Christmas Dinner - more photos

Lucy Forster and Louise Martin

Gurudev and Pavitra Lazarus

Laurie Harding

Andrew and Stella Laird

Sajith and Maryen Peiris

Laurie Harding and Peter Mullarky

Peter Newell

Christmas Dinner

Celebrating Christmas the traditional way

Crawley Catenians celebrated their annual Christmas Dinner on Thursday 15th at a new venue, Ghyll Manor in Rusper. We celebrated it in the traditional manner with lots of eating, drinking and singing.

Bro. President wearing the formal Presidential Hat

Here is a fine rendition of the penultimate verse of the Twelve Days of Christmas (keyboard accompaniment by Bro. Bernard Smith):



With many thanks to our Vice President, Bro. Edek Figura for organising the dinner so well.

Crawley Parish 150 Years

Crawley in the 19th Century

As part of the ongoing celebrations of the 150th anniversary of The Catholic Parish of Crawley,1861-2011, The Sisters of Notre Dame joined in a service of the Evening Prayer of the Church and blessing of the graves in the Friary Cemetery on Sunday 20th November 2011 at 3.00 pm.

The congregation were invited to bring along flowers in remembrance of their deceased loved ones,which were brought forward to the altar at the beginning of the service. During the service cards with the names of the deceased were placed on the altar. This was followed by a candlelit procession to the cemetery where the graves were blessed. These included the graves of deceased Catenian brothers and wives, Bill & Dot Gabriel, Michael & Meg Lydon, Dick & Mary Doherty, Jim Naylor, and Shirley Jennings, not forgetting John Blake former headmaster of St Wilfrids School, a very close friend of the Association.

Thereafter everyone was invited to the Friary Hall for refreshments, and Sister Joan Brown of the Sisters of Notre Dame presented the story of the nuns and their significant contribution to Catholic education in Crawley.

Towards Advent Festival - 19 November

This Saturday (19th November) sees the annual Towards Advent Festival in Westminster Cathedral hall. This is a gathering together of a wide range of Catholic groups and organisations to celebrate the Catholic Faith.

Door open at 10.00 and the festival will be opened at 10.30 by Archbishop Vincent Nichols. At 1.30 Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, will deliver a talk on 'Joy and Hope in the Church'. At 3.00 there is to be a celebration of Blessed John Paul II in film, drama and music. This includes the documentary film "John Paul the Great" and contributions from the Oxford-based youth drama team who presented the play "The Quality of Mercy". Entrance to these two events will cost £2, but entrance to the festival itself is free.

Towards Advent is sponsored by The Catenian Association, The Knights of St Columba, and The Association of Catholic Women.

Further details see http://towardsadvent.blogspot.com/

Holy Souls

 (This is a bit late for the season, but still well worth reading since we pray for our departed brothers and widows at every meeting - Ed.)

This country is seeped and marinated in the Catholic faith; you do not have to scratch the surface too hard to find those roots and the English devotion to Holy Souls.

The Chantrey Chapels, some still here, or roads and places which still bear the name, the pilgrimages to holy shrines, and the way-side shrines.

And later, thanks to  the effects of the first world war and every conflict since, the reaction of people when Princess Diana died - the flowers & the candles, the need to pray and remember the dead is still very much a part of our culture today.

They all find their meaning in the Catholic faith, they are the symbols that point us to God - but without the church as a leaven they go awry and what we get is Elton John singing Candle in the wind.    

Our duty is also to pray for the souls in purgatory. Purgatory is much misunderstood, but God in all his goodness wants us to be whole and holy, proved by and worthy of the promises of Christ. Yes, we sin; yes, we let our selves and our loved ones down; purgatory helps us to be ready: to be in that union with God. to behold the fullness of his grace and worship him in a new way.

November is a time of life and time of the Resurrection. The colour black is not morbid but the mixing of the colours of the liturgical cycle of colours and they are mixed because our prayer, our work, our preparation in liturgy not only help us to see our goal, but they help those souls to be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

So our prayer this month for the Holy Souls will move mountains and bring people into the banquet of the lamb in heaven. This is our mission if we chose to accept it.

From Crawley Parish Newsletter

Tri-Circle Pig-Racing - 4th November

A pig race in progress

"What do you mean No. 5 won?"

