Saturday 18 February 2012

An extremely enjoyable and successful second meeting of the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma...

For good food, good company and good liturgy,
Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen is the place to be!
Taken during lunch at today's Guild of Bl Titus event 
The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma for Catholic bloggers and those who use the new social media gathered at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, today for its second official meeting. All those who came along to this event were warmly welcomed by the parish and its parish priest, the well-known and acclaimed blogger, Fr Tim Finigan (The Hermeneutic of Continuity).

The day began with Holy Mass celebrated in the Lady Chapel, followed by Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on the high altar. This period of worship was followed by a talk by one of the Guild members.

Unfortunately, our guest speaker, Fr Sam Medley SOLT (Medley Minute), was not able to be with us, so the Catholic journalist and writer, Mary O'Regan (The Path Less Taken), graciously volunteered to address the Guild in his place. Fr Sam had planned to speak on the theme of blogging as a way of enhancing ecclesial communion, but Mary developed this idea in her own way, concentrating on the relationship that exists between print journalism and the new media. Being both a blogger and a journalist, Mary O'Regan was aptly qualified to speak on this interesting subject. Her informative and entertaining talk left her listeners with much food for thought!

Lunch was a time for catching up, laughing, sharing stories and discussing various aspects of Church life and the Catholic blogging community. The food was superb - really wonderful, as always! In fact, if parishes were ever to receive awards for culinary excellence, Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, would probably be given a Michelin star!

After lunch, about 15 Catholic bloggers - plus some others who use the new media (Facebook, YouTube, etc) or who comment on blogs - met for the second meeting of the Guild since it was formed last year. Amongst some of the issues raised at the meeting were: the contribution made by Catholic bloggers to the New Evangelisation, how members could make better use of the Guild blog, and the best way for Catholics to respond to cyber bullying. It was also decided that the Guild should next meet in another part of the country, so as to make sure that members from outside London and the South-East are able to attend future events.

Mary O'Regan addresses the Guild of Bl Titus Brandsma
(Photo: (c) Mac McLernon at Mulier Fortis)
 
It was also noted during the meeting that several apologies had been sent, and that many internationally well-known bloggers, such as Tito Edwards (Editor of The Pulp.it) as well as the blogging members of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, had expressed a desire to come to the next Guild event. During our prayers before and after the meeting, members of the Guild remembered those who could not be with us due to ill health - especially Fr Sam Medley and Stuart James (eChurch).

Here is a list of those Catholic bloggers who were present at the Guild of Bl Titus Brandsma's meeting today - it does not include participants who do not have their own blog, or those who use Twitter or Facebook only: -

Me (A Reluctant Sinner), Richard Collins (Linen on the Hedgerow), Hilaire Belloc, Laurence England (That The Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill), Paul Priest (On The Side Of The Angels), Karen Horn (Gem of the Ocean), Plain Talking, Mac McLernon (Mulier Fortis), Anthony Radice (A Tiny Son of Mary), Fr Tim Finigan (The Hermeneutic of Continuity) and Mary O'Regan (The Path Less Taken). Annie Elizabeth (Defende nos in proelio) was present in the morning, but had to leave before lunch. Two future bloggers called Therese and Jimin were also present, as was a reader on Catholic Answers, called Sonia. One or two blog followers, such as Roy Hobson, also made it to the Guild meeting.

The day ended with the public recitation of the Rosary - which was more than a fitting way of bringing the Guild meeting to a close, especially seeing that we had gathered at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary!

I would like to express my gratitude to all who supported this event, to those who travelled far and wide to be at it, and, of course, to Fr Tim Finigan and his parishioners, especially those who helped with the liturgies and cooked and served the excellent lunch!

Dylan Parry (A Reluctant Sinner)

6 comments:

  1. The thing we talked about has been set up, and a batch of invites has gone out about 2 hours ago.

    Don't panic if you have not got one yet.

    Reluctant Sinner - please sign up tonight or tomorrow, then you can invite anyone who I could not track down, or have wrongly transcribed - or email back to me and I will invite

    ReplyDelete
  2. Got cut off in middle of last email - so will repeat that group now up. Please will you respond to invitation and then I will set those who wish to be owners/managers to have invitation rights, then I will take a back seat...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you.

      I will try to check my emails tomorrow, although I like to keep Sundays "quiet" now that we're in Septuagesima and heading into Lent.

      Please don't worry if I seem slow to get going. I am more of a tortoise than a hare, but I get there in the end! lol.

      Delete
  3. @A Reluctant Sinner

    Please could you & Dilly include me in any messages relating to the Guild, I gave Dilly my email yesterday, and these 'State of the Art' interactions should be shared around when we are receiving malevolent communications from the Devil himself (i,e me on Red Maria's blog)

    Thank you for giving me a rosary that has been blessed by Pope Benedict XVI himself, the song I sang you in response came straight from the heart.

    Four years ago when I took Holy Communion with my son Michael on St Patrick's Day, during my first visit to St Mary's University College, Twickenham, Father Gerry Devlin's sermon taught me something that I didn't know, St Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland & NIGERIA too.

    In the mid 1980's when Nelson Mandela was still residing in the segregation unit of a South African prison, I was appointed as the site surveyor for the Unity Project in the London Borough of Southwark. Pelican House was the site office for this Housing Works, Direct Labour Contract. I immediately added the Nigerian born UB 40 film producer Faith Isiakpere (later Channel 4 & BBC Black Britain too) to the team, and after completion of the building work I introduced Ezra Attia's interior designer Elaine Tomlinson to the project. Both of these black professionals were Addey & Stanhope Old Scholars like me and Adam Afriye the Windsor MP. The last I heard after Faith Isiakpere had completed The Children of Africa film with Mr Mandela, Stevie Wonder and Isaac Hayes etc was that he was working with UNICEF in South Africa.

    As an idealistic newly qualified RICS surveyor just returning from a period of retreat at Mount Meleray in Ireland, the dream that I had the night before I started the UNITY project could only be interpreted and described as a BIG DREAM.

    A SINNER'S DREAM OF MARY

    When I was out a wandering upon the hills so green.
    I spied myself a vision of a bright celestial Queen.

    (Refrain)
    A rosary,a rosary with rainbows all around.
    A blood red cross she gave to me upon that hallowed ground.

    She wore a crown of silver and in her arms she bore.
    A child who was the future of mans peace and not of war.

    (Refrain)
    A rosary,a rosary with rainbows all around.
    A blood red cross she gave to me upon that hallowed ground.

    Corpus Christi woman was the lady that I saw.
    Build inside she said to me mans inner self once more.

    (Refrain)
    A rosary,a rosary with rainbows all around.
    A blood red cross she gave to me upon that hallowed ground.

    ONE RACE THE HUMAN RACE SHOULD REMEMBER THAT THE DEFENDERS OF IRELAND'S TRUE FAITH HAVE INSPIRED THE WORLD INSIDE 'n' OUT.

    Our Lady of the Rosary ( http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2011/05/visit-to-tomb-of-blessed-john-paul-ii.html ) pray for us!

    PAPA VERO ORA PRO NOBIS!

    Kind regards

    Roy Hobson aka Our Lady's "Vesper" ON-LINE +


    ROY HOBSON CInstCES1990, Grad Dipl QS 1981

    ReplyDelete
  4. What sort of things can I post in this blog?

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...