Tuesday 24 July 2007

Holding the fort

The School year may have ended ... but the life of the parish continues. As the four 2005/6 graduates who stayed for a year to look after the School and parish move on (to pastures new, or a well-earned break), things have been left for a few weeks in the eager hands of Mandy and myself, 2006/7 graduates.

The basement flooded in the recent heavy rains, though I was too busy scooping the water up to take a photo for the blog. Thanks to Arnold, our highly efficient housekeeper, there is no lasting damage. Nevertheless, it's a reminder that the fabric of the church and School need repairing. There will be a Parish Meeting tonight to update on progress with the £4m Appeal.

We were joined for supper on Sunday evening by Fr Stephen Langridge and ten Spanish seminarians . Fr Stephen is well known to the School, having been one of our visiting lecturers. He has a group of Spanish young men (some as young as 15, going to school in the week and attending seminary on Saturday), and two Spanish priests, staying in his parish for a few weeks for something of a 'spiritual holiday', and to learn English. It was wonderful to welcome so many young men thinking seriously about priesthood.

While they were here, they were shown SOS Prayerline, a service where anyone can call from 7-11pm every night, and a volunteer prays with the caller in a small chapel with Jesus exposed in the tabernacle. Just as we were visiting the chapel, Mandy received was receiving the 30,000th call. You can call SOS Prayerline on 0207 434 9211.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

who is remaining and who is going?

ali mata said...

what a wonderful community/ministry! God bless you all!

Anonymous said...

yo wassup and have fun

Anonymous said...

Hi ladies and guys,

I have seen you folks on the streets of London, think you are doing a great job spreading the gospel.

I would love you folks to do a talk at St.Pat on how women should dress, particularly at Mass. There are so many women dressing immodestly and there is a lack of reflection on the signals this gives to men etc.

Now I know there are those who think that dressing modestly means dressing down or looking like a tramp. But nothing could be further from the truth! When a women dresses with dignity she radiates her beauty in a powerful way, that is a sign and witness to the broken world.

Please check out Collen Hammond's blogspot, perhaps you can link hers to yours. Although there is some naff styles on her pages there are some great ones too! She has written a great and powerful book called "Dressing with Dignity", you should read it, its really powerful.

Here is one of her blog spots: http://dressingwithdignity.blogspot.com/

and here is her book: http://www.amazon.com/Dressing-Dignity-Colleen-Hammond/dp/0895558009

Anonymous said...

Vincent:

In regards to your previous comment/question on cohabitation, I have noticed some of the comments recently on 'thou shall not procrastinate'...If someone has cohabitated before or had sex before marriage, what gift are they able to offer to their spouse on their wedding night?

Also if you slept with someone before you have married, emotionally you will be more scarred about marriage or another relationship, cohabitation leaves you wounded in a deep way afterwards, it as if you left a piece of yourself in another person and you can never get it back.

Also if you pursue another relationship afterwards which is headed towards marriage, if your spouse waited, he or she could be seriously upset with you, could think less of you, there will be feelings of jealousy etc, basically the marriage could be frought with difficulty..they may need a lot of reassurance that you regret what you have done.

I think church ministries need to provide more support to more people who have cohabitated and are now living a chaste life...there is lot more of us out here then sometimes people think, when they are socialising in their lovely church huddles!

We cant change the past, but through prayer and penance we can do something positive by praying for our future spouses now in faith! If you have cohabitated before dont expect God bless to bless you with a great marriage with no effort on your part, you need to work on it extra hard through God's grace now in faith for the future!

God is merciful.

Anonymous said...

sorry my last comment was meant to be a response to henry not vincent, got you two mixed up and you look nothing alike!

Anonymous said...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5740ef0f035f20195147

Again this is for you henry-regarding your cohabitation comment!!!

Sorry for bombarding your postbox with these comments, but I just love this topic!

Its a great short clip from Jason and Crystillina Evert on what real love is. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5740ef0f035f20195147

Again this is for you henry-regarding your cohabitation comment!!!

Sorry for bombarding your postbox with these comments, but I just love this topic!

Its a great short clip from Jason and Crystillina Evert on what real love is. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5740ef0f035f20195147

Again this is for you henry-regarding your cohabitation comment!!!

Sorry for bombarding your postbox with these comments, but I just love this topic!

Its a great short clip from Jason and Crystillina Evert on what real love is. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5740ef0f035f20195147

Again this is for you henry-regarding your cohabitation comment!!!

Sorry for bombarding your postbox with these comments, but I just love this topic!

Its a great short clip from Jason and Crystillina Evert on what real love is. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5740ef0f035f20195147

Again this is for you henry-regarding your cohabitation comment!!!

Sorry for bombarding your postbox with these comments, but I just love this topic!

Its a great short clip from Jason and Crystillina Evert on what real love is. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5740ef0f035f20195147

Again this is for you henry-regarding your cohabitation comment!!!

Sorry for bombarding your postbox with these comments, but I just love this topic!

Its a great short clip from Jason and Crystillina Evert on what real love is. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

woops sorry I hit the comment button three times...by mistake

Anonymous said...

Hi Thanks for all your hard work at Celebrate! You were Wonderful!!!! :) Just to let you know about a great new website called http://www.puresearch.org.uk which aims to bring together Christian Websites throught the uk.. including blogs and myspace pages! Do Add your site and save it as your safe search home page, and support Christian!! hope to see you at Celebate 2009!!

Anonymous said...

Here are my thoughts on the cohabitation issue started by Henry on a earlier thread:

My wife and I were married two months ago. I knew she was not a virgin and it didn't bother me at the time, now it does. it bothers me that i was not her first, but she got to take my virginity. I feels like I was saving it up and denying myself pleasure all this time for nothing. it drives me crazy that we wern't able to have our first times together, like we should. why wasn't i good enough to wait for. I love her with all my heart but this really drives me crazy, it feels like a personal betrayal. I know it happened before we met each other, but still, she got to do it and I didn't and now I never will.

Maybe I should be more explicit. Imagine if you had saved up your whole life for something that would be so special and then finally it happens, but it is only shared one way. the specialness is gone from it. it is like getting a gift with nothing inside the box.