Friday, February 27, 2015

...on Monday...

....March 2nd,  at 6.30pm the Ladies Ordinariate Group (LOGS) meets at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, for a tour, finishing with the Stations of the Cross....anyone is welcome to join us. Nearest tube: LAMBETH NORTH or WATERLOO....

...at Paddington station...

...there's a place where my co-author Clare Anderson and I meet, starting with morning coffee and working on through lunch, tackling our various projects. So far, two TV feature programmes on St John Paul II, one telling his life story and one exploring his legacy and its message.  The first was broadcast a while ago (we've had some good feedback) and the second will be broadcast shortly - info from EWTN.

As regular readers of this Blog will know, we've also produced a book...

And we spent yesterday working on the next project.  Not telling what it is - let's get the work done first.  The staff at the cheerful and friendly place where we meet are delightful, and know us well, asking us how the book/TV/whatever projects are going, and keeping us supplied with pots of tea...

Last night...

...we gathered for a Lenten meditation and discussion, focusing on evangelisation. We're using this document...

It took me a while to "get" St John Paul's call for a New Evangelisation. Now I'm committed. Our cynical, unhappy and worried culture needs a new hope and new life. A local church isn't there to serve consumer-needs but to create disciples of Jesus Christ...

Read here to get the idea...

The message of the Cross...

...as we hear the news of martyred Christians...

Read here...


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

..and this is good news...

Philip Booth is a distinguished economist, who has written extensively on Catholic social teaching.It is excellent that he has been appointed to this university.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

And here's wisdom and common sense on the topic of sex education...



We've had crude, inaccurate, ill-informed material foisted on young pupils for far too long.  We need a fresh approach, respectful of children, mindful of what is age-appropriate, valuing them as individuals with needs.

One day, there will be great anger and bitterness launched by men and women who were victims of the hideous experiments in sexual coercion and propaganda imposed over recent years.


Read  here...

...and next weekend...

...Auntie is off to Devon, to attend a Catechist course at the new School of the Annunciation at Buckfast....

MADE FOR GLORY...Lent...these short messages come from young people in the diocese of Southwark and are excellent

Monday, February 23, 2015

Auntie will be speaking at...

...the CathSoc at this university  on March 11th.

How weird...

...it is to sit in an English village and read of girls in our capital city enthusiastically hurrying to support Jihad against our country.

How fearsome to realise that girls and boys in our country's schools have been given little or no vision of the civilisation they have inherited here, or the beauty of the Christian faith on which is based and with which it has been nourished.

The followers of Mahommed include many misguided souls, and many angry young ones, hungry for some spiritual food.


Sunday, February 22, 2015

...after Sunday Mass in London...

...some hurried packing at home, and then off to Somerset on a family visit. I'm writing this overlooking Exmoor, a wild wind blowing, and that huge darkness beyond the glow of the house-lights across the lawn. The house wher we are staying is snug and I have books to read, work to do, and some sewing with which to relax. And wellies packed for a good walk tomorrow.

I'm reading Rebuilt...hugely enjoyable, with useful things to learn. Wise in that crunchy, American-don't-let's-waste-time style.And a sort of exciting story too...

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Along the City Road...

... a corner of London all rich in Dickens and centuries of history...to Ashwell House to give a lecture. This University Hall of Residence has young women from all over the world as well as from Britain: I gave them a Tube map and explained the origins of the place-names: Angel, Blackfriars, Westminster...and we looked at the centuries of history, Saxons and Normans, and the Medieval era, and the arrival of the Tudors with Henry VII attempting to evoke powerful folk-memories by naming his first son Arthur...then the tragedy of Henry VIII and so on and so on...

We tackled important historical events and ideas, but there was also room for other stuff, and they knew about the local pub, the Eagle, featuring in the famous nursery rhyme,  and I told them about the horrid origins of the jack-in-the-box toy: it seems to date back to militant anti-Catholicism and be a mockery of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Taberbacle (old versions of the toy have thw words "Hocus Pocus" on the lid, a corruption of the words of the Consecration)...

