Chesterton Knew The Importance of Ecumenical Dialogue

Chesterton Knew The Importance of Ecumenical Dialogue

Friday 8 December 2017

Meat eaters evangelize better that vegetarians

So having gone into a cafe on a Friday and explained, 'No, I won't have the English Breakfast today as it's Friday' Asked explain, I told the whole cafe about the Crucifixion etc.

Today I get to explain that I will have meat this Friday and get to explain The Immaculate Conception. Then a vegetarian goes into a cafe and says "Veggie Breakfast as usual please"

Monday 20 November 2017

Say the GK Chesterton Prayer to close an abortion centre

Please start saying the GK Chesterton Prayer each day until Christmas Day, asking him to intercede with God to close down one or more of the five abortion centres in Ealing, Twickenham, Whitfield Street, Edgbaston or Cardiff, by the end of 2017. Feel free to add any local centres to your prayer.

You will find the prayer below or you can print a copy off in a number of languages here;

In September 2012 we asked Chestertonians to support 40 Days for Life by praying the Chesterton prayer each day, asking that an abortion centre in England would close down.  http://ecumenicaldiablog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/gk-chesterton-supports-40-days-for-life.html
The abortion centre in Bedford Square London has since closed down. 

God Our Father, Thou didst fill the life of
Thy servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton with a
sense of wonder and joy, and gave him a faith
which was the foundation of his ceaseless
work, a charity towards all men, particularly
his opponents, and a hope which sprang from
his lifelong gratitude for the gift of human
life. May his innocence and his laughter, his
constancy in fighting for the Christian faith in
a world losing belief, his lifelong devotion to
the Blessed Virgin Mary and his love for all
men, especially for the poor, bring
cheerfulness to those in despair, conviction
and warmth to lukewarm believers and the
knowledge of God to those without faith. We
beg Thee to grant the favours we ask through
his intercession, the end of abortion in this
Country [and especially for one or more of the five abortion centres in Ealing, Twickenham, Whitfield Street, Edgbaston or Cardiff to by the end of 2017 so that his holiness may be recognized by all and the
Church may proclaim him Blessed. We ask
this through Christ Our Lord. Amen

Photograph of Shawn Carney of 40 Days for Life with the leaflet for this year's GK Chesterton Pilgrimage 

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Happy Feast of GK Chesterton?

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. So if GKC is in Heaven, today is his Feast Day, until he is Canonised when the Church may move his Feast. Or will they? Today is the 81st Anniversary of the Conversion of his Wife Frances, if she is Canonised with him maybe today will be their joint Feast Day. 
So, say the Chesterton Prayer today and print a few copies off for friends. Buy 'The Women Who Was Chesterton' by Nancy Carpenter-Brown and do pick up a copy of the Catholic Truth Society 150th Birthday reprint No 1 'Where All Roads Lead' by GKC. Do share this.

Wednesday 11 October 2017

Welcome to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Ealing



Welcome to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Ealing. Socialists sign Petition, Socialists Present their Petition, Socialist Councillors then vote for the Socialist motion to support the Socialist petition. But it's Democratic because the public can watch!

And the BBC (Broadcasters of Bolshevism & Communism) told the plebs that the Comrades (Councillors) would debate both sides. And ten Councillors (Comrades) congratulated everyone for speaking in favour of the motion and thus having had a great debate.

Please support The Good Counsel Network by attending their peaceful Pro-Life prayer vigils and donate to help Mothers who choose to continue their pregnancies in the face of opposition.

Saturday 16 September 2017

Yes Cymru's Independence In Your Pocket, I cut mine in half!

Having just read Yes Cymru's Independence In Your Pocket booklet, I went for a stanley knife. I went into the garden for safety and cut it in half.

Straight down the spine the knife went. This left me with one copy in Welsh and another copy in English! 

I stuck a new card cover on the back of each, GK Chesterton Prayer (in Welsh) on the inside and GKC Taffy quote on the outside.