"Tri-Circle what?" you may well ask. But yes, we do mean pig-racing. Furry little battery-operated pigs. The three circles involved were Crawley, Haywards Heath and East Grinstead. Crawley as the holder of both the trophies involved hosted the evening at St Joseph's Church Hall, Pound Hill.

Helen Pettingel (nee Jordan) and Iris Jordan present the Barry Jordan Trophy to Barry Prior of Haywards Heath Circle

Unfortunately Crawley may have been the holder of the trophies at the beginning of the evening, but by the end both trophies had departed. The Barry Jordan Trophy went to Haywards Heath and the Michael Lydon Trophy to East Grinstead. Threats were also heard that Crawley might not be holding the Visitors Cup for much longer either.

Helen presents the Michael Lydon trophy to Jim Fitzpatrick of East Grinstead Circle

After a very enjoyable evening, a total of £500.85 had been raised which will be split between the Presidents' Charities of the three circles.

Enrolment of a New Member

Peter Mullarky, Jim Fitzpatrick, Mike Newman, Damon Holliday

At the circle meeting on 27th October we welcomed a new member, Br. Damon Holliday who is seen in the picture talking with the Membership Officer, Br. Peter Mullarky, while our Br. President (in the yellow tie) looks on.

The fourth person in the photo is Br. Jim Fitzpatrick, who was leading a party of four visitors from East Grinstead Circle. It was very good to see them, and we intend to return the visit next month.

150 Years of The Friary, Crawley

In the beginning...

Mary Scawen Blount was a friend of the Roman Catholic convert Cardinal John Henry Newman, and converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism herself. Her sons, Francis and Wilfrid, also converted in 1852.

Memorial to Francis Scawen Blunt

In 1859, at the invitation of a Mrs Montgomery (a relative of Mary Scawen Blount), Italian Capuchin friars arrived in Crawley. They stayed at her house on the Horsham Road (next to what is now the St.Wilfrid`s School site) and celebrated Mass in its coach-house, which was reordered to make a chapel and dedicated to St Philip.

Soon afterwards, Mary Scawen Blunt died; she asked her sons to found a permanent Roman Catholic church to serve Crawley and the surrounding area and a friary for the Capuchins. In 1860, Francis bought 3 acres of land near Crawley railway station and the town centre and arranged the design and construction of a friary and adjoining church; the builder was recorded as a Mr Ockendon.

The friary formed three sides of a square around a courtyard; the north side was formed by the church, which was dedicated to St Francis. All buildings were in Early English Gothic style and were built of stone and brick, and the church itself had a bellcote on the roof.

The church and friary were dedicated and opened on 12 October 1861.

(From Crawley Parish Newsletter)

Video Interview with Fr Richard

The Real Hallowe'en

It’s that time of year again... no, not Christmas (not quite – give the shops another week to go big on that one) but Hallowe’en!

A few years ago Hallowe’en wasn’t any big deal and apart from the party shops and newsagents, it didn’t make that huge a retail impact. Now plastic pumpkins, zombie costumes and ghoulish recipes abound in every store from M&S to the supermarkets. And probably the pet shops too – I haven’t been in one recently but I daresay I could find my cocker spaniel a trick ‘n’ treat pack and a fetching devil horn headband with matching tail piece.

“So what?” might be your reaction. “It’s a bit of fun for the children and a chance to dress up and have a party. No-one takes the devilish side of it seriously.” Somehow I suspect that therein lies the danger. The things we don’t take seriously might be exactly those that give the Evil One a foot in the door.

In any case, it seems to me that at this time of year we Catholics can often miss the opportunity to have a positive celebration, rather than a not-taking-it-seriously one. “Hallowe’en”, of course, means “All Hallows' Eve” (i.e. the eve of All Saints' Day) and originates from the Church’s taking over a pagan festival and reinterpreting it in the light of its own liturgical calendar. We celebrate the Christian way of relating to the dead, so that rather than lighting fires and wearing scary masks to scare off earthbound spirits, we venerate our brothers and sisters who provided us with examples of Christian living when on earth and who are now with God in Heaven and ready to assist us with their prayers. The forces of evil are hardly anything to celebrate, but the assistance and example of the Saints definitely are. So why celebrate the former when we can celebrate the latter? If we think the ghouls and ghosties are more fun, maybe that indicates that some soul-searching and meditative prayer is in order...?!