Chichester...

...and a cheery meeting to plan various History Walks and associated projects. But first a visit to that glorious  Cathedral: it's been lovingly restored and cherished in recent decades, and has a warm sense of welcome. The shrine to St Richard is flanked by candles and icons.  Every side chapel is clean and well cared-for, some set aside specifically aside for silent prayer, some displaying discreet notices explaining some item of interest. There were children scurrying about doing half-term activities learning the history and finding out about saints and shrines and things, and there were volunteers dressed in Historical Costumes waiting to be asked to talk.  It felt like the sort of Britain one used to know.

On to a tasty and talkative lunch: lots of good plans for the year ahead (watch this Blog for info).

On to visit an elderly aunt a few miles along the coast: Tea (served formally and properly, so it merits a Captital Letter) and buttered buns and coffee-and-walnut-cake... and we talked of family news and old times...her daughter was one of my bridesmaids, and we recalled that lovely wedding and many other family gatherings over the years...

And finally back to Chichester. The driver was friendly and helpful - I thanked him for coming a long way out of the city to get me "Only too glad" he said "I was sitting waiting by the station, with drunken girls shouting horrible, slutty stuff, swearing obscenities  - can't repeat them. I was glad to get away."   In the waiting-room, a man and child lurched out, rather awkwardly. I settled with a book after exchanging a sort of nod to two other passengers, as one does..."Glad you're here" one said "It's been vile. Some woman came in, dead drunk, and shouting at her daughters on her mobile phone,  Horrible language.Some row about a party they were having . Then a man came in with his little boy: the man was drunk, and the child was made to carry a bag of clanking bottles.They've just left."

Chichester, Sussex, on a February night. What are our big cities going to be like this summer?

A joy-filled letter...

...from a Sister of St Cecilia's Abbey on the Isle of Wight.  They keep busy there...and have six new novices and are thriving. Their  newsletter is full of good things - but also solemn ones, including letters from sisters in the Middle East, , forced out of Iraq along with so many other refugees, pursued  by bombing and slaughtering...

There is also a fascinating and profound meditation on silence...referencing St John of the Cross..."God utters only one Word. He utters Himself in that Word totally, interiorly, in an eternal silence..."     "Everyone has a sacred stillness at the core of their being, the place where they are present in secret  to God and God is present to them..."   As a terrible chetterer, Auntie is gently soaking herself in this meditation....



Friday, February 20, 2015

Lent...

...and ashes distributed at a crowded Mass in  a London church. Years ago, I remember dear Fr Michael Napier of Brompton Oratory saying that the  day that drew the largest crowds was Ash Wednesday. More than any Holyday of Obligation, more than any popular saint's day.  I think it's because people like something tangible - ashes on the forehead, the reality of it, the  thingness of it. Very incarnational.

And from there, with smudged forehead, to the train... and thence to the  prison, where they'd had a distribution of ashes that morning, too...and talking to a couple of prisoners. One, in particular, is in a particularly distressing position, a young man from a devout family, caught up in ghastly events: please pray for him: no need to know his name or anything, just Carpenter will do (that isn't his name, and he isn't a carpenter).

Next  day, to college for some work in the library...along the corridors there were still a couple of notices left from the previous day, from the Chaplaincy,  reminding people about getting ashes. I hope they got good numbers too. In the evening, a gathering at St Paul's Bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, where the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini, blessed the new Website project and, clicking on to a computer, set it in motion. It was all rather delightful, and again, incarnational - holy water sprinkled about, in the shop and on us, and on everything, Scriptures read, prayers said...and then we all enjoyed some light refreshments.

It's hopeless having an event like that in a bookshop - the shelves are so full of good things and it's all irresistible. I bought Scott Hahn's Evangelizing Catholics, and it's a good read.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Snub for homosexual lobbying group...

