Portsmouth Roman Catholic

Despite the bumps at the beginning of my home video, this is worth listening to. The Angel bowed before the holy maid, "Fear not O highly favoured one For God has chosen you so full of grace to be the mother of His son Ave Maria The maid was overcome with doubt and fear, "I know not man how can this be When I am mother of the promised one, I trust that God will be with me Ave Maria The Spirit He will overshadow you, and in your womb his seed will dwell And when the time has come to born the child, His name will be Emmanuel Ave Maria The maiden whispered "Let His will be done, according to His Holy Word And I rejoice that He has chosen me, I am the handmaid of the Lord" Ave Maria She gave him life she gave him joy and love, she shared his pain and misery O Moher of our Saviour Jesus Christ, Please be a mother now to me Ave Maria

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in England have made this year 2020 the Year of the Bible.  So where this is taken seriously, and I hope in not too many places, we will be discussing the Bible in isolation from tradition, as one of the foundational elements of Our Faith.   But where did the Bible come from?   The document praises St Jerome who turned 'scripture' into Latin, but this was an evasion.   The Councils of Carthage and Hippo had already determined the canonical books that Jerome would use.    It was finally at a Synod in Carthage in  397 that the bishops of the Catholic Church finally drew up the Canonical books that would be used in the Churches and which Jerome translated into Latin, since the Mass was said in Latin.   Their decision was ratified by the Pope.   But this did not devalue many other scriptures the Church decided not to use.   Letters from the early Fathers and Ecclesial writers of the Patristic age, Ignatius of Antioch, Pope Clement, and many others

If we listen to the politicians there is a great deal of poverty in the UK.   There are certainly many families where the children grow up deprived of the food and clothing other children enjoy, and many parents who do indeed have a low income  and depend on Food Banks.   As indeed is the case in many countries in the EU, and especially Germany.     But is this a purely economic question?    Is one nasty party creating all this and we just have to vote for the opposition  to put things right?   It is all just about money or is it? If we go to Food Banks the first noticeable thing is that the vast majority of families who go there are single parent families.   The inevitable consequence of women going out to work was that more and more the economy was shaped to a two wage family.    Many women at first went to work to give their families more luxuries but this ended up as the two wage system adjusted to the economy in many working woman inevitably working for the necessities.     Then

One of the elders then spoke and asked me "Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?"  I answered him "You can tell me, sir"    Then he said "These are the people who have been through the great trial: they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the lamb. That is why they are standing in front of God's throne and serving Him day and night: and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.  They will never hunger or thirst again, sun and scorching wind will never plague them, because the Lamb who is at the heart of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes"     Revelations 7: 13-17 When John began preaching in the desert he saw Jesus approaching and called out "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world"   This is echoed by the priest at every Mass before we tak

I was talking today with friends about how hurt we felt when we go to Church on Sunday into a congregation where children are running around, adults are involved in loud discussions, and very few are acknowledging the physical presence among them of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.   In the days in which I grew up the presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle at the centre of the altar called us to prayer, and preparation for the Mass that was to follow.   For if the consecrated host is not Jesus then there is little point to the Mass, we are just at a service of praise and calling the host Jesus is merely symbolic.   This is the opinion of the majority of Protestants, but being Catholic should be  different.   Difficulties entered the Church when the Protestant version of Authority and the Bible was introduced.   Whereas for two thousand years it was scripture and tradition, tradition meaning the teachings passed down from the apostles and their successors, or the Fathers of the Church, as

Ok I am just a stay at home kind of guy.  But if you like the hymn do make it your own.  You can sing or play better than I can.

O Jesus I believe your words that change the bread and wine Into your Body and your Blood, both human and Divine What mighty wonders here on earth or in the stars above Compare to this, the humble God who gives Himself in love But who am I, do I deserve this love you give  to me  I call you Lord, I call you God, but never bend my knee I take your when my heart is cold and I am stained with sin How little do I understand the holiness within. You come to me despite  my faults and feeble as I am                                        You come to be a shepherd to a lost and lonely lamb Then put me in your fold of love that I can spend my days Just knowing you and trusting you and lost in prayer and praise O take my heart its yours my Lord, and from this moment on I vow to mend my sinful ways till heaven I have won And all my prayers and all my works and all I say and do Are treasures when my life is done that I will give to you.

