In the ruins of God's Own Country

The still sad music of humanity.....

God's Own Country - the North York Moors

Cast your minds back, if you can, to the summer of 1533.  In Yorkshire (as we know it now) there were a number of fine Abbeys, Priories, Canonries and Friaries and sundry smaller religious convents.  These were, of course, all Catholic.  You can see monks at work in their libraries, illustrating manuscripts while lay brothers toil in the fields and in the workshops associated with the monasteries.  You can see the aged and infirm in the shady places by streams that run by the great stone buildings. You can hear a bell calling the community to one of the regulated services.  You can hear a reading from the bible over the general scraping and slurping of mealtimes.  

Whitby Abbey

 

Meanwhile in the Tower of London, awaiting the coronation of the already pregnant new Queen Consort, Anne Boleyn, on Sunday 1 June 1533, there was a bulky and peevish monarch who had not yet sired a son and who was troubled by debt and the expenses of warfare. 

Whitby - a Benedictine abbey

And at around the same time Martin Luther, himself once an Augustinian Friar, was, on the back of the thoughts of Erasmus of Rotterdam, promoting scepticism of the values of monasticism, and the Protestant Reformation brought about significant changes in the religious landscape of Europe, especially in Scandinavia, and this all had a profound impact on monastic life.

Rievaulx - in the valley of the Rye

 

In 1533, in England, which had a population of around three million (so around 500,000 adult males), roughly one man in fifty was in one or other of the religious orders, living and working in one of the 900 or so religious houses (260 for monks, 300 for canons, 183 for friars, as well as 142 for nuns).

Rievaulx - a Cistercian Abbey

 

These religious orders were (to attempt a simplification) in order of power and wealth, Benedictines and Cistercians [who worked and prayed and had communities of lay brothers], Carthusians [who lived in almost solitary confinement within grand surroundings], Franciscans [who tended to care for the poor and lived very simply], Premonstratensians [of the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré - who were white canons, often priests attached to a church], or Augustinians [black friars, semi-monastic priests devoted to pastoral care]. 

 

Guisborough Priory - an Augustinian priory

There were many variants, such as the Trappists [Cistercians of the Strict Order] and Dominicans [the Order of Preachers, or Friars Preachers, as opposed to the Franciscans who were Friars Minor] but let’s move on......

Egglestone Abbey - a Praemonstratensian abbey

 

So, such confusion apart, the unhappy truth in that cool summer of 1533 was that H8 was short of cash, so instead of jousting and hunting, plucking the lute or tripping the light fantastic, he put his mind to fund-raising (not unlike a modern-day chancellor of the exchequer) and in 1534 he pushed the Act of Supremacy through parliament.  This defined the right of his magnificence to be supreme head on earth of the Church of England, thereby severing ecclesiastical links with Rome. 

Egglestone Abbey

Henry then followed this with the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535.  This Act applied only to lesser houses which have not in lands, tenements, rents, tithes, portions, and other hereditaments, above the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds.  And then, in short, he followed this with the Second Suppression Act of 1539, which allowed the dissolution of the larger monasteries and religious houses. Monastic land and buildings were confiscated and sold off to families who sympathised with Henry's break from Rome. By 1540 monasteries were being dismantled at a rate of fifty a month.....

Byland Abbey

 

This whole project was orchestrated by Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor, with the assistance of Richard Rich, head of the Court of Augmentations, though it fell to Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-General and Viceregent of England to oversee the action.  

 

Byland Abbey - a Cistercian abbey

In many cases the suppression went ahead with little opposition, the erstwhile incumbents receiving pensions and the local people profiting from building materials and sundry perks.  In some cases, such as Westminster, Canterbury, Rochester, Norwich and Ely, the churches were retained as Cathedrals (Henry realised the value of maintaining control of the people through religion) and some abbots became bishops, but where there was resistance, as in Yorkshire with the Pilgrimage of Grace, retribution was violent and merciless.

Easby Abbey

 

But was this a Taliban or Islamic State kind of purification, or narcissistic vandalism, such as some of the world’s contemporary leaders could be responsible for?  Henry’s motivations were no doubt complex, and probably confused.  He had advisors and like Putin he felt he had to finance both war and defence, whether either made a lot of sense in the long run.  The monasteries were rich and their lands until the dissolution covered almost a third of England (it was said that had the Abbot of Glastonbury married the Abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would have owned more land than the King) and their income was more than three times that of the King’s crown properties (how things change!)