...in Rome today.  They had wanted to be welcomed publicly and give themselves a cheer - standard procedure for any group visiting St Peter's and crowding in to one of the big Papal audiences in the vast Paul VI Hall. Instead, the nearest the group got was a mention of their geographical area - which may have meant them and may not - while at the gathering in St Peter's Square where the Pope greets pilgrims, they got no mention at all.

Anyone can go to the gatherings in the Paul VI Hall and it's not hard to get seats near the front if you persevere. An official reads out the names of groups, and it's traditional to stand and get some applause - maybe even sing a song or call out a rousing greeting.

Failure to get a mention is a snub - not a particularly cruel one, just evidence of  a prudent concern by the papal bureaucracy to ensure that loopy groups are, as far as possible, gently avoided.

Embarrassed, the  organisers of the group contacted the media, and posed in St Peter's Square, announcing that they were greeted at the Vatican - untrue - and claiming that the Church's teaching on the wrongfulness of homosexual activity will change, which it won't.

All are welcome in the Church, lobby groups and all. But they need to be truthful: if they get invited in for tea it won't mean that Church teaching can change. As it happens, they weren't. And it won't because it can't.

...and the Dominican Sisters...

...of St Joseph (see pic below) invite young women to share the Sacred Triduum (ie Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday, 2nd to 4th April) with them in the New Forest...

Their motto is "To Praise, to Bless, to Preach".

You can find out more by emailing them: dominican.sisters@talk21.com

Shrove Tuesday...

...and for most people in Britain it's Pancake Day. I'm glad the tradition still flourishes. Pics in the press of children at a choir school running, fully robed, wth frying-pans in a Pancake Race. Advertisments reminding people to buy flour, sugar, lemons. And delicious pancakes on offer at various eateries, with syrup or with chocolate sauce or with ce cream.

The "Shrove" doesn't, of course, refer to pancakes, but to confessing our sins and being shriven: ie receiving absolution. And with Ash Wednesday Lent begins, the season of penance and prayer leading up to the great events of Holy Week and Easter...

The carnival tradition, Mardi Gras, celebrating and partying before Lent begins, still lingers: our British pancake day is a rather - well - British version of it.

I've often wondered - comments welcome - does the tradition of the clown-with-a-tear, the harlequin with a sad face, somehow echo the idea of the partying that ends with Ash Wednesday? Somehow the song "The Carnival is over" echoes the theme too...

Auntie marked Shrove Tuesday with sticky chocolate cake enjoyed with a young relative, then pancakes-and syrup at home very late.

I'm writing this after midnight, so now it's Lent.


...and further to my recent blog post about conspiracy theorists...

...(for which see below), I found this comment by Mark Shea to be of interest.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Cardinal Jean Danielou...

...was one of the great forerunners of the Second Vatican Council, in the sense that his ideas and writings hugely influenced it. And he spoke with passion and wisdom about how the message and teachings of the Council were lost and distorted in the immediate post-Council years. He is now coming into his own...read here to find out more.

His thinking was in tune with  that of Fr (later Cardinal) Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI...over the next years, students for the priesthood will be hugely influenced by both, to the great good of the Church.

A bloodstained Mediterranean...

...and sombre fears...a time to pray

(That link didn't work initially - it should work now).

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Thank God for...

this clear statement on marriage by Catholic priests in Britain.

For those who relish conspiracy theories...

...this will be something of a blow. But it's important to read it all the same.

The vile Ratzinger-is-a-liar line has long been peddled by the posers of the there's-a-deep-dark-secret-about-Fatima-that-he's-kept-from-us  groupies, and it's now been extended.

Remember that line about Pope Paul VI being held as a prisoner in the Vatican basements and another man replacing him for public occasions? Popular among the they're-tunneling-under-your-house types in the 1970s. (I think the idea was that you could check by looking at his ears, or something).

and here is auntie...


with the lovely Dominican Sisters of St Joseph who came to London for their Day Out, enjoying Westminster Cathedral and then Tea with the ladies of the Ordinariate...

