Beachy Head and Lewes

We did manage to visit Beachy Head yesterday on the way over to Shoreham-on-Sea. It was a good blustery English summer's day which added to the experience of walking near the edge of the highest coastal chalk cliff in Britain. Above is one of the photos I took. I might get a chance to stitch together a YouTube video about the site.

Fr Sean Finnegan (of the Valle Adurni blog) was, as ever, a magnificent host, not only setting us up for our Masses but also giving us an excellent lunch. He has posted an amusing lament on the subject of his Church: Oh Lord! A prayer.

Today, we took the train to Lewes to visit Fr Richard Biggerstaff at the parish of St Pancras. Fr Jonathan Martin is staying with him during the summer. Below, you can see the fine Church; thankfully, the Ditchling altar has survived various phases of "re-ordering".

I realised today that I love serving Mass in the usus antiquior as well as saying it. I served Fr Briggs' Mass after saying my own and tried to remember what my own altar servers have learnt. I don't think I made too many mistakes.

This evening, Fr Ray Blake joined us at Eastbourne for dinner - Frs Biggerstaff and Finnegan were busy with parish commitments. Thanks to the fine weather today, we were able to take coffee and a digestivo outside on the terrace while discussing various interesting items of news that are breaking over the summer.

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