From Conservatism to Catholicism

When you are fitting a lot in, especially going away at the weekends, you don’t need to miss Mass. After all, it is only an hour. Let’s face it, the service is the same wherever you go. So the difference is purely circumstantial, and architectural.  Two huge differences adnuttedly, which change the entire feel of it. And yet, cement the important parts. I think spreading geographically and gaining experience at other churches deepens the faith rather than broadens it. Which is surely the aim, We need always to go deeper before we can go further.  The difference between the Church of England and Catholicism is profound. One simply can’t imagine going  This week its the first week of Advent. I’ve always detested Christmas but this year is going to be so different. Perhaps it’s a deep rooted jealousy of families all getting together - I don’t really think it’s that. More likely, I just got sick of people complaining about their families when I would have loved a brother or s...

 The RCIA  So I've started and will let you know how it finishes... 

 Thankfully I still have my online prayer retreat with St Beunos. Veronica has been wonderful and really helped me to focus on what matters.  This Jesuit way of going on is really very good you know. If only for the fact it is a real break. You have to believe, of course you do. But that's all.  I'm pleased that I have this Jesuit business on top, or rather, underneath Catholicism. I'm trying to explain it and struggling. I suppose its like being a mechanic and focusing on magnetos. Even better, more like being an artist but wedded to pastels. That's a better illustration if you'll pardon the expression. Perhaps its that Denis McBride book but there is a lot of art in the Catholic Church from what I can see and I like it. Never very artistic at school and always sceptical of 'artists' or the media type who I always felt should go out and get a proper job.  Compared the Jehovah's Witnesses, this is a very different way of looking at the Bible, they tend t...

  Good morning, I have just been to Buckingham Palace and accepted His Majesty The King’s invitation to form a government in his name. It is only right to explain why I am standing here as your new Prime Minister. Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis.  The aftermath of Covid still lingers.  Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over. I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Liz Truss, she was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country, it is a noble aim.  And I admired her restlessness to create change. But some mistakes were made.  Not borne of ill will or bad intentions. Quite the opposite, in fact. But mistakes nonetheless.  And I have been elected as leader of my party, and your Prime Minister, in part, to fix them. And that work begins immediately. I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda.  This will mean difficult decisions to...

 Talks with Boris and Rishi have come to nothing apparently. I think as a party we should be hanging our heads in shame and its nice to see we are. Members are now allowed to vote online due to the timeframe. Which isn't overly fair on elderly voters in my opinion.  But when did the party last care about us or indeed the country? What annoys me is that none of the old boys came forward, no one stepped up. They are just standing by watching this happen. In a way, the selection process maybe to blame due to the lack of loyalty for they choose candidates with no experience in associations and lets face it, parliament is a scaled up parish council.  I think we can all see which way this is going...

 Sir Graham Brady has said this is all going to be sorted within a week, hopefuls need to get a hundred votes and then it will go the members.  The media is crying out for Boris who is coming back early from his holidays with his new girlfriend  wife and mother of his two youngest children.  I keep breaking down in tears, thinking of him and that love story and those blonde haired children and that scruffy rescue dog from the Christmas card he sent me. To see that family back in Downing Street would be like a Disney film. Justice would be served. Stability restored. Lessons learnt.  I wonder if he will. Frankly, why should he? After the way he was treated? If it can turn me off the party I've loved for so long, surely it would do the same to him. Now we've interrupted his holiday.  The media are really pushing for Boris, the same ones that pushed him over the edge. Bless him. We will just have to see what happens. This has certainly got my interest in the p...

 Honestly, she's tiny. Today she has gone.  I did feel sorry for her. She was the anti Rishi vote really because nobody wanted to reward the backstabber.  Watching her resignation speech I could see she was glad to get be getting out of there, the poor woman has probably not slept a wink and will be relieved to have the pressure off.  In all fairness, she did what she said she would do. Cut taxes. Now, I remember her and her chancellor - Kwasi Kwarteng from a book they were involved with together called Britannia Unchanged.  I remember saying to someone that I suspected the appointment of Kwasi was would you believe a political one. Let's go back to Rishi who replaced Sajid. Sajid father was a bus driver - something he liked to keep quiet - joke. He was always on about it. Coming from the May days and thinking he was good in local government (I've heard both sides) he was gone at the beginning of the pandemic.  The appointment of the entirely unheard of Ris...