent nephew having volunteered to tackle a computer problem.  A woodland walk with a young relative, tracking the course of a local stream...an agreeable sense of adventure along muddy paths and through Autumn mulch, through new territory for us, these woods previously unexplored.    Quite suddenly, we came across small Remembrance crosses bearing poppies, planted in the ground - all in the middle of woodland.   A brass plate nearby explained that the great tree alongside had been planted in 1919 in thanksgiving for the ending of the War...




Saturday, November 08, 2014

Auntie is declaring war on...

uwwa zyke.

As in "So, I was at uni and uwwa zyke 'where's the party?' and then uwwa zyke 'yay, it's cool' and uwwa zyke..."

Or:  "So I got this job and uwwa zyke ' yay, it's OK' but then uwwa zyke late and uwwa zyke  dunno what to do..."

Another version is ahmlyke, as in:

"Ahmlyke buying some, like, boots and ahmlyke, yay, wicked, but ahmlyke, they're, like, wild, and ahmlyke,  will they, like, fit? And  ahmlike, whatever..."

Don't forget...

...to come to WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL HALL on Saturday Nov 22nd, any time from 10am, for the  TOWARDS ADVENT Festival.  It promises to be exceptionally good this year...come at 10.30am for the Opening Ceremony with  Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and the choir of the John Fisher School, Purley. Join us for the talks given by Canon Luiz Ruscillo on Catholic Education, and Mgr Newton on ecumenism and the future - and join us for what promises to be a superb  practical workshop on Gregorian Chant and how to sing it...

The Festival - launched as part of the marking of the Millenium, and now a vibrant annual chapter in the London Catholic scene - takes a lot of organising, but is fun.  This week, I've been tackling details that range from organising the new coffee machine (freshly brewed REAL COFFEE on sale with other refreshments as you enter the hall) to the  commemorative gifts that are presented to all choir members...plus labels and wrapping for the craft goods, and masses of chocolate coins for various stalls...and more...

There is still time for all young Catholic Londoners of secondary school age to take part in the SS JohnPaul and John XXIII essay project...details on that link.


HRH the Prince of Wales...

...has given his support to the call for religious freedom and tolerance, and for help to those suffering...

read here, and watch the video...

Friday, November 07, 2014

..and there is more on the sea of poppies...


here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11197458/How-the-Tower-of-London-poppies-grew-from-a-single-flower-to-a-stunning-sea-of-red-in-visitors-pictures.html

The poppies...

...in the blood-red sea at the Tower of London bring more and more people every hour. Each night, the Last Post is played and 180 names are read out, from among the over 800,000 British and Commonwealth  dead from 1914-1918 commemorated there.

Something has happened in London over these past few days. Remembrance Day means more this year. There are of course poppy-sellers everywhere, some of them young men and women in uniform - cadets from the three services - and the sight of  young people formally attired in this way is so unusual and striking that it makes the whole of a crowd at a railway station or on a busy street look different, somehow. Others sellers are Chelsea Pensioners, or of course simply kindly volunteers of the type you find helping in charity shops or at church events or local fetes and fairs. We are conscious of a friendly and open-hearted Britain that we do not often see, of formal clothes that have a formal meaning, of time given without financial reward, of goodwill and of a sense of common purpose.

It isn't the usual London.

Won't last, of course. But even the dismantling of the scarlet sea - there are over 8,000 volunteers to clean and pack and post the poppies to their owners - will mean something. And we have joined together in something bigger than ourselves, and found a bond with our history that stirs our souls and links us to ideas and ideals we do not often think about and sometimes feel we are no longer allowed to discuss openly.

A nice point of etiquette...

... waiting in the queue for confession this week at Westminster Cathedral, each of us  kneeling or sitting as the mood and need for prayer or reflection took us.    Meanwhile, in the main body of the Cathedral, the magnificent Annual Requiem Mass for the Catholic Police Guild was taking place.  Impressive sight: rows and rows of policemen in their dark uniforms, and a Guard of Honour carried a (proper, bobby's) helmet up to the High Altar.  As Mass ended, the Last Post heralded two minutes of silence. No problem - we penitents were already silent. Then  Reveille. Then...the familiar sounds that herald the first notes of the National Anthem. My knees automatically unbent and I rose, as with a reflex action, the music simply making it happen.  "Sorry" I murmured to the chap next to me. "I fear I am constitutionally unable to remain kneeling or seated for this one. "  And  so we stood.

What's the etiquette? Does one rise for the National Anthem while waiting for confession, or does the need for a suitable posture of prayer before sacramental absolution take precedence?  So far, all those with whom I have discussed this say "Stand".
Auntie has never yet remained seated while The Queen is played and cannot imagine ever doing so.

Your views?

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

...and this evening, November 5th...

...Auntie is leading a Walk to the Tower of London. We'll be thinking about poor Guy Fawkes and all that, and we'll also look at the poppies in the moat...

