Tyburn Tree

I was lucky to be invited by another member of this blog to visit the Tyburn Convent last week. What a beautiful place! I hope I get the chance to attend their annual lecture one day. It seems to cover lots of essential issues in the Church and the world.

It was one stop on a little tour of London's more touristy and more pious sites of interest that "Joee" was organising for some newly-ordained priests. It was our first meeting in "real life" (we swapped some emails beforehand and identified some common friends before meeting up). This is a good sign for me that this blog has a positive effect. I know about half the blog members personally now.

I think it's good to be part of an internet community that actually lives something wholesome "offline" when there are many fears about the safety of this medium. We are Catholics, so we have "optimism of the Baptised" (as JPII said) but we are also "realists" (as Don Giussani would exort us!)... How can we help to spread "good practise" to other areas of the net? Comments welcome!

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Have you seen the news today? Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say

And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find

That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem


- Steve Earle, "Jerusalem".

I like this album (his later ones seem to get more and more angry and pessimistic). In this song he seems to have captured a childlike trust for a few instants amidst an album full of grief and irony about the state of America's home and foreign affairs. Anyhow, he has a beautiful voice and I like the "grunge-country" style!

Here is the Vatican comment on the Middle East situation.

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I returned from the School of Community Assembly of CL yesterday and, invited by some South London friends, attended a kind of crazy pseudo-Bohemian arts festival called Spirit in the City! I only caught the final acts - a bit of poetry (interestingly about peace in Israel!) and some fantastic South American music. I met some of the West End Youth 2000 crowd there, a nice surprise; I hadn't seen them for about 3 years, since my University days.

The stuff which Westminster diocese is doing at the moment, with all these "open doors" days and initiatives like this is very impressive. Not only because we got free wine (!) but I think a little start like this is worthwhile, if we offer it Christ. It seems very little, but at least we are doing something for Him. The poetry and music were very beautiful. I hope through real friendships that many more Londoners can experience this.