Easby Abbey - a Premonstratensian abbey

 

It was, as they say, a no-brainer.  With the desire to prove he was Head of the Church (of England) and with financial constraints, the monasteries had to go.

Jervaulx Abbey - in the valley of the Ure (now Wensleydale)

 

So now what do we have?  Although there are, now, working monasteries in Britain, the majority of the great medieval houses are in ruins.  Some were adapted into private houses, such as Byron’s home at Newstead Abbey, others were incorporated into farms, such as Wingfield Manor in Derbyshire.  Some now are in private hands, like Jervaulx; others are managed by English Heritage and others by the National Trust.  Some attract the crowds, with extensive grounds and many facilities, like Fountains Abbey; others, such as Byland or Roche stand as ghostly remains of former greatness, with just the shades of their history to interest the occasional visitor.

Jervaulx Abbey - a Cistercian abbey

 

Over the years I have visited many of this country’s finest ruins, from Lindisfarne to Tintern, Kirkstall to Llanthony Priory, from Mount Grace to Glastonbury.  Just recently I returned to Yorkshire, “God’s Own Country,” as they call it, where amidst the space and grandeur of the valleys and moors, there is no shortage of roofless monuments to the wealth and power that Henry VIII harnessed to his own ends.

 

Roche Abbey

There is something metaphorical about the ruination of God’s Own Country – the Church of England, founded by Henry, is no longer the cornerstone of English life, though the rituals remain, and many, like me, love the solace of church interiors and many indeed still raise their voices in hymns of praise, or Christmas Carols at the least.....

Roche Abbey - Sancta Maria de Rupe (rocks or cliffs)

 

But there is more to it, I think.  These ruins are the story of man’s abilities to create and to destroy.  First, look at the soaring walls that supported the great roofs, the towers and crypts and arches that were built without cranes or JCBs.  Look at the remains of rose windows in the west fronts, or the reticulated and panel tracery in the clerestories; admire the quoins and the carved capitals, and in some cases see how river water was redirected through the buildings for culinary and sanitary needs.

Fountains Abbey

 

Then, think of the minds, the plans, the organisation and the orders involved in smashing these wonderful places to bits.  Yes, there were arrangements for the surrendering monks and friars, and properties and artefacts were sold off, but the effect of the dissolution, which was practically concluded in 1540, just barely four years since the idea was proposed, was for many people to be out of work, for poverty and illness to reap their rewards, for education to fall by the wayside and for farming and land management to be put back several centuries.

Fountains Abbey - a Cistercian abbey

 

Did Henry foresee the masses who troop to Fountains Abbey for family days out?  Did he anticipate the swooning romanticisms of Wordsworth and Turner?  Of course not.  His intentions were of his time.  What we now experience is partly ‘anemoia,’ a nostalgia for a time you have never known, but it is also, I suggest, an appreciation of the way human endeavour is capable of creating beauty that has practical value in harmony with nature.

Fountains Abbey - the Cellarium (a food store)

 

‘God’s own country is in ruins,’ is perhaps a harsh judgement, but maybe we can take two lessons from all this: firstly, the world needs to learn to avoid allowing any individual’s power to go unchallenged (that’s a clumsy phrase!) And secondly, we need to preserve a healthy working relationship with the natural world, for the good not just of us, the human being, but for the future of the planet.....

Fountains Abbey

And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things.

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798

William Wordsworth

God's Own Country

Meditations on a version of the lock down

EREMO DELLA S. CROCE 

FONTE AVELLANA

Fonte Avellana 

Many years ago, while living in Italy, I attempted to put together a book about Italian monasteries.  I travelled extensively throughout the country, photographing and researching many many religious establishments - some grand, and some very humble - and put together a proposal, with some sample work, for a literary agent.

La Verna 

And I was accepted by one, who tried to sell the idea to a number of publishers in the UK.  However, no one would take it up, and eventually the idea was dropped.

Pomposa 

Recent events have turned my thoughts again to the kind of lock down that is sometimes imposed on the inhabitants of monasteries - not only Christian ones of course - and I got to thinking about the way of life sustained within some walls.