Will now send them to a couple of bods in Wales. Job done 😎

(You can buy copies from Y Lolfa)

Saturday 5 August 2017

Urgent Holiday Warning

Are you going to a Country where they speak one of the following languages; English, Igbo, Latin, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Irish, Welsh, Maltese, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, German, Latvian, Russian, Croatian, Slovakian, Catalan or Italian.
If so you need to print off some GK Chesterton Prayercards in the local language to leave in Churches or I will be very cross 😉 http://www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk/Printable-Prayercards.html
You can just print them on card or paper if you like, it doesn't have to be on a t-shirt.

Sunday 30 July 2017

95th Anniversary of England’s Largest Earthquake

Ninety-five years ago today, the World was rocked to it’s very foundations by a huge earthquake. The epicentre was The Railway Hotel Beaconsfield, which is no longer standing. The hotel has been replaced by a supermarket, carpark and a Catholic Church.


The aftershocks of the earthquake were felt all over the World. Some people in Argentina even wrote a prayer as a result and the Archbishop of Buenos Aires was even moved to edit the pray. That Archbishop has since gone on and changed his name to Pope Francis.

So 95 years ago Gilbert Keith Chesterton became a Catholic in The Railway Hotel Beaconsfield and shook the World to it’s roots. He has led hundreds or maybe thousands of others into the Catholic Church. He holiness has led hundreds to his graveside to pray. For seven years now there has even been an Annual Pilgrimage in his honour.

Say the GK Chesterton Prayer in the language of your choice; http://www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk/Printable-Prayercards.html Follow @CatholicGKCSoc on Twitter.
Like The Catholic GK Chesterton Society Facebook page. Read Chesterton, and not just his very good Father Brown mysteries. Many of his books and essays can be read for free online, including his biographies of St Francis, St Thomas Aquinas and Charles Dickens.

And do watch, ‘G K Chesterton; Apostle of Common Sense’ on EWTN (Sky 589 or online www.ewtn.co.uk) Mondays 2pm or Wednesdays 7am or Thursdays 10pm each week. (30 minutes long)

Saturday 29 July 2017

Taffy by GK Chesterton

I DO not understand Welshmen.  When we say we do not understand such-and-such a person, we usually mean that he has been making himself a nuisance.  He has been bothering us in some way; and the puzzle of his motives and further intentions has become a practical one.  I do not mean anything of the kind here: I mean barely what I say.  The distant Trojans never injured me.  Taffy never came to my house or stole any part of the provisions.  On the contrary, historically speaking, I went to Taffy’s house and took away a good deal of what belonged to him. [I have been saying this for years] I do not think that Taffy is a thief; I do not even know enough about him to be sure of the preliminary statement that he is a Welshman.  I mean, quite simply and ingenuously, that I know nothing about Wales — not even (for certain) that there is such a place.  I went, indeed, a few weeks ago to a curious place full of rocks; and the people there said it was Wales.  But, then, other people said that these people were very sly, and that you could not believe anything they said.  But, then, as I did not believe the second people who did not believe the first people, it all came back to the same comfortable condition as before, which is one of blank and disinterested nescience.  It is a condition I am in with regard to a large number of things in this world.  I keep my faith for the things of another world.  About this world I am a complete agnostic.

But in this particular case of ignorance I rather fancy that I am not alone.  I think that the great majority of Englishmen have no real notion of the Welsh type or spirit, whatever it is.  They have conceptions of the Scot and the Irishman, false conceptions, but always containing some lines of a true tradition.  The Englishman does, so to speak, understand the Scotchman even when he misunderstands him.  The Englishman does know what the Irish are, even while he demands indignantly of heaven why they are.  The stingy Puritan in plaid trousers is a very crude and unjust version of that queer blend that makes the Scot — the combination of a certain coarseness of fibre with great intellectual keenness for abstract and even mystical things.  Still, it is a version; the prose and poetry of the Scot remain in the caricature.  The picture of Paddy at Donnybrook leaves out all the subtlety and self-tormenting irony that are mixed up with the pugnacity of the Irish.  Still, the Irish are pugnacious; the Englishman has got the leading feature right.  He knows that, for all his economics, the Scotchman often has a bee in his bonnet, and he knows that the Irishman generally has a wasp in his — a thing that will sting itself or anyone else merely for fun or glory.

