Truly amazing!

Thanks to the Sisters of the Gospel of Life http://gospeloflifesisters.wordpress.com/

Update: a better view of this film may be had at http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/23/astounding-video-depicts-unborn-babys-full-development/

Watch this!

Thanks to John Smeatonhttp://spuc-director.blogspot.com/

(More words would be superfluous)

Senlis

Bonfire Night!

The burning of the Houses of Parliament in 1834 was the occasion of some rejoicing! A large crowd, gathered on Westminster Bridge to enjoy the sight, cheered as the roofs caved in and JMW Turner painted some memorable images of the scene. This historical episode perhaps allows us to imagine how the Gunpowder Plot of two centuries earlier might have been received had it succeeded. Another interesting, and topical, snippet is provided by the fate of several of the Plotters who were hanged, drawn and quartered in St Paul's Churchyard ! Clearly, Health and Safety was not a major concern of the Dean and Chapter in those days!

St Winefride

(Click to enlarge) For the feast of St Winefride (Gwenffrewi in Welsh) - a view of her well chapel in its grounds at Holywell in Flintshire.

All Souls

All Saints

O Quam Gloriosum est Regnum - Victoria
A concert performance I found on You-Tube
Happy All Hallows!

Message from Shadowlands

I received the following message which will be of interest to all who follow the Shadowlands blog.


"I am not posting since the 22nd. Someone has compromised my blog address, I don't know how to fix this, would you please advise people to remove their link to me, re a post perhaps. I will try and start another blog but scared now because of this."

I hope Ros manages to sort it out and look forward to her return to Blogland!

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

When I was in Primary School we were joined briefly by a Scottish girl who was under the impression that we English Catholics sought the intercession of "four tomatoes"! I remember our teacher- who clearly had a better handle on her accent than many of us had- patiently explaining that we were not addressing fruit! This memory came to mind on account of the above image, a copy of which hung outside the classroom in which I spent the last two years of Junior School. A few years later some men landed on the moon and the following year saw Pope Paul VI canonise the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

At school we were occasionally reminded of the martyrs and that the literal meaning of the word was "witness". We were remined too that our Christian calling involved being "witnesses for Christ" and therefore, in a sense, "martyrs". This reminder was invariably qualified by "Of course it is most unlikely that we will be required to actually die for the faith" - a qualification naturally occasioning some relief! Forty years on I am not sure one could speak quite so confidently about the unlikelihood of real persecution if not in the immediate future then somewhere not so far away.

How must have things looked in the early years of Henry VIII's reign? Over three hundred years had passed since the exceptional martyrdom of St Thomas Becket while large scale persecution had belonged to the earliest days of the Churches history before Constantine. Who could have imagined the great deluge so soon to come? Yet come it did -like storms after a long dry summer.

Chantilly

(Click to enlarge) Following our visit to St Denis we headed north on the first leg of our journey home, stopping near the banks of the Oise. The following morning we had gone only a couple of miles when we caught sight of the Chateau of Chantilly - an almost fairy-tale vision- through a break in the hedge. A convenient lay-by allowed a stop and a few moments to drink in the scene before going on to Senlis.