They are the most enormous fun. Whennever I am with them, we seem to spend so much of the time in laughter. And its infectious - they really do spread joy wherever they go...

A MUST-READ...

...is the superb talk given by Mgr Mark Langham to the priests of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham when they gathered last week. Read it here...

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Chelsea...

...and an afternoon of Marriage Preparation at St Mary's Church, Cadogan Street - or, strictly speaking, in the new St John Southworth Room in the church/school grounds. Several young couples all taking part - Auntie's role was to speak on the Catholic understanding of marriage. Over the years, this talk has grown more theological, and I have found that they like this: God's original plan, Christ and his Church:  the Bridegroom and the Bride, Cana in Galilee, water into wine...the nuptial meaning of the Eucharist...the Marriage Feast of the Lamb...

St Mary's is a most beautiful church, popular for weddings...although many of the couples I meet at these sessions are marrying abroad: this is London and many are people from two different countries who met here. There is a sense of real commitment to this Preparation Course..they attend talks on prayer, the Church's teaching on marriage, family life, and more...


Friday, February 13, 2015

Been re-reading...

...Rowland's Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, Excellent. Also von Balthasar's To the Heart of the Mystery of Redemption - the influence of von Balthasar on Ratzinger, Wojtila, and Vatican II is going to be one of those standard things-to-write-about in seminaries  and theology departments over the next decades.

Hugely busy with various projects for schools - the first entries have started arriving in the big "Our Father" venture organised for primary schools...

Lent starts next week: pleasingly, I have a a long-booked engagement for Shrove Tuesday with a young niece, which promises pancakes and chocolate and other delights  in great abundance...

And at this time of year the summer diary starts to fill up:  although Auntie relishes winter and dislikes hot weather, the prospect of mild sunshine and long outdoor days is not unattractive, and some lovely things are planned for 2015 including a trip to Ireland, and a glorious walking-pilgrimage through Norfolk...

But  meanwhile, the wallpaper of everyday life at present is all Stephen Fry and his horrid ramblings, plus posters and advertisments everywhere for a film celebrating sado-masochism, plus one news story after another about teachers engaging in lesbian relationships with pupils...oh, it's all so ugly,

A brief note...

to say that there will no Catholic History Walk on Feb 16th: the next is MONDAY MARCH 2nd, at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Meet 6.30pm at the main door. Nearest tube: WATERLOO or LAMBETH NORTH. We will have a tour of the Cathedral:  this is being organised in association with the Ladies Ordinariate Group.

...and Traditional Care for the Sick...

... marking the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes...read here...

Tradition and history, ...

.. and a sense of good  new things happening...

On Wednesday evening, a meeting of The Keys, the Catholic Writers Guild. Speaker: Jacon Rees-Mogg MP. An excellent evening,  Our Guild Church is St Mary Moorfields, and things begin with Mass, followed by drinks and much talk, and then a hearty Dinner, after which we gather round for the talk. This evening's topic centred on Britain's relationship with the European Community, our tradition of law, the tensions involved with other traditions...

Members of the Guild  can bring guests, and  this evening was particularly popular. J. and I had invited Patti Fordyce, of the Association of Catholic Women (and the Ladies Ordinariate Group)..Delia Gaze, secretary of the Guild, had invited Fr Christopher Pearson of the Ordinariate of OL of Walsingham.

The next day was an Ordinariate Day, big time. The Ordinaries from Australia and the USA are visiting Britain, and all the Ordinariate clergy were invited to a gathering at Westminster Cathedral Hall.  The Ladies Ordinariate Group (LOGS) had volunteered to organise the food. Patti (see para above) did a magnificent job with a delicious array of sandwiches, and I brought to the Cathedral Hall the large coffee-machine that we use at the annual TOWARDS ADVENT Festival.

