Leatherwood Honey

This is my favourite honey - Leatherwood. I've never been a fan of honey, but this honey, which I discovered while I was on mission in Sydney, is exceptional.

A new Home Schooling initiative

An exciting new schooling venture is announced. Regina Caeli is an independent and authentically Catholic tutoring centre providing two full days of taught lessons in school and lesson plans for three days of lessons taught at home, for boys and girls aged 4-18.

Regina Caeli is a response to the need for affordable, authentic, classical education - to help our children grow in love for God while providing them with a “classical style” of education so they learn how to think critically and become life-long learners. It is also a response to the need for Catholic families to come together and build community.

Local Catholic families are exploring opening a Regina Caeli Academy in the North of England and an information afternoon is taking place near Thirsk on Saturday 29th February 2020. Kari Beckman, American founder of Regina Caeli, is our Keynote speaker. Tickets £15 per family. For more details and booking, visit www.rcahybrid.org.uk  

Trump Speaks At March For Life Rally | NBC News (Live Stream)

I cried when I watched this. This address is something I wasn't expecting ... I hope that the tide in turning.
Thank you President Trump.

Catholic History Walks

Now that I am more or less mobile again after my accident last year, and having had this desire in me for some time, I am launching out anew on the trail - Catholic History Walks.These will be informal pilgrimages, of cultural interest and with some prayer on behalf of our country and the Church's mission here.
I have explored and delved so much over the years and have acquired a quite a large repository and appreciation of many, many places that hold memories and meaning of our Catholic past. The sites that I am proposing to revisit, and to offer you the opportunity of of taking part, will invariably be in the north of England.
I am currently on mission in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and it is therefore opportune to select places that are in striking distance.
Now that we have entered into the new year and can see the evenings lengthening again, I propose Saturdays as the obvious days for these walks to take place.
Outdoor shoes will be necessary as we will inevitably use some country or rough paths. Lunch can be either packed or a pub lunch - although it will be better for us to decide beforehand which we would prefer, given the location.
The only costs involved will be the entry price if we enter managed locations, and of course, your own travel costs to and from the chosen location.
The Walks will be advertised and described here on this blog.
The first walk will be on Saturday 25th January 2020 to:
Osmotherly, the Lady Chapel and Mount Grace Priory. Meet outside the village pub, "The Queen Catherine", DL6 3AG, in Osmotherly at 10.15am. We will walk out of the village, up onto the escarpment and along, then come down towards the village and turn off to the track which leads to the Lady Chapel. We can spend some time there and pray the prayers of "The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom", before returning to the centre of the village and our cars. The length of the walk is around 6 to 7 miles in all, and will take in metalled roads and rough tracks. We will then drive round to visit the ruins of the Carthusian Priory nearby. The entrance fee is £9 per adult. Following that visit we will head home.
We could expect to leave the Priory ruins 2.30pm/3pm in order to return home.
Obviously you can use the comment feature on this blog to communicate your interest and ask me for further details.

A whole new horizon.

Last week I went to see the much acclaimed musical "A Girl from the North Country". It was superb!
What I experienced was a completely new appreciation of Bob Dylan's songs. The creators of this musical have delved into the 1930s and 1940s of America's mid-west and unearthed the deeper pathos of those years, which formed Dylan's own vision of life, and which we experience in the span of his songwriting.
Dylan had this pathos 'built into him', and it has flowed out of him in word and music. It is particularly the hardness of life, its struggles amidst hopes and glimpses of light and goodness, which this musical and Dylan's songs have brought to life. No wonder there is great depth in his songs!
This musical brought a completely new horizon into vision, one which has escaped me until now. The commentators of Dylan's music that I have encountered have largely come from the 'drugs, sex and rock and roll' culture, and I don't think that they have been able to get beneath Dylan's 'wordsmith' language and the very sound in which he expresses it. I wonder if Bob Dylan himself is aware of the depth of historical pathos which his songs contain. Sometimes it needs someone else to express for us the depth of what we want to say.
All I can say is: if you are able, go and see this musical before the season ends.
The 1930s and 40s stand in contrast to our our era; I wonder what pathos will come from the beginning of the new millennium, and who will express it (better than B16.)
The implicit pathos of many of Dylan's songs is perhaps what attracts so many to them. In an era of superficial happiness there is something much deeper which holds us. In that place God is freer to act.