First Profession

Returned a couple of days ago from a marvellous break, first in York (the picture is from the gardens at Beningbrough, a favourite haunt of ours when we were in Hull.)

 

The gardens are terrific, full of autumn colour

We went to Mass on Saturday evening where the Parish Priest is about to leave after many years of ministry in that amazing church almost on the doorstep of the Minster. There work continues - the East Window is being very thoroughly restored, and one of the western towers has scaffolding at the top. I wish they'd finish it - the saying is that when there is no work going on at the Minster it reverts to the Catholic Church.

In Edinburgh the weather continued fine, and you might like to see what they have done to the Princes Street facade of the Academy - it is all to do with an exhibition of paintings by Peter Doig. They claim him as a Scot, though most of  his life was spent in Canada and the West Indies. His work is fascinating, and the small studies alongside the very large paintings gave some notion of how he works.

Was it just a coincidence that TV had a programme on last evening debunking Wallace, particularly  the Hollywood film 'Braveheart'? Or were they just trying to stir up the Scot Nats before the great Vote next year? It is  to be held on the feast of Bannockburn. As a small child in Greenock  I remember having bricks thrown at me, along with the cry of 'Bannockburn' - on account of my English accent. Great, these sons of the 'enlightenment'!

Today was a very different day - and a wonderful one. Sister Mary Catherine made her First Profession  - so she is now a Dominican Sister of St Joseph, at St Dominic's Priory in Sway, just down the road from us in Lymington. Friends came, some from great distances. The homilist was Fr Marcin Brabcik,  a Polish priest who cares for the parish of New Milton. He had brought with him from Poland a relic of St Faustina, 

Fr Marcin  Preaching

Sister Mary Catherine received the black veil, and Fr Richard Saksons (a Praemonstratensian) blessed the Scapular.

Here Sister kneels before the Prioress, making her Profession.

It was all a very joyful occasion, as Sister's face shows - here she was greeting friends as we left Church after Mass - and before a very substantial buffet lunch. They had invited us to 'light refreshments' - if those were light I can't imagine what serious refreshments might be!

Tomorrow it is back to the Ordinariate Group in Southbourne - where we will consider whether we are to use 'Serving the King' as our study book for the coming year. It is by an Ordinariate Priest, Fr David Mawson, and consists of Thought and Meditations for each Sunday - the new book for Year A which begins in Advent. You can Order a copy from www.mawson.me.uk/jacquedaw.htm .There is a marathon being run in Bournemouth tomorrow, so we will need to be early to avoid the rush!

Telling our story

Today we should begin by wishing our rebellious colonials "Happy Independence Day". Our week began in an unusual encounter; an English Texan meeting a Texan Englishman. Fr Allan Hawkins, from Dallas/Fort Worth visited us with his wife Jose - they are now American citizens - and met our Texan ordinands, Darryl Jordan, who had recently achieved British citizenship.

Darryl (l) and Fr Allan in conversation - between them, Margareta and Jose

 

We had all packed into the small Hall after Mass so that Fr Allan could tell us about his journey from the Church of England, via the Episcopal Church, into the Catholic Church - first, the Anglican Provision and now the Ordinariate. By another strange coincidence we had visitors with us who came from Swindon - where both Fr Allan and our own priest Fr Brian Copus, had served. Small world

 

 

It was, as you can see, quite a squash.

 

Then last evening I had some explaining to do: Fr Marcin, the Polish priest in our neighbouring parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, New Milton, had invited me to speak about the Ordinariate to some of his parishioners.

 

 

He wanted this rather formal picture for the record - he has recently discovered some of the ancient trasures of the parish and put them on display - maybe one day we shall feature in an exhbiition of ancient treasures. Meanwhile, I must go off to say Mass at his Church which I do most Thursdays.



The Poisoned Chalice

These days after Christmas are some of the best - Stephen the first Martyr, John the beloved disciple, and the Holy Innocents. I've a special devotion to all three; Holy Innocents in South Norwood is where I was Baptized (how appropriate, you might say) - Stephen is the Patron of our Seminary in Oxford where I was Principal for eight years, and John is Patron of my first parish in Farncombe. So on St John's Day I celebrated in Our Lady of Lourdes, New Milton, together with the latest member of the Pastoral team in Lymington, Fr Marcin Drabik, who is a Polish priest.

He told us about the custom in Poland on St John's Day of blessing cups of wine after Mass, in memory of John, who drank unharmed from a poisoned chalice because first he had blessed it. Hence that strange attribute of John the Evangleist, the chalice with a serpent emerging from it. The faithful in New Milton have taken Fr Marcin to their hearts, and are delighted to have a man ministering to them under the age of forty (or even under the age of seventy, come to that!) They were very pleased to drink the blessed wine - and I was reminded of the Orthodox custom of blessing bread after Mass for all to share.  Now we can look forward to more Polish customs through 2013 - which I pray may be a very blessed and happy new year for all who read this blog.