People carry coffee-machines around on buses and Tubes all the time, don't they? I mean, it's perfectly normal to wrap one up in layers and layers of plastic bags and trundle it about, looking helpless at the bottom of stairs and escalators?

One feels awfully silly lugging the awkward thing about...for the final lap I hailed a cab. Worth every penny.

During the afternoon I broke away from the conference to lead a splendid group of nuns on a tour of Westminster Cathedral.It was their annual Day Out in London, and they were having a wonderful time: among the best bits was the sight of them all munching sandwiches on benches near the Cathedral, with people hurrying to take photographs...if you haven't experienced a Pilgrimage or some other event with this hilarious team of Dominicans, you ust make arrangements to do so as soon as possible...

Great good cheer when the Sisters met Fr Christopher (see above) who has worked with  them on pilgrimages etc...

Things were rounded off with tea (provided by LOGS) and photographs...I'll post one here in due course...

The Ordinariate gathering was excellent - it was actually rather moving to see all these priests together, and especially so in the evening when they walked in a great procession for a concelebrated Mass...

Later, exhausted, the LOGS team settled at a pub with glasses of wine. Most satisying.


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

We met at...

...St Patrick's, Soho, for a lunchtime Mass, to be followed by a Catholic History Walk.

On appropriate feast-days, the Mass at St P's is said at an appropriate side-altar - thus today being the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, Mass was at an altar dedicated to her. But because there are always good numbers for Mass at this busy London church, most of us had to use the main pews, which face the main altar - so we were all kneeling sideways to be at the Mass...however, this gave a sort of awkward intimacy which was not without its charm....afterwards a group gathered outside and we set off to explore the area and learn the history... At St Giles-in-the-Fields the Rector made us welcome (he and his congregation welcome the procession of the Blessed Sacrament from St Patrick's every summer, allow Benediction in the churchyard, and offer wine and refreshments afterwards...) . At Bloomsbury Baptist Church we were again greeted in a most friendly way and the kind lady at the desk was very helpful and the visit ended with us all saying the Lord's Prayer together...

The Walk finished at SS Anselm and Cecilia, Holborn, and the nearby Ship Inn, where Bishop Richard Challonger used to say Mass and meet his flock, in recusant times...

NEXT HISTORY WALK: Monday  March 2nd, meet 6.30pm at St George's Cathedral, Southwark (nearest tube: Lambeth North or WATERLOO). We will make a tour inside St George's.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: Sunday June 21st, 1.30pm  meet at St Sepulchre's  Church, near the Old Bailey for THE MARTYRS' WALK.  Nearest tube: St Paul's.



Tuesday, February 10, 2015

LOGS...

...aka the Ladies Ordinariate Group. A lively and useful meeting, at which we made plans for the year ahead...the first entries have arrived for our 2015 Schools Project and it all looks set to be a big success. We enjoyed looking at the children's work: this year's project involves copying out a well-known prayer and answering some questions to show an understanding of it, and so far the entries look very good...the work of reading through all the entries, allocating prizes, posting them off, and/or visiting schools to present them will be a major activity this summer. We also plan a weekend in Walsingham,  talks on a number of topics ranging from the work of a uniuversity chaplain to the state of the Church in Zimbabwe, our annual summer outing to Whitstable - Mass, lunch, talks, and a garden Rosary at the Vocations Centre, plus a visit to the sea - and some fund-raising for various good causes...

The leaders of the Ordinariates in the USA and Australia are currently visiting Britain and a LOGS team led by the splendid Patti Fordyce has understaken to tackle all the neccessary refreshments for a big gathering at Westminster.

And we're already looking ahead and booking our place at a big railway station to sing carols in December  - a lot of groups like to sing (which is good) and it's important to book ahead...




Monday, February 09, 2015

The Synod on the Family...

...needs and deserves our prayers.

