Thursday, July 4, 2013
Will you walk to Walsingham?
"When England returns to Walsingham Our Lady will return to England" ~ Pope Leo XIII
You are invited to the fourth Latin Mass Society (LMS) walking pilgrimage to Walsingham. We will be walking from Ely to Walsingham from 23 to 25 August 2013. This is a bank-holiday weekend. You can book online today on the LMS website (www.lms.org.uk), or call the office and book over the phone: (+44) (0)20 7404 7284
In total the walk is about 55 miles. On the way there will be:
* Solemn High Mass each day
* Mass in the private chapel of historic Oxburgh Hall
* Confession available throughout the pilgrimage
* Traditional Pilgrims Blessing at departure
* Pilgrim's booklet with all prayers, hymns, devotions and Masses
* Camping or indoor accommodation (contact the LMS for details)
* Support vehicles throughout the route (water, first aid, pick up)
There will also be a coach going from London to Walsingham on the Sunday for the final Mass of the pilgrimage and the Holy Mile. Contact the LMS for details.
Full details for the pilgrimage and frequently asked questions at the following link: http://www.lms.org.uk/news-and-events/2013-walsingham-walking-pilgrimage
Priests or religious interested in attending do not need to book online and should contact the LMS directly.
Ancient Walsingham Prayer
O alone of all women, Mother and Virgin, Mother most happy, Virgin most pure, now we sinful as we are, come to see thee who are all pure, we salute thee, we honour thee as how we may with our humble offerings; may thy Son grant us, that imitating thy most holy manners, we also, by the grace of the Holy Ghost may deserve spiritually to conceive the Lord Jesus in our inmost soul, and once conceived never to lose him. Amen
Minor Details
Thanks to a reader who kindly pointed out that I spelled it wrong. See...little things do matter!
Pope Francis: Encounter Jesus Through the Poor, Sick, Marginalized
I thought this was a very beautiful meditation by the Holy Father on the wounds of Christ in the poor and marginalised.
A friend of mine has been released from prison. He had written to me about looking forward to his 'new life' on the outside. He attended Mass while on the inside and I am told read the Psalm at Mass very beautifully as a reader.
I believe he was imprisoned for breaching his 'ASBO' a behaviour order that restricts his movement in Brighton and means that he is banned from most streets in the city of Brighton and Hove. If he is seen wandering in a street he is not allowed on, or even for walking on the wrong side of the road, he is found in breach of his ASBO and is placed back in the slammer.
A brother Catholic from St Mary Magdalen's and I spent some time with him yesterday. He had been reassured in prison that a hostel place would be available for him, but as per usual, from prison he has been dumped back on the street. In fact, Sussex Pathways, the organisation that supports offenders in greeting their 'new life' on the outside simply brought him round to my flat and left him with me.
Quite how someone is meant to be able to embrace a 'new life' on the outside of prison with an ASBO still in full operation and with no home escapes me. I understand he is probably banned from many hostels in Brighton simply for his erratic behaviour. He can be something of a 'social menace' with street-drinking and begging, but ultimately the Lord teaches us that God takes the weak things of this world and makes them holy and strong. We seem to tolerate so much in this town - tolerance is etched into the ideology of liberalism, but it all goes out of the window when it comes to him.
In many ways I find him an unusual blessing from God and tolerate his bad behaviour because he is a very 'wounded' person. He is, of course, a much 'nicer' person when he is sober but all of his friends and people he hands around with are street drinkers and beggars, his movements are restricted more or less to London Road, so quite how someone is meant to be supported to embrace a 'new life' carrying a Cross as heavy as his is beyond me. I'd like to support him in embracing a 'new life' that he desperately wants but there is only so much someone can do. Like the Holy Father says, foundations and projects are always doomed to fail. One gets the impression His Holiness wants the Church to be known as a Church of love and compassion to the outcasts.
Apparently yesterday some Police saw him near St Peter's Anglican Church in London Road and pinned him down on the ground because they thought he was injecting heroin in a public place, when, in fact he was doing no such thing. The police are always on his back and are always on the lookout for an excuse to put him back inside - I guess the authorities find him embarrassing, loud, threatening and do not know what to do with him. After a disagreement with another homeless man, he was struck over the head several times on his first day on the outside and has a gash in the back of his head that he kept asking me and my friend to touch and feel. He regularly gets beaten by others because he winds people up the wrong way. Given the Holy Father's homily, I found this all a bit mysterious.
Tu Es Petrus: An Open Musical Letter to His Holiness Pope Francis
Tu Es Petrus
You entered the balcony without the mozzetta
You refused the blood red shoes of your predecessors
O you took the name Franciscus and you’re rebuilding the Church
You’re the lowly, you’re the chosen Successor of St Peter
You asked the crowd to invoke God’s blessing on your reign
You settled the hotel bill after the brief conclave
You travelled with Bishops and Cardinals
On your first day to work
You are not like other Popes we’ve seen
You don’t want a chauffeur
Humility-means-I-Die-I-Die-I-Die-I-Die
Humility-means-Die-I-Die-I-Die-I-I-Die
Humility-means I-Die-I-Die-I-means-I-Die-to-my-self
Humility-means I-Die-I-Die-means-I-live-for-Jesus
No gold instead a second-hand, silver pectoral Cross
Now we see you’re not worldly like all the other Popes
As for the trappings of your Office,
You decided to move home to live with Cardinals and Bishops so that you don’t live alone
You love the people of God and most of all in Rome
But why won't you just follow the Roman Missal?
To all rites and rules you turn up your 'emancipated' nose
On Mandy Thursday why not wash a female young offender’s toes?
