Graduation

It was a packed house on Tuesday 12th June when Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor came to St Patrick's to celebrate the Graduation Mass, along with 25 Priests to concelebrate this very special occasion. The ceremony was beautiful, starting off with a tear-jerking hymn (for some of us, anyway!). The church was heaving with supporters of all kinds - lecturers, benefactors, companions, past students ... you name it - they were there! What a gift the school has been to so many people!

So endeth Spirit in the City

Yesterday was an intense day of talks, workshops, music evangelisation and Confession in Leicester Square, the busiest square in Europe. In the evening we were privileged at St. Pat's to be led in Evening Prayer, Adoration and Night Prayer by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Two of the Friars, Fr. Augustine and Fr. Emmanuel, are newly ordained and have returned from America to be missionaries in their homeland. May they bring great glory to God and do great good for the people of England. We will dearly miss Brother Martin and Fr. Angelus (who joined us last night), both of whom have had a lot to do with us in this year and are going to friaries in Ireland and Bradford respectively.

Last night we also listened to our beloved Gospel choir as they kicked up a storm in Soho Square. Long after everyone had gone, we had our own modest party on the terrace of St. Patrick's, knowing that Sunday was not an early morning! So the watchmen of the dawn slept in this morning... A big thanks to Anna Marie for oganising these three days.





P.S. If anyone's around this evening at 6.00 we have our International Mass and Corpus Christi Procession through the streets of Soho, made up of the Latin American, Brazilian and Chinese chaplaincies. A real wake up call for Soho!

Corpus Christi Procession

We are in the midst of Spirit in the City, a Catholic festival in the West End of London, with talks, music, evangelisation and processions. Last night Fr. Chris Connor gave a wonderful talk about the power of the Eucharist at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, and then we went on procession to Leicester Square...

The last stretch

We're back from a relaxing week in Dorset, a time of retreat, walks, laughs and reflection on the year at SPES. Fr. Alex joined us for the first half of the week, and Fr. Matt our spiritual director came later to give us some meditations. We were able to use the rarely-used parish church in the area to say the Divine Office and have Mass and Adoration. We also got to visit Chideock, a church that has been the site of a recusant family from its beginnings as a barn many centuries ago, and the church which commemorates the death of local martyrs St. John Cornelius and companions. Coming back to Soho yesterday we found awaiting us the relics of St. Claude de la Columbiere, also a martyr for the faith who died as a result of his long imprisonment in the Tower of London for preaching the mercy of the Sacred Heart. The relics of our patron saint have been brought from France in order that they may be venerated in St. Patrick's and in other churches during the next few weeks.

We're now on the final stretch of our year, with just one more week until we graduate on June 12th! This weekend we will be involved with Spirit in the City, a festival of faith organised by the West End Catholic Churches, with talks, prayer, adoration, evangelisation and music events in the notable squares around the area. If you are interested please come along - check out the details on the website.