People often see the Church's teaching as harsh or as unrealistic. Not so...the Church seeks tobe Christ's bride, and a mother to all he faithful, born in baptism. We don't seek to turn her into a nagging mother, or one who fails to understand her children's problems or the hardships faced in trying to sort them out.  She cannot compromise on offering what is good, true, and beautiful. She is the custodian, not the inventor, of God's loving plan for humankind...



Sunday, February 08, 2015

...and if you would like to experience a Catholic History Walk...

...join us this Wednesday (Feb 11th) at St Patrick's, Soho. Mass 12.45 and the Walk starts afterwards. We'll look at St-Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn, and the pub where Bishop Richard Challoner used to preach, and more...

...and here is Auntie...



with young people from various countries (Croatia, Nigeria, Latvia)  who were in London to discuss plans for the 40 Days for Life campaign. Organiser Robert Colquhoun asked me if I would take the group on a London History Walk, and so we gathered for Mass at Westminster Cathedral and then went off down Ambrosden Avenue, and on towards the river...looking at Parliament and the Abbey and more...

We finished with a late and hearty lunch with much lively talk...v. interesting to hear the Croatians talking about their country's recent history, the civil war etc etc...

They were all rather well-informed about Britain,having studied English since primary school and being familiar with topics ranging from Henry VIII to Big Ben. They picked up nuances of language, enjoyed my dislike of "Uwwazyke" (as in some one describing a conversation concerning something astonishing:  "Uuwwazyke 'yeh, that's amazing, and eewuzzyke 'yeh whatever' and uwwazyke 'yeh'...and so on and so on...).  They recognised the realities of life in Britain: I dislike giving cliche versions of British history or of our current problems. The conversation was open, honest, challenging, filled with good humour, and I learned a lot.

As a thank-you gift I've been offered to choose any book I like, and I'm going to get something by von Balthasar (see previous blog posts)...

Walking back down Victoria Street after this enjoyable day I had another delightful encounter - a cheery group of sandalled grey-clad Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, just crossing the Cathedral piazza after Vespers. Warm greetings, and it was a particular pleasure to meet three new postulants, newly arrived from the USA...

...and it was all rather providential, because on my "to do" list from last week's meeting of the Towards Advent Festival planning group was "Contact Franciscan Friars of Renewal and see if they will come and speak."  They are keen, so we'll have a team of them speaking at the Festival and telling us what it means to be a friar and why anyone would ditch all material luxuries, wear a patched grey robe, and pledge to serve God and the poor for the whole of life in complete obedience to whatever the mission field demands...






Saturday, February 07, 2015

...and you might find...

this of interest, re Catholic education...

More on that pic of St John Paul the Great...

...and Auntie, and embroidery, and the Ordinatriate, and a pilgrimage to Walsingham....

Scarborough...

...at its most beautiful in sparkling winter sunshine.

St Peter's is a fine church and there were a large number of people at weekday Mass - so many, in fact, that I thought it was some sort  of a special day...but no, it was just the normal nmber for a Thursday morning. Fr William Massie is a hard-working and cheery priest and we were soon busy  on a couple of projects for the FAITH Movement...this involved a lot of  checking things on the internet. The splendid 19th century Rectory is a fine building of four storeys and thick walls but the latter poses some problems for internet access when you are on the higher storeys, so I sat on the comfortable thickly-carpeted staircase where all worked well.

While Fr went off on various home-Communion visits, I took letters to post and enjoyed the sands and sea. The sun was glittering so sharply on the gleaming silver of the water that it hurt the eyes - I had to walk with the light behind me, heading out around those glorious cliffs topped with the fortifications... here the sea was blue'grey, cold and swooshing, and along the Parade the seaside-in-winter feeling was in full force, the  sellers of ice-cream and local seafood all  closed up...but there was delicious coffee and shortbread at a friendly  coffee-shop and people sitting in the sunshine.  A group of workmen in blue overalls had been busy with enormous rebuilding projects further along the shore and were tucking into a large fry-ups. It was lovely. I sat tackling some letters and enjoyed the latest Scott Hahn (called, with an agreeable nod to the fitness of things  Consuming the Word).  

