Chesterton Knew The Importance of Ecumenical Dialogue

Chesterton Knew The Importance of Ecumenical Dialogue

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Bishop Hopes To Offer Old Rite Mass For Good Counsel, This Friday In London


"Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God."
~ The holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew

Join Juventutem London for Mass this Friday, 29th June, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. This is a Holy Day of Obligation. Bishop Alan Hopes will be celebrating a Pontifical High Mass. [See here for video of the Bishop]

Friday, 29th June, 6.45pm

Saint Mary Moorfields Catholic Church, 4-5 Eldon Street, London, EC2M 7LS

Music will be provided by Cantus Magnus and the Juventutem London Schola.
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Coronation Mass Mozart
Tu es Petrus Clemens non Papa
Ave verum Corpus Mozart
O sacrum convivium Messiaen
Gregorian chant propers
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After Mass there will be a social downstairs for those aged 18-35 with an exception for priests and religious.

The Mass is, of course, open to anyone of any age. It is only the social events that are designed for 18-35 year olds.

This Mass and all our monthly Masses are offered for the work of The Good Counsel Network, a pro-life pregnancy centre that reaches out to mothers in desperate need of support, who would otherwise feel they have no other option than to have an abortion. Their work is founded on prayer and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

If you plan on coming to the social please RSVP either by emailing me, or by clicking 'Attending' on our Facebook event page.

Please let others know about this Mass by forwarding a link to this post, by inviting your friends on Facebook or by word of mouth.

Monday 11 June 2012

Fr Schofield joins the Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage June 14th - London

Right, we're off! Well at least Fr Nicholas Schofield and myself are. After last year's Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage, some idiot (yes it was me) announced that next year we will be walking to Beaconsfield from Campden Hill, Kensington, London (where GKC was born & Baptised). Now I've looked it up, only 23 miles in a straight line! Training got underway one day in January, and ended the same day.

Some people have, rather rudely, laughed at the idea of me walking 25 ish miles in a day! Ha! If we round-down my age to the nearest twenty-something, I'm only 29! Ok, I'll be 45 in October. "Wait", for what? Oh, 'weight', I jumped on the scales., well that is a bit over 12 stone, but not too bad. Then my Wife said, "put both feet on the scales". Wow! Who would have thought that my other foot would weigh five stone!

At the moment, The Good Counsel Network has no money, so I will do this as a sponsored walk. Good Counsel is having trouble supporting a number of Mothers who have chosen to keep their babies and not to abort them. You can post donations, payable to; The Giuld of Our Lady of Good Counsel, P.O. Box 46679, London, England, NW9 8ZT or donate online.

Uxbridge parish seems to be about half way between Kensington and Beaconsfield. Fr Nicholas Schofield is quite happy to have an Old Rite Mass in his parish at 1pm on the day for those of us who have walked from Kensington that morning, but all are more than welcome to join us for the Mass. If we find one or two people who can sing it will be a Missa Cantata. The Church is Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael, Osborn Rd, Uxbridge, UB8 1UE. After Mass, and a quick cup of tea, Fr Nicholas Schofield will then walk on to Beaconsfield with us, I say with "us" but no-one has confirmed that they are coming yet. Please do confirm this.

Upon arrival in Beaconsfield, we will go to G.K. Chesterton's graveside and recite the prayer for his beatification. We will then walk on to St Teresa's Catholic Church, 40 Warwick Road Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire HP9 2PL where we will have a low Old Rite Mass at 7.30pm, to which you are all cordially invited.

Trains to Beaconsfield run regularly from Marylebone Station, so if you are unable to join us for the walk, please join us for Mass.

The day will of course start at about 8am (when Stuart wakes up and realises he has slept through the alarm again - Wife) at St George's Church of England Church, Aubrey Walk, London, W8 7JG, where GK Chesterton was baptised. Here we will read the first paragraph of Chesterton's Autobiography, say the Chesterton Prayer and then march (stroll slowly) off in the direction of Uxbridge looking for a cafe where we can stop for breakfast.

