Glorious music, a baptism...

...Sunday Mass today was a joy. A packed church - there are not enough pews at the back, some having removed, in lunatic fashion,  a few years ago, on the grounds that they would not be needed because...er...people don't go to church much any more, do they?  

The Sunday School is large and growing, and won't fit into the only space available. 

A lively lunch with a group including the parish's new young music director. Plans for a children's choir are going well.  This may take some pressure off the Sunday School. Much talk about music, traditions, liturgy, history, education, and more...

A walk along the Thames, in good spirits. A visit to a beloved elderly relative, with gentle talk of family things.

But all this is happening against a sensation of a darkening future. Horrible new regulations have been suggested  for "mandatory national transphobic hate-crime training for police officers and the promotion of third-party reporting". Translated into English that means that if you think that it is not actually possible to turn a boy into a girl, and you voice that opinion, you might be arrested. More on all this here. There's a horrible feeling that ordinary freedom to speak openly of ordinary things may be crushed.

In the 197Os, I  joined in do-you-think-we-may-all-be-persecuted-one-day? discussions with other young Catholics...and we often announced solemnly to one another that, yes, it could happen...look at the Soviet Union, look at history...and we saw (and fought as vigorously as we could against) trends that were ominous as public funds went to groups promoting abortion and so on...

And now.,..

 

Read Auntie on Henri de Lubac...

...in the latest Catholic Herald...

A morning interview with ...

Fr Dominic Allain of Grief to Grace, a ministry to people who have suffered abuse, especially abuse within the Church. Immensely important and valuable work.  When Pope Benedict XVI met victims of clergy abuse, he wept. He also urged that healing and help be offered...and this is now being done. It's an aspect of the whole ghastly problem that is often ignored: somehow the actual needs of sufferers - as opposed to hearing their stories, demanding changes in Church policies etc - is something that gets marginalised...

On glorious art...

...and the human body...and wine...and Western civilisation...read here...

A meeting of...

...the Association of Catholic Women, gathered in  a church hall over a big pot of coffee, and with lots of plans for the year ahead.  A Lenten Day of Recollection. Big annual RE project for primary schools. Need to revamp the website. Newsletter.  Holy Week and the Chrism Mass: an opportunity to say thank-you to oyr priests  Autumn activities: Towards Advent Festival (Nov 26th, since you ask - note the date now).

A weekend in the country...

...very delightful, with good friends and lots of talk and laughter, delicious meals, catching up on news...

Mass in local church. Oh dear. A lady with a guitar singing  into a microphone, standing to one side of the sanctuary. Why?  Silly hymns. It all had an out-of-date and tired feel to it.

It is sometimes difficult for clergy - busy and overworked and coping with more than one church in a rural area, and so on - to tackle with tact and charity the need to explain to a singer who has dominated for many years that it might be time to move on now.  . There are people in every community who can sing and  who might like to get a choir together..and music often sounds better when it comes from a choir-loft designed for just that purpose...and the Church urges that the faithful be encouraged to sing the parts of the Mass, which is not possible if some one dominates with a microphone and wants everyone to watch...

Conspiracy theories....

...have been in the news.

Catholics are among the worst at spreading these. Especially young (mostly male?)  facebooktwitterbloggerwhatever types...a colleague was telling me the other day of her son's conspiracy-mania (which she wisely regards as just a phase, but still...)  and my own experiences both through meetings and youth events, and via the internet, have confirmed the phenomenon.

Older enthusiasts use the internet but also sometimes launch into print: one American newsletter had a wobbly structure of ranting anger centred on passionate loathing of St John Paul...there were weird, interconnecting  tirades involving a hate-fuelled longing for Divine intervention to  prevent the canonisation...and then of course there is Fatima... St John Paul and BXVI Were Both Liars and all that...one theory there involves a nun being walled up in a cellar while a doppleganger was brought out to talk to visiting Cardinals...oh, and do you remember the "plastic Pope" stories in the 1970s? Pope Paul had beem imprisoned - I think this is how the story went - and another chap was brought out from time to time who had Different Ears. Information about this sometimes began with a duplicated letter which announced that ears are the hardest bit of the body to fake  which I would have thought was demonstrably untrue...what about fingerprints?  Newer conspiracies involve Papa Francis being invalidly elected because somebody sneezed. Or something.