An evening train to Leeds. The White Rise eaterie at the station is one of many places where you can get good food, and it had the irreistible offer of eggs-on-toast and freshly brewed coffee  between 5 and 6pm at a special price. Delicious.

Lecture on St John Paul the Great. This took place at Holy Trinity Church in the city centre, a fine building with wonderful monuments to local worthies, solid pews, and good accoustics. The shopping centre is named in honour of the Trinity too, which gives a pleasing irony to the splendid gothic Unitarian Church which stands at its entrance.




Thursday, February 05, 2015

Been reading...

...Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar.  Marvellous stuff.

Long years ago, I discovered that the measure of a good book is wishing a train journey to be longer in order to be able to go on reading undisturbed...or, sometimes, missing one's station and whoizzing on because of being so absorbed in the book...

Mgr Keith Newton...


Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Candles...

...at Westminster Cathedral for Candlemas, but alas I was late for Mass because of various meetings...everyone had lovely guttering candles, I was sorry to have missed getting one...

And so the  40 days of the Christmas season ends...and I spent part of the afternoon at Premier Radio, doing an interview about Ash Wednesday.Why do we get ashes on our foreheads? The interviewer asked "I've seen Catholics with crosses marked on their forehead with ash on that day, and often wodered about it..."and so we went on, and tackled Shrove Tuesday, pancakes, Lent...

Sat in a cafe to tackle some emails, and a chap was reading a large Hebrew Bible opposite me. We got talking - long intense conversation. He came from the Czech Republic...to one of my generation (he was rather younger) there is something interesting, and rather depressing, about meeting people formed by the aftermath of post-Communism. They are not atheists, certainly not socialists,  they are not paricularly idealistic although they are interested in spiritual things, and they are almost  as ignorant about such things as their counterparts in Western Europe. This one was a bit different from most, being uninterested in the sex-and-shopping cult that dominates life for so many.I remember Fr Werenfried van Straaten in the early 1990s talking about the people who belonged to "what-comes-after-Communism", the emptiness and the sense of not particularlybelonging anywhere, of not havng a spiritual home...now we are into the second generation of that experience.

Monday, February 02, 2015

Stilll...

...getting Comments sent to my SPAM box. If you have sent a Comment in the last 12 hours and not had it printed, do send it again...

Sunday, February 01, 2015

On Harry Potter...

... with warm  thanks to the reader who sent me the suggestion...do  read this...

You might enjoy...

...Auntie's description of the 4th anniversary celebration of the Ordinariate of O.L. of Walsingham, in the latest issue of The Portal...

Dublin on a Sunday morning....

...and Mass in the Pro-Cathedral. The Palestrina Choir sang gloriously: lots of - well - Palestrina, and also Credo III with a special elaborate bit added for the "incarnatus est". It was St Brigid's Day and she got a special mention in the sermon and in the Bidding Prayers...

A largely middle-aged-to-elderly congregation, some young people but almost no children, except for the boys in the choir, who were reverent in their blue robes and white cottas: it was a touching sight to see them coming up for Holy Communion.  They will be singing in Washington and New York  in the Spring - USA readers note.

It probably doesn't really matter...but I think it's a great mistake to have too many ladies of Auntie's age and upwards,  pottering about, distributing Holy Communion. They are not needed, and somehow it just looks sort of  fussy-ladies-wanting-to-do-things-ish.  When they first got out of their seats and went to put their handbags down by the side of the sanctuary, I thought perhaps they were getting a special blessing for St Brigid's Day or something...but no, it was just fussing-about-when-not-really-required...there were no large crowds for Holy Communion, and two priests were present, plus an adult altar server...