The great advantage of partying in honour of All Hallows' Eve rather than Hallowe’en is that it gives us the opportunity to provide our children, or grandchildren, with some painless and enjoyable catechesis. As the performers of medieval mystery plays and designers of magnificent stained glass windows knew, the visual and dramatic are excellent learning tools, particularly for the illiterate (in those days) or the young. What better way of getting children to learn about this great feast of the Church, find out about a variety of Saints and perhaps begin to think about why it’s good to dress up as holy people rather than vampires as some of their friends might be doing...?

For young and old alike, this is a fun way of witnessing to the world about our faith. I would like to commend the “All Hallows in Horsham” party being held at St John’s Catholic Church in Horsham on Sunday 30 October, thanks to an intrepid lady named Celia and her band of helpers. There will be pumpkins, treats, lots of the traditional games and a costume parade, but the dressing-up will be strictly on the theme of saints not spooks. Some fab outfits were worn to last year’s party: much more impressive than your average dripping-with-blood-and-gore get-up! (The photo shows St Lucy, aka your Vice-President's wife, with party organiser St Therese of Lisieux - the aforementioned Celia. The children all looked much more impressive than we did though!) Parishioners can find details in the church newsletter.

Go over to "Five Feet Above Sea Level" to read an excellent posting by Katherine, one of Celia’s team, on the subject of Hallowe’en. And have a very happy All Hallows!

The Marvels of the Rosary

A corner of the office

Our year seems to be speeding away, as we change season, we can't help but think of the past memories of the summer, of time spent with loved ones and friends in the heat of the sun. Now with autumn we find ourselves planning ahead, making provision for the cold, for nights in and for sunny but cold afternoon walks with the crunch of leaves underfoot, picking onions and searching in drawers for jumpers and hats.

Our life of Faith also has times of change and preparation, our prayers develop and grow like the season of our Year, also what is going on in our lives has an effect in and to our prayer. As you know October is the Month set aside in honour of Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Rosary can help us focus in the busy day to day of life with Our Lady's help to see Christ in our lives, in the change and decay of life, in the growth and new beginnings of life and in the waiting and dormant parts of life. The Rosary with Mary’s help, love and aid can help us connect our lives and join them to her Son, who wants us to give him everything.

The Rosary is made up of two things: mental prayer and vocal prayer. In the Rosary, mental prayer is none other than meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Vocal prayer consists in saying twenty decades of the Hail Mary, each decade headed by an Our Father, while at the same time meditating on and contemplating the twenty principal virtues which Jesus and Mary practised in the twenty mysteries of the Holy Rosary. So why not spend some time with Jesus in school of Mary.

 (From Crawley Parish Newsletter)

New Blog for St John's

St John's Horsham has a new blog. You can find it at http://stjohnshorshamrc.blogspot.com/

Here is one of the latest entries:

Crawley Circle Catenians

Many thanks to the catenians of the Crawley Circle for their hospitality at Ghyll Manor, Rusper this evening. We dined on excellent soup and sea bass. Mike Newman, the circle president and a Horsham parishioner welcomed the clergy and sisters. I was privileged to reply on behalf of the guests. We spent some time thinking about vocations. Happy priests inspire vocations to the priesthood and the happiness of priests is in no small part due to the care and concern and love of our parishioners. I think we were all inspired to pray hard for vocations. Mike gave Fr Terry Martin, vocations director for our diocese, a cheque to help towards his work. We were told that the dinner was a thank you to the clergy and sisters for their work. Since Fr Aaron and I have only just arrived we felt rather spoilt so early in our tenure.

From Fr. Terry's blog

Crawley Catenian

Over at Crawley Catenian you will find an informative blog telling us all about the life and mission of the local circle of the Catenian Association.  They're an impressive, generous and likeable bunch.

Once a year, so Catholic are their ways, they invite all the local clergy for supper in a nearby hotel/restaurant to say thank you for their ministry.  Priests, deacons and sisters gathered, together with brothers and their wives, for a lovely dinner and a congenial evening.

Very generously - and it came as a wonderful surprise - the circle presented the Vocations Director with a cheque to support the work throughout the diocese in promoting vocations to the priesthood.  This was a generous and gracious thing to do and every penny will be carefully spent.

God bless you all - and THANK YOU!

News from the USA

Our Immediate Past President, Bro. Dominic Moorhouse, and his wife Emily are travelling around the world. You can follow their adventures on Dom's Blog at http://dommoor.blogspot.com/.