In these cases, the caricature, though stiff, highly coloured, antiquated, and largely false, tells the remains of several truths.  But who on earth has ever seen a caricature of a Welshman? In Punch and such papers we never see anything but pictures of a Welshwoman — as if there were no males in that peculiar country with the rocks.  Even the woman is only marked as Welsh by wearing an extraordinary costume, rather like that of Cinderella’s supernatural godmother.  Without the artist suggesting any costume at all, one would recognize the very silly portraits of Irishmen with long upper lips, in the style of apes.  Without any plaid trousers to assist the mind, one could spot the stiff beards and rocky cheek-bones of the Scotchmen of Charles Keene.  But if you took away the Welshwoman’s extraordinary hat, there would be nothing whatever to show that she was a Welshwoman.  We have not in our minds a Welsh type to make fun of.  It is interesting to remember that apparently Shakespeare had.

This state of entire non-understanding (as distinct from misunderstanding) of the Welsh seems to me just now to be not only unique, but important and rather serious.  For, unless I am very much mistaken, Wales is going to play some peculiar, and perhaps dominant, part in the developments of our extraordinary time.  If the Welsh begin to influence us without our having yet even begun to imagine them, we shall have the whole Irish business over again; the gradual or imperfect understanding of a thing in the process of wrestling with it in the dark.  The indications of such a movement in Wales (wherever it is), the suggestion of the growing influence of Welshmen (whoever they may be), is something that comes to us rather by widely distributed happenings and hints than in any theatrical example.  Some, however, would call Mr. Lloyd George a theatrical example; he has been called even more extraordinary things.  And in that degree the thing is true.  Mr. Lloyd George is very much more genuine and sincere and formidable in his capacity as leader of the little Welsh nation than he is in any of the other capacities in which he is foolishly praised and ridiculously reviled.  But to anyone who really has an eye for history in action, the smallest strike secretary in a Welsh railway or colliery bulks much bigger in the present picture than Mr. Lloyd George.  And it has been in Wales that many of the most dramatic and effective labour revolts have happened: above all it was in Wales that they presented peculiar features of their own, bad or good, which marked them out from the whole temper and habit of England in recent times.  The modern theory of animals was challenged in the episode of the ponies in the mines.  The modern theory of Jews was challenged in the violent Anti-Semite riots of the last few weeks.  Things fierce and unfamiliar, things lost since the Middle Ages, are coming upon us out of the West.

As the curious incident of the quarrels between Welshmen and Jews has been mentioned, I will take the opportunity here of correcting a curious mistake that clings to the minds of numbers of my correspondents.  There is in particular a gloomy gentleman in America who keeps on asking me how my Anti-Semite prejudice is getting on, and generally displaying a curiosity about how many Hebrew teeth I have pulled out this week, and how often a Pogrom is held in front of my house.  He appears to base it all on some statement of mine that Jews were tyrants and traitors.  Upon this basis his indignation is eloquent, lengthy and (in my opinion) just.  The only weakness affecting this superstructure is the curious detail that I never did say that Jews were tyrants and traitors.  I said that a particular kind of Jew tended to be a tyrant and another particular kind of Jew tended to be a traitor.  I say it again.  Patent facts of this kind are permitted in the criticism of every other nation on the planet: it is not counted illiberal to say that a certain kind of Frenchman tends to be sensual.  It is as plain as a pikestaff that the Parisian tradition of life and letters has a marked element of sensuality.  It is also as plain as a pikestaff that those who are creditors will always have a temptation to be tyrants, and that those who are cosmopolitans will always have a temptation to be spies.  This has nothing to do with alleging that the majority of any people falls into its typical temptations.  In this respect I should imagine that Jews varied in their moral proportions as much as the rest of mankind.  Rehoboam was a tyrant; Jehoshaphat was not.  In what is perhaps the most celebrated collection of Jews in human history, the proportion of traitors was one in twelve.  But I cannot see why the tyrants should not be called tyrants and the traitors traitors; why Rehoboam should not cause a rebellion or Judas become an object of dislike, merely because they happen to be members of a race persecuted for other reasons and on other occasions.  Those are my views on Jews.  They are more reasonable than those of the people that wreck their shops; and much more reasonable than those of the people who justify them on all occasions.

