15 February 1802: Charles Lamb on city life.

Saint Paul’s is one of the few buildings that Charles Lamb would recognise in the City of London today. Here he is, on this day in 1802, writing to Thomas Manning, a young friend newly arrived on the continent, which Lamb himself had never visited and never expected to.

“I must be told if any building in Paris is at all comparable to St. Paul’s, which, contrary to the usual mode of that part of our nature called admiration, I have looked up to with unfading wonder every morning at ten o’clock, ever since it has lain in my way to business. At noon I casually glance upon it, being hungry; and hunger has not much taste for the fine arts.

Is any night-walk comparable to a walk from St. Paul’s to Charing Cross, for lighting and paving, crowds going and coming without respite, the rattle of coaches and the cheerfulness of shops? Have you seen a man guillotined yet? is it as good as hanging? are the women all painted, and the men all monkeys? or are there not a few that look like rational of both sexes? Are you and the First Consul thick?

All this expense of ink I may fairly put you to, as your letters will not be solely for my proper pleasure, but are to serve as memoranda and notices, helps for short memory, a kind of Rumfordising* recollection, for yourself on your return. Your letter was just what a letter should be, crammed and very funny. Every part of it pleased me till you came to Paris; and your damn’d philosophical indolence or indifference stung me. You cannot stir from your rooms till you know the language! What the devil!—are men nothing but word-trumpets? are men all tongue and ear? have these creatures, that you and I profess to know something about, no faces, gestures, gabble:”

*Count Rumford, Sir Benjamin Thompson, was an American born English scientist, engineer, town planner and inventor.

From The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820″ ed. E.V. Lucas)

Let us pray for a full share of that part of our nature called admiration, and full bellies for all school children that they may have a taste for all aspects of learning.

Mary’s Meals, a simple solution to world hunger

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Synod Newsletter 22.

General Secretariat of the Synod https://www.synod.va – media@synod.vaView this email in your browser

#newsletter n.22 – 02/2023 – Available also in FR – PT – ES – ITShareTweetForwardShare Dear brothers and sisters in Christ We have reached the culminating moment of the Continental Stage: the continental synodal assemblies. We begin already on Sunday with the start of the synodal assemblies for Europe and Oceania. From 12 February then the one for the Middle East and afterwards the one for Asia, Africa and at the end of March the one for Latin America. To follow the work, we have set up a portal (https://synod2023.org) that gives you access to the specific sites for each continental assembly. The past month has been full of events and activities. We will review them together in this newsletter. Happy reading! SPECIAL CONTINENTAL SYNODAL ASSEMBLIES On the way to Prague and Suva Many delegations are on their way to Prague (Czech Republic) or Suva (Fiji Islands) to participate in their respective continental assembly. We invite you to introduce your delegates, perhaps through a simple post on social networks as the synodal team of France and Switzerland did. And after the continental assembly, why not organise a virtual meeting with them so that they can recount the synodal experience of those days? Delegation of France Delegation of SwitzerlandThrough the portal https://synod2023.org you can access the sites of the individual continental meetings. For the Assemblies of Oceania, Asia and Africa, it is also possible to subscribe to a specific newsletter to receive daily information on the meeting. Forming for synodalityWe remind you that it is still possible to register for the two multilingual courses on synodality.Read moreReview the course opening video The New MOOC on Synodality Read more On the eve of the opening of the New MOOC on Synodality, we offer you the introductory video of the General Rapporteur of the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich. A letter to the bishops In mid-January, we announced the Ecumenical Prayer Vigil at the beginning of the upcoming 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The vigil is part of the initiative “Together, Gathering of the People of God” promoted by the Taizé community in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the Synod, several Vatican dicasteries and the diocese of Rome. If you want to know more, visit the website (together2023.net).   Read more A letter to the bishopsLast week, Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich addressed a letter to all the bishops of the world. Make sure your bishop has received a copy and bring it to him. Maybe it could also be a good opportunity for dialogue on his experience of the synodal path. Go to the lettter Pray for the Synod In order to support the synodal journey and ask for the Spirit’s assistance, together with the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and UISG, we have set up a website in 5 languages: Church on the Way. Pray for the Synod. You too can send your prayer. See how to do it… Download the new issue! (English only)

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23 August: On this day, 1942; without comment.

Archbishop Jules-Gérard Saliège

During the German Occupation, Monsignor Saliège, the Archbishop of Toulouse, worked to improve the Jews’ situation in the detention camps of southwestern France. When he learned about the first deportations from there to the Drancy transit camp, on Sunday August 23 1942 he ordered all priests in the archdiocese of Toulouse to proclaim without comment this message, drafted with the women setting up networks to protect Jews:  

Et clamor Jerusalem ascendit.*

“Women and children, fathers and mothers treated like cattle, members of a family separated from one another and dispatched to an unknown destination – it has been reserved for our own time to see such a sad spectacle. Why does the right of sanctuary no longer exist in our churches? Why are we defeated? . . . The Jews are real men and women. Foreigners are real men and women. They cannot be abused without limit. . . . They are part of the human species. They are our brothers, like so many others; no Christian can forget this fact.

