The Hermeneutic of Continuity

One of the great treasures of the National Gallery is Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks . The masterpiece has recently been cleaned, leading to the cautious conclusion of the curator that "it now seems possible that Leonardo painted all the picture himself". In a fascinating article for the Guardian: The Virgin of the Rocks: Da Vinci decoded , Jonathan Jones shares his enthusiasm for the painting itself: "Once you've seen it, everything else in this collection looks like flat daubs.") and the restoration: "Conservative this restoration may be in style, but its implications are revolutionary." Telegraph blogger, Harry Mount Harry Mount also has a warm appreciation of the restoration which overcame his "ingrained scepticism about over-cleaning". It is a great privilege to be within close reach of such treasures in London. I will be slogging through the transport network this evening on my way to Lichfield, but will not hav...

Soho is a part of central London where you find all human life. St Patrick's parish , run by the indefatigable (and surely episcopabile ?) Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, is a model city-centre parish reaching out to the homeless, the young, and various people of a wide variety of nationalities, as well as offering witness in the heart of London, in an area that is "poor in spirit". One excellent initiative is the School of Evangelisation, SPES, which offers a nine month course to form young adults in the Catholic faith. Based in the parish, the people bring hope to the surrounding community, reaching out to people both in the surrounding streets and on their own front door step. There is a dedicated blog for SPES called Hope in the Heart of Soho . Yesterday afternoon I had the enjoyable task of giving a class to the school. This year, unusually, the class is composed entirely of young women so it is a change from my normal teaching duties which involve me lecturing to classes o...

On Thursday 15 October, there will be a Catholic History Walk in London, starting at 6.30pm at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More in Cheyne Row, London SW3. The Walk will start with a tour of the church, and continue with visits to sites linked to St Thomas More, finishing with a visit to Allen Hall seminary, where we will have lamplit prayers around the mulberry tree where he used to gather with his family. All are welcome - no need to book, just turn up! The Walk will last approximately one and a half to two hours. Many thanks to Auntie Joanna for news of this event which I am sure will be well worth taking part in. I'm sorry I won't be able to go myself.

Those of you who are in London during the day may be interested in the first of the Transformative Study Sessions arranged by the Diocese of London in the vicinity of St Paul's Cathedral since James MacMillan will be speaking. Here are the details: Session 1: The Word transforming The composer James MacMillan and the poet Michael Symmons Roberts Thursday 29 October 12.00-1.30pm St Faith's Chapel, St Paul's Cathedral

On the way home from St Albans, I was on the City branch of the Northern Line, heading for London Bridge, intending to change there for the Jubilee Line to North Greenwhich. At Bank Station, after a couple of minor delays for "signals", the "gentle-but-authoritative-lady-voice" boomed out that London Bridge had been closed due to a "passenger incident". That left us with one of those "experienced Londoner" dilemmas - District and Circle back to Westminster and go from there Docklands Light Railway to Canary Wharf and hop on the Jubilee farther down Black cab to Bermondsey to bypass London Bridge ... Londoners can spend many happy hours in a pub debating options such as these. In fact, by the time I had randomly meandered through the labyrinth which is Bank/Monument Stations, found myself near the District and Circle line platforms and hence not too far from fresh air, it was announced that London Bridge station was open again. Being so nea...

Continuity have sent me this notice which I am happy to pass on to you. It should be an interesting and enjoyable evening: Continuity Walks and Talks Thursday September 24th, 6.30pm. Led by Joanna Bogle. Meet on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. A Catholic History Walk. Come and discover the Catholic links that surround the heart of Westminster! An evening of history, in good company, in a spirit of cheerful faith and inspiration! We'll be following a route that takes in the Abbey and its surrounding lands... you'll learn about the Saxons who lived there, and our last Saxon king before the Norman Conquest... and about the 17th century royals who escaped across the Thames one dark night... why Horseferry Road is so named... the nuns, a Duke's sister among them, who cared for orphans in a desperately poor slum district... the prison which stood where a Cathedral would later arise... and a Papal visit and more... Wear comfortable shoes for walking, and bring some money as we...

