This window is in Saint Aloysius’ church, near Euston station in London. If you are passing around Mass time you can drop in and see the windows and also the street outside. The Church is not separate from the city!
Looking at the gathering, there are twelve tongues of fire above the disciples and Mary when there were actually about 120 people in the Upper Room, including, surely, the women who went to the tomb on Easter Sunday – the two Marys, Salome and Johannah.
We can add to that number the passers-by who are also part of the picture. If this was our parish we would probably know a few of them by name!
There are people from all over the world in London today as there were two thousand years ago in Jerusalem. Let us pray that the fire of God’s love will be kindled in each one of them so that peace will reign in all hearts and communities in the city.
A queue for vaccinations at Lichfield Cathedral during the pandemic. Photo JB.
Echoes in Lichfield Cathedral
‘Echoes’ is a dramatic event marking the end of restoration work at Lichfield Cathedral. It will run from 11 May 2024 19:30 to 12 May 2024 20:30.
As the scaffolding is removed and the spire is revealed, we are celebrating the history of the Cathedral and its people with an exciting new production. Travel through the ages in a time machine performance created by a vibrant community cast. This exciting piece of promenade theatre takes its audience on a journey around the glorious Lichfield Cathedral with tales from this historic site told through, dance and music. Admission is by ticket only for this after-hours performance.
What can you expect to see? The audience will be taken on an intimate journey through time, and around the Cathedral. Coming face to face with Saints, Stonemasons, Victorians, Roundheads, Royalists, and more, with pop up performances from a number of community groups, (we don’t want to give too much away)! ECHOES promises to be an immersive experience full of secrets, history, heart, and hope. We’re very proud of it. Don’t miss out!
Tickets are FREE, with donations encouraged to support the upkeep of Lichfield Cathedral. For more information and to book, click here.
Here at Agnellus’ Mirror we are pleased to see Kentish women saints remembered in a pilgrimage between places associated with them: Saints Bertha, Ethelburga and Eanswythe. We look forward to setting foot on this journey and finishing with fish and chips at the harbour in Folkestone.
It’s disappointing that Saint Mildred – another princess of the same family – was not included with her relatives. Saint Mildred’s church is just across the city from Saint Martin’s, and a peaceful spot it is.
A new pilgrimage route, launching on Saturday 27 April 2024, has been developed linking churches in Canterbury, Lyminge, and Folkestone. The project aims to highlight the achievements of royal Kentish women who were crucial to the development of Christianity in England and who were long side-lined in history.
The start of the pilgrimage is at St Martin’s Church in Canterbury, and celebrates Bertha who prayed with St Augustine in her private chapel on the site, laying the foundation for the conversion of Kent to Christianity. Bertha was pivotal to her pagan husband King Ethelbert accepting Christianity and together they established the first Christian royal family in England.
St Martin’s Church, Canterbury
Midway along the route is St Mary & St Ethelburga Church, Lyminge, where recent excavations uncovered the remains of a church, dated to the time of Queen Ethelburga, daughter of Bertha. These stone foundations are evidence for what is acknowledged as one of the first Christian communities in this country. Ethelburga is celebrated for beginning, with her husband King Edwin, the conversion of the North of England to Christianity. She later returned to Kent to live at Lyminge after Edwin was killed in battle.
St Mary and St Ethelburga church, Lyminge
The end of the route is at St Mary & St Eanswythe, Folkestone, the scene of exciting discoveries during the recent Finding Eanswythe project. The church is dedicated to Bertha’s granddaughter, and Ethelburga’s niece, Princess Eanswythe, who is recorded as founding a very early Christian community at Folkestone. Human bones were discovered hidden in the church wall in the 19th century which have been scientifically analysed. They are of a well-nourished young woman and date to the time of St Eanswythe, making them most probably her bones preserved as relics in the church she founded since the time of her death. This is the only church in the British Isles known to have retained the relics of its founding Saint, and her shrine provides a fitting end to this new pilgrimage celebrating the foundational achievements of three generations of royal Kentish women who had once been forgotten.
St Mary and St Eanswythe church, Folkestone
Talking about the Royal Kentish Camino, St Martin’s Senior Visitor Host Jessica Morris said: “This new pilgrimage route is important in uniting three long forgotten Christian Women. Here at St Martin’s, we hope that people will enjoy this Camino whether it be to connect to the centuries of prayer within our walls or to explore the rich history that Kent, and these churches, have to offer”.
Also involved is Rob Baldwin, Chair of Lyminge Historical Society, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, who further added: “Our new Camino offers a chance to explore some fabulous countryside while reflecting on the significant achievements of three powerful women who were pioneers of their faith fourteen centuries ago when it was still very new in England. We are delighted to create the opportunity for pilgrims of all faiths and none to follow literally in their footsteps.”
Jenny Coleman, treasurer and PCC member at St Mary & St Eanswythe Church stated that the church felt honoured to have in their care the bones of St Eanswythe. Coleman went on to say that “we are looking forward to welcoming pilgrims from everywhere to our beautiful church to learn more about our matronal saint, as well as our sister churches on the Camino”.
The pilgrimage launches on Saturday 27 April 2024 and more information can be found on the Lyminge Parish Council Website.
Saint Gregory of Nazianzen challenges each and every Christian to come nearer to Christ, to be more and more like him.
