De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

I love the FSSP, I love them simply because they appear to be a last bastion of true supernatural faith. That's not to say that there is real faith in other places, but simply to say, in my experience, the priests of the FSSP live a day-to-day metaphysical reality which I find deeply inspiring and deeply lacking in many places. The FSSP stands in stark contradiction to the kind of wordly priests who seem to abound these days; those that do everything they can to explain away Church teaching as something out of touch, old fashioned, or more complex than the plain truth it "seems" to proclaim. Fr Armand de Malleray heads the FSSP here in the UK. He is genial, approachable but also someone it is easy to look up to. He is a born leader (at least in my estimation) and carries himself in a way which shows he is at ease with this responsibility. Father Armand addressed the state-encouraged adulation of the NHS in his Good Shepherd Sunday homily at St. Mary’s Shrine in War...

Dear Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland. Please spare a couple of minutes to watch this very short video regarding the closure of churches: A lot of people have asked what they could do to let the bishops of England, Wales and Scotland know how desperate they are to be allowed into the church and receive Confession. We asked some of them if they would like to be part of this short video. Please know that there are many people willing to assist their priests to help make it safe (and within government guidelines) to pray in the church or to go to Confession. If there is anything else we can do to hasten the reopening of churches and to make Confession more available, please let us know. You are in our prayers. God bless you and your ministry

James offers us some reflections about the Mass, showing us how, when we are at Mass (even watching online) we are never alone: the saints are with us, and the same Lord is present before us on the altar we see; the same sacrifice is offered to the Father for our salvation.

If you're anything like me, you'll be feeling a bit starved of your faith about now. I think the explosion of clever ways our brave priests have engaged with technology to bring the liturgy to us has been really inspiring, if a little like watching someone eat a fabulous dinner through the window of a restaurant. A lot of our Catholic friends have taken the opportunity to really focus on the ecclesia domestica - the Church in our homes. It is possible that we will see a real resurgence of personal piety, devotions that have been often quite lacking in recent decades and certainly help children to grow up in a Catholic environment. My Parish priest has really been doing a brilliant job of bringing the liturgy to our homes with livestreaming. He has received a number of very touching messages from all over the world as well as the country, from grateful Catholics who have tuned in to pray with our Parish. He has also issued a number of short videos, the latest of whic...

If I'm honest, finding it really hard to love the Church at the moment. I feel like a large part of my life - the sacramental part of my life - has been taken away from me without any explanation, substitution or warning. It really feels like the bishops have closed down Catholicism, withdrawn from every day life and have made little or no effort to engage, encourage or provide any spiritual substance for the laity in the absence of a public Catholic life. The slack, thank God, has been taken up manfully by so many of our priests who have acted swiftly to provide online liturgies and I think that people could be exposed more than ever before in their lives to adoration, benediction, the divine office and Mass. Meanwhile, on social media, many of the Catholics I so admire and know have a real and devout faith seem much more interested in fighting each other than those betraying the Church.  Despite all this, I never find it hard to love Jesus. So I speak to Him & tell h...

Have the courage to pray for a miracle! Fr Hugh, the Abbot of the Norbertimes gives us a wonderful message, that the Norbertines are taking all of us to the altar at this difficult time!

I'm not blogging much as we all struggle to face the encroaching COVID19 pandemic. I am extremely busy at work and worried about the situation for all the same reasons I'm sure you are. You're all in my prayers. I don't believe this is a time of division, or pointing out frustrations or weakness, but a time of unity and solidarity. Brian Holdsworth puts it well in this video. Our decisions are based on trust. Social media only serves to exacerbate our political polarisation – people are so sure that their “side” is right and the other “side” are idiots. As this continues, we lose our shared humanity. COVID19 does not discriminate between right & left: we are all susceptible to the same suffering, we all share our humanity. Can we see people on all sides of the divide that we thought mattered so much as our brothers and sisters? Compassion means to suffer with someone else. Like it or not, we are all going to go through this together. Will we come out of this ...