Once again I find myself playing catch-up with
my blog entries. This is a shame as I find them really fun to write and I
definitely enjoy the chance to note down my experiences and to think about the
people I've met and the places I've visited. I feel a NW Office New Year’s
Resolution coming on…
On the evening of Saturday 29 November my
husband and I headed up to Our Lady of Eden in Carlisle for a Prayer Vigil for
Religious Freedom. We received an extremely warm welcome from the clergy
there—many thanks to Canon Watson, Fr Gaskin and Fr Millar for their generous
hospitality and delicious food! The vigil was lovely—excellent music with a
very attentive congregation in a beautiful church. I met up with the Head
Catechist and I am planning to go back to talk to the confirmandi in the new
year. There is a vibrant Polish community based here; I must put my mind to
coming up with an offering for them in the future. The new parish hall and Carlisle's relative proximity to Scottish Lorraine's office in Motherwell have me pondering a joint event with our friends across the border...och, Aye!
You will notice the banner with the little girl from Syria once again front and centre at an ACN NW Prayer Vigil; at Carlisle, just as at every other prayer vigil so far, I found several people standing in front of her at the end of the vigil--"we are just praying for her, to make sure that she stays safe," they said. It is this sort of compassion and selflessness that I find wherever I encounter ACN friends and benefactors. I pray for her too!
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| Treasures from the Stonyhurst College Collections |
1 December is the feast day of the English
Recusant martyr, St Edmund Campion. This day is celebrated with special care
each year at Stonyhurst College, an ancient Jesuit school just outside of
Clitheroe in Lancashire. The Campion Mass is always takes place in St Peter's, Stonyhurst in the presence of invited senior clerics and with two relics of
this notable Jesuit saint upon the high altar. This year, in my capacity as NW Manager for Aid to the Church in Need, I
was invited to attend the Mass and the lunch afterwards as a guest of the
College. It was indeed an honour and a privilege to be there. The Mass was very
moving; the choir was in great voice and the Archbishop of Baltimore, whose earliest predecessor was himself a graduate of the
Jesuit College of St Omer (from which Stonyhurst was founded), preached a
beautiful homily pitched perfectly to the largely teenaged congregation. Lunch
followed in the refectory—a remarkable affair as Campion Day is celebrated with
great gusto at the College. On this day the older students serve the juniors
and the staff serves the senior students and the whole school attends the
‘Campion Fair’ in the afternoon. Very festive it was! The other guests and I
headed into the historic libraries to view some of the highlights of
Stonyhurst's extensive collections of religious items collected, bequeathed and
donated by Jesuits and their supporters over the past 450 years or so. We saw
relics (both corporal and secondary), rare books, manuscripts, paintings,
vestments and other artefacts. Jan Graffius, who curates the collections, led the tour and provided lots of interesting
and amusing titbits of background information. We all had a lovely day;
everyone should celebrate Campion Day!
Thanks for reading!
Caroline
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