St Michael, Patron of Cornwall

It seems there were many shrines in Cornwall to St Michael along with the famous one at Marazion, including on Looe Island and the top of our Carn Brea. There were also many old Cornish churches dedicated to him: Landrake, Lawhitton, Lesnewth, Michaelstow, St Michael Penkivel and St Michael Caerhays.

Do you know the story behind the composition of the prayer by Pope Leo XIII that used to be said after all Masses? (This statue is in the church on the Mount).

Blessed Michael the Archangel,

defend us in the day of battle;

be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:

and do thou, the Prince of the heavenly host,

by the power of God,

thrust down to hell Satan and all wicked spirits

who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.

Amen.

Parish Harvest Supper

On Friday just over 60 members of the parish met in the Penventon Hotel for our annual entertainments evening. There was a quiz to identify photos of churches throughout the world and of course a raffle. The highlight was the series of 9 sketches and songs by parishioners  very confidently compèred by a young member of the parish. We had two piano pieces, a flute solo, a Joyce Grenfell tribute, 4 songs and this young lady, who won first prize from the panel of 3 judges with her dance routine to an Abba song!

It was a decent venue, but next time we'll go for a Saturday - and a little more food!

Anniversary of the Holy Father's visit

This photo was found via google to post on our parish website to mark the anniversary of the papal visit. It was only afterwards that the Cornish flag was noticed waving above the popemobile - this was the one carried by our group to the Beatification Mass at Cofton park!

Well perhaps things are finally getting through to the BBC...

Support for the Catholic Church 'on the increase'

Click on the link above: at least the reporter has recognised the sheer numbers of young Catholics in Madrid for World Youth Day this year. (In the year 2000 there were reckoned to be somewhere between 2 and 3 million youngsters in the field outside Rome to see Pope John Paul - the largest gathering in European history - yet it barely got a mention. Then there was Toronto, Cologne, Sydney.)

 

Church weddings are increasing in this area!

Congratulations to Justin and Fiona Williams married yesterday and to Steven and Anna Bowler married today.
There have been more marriages in the parish both this year and last year than we have had for 16 years.

World Youth Day - good news or bad?

Several people from Cornwall have joined the one and half million people who are with Pope Benedict in Spain this week. This includes the Dean of Cornwall and some of his parishioners.

The BBC gave its usual jaundiced coverage on the Today programme this morning - a few seconds on the 'thousands' who are protesting at the supposed cost to Spanish tax payers. This is despite the fact that the event is being paid for by the young pilgrims who have all had to raise several hundred pounds over the past year (they will also be spending their euros in Madrid). The journalist Andrew Brown was quick to note this however: 

The ability of mainstream Christianity to attract a crowd of 1.5 million young people seems to me a damn sight more newsworthy...

...Numbers don't prove truth, of course. But they are measures of commitment, and of political importance. Three hundred times as many people have travelled to Madrid to see the pope as have travelled to protests against him. Which group is more important to know about?

Given the recent events concerning the morally confused rioters in our country, the gathering of these young pilgrims from all over the world - motivated by the highest ideals -  provides a miraculous countersign. There is an element in BBC that just doesn't get religion and it seems to have excelled itself in being particularly perverse this time.

Expedition to Westminster

Well the great day arrived - the Government interview for our proposal for Cornwall's first Catholic Secondary School (and the U.K.'s first Catholic 'free school').

After the overnight train to Paddington, we were able to celebrate Mass at the high altar in Westminster Cathedral and ask Our Lady's prayers in the fine Lady chapel.

Below- last minute preparations in Starbucks!

The meeting at the Department of Education headquarters in Great Smith Street began at 10am before a panel of four civil servants. We felt the six of us worked very well together, providing an articulate and confident response. We won't know what they decide yet until the end of September/beginning of October.

Here we are breathing a sigh of relief afterwards (our headteacher had already scooted off to catch the plane for World Youth Day in Madrid!)

But so many of you back here in Cornwall were praying that we could almost feel it.
                                     A very big thank you to you all!

Redruth Summer Lunch

Miracle of miracles: we had real sunshine. Well, there are no coincidences when it comes to the Sisters and fine weather.  The sky was Our Lady's colour.

The convent gardens were abuzz with people from as far afield as ...Camborne and Penponds.

Praise God for a fine day!

Our great feastday of hope.

Today we celebrate (one day early) the Assumption of Our Lady body and soul into heaven - the masterpiece of God's plan for Creation. Mary, the sinless one, has co-operated perfectly with the Word, her son. She is taken up to share the life of God in glory and she becomes our hope. We look to her assumption as we long for the first flower that bursts through the barren earth in Spring.

Everyone is feverishly analysing the riots in our major cities: lack of personal value-systems; no respect for authority; poor parenting etc. Certainly there are very  many young people who seem to have so little hope beyond aspiring to a few filched flat-screen TVs. This is surely a fruit of a secular, materialistic culture with no true grasp of what we are as human beings.

Two weeks ago, several hundred people in their teens and twenties travelled for the 5-day Summer Session at Woldingham (see below). They were filled with a whole-hearted love for their Catholic faith and want to live according to the highest values. They were brimming with hope. To witness them all singing the Salve Regina to Our Lady each evening would surely surprise the loudest New Atheist in the media.

St Maximilian Kolbe, the martyr-priest of Auschwitz whose feast-day is really today, made it his personal mission to make Mary known and loved throughout the world of the twentieth century. He saw the rise of dark forces -  hatred for the Church and Naziism. Through his extraordinary final act of love he had the last word on them all. He showed the power of Our Lady in our lives. She opens the door to hope, to her Son, in our lives.

The atheist way can be seen to have failed in so many ways. Human beings are made for more than flat-screen TVs. We are made, as Mary shows us most beautifully, for something far beyond this world. We are made for the life of God.

Kneeling for Communion

It is well-known that the Pope now only gives Holy Communion on the tongue to people who are kneeling.

Last month the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Canizares Llovera, has explicitly seconded this. He recommends that all Catholics receive Communion on the tongue and also while kneeling:

"It is the sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.

If we trivialize Communion, we trivialize everything, and we cannot lose a moment as important as that of receiving Communion, of recognizing the real presence of Christ there, of the God who is the love above all loves, as we sing in a hymn in Spanish.

It is to simply know that we are before God himself and that He came to us and that we are undeserving".

Certainly it is noticeable that more people in the parish here are rediscovering the practice of receiving on the tongue.
Last month the bishops of England and Wales also pointed out that all Catholics in this country have a right to receive kneeling. This would present a challenge at the moment, as the altar rails were removed in both churches decades ago.  It is going to require a little thinking about...