It will all continue. As will the nasty stuff aboutjewishmasonicplots and,onlyafewofusaretherealcatholics  and so on...

Meanwhile as for this Blog, we will stay with the advice from St Paul: "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think on these things" 

...and on a more trivial note...

...if you want to know something of what it is like working on an EWTN project, read here...

Along the cobbled street....

...below me as I write this, is the Clink Prison. Here, prisoners were held in grim conditions, and among them were Catholics imprisoned for their faith. There was hunger, illness, filth, lack of water, bitter cold in winter and stuffy airless heat in summer,  and the threat of torture. There was fear and the horror that imprisonment might last for years and years...or that a grisly execution might be round the corner...

They didn't all agree with one another. There were tensions  and even fights in those ghastly years of persecution: between Jesuits and other missionary priests, between men ordained in Mary's reign and men ordained abroad in Elizabeth's, between those who believed some political campaign or uprising might be the answer, and those who believed in just keeping going with Mass and the sacraments...

Protestants too were incarcerated in The Clink, all part of the misery created by religious coercion  by the authorities of the day...

...and four centuries later, I can sit with a cup of coffee and slice of shortbread  in comfort...and email a friend about a kneeler for his school chapel dedicated to St John Fisher, martyr of Henry's reign, whose death in 1535 would be the first of so many deaths of  priests...

In the other direction I can see the grey Thames rolling by and the vast skyscrapers of London with their ugly shapes and lines of box-square windows lit up in the winter evening.

I hope we have learned the lessons from history about the need to allow human dignity and legitimate freedom in religious matters...

Christianity in the classroom...

...there is a feature on this by Auntie in the latest issue of OREMUS, the magazine of Westminster Cathedral. You can download the magazine here...

Auntie Joanna...

...will be the speaker at the Evening of Faith...tonight, Jan 26th, 7.30pm,  at the Church Hall, 24 Golden Square London W1. Nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus.  More info here...

CATHOLICISM IN THE SECULAR WORLD...

...and a lecture on this theme by Francis Campbell.  The lecture is sponsored by St Mary's University, Twickenham, and the Catholic Union of Great Britain.   Feb 25th at Trafalgar Hall, Notre Dame University, Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HG,  (just off Trafalgar Square).

An announcement from the Catholic Union office:

A member of HM Diplomatic Service since 1997, Francis Campbell is probably best known for his service as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Holy See between 2005 and 2011. Since then, he has served as Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan, Head of the Policy Unit in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Director of Innovation at UK Trade and Investment. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham in 2014.

 Admission to the lecture is free but, if you wish to attend, please  apply  to the Catholic Union office, St Maximilian Kolbe House, 63 Jeddo Road, London W12 9EE, as accommodation is strictly limited. You may also apply by phone or email to 020 8749 1321 or info@catholicunion.org.uk. The lecture will be followed by a short reception at which light refreshments will be served.

In gentle rain...

...to the Guards Museum, Wellington Barracks, on an errand  about  a medal ribbon.    It's always somehow nice to be on Army territory again.

There is a rather good Gift Shop, with the most superb collections of toy soldiers.

I wandered into the Guards Chapel. The original 19th century building  was almost destroyed in WWII but the chancel was unharmed:  pre-Raphaelite and glorious, with Christ on the Cross at the centre, and triumphant above...

The large main part of the chapel is ennobled by the regimental colours laid up there, and  the memorials to the war dead of Guards regiments over two centuries. It all speaks, in an understated but unashamed ways, of faith and faithfulness, courage and duty and sacrifice. Many battle names familiar and resonating with a sort of folk-memory.  Like all Army places, it was spick-and-span,Two ladies were busily  cleaning the already immaculate floor.