I came down to London in the early 1960's to find work.  I was very much on my own but I joined the parish Legion of Mary and soon found myself with many many young friends of my own.  That is what the Church was like in those days, there were many young people who attended.   Indeed it was through the Church I found my wife. One day I heard a talk on an audio tape recorder from Cardinal Heenan.   He had just returned from Vatican II and was addressing the priests in his diocese.   I and many others were shocked by what we heard.  He did not mention any changes in the Mass, the bulldozing of altars, standing for Holy Communion, the removal of the Tabernacle from its place as head of the community or his Body.    What he did speak on was the German bishops who stood up to oppose a schema on Our Lady in the Church.   "This will put the Ecumenical Movement back ten years" they cried.    The Cardinal went on to say that if we lost devotion to Mary we would lose devotion to

MARIAN  MOVEMENT Meeting on 16th October     St Joseph’s  7.30pm Introduction - Why a Marian Movement?  Is Devotion to Mary something Medieval or was she  honoured in the early Church?  Questions Rosary Discussion on meeting of all Basingstoke Parishes once a month for Rosary and Adoration.   Involvement of families and children. The Special Relationship of Basingstoke  to the National Shrine of Walsingham.  Why Basingstoke should be involved in the Rededication of England as the Dowry of Mary. Prayer for the Conversion of England O most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most Gentle Queen and mother, look down in mercy upon England they Dowry, and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in Thee.    By Thee it was that Jesus  our  Saviour and our hope was given unto the world and he has given Thee to us that we might hope still more.   Plead for us thy children whom thou did receive and accept at the foot of the Cross, O Sorrowful Mother.    Inter

The secular news at the moment is full of rise in suicides among young people, the rise in knifing crimes, the rise in drug addiction, and so many young girls, especially those who have been in care being used and abused sexually and becoming prostitutes.     Of course on TV we have pundits trying to solve the problems, and any of them are sincere in what they say but there is just one thing that is never said and that is that the young people feel unloved and unwanted and society perhaps carries the blame. But what is love ?   How can we learn love?   And how can we pass it on to others.   Because society is focussed o the 'rights' of adults the rights of children are not taken into account.   What does it matter if two adults with children decide to divorce, the children will get over it and after all the father will have access to them.   As far as the adults are concerned it is OK then.   Yes, the children will benefit from the love of a father  when he takes them out, a

When a soul finds itself drawn to Mary it can be confused.  Should they imitate the humility of Mary only and be silent when false teachings are put forward, to belittle her place in the plan of God for our Salvation. St Louis Marie de Montfort has this to say about the Last Days in his True Devotion. These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides. and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, nourished by her milk, led by her spirit, supported by her arm, and sheltered under her protection, so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other.    With one hand they shall fight, overthrow, and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolators with their idolatries, and the sinners with their impieties.    With the other hand they will build the Temple of the true Solomon, and the mystical City of God; that is

In 1846 the Virgin Mary appeared to two children Maximim Giraud aged 11, and Melanie Calvat aged 14.  They found her weeping at the side of the road.  The lady told them an almost unbelievable story the Rome would fall to the Anti-Christ and the pope would be driven from the Vatican.   Of course such a story could be laughed at then for the position of the Pope and the Vatican was very strong and seemed unassailable.   Yet so earnest and truthful was their account that five year later Pope Pius IX approved of the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette.  But why did Our Lady appear?   At the same time the Vatican had obtained a document from the Alta Vendita branch of the Freemasons in Italy which read: The Pope, whoever he may be, will never come to the secret societies   It is for the secret societies to come first to the Church, with the aim of winning them both   The work we have undertaken is not the work of a day, nor of a month, nor of a year.  It must last many years, a century 

O Little Flower of Jesus, your stem grew strong with love And filled the air with fragrance but meant for God above  Please help me fight temptation but if I ever fall Then Little Flower of Jesus I’ll need you most of all That love for your Creator that shone from you each day And sparkled brightly in a world where faith had gone astray Still sets the sinner yearning for heaven as their goal And shines forth like a beacon to guide the wandering soul.  O Little Flower of Jesus your life has brought me shame For I have shared the pleasures of a world that sneers God’s name O help me find that sorrow for a dark and sinful past Which isn’t just a moments thought but sorrow that will last. Now you may ask what 'dark and sinful past' an 11 year old had, so I will confess.   I went to a birthday party at that age and they started a kissing game.   I found myself in the lobby with the most beautiful girl in the school.  So I kissed her on the lips and so