Bobbio 

So here is a section of text from the original draft. Sometime around the mid eighties, I guess, I manoeuvred our Red Renault 4 (always in memory of Aldo Moro) up through Le Marche, and paused at Fonte Avellana.....

Beautiful spring weather; blue skies and catkins, the birds excitedly active, thinking that February is March, the meadows beginning to look green and flowery, when they should be carpeted in snow.  Monte Càtria rising before us, bare and dry at the head of the Cesano valley, Monte Acuto to the north with its green and useless ski-slopes.  

It is a beautiful wooded valley, winding steadily up beside the river.  Evidently, from the carefully tabled picnic spots, it is a popular place, probably crowded on summer weekends, but we don't see a soul, nor hear a car but for our own.  And then, appearing through the thickets above us, there is the silent white shape of the monastery, carved and arranged out of the clean limestone around.

                        
We are 680 metres above the sea here, and the air is clean as a whistle; cowbells and birds create the natural background to the ringing of the hours; the colours are light, and quiet.

                        
Fonte Avellana was originally (and until 1325) a hermitage, founded, some say, by S Romualdo in 980.  Other historians claim that the founder of this community was Bishop Ludolfo of Gubbio, and even the date is disputed, varying up to the year 1000, though the present occupants resolutely celebrated their millennium in 1980, inviting Pope Giovanni Paolo II to participate.  Unfortunately, the intervention of Alì Agcà in Piazza S Pietro delayed his arrival until September 5th 1982.  

                        
What is certain, historically, however, is that in 1035 S Pier Damiano arrived at Fonte Avellana, and he stayed to become not only the Abbot (from 1043 until his death - at Faenza - in 1072) but also an influential authority on monasticism.  He was said to be highly severe, and wrote a book called The Gomorrah Book that is about clerical misconduct, and he once ticked off a bishop for playing chess, but he also wrote hymns and treatises on many other subjects, and was enrolled among the doctors of the church in 1828 by Pope Leo XII without previously having been made a saint.  He was also made Cardinal archbishop of Ostia in 1057 by Pope Stephen IX, but it seems that this was much against his will, and that despite this, and several reforming journeys into France and Germany, Pier Damiano much preferred the silence and beauty of the hills to the business of more popular sites,

che pur con cibi di liquor d'ulivi

lievemente passava caldi e geli,

contento ne' pensier contemplativi.

(Dante, Paradiso XXI, lines 115-117; roughly translated this is, that with only food seasoned with olive oil, I comfortably passed through heat and cold, content in contemplative thoughts.)

                        
Dante himself visited this place in 1318 expressly to read the works of S Pier Damiano, and he then placed him in Paradiso, where Beatrice introduces his spirit, referring particularly to this locality in lines 106 to 120, part of which is now inscribed in stone on the facade of the church:

"Tra 'due liti d'Italia surgon sassi,

e non molto distanti a la tua patria,

tanto che 'troni assai suonan più bassi,

e fanno un gibbo che si chiama Catria,

di sotto al quale è consecrato un ermo,

che suole esser disposto a sola latria."

(NB 'un Gibbo'.....)

(XXI lines 106-111:  Between the two shores of Italy rise rocks, not too far from your native land, so high that thunder forms below them, and they make a hump that is called Càtria, beneath which is consecrated a hermitage which was once wholly given to worship.)

                        
These days academics, particularly from the Universities of Le Marche (as this region of Italy is known) come to stay and to study both these writers in the library, and other men (only men) are permitted to stay for spiritual retreat, joining fully in the life of the monastery.  Other groups are allowed to stay in the foresterie, on a self-sufficient basis, though even these are only allowed for prayer or retreat.

                        
The passing visitor is welcomed morning and afternoon (though not on Sunday or feast-day mornings) and is shown round by one of the ten Camaldolese monks (it has belonged officially to Camaldoli since 1570 - but please note this was written over thirty years ago: the numbers may well have changed).  

The tour includes the ancient scriptorium, a light, cold room with high windows and recently cleaned stone walls that dates from the twelfth century; the library, which has display cases of manuscripts copied here in early times (though most of the really important works have been removed to the Vatican library);  the dark, close, cloister;  the sala capitolare, and then the interesting and evocative crypt, which is the oldest part of the complex (from the tenth century).  Above this is the basilica, from the century after, which is dominated by a wooden crucifix from 1500.  

