...in the 10th century, when militant Islam was on the march in the Middle East, and pilgrims found it difficult to reach the Holy Land in safety, something happened in a small village six miles from England's Eastern coast. In the year 1061, the Saxon lady of the manor of Walsingham had a vision of Mary, Christ's own mother, who told her to build a replica of the holy house at Nazareth, where people could visit and pray.
And she did, and for centuries pilgrims came by the thousand.
And now, in the 21st century, with pilgrims still arriving, the Pope has declared Walsingham to be a Minor Basilica, opening up a new chapter for this most fascinating of holy places. You can watch and hear the Bishop reading the powerful announcement in all its English-accented Latin glory, here...
There is much rejoiicing at Walsingham, and this will be an exciting year: there are many plans to enlarge and develop the shrine...and meanwhile the number of pilgrims will grow and grow. Coincidentally, just a few days ago I had a phone call about the big "New Dawn in the Church" gathering at Walsingham this August in which I have again been invited to take part...
One of the things that fascinates me about Walsingham is its name. The "ham" part, of course, simply indicates a small town or village - as in Caterham, Birmingham (yes, it was small once!), Woldingham, Cheltenham, Nottingham...
But the "wal" bit might indicate that this was a settlement where the ancient British people lived. The Angles,Saxons and Jutes gradually invaded Britain from - well - Saxony and Jutland and so on, as the Roman empire disintegrated, settling first naturally enough on our eastern coasts. Over the years, the English language - its roots are of course the same as German - developed. The Saxon word for a stranger is "Welsh" oir "Walsh": so settlements of old Britons tended to have this as the prefix: hence, for example Wallington in Surrey or Wallingford in Berkshire...and, of course, Wales.
The Britons had received the Christian faith during the Roman era - the invading Anglo-Saxons were of course pagan (we still commemorate their gods in the days of the week, Mars, Tui, Woden...). But they were converted in their turn (St Augustine, 597 AD etc).
And so we come to the Saxon lady of the manor, Richeldis, in Walsingham in the 11th century. The manor was held by the Royal family - she seems to have been a relative, perhaps by marriage, of the Sexon King Harold. The year was 1061. And in 1066 came the Norman invasion...
Thus there may well be, at Walsingham, an unbroken Christian link going right the way back to the first arrival of the Faith, in Roman times...and continuing through to the present. The only break came under Henry VIII, but the link was revived again in the 20th century and today the shrine attracts pilgrims as of old...
Saturday, January 09, 2016
Friday, January 08, 2016
A thorough tidying-up session...
...and I can actually see my desk again, the flutter of papers and cards has been sorted, all Christmas letters answered, various matters tackled, rubbish thrown away....
And the room tidied...photographs freshly re-arranged on the newly-wiped and still overcrowded shelves...and it's all family life, and memories, and thoughts of tomorrow as well as yesterday and today. How to throw anything away? The young man looking solemn in his graduation robes beams out from another picture taken a few years later with a bride on his arm...they now have two delightful small children. Jamie in uniform with me in that lovely blue taffeta dress - all very 1990s. I couldn't fit into it now. Bogles gathered with visitors from Australia - how well I remember that day and the hilarious laughter and fun of that particular gathering. The niece in white First Communion dress...the years have whirled by: she is getting married this coming summer...another batch of nieces with Auntie at the London Eye - they're all at college and university now, and we had tea with one the other day.
The desk is about work, and responsibilitis, and some quite important projects. But the pictures and the clutter are about family, the very stuff of life itself.
And the room tidied...photographs freshly re-arranged on the newly-wiped and still overcrowded shelves...and it's all family life, and memories, and thoughts of tomorrow as well as yesterday and today. How to throw anything away? The young man looking solemn in his graduation robes beams out from another picture taken a few years later with a bride on his arm...they now have two delightful small children. Jamie in uniform with me in that lovely blue taffeta dress - all very 1990s. I couldn't fit into it now. Bogles gathered with visitors from Australia - how well I remember that day and the hilarious laughter and fun of that particular gathering. The niece in white First Communion dress...the years have whirled by: she is getting married this coming summer...another batch of nieces with Auntie at the London Eye - they're all at college and university now, and we had tea with one the other day.
The desk is about work, and responsibilitis, and some quite important projects. But the pictures and the clutter are about family, the very stuff of life itself.
The Bridgettine sisters...
...at Iver in Buckinghamshire are holding a special prayer service on Friday January 22nd, marking the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. The Bishop will attend and there will be refreshments afterwards. All are welcome...telephone 01753 663520 or 01753 663027 for more details.
I never knew much about the Bridgettines until I was asked by my publisher to investigate the extraordinary story of Mother Riccarda Hambrough who hid Jewish refugees in their convent in Rome's Piazza Farnese in the Second World War. It's a story worth discovering, and is of course linked to the whole story of Pius XII's protection of Jews in wartime Rome, and the many lives saved...the full stories are only just beginning to be properly publicised.