Meet 5.30pm (NOTE TIME) at Precious Blood Church, O'Meara Street, London SEI. Nearest tube: BOROUGH or LONDON BRIDGE.

The Walk will take us along the Thames,  past HMS Belfast, across Tower Bridge...

on Sunday Nov 16th...

...the Chaplaincy at the University of Hertfordshire will be hosting a talk on the subject of the Ugandan Martyrs. Their message is an uncomfortably topical one.  The story of these heroic young men needs to be better known. Sun Dec 16th, Mass 6pm, St Pweter's Church, Hatfield, followed by the talk...

The FAITH Movement...

...has been running excellent Evenings of Faith at the church hall at 24 Golden Square, Piccadilly, on Tuesdays, and last night's tackled  the Synod on the Family. Regular readers of this blog will by now know the issues involved...what a mess it has all been, rescued by Cardinals Burke and Pell and the African and Asian bishops. Yesterday evening's talk gave us a good analysis and opportunity to talk about it in some detail...

The next Evening of Faith will be on Tuesday Nov 18th and will tackle the topic of contraception and holiness. A good follow-up to the discussion about the Synod.

Incidentally, by clicking on to that link to the Faith Movement, you can also find out about many more events, including  the FAITH WINTER SESSION, which will be held at Stonyhurst after Christmas, and next year's Summer Session...both of these events get fully booked very quickly, so it is worth getting organised now...


Monday, November 03, 2014

ALL SOULS...

...and it means more as the years pass and there are more and more names to add to the list of those for whom prayers are to be said...

Joan  Lewis of EWTN has a good piece on Hallowe'en/All Saints/All Souls and Rome...

Early on Sunday morning...

...a telephone call from RADIO SOLENT, where they were interviewing young Leo Stoy, who won this year's CATHOLIC YOUNG WRITER AWARD - he was in the studio along with his parents and parish priest. I was to join in the discussion. There is something agreeably surreal about sitting with a mug of tea in the cold morning light in London chatting on a radio programme down on the South Coast. It was fun and a good way to start Sunday. Then Mass, and on to Oxfordshire to spend the day with relatives. Autumn leaves bronze and golden and green and glowing along the lanes. Exchange of family news and I regaled them with adventures in Poland making the new programme for EWTN, avoiding bears in the Tatras and being offered boiled cheese and whey by a kindly shepherd as he told us about his meeting with St John Paul...

Saturday, November 01, 2014

All Saints Day...

is today, November 1st, but our poor Bishops think that no one could possibly want to celebrate it, so it's been merged into tomorrow, Sunday.
Yesterday was Hallowe'en, the Eve of All Hallows, All Saints. Celebrated with a nationwide explosion of faces painted with grisly torture marks, shops covered in orange and black trimmings,  houses draped with sheets and images of ghosts, and children dressed up as ghouls and monsters going from house to house seeking sweets...walking down a residential road in  prosperous suburb - I was returning from a session in the College library - was like walking through an American
stage-set for "let's celebrate Hallowe'en - here's how to do it!"


This is absolutely the right time for us to be saying "Yes - and it's ALL SAINTS TOMORROW, and ALL SOULS AFTER THAT! Fantastic opportunity to engage with the culture. Ghosts and ghouls and children having fun - all part of an ancient tradition recently revived (albeit sometimes in horrible and lurid forms). Let's engage. Let's celebrate. Let's evangelise . But no.  Our poor dear Bishops think that...er...well...er...let's not have All Saints, let's just tell people to mark it on the next Sunday. Downplay it. Muddle it. Make people feel it's been "abolished".  Have no answer when people say "So what's Hallowe'en then? When did Hallowe'een start? " and similar questions. Run away from the culture. Try to ignore it. Heads in sand.


It is all the sadder this year, because All Souls Day has to be moved to Monday anyway (ie, it would do so even without the move-All-Saints stuff).
Please, PLEASE, dear Bishops:
PLEASE MAY WE HAVE OUR FEAST-DAYS BACK?
When I last had correspondence with a Bishop on the subject - a good man, and a kind one - I
explained that, when a feast-day is moved to a Sunday, most people simply think it's been "abolished". They go to Mass on Sunday, and honestly don't notice that the readings etc are for a feast-day. His response: "Do they not read their parish newsletter?"




No, dear Bishop, they don't. Of course they don't. Some may browse it during the homily.  Some (devout) people might take it home and have it handy for checking weekday or confession times. Some might - might -  take note of some forthcoming event such as the Christmas Bazaar. But the idea that most will even remotely connect the newsletter with "Oh, so it's All Saints Day then! How splendid! A really important feast" is just pathetic wishful thinking. THE WAY TO HELP PEOPLE UNDERSTAND ABOUT ALL SAINTS' DAY IS TO CELEBRATE IT ON ALL SAINTS' DAY.