Out into a damp London, the lawns of St James Park v. green, and splashy puddles along Birdcage Walk.

Newspapers today have stories about childen who think they want a sex-change operation,  and about the obesity crisis.

Oh dear. Our poor beloved country.

I wrote...

...a thoughtful piece saying why I think it is a pity that Pope Francis has decided to have women among those who have their feet washed in the Mandatum  on Maundy Thursday.

But this has produced such a torrent of inane, and in some cases spiteful  Comments about the Pope that I have deleted it.

It was especially nasty to have the anonymous Comment from some one who said he/she was glad I had "FINALLY" (in excited block capitals) said something against the Pope...and that he/she "just wanted to speak out".  But Anonymous has not spoken out: merely hidden behind a nasty anonymous comment. And it was this that made me remove my Blog piece. I don't want to be linked in any way to such people.

Please note: I think it is great pity that the Pope has done this, and believe it will one day be reversed. There is something profound about a man kneeling before other men and being at their service, and this is a  subtly different thing from the long tradition of Christian kindliness and chivalry towards women. So I think there is much more to explore here, and the Pope's decision will not be the last word on the subject - there can be further respectful discussion over the years on this.

But I am wholly uninterested in any comments from people who loathe the Pope/believe he is the antichrist/point rudely to his clumsy movements/ are longing for  him to die/ sneer at him for not genuflecting on one knee/announce that he makes them incoherent with rage/ believe he is an imposter etc etc etc.

Did you know that...

...many of the Catholic bishops in Britain spend Christmas Day in prison?  Nor did I. But I learned today while at a prison that it is standard for the Bishop to come to celebrate Mass with the prisoners and, where possible, eat Christmas lunch with them...of course Bishops visit at other times, too, but I think that to be there at Christmas is exactly right, and is also quietly impressive...

I am not sure that any work I do in trying to assist the Chaplain at the prison I visit is very useful...but the general message is that they do like any sort of friendly link...today I spent time with K (not his real initial) who is preparing for baptism. He was taking it very seriously and attending all the classes  - "I like it: you can talk to Father about anything" - and doing the required reading.

Pray for prisoners.

More on that fifth anniversary...

...of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham here...

Marriage is...

...the lifelong union of a man and a woman, of its very nature open to new life, and establishing  a  family.

And that is what the Church will teach to young people. Now and in the future:  in youth groups, in Confirmation classes, on pilgrimages and retreats and study days.

I'm re-stating this because there is a nasty sort of murmuring, from public officialdom,  to the effect that...um...ah...the Christian teaching of marriage is sort of, well,  "un-British" and should not be taught. 

You don't believe me? Read on...

A spokesman for Ofsted has announced that snoopers might be sent into Christian youth groups to check on what is being taught. It's not quite clear what sorts of things such checks might include. But in the general climate fostered since the imposition of same-sex unions into Britain's law, teaching that  marriage is the union of one man and one woman has increasingly been enounced as somehow conflicting with "British values".

 With that in mind, read and ponder here...

The fifth anniversary...

...of the establishment of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, was marked  with a Mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, celebrated in the Ordinariate Form.   The choir of the John Fisher School, Purley sang settings by  Merbecke...thus making history, as a Catholic school choir singing Anglican chant at a Mass celebrated with traditional Cranmerian prayers....

Fr Peter Geldard - currently chaplain at the University of Kent at Canterbury -  preached, noting that sometimes what seems an apparently small event turns out to be one of the most significant in history, citing various instances including, randomly, the Treaty of 1830 in which Britain guaranteed the integrity of Belgium,  the tea tax of the 1760s and its effects on the American colonialists, and John Henry Newman kneeling before Dominic Barberi at Littlemore one stormy Autumn evening...

Afterwards, a reception at the Hop Exchange, surely one of the most magnificent buildings on the southern bank of the Thames, and previously unknown to me. Hops were brought up to London Bridge  by the trainload, from the Kent hopfields,  and there were many brewers locally.

The huge beauty...