One of my most memorable afternoons of recent years was spent in the parlour of the Bridgettine house in Rome, talking to Mr Piperno, who as a teenager was hidden in those rooms with his mother and other members of his family...
I never knew much about the Bridgettines until I was asked by my publisher to investigate the extraordinary story of Mother Riccarda Hambrough who hid Jewish refugees in their convent in Rome's Piazza Farnese in the Second World War. It's a story worth discovering, and is of course linked to the whole story of Pius XII's protection of Jews in wartime Rome, and the many lives saved...the full stories are only just beginning to be properly publicised.
One of my most memorable afternoons of recent years was spent in the parlour of the Bridgettine house in Rome, talking to Mr Piperno, who as a teenager was hidden in those rooms with his mother and other members of his family...
Thursday, January 07, 2016
There's a poignant piece...
...in Dickens' David Copperfield in which the young David arrives home from school, and finds that the horrible Murdstones are away for a short while, and he is able to spend a lovely evening with his mother and Peggoty, just like the old times...they read a favourite old book, and sit together at the old table and eat a happy family supper...
Suddenly, this evening in a dark and rainy London, I had a glimpse of that. Somehow, in the cold and the dark, buses feel friendlier, people are kind and jokey. We laughed a bit, and people said silly things said about the weather and everything being uncomfortable and inconvenient. There wasn't that awkward are-we-being-politically-correct? feel that so often pervades modern life. .
A feature in last week's Spectator asked why people today are so unhappy. Where did the merriment go? Remember Morecambe and Wise? And where did gallantry go? Remember when people would make cheery remarks, perhaps when picking up something that had been dropped, or helping some one with a suitcase? Today, it's somehow correct to emphasise one's victimhood - never to put a cheery face on things or use that old expression "Musn't grumble!" And people feel on edge about paying a compliment - or admitting a mistake - in case it is somehow used against them in some legalistic way.
I came home through the icy rain and the house was warm and I made tea and buttered toast, and did some sewing, and listened to an old radio recording of a "Father Brown" story. A sort Copperfield evening.
Suddenly, this evening in a dark and rainy London, I had a glimpse of that. Somehow, in the cold and the dark, buses feel friendlier, people are kind and jokey. We laughed a bit, and people said silly things said about the weather and everything being uncomfortable and inconvenient. There wasn't that awkward are-we-being-politically-correct? feel that so often pervades modern life. .
A feature in last week's Spectator asked why people today are so unhappy. Where did the merriment go? Remember Morecambe and Wise? And where did gallantry go? Remember when people would make cheery remarks, perhaps when picking up something that had been dropped, or helping some one with a suitcase? Today, it's somehow correct to emphasise one's victimhood - never to put a cheery face on things or use that old expression "Musn't grumble!" And people feel on edge about paying a compliment - or admitting a mistake - in case it is somehow used against them in some legalistic way.
I came home through the icy rain and the house was warm and I made tea and buttered toast, and did some sewing, and listened to an old radio recording of a "Father Brown" story. A sort Copperfield evening.
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Goodwill, good ideas, good things planned...
...a celebration to mark the 5th birthday of The Portal, magazine of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Speeches, fizz, a buffet, a cake cut, and lots of good talk in good company.
Keynote issues for the Ordinariate are ecumenism and evangelisation. There is a lot of energy and goodwill here, and a sense of zeal for spreading the Christian message in a Britain that sorely needs it. Our Bishops should give some churches into the care of the Ordinariate, especially as there are some fine Ordinariate priests aching to run parishes.
I had some photographs to deliver to the editor of OREMUS, the Westminster Cathedral magazine, in which I write each month, so after the Portal party finished, I made my way there in the rainy dusk. The Cathedral looks simply magnificent with great glittering Christmas trees framing the chancel, and a superb Nativity scene set up in a side-chapel. The Christ-child holds his arms wide in blessing and welcome, St Joseph stands guard reverently with a lantern, and the Wise Men have just arrived complete with a camel...it's well worth a special visit if you are in London over the next days...
Keynote issues for the Ordinariate are ecumenism and evangelisation. There is a lot of energy and goodwill here, and a sense of zeal for spreading the Christian message in a Britain that sorely needs it. Our Bishops should give some churches into the care of the Ordinariate, especially as there are some fine Ordinariate priests aching to run parishes.
I had some photographs to deliver to the editor of OREMUS, the Westminster Cathedral magazine, in which I write each month, so after the Portal party finished, I made my way there in the rainy dusk. The Cathedral looks simply magnificent with great glittering Christmas trees framing the chancel, and a superb Nativity scene set up in a side-chapel. The Christ-child holds his arms wide in blessing and welcome, St Joseph stands guard reverently with a lantern, and the Wise Men have just arrived complete with a camel...it's well worth a special visit if you are in London over the next days...