                        
To the right of the main altar you can reach a tiny modern (1975) chapel which is called the chapel of the Eucharist, and which our guide was obviously very taken with, referring to Beatrice and Dante and Paradise as he lit the throbbing lights behind the altar.  To my philistine mind this tiny gem is costume jewellery, cheap and nasty as coloured glass (though the altar is made of an extraordinary  hunk of stone, folded and crusty like flake chocolate,  worthy of a better setting), and it very nearly spoils the quietude and harmony of a very fine monastery;  but then I don't really understand modern spirituality, and maybe I am wrong, maybe it is the finest thing they have?  It is odd though that recent restoration has lifted all the baroque decorations from the church and the scriptorium (where it may even have been added to make the place slightly warmer) - I wonder how many centuries it will be before they strip out the twentieth century embellishments, to get back to the 'original' purity?

                        
Outside the monastery, by a tree-lined car-park of worrying proportions, there is a pleasant ristoro, or snack bar/souvenir shop, which just happened to open for us as the owner was delivering some hams to himself.  It is open more regularly at weekends and in the summer months, and it would be a good place to take refreshments before or after a good hike in the surrounding mountain pastures.  Apart from the usual trinketry, however, this place is notable because it stocks all the healthy products of the pharmacy of the mother house at Camaldoli, which includes their excellent, natural (i.e. not heated or treated in any way other than filtering) honey.

Camaldoli 

Leaving here, winding up over the hills towards the Via Flaminia, there are superb views back over the Hermitage and the surrounding hills, where there is no other sign of civilisation; just fading blue hills and silver-grey woods with just a sheen of green in the bright February sunlight.

La Verna 

In the 14th century the Hermitage was consecrated as an Abbey, but it was subsequently subjected to the practice of the grants 'in commendam,' which meant the granting of benefices or goods belonging to a monastery or an abbey to persons of high clerical and civil rank for the sole purpose of enriching them. 

Fonte Avellana remained 'in commendam' until almost the end of the 18th century and the Hermitage suffered deeply under the inevitable effects of this, so the decline of its monastic life was, though slow, inexorable. 

Then Napoleon, in 1810, and then the Italian State, in 1866, further suppressed the monastery.

However, Fonte Avellana continued to exist. Once again in the hands of the Camaldolese monks, it has rediscovered the austere beauty of its architecture as well as that faith and culture which have distinguished it since it was founded.

And so life continues 'in Lockdown' for the handful of individuals who choose to separate themselves from the mundane world of commerce and social interaction, preferring a life of interaction with their faith.....  

Beati Voi!

It may be some time before we are able to roam freely in Europe, but we can dream, in our version of Lock down, of such places of culture and tranquillity.

Long may they remain....

Opium of the Masses

Bread and Circuses.....

Standing room only in St Michael's Church, Amberley, West Sussex, where we have gathered to give thanks for the life of a dear friend.

Let all the world in every corner sing,

My God and King!

I sing George Herbert's words as lustily as I can, given a certain rustiness and a catch in my throat.....  

But I am an infidel. I don't really fit in this congregation.  The Reverend Gerry Burgess speaks prayers, and though her words fly up, my soul remains below....

From the back of the nave, the Chancel Arch is magnificent, tall and bold, its chevrons catching the eye. It has stood for over 900 years, abiding the festivities and lamentations of generations of the faithful.

And of the faithless.

Some fifteen hundred years before the church of St Michael was raised, stone workers pieced together the Arch of Janus from spolia - bricks and shards and materials from earlier buildings, just as St Michael's in Amberley grew, using stones from all over (including Bath and Caen stones, as well as local flint) .  

Despite a bomb attack in 1993, this arch now stands beside the church of San Giorgio in Velabrio, by the Roman cattle market.  Although we commonly think of Janus, from whom we get the name for January, as having two faces, his full name was Ianus Quadrifons; and he sometimes faced in four directions, as here.

Italy is full of churches, abbeys, icons, memorials - the paraphernalia and the trappings of religion, from pre-christian times to the present day.  

Many of these are now in ruins.  Some, like Siena Cathedral, never achieved their aspirations (Il Duomo di Siena was never finished because the Black Death decimated the population, reducing the workforce and presumably the coffers to pay for materials and construction).