For regular updates on the day see my Twitter account @Stuart1927 . If you are planning to attend, please leave a comment with your email address and/or telephone number, below.
(Statue of Our Lady, given by GKC to the Parish in Beaconfield)

Saturday 9 June 2012

GK's Weekly, “The One Anarchist Institution”

It may be said that this institution of the home is the one anarchist institution. That is to say, it is older than law, and stands outside the State. By its nature it is refreshed or corrupted by indefinable forces of custom or kinship. This is not to be understood as meaning that the State has no authority over families; that State authority is invoked and ought to be invoked in many abnormal cases. But in most normal cases of family joys and sorrows, the State has no mode of entry. It is not so much that the law should not interfere, as that the law cannot. Just as there are fields too far off for law, so there are fields too near; as a man may see the North Pole before he sees his own backbone. Small and near matters escape control at least as much as vast and remote ones; and the real pains and pleasures of the family form a strong instance of this. If a baby cries for the moon, the policeman cannot procure the moon -- but neither can he stop the baby. Creatures so close to each other as husband and wife, or a mother and children, have powers of making each other happy or miserable with which no public coercion can deal. If a marriage could be dissolved every morning it would not give back his night's rest to a man kept awake by a curtain lecture; and what is the good of giving a man a lot of power where he only wants a little peace? The child must depend on the most imperfect mother; the mother may be devoted to the most unworthy children; in such relations legal revenges are vain. Even in the abnormal cases where the law may operate, this difficulty is constantly found; as many a bewildered magistrate knows. He has to save children from starvation by taking away their breadwinner. And he often has to break a wife's heart because her husband has already broken her head. The State has no tool delicate enough to deracinate the rooted habits and tangled affections of the family; the two sexes, whether happy or unhappy, are glued together too tightly for us to get the blade of a legal penknife in between them. The man and the woman are one flesh -- yes, even when they are not one spirit. Man is a quadruped.

GK Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (1910).

Tuesday 5 June 2012

£350 To Save A Life!


Have you ever thought what it would feel like to know you’ve saved someone’s life? How many people can say that if it weren’t for their action or sacrifice, another human being would have died a premature death? Now there’s a way the average person can save one or perhaps more lives each year.

The Good Counsel Network has saved hundreds of babies from abortion at a cost of about £350 for each child saved.

Without generous individuals providing the funds to save these babies, the Good Counsel Network would be unable to save them.

Hence, all donors participate in our lifesaving efforts and are themselves truly lifesavers.
To recognise the people who help us save babies and to provide stable funding for our baby-saving work, the Good Counsel Network has established the Lifesavers’ Circle.

You are invited to belong to the Circle, which requires a £350 per year commitment, payable in one lump sum or in monthly instalments of £30. You will be the spiritual parent of the baby you help us save from abortion.

Click here to join the Lifesaver Circle (Print off form and post completed to the address at the bottom)
A counsellor from the Good Counsel Network was able to help this little baby thanks to the prayeful and financial support of people like you.

If you have a desire for even greater heroism, you might consider joining our St Margaret Clitherow Society, named after the heroic sacrifice of St Margaret Clitherow, martyr for the Faith who was martyred in York on 25 March 1586. St Margaret lived a life of total self-giving to God. As well as sheltering Priests from those who would arrest and kill them Margaret lived a holy married life. Her martyrdom was carried out by pressing her to death with a sharp stone under her back and a door on top of her on which heavy weights were laid. Margaret was pregnant when she was killed, but even this did not cause her to flinch from giving her life when called to, rather than betray the Catholic Faith.

St Margaret Clitherow Society members sacrifice at least £1,000 per year, either in a lump sum or in monthly or quarterly instalments.

Click here to join the St Margaret Clitherow Society (Print off form and post completed to the address at the bottom)

Many members struggle to give £84 per month. The value of their sacrifice, often disproportionate to their means, is laden with grace, not only for themselves but also for our apostolate.Note that pledges are not legally or morally binding. If circumstances require that you terminate or change your commitment, we understand completely. All we ask is a good faith effort.

If you would like to make a one off donation or set up a standing order online Via Justgiving Click Here and choose One-off Donation or monthly donation.

Saturday 2 June 2012

GK's Weekly, Nothing Remains To Us But Rebellion


“England has forgotten the Feudal State; it is in the last anarchy of the Industrial State; there is much in Mr. Belloc’s theory that it is approaching the Servile State; it cannot at present get at the Distributive State; it has almost certainly missed the Socialist State. But we are already under the Eugenist State; and nothing remains to us but rebellion.”

GK Chesterton in Eugenics and other Evils