From The Uses of Diversity by GK Chesterton all of which can be read here for free

I was given a copy of this book by Hugh last week and strangely thought to myself, I wonder if there is anything about Wales in here!

Friday 21 July 2017

7th Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage 29th July


Saturday 29th July 2.30pm Old Rite Mass, at The Bridgettine Convent, Fulmer Common Road, Iver, SL0 0NR, in thanksgiving for Chesterton's Conversion, which took place 95 years ago. You are welcome to attend the Mass even if you are not doing the walk. (a lift from Uxbridge to the Convent may be possible, contact us)

Bring and eat a packed lunch.

For those who wish to, you can then join the pilgrimage walk to Beaconsfield (7.5 miles approx) where Chesterton lived, converted, died and is buried. We will say the prayer for the Beatification of GKC at his graveside. The prayer can be found, in a number of languages at: www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk

Or join us at 9.15am. outside the abortion centre at 8 Mattock Lane, Ealing, W5 5BJ where we stop for a few minutes prayer before walking on to Iver along the canal.

If you’d really like to walk the full 27 miles, meet us at 7.30am outside St George's C of E Church, Aubrey Walk, London, W8 7JG, where GK Chesterton was Baptised as a baby.

For more details or to join the pilgrimage email catholicgkcsociety@yahoo.co.uk or follow @CatholicGKCSoc on Twitter. See the website for reports from previous year's Pilgrimages. You can join in from home by saying the prayer on the day; https://www.facebook.com/events/1896572717297708/
www.CatholicGKChestertonsociety.co.uk

Thursday 20 July 2017

Spot The GKC Pilgrimage Leaflet Competition

All you need to do is spot the GK Chesterton Pilgrimage Leaflet in this photo of the excellent 40 Days for Life Conference in London. And you will receive a free GK Chesterton Prayercard in the post. Just email your address to; catholicgkcsociety@yahoo.co.uk

A winner will be chosen on next weeks Pilgrimage. Not sure what the leaflet looks like? Here's Shawn Carney of 40 Days for Life giving his copy the thumbs-up. Shawn often quotes Chesterton and I'm sure here says the GKC prayer, but he doesn't pray outside his local abortion centre anymore....because it closed down!



Tuesday 4 July 2017

So Happy 4th of July, every year I get in trouble.

So Happy 4th of July, every year I get in trouble.
I put up an American Flag and some Yanks complained. http://ecumenicaldiablog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/4th-july.html?m=1
So then I put up an American Folk Song and still they were not happy!
http://ecumenicaldiablog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/happy-4th-july.html?m=1 
So today we went to The Tower of London and here are a couple photo for you all not to be offended 😂


Thursday 4 May 2017

"Attend The March for Life UK, or end up in Hell"

"Attend The March for Life UK, or end up in Hell" Mr U. N. Official spokesman for the Bishops Conference of Wales, Cornwall.......and England. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1033; Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."

"So that is clear, 'meet the serious needs...of little ones' or end up in Hell" added the spokesman.

If you are praying outside an abortion centre on the day of the March you can be excused without the need to go to Confession. Otherwise you will need to be at the March or go to the Holy Father personally on the First of April next year for Confession. So find a coach here; http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/

Saturday 1 April 2017

Please pray for Jane Grunnill RIP, my agnostic Mum.

My Mum Jane came from Perivale West London. The Family moved to Cardiff while she was a teenager. She went to Church or Sunday school, but felt that this was just for her Mum and Dad to have a break. She was one of seven. She always told me she was an atheist, but when I converted to the Catholic Faith and challenged her on this, we worked out that she was in fact an agnostic.

Her Mother died when she was just 20 years old, three weeks before I, her eldest of 3 sons, was born. She had a difficult relationship with her father and I think that this hindered her relationship with God.