The raising of a teaching to a Dogma means that the particular teaching was part of the deposit of Faith handed down by the Early Church.  In 1854 Pope Pius IX  consulted the bishops of the world and declared the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary was born free from that inclination to sin that we inherited from Eve, that original sin, and in the eyes of the fathers she was seen as the New Eve.  Mary lived with the apostles and the early disciples and they knew of her holiness.   They knew what Gabriel had said  "Hail Full of Grace", they knew what Jesus said about her "She heard the word of God and kept it", but most of all the word Jesus used in referring to her as "Woman" taking us back to Genesis when God said to the serpent  "I will put enmity between thee and the woman"   When Jesus was seen as the New Adam we remember the words that followed "and between his seed and yours"   Simply put The battle between the woman and

In the 1960's I was a young man who believed everything in the Catholic Church and believed every Catholic who attended Mass believed just like me.  Our teachers in school were devout catholics who at the Chidrens Mass led us through everything the priest was doing and saying. Then I received the first shock .    After Vatican II I was in London and heard a talk by Cardinal Heenan to the priests of his Diocese.  It was on one of those early reel to reel tape recorders.   He was speaking about the re-action of the German Bishops in particular to a proposed Schema on the Virgin Mary.   "It will put the Ecumenical Movement back ten years" they cried.   They had prepared and controlled the agenda and the more honest Catholic bishops on this point were routed.    But they fought back and in the document on the Constitution on the Church they insisted that devotion t Mary should continue and went on to declare her Mother of the Church.   Cardinal Heenan told the priests &quo

Of all women you are the most blessed, and blesses is the fruit of your woman.    Why should I be honoured with a visit from the Mother of my Lord?   Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.   Yes blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.   Luke 1:42 The above is the extraordinary greeting of Elizabeth to her cousin Mary.   “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the Mother of my Lord” she asks.  A woman approaching old age is saying this to a girl in her early teens.   So to her Mary is no longer ‘just another woman.   She is a woman above all other women, she is the Mother of Jesus, the Saviour   Then comes Marys reply…..”he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid, and from now onwards all generations shall call me blessed…”   So let us be clear Mary claims nothing on her own merits, It is Got and God alone who gave her the many blessings she has. But the story of Mary starts whe

In 1948 a group of people left the Holy Ghost Church in Basingstoke carrying a wooden cross.    Their destination was Walsingham and they were walking    Another 13 crosses were being carried from other parts of England and Wales, and all but the Welsh took roundabout routes, so that they would all arrive in Walsingham together.   It was a march for Peace and the crosses were planted in the grounds of the Catholic Church to form the Stations of the Cross.    The Basingstoke Cross is still there, and is the Fourth Station, Jesus meets his Mother. But why was Basingstoke chosen for this great honour?   The answer is that Basingstoke before the Reformation had its own shrine to Our Lady and was a place of pilgrimage.   We know very little of the details but its existence is testified to by Basingstoke historical writers and the shrine of Walsingham itself.    The statue was taken from the town and burned by Thomas Cromwell, acting for Henry VIII, and thrown into the Thames at Chelsea

.......we will have none of the reticence of those who are ashamed, no deceitfulness or watering down of the Word of God, but the way we commend ourselves to every human being is by stating the truth openly in the sight of God.....(from My Previous Blog A Diocesan Pastoral Council is to be held soon to discuss how to bring baptised Catholics back to the Church.   It is another initiative by our Bishop that I applaud.   One of the 'notorious' things I have done in the past is write to the previous bishop drawing his attention to the falling Mass attendance which was taking place.  I mentioned that this would have serious consequences on Diocesan Finance.    The figures were published in the Diocesan Year Book.  The only response I got was that these figures disappeared in future publications.   A revolution was started in Catholic schools and parishes in the  seventies and although it proved an utter failure nobody wanted to take responsibility and of course it was all blamed