An extract:

Thankfully both we and our Nissan Altima Coupe survived the week intact. It took a while to get used to the initially confusing road sign and numbering system, the ability to turn right on a red light and the habitual lethargic pace of traffic on most of the roads.

Only once during the week did I regret not ticking the GPS rental option - when we looked for and unfortunately, and inexplicably, couldn’t find Harpers Ferry, despite repeated frustrating attempts. Fuel in the USA is an amazing 50p per litre but our 2.5litre V6 automatic made every attempt to guzzle as much fuel as it could even at the slow moving pace, often due to the air conditioning necessitated by the 80 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. Washington was a nightmare of one way streets and poor directions.  We never did find the well sign posted visitors information centre having circumnavigated its supposed location repeatedly from all possible directions, but only once got caught in the apparently infamous commuter traffic that explodes out of the city every evening at a snails pace.

Death By Fatal Murder

Over thirty Brothers and wives gathered at The Capitol theatre in Horsham on Thursday night to enjoy this rib-tickling “Inspector Pratt” murder mystery set in an English country house during the Second World War. Bro Philip Hayden astutely observed that it seemed to be very much in the style of erstwhile TV comedy series ‘Allo ‘Allo and later research has proved that it does indeed come from the same stable! (Well done Bro Hayden, a great future as a theatre critic evidently awaits you.) In fact it even featured an ‘Allo ‘Allo star – Richard Gibson, aka Herr Flick, here again cast as a military man but this time a very charming English Squadron Leader. Also immediately recognisable in a distinguished cast was good old Dirty Den from Eastenders - sorry, I mean actor Leslie Grantham – playing an archetypal amorous Italian by name of Garibaldi.

The star of the stage, however, had to be Christopher Elderwood who gave an hysterically funny performance as the bungling Inspector Pratt and completely failed to solve the mystery of a murdered police constable or to figure out anyone’s real identity (hardly anyone proved to be quite who or what they said they were). Luckily more astute minds were on hand to piece together what really happened and all was finally revealed.

This was comedy at its best and there was scarcely a moment to catch breath between the laughs. An excellent evening, preceded for some of the party by a delicious meal at the China Brasserie across the road. Our thanks to Bro President and Bro Vice-President for organising the outing, and to Bro Gerry Lydon for coordinating the meal arrangements on the night. And of course to Ian Dickinson Productions Limited for an evening of good clean(ish) fun!

Tie Spotting

At this month's Circle meeting we were pleased to see our Bro. President's ties have returned to form.

A detail of the above

His example seems to have effected some other circle members.

Bros. Mike Georgeson and Jim Brophy

The Marne 2014

Mark Forster writes:

I mentioned at last night's Circle Meeting that I had had an idea for raising funds for charities, to include Catenian charities. I have recently returned from the Commemoration of the 97th Anniversary of the First Battle of the Marne in France, and it has struck me that in three years time it will be the 100th Anniversary. I am sure the French authorities, who keep this commemoration going faithfully year by year, will make a really big thing of the 100 year mark.

My idea is to do a sponsored walk over the entire route which my former unit, the 1st Battalion The Northumberland Fusiliers took during the Retreat from Mons, followed by the Advance to the Aisne. My idea is only in the very first stages of development at present, but I am hoping I can get the support of the military and civil authorities in France as well as my own former regiment. I have already got one new recruit, Bro. Mike Newman, who has enlisted as my batman for the duration!

Here is the map of the route taken from the regimental history. I have marked the retreat phase in red and the advance phase in green. Click on the image to see more detail.

Below is a photograph of the British Army monument at La Ferté sous Jouarre, showing the Mayor and other local dignitaries with our party and French standard bearers. The British War Memorial bears the names of over 3,000 members of the BEF who fell at Mons, the Retreat from Mons, Le Cateau, Marne and Aisne who have no known grave.  

Finally here is a link to a French video of the main commemoration at Mondement, where the main memorial to the battle of the Marne is situated.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkxlbo_commemoration-de-la-premiere-bataille-de-la-marne_news

If you want to skip the speeches in French, an extract from the leader of the British contingent's address is at 05.54

The Foley Niblick

Peter Frisby writes:

The players assembling for Niblick 2011

I am very pleased to confirm that we raised £350 last Tuesday during the 30th Playing of The Foley Niblick and I would like to thank those who took part in this most enjoyable day. Your presence and generosity ensured that a great time was had by all and that we raised a significant amount of money to help Fr Chris McGuinness in his ministry. A cheque has been sent to St Patrick's Missionary Society for the above amount to be forwarded to Fr Chris.

