Preparing for 2012

Michael Hobson from my parish is training hard this summer at at St Mary's, Twickenham, under the guidance of his coach Craig Winrow. Michael runs the 800m and 1500m distances and recently notched up a personal best of 4min 01.2 for the 1500m. Michael is hoping to compete at the 2012 Olympics in London. You can read his latest BBC London diary entry here: Flourishing at St Mary's.

A few years ago, we did a charity run on Christmas Day. I was not surprised to have been left quite far behind by Michael who was a young teenager at the time. I expect he would make the rest of us look rather silly now!

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How can you go from imperfect to perfect contrition? Gabriella D from Australia asked me this on Twitter today and I want to give an answer because I think that many people misunderstand what we mean when we talk about “perfect contrition.”

Perfect contrition is sorrow and detestation of sin arising out of the love of God. One way of exciting this contrition in our hearts is by considering the passion of Jesus Christ and making acts of love for Him. We can also think of the infinite love which God has for us, and express sorrow in our heart in the presence of this great love which we have offended.

Imperfect contrition is sorrow and detestation for sin arising from a consideration of the ugliness of sin or out of the fear of hell. Disgust at the ugliness of sin is more common today than fear of hell. That is because we do not preach enough, or with sufficient conviction about the four last things.

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The Academy will be based at the Sacred Heart, the home of the Bournemouth Oratory-in-Formation which is a beautiful setting: stunning Church and lovely environment with the beach and gardens only a few minutes' walk away. The Angel of the Annunciation logo (above) is taken from an image on the reredos of the Lady Chapel at Sacred Heart.


Bishop Philip Egan is seen here with Dr Denise Oliver (left) and Dr Christina Pal (right) who taught in Rome at the Pontifical North American College (seminary) and other places – Dr Pal at Christendom College and Dr Oliver at the Angelicum, the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas and elsewhere.

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Maximum Illud and the missionary month; we do actually need to believe in the salvation of souls.

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Commemoration of Abbe Edgeworth

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Bishop O'Reilly of Ardagh & Clonmacnois to offer Latin Mass at Monsignor Edgeworth commemoration

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