Since we have by an act of mercy been entrusted with this work of administration ( evangelisation) there is no weakness on our part.    On the contrary, we will have none of the reticence of those who are ashamed, no deceitfulness or watering down of the Word of God, but the way we commend ourselves to every human being is by stating the truth openly in the sight of God............We are only the earthenware jars that hold the treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.      St Paul 2Corinthians 4: I remember one time in the not so distant past a number of Catholics watching some videos on the Catholic Faith.   A number of people who were with an RCIA meeting came into the room to have coffee.   They saw part of the video and one remarked that this was what he was interested in.  Others agreed.    At that time the RCIA programme taught very little of the Catholic Faith since 'scholars' had decided to take "People from wher

Advance notice!  Divine Mercy Day of Prayer, invoking the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham in Westminster Cathedral - Saturday 28th September 2019, from 9.30am to 4.30pm with Holy Mass at 10.30am.  The day will be led by Bishop John Keenan of Diocese of Paisley and Fr. Dominic Allain, Pastoral Director of 'From Grief to Grace' among others. We will bring in prayer to the God of Mercy our anguish, burden of unspoken grief, horror & fury with regard to the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. We will pray for the wounded Body of Christ through prayer and reparation for the sins of sexual abuse in the Church. We will pray for the victims of such abuse and plead for God's Healing Mercy.  Bishop John Keenan will lead the central Communal Act of Reparation. Fr. Dominic Allain will give two powerful talks.  Fr. Dominic speaks as one who regularly leads Retreats to help heal those who have suffered such abuse.    " From Grief to Grace "   offers a five-day program

My last post was an explanation of John 21 and the power given by Jesus to forgive sin given to the Apostles.   I am sure however there were many who would have said "No, No, this was not what Jesus meant" and came out with their own interpretation based on the assumption that what they put forward  was revealed by the Holy Spirit to them.    After all the Bible was written by the authority of God and could be understood by all for that very reason.    Yet this unanimity among Christians just does not exist. When I quote from the Bible I need much further guidance.    The Books of the New Testament were written or inspired at the very beginning of the Church, when the apostles and their contemporaries were first teaching the Gospel of Christ.   In the Upper Room they had prayed for guidance  and discussed what Jesus had meant about 'eating his flesh and drinking his blood", "whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven  whose sins you shall retain they are r

In the Gospel of John we find the following passage "Jesus said to them again "Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me so I send you"   And when he had said the he breathed on them and said to them  "Receive the Holy Spirit.   If you forgive the sins on any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any they are retained"   John 20:21 Was Jesus just going over the top here.   "OK", the apostles should reply. "if you want me to forgive someone I will forgive, if you want me not to forgive someone I will not forgive.  But we know all this, except you told us always to forgive, so we are rather confused"   Now anyone reading this passage should be equally confused.  So what are we to make of it.   'And when he had said this He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit".   What a strange thing to do.   Well perhaps it was just his way or maybe I could be excused for daring to say that this was some

Recently I was asked to pray for a group before the Blessed Sacrament.   At first I thought of all the useful things I would be doing in the group, and was tempted to say No.   However the temptation did not last long.    If I really believed that the Blessed Sacrament was the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, where else should I be.  To argue would be to say that other things are more important than Jesus.  For me that was impossible.   So in humility I accepted. There are many courses and programmes in the Church which do a great deal of talking about Jesus.   This of course is as it should be.   But how do you transfer the knowledge in your mind into your heart, for the heart is the seat of our love.   Many struggle all their lives, and yet we have in the Catholic Church Jesus present to us in a very special way.   The old catechism asked the question "Where is Jesus Christ?".    OK, we have talked about Him, read about Him, but where is He?.    The answer is

I am aged 81 and have been around then for some time.  I remember in Glasgow one summer in the 1940's there was a very warm summer and the tar on the pavements started to melt.   But it ended and next summer was a rainy one.  So because there is warm weather which is supposed to prove Climate Change I am not easily persuaded.    I remember a TV production about 6 maths ago where a ship was moored off one of the South Pacific low lying islands waiting it to be submerged by the sea as the Poles melted.   He had been there for 12 years.   This aroused my curiosity for I remembered that about 3 years ago the Antarctic Ice had expanded to level never recorded.  It was picked up when the Ice began to recede however to its former place and we were told the ice was melting at an alarming rate.   Everyone was of course telling me I was wrong, even the Pope.   So I always conceded that I could be and perhaps they just got one or two things wrong.   But I was talking about Climate Change