Many thanks to Godzdogz for news of an exhibition: Until the 12th of September, Sir John Soane's Museum in London will be hosting an exhibition entitled: Images from the Past: Rome in the Photography of Peter Paul Mackey, 1890-1901. Fr. Peter Paul Mackey O.P. was a son of the Province of England who was sent to Rome in 1881 to work on the Leonine edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. He stayed in Rome until his death in 1935. During his time in Rome he took many fine photographs which he donated to the British School in Rome. The collection provides an intriguing and fascinating glimpse of the Eternal city during this period. I hope to find time to go to this exhibition it sounds worthwhile in its own right, and I am always happy to find a good excuse to visit this lesser known but charming museum. Mark adds in the post: On the subject of camera-loving friars, it seems that our very own fr. Lawrence has been caught by the paparazzi.... Oops! I think that was me.

Where do you think the above photo was taken? Here is a link to the google map . You might imagine that it is somewhere in the English countryside. In fact, it is a little place called Horse Guards Road, looking towards St James's Park, right in the centre of London. Turning 180 degrees, here is the view of Horse Guards Parade where the trooping of the colour is carried out. You can see the London Eye in the background and just out of shot to the right is 10 Downing Street, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and HM Treasury. I had to cross a busy road called "The Mall" which has a good prospect to the west (Buckingham Palace.) My destination was this venerable English institution in Carlton House Terrace, for the launch of "Test of Faith" (more in a moment). As it was a glorious evening and I was passing some of the great landmarks, I thought some of you might appreciate a couple of snaps.

The Tyburn Pilgrimage this afternoon started opposite the Old Bailey at the Church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, a 13th century foundation. The Church still has the hand bell that was rung at midnight outside the condemned cell; several of our martyrs would have heard it. From here the martyrs were dragged on the hurdle through London to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. The first station was at St Etheldreda's, Ely Place , built in 1276 by the Bishop of Ely as the private chapel for his London house. Restored the Catholic worship in 1876, the Church is the one modern London link with medieval Catholic England. Next was St Anselm and St Cecilia's, Kingsway . This Church was built in 1909 to replace the old St Cecilia's which, as Chapel of the Sardinian Embassy, was the first public Catholic chapel to be opened in London after the reformation, during a period of partial toleration under Charles II. The parish priest, Fr David Barnes kindly gave me a copy of a beau...

Many thanks to Shawn Tribe at NLM for alerting me to the recently opened exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, " Baroque 1620-1800. Style in the Age of Magnificence. " It runs until 19 July so I am determined to find an opportunity to visit. The V&A Museum is next to the London Oratory where you can benefit from baroque splendour as a part of the daily programme. The V&A's dedicated microsite has a video of Fr Rupert McHardy celebrating Low Mass at the Lady Altar at the Oratory. They have rather played fast and loose with the sound track. Have no fear: Fr McHardy does not say the Lavabo whilst opening the Missal nor does he say the Gloria Patri while making the sign of the cross at the beginning of Mass. By the way, North American visitors should be warned that in England, the second syllable of "baroque" rhymes with clock, not cloak. So when you hear it, don't be shoaked ;-)

Last night I was at 111 Gower Street: Newman House which is the Central Catholic Chaplaincy Centre for London Universities . (Newman House also has its own blog .) The chaplaincy invited me to speak about the principles of Catholic Moral Theology as part of their Faith Formation course. Obviously a massive topic, I tried to bring it down to manageable size by following the outline of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Fathers Peter Wilson and Brian Creak were most welcoming as was Chris Castell, the pastoral associate who contacted me to come. There was a very good discussion afterwards - courteous and intellectually challenging. The group of students was cosmopolitan and many languages were bandied around the room in conversation beforehand. The chaplaincy is obviously thriving with an impressive programme of events. After the talk, Fr Wilson led Compline in the chapel. As well as arranging Mass once a year in the usus antiquior , he introduces the students to the use of Latin in t...