“France, our beloved France, you hold in the conscience of your children the tradition of respect for the human person; chivalrous and generous France, I have no doubt that you are not responsible for these horrors.

“Lord have mercy upon us.

“Our Lady, pray for France”  

The document became a manifesto; hundreds of thousands of copies were circulated by the Resistance throughout France. Saliège’s protest turned French public opinion against the Vichy government and led to practical action. Saliège instructed the clergy and religious in his diocese to hide Jews, particularly children. The Ministry of the Interior threatened priests who read out Saliège’s message.  The authorities tried to undermine his authority with slanderous propaganda, but they did not dare to silence Archbishop Saliège.

* the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. Jeremiah 14:2.

On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognised Archbishop Jules-Gérard Saliège as Righteous Among the Nations.

13 August: Saint Radigund

 Saint Radigund’s story – she died in 587 – has parallels with Saint Mildred, who died in 768. At a time when women were seen as the possessions of men, second class beings, they stood out for women to be making their own decisions, and living the lives God was calling them to.

In this woodcut, Radigund has put her crown to one side and is studying scripture. Radigund or Radegund was a princess forced into marriage by the Frankish King Chlotar, who had taken her after a battle as his sixth wife. When he had her brother murdered she fled to the bishop of Noyon who helped her establish a monastery, where the sisters had to read and write as well as work at weaving and embroidery.

L’Arche Kent have their workshop on Saint Radigund Street, Canterbury, where weaving and candle-making are carried out, both monastic activities. Saint Radegund is one of the patrons of Jesus College, university of Cambridge. Let’s pray for both of them.

July 22: A memory unlocked.

‘They are French apricots today, and very good and juicy, so much better than the Spanish,’ said the stallholder in Canterbury market. I bought a pound – half a kilo – and she wrapped them in a brown paper bag.

As I said, ‘Thank you,’ the confluence of the warm sunshine, the brightly coloured fruit, the French text printed on the cardboard trays, the brown paper bag and the swing with which the lady sealed it with a twist, all together transported me back half a century. Almost without thinking I went on: ‘I remember when I was young, walking and hitch-hiking across France to visit a friend. I bought a kilo of apricots and a bottle of water, they kept me going through the mountains.’

‘You would remember that!’ she smiled: I did indeed.

Clement and I were in a group sharing an apartment in the seminary, and he was about to be ordained a missionary priest, I was summoning the courage to depart gracefully, but also to share the joy of his ordination. I was coming to the Massif Central from another ordination in Switzerland, travelling cross-country, a challenge then in France.

I hitched a lift to the border on a quiet road, and it was getting dark when I came upon a railway station that offered a slow train to the South Coast. En marche! as they say. I sat in a pull-down seat in the corridor, wrapped in a blanket, and slept fitfully as the kilometres went by. At Nîmes I slept on a bench until morning. The first bus in my direction was going as far as Alès, a market town, where I bought my kilo of apricots and walked on.

Lifts were few and far between but soon I was in the mountains under the blazing sun, eating my way through the apricots and replenishing the water bottle from wayside springs.

I met a cart drawn by two oxen, going the wrong way for me.

I kept on walking, accepting lifts of one or two kilometres until the bus from the morning overtook me, stopped and took me into Marvejols. The driver’s return journey began from there, but his drive from Alès was off timetable so I had a good ride for free. We shared the last apricots.

The driver showed me the famous statue of the Beast of Gevaudan, a man-eating monster from the time of Louis XV; he also showed me the road to my friend’s village where my arrival in a passing car was greeted by Clement’s family with congratulations and a warm welcome. A day later, two friends of his offered a lift to Paris which I gladly accepted.

This month Clement is celebrating his 50 years as a missionary priest.
Let’s give thanks for his faithful service in all that time, and pray that the Synod will point us to ways in which we may all become missionaries, steadfast in the heat of the day, on the hard road; ready to share what we have: apricots, a lift, or the Good News.

Today, Mrs T is gathering damaged apricots from our tree to make jam to share at Christmas time. The BEST apricot jam.

14 July, Blaise Pascal: hatred and fear of religion.

Blaise Pacal

People despise religion. They hate it and are afraid that it might be true. In order to heal this we must begin by showing that religion is by no means contrary to reason.

Pensées sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets, Blaise Pascal.

