Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 26 September 2011

Processions of witness in London


Due to other commitments I cannot join in either of these two events, but I would urge anyone who can to do so on the next two Saturdays.

Saturday October 1st
There will be a procession of the Blessed Sacrament in thanksgiving for the State Visit last year of the Pope and for the beatification of Cardinal Newman starting from Westminster Cathedral at 1.15pm. The route will be crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge and the procession will conclude at St George's Cathedral in Southwark with Benediction at 2.30pm.

Saturday October 8th
The annual Rosary Crusade will depart from Westminster cathedral at, I assume, the usual time of 1.45pm and proceed to the Brompton Oratory escorting the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The procession will be led by Mgr. Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our lady of Walsingham. The devotions at the Oratory conclude with Benediction and enrollment with the Brown Scapular.

I am very sorry that I shall not be able to participate in either of these events - I really enjoy such processions, and they are a very striking and effective act of witness in the capital city.

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