If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up your cross and follow Christ. If you are crucified beside him like one of the thieves, now, like the good thief, acknowledge your God. For your sake, and because of your sin, Christ himself was regarded as a sinner; for his sake, therefore, you must cease to sin. Worship him who was hung on the cross because of you, even if you are hanging there yourself. Derive some benefit from the very shame; purchase salvation with your death. Enter paradise with Jesus, and discover how far you have fallen. Contemplate the glories there, and leave the other scoffing thief to die outside in his blasphemy.
If you are a Joseph of Arimathea, go to the one who ordered his crucifixion, and ask for Christ’s body. Make your own the expiation for the sins of the whole world. If you are a Nicodemus, like the man who worshipped God by night, bring spices and prepare Christ’s body for burial. If you are one of the Marys, or Salome, or Joanna, weep in the early morning. Be the first to see the stone rolled back, and even the angels perhaps, and Jesus himself.
From a sermon by Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Office of Readings 23.3.2024
Hearing news of Patrick’s death was no surprise. He had been in poor health for some years, and living hundreds of miles away from most of his family and all of his school friends. He and I might have crossed paths every five years or so, but exchanged Christmas greetings each year.
It was only after sharing news of his death that I learned that he had been a great support by letter or email to a number of our school friends in times of illness or bereavement. I knew he had been active in his local parish and enjoyed making visitors welcome; he wrote as if they were doing him a kindness in talking over a beer.
Let’s thank God for all hidden away, unsung saints whose names may be on St Peter’s spreadsheet but not on Mother Church’s! And may we all meet merrily in the great heavenly Easter!
We have seen Jeremiah doing his duty as a prophet despite opposition from powerful men in Jerusalem. We can be grateful not to be living in such ‘interesting’ times, when there was very little by way of comfort zone for Jeremiah.
Saint David had suffered exile early in life, but returned to be bishop of Menevia, based in the little city that now bears his name. He travelled around a great deal, taking this altar stone with him to celebrate the Eucharist with his own congregations but also with the saints whose relics were sealed in the stone, and indeed with all Christians.
David was vegetarian, and shunned comfort for the sake of comfort, but did not expect all his flock to be extreme ascetics. Rather he urged them to be faithful in the little things, like taking turns with the washing up. This Lent, let us be faithful to such little acts of kindness that will bring us closer to our sisters and brothers and to the Lord who made us all.
What is a saint? Jesus sets out for all of us how we are to become saints when he gave us the Beatitudes. Jesus is challenging us to a new way of life as he challenged those who sat listening to him beside the Sea of Galilee. This way of life is a way of love. To live the Beatitudes is to be a light shining in the darkness. Our world, filled with violence, hatred and death needs Christ’s light shining in our lives.
Here is a prayer written by St John Henry Newman which was recited daily after Communion by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Sisters of Charity. It can be our prayer asking for the grace to be a light that shines in the gloom.
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me,
and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with
may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then
I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.
It will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching,
not by words but by my example,
by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. Amen.From Fr Anthony Charlton
Lampedusa Cross made from timbers of a migrant boat wrecked in the Mediterranean sea.
It is said that Mary Magdalene and a group of Jesus’ disciples were put into a boat without sails or oars, then abandoned to the Mediterranean Sea, as so many migrants are abandoned in our own time. It is from that early time that the Church has been in the South of France.
In the time of the Emperor Maximinian a group of legionaries led by Saint Victor were martyred in Marseille. Around 450, a basilica was built there to welcome pilgrims; it has been added to over the centuries, leaving the original church as the crypt of what became the Abbey of Saint Victor.
Saint Victor is now one of the monuments of Marseille, but it is also the site of a unique religious celebration at Candlemas time. At 5 o’clock in the morning the Archbishop of Marseille sails into the Old Port, where the faithful will have gathered to escort him in procession through the dark streets to Saint Victor. There he blesses the city and celebrates Mass.
A little later he visits a well-known pâtisserie, le ‘Four des navettes’, the Boat Oven. Here the Archbishop blesses the navettes – traditional little biscuits shaped like the boat that brought Mary Magdalene and her companions. They say that at Candlemas and all through the year the Marseillais prefer them to pancakes.
Here is another reflection from Canon Anthony Charlton of Saint Thomas, Canterbury, revealing something of the shared prayer life of the Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests to which he belongs. As he tells us, the group aims to learn from the explorer, monk and hermit Saint Charles de Foucauld, whose feastday falls today.
Yesterday I met with two other priests for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Gospel reflection, food and a review of life. We do this once a month and are part of the Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests.
“This Fraternity takes its inspiration from the life and charisms of Charles de Foucauld. While some of our local groups still find Brother Charles to be a strange and distant person whom they have yet to meet in depth, they find themselves united in heart with this man who sought to know and imitate Jesus, to encounter Jesus loved for His own sake as the source of his ministry. For many groups, Brother Charles is becoming like another brother in their midst whose presence and life story became as much an influence upon them, as their own lives. Above all, each priest finds these words of Charles resonating within him, helping to focus his Christian and priestly vocation: “I love our Lord, Jesus Christ, although with a heart that wants to love more and better. But nonetheless, I love Him and cannot bear another life than that which leads to Him.”
Let us pray for all our priests, that they may find Christ in their lives and faithfully lead us to him.
Today is the Feast of the VI th Century Irish monk and missionary, Saint Columbanus. Not necessarily good pilgrimage weather, so the Columban missionaries and their friends walk the Columban way in June. The pilgrimage route starts in Ireland and wanders across Europe to Italy; it is becoming established as a recognised Camino. This year the contingent from Ireland were joined by pilgrims from France, Switzerland, Italy and Liechtenstein for the section around Saint Gallen, Switzerland, as described by Sister Ann Gray.
agnellusmirror 