Things I wrote in 2015...
...include, of course, much that will be forgotten. Journalism is like that. But some things might outlast the usual readtodayandbinitomorrow procedures. This, is, I think, the one that speaks most deeply from my heart.
Monday, January 04, 2016
I'll be celebrating the Epiphany...
...this week in style, at a party for all who work on The Portal, the on-line magazine of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We'll be celebrating it on the correct day, January 6th, although we'll all have had an Epiphany Mass last Sunday.
Why won't our Bishops allow all of us in Britain to have the great feasts of the Church on the right day each year?? There's absolutely no reason to mess up our calendar by banning us from having the Epiphany feast on January 6th. It's time this messy experiment came to an end. Moving feasts at random to "the nearest Sunday" just confuses and irritates us - and robs us of the fun and pleasure of a midweek feast and the chance to do some gentle and cheery evangelisation.
Impossible to get to a weekday Mass? Throughout my adult life in the 1970s and 80s, and 90s, working as a junior reporter on newspapers or a researcher in Parliament, or living in Berlin or in an Army base in Yorkshire, I managed to get to Mass on a weekday. It's even easier now, with internet links and mobile phones to check Mass times or liaise with friends. My mother made it to weekday Masses in wartime Britain under threat of bombs. People have done it for centuries. PLEASE CAN WE HAVE OUR FEAST-DAYS BACK???
Why won't our Bishops allow all of us in Britain to have the great feasts of the Church on the right day each year?? There's absolutely no reason to mess up our calendar by banning us from having the Epiphany feast on January 6th. It's time this messy experiment came to an end. Moving feasts at random to "the nearest Sunday" just confuses and irritates us - and robs us of the fun and pleasure of a midweek feast and the chance to do some gentle and cheery evangelisation.
Impossible to get to a weekday Mass? Throughout my adult life in the 1970s and 80s, and 90s, working as a junior reporter on newspapers or a researcher in Parliament, or living in Berlin or in an Army base in Yorkshire, I managed to get to Mass on a weekday. It's even easier now, with internet links and mobile phones to check Mass times or liaise with friends. My mother made it to weekday Masses in wartime Britain under threat of bombs. People have done it for centuries. PLEASE CAN WE HAVE OUR FEAST-DAYS BACK???
Sunday, January 03, 2016
White chalk...
...was blessed and distributed at Mass today: to mark the Epiphany we bless our homes, and chalk up the date and the traditional initials of the wise men who followed the Star and found the infant King, our Saviour.
20 + C + M + B+ 16
is now above our door. All I had to do was to change the 5 of 2015 to a 6, and go over the initials a bit to highlight them anew. The initials also spell out "Bless this house" in Latin...
Although Auntie had a most beautiful Christmas with much-loved family in England's most lovely countryside, it is also good to be back in London, hurrying along by the great grey Thames in the grey rain and then into a glowing church filled with people and hearty singing... and a New Year beginning.
Along with the chalk, we were given a little prayer to use:
"God of Heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten One to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who live here..."
20 + C + M + B+ 16
is now above our door. All I had to do was to change the 5 of 2015 to a 6, and go over the initials a bit to highlight them anew. The initials also spell out "Bless this house" in Latin...
Although Auntie had a most beautiful Christmas with much-loved family in England's most lovely countryside, it is also good to be back in London, hurrying along by the great grey Thames in the grey rain and then into a glowing church filled with people and hearty singing... and a New Year beginning.
Along with the chalk, we were given a little prayer to use:
"God of Heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten One to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who live here..."
Saturday, January 02, 2016
In 2016...
...one of the significant things will be Pope Francis' document on the family...as background, it's worth reading this...
Because of the internet, and apps, and mobile phones, and all that...
...the Queen's Christmas broadcast no longer has the same unifying significance that it has carried for most of her reign. We all used to watch it together, families and friends gathered simultaneously in front of TV sets.. very much a communial thing,... there was a sense of sharing in something of value, that had become a part of Christmas Day, a tradition in its own right. Not now. One could simply watch it at any stage, on a computer, with lots of other things happening: people chatting, watching someting else on another computer, eating, texting, or doing all of those things...
Something has certainly been lost because of this. But the message this year had a fine Christian message, and so it is good that we can watch it again when we want to do so...
Something has certainly been lost because of this. But the message this year had a fine Christian message, and so it is good that we can watch it again when we want to do so...
Want to know...
...what books Auntie specially enjoyed during 2015? Read here...
...and find out what Pope Francis will be doing during 2016...read here...
...and find out what Pope Francis will be doing during 2016...read here...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