Many years ago, when preparing to write a book on monasteries, I travelled 100 kms south of Rome to visit the Abbey of Fossanova, one of the finest Cistercian Abbeys in Italy.  It was built in the twelfth century, and it was here that St Thomas Aquinas died, on March 7th, 1274.  

My visit, then, was disappointing.  On a grey day, the place was deserted.  Lead peeled from the octagonal campanile, and the stone walls seemed cold and unloved.  Worse still, the bar, in the tiny cluster of buildings around, was firmly closed, its sign swinging creakily like something from a Sergio Leone film.

The death of Thomas Aquinas didn't seem surprising.  Nor did it surprise me that there was no one there to mourn him.

But hey!  What a difference a lifetime makes? This September the place was open, and bright, and clean and smiling....  Voluminous German frauen brightened the scene, 

A brightly refurbished Madonna stood proud in the crossing, her gorgeous blue gown a jewel against the plain stone walls,

And the windows in the apse glowed splendidly through the tracery of the onyx alabaster slivers, letting in the light but protecting the faithful from the devilish cold and rain.....

The Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscans) have been in charge here, despite its Benedictine/Cistercian history, since 1936.  Today they are welcoming, and allow visitors at any time of day.  

(The bar, too, is excellent, and well stocked.....)

But not so very far away, at Casamari, the Benedictines close their doors in the middle of the day, 

And although this too is a seriously beautiful Cistercian Abbey, there is no welcome in a closed door, however fine that door may be....

And there is something more disturbing about Casamari than immediately meets the eye.

Not many miles up into the hills, near the town of Collepardo and at 825 metres above seas level, is the Carthusian Monastery of Trisulti. Founded as a Benedictine Abbey in 1000, it became a Charterhouse in 1204. Time and decline led eventually to it being taken over by the Cistercians from Casamari in 1947, where, as the Casamari website explains, The small group of monks, a simple priory directly dependent on the abbey of Casamari, gave life to the old charterhouse, welcoming tourists and, above all, offering their services to parish priests in the neighbourhood.

So far, so good.

However, religion is not just about God.  It is also about the people.  The populace....

[Please forgive this diversion into many words, but for a change I cannot put this into pictures.....]

Around Christmas (sic) of 1843, Karl Marx wrote, in his introduction to:

A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,

Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realisation of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

So, hear this.....

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute is delighted to announce that the historic Abbey of Trisulti  has been formally handed over to the DHI, the final legal papers having been signed on 29 January 2019.....

And who, pray, are The Dignitatis Humanae Institute?

Perhaps this might help.....

The first major education and formation project that the DHI will be launching is the Academy for the Judaeo-Christian West, an initiative defending the Judaeo-Christian foundations of Western Civilisation based on the recognition that every single person without exception is made in the image and likeness of God. The defence of the Judaeo-Christian West over recent years has been significantly advanced by Stephen K. Bannon, whom the DHI is deeply honoured to welcome to its Board of Trustees.

You got it.

Steve Bannon.

Former executive chairman of Breitbart News. Also CEO of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and senior counsellor to the 45th president. Friend and supporter of Nigel Farage and Matteo Salvini.

And, for a while at least, the ancient charterhouse of Trisulti, so lovingly watched over by the Cistercian Benedictines of Casamari, was to be a training establishment for extreme right wing populists from all over Europe, and the world.

I quote from the Globe and Mail...

Welcome to the site for Steve Bannon’s new school of populism, formally called the Academy for the Judeo-Christian West. It is here that Mr. Bannon .... is building his next populist, nationalist, anti-establishment, Judeo-Christian propaganda machine.

While the school’s launch was planned before populist parties formed the Italian government, their victory has convinced Mr. Bannon that his concept is arriving at the right place at the right time. The school [is intended to be] a key component in spreading his hoped-for populist revolution across Europe, not just now, but for decades. His effort already includes The Movement, his Brussels group that provides data and advice to populist parties.....

I am an infidel.  I have no religion.  And I am naive when it comes to politics.  But there are times when it seems obvious that something ain't right. And the scent of wrong that exudes from Bannon and his associates makes me feel seriously disturbed.

