This will take the place of our usual Mass at St Bernadette’s. If anyone requires transport, let me know under the Contact details. We will be resuming our usual monthly Mass on 9th June.

And we thank God for Pope Emeritus for the gift of the Ordinariate, enabling us to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church while retaining our cherished and treasured Anglican patrimony. The very existence of our group is the testimony to his wonderful vision for Christian unity.

Pope Benedict with Mgr Keith Newton, our Ordinary

I have just returned from a memorable trip to Rome and a family visit to Japan. In Rome, I was able to re-visit many of my favourite churches, this time as a Catholic priest. Particularly moving was the Scavi tour, to the original resting place of St Peter deep under St Peter’s Basilica (the same trip I took years ago in 1974, when it was just opened to the public), saying private Mass in the Lithuanian Chapel in the Vatican Grottoes (shown below), visits to the Pontifical North American College and Venerable English College (where 44 of former seminarians were martyred for Catholic faith on their return) and the American Catholic parish of Santa Susanna. I attended General Audience with Pope Benedict, and was lucky enough to be seated only six rows from the front, with a good view of the platform from which the Holy Father spoke. I also stocked up on new albs and a chasuble, very resonably priced! From Rome I made a flying visit to Japan over a weekend, visiting my ailing mother, having meals with my elder brother and his wife and attending a ceremony on my father’s 6th anniversary.

Lithuanian Chapel of Mater Misericordiae

This month we start our observance of the holy season of Lent on 13th. With the threefold emphases on fasting, prayer and almsgiving, may we draw closer to our Lord in his 40 days and nights in the wilderness.

After Mass, we will go to the Red Lion next door for the New Year meal to celebrate the first year of the group’s existence.

See you at the January Ordinariate Mass on 13th!

I had a wonderful day recently sharing my experience of entering into full communion of the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate with the good people of Kirkby in Merseyside, hosted by the sisters of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary http://www.dhmary.com/. I was able to share my conviction that it was truly the work of the Holy Spirit, and this great action is something that all Catholics can rejoice and benefit from. In the Year of Faith, when we are all urged to renew our faith, celebrate it and share it with others, a renewed commitment to the life of grace through the word and the sacraments will bring countless benefits.

I wish all readers of this blog a holy and blessed Advent, and please, continue to pray for us as we try to put into practice the vision of the Holy Father that ‘all may be one’.

I am fresh from a short break in Bangkok, during which I was able to celebrate Mass and had a chance to talk about the Ordinariate with some nuns working in Thailand and a Japanese Catholic community there.