Humility-means-I-Die-I-Die-I-Die-I-Die
Humility-means-Die-I-Die-I-Die-I-I-Die
Humility-means I-Die-I-Die-I-means-I-Die-to-my-self
Humility-means I-Die-I-Die-mean -I-live-for-Jesus
Polyester Vestments, yes, the humblest of them all
Now 'the Carnival is over’ we’ve a ‘new’ wardrobe
Bearing the beauty of our tradition since 1970
The ‘hermeneutic of a-rupture’ in all of its...simplicity
A cameraman appears at the rear of the Pope-mobile
So the World can see the Pope is growing humbler still
If you grow any more humble then Your Holiness will burst
You’re not a renaissance prince
Are you Humilitas I?
Humility-means-I-Die-I-Die-I-Die-I-Die
Humility-means-Die-I-Die-I-Die-I-I-Die
Humility means that when you die and leave God's Church on Earth
You leave the Papacy as you found it for your humble Successor
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
Upon this Rock is built the Church!
The gates of Hell shall ne’er prevail even should they surround Her!
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
To thee the Keys of Heaven given!
What you bind and loose on Earth shall be bound or loosed in Heaven!
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
To the city! To the World!
Benedict was Petrus months ago and you said, ‘We are Brothers!’
Oh forgive me! Oh forgive me!
If my song your ear offends
But if you're Brothers then why is your so reign radically different?
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
To thy will I must defer
Accept this humble gesture from
A lowly messenger
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
Of all Apostles thou art Prince
What is sacred for this generation
Please hold sacred hence!
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
Defend the Magisterium
From the enemies of God who seek the Church’s destruction!
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
Of all the Treasures of the Church
The poor, neglected, and unloved, forgotten,
Blessed Sacrament
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
To thy son and thy servant
Impart the blessing of Almighty God from the hand of the Chief Shepherd
Tu es Petrus! Tu es Petrus!
Do not doubt,
Your Holiness,
I remain your loyal, humble and obedient servant
"Never say behind someone's back what you could not say charitably to his face."
~ St Francis of Assisi
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
A call to prayer from.....
...Channel Four.....and....Catholic Secondary Schools in Southwark Archdiocese.
Good old conservative Channel Four is to feature the Muslim call to prayer throughout the fasting period of Ramadhan this year.
You know Ramadhan? It's the time when devout Muslims fast from before dawn till sundown (a long period in British Summertime) and, at either end, stuff themselves with as much grub as is humanly possible.
Fast and feast.
In this process they operate lathes and commercial guillotines, drive buses, trains and lorries as well as conduct brain surgery, all without the benefit of energy generating food.
At all of the Colleges that I have worked in, we would bar Muslim students from using any dangerous machinery during Ramadhan; the capacity for seriously injuring themselves, and others is immense.
But following closely on the heels of Channel Four is the Archdiocese of Southwark.
Archbishop Peter Smith has conducted an investigation into the diversion of hard pressed resources into the provision of Muslim Prayer Rooms in no less than ten (yes, ten) of his schools.
And, to cut a long story short, he is cool about it.
In fact, he sees it as his bounden duty to make such provision.
He didn't actually say: "We're all members of the same club" but he might just as well have done so.
Bully.
63 good Catholics and true, signed the letter querying this most dubious of practices but ++ Smith has waved two episcopal fingers at all just to tell us to keep our noses out of Southwarkmadrassas practices and to let him get on with what he started so successfully in Cardiff.
And Archbishop Mennini, whom we have kept in the loop, has stated that he has no jurisdiction in such matters..but....but....but....
....he has hinted that he will have a word in someone's ear (my words, not his).
He was bit more forthright, good man that he is.
Now, I hope that I am not reading too much into that phrase but isn't the sentence:
"Have a word in his ear" Cosa Nostra speak for "I'm sending some of da boys round as we speak" - meaning: "He will never walk in a straight line again"
The more I see of our Nuncio, the more impressed I am.
He is a true Godfather in every sense of the word.
 |
| Southwark or Saudi Arabia - hard to tell |
Good old conservative Channel Four is to feature the Muslim call to prayer throughout the fasting period of Ramadhan this year.
You know Ramadhan? It's the time when devout Muslims fast from before dawn till sundown (a long period in British Summertime) and, at either end, stuff themselves with as much grub as is humanly possible.
Fast and feast.
In this process they operate lathes and commercial guillotines, drive buses, trains and lorries as well as conduct brain surgery, all without the benefit of energy generating food.
At all of the Colleges that I have worked in, we would bar Muslim students from using any dangerous machinery during Ramadhan; the capacity for seriously injuring themselves, and others is immense.
But following closely on the heels of Channel Four is the Archdiocese of Southwark.
Archbishop Peter Smith has conducted an investigation into the diversion of hard pressed resources into the provision of Muslim Prayer Rooms in no less than ten (yes, ten) of his schools.
And, to cut a long story short, he is cool about it.
In fact, he sees it as his bounden duty to make such provision.
He didn't actually say: "We're all members of the same club" but he might just as well have done so.
Bully.
63 good Catholics and true, signed the letter querying this most dubious of practices but ++ Smith has waved two episcopal fingers at all just to tell us to keep our noses out of Southwark
And Archbishop Mennini, whom we have kept in the loop, has stated that he has no jurisdiction in such matters..but....but....but....
....he has hinted that he will have a word in someone's ear (my words, not his).
He was bit more forthright, good man that he is.
Now, I hope that I am not reading too much into that phrase but isn't the sentence:
"Have a word in his ear" Cosa Nostra speak for "I'm sending some of da boys round as we speak" - meaning: "He will never walk in a straight line again"
The more I see of our Nuncio, the more impressed I am.
He is a true Godfather in every sense of the word.
Pope Francis: Flee from Sin and Don't Look Back!
To read the rest of the Holy Father's homily click here.
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