A reflection for Bastille Day, which celebrates the French Revolution.

Pascal, like many scientists of his 17th Century and through to today, saw no conflict between religious faith and reason.

If religion is true, it challenges us to repent, to live differently, to examine our consciences as to our behaviour, to acknowledge and be grateful for the gifts we receive, and to share them. Then people will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. But others may run a mile rather than repent – today at least!

Let us pray for unity and prosperity in France.

12 July: A no-nonsense name.

Sheila Billingsley has sent us a poem about the great golden cloud that descends on Southern England and elsewhere at this time of year – oilseed rape, a member of the cabbage family and the source of much of the vegetable oil on supermarket and kitchen shelves. It’s actually a staple of our diet, keeps us alive, so deserves a poem of its own.

Oilseed Rape. 

Do you then reflect the sun ? 
Out-- buttering the buttercups. 
You gild our fields and hillsides 
With your glory!

Oilseed Rape, 
An in-your-face  
                 no-nonsense name. 
Your down-to-earth mothering 
To feed yet glorify the earth. 

There must be-----somewhere---- 
In God's eternal memory, 
Another, golden name.

SB  February 2021

Ines’s foreshortened view of Canterbury crosses a patch of bright yellow oilseed rape, or colza as the French call it. I don’t know that colza is quite the golden name that Sheila was looking for; it won’t catch on!

The photograph above is by Myrabella, and shows a crop of colza – or oilseed rape – in Burgundy, France.

18 June: Today this is my vocation V, Getting old with good Pope John

Good Pope John XXIII

In March 1945, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli was sent from Istanbul to become the new Papal Nuncio or Ambassador to France, a country on its knees after years of occupation. A heavy and unexpected responsibility. A few years later, on the death of Pius XII, he would be elected as Pope John XXIII. This reflection is from his Spiritual Journal.

I must not disguise from myself the truth: I am definitely approaching old age. My mind resents this and almost rebels, for I still feel so young, eager, agile and alert.But one look in my mirror disillusions me. This is the season of maturity; I must do more and better, reflecting that perhaps the time still granted to me for living is brief, and that I am drawing near to the gates of eternity. This caused Hezekiah to turn to the wall and weep. (2 Kings 20:2) I do not weep.

No, I do not weep, and I do not even desire to live my life over again, so as to do better. I entrust to the Lord’s mercy whatever I have done, badly or less than well, and I look to the future, brief or long as it may be here below, because I want to make it holy and a source of holiness for others.

 John XXIII (1965), Journal of a Soul, London, Geoffrey Chapman, p264

‘Leave it in the hands of the Lord’ is a good motto at any age, so long as you have something to leave there. Maybe the older we get, the more aware we are of our shortcomings and the wilted state of our offerings. We lose the spontaneity of the toddler who gives mother a daisy flower, just picked with no stem but accompanied by a beatific smile. He knows she will accept his gift; the old man can see the imperfection in both gift and giver, yet he gives back to the one who gives all.

1 April, Maundy Thursday: Slavery and the Eucharist: two 18th Century abolitionists.

Slave ship from a Methodist history book

In the years leading to the French Revolution of 1789 there were abolitionists striving to find a way to free the slaves in France’s American and Caribbean colonies and terminate the slave trade. Two such were Jacques Pierre Brissot and the Swiss pastor Benjamin Sigismond Frossard.

Before all that the two men met in Lyon, where Frossard was a pastor and member of academic societies. Brissot was edified by Frossard’s preaching, and at the Lord’s Supper was struck by the realisation that ‘it was indeed the meal and the sign of equality’.

Frossard himself referred to the liturgy as a bridge between slave and master where all people came to profess that they are equal.

Brissot was guillotined in 1793, as the revolution turned in upon itself, and Frossard returned to Switzerland. Although the National Assembly in Paris abolished slavery, Napoleon reinstated the practice, which had never gone away because the Assembly was unable to enforce its decrees across the Atlantic.

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

James 2:1-4

The source for this post is FROSSARD AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY: A MORAL DILEMMA by Barbara Saunderson.

The Good Shepherd and Pamela.

• 

Shepherd and flock, Serre Eyraud, Hautes Alpes, 1970

Pam was quite a character in our parish community and we miss her presence at 9:30am Sunday Mass and early morning Masses on Wednesdays. Whenever we were together in a group she would inevitably say quite spontaneously “I love the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.” Indeed she was quite right to remind us of this powerful image of God’s love and care.

This is the beginning of Canon Anthony’s reflection in this week’s Newsletter for Saint Thomas’s Parish, Canterbury. Click for the full text: Canon Anthony Charlton. Click here for live-streamed Mass, tomorrow, 3rd May at 9.30 BST