On June 26th 2019, The Catholic Herald reported:

A senior churchman supportive of traditional Catholic liturgy and often cast as a leader of opposition to Pope Francis, has resigned the honorary presidency of a controversial think tank, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute founded by British conservative Benjamin Harnwell, and distanced himself from a major political agitator with strong ties to the Institute, the former chief strategist in the Trump administration, Steve Bannon.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke issued a statement on Tuesday, explaining his reasons for becoming involved with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, outlining the extent of his involvement, and resigning the honorary presidency of it. “I have been involved with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute for some years because of its work to support Christians in public life who act with respect for the moral law and, therefore, promote the common good,” Burke said in the statement. 

“In recent time,” the statement continued, “the Institute has become more and more identified with the political program of Mr. [Steve] Bannon.” 

“While I have urged the Institute to return to its original purpose, it has not done so, as is evident in its involvement with this latest initiative of Mr. Bannon,” Cardinal Burke continued. “I have, therefore, effective immediately, terminated any relationship with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute.”

This statement came not long after the Italian government stated that it was revoking the agreement on leasing the abbey following non payment of rent and failure to work on the maintenance of the fabric of the site.  They also had come to the conclusion that the proposed activity was incompatible with the history and nature of the site.....

A conflict of ideologies.  A conflict between centuries of religious perseverance and a passing flurry of inflamed prejudices.

Populism becomes the opium of the people.....

However, this story has not yet finished.  Bannon, and his right arm man Benjamin Harnwell, a clone, if it were possible, of Dominic McKenzie Cummings, are actively holding on to the potential to turn the Abbey of Trisulti into a forcing house for extreme right wing populism.  Apparently they have already had 1500 applicants for places on their courses.....

One love (so shall it be in the end)

One heart (alright)

Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright

Let's get together and feel alright

As I stood in St Michael's Church, Amberley, singing, with many others, the hymn Teach Me, My God And King, by George Herbert, I did not feel hypocritical, although I have no faith.  I felt a sense of community and hope.  I wanted the sound of our voices to lift our souls for good, for love, whatever those words may mean.

That's how I grew up.  

And in that growing up I was influenced by others who had common cause to wish for good.

I envy those who have faith.  I wish I had something to live for, to die for.  I love the brilliant aspiration of church buildings, great and small.  I treasure the culture I was enveloped in as a child, sitting on my mother's knees in Portsmouth Cathedral during incomprehensible sermons.  I do not question the value others place on their adherence to religious practice or belief.

I marvel at the art and architecture of the masters who created cathedrals with all their features and details:

Not just in the cities of Western Europe, 

But also in the remote countryside,

And, across the world; please take this to include the temples, mosques and places of worship that all human beings have designed to help them understand the mystery of life, whether in ancient times or in the dark future....

But also understand me that the strong fumes of opium give cause to be wary. Morpheus (Please, sister Morphine, turn my nightmares into dreams) does us no good, and the universal basis of consolation and justification derived from the controlling power of the curia should make us question what this new opium of the populace is trying to achieve.  

As I stood in St Michael's Church, Amberley, singing, with many others, the hymn Thine be the Glory by Edmond Budry, I did not feel uncomfortable, although I have no belief.  I felt a sense of love, and of sadness.  I wanted the sound of our voices to lift us up to an experience of heaven, whatever that may mean.

That's how I was brought up.  

And in that bringing up I was taught by some whose selflessness scattered fear and gloom.

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;

Endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won!

*********

On August 17th this year, in response to a piece I sent concerning the Feast of the Assumption, my late friend John wrote:

I have never underestimated the power of prayer.

All the best,

John

All the best to you, John.....

*****

Stop press: October 9th, 2019: Dario Franceschini, Italian Minister per i Beni culturali e il Turismo, confirmed that the concession granted in 2018 to Steve Bannon and his organisation has been revoked.

Stop Press 2!

COMUNICATO STAMPA 

MiBACT, annullata l’aggiudicazione della Certosa di Trisulti

Il Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo ha annullato il provvedimento di concessione della Certosa di Trisulti all’associazione Dignitas Humanae Institute.

Il provvedimento è giunto al termine del procedimento avviato nell’agosto 2019 dal quale è emerso che, contrariamente a quanto dichiarato al momento della candidatura, l’associazione non risultava in possesso dei requisiti richiesti dal bando per la concessione a privati di immobili del demanio culturale dello Stato.

Roma, 10 ottobre 2019

Which is definitively a No! to any activity of Bannon and his cronies in any Italian State Property.