I take no pride in posting this.   I do so as a warning that the media will soon be attacking the Church again and more viciously than ever.   I am thankful however that the Bishops of England and Wales, however much I disagreed with them in many things, did not allow the Church to be corrupted like this

Whereas the betrayal of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was achieved by openly attacking the reverence towards him  by means of liturgical changes, while protesting these actions had authority the betrayal of the place of Mary was quite straight forward - devotion  to her were simply dismissed.     When the fathers of Vatican II gathers they were unprepared at the beginning for the attacks on devotion to Mary which the dissenters had prepared well in advance.   A schema on Mary was dismissed as something that would put the 'ecumenical movement' back ten years.   This came from the German bishops and if indeed the ecumenical movement was to be brought back ten  years  this could only mean the Our Lady had already been dismissed during that time by the German bishops.   So what need for an ecumenical council.    The bishops did fight back and eventually in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church they inserted that Devotion to Mary should continue.   Very few people read this docum

It is not enough to know that Jesus loves me.   If I am made for his love then surely I must feel his love.   "Come to me all you who labour and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest"   Beautiful words but Jesus I am striving to know you and understand you.  I am trying to do what the saints did and live as the saints did, but somehow I fail and achieve nothing.   I read the Bible, I say my prayers,  I give to the poor but I do not feel loved.   Where can I find your love sweet Jesus? The above was once my prayer and then one day I found and felt Jesus loving me.    I had been a great defender of the Real Presence, I had shouted loudly at the betrayal of the Body of Christ, yes I was intellectually strong.   When I received the Body of Christ I had so many things to say to him, so many words I had stored in my heart.  Then one day I asked myself  "Is He listening?"   Then it struck me.  I had been talking to Him all my life but Holy Communion was the one tim

The one thing that makes human beings different from the Animal World is that every human being has a need to be loved and feel loved.   God made us this way.  And when human beings feel unloved and unwanted they become up unstable and find substitutes in sex, drugs, self harming, and even suicide.   They begin to hate a world which apparently hates them. It was to help us understand this that God made us male and female.    It was for this love in one another lives that marriage was instituted, in which a child would not just grow up feeling loved but experiencing the love between the father and the mother which teaches them what family love is about.   The caldron are safe, secure, and happy. I was listening to a 'modern' psychologist on television.   The subject was two people who met ad married after knowing each other for just one week.   We could al disagree with this but the point she was making was that ti was too soon because they had to go through a 'lust peri

A recent survey of United States Catholics found that 7 out of 10 of them did not believe in the Real Presence. I do not know what the figures are for the UK but I am sure there would be only a marginal difference.    Yet I am not surprised.   There was a vicious attack in America and the UK on the Real Presence by many bishops and priests after Vatican II, when Modernists had taken over many departments in the Vatican and were issuing instructions, not written of course they were far too clever for that, about what Vatican II had taught and certain changes the Council had brought about.   The attacks surrounded the love and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the first thing to go were the altar rails.   This was to stop people kneeling in adoration and receiving on the tongue.   As I say you will find nothing written about any of this for it was not discussed at the Council and indeed it was not even discussed with the laity - it was just done - in the name of Vatican II of co

Thre have been many years of struggle in the Church as she tried to conform the world to the teachings of Christ, for only in a world which conforms to the teachings of Christ can the Kingdom we ask for in the Our Father come to be.    In the early years the Church was very successful in its message, yes it taught love, but that love was based on following His way, and his way started with the love of a man and a woman, the begetting of children into that loving relationship, and the children growing secure and safe, knowing love, and how to give love.   Jesus was opposed to anything that broke down this basic family unit and his condemnation of divorce and adultery were part of His Way, the way forward for mankind.    Two parents bonded to their children and allowing the children to experience their love and learn to love one another was the very foundation of His Way.    So summing up Divorce is something that should be alien to Christians.   As the Church has always taught when marc