In her 30's she had a gallstone operation. A stone was left behind and was found years later having blocked her liver. In the end this killed her. A little unfair for a woman who almost never drunk alcohol to die of a liver complaint.

My Mum could certainly hold a grudge for years, while still being able to be civil to the person (in most cases), to the point that they may not have even known. But she could also be very charitable. She never really got on with her first Mother-in-law, my Nan and had no contact with her for years once she and my Father divorced. Then one day when my brother was unable to go on a planned visit to Nan, Mum went to let her know, went in for a coffee and struck up a friendship. When Nan had a stroke my Mum helped find her a home, visited her and took her out on day trips. Work colleagues could not believe it, "your taking your ex-Mother-in-law out for the day!"

In September 2016 we went Oxford for a day out and met up with Father Udris who is looking into the Cause of GK Chesterton. Father recieved high praise from my Mother when we arrived home and she said to my brother-in-law that "He was a very nice Priest, if I was going to convert it would be with someone like that, NOT that I'm going to anyway." She didn't say it within my hearing!

She died on the 13th January 2017, the 20th Anniversary of the founding of The Good Counsel Network, which she had supported financially for a number of years, despite not being totally Pro-Life herself. One of my brothers, his girlfriend and myself had just left the hospital to get some sleep while my Wife and son stayed with Mum when she died.

Please keep my Mum in your prayers as I don't think most of her side of the Family will do so.

First Welsh March For Life, Saturday 20th May 2017

Most Countries around the World have an annual March for Life. The United States has one in January each year in Washington DC (Not to be confused with DC comics). The Confederate States of America has a March for Life in Texas. The Irish have a Rally for Life each year in Belfast or Dublin.

And the English have The March For Life uk in Birmingham each year. (It seems that 'uk' is Anglo-Saxon for 'England'). Do pop along to it if you cannot get to the Welsh one being held on the same day.

The Welsh March for Life with start in Hereford  (Some may think that this is in England, but as Hereford is in the Archdiocese of Cardiff, We KNOW that it is Welsh). We will then March on the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, demand that the Assembly declares UDI, outlaws abortion, And then retire to a nearby pub for a drink and some singing.

Happy 1st April 😀

Tuesday 21 March 2017

"Too Far To Travel, Let My Sister Die"


I cannot believe that anyone would say this if they we're told that their Sister (or Brother) would die unless they traveled to where she or he was going to die. I'm sure you wouldn't. Maybe you'd say, 'Sorry, but I'm too busy', no of course not. The idea that a Priest would say, 'It's Lent, I don't have time to go there and save the life of one of my Parishioners' is crazy.

Tomorrow your Brother, your Sister and Father's Parishioner are going to be killed in an abortion centre. You are not too busy and it is not too far to travel. Here is a list of 40 Days for Life Pro-Life Peaceful Prayer Vigils in England, Scotland and Wales; http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/40-Days-for-Life.html

On Sunday the Cardiff 40 Days for Life vigil had a chap who had travelled 45 miles each way to join them in prayer. The same man had travelled 120 miles each way to pray at the Pro-Life vigil in Ealing the day before. We all know that we are Brothers and Sisters in Christ, but those praying at a vigil show it.


Please contact the local organisers to let them know what times you will be attending, as that helps them when trying to fill at 12 hour a day schedule, seven days a week schedule.

Photos show: marie stopes Ealing, signboard above the plaque of St Michael the Archangel. And a clearer image of the plaque alone.
 

Wednesday 8 March 2017

40 Days 4 Life Ealing, No Snow..But Opposition

Sorry no snow at the 40 Days for Life Pro-Life Peaceful Prayer Vigil in Ealing, London. But plenty of vocal opposition from a large group of 'feminists' on Saturdays. Please come to the vigil, Jim travels 120 miles each way to come and pray! The vigil is 8am until 8pm each day until 9th April outside marie stopes abortion centre, 87 Mattock Lane, Ealing, London, W5 5BJ. Please sign-up online if you can but come anyway; https://40daysforlife.com/local-campaigns/london/