..of the countryside in winter...snowy peaks and frosty fields. Bare trees, sheep pottering about, houses looking welcoming. Then suddenly a great sheet of water, a reeminder of recent floods and people's lives made miserable...nd the train rushes on and the scene changes again, green fields and bright sunshine.

Scotland...

...in rain and drizzle, slowly turning to snow...the journey from Euston was interrupted at Carlisle, where we had to transfer to a bus - the railway viaduct /bridhe unusable because of the floods.

Sisters Roseanne and Andrea of the Sisters of the Gospel of Life  met me at Glasgow and it has been a joy staying with them. A warm welcome, delicious meals, evening prayer in their small candelit chapel, lots of good talk, a comfortable room with wonderful books...

At a morning Mass in a rather chilly church, the preacher recalled his auntie praying in that same church a while back :"She sort of looked a bit odd, and then I realised it was because she'd a hot water bottle tucked up her back".

The FAITH editorial board meeting was excellent, useful and productive. The cake (see previous blog entry) went down well.

Long ago...

... VI-form schoolboy Patrick Burke sat at our kitchen table in Wallington, Surrey, with other volunteers, eating my mother's home-made biscuits from the old green tin, and helping to pack FAITH magazine...

Today I am sitting at Euston station, en route to Scotland,, for a FAITH meeting tomorrow in Edinburgh, presided over by Mgr Patrick Burke.  For old times' sake, I've baked a cake and packed it - oh, all right, not in a tin now,  but in one of those newfangled plastic things with a posh clip-down lid.  But somehow there's a good feeling  of continuity...Plus ca change...

Infuriating virus...

...a friend has just contacted me to say she got one of those strange emails announcing that I was in hospital in some obscure country, and wanted help...

These are easy to detect as an email vius. So if you get one, just ignore it. But I have found elderly friends get terribly distressed....when this happened to my email account a few months back, I received telephone calls from elderly friends in  Australia and Hong Kong saying "Are you really stranded in Morrocco (or Ukraine, or Naples, or wherever it was)? Are you all right?"

PLEASE IGNORE ANY EMAIL REQUEST FROM ME, OR FROM ANY OTHER OF YOUR FRIENDS OR FAMILY, SAYING THEY ARE STRANDED IN SOME WEIRD FOREIGN PLACE AND NEED MONEY!!!  The email will not be from anyone you know, but from some criminal group which wants access to your bank account. So don't be stupid. IGNORE DAFT EMAILS.

And this is a touching and rather healing thing...

....that you simply must read...

Meanwhile...

...the Dean of St Paul's is quoted as saying "Jesus had nothing much to say about sexuality, certainly not about homosexuality, but a lot to say about pride and love and judgement of others."

Christ in fact had quite a lot to say about our sexual behaviour. But let us look at the question of pride since the Dean raises it.

Pride is a much-praised thing among those who promote the homosexual lifestyle. "Pride" is the name they give to their marches and their campaigns. "We support pride" is a current slogan for those who want to affirm public support for groups promoting the homosexualist campaigns. It is their key word, generally used simply on its own: Pride.

I'm genuinely puzzled. Does the Dean think it is good to promote pride? Is he suggesting that Christ taught the importance of promoting pride - and that Christians have been wrong for all these centuries in listing it as one of the deadliest of sins?

 

Persecution of Christians...

...is in the news... at LOGS  this evening we had a speaker  from Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Ben Rogers told us of the plight of Christians in various parts of the world, and some of his adventures with CSW in working to help them.

It was particularly moving to learn about Shabhaz Bhatti, a personal friend of Ben, who was martyred...I remember reading about this shooting, but it was something quite different to hear about it at first-hand...and Ben also told us the rather touching news that Shabhaz' cause for canonisation has been formally introduced.

Just under a thousand years ago...

...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 Saxon 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...

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.

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...

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.

...and for a flavour of things in London this rainy January...

...read here...

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...

Pope Francis celebrates Epiphany on the traditional date.....

... Read here .

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. 

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???

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..."

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...

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...