Mystic, poet, artist and popular writer

James Bond was modelled by Ian Fleming, it is said, on the famous British spy, Sidney Reilly. He too was a debonair womaniser, who loved them and left them. One of Sidney’s ‘women’, who was desperately in love with him, but was abandoned for another woman, was Caryll Houselander. She never fully got over the rejection and never formed another lasting relationship. Caryll was not a Catholic until the age of 6; then she abandoned Catholicism at 18, and returned again when she was 24. She said, of herself, in her autobiography, that she was not a cradle Catholic but one that swung to and fro, like a rocking horse (hence the name of her book.). Maise Ward, the famous writer and publisher of the 1950s, described Caryll as ‘that Divine Eccentric'; and indeed she was.
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The long-range forecast was for a white Christmas – there had been heavy frosts and snow on 13th December – but the weather people changed their minds on Christmas Eve and instead forecast blizzards sweeping the country, as the year ended. They were not wrong! That Christmas was the coldest on record and the snow that started to descend on the day the seminarians went home, 28th December, stayed on the ground until March.

By long tradition the students for the Priesthood at St John’s seminary at Wonersh, near Guildford, never went home for Christmas. The belief was that the community was your family, with whom you celebrated the festival. Then, on 27th December, came the feast day of the patron of the Seminary; students set off for home the next day.
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They have chosen to confirm their baptism, their call to life. This aid will help young people to continue to develop their friendship with Jesus, and his call to enjoy life to the full.

Place an order for this Book

A bulk discount is available for this book, perfect for confirmation groups. £4.00 each, or £3.25 each if buying 10 or more.

Coat of arms of Pope Francis

Pope Francis disappointed me! Not, I quickly add, as a whole, but just in this one, significant thing.

Choosing the name, and apparently, being inspired by the life-style of the great saint of Assisi he has still adopted a coat of arms! What does a bishop, including the Bishop of Rome, want with a coat of arms? Yet all bishops follow, seemingly without question, their predecessors’ practice.
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Fifty years ago this June, 16 priests were ordained for the Archdiocese of Southwark. Trained for a  pre-Vatican II Church they were the first priests to live out their ministry guided by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

On 8th June 1963 thirteen students for the Priesthood were ordained in the chapel of St John’s Seminary, Wonersh. They were destined for pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Southwark. The same day, in Ireland, three other candidates were ordained to work in the Archdiocese. Meanwhile in the other dioceses of England and Wales, that Pentecost, a similar number of men were being ordained. For some, Ordination came after 12 years of preparation from the age of 13; others joined the course as adults and completed the training after two years of Philosophy and four of Theology.
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