Our winner on the day For the Niblick was Phil Gidman. Second was Andrew Brzezina and Third Peter Frisby.

A. Pinder presenting the Niblick to the winner, P. Gidman

The Winning guest was Bob Sparks, second Simon Hulme and third Michael Frisby.

B. Sparks the guest winner

The winner of the Pat McDermott Memorial Trophy was Francis Benham.

John Maher presenting the Pat McDermott Trophy to Francis Benham

Our congratulations to all the worthy winners. They were delighted with their lavish prizes!

We raised £190 through the raffle. Thank you to all who gave prizes for the raffle - most generous.

A big thank you to Manus McDermott for all his help before and on the day and thanks too to David Tillson for his help with the raffle.

Crawley Wins the Visitors Cup!

Mike Newman writes:

Seven Brothers from Crawley Circle all successfully made it to Seaford Circle's meeting last night (12 September). A total of 62 attended the meeting, including 2 visiting gentlemen and 32 visitors. Their Treasurer is now receiving therapy (or would be if they had the funds).

Martin Klust was presented with a cheque for over £500 from the Province in thanks for all the work he has done at Circle and Provincial level since 1968.

The visitors came from Circles from all across the Province so our seven proved to be a sufficient number to enable us to collect the Visitors Cup. Seaford President Paul Allen will present the Cup to George Powell at the Provincial Council meeting on Wednesday.
[In the absence of a photo of the Visitors Cup, your editor has used a photo of a completely different cup for illustrative purposes.]

Arundel and Brighton Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes 2011

Jim in the Grotto

 Jim Warren writes:


Pauline and I are back from Lourdes, just a month ago now, and on Sunday 4th September the pilgrimage reunion was held at St Wilfrid’s school, an opportunity to share memories and photographs with new friends and old.

There is something about the A & B pilgrimage to Lourdes. People ask if we go expecting to witness a miracle - the 66th miracle of Lourdes was officially recognised in 1999 and this was for a cure which occurred in 1987. 1858 was the year Our Lady revealed herself to Bernadette - so in something over 150 years and with visitors and pilgrims amounting to 6 million a year, no, we don’t go on pilgrimage anticipating a “miracle”. It could be said the biggest cause for wonder and amazement is that the pilgrimage occurs at all. The organization is incredible and all credit must go to the small dedicated team of volunteers who bring it all together. Everything is thought through, right down to the provision of colour-coded labels for our luggage.

Some 750 pilgrims make the journey each year. Of those upwards of 200 or so will be requiring quite a lot of support, and so there is the need for 450 or so helpers including doctors and nurses. Now in today’s secular and egocentric world, a helper is an odd one. He or she gives up a week's holiday, hands over £600 to the A&B Pilgrimage Trust and spends the week helping strangers.

The pilgrimage has the same slot year on year. We  begin our journey on the morning of the first Thursday of the school summer holidays, arriving in Lourdes on the Friday morning, and we leave Lourdes on the following Thursday afternoon, arriving back in England about mid-day on the Friday - so nine days then, during which the helpers have to pretty much stop thinking about themselves and concentrate on making sure fellow pilgrims, sick and disabled, are happy, fed, watered, etc. It is quite a challenge and the wonderful thing is about a third of those helpers have just finished school, 18 year olds, girls and boys, often spending their first time away abroad without their parents. These young people of the “must have it now” generation rise to this challenge and give of themselves in a manner which would amaze those who watched the recent riots on TV.

We all witness small miracles everyday at Lourdes in the caring and love which everyone shows for each other, and there are many who say “why can’t the other 51 weeks be like this?”

Catenians of the diocese share in this love by the support which they give to the pilgrimage, in many cases assisting these young people with the cost and supporting the  Sick Fund, which aims to ensure that all sick people who want to go on pilgrimage with the diocese can do so whatever their financial circumstances.

In Lourdes we said a prayer for all Catenians and their families worldwide, and in that we were joined by many brothers. It is perhaps not surprising a good contingent make the pilgrimage each year.

It will take a time before we come down from the “high” that the pilgrimage gives us, and when we do we start to look forward to next year.