Her Majesty's Treasury was the venue for my lunch last week as I was meeting a friend who works there. I asked my friend for his views on the current end of the world global economic meltdown and he reminded me that it was the 16th anniversary of " Black Wednesday " which demonstrated that with the huge amounts of money sloshing around the foreign exchanges, there is little that government intervention can achieve in these situations - a lesson that governments find difficult to learn. The Treasury has a "Multi-Faith Prayer Room". This is kitted out with a shower, prayer mats and sandals, and had separate rooms for men and women. I wondered whether perhaps "multi-faith" meant sunni, shi'ite and sufi but there was also a bible on a table in the corner of the foyer. Next to the bible, there was a copy of the Treasury's "Diversity Toolkit" which includes a number of icebreaker games with "facilitator" and "participants...

Fr Andrew Pinsent has kindly passed on this reply that he received from one of the Councillors in Westminster: Fr. Andrew Pinsent ============================ "Thank you for your communication. As you so rightly comment this memorial has been removed due to the recent refurbishment works. However, it is due to be replaced shortly." Kind regards Councillor Jean Paul Floru Member for Hyde Park Ward

In the middle of Edgeware Road, just north of the junction with Bayswater Road, there is a traffic island. This was the site of the Tyburn Tree, the place of execution of many of our English Catholic martyrs. The site used to be marked by the small memorial pictured above. Unfortunately, the traffic island has recently been refashioned and the memorial is no longer there. This is a pity because I know that many Catholics used to like to venerate the cross, even from the opposite pavement (it is a busy road and the island is fenced off.) My guess is that this is merely an oversight and that the planners did not realise the significance of the cross. It would not cost much to place a small memorial on the site of the Tyburn Tree similar to the one that has been lost. The traffic island is on the boundary of two wards of Westminster Council, Bryanston and Dorset Square and Hyde Park . The links take you to the pages for those wards with information about the ward councillors and email li...

This time last year, I posted about the Tyburn Pilgrimage so you can read up there about the present form of today's Pilgrimage. Miles Jesu also have a Tyburn Walk which will probably take the place of the Guild's pilgrimage over the next few years. Miles Jesu have also obtained the excellent "pamphlets" (today they would probably be published as 200 page paperbacks) and I am sure that they will continue to promote the knowledge of England's Catholic history. Last year we could not go down to the Crypt at Tyburn because of the works taking place to provide disabled access. These have now been completed and so we were able once again to visit the fascinating exhibition of pictures and relics associated with the English Martyrs. The crypt altar (above) is fashioned to recall the triple scaffold at Tyburn where many people could be hanged at the same time. On the front is the legend: JESU JESU JESU ESTO MIHI JESUS Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, be to me a Jesus (=saviour) whi...

On 1 May this year, London holds its elections for Mayor and for the London Assembly. George Hargreaves and the Christian Party have plans to make an impact. Alan Craig is standing on a joint ticket for the Christian Party and the Christian People's Alliance . I was delighted to hear that Canning Town South ward of Newham council is represented by three CPA councillors. Apparently some of the majority Labour members have taken to quoting the bible in their arguments: not something commonly associated with politics in Britain. Over dinner, George outlined the Christian Party's strategy for the mayoral and assembly elections. The voting system for these is more complicated than usual for elections in Britain. The mayoral election has a "supplementary vote" system whereby the voter has two choices. If there is no clear majority on of first choices, the top two go through and the second choice votes for the others are then counted. The Christian Party will be focussing ...

A commenter has asked for advice on what to visit in Catholic London. My own top five (off the top of my head) would be: The London Oratory Tyburn Convent Westminster Cathedral The Tower of London and Tower Hill The National Gallery (The last because of the superb collection of Christian art.) Feel free to add your own suggestions in the combox...