The old and the new.

Fr Stephen Langridge and myself were in the city of York the other day; as you can see from the photo the river Ouse was in full flood through the city after heavy rains in the Yorkshire Dales. We went to visit the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in the famous Shambles Street. She is York's, and perhaps the country's, greatest witness to grace. She witnessed to the culture of Life with her life, being "pressed to death" near where this flood photo was taken.

St Margaret Clitherow's shrine is a sign of the great value of visible expressions of the New Culture. However...
...mostly we see how Christianity is in retreat, abandoning our towns and cities to the flood (St Augustine called it a tidal wave) of paganism. The old culture (of death) is very evident in York today. We saw this Headline from the local newspaper advertised in a newsagents near the top of the Shambles, and thought of the city's Viking past catching up with it again. The city of York is very blessed to have St Margaret Clitherow's shrine at its heart, but let us remember the call made to us all in Denver in 1993 by John Paul II:

"Do not be afraid to go out onto the streets and into public places as the first apostles did to preach Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel."