Only weeks away to May 3rd !........Dear Madeleine McCann

It seems amazing that it has been almost a year since little Madelein went missing. A small three year old from a Catholic family, who has simply disappeared without trace. There are interesting facts 'feeding' this mystery. Government help, the father as a High profile heart surgeon, but who also acted as a research scientist in the Netherlands in 2003, the year Madeleine was conceived, after five years of trying . It is distressing for the family to have aspects of the case debated and speculated on. The McCanns had an audience with Pope Benedict, who blessed her picture, and with many heads of state around the world. WhatCAN have been the motive for her abduction. It is clear her Mum and Dad are innocent of wrongdoing, I do not believe she is in the clutches of evil people. No trace of her has been found, but hundreds of 'sightings' most of them 'dead certs' and then another child's picture is produced to 'disprove'it-often with varying success-that is from people believing it. Lurid untrue headlines in some of the press? When have we ever known the like of it on this scale?

There are two main possibilities I think - close to the hearts of people evil enough to do this
1) REVENGE- for some slight, for something which was done before and for which someone felt injured.
2)HOSTAGE-for the pioneering research into DNA perhaps?For plain MONEY?
3)BLACKMAIL-for something to be kept secret, which someone does not want revealed?

I am sure the police are looking into all these angles to find little Maddy.G and K are busy doing work for other parents of Missing children, like poor little Yeremi Vargas, his mother walking around Madrid with home photocopied pictures of her little boy, begging people to take them. She wasn't given the help to find him, not even when she saw him in some child porn films.Why can't governments get a grip on this? It is just too awful to think of in a sorrowful broken world. We must really keep our eyes on the positive.No traces have been found, G and K believe she is alive and if there is a background motive, I hope it has been sorted out so that this little darling can come home to Mum and Dad.

If anyone would like to do this, there is a non denminational site where you may just light a candle for Madeleine and all missing children. This is above Left on the blog.

PRAYER FOR MADELEINE AND OTHER MISSING CHILDREN.

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy and Immortal God

You said in the words of Christ : If anyone accepts these little ones in my name, he is welcoming me. But anyone who is the downfall of thses little ones, would be better drowned in the depths of the sea with a millstone around his neck.(St Matthew 18:5,6
Strengthen all those in suffering with the virtues of faith hope and Love and also with endurance.Support those who wait for news and protect the little ones who suffer and have suffered at their hands. You know what they have done.

Those who have left this earth and are with you, pray for their parents and families, and victims and families of all those who have died at the hands of those taken over by evil wrongdong.

In the name of the Holy Three-The Father, The Son and Holy Ghost.Amen
Holy Mary pray for us and them to the Lord Our God.
Saint Anthony, you who found so many things, find the missing children.Pray for us


This is my own personal comment on the Madeleine case, for perusal and in case anyone knows where she might be.

FROM THE PRESS ASSOCIATION TODAY

The Potuguese police will be interviewing the friends not Madeleine's parents>

'Press Assoc. Portuguese police are to visit the UK next week to re-interview the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann.

Officers are expected to arrive in Britain on April 7 but they will not interview the couple, whose four-year-old daughter Madeleine disappeared from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.

Instead Portuguese detectives plan to sit in while officers from Leicestershire Constabulary interview their friends.

A spokeswoman for the British force said: "Leicestershire Constabulary will be coordinating the execution of the request for mutual legal assistance made by the Portuguese authorities.

"The Portuguese authorities have asked that the contents of the request and the way it is being executed be kept confidential so as not to prejudice their ongoing investigation."

It is almost 11 months since Madeleine disappeared from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz.

Download my Podcast -Summary of early Christian Gwent-Haut de la Garenne, Madeleine McCann Investigation

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This is a picture of the Christ child in a nativity scene in a fresco that was found in the Gunter House in Abergavenny. It is a detail. The whole plaster was cut out and taken to the museum. It was here that Catholics secretly and in terror for their lives heard Masses said by Father Philip Evans and Father David Lewis among others both of whome were martyred during the terror of the Titus Oates lies.The Blessed Mother's head is elsewhere on this blog.

To download my podcasts visit iTunes and download this free. Then type in 'MaryinMonmouth' into the window of the 'Store'and double click.
You should see the icon come up. Then click 'subscribe' and it will put it into your 'podcast' folder . Click on that and then click any episodes you like. Itis safe for your computer and by clicking on the episode twice, it will play on your computer.You can click 'file'-make new playlist, name it ie 'Mary' Click on it and then drag in the spisodes you want. You can burn a disc by clicking on 'burn disc-yes it is quite easy.It is all absolutely free.

Latest Podcast tells of St Tathan and his arrival in Monmouthshire (ancient Kingdom of Gwent) where he set up a college of great excellence at Caerwent. In addition there is some feedback on Boscastle after the flood and also a visit to the Tiny chapel at Fontrevault at Tintagel. Later this week there will be a soundseeing tour in a very chilly Padstow!! And a longer one later from Tintagel St Materiana’s Church, not far from the castle and Merlin’s Cave.

I also did a summary of what we have learned about early Christianity in Gwent.

Joseph of Arimathea’s arriving and departure to Glastonbury. He had been sent by St Peter and St Philip and arrived with some of Christ’s disciples.Mud and wattle church.
Possible early Christianisation of Caractacus’ family. Eurgain (Claudia Rufina and husband Pudens and younger brother Linus born in Rome, all good friends with St Peter. At the time of Nero, Claudia returned with her son Timotheus to Winchester, where she founded her hermitage.
Persecution and martyrdoms of Saints Julius, Aaron and Alban, first two at Caerleon (Isca Silurum) and Alban at Verulamium (St Albans)
Age of the Welsh Saints, of noble birth, often consecrated hermits or monks in small monasteries.
White Martyrdom-giving up life to God by going possibly in a boat over the sea and being taken where God wants you to go to work for him.
Green martyrdom-setting up hermitage or monastery on a partch of land (island) usually near a holy well for baptism.
Red Martyrdom-martered by blood (ie being killed)
Blue martyrdom is when through fasting and hard work the desires are controlled and they live on struggling in penance and repentance.
3 kinds of Martyrdom that are precious in the Sight of God
Chastity in youth, moderation in the midst of abundance and not receiving gifts that a corrupt right judgement. Cambrai Celtic homily)

Characteristics
All things held in common-common injunction to feed and clothe each other and make the stranger welcome.
Monks and priests were often ‘soul friends’Soul friends anmchara Saints and holy men travelled around together. Made pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem together.
Heard one another’s confessions individually, a practice later accepted by the church, as bringing the sinner close to God. Until then, confessions only for very serious sins and would incur years of penance and could only be given once.

Characters

St Materiana (Queen Madryn of Gwent ) and son Cedwyn-green island martyrdom at Minster in Boscastle. Cedwyn ordained at Truro on the Feast of St Peter’s Chair.
Pater Ishow (Issui,) gives rules of hospitality to a robber who murders him. Place of Pilgrimage.

St David’s Cell in Golden Valley at Llanthony where he had his green island. He defends the teaching of the church against the claims of Pelagius and is canonised.
The Major seat of Christianity held by Dyfrig (Dubricius) from North Gwent. He founds monasteries and places of learning throughout Gwent. Retires after David’s acclamation at Llandewi Brevi and levitation.there. David takes the headquarters to St Davids (in Roman Menevia-Pembrokeshire-where St David is) and Dyfrig founds Llandaff as his new headquarters and monastery. Dyfrig leaves to spend his last days on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) called the ‘Island of the Blessed’ where Materiana had had a church built as a younger woman.

Teilo takes over Llandaff and David, Teilo and Padarn are consecrated bishops by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. (The Orthodox church and Roman branches of the church in full communion and were to be for hundreds of years)

St Tewdrig is martered by Angles out to attack the church and then his son Meurig gives many lands to the diocese of Llandaff via St Oudoceus (St Docco, or Welsh Euddogwy)The Bishops Palace of the Bishops of Llandaff remain at Mathern to thisday . King Tewdrig the Martyr is buried at the church at Mathern where his relics are interred under the altar in the chancel.

Anna, Meurig’s daughter was the mother of St Tathan who came to Wales to found a magnificent monastery. Gwynlliw, the wickled bandit chief and rular is converted by his saintly wife Gwladys and his son, taught by Tathan at Caerwent, who becomes a priest and bishop (as well as King, when Gwynlliw decides to do his green and ble martyrdom on Stow Hill in Newport) St Gwladys takes the veil and retires to a small convent at Bassaleg, near ‘Cadocs Pool’.Cadoc made seven pilgrimages to Rome and was away suring the synod of Llandewi Brefi. He was also a good friend of Irish White and St Barruc, who was doing a green martyrdom at the sea (Barry) Cadoc also had a small ‘island’ in the coast there at ‘Cadoc’s Town’-(Cadoxton)

This is all the ground we have covered up until now. The adventures of St David are also very interesting, as well as a soundseeing tour around Llandaff Cathedral.



The Pain lives on....

Seventy three years old man tells of Haut de la Garenne

John Buckley was at the home from 1946 to 1951 and says that children were mentally and physically tortured and were ‘brainwashed by fear’.

Now 73 and living in Brisbane, he was 11 years old when he first went to the former children’s home in St Martin, the grounds of which are being treated as a potential homicide scene after the discovery of a skull fragment on 23 February.

Mr Buckley says that he was never sexually abused at the home, but he feels that the States are to blame for the years of suffering and cruelty that he and other children had to endure at the hands of a number of sadistic staff.

The police did not warn ministers about the discovery of human remains at Haut de la Garenne before calling a press conference for the national media, it has emerged. And the Council of Ministers are being kept ‘at arm’s length’ from the investigation and are not receiving regular updates from the investigating team
Chief Minister Frank Walker says that he was told that police had started working at the Haut de la Garenne site, but not why, nor what they were looking for. He says that he was as shocked as anyone by the announcement on 23 February that the ‘partial remains of a child’ — later reported to be part of a skull — had been found at the site.

THE Chief Minister has called for a committee of inquiry into historic child abuse and alleged cover-ups.
However, the plans being drawn up do not say when the committee will be set up or what its terms of reference will be.

Senator Walker said that the committee would be set up only after the police investigations and prosecutions had run their course so that the inquiry would not prejudice court cases.

However, former Health Minister Stuart Syvret said that without a start date or terms of reference, the suggestion of an inquiry was ‘a PR exercise’ and that the proposal made no sense at all.

Ben Queree in the Jersey Evening Post (01534 611611)

Madeleine McCann (Today's Mail on Sunday)

The British police are to question the nine people in the Tapas bar on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared. This will be of three days duration in an attempt to clear up inconsistencies and try to unearth some new facts, not discovered by the investigations in Portugal.
Please pray for Mary, my friend, and Eva her daughter, if you have a prayer diary.

Divine Mercy Sunday

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Christus heri et hodie Christ yesterday and today
Principium et finis The Beginning of all things and their end
Alpha A (first letter of Greek alphabet)
et Omega and O (last letter of Greek alphabet)
Ipsius sunt tempora All time belongs to him
et saecula And all the ages
Ipsi gloria et imperium to him be glory and dominion
per universa aeternitatis for all erternity to the End of the World Amen


Trusting Jesus, when the world is so broken, where evil seems to be everywhere, families fragmented and the unborn killed, can be very difficult. However it is important to remember the exciting thing. Christ walks among us. He tells us this is not the end for us and what we see here is just a dim image in a mirror. When we are with him we shall see him face to face, we who have trusted him through all the difficulties and cruelties of life. There will be justice for those who have hardened their hearts and done terrible things. The innocent will be saved and those who have loved on to the end. Those who have reared children, borne insults been beaten, ill treated, humiliated these things has has all had happen to him.

So with full hearts, full in gratitude to way with Sister Faustina with all Christians from the very earliest:

Hagios o Theos! Holy God!
Hagios Ischyros! Holy and Strong!
Hagios athanatos Holy Immortal One
eleison hymas!- have mercy on us!

These words from the Good Friday rituals

Have mercy on us all, especially the suffering world. Parents of all those who have had a child stolen, who are lonely, are abandoned, neglected or cruelly treated, those will terminal diseases.

Dear Lord , eleison hymas-have mercy on us.

Have mercy on us all.

Llangibby Massacre-A little more.....

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The INQUEST was held at the White Hart Inn. The centre picture show's the Priest's Hole, where Father David and Father Philip doubtless hid, when soldiers were near.The gentry, people, magistrates, and justices all combined to keep the Faith alive.Photographs taken Christmas Day 2007.The pub is a lovely warm and comfortable place, full of history.

Someone asked me about these Llangibby murders, and so I have a little more information, as I confess I had never heard of this before. It appears the murderer Salvador Joseph Garcia, was a young Spaniard, a thief, who arrived in Newport on an iron ore ship and then decided to stay and enjoy the delights of the town. He became well known locally and began a life of crime to pay for his extravagances with wine and women. On September 25 1878 he burgled someones home and was caught in the act. This was in St Brides' Wentloog. October 17 1877 he was sent for trial and he protested he was innocent, but the case against him damning. He was sentenced to nine months in gaol. with hard labour. He was sent to Usk prison and protested saying 'Me no gaol',July 1878 he was released from gaol and put in the custody of two warders who were supposed to take him to Usk Railway Station . He was supposed to go back to Newport and then be deported. But he managed to get away into the countryside. ON July 17 1768, the name Llangibby, a small quiet village on the road between Newport and Usk was on everyone's lips because of the Murder.

It was a Wednesday when they were found by Frank James, a local boy, who knew the family. When he got into the garden he saw the bodies of the cuple, William and Elizabeth whose throats were cut after they had been stunned. It was very savage. John Morgan , another friend made the gruesome discovery of the children, they had been attqacked with a knife with terrible savagery.The children were eight, five and only four and it appeared Charlotte the eldest had tried to summon help from the neighbours, and had been repeatedly stabbed in the back.Also the murderer had set fire to the bed on which all three bodies had been put,Various witnesses said they had seen the swarthy foreigner and he had tried to hitch a lift from the post at Llantarnum.He did get to Newport, where he was arrested.He had on him several items of Mrs watkins' clothing and her mantle clock. He had little else on him. His shirt was bloodstained and he was wearing two paris of trousers. He was charged and the town was in a 'lynching mood' when the details of the crime were known.

There are photos of the White Hart Inn below where the priest hole was and where the inquest was held. People sobbed and wept at the inquest.People could not believe the doctors accounts of the terrible wounds and the Jury named Garcia as their suspect.He was tried, found guilty and sentenced in the Four County Assizes in the Shire Hall, Gloucester before Lord Justice Barnwell. Mary Ann Watkins, an older daughter of the Watkins gave evidence She identified his boots as belonging to her father and the famale clothing as he mother's.He had bread with him that carried a dent identical to a baking tin at the cottage. The watchmaker confirmed the mantle clockl belonged to the Watkins family.

But Garcia had no defence and did not really understand what was going on He had no explanation for the stuff found on him and there was no motive (or indeed history) of his ever having committed such a bizarre and savage murder for so little.He had been seen earlier in the company of another man , with whom he appeared to be friendly.He was sentenced to hang, and this sentence carried out on Nov 18 1878. He tried to escape again, but failed.There were doubts about his guilt but the evidence overwhelming, but no real effort made to investigate from the point of view of a frame up.

May 1994 there was an article in the South Wales Argus which gave another theory-the originator of the story said he was the grandson of an illegitimate child born of a love affair between Mary Ann Watkins and Garcia. He claims Garcia was desperate to get money to support Mary Ann and burgled but got caught. He returned to the Wakins house, to reconcile himself with the family. He was shouted at, lost his temper and went mad and murdered the whole family. Mary Ann was fifteen and away in service at the time. At the trial it was said he did not know the Watkinses and had no reason to kill them. However the evidence against him was overwhelming , especially the bloodstained shirt and stolen goods.It was also strange that Mary Ann herself said nothing about it, but then she was probably trying to keep her situation quiet. The cottage was demolished soon after.

For a full account of the above, which carefully researched details refer to @Their Deadly Trade (Murders in Monmouthshire) by Roger Williams pub Gomer avail Amazon uk

What a very very sad tale. There in St Cybi's Church, a large grave stone was raised to the family by public subscription, close to the White Hart Inn.

Haut de la GarenneLatest.

Investigations are ongoing.A third and fourth chamber has been found, people have been coming forwards and telling their stories and files are being written up. It like the above is a sad tale, and it is good that at lkeast now, some re finding closure and Justice.

Kate and Gerry McCann on ITV

Gave a detailed film about looking for Madeleine. You can only imagine what they are going through, and are also looking into other ways of helping exploited and trafficked children. Good on them and here'sm hoping someone will act according to their conscience and give her back, She can never truly be theirs.

Mari Luz Cortez Requiescat in Pace

Kate and Gerry McCann have asked Portuguese police find out where a Spanish paedophile arrested last Saturday was on the day their daughter Madeleine disappeared. There was no obvious connection, but they wanted him to be ruled out.
The 52-year-old convicted paedophile, Santiago del Valle Garcia, his wife Rosa and sister Isobel were arrested late yesterday and he has reportedly confessed to killing Mari Luz Cortez. They were taken from a rented house in Cuenca, which is South of Madrid.
Her body was found floating in the river near Huelva on March 7th, just after posters were put up in Spain. He said he had panicked and dumped her body when she fell in an accident, but had bee previously said to have murdered her. He was well known to the family and they had suspected it was him. Mari Luz’s parents Juan Jose and Irene lived less than 100 yards from his house on the route the Mari would have taken as she came back after buying some sweets.According to the Mail on Sunday, Mari Luz's dad said: "This comes as no surprise to me. We know it's him."

They had become suspicious when he and his family left Huelva the night after Mari Luz disappeared. Police had already questioned him over that and a plot to kidnap a girl in Seville and an attempt to groom a girl on the Internet, after persuading her he was her age.

He is said to have convictions for child abuse and paedophilia . There was no particular connection between Marie Luz and Madeleine McCann, but Kate and Gerry had had posters printed with both girls on to be circulated in Spain, especially as Huelva is quite close to Pria di Luz and Portugal. Madeleine was abducted on May 3rd from her apartment, where she was sleeping.

Rest in the Mercy of God, little Baby.Lets us pray that Madeleine has been luckier, and that we see her returned as investigations continue with rigour and thoroughness.

The Miracle of Llangibby, St Cybi,Cubi, Kybi. The Martyred Priests, The murdered Family and The Government and Cloning

LLANGIBBY is a parish, on the river Usk, between Usk and Caerleon, in the hundred of Usk, union of Pontypool, county court district of Usk,Church in Wales rural deanery of Usk, archdeaconry of Monmouth and diocese of Llandaff. Catholic Diocese of Cardiff.Originally a Catholic Church it has been administered by the Anglican Church since the sixteenth century.

The church of St. Cybi, or Sanctus Kibbius is a building of stone, in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a western tower containing 6 bells. It seats about 200 people. The register of baptisms dates from the year 1679, marriages from 1754 and burials from 1678. The church is in the early English style.

What is very interesting is that this is the site of a Celtic miracle-the Miracle of St Cybi, one of the 'Makers of Christian Wales'.

Saint Cybi (Feast Day 8th November)

St Cuby (Kebi Cybi)is an unusual saint in that he was Cornish and born of a Cornish family. His father is said to have been saint Selevan (Selyf) (name is given for present St Lavan in Cornwall in written records.Selevan =Welsh and Cornish version of 'Solomon')Selevan appears in a hagiography as father of St Cuby and is the son of St Erbyn and grandson of St Saint Geraint.)Selevan's sister was St Silwen and brother was St Just.This was a Cornish royal family.In fact Cuby ticked all the boxes of a Celtic saint.Their line is given in the Pedigrees of the saints as Cystenyn Gorneu-a Cornish family and in English King Constantine of Cornwall.(although there is a possibility of a place in Herefordshire also called by this name)We know he was brought up at a monastic school, even though his father was a chieftain. He began to read when he was seven and remained in his own monastery for twenty years, so was 27 when he went on the journey to Jerusalem to worship at the Sepulchre at the Lord. There was no division in the Church at this time at all, just the one church. He remained and probably was ordained by Hilary, Bishop of POitiers, and was said to have achieved miracles, elping bline people to see . worked among and cured some lepers.He also worked in the healing ministry and was made a bishop by Hilary of Poitiers.
St Cybi's mother was Gwen, daughter of Gynyr of Caergwch; he was therefore first cousin to St David, although perhaps some years younger ; he was contemporary with Maelgwn which made them all saints of the sixth century whereas St Hilary was in Poitiers in the fourth century. However, it is possible the name of the Bishop was incorrect.
1)He was of royal blood (this was important, as monarchy was essential to most saints and hermits were) 2)Celtic saints, imitating the habit of St Augustine of Hippo, who had taken his Catholic followers into the desert in North Africa. Later incursions of Muslims brought them back into Europe, Italy and Spain. Celtic people who determined to praise God, therefore, embraked on 'White and green Martyrdoms'.They would give up their lives to God. A red martyrdom was obviously a blood martyrdom, still observed in the Catholic canon by the wearing of red vestments at Mass on the day of a martyred saint. A WHITE martyrdom was usually a sea journey of some kind. The sea in Christian symbolism usually associated with death.(Jonah ,Red Sea crossing,Noah etc) The saint would usually set sail on a small boat and sail over the sea. A GREEN martyrdom was finding a 'patch' or island, usually near a well, where they would set up a small monastery with their helpers and sometimes completely alone as hermits. They would be useful in the community , grow their own food (and be brought food) celebrate Mass (if qualified-St Patrick was, and St David was, Bishops usually ordained in Jerusalem and Rome)again long difficult journeys but recorded in the lives of the Welsh saints and other Welsh accounts. The likelihood is that Cybi was ordained. He was of a Christian house and celebrating the Mass was important in the early church, being as now the 'binding' element of early Christians.
Cybi was possibly born near Tregony, but some say Duloe, between the two branches of the Looe river as he is the original patron othat church. Most of the saints at that time were Welsh and going to Cornwall, like Saint Materiana and St Ceidio of Gwent (wife of Ynyr Gwent and son)who embarked as missionaries for Cornwall arriving in Boscastle to set up their green martyrdom. Cybi came the other way. Cybi journeyed to many places when he had returned as a Bishop from Poitiers. He received the call to return to his own country and stayed a short while. HE was asked to be the King of the Cornishmen, but would not accept temporal power.He set off with his ten disciples, who included Maelog, Libiau, Peulas, and Cyngar.

The Miracle of Llangybi

On arriving in Llangybi (then called Eddlogan or Etheliehaun) the found a certain king Etelic was king there. St Cybi went down into his meadows and put up his tent. The King sent his men to see who these people were who were trespassing on his land on the meadow. The returning men said they were monks and Etelic went down to evict them with his men, but as he approached he fell down from his horse and the horse died too and he and his men became blind. Etelic prostrated himself and gave his body and soul to God and St Cybi, and the attendants of Etelic and himself and horse were cured . Then Etelic gave to Cybi forever two churches one at Llan Gybi, and the other at Llande verguir (believed to have been the parish church at Panteg-now destroyed) Cybi left there a small multi coloured handbell. St Cybi remained there for a while and established his monastery and church.
Cybi, blessing King Etelic departed and went forther to the west to visit his cousin Saint David in Menevia, at his monastery and remained there a short while.
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Cybi in Ireland

Cybi sailed to the Island of Arum, where he stayed four years and built a church there, too . He bought his older cousin Cyngar a cow and calf because he coul not take solid food and only milk, and his disciples bravely cultivated the land. There was an argument with a local landowner, Crubthir Fintam, who refused to let them cultivate the land .St Cybi and Finatm went to the local Abbot called Enna on the island and he made peace between them. Cyngar's cow is said to have strayed again onto Finatam's land an was tied up. St Cybi sent a message for it to be released as the cow would give no milk without her calf and Cyngar was nearly dead because he needed the milk. There was another recorded miracle as God somehow allowed the calf to be sent to its mother, dragging behind it the small tree and its roots.Fintam prayed to the Lord God to be rid of Cybi and his monks, but the account says, God loved Cybi and an angel came to Cybi in his sleep and said to him Go from this island to the Eastern side. To which Cybi said May God destroy Fintam from this island and the angel said So it shall be.
St Cybi then went to Mida, on the southern side of the island and stayed there a while, built a church, which is called to this day the great church of Mochup. Fintam followed him yet again, and said the land was his . Cybi fasted for three days so that God should show him what he should do. He was told to go east by the angel . Cybi did so and to the plain of Bregh and stayed there a week. Again Fintam complained. Again Cybi asked God what he should do, God told him again to move and he came to Vobyn, but Fintam came again and told him to begone over the sea. He did not want him there. Cybi became angry and said 'All thy churches are so deserted that there are not three to be found where there is singing at the altar (Mass was always sung at this time). Cybi sent his disciples to make a boat and begin cutting down the trees. Fintam said, if you are God's servants enter the boat without covering . Cybi replied to him 'God is wonderful in his saints, the God of Isrel himself, the Blessed God will give virtue and fortitude to his people'. Then he and the disciples set sail without the covering over the boat. A huge storm came and the disciples were frightened. Cybi prayed and they landed miraculously on the island of Mon (Anglesey) St Cybi struck the rock with his stick and water immediately flowed.
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St Cybi at Caer-Gybi-Mon ,Anglesey)

St Cybi came to the place called Cyndaf and there remained some time and said to Caffo, one of his disciples to bring fire from the local smith Magwrn.When he found they were Christian missionaries, he said that he would not give him the fire unless he carried it next to his chest. Caffo did this but nothing was scorched or even singed when he arrived back.

The King of North Wales was Maelgwn.This is also entirely consistent with Cybi being a saint of the sixth century.Maelgwn was out hunting one day and saw a she goat, which he hunted and sent his dog to fetch it but the goat ran to Saint Cybi for protection . Cybi said to Caffo his disciple that he sould go, they could not be together(for his own protection, to escape the anger of the King) And Caffo came to a town now called Merthyr Caffo and the sheherds of Rosiwr killed caffo. St Cybi cursed them with their mistress. The goat found shelter with Cybi and the King told him to let it go but Cybi said 'not if you are going to kill it' . The king said, if you don't let it go, I will remove you from this country'. The blessed Cybi said 'It is not within your pwer to remove me from this land, but is in the power of God, but I will let it loose to you if you offer it to God and give me this land where your dog has been running'.The King agreed. Cybi let the goat go and the hound followed it all aroud there, and it returned to the house of Cybi.A big argument ensued between them but Maelgwn could not resist St Cybi's please and his holiness and granted his castle to Almighty God and holy Cybi slept there as an offering of perpetual charity and alms with Christ in great honour.

On the sixth day and Ides oF November, a 'multitude o Angels' came and took his holy soul to heaven, to be in te company of patriarchs and prophets, the Apotles and evangelists, martyrs and confessors, virgins and righteous saints in the unity of the Communion of saints, the heavenly church. There follows in account of heaven (P501) whichconcludes 'with twenty orders of angels, with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in peace and joy and in purity and health, without hunger and without nakedness, with abundance for the whole body, and without any evil about a youthful liberal fair and eternal king. Let us request of Almighty God that we may deserve to possess that blessedness through the intercession of the Blessed Cybi for ever and ever.Amen'(Vita Sancti Kepii-MSScespasian A XIV)

Another Claim to Christian Fame! The White Hart Inn and its Priests Hole.This involved among others two Gwent men put to death for the Faith.Father David Lewis and Father Philip (Captain) Evans. These men Iand John Lloyd and John Kemble in different parts of the country)were canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1970 as those of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales. Father David was 63 and Father John over 80 when he was hung drawn and quartered. The Church at Monmouth makes an annual pilgrimage to his shrine.

The White Hart Inn is still the popular local hostelry and home of the famous Hunt.There are always roaring log fires and the place has changed very little in the last five hundred years. Warm and comfortable, it is a magnet for many people, and fulfils the function of an inn, offering coffee and tea as well as other more usual drinks. One of the rooms in the Inn was hired for a very interesting purpose and linked to two popular Welsh saints of the seventeent century, to say Mass.
After the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and the subecequent enforcement of the Church of England, by fines and even in some cases death ,even so many Gwent Catholics remained true to the older faith of St Cybi and others.Mainly because they believed in the Real Presence of the Eucharist and Apostolic succession.The Catholic cause had been dealt a severe blow by the hotheads taking part in the Gunpowder Plot, their sense have injustice having spilled into unwise action.

However , Sons of local believers went to Douai in France and to St Omer and became ordained like St Cybi, as priests returning secretly, ostensibly as sailors, hiding their true calling. It meant they could explain the lack of family.These priests came to sing Mass for the Catholics, to administer the sacraments and to preach One such was Father David Lewis, son of the Headmaster of Abergavenny School, who trained at St Omer under he name of Charles Baker. The church of St Cybi being closed to them Father David and his flock they hired a room in the White Hart Inn,for Mass and if soldiers came looking for them, Father David would hide in the small priest's hole behind the fireplace.

This can be viewed to this day in the White Hart, where it has been opened up to pilgrims and interested people and is even illuminated by the owners.St David Lewis (canonised by the Pope in the last century) was to be hung drawn and quartered at Usk in 1797 after being betrayed by the greed of some parishioners to the Priest Hunter Arnold of Llanfihangel Court.He was arrested near Llantarnam Abbey where he was preparing to say mMass for the Morgan Family. They were bribed to tell lies so they could arrest the priests, which Oates had claimed were 'spies' for Spain!?....) Father David was interrogated in London and then imprisoned in the former Franciscan Greyfriars building in Usk (then become the local jail)His last speech to the crowd at his execuion very moving.

Father David was greatly loved in Usk,Llangibby and all the surrounding countryside. He was a gentle soul and a good 'Confessor' and advisor.He was the author of a number of writings about Confession now in the National Library of Wales He gave all he had to the poor and was called 'Tad yr Oedolion' (Father of the Poor in Usk and Llangibby)Indeed he was so loved that as he was hung in a very botched execution,two Protestants held his hand to make sure he was dead before he was cut down and, with relief, because the local dignitaries loved him too, he was not drawn or quartered but carried off nobly on a bier to be buried at the graveyard of the Priory of Our Lady's Church nearby (now called St Mary's Parish Church) and buried with the holy nuns. In more recent times,the body was reburied outside the doorway of the parish church and the Society of Jesus (of which order Saint David Lewis was) make an annual pilgrimage and flowers are to be found on the grave every day of the year.Saint David Lewis was the Vicar Apostolic of the land of Wales and a worthy successor to St Cybi and St David his namesake. Father Philip Evans was also active in this region and was martyred in Cardiff, sadly hung drawn and quartered. Shortly after the martyrdoms, Titus Oates, who had told lies against Catholics in order to advance the cause of a specific Christian denomination , was found out and was exectuted in the same manner as the holy priests.Both Father David and Father Philip (also canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by John Paul II in 1970)and both would have used the Priest's hole in the White Hart Inn.

And a sad story bringing notoriety-The Llangibby massacre

This took place in 1878, when Joseph Garcia,a Spanish sailor was convicted of murdering William and Elizabeth Watkins and their three youngest children living at home.Charlotte, 8 years)Alice (5 years) and Frederick.(4years old)
Period: 1878 . Place : Llangibby [Monmouthshire]

He was executed in 1878 in the Usk County Gaol.
Convicted Perpetrator: Joseph Garcia, a Spanish seaman, executed on 18 Nov 1878 at Usk County Gaol.
The 4surviving children were William III born 1861, Mary Ann born 1863, Catherine born 1864 and Arthur born 1866.

http://www.microwaredata.co.uk/murder-uk/bookhtml_g/garcia_j00.html

Details are given in Roger William's book THEIR DEADLY TRADE: MURDERS IN MONMOUTHSHIRE published by Gomer. Apparently this is a detailed if lurid account.

How very sad. I wonder what the story was there? When I get hold of the book I might find out. I always wonder what sort of a person could murder children? Shows we all need to pray for mercy and a turning around of hearts.

Gordon Brown and the Free Vote

About time!!! Can't he see the government (powerful as it is, and with such machinery has no right to create a sub species. This is totally off the wall and mentioned in no manifesto. I know he was interested since he has invested over a million of public money into genetic research. Yet what does the IVF extension entail? Cloning of babies?

Latest from Haut de la Garenne as far as we can tell there has been a further room found Chapmbers three and four, with some poitive finds. As yet the police are keeping it all fairly tight to their chests as you would suppose.

Nevertheless, the News of the World printed this article which would make anyone ill to read.Nevertheless here is the link:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/1603_jersey.shtml

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/02/27/jersey-children-s-home-hell-victims-of-haut-de-la-garenne-tell-their-story-89520-20333034/

The articles make disturbing readings, how care home staff allowed young children to be hired out as sex slaves on cruises and how children were treated from first hand accounts of victims.. They were told they were treats and then abused.Let us hope that justive prevails, in spite of some political leaders on the island trying to rid hemselves of the heroic police chief. There will be a Judgment on all of them, and some will spend their final years in prison. hopefully repenting their disgusting crimes.

Who were St Nectan and St Piranof Cornwall? ,Jersey Home Story

Left is the current website of St Nectan's Glen, where the owners are not specifically dedicated to the Catholic Saint, St Nectan but to the 'Mother Earth' religion However, people of all faiths are welcomed at St Nectan's shrine by the owners, where he worshipped said the psalms and stayed at many times-possibly in the summer, the winters being spent at Hartland Abbey.This is an area of outstanding natural beauty, the glen and hermitage of St Nectan is tranquil and beautiful)Bear in mind the owners are not Christians but of Earth perhaps Druidical religion but do welcome people from the Catholic faith who wish to venerate St Nectan, reputedly buried here.The Hermitage itself serves food and refreshments. There is a higher footpath for people with mobility problems.(Telephone below)

We have visited St Nectan's Glen ever since we started coming to Cornwall on our holidays.The Hermitage and waterfall lie between Tintagel/Bossiney coast road and Boscastle. It is signposted from the road, but you need to park there in the car park and it is a long, but beautiful walk through amazing woodland. We used to take our young son there with my mother and look for Easter Eggs. The climb up to the hermitage is quite hard going. The hamlet where the small road goes is called Threthevy. What always attracted us was that we could take our little dog.There is another approach as well which appears behind the hermitage.(Telephone 01840 770760-The Hermitage, St Nectan's Glen, Thethevy, Cornwall PL34 0BE email:barry@stnectan.fsnet.co.uk)

When you first turn into the small road going up to the waterfall, you pass the Holy Well of St Piran and his chapel.He was the most popular saint in Cornwall. Piran or Perryn made the customary journey from South Wales into Corwall and from there to Brittany, doing a white Martyrdom, leaving living impressions everywhere. In south Wales there was a Mediaeval Chapel of St Piran at Cardiff, and this was so honoured, as Catherine Rachel John writes 'the English King Henry II went to hear Mass there on Low Sunday (the Sunday after Easter Day)when he was visiting South Wales.

In Brittany, Piran is widely celebrated . His name is found in a number of dedications and place names, for example Saint Perran south of Baint Brieuc; also in official church calendars, and prayer books for clerics and lay people-The Breviary for the Diocese of Leon and its Book of Hours where he is referred to as a Bishop.At Trezeide near St Pol de Leon, Saint Piran, its patron, commemorated not only by his statue in the church. but also by a wayside shrine , almost a little oratory,with a very simple, impressive statue of the saint his hands raised in prayer'. (p68 The Saints of Cornwall 1500 years of Christian Landscape, pub Tabb House,7 Church Street, Padstow, Cornwall PL28 8BG ISBN 1 873951 39 6 £10.00 illustrated).

The best known holy place of Cornwall for St Piran is Perranporth, where Catherine writes 'the place still retains some of the holiness of beauty for three seasons of the year.'She supposes Piran landed there from Wales and founded his first chapel at Perranzabuloe-Perran on the sands. She goes on very perceptively 'and the history of this has been a continuous struggle with the encroaching sands , perhaps reflecting the struggle for the souls of the Cornish people , as a modern poet has suggested.' The building raised by Piran was abandoned in the ninth century(the centre of the small monastery)and in due course it was lost in the sands. In 180 it was reveled again with shifting sands and since then people have tried to preserve it, but this has proved impossible, although the cross is still visible . ON higher ground a new parish church has been built ,after hundreds ofyears this had been eroded to and a third built. This is well inland. Nearby is another st Piran's Well and also St Piran's cwm (coombe) is valley.There are many places connected with him Pol-perro, Perranarworthal,Perran Uthnoe and Perran Downs.It is possible that the Bossinney site was perhaps one of the first, St Piran inhabited when he arrived in Cornwall. The nearby farmhouse probably containing stone from the original monastery, which would perhaps originally been begun in wattles and mud. St Piran's Well is well preserved and is the first thing you see when leaving the road.It is reputed to have had healing qualities left by the saint , where he used to baptise people.As I mentioned in my Welsh broadcasts, these wells were often very close to the Welsh people and Cornish. They were points where the inner world met the outer and were blessed by the Saint in the name of the Trinity, and a way to join the family of God. Just behind is the small St Piran's chapel. This has been restored, and is obviously occasionally in use. It is a simple stone building with a small gabled roof and must have been a later reincarnation of St Piran's original mud and wattle church.The whole stands in a beautiful glen overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and you can imagine the Saint Standing looking over the sea and the glorious sunsets at that location.

'Becoming increasingly familiar is the Cornish flag, nown as the flag of St Piran . The white cross on a black background symbolises the Gospel triumphing over falsehood, good over evil the tin among the ore.'Catherine Rachel John.

Walking from St Piran's Glen down to st Nectan, you walk down a long footpath, also road for those who live in the small cottages and rather larger detatched houses with drives from the path , we come down into the beautiful 'fairy wood' as my son used to call it. The track runs through the wood , thougha riot of different trees, wood anenomies,bluebells and wild garlics. The smell in the spring and the parculiarly earthy smell is wonderful. There is another path which avoids the difficult ascent to the favourites . Celtic monks (as I have spoken about in my may 'Mary in Monmouth 'broadcasts, available free from iTunes Store, and via rss on the bottom of this blog.Springs and waterfalls were especially holy places to go as in Catholic terminology, spirngs and waterfalls have always been spiritual symbols, whereas the sea, always symbolises death (Jonah and the Whale. Noah's arc.) aslo the Celtic Saints set of on their boats from Wales and other places over the sea to see where God brought them. It brought Materians, Queen of Ynyr Gwent of the ancient Kingdom of Gwent (Monmouthshire) to Boscastle and seemingly Piran as well. So they had conquered the sea and symbolically come to a promised land to serve God.


Like St Gwladys of Gwent (Gwynlliw's wife) he was a eldest child of Brychan Brycheiniog (had many children!!!!) of Talgarth,Brecon (which took its name from the chief)(check the adwen genealogy)His name is found in Devon and Brittany and Cornwall. There is a little church at Loswithiel , whichhas been carefully restored and well looked after by St Winnow Parish. Harland Abey is where he was particularly honoured and the Life of the Saint which was read there on his feast day has survived. This 'charmingly tells us of how his brothers and sisters who also settled in Cornwall would gather together at Nectan's dwelling place just after Christmas, to discuss the nature of God. It also tells us the story of how he was martyred by beheading by two robbers who had gone off with two cows 'very good milkers' and whom he had tried to convert to the holy Catholic faith. Catherine also writes 'A page has survived of the manuscript giving the Mass to be sung on St Nectan's Day June 17th 'Guarding they people, O Nectan, companion of martyrs, pray for us now and always... ' He has not been forgotton in the Hartland area where the Man from the Sea has been celebrated in music and poetry'.

Celtic monks always sought places of natural beauty to pray, and the Glen and Hermitage is no exception. Here the owner still lives in the Hermitage, and beneath this is reputed to be the ste of St Nectan's Cell. Slate steps lead to the chapel and the rear bedrock wall forma s natural altar. Until recent times the cell has not been opened to the public but as increasing numbers of visitors are realising the spiritual benefits of te place the owners are allowing access to the shrine for adults. This is a place to sit, meditate, pray and soak up the atmosphere of the place.

IT has always been the case that natural places and spring water have been good places to pray, and be close to nature, a lovely place to pray as Nectan found.

Here is a little Irish poem of the same period,of such a monk as Nectan in his cell, translated by Oliver Davies in 'Celtic Spirituality' Paulis Press NY available amazon.

ALL ALONE IN MY LITTLE CELL without the company of anyone;precious has the pilgrimage before going to meet death.

A hidden, secluded little hut, for the forgiveness of my sins, an upright, untroubled conscience towards holy heaven.

Sanctifying my body by good habits, trampling like a man upon it with weak and tearful eyes for the forgiveness of my passions.

Passions weak and withered, renouncing this wretched world, pure and eager thoughts, letthis be a prayer to God.

Heartfelt Lament to Cloudy heaven, sincere and truly devout confessions, with showers of tears.

My food as benefits my station, precious has been my captivity. My dinner without doubt, would not make me full-blooded.

Treading the paths of the gospel, singing hymns at every hour, and end of talking and long stories , constatnt bending of the knees.

May my Creator visit me, my Lord, my King; may my spirit seek him in the everlasting Kingdom where he dwells.

Let this be an end of vice in the enclosures of churches, a lovely little cell among the graves and I there alone.

All alone in my little cell, all alone thus; alone came I into the world, alone will I go out of it.

If I myself have sinned through the pride of this world, hear me lament for it all alone, O my God.

In the Name of the the Holy Three +

Haut de la Garenne latest,Emetrios Panton writes about he was abused in a home in Islaington. It seemed at that time, that there was no notice taken of any qualifications held by these people hired to look after these children except cheapness of rates! A very different etos to children existed in those days,and teir treatment much harsher, but some of these people are truly evil. This excerpt really moved me

It is emerging now that the victims repeatedly begged for help. Why did no one listen?

I have a pretty good idea why not, given how viciously the politically-correct establishment silenced me about the similar paedophile ring which raped me.

I was sexually abused by two male workers in children's homes in Islington, North London, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I was unusual, a kid who did not seek escape through drugs or suicide.

But I did run away and never again attended school. I spent my days at my local library, educated myself and went on to university, desperately hoping I could make someone listen. No-one did.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, I wrote reports on my abusers, demanding an inquiry.

In 1992, I even lobbied Margaret Hodge's office - she was then council leader - and met her stand-in, Stephen Twigg, now also a Labour MP. He did nothing.

The truth only emerged thanks to a three-year newspaper campaign which revealed that all of Islington's 12 children's homes were run by, or included, staff who were paedophiles, child pornographers or pimps.

Chill your blood, did mine! And why did the government not listen? Childcare is underpaid and undervalued. Why remove these children from homes which are abusive to put them here? God bless them all. The link to the complete article is on the right hand side.

Home again! Back to the grind from the lovely land of Cornwall

Due to school terms being so peculiar this year, we sadly had to come back today and arrived on the m5 on our holiday so that our son could go back to school tomorrow. The weather had been variable and downright icy at times, but it was mainly the wind and generally was not too bad.I managed to find a Church of St Cadoc in a Cornish Book of Saints and found the following information about St Cadoc, son of Gwynlliw and Gwkadys mantioned below and supporting the contention there was a cell of St Cadocs on the site of the present Parish (Anglican ) church at Caerleon. This was originally a basilica and Temple of Jupiter.

Enya Kennerly writes:

The life of Saint Cadoc or Cadog has come down to us in a legendary form. The historians agree however that he was a real person, the son of Gwynllyw, a Welsh prince, and of Gwladus, the daughter of Brychan of Talgarth. He lived a hermit's life, as befitted a Celtic monk, but later started missionary work, preaching in a large area in Wales and Brittany. E. G. Bowen has pointed out that the word saint in the Celtic areas really meant a hermit or monk, not necessarily a saintly one. So, we do not know any facts about Cadoc's character. He founded the monastery of Llancarfan in Glamorganshire, which became the centre of satellite houses or cells. It was usual in Wales of that period that founders of religious communities were sons of princeling or chieftain families and that this kind of foundation stayed in the hands of the same families for quite long periods, the leadership becoming hereditary.

"The family of Llancarfan", as J. Conway Davies calls it, exerted its influence in Glamorgan and Gwent in both religious and political matters. The members of the family had special relations with the chief Welsh lords of Glamorgan. One of these was Iorwerth ab Owen, lord of Caerleon, who married Angharad, daughter of bishop Uthryd of Llandaff (1140-48) who most probably belonged to the Llancarfan family. This relationship may have led to the founding of the Abbey of Caerleon and here we may also have the basic reason for the building of a memorial church to Cadog in Caerleon-even if a cell had existed already in the lifetime of the saint, six hundred years before.'

Nevertheless archeological evidence for this Abbey is problemmatical. Cadoc was a very potent Saint and made seven pilgrimages to Rome and also to Jerusalem. It is possible St Julius Julanus Church was based on the South side of the river and St Aarons on the Llanhennock road where it comes into Caerleon. However, it is possible that this small chapel of St Cadoc becme the centre ofthe ancient monastery of Caerleon as there is speculation that Gwynlliw and Gwlady's base was in this magnificent Roman city, and there was a big church in Caerleon at the time when Dubricius/Dyfrig was senior bishop. Nevertheless, this is something for a detailed study, but interesting to find St Cadoc sites in Cornwall!!

Tomorrow I will write about St Nectan. His waterfall has recently been reopened where he is buried and he is another of these Celtic hermits. The waterfall, though a climb is very much worth while.

He rose on the Third Day!

Jesus Christ is Risen today! So today after Mass all the fun and games starts. The easter egg rolling at Padstow. The Easter Egg hunts, the Easter Bonnet competitions and the cheese rolling down the hills in Gloucester! The fields are full of daffodils, altough there was even a trace of snow yesterday in Padstow!So today we are off to our own Easter Egg hunt and I hope I am lucky and get an egg. All our Monmouthshire friends are in Cornwall too and we are all doing a big hunt later today!!!

Hope you all enjoyed the programme about the Holy Shroud of Turin last night. At long last they have proved it is from the 1st century BC and have no explanation for the image on the shroud, having done all sorts of tests on it. The original tests were flawed simply because the tests were dpone on two bits of the cloth which had been used to hang up the cloth for pilgrims by the hands of clerics which had contaminated the samples.

Anyway, back on Mondy in situ!!! Happy reading!

Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas-He is risen!!!

So Christ has risen. We have just returned from the Vigil Mass. The bonfire was a bit small but lovely when the church was lit with candles as the priest held up the Easter (Paschal Candle) and celebrated :The LIght of Christ! The service had several parts, readings, renewal of baptismal promises, Litany of the Saints and finally the Eucharist and its return to the Tabernacle. I had used to go to the tiny church of St Materiana, but the final rump of people now went to another church and I was only accompanying my husband and then used to do Mass on Easter Morning.

The little church of St Paul the Apostle in Tintagel is sadly a new building pained ble inside, which I always feel is cold, especially with a florescent light over the altar. The monks of Buckfast Abbey made the stained glass, overwhelmingly blue colour, makes it feel cold. Nevertheless the priest was warm and welcoming and afterwards there was much wishing everyone a happy Easter!

LAOS-Christian Persecution

58 Christians Arrested, While 9 Church Leaders Sentenced to Prison

On February 22, Laotian officials arrested 15 Hmong Christian families in Bokeo district, Laos. According to Compass Direct News, the arrests occurred a day before a court sentenced nine Hmong church leaders to 15 years in prison for 'conducting Christian ministry and meetings that had grown beyond acceptable levels for Communist officials.'


"The day before the sentencing, Laotian authorities arrived in Bai Sai Janrern village in Bokeo district with six trucks in which they hauled away eight Christian families. Authorities also arrested at least seven families from Fai village three miles away." The arrested families make up a total of 58 Hmong Christians. Compass added, officials have warned Hmong Christians they will return to the area to round up believers who have moved from other districts in Laos. "They have been told that the officials will be sending them back to their home districts. Many Hmong in Bokeo district have married Hmong from other districts, so this will create tremendous hardship for the families," the source told Compass.

The nine Christian leaders sentenced to 15 years in prison for Christian ministry were arrested in July 2007, during a police and military raid of suspected rebels that left 13 innocent Christians

Pray for them, the persecuted and all the Martyrs.

Padstow

Today I visited Bascastle and Padstow ,where I visited St Petroc's Church.

I have then gone along the cliffs to the Glebe Cliff and looked at Tintagel Castle and Merlin;s Cave and finally went to Tintagel Church of St Materiana where I did a soundseeing tour which I will be editing when I return home and putting up on the MaryinMonmouth Podcast (available iTunes, Juice, Winamp etc)

It was so bitterly cold this wind, nevertheless the hotel is lovely, warm, bed is soft

Hagios O Theos:It is finished It is accomplished!.Passion and Compassion

So this is the Passion? Why do we call it this? When Jesus stood in front of the high Priests he said nothing. It was Pilate who said ‘Ecce Homo’-behold the man! Or we could understand it as ‘behold mankind’. As Christ the innocent stood there he mirrored our sufferings and brokenness. All of us have our crosses, often to much to bear which can bring you to depression. We call this moment a passion because it affects all of us, all of us in the body of Christ and we have to have com-passion-(cum-passionis-empathy)to truly be Christian. We see in every sufferer, however unlovely, the face of Christ. Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life my all.

Where the Paschal (Easter)blood is poured
Death’s dark angel sheathes his sword
Israel’s hosts triumphant go
Through the wave that drowns the foe.
Christ theLamb ,whose blood was shed
Paschal victim, paschal bread
With sincerity and love
Eat we manna from above.

Mighty Victim from the sky
Powers of hell beneath thee lie
Death is conquered in the fight;
Thou hast brought us light and light,
Now thy banner thou dost wave;
Vanquished Satan and the grave;
Angels join his praise to tell
-see overthrown the prince of hell.

Madeleine McCann
There seems to be some irritation by Sergei Malinka that someone has burnt his car out and written the Portuguese word for ‘Talk’ next to it! Malinka vigorously denies having anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance. He and Matthew Fazackerly and others used to own the boat the Sea Hawk, which vanished out of Pria di Luz (so I understand, on the night of the 3rd May after being there for two years. Fazakerly has returned to Britain-last July and now lives in Manchester. Clearly someone thinks he knows something and this person should fearlessly come forward and tell Scotland Yard what he knows. I guess he has no confidence in the local
police either-a shame, as a little girl is still missing, still wanting her Mum and Dad and whoever has her, she will never really be theirs.

Jersey Child Abuse accusations spread to Guernsey
It seems that accusations have come from Guernsey about children being abused there too, and the police are looking into it. After all the attempts by prominent people to ridicule and put down the Police Inspector, Henry, and intimidate witnesses cannot bear any fruit when faced with the clarity and dedication with which the police inspector is viewing the case. Clearly the nudge nuge wink wink, you scratch my back, I scratch yours kind of conspiracy of silence cannot hold up.One is tempted to ask, however, with the Establishment support him, or might it ruin his career? It is good someone is soldiering on in the cause of Justice. Justice or the young and vulnerable children with no one to turn to ,no way out, cried in the dark in despair and the paedophiles did not care, the locals to whom they turned did not care and now it’s payback time. Hell will come to all who have sinned. They let these little ones suffer with hard hearts and treated them a a commodity. Children who enter these places have aleady had a rough time and had problems, perhaps problems difficult to deal with, but this they did not deserve.

Well, look at the sin and brokenness in the world, thouse controlled by the Prince of Evil. Good we have Paradise to look orward to because Jesus took him on and won. The next world will be full of compassionate loving people. Who believe evil will not prevail and will live with God in a better place.

HOLY THURSDAY:THE TRIDUUM,The Mystery Begins

I have a new Commandment to give you,that you are to Love one another; that your love for one another is to be like the love I have borne you.
Blessed are they who pass through life's journey unstained , who follow the law of the Lord.

MANDATUM NOVUM DO VOBIS:UT DILIGATIS INVICEM SICUT BEATI IMMACULATI IN VIA;QUI AMBULANT IN LEGE DOMINI.

The theme of today's mystery is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in the institution of the Holy Eucharist, the sacrifice on the cross and the lasting reality of his being with us in the Eucharist at every Mass 'even to the end of Time'.It is a memorial for thePriesthood and love of one person to another and the humility of the washing of the Apostles' feet by himself.

Have Christians always believed that the bread and the wine on the altar is changed from the Bread and Wine we see into the actual body and blood of Christ?

If you want a serious answer, read on with an open mind and no preconceptions. The answer is yes, until the sixteenth century.Let's look at what Jesus himself actually said: (John 6:26+)



In all truth I tell you, you are looking for me,not because you have seen the signs,but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat. Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures to eternal life,which the Son of Man will give you,on him, the Father God himslef has set his seal.

Then they said to him,What must we do if we are to carry out God's work?Jesus said:'This is carrying out God's work, you must believe in the one he has sent.So they said, what sign will you do, the sight which will make us believe in you?What work will you do?Our fathers ate manna (food God sent to feed the people when they were starving in the story of the Red Sea and Moses in OT)in the desert, as scripture says:He gave them Bread from Heaven to eat.

Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you,It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven,the true bread for the bread of God s the Bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.



'Sir' they said 'give us your bread always'.

I am the Bread of Life
No one who comes to me will ever hunger
no one who believes in me will everthirst
But as I have told you
You can see me and still you will not believe
Everyone the Father gives me will come to me
I will certainly not reject anyone who comes to me
Because I have come from heaven, not to do my own Will
but to do the Will of Him who sent me
Now the Will of Him who sent me is that I should lose othing
of all He has given to me, but that I should raise it up on the Last Day
It is myFather's will
That whoever sees the Son and believes in Him
should have eternal Life
And that I should raise that person up on the Last Day.

Meanwhile the Jews complained about him, because he had said'I am the Bread that has come down from Heaven' They were saying surely this is Jesus, Son of Joseph whom we all know and whose family we know. How can he say 'I have come down from Heaven?'

(Ed :Jesus goes on to affirm what he has already said John:6:44-48)

Then:
Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead.
But this is the Bread that comes down from Heaven.
so that a person may eat it and not die
I am the living bread which has come down from Heaven.
Anyone who eats this Bread will live forever.
and the bread I shall give
is my flesh, the life of the world.

Then the Jews argued among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Jesus said (this time substituting the Greek word for 'eat' with the word to'gnaw' and 'chew')

In all truth I tell you,
If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood,
You have no Life in you.

Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood will have eternal Life
(Live forever with God)
and I shall raise that person up on the last day

For my flesh is real food
And my blood is real drink
Whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me,
And I live in that person.

As the Living Father sent me and I draw Life from the Father
so whoever eats me will draw life from meThis is the bread which has come down from Heaven
it is not like the bread our ancetors ate.
They are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live forever.

This is what e taught in the Synagogue in Capernaum. After hearing it many of his followers said,'This is intolerable language! How can anyone accept this? Jesus was aware they were complaining and said'Does this bother you?' What if you should see te Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

It is the Spirit that gives Life, the flesh has nothing to offer* The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

(*St. Augustine explains this , “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing” [Jn 6: 63]. The problem with their understanding is that they were thinking of flesh as when it is cut up in a meat market or cut from a corpse and not when it is animated by the spirit. To say that the “flesh profits nothing” he says, is the equivalent of saying “knowledge puffs one up.” )

Jesus goes on :
'But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the outset who did not believe and would betray him. He went on.'That is why I told you that no one wcould come to me except by this gift of the Father'. After this, many of the disciples went away and did not follow him any more.'(They were appalled as they thought he was talking about cannibalism)

'Jesus then turned to Peter his follower and said 'What about you? do you want to go away too?' Peter said 'Lord to whom shall we go? You have the message of Eternal Life and we believe and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus replied to them 'Did I not choose the twelve of you? Yet one of you is a Devil.' He meant Judas, Son of Simon Iscariot, since this was the man of the Twelve who would betray Him.

The Twelve Apostles Jesus picked were his chosen, those to explain him to the people and do his Mission after he died.

*the word Apostle in Greek is Episkopoi which means “bishop or overseer”

What did the people who were fed to the Lions, and martyred in horrible cruel ways think about the Eucharist?


The people trained by Saints Peter and Paul and John, the Apostle were given the full insights into the teaching of Christ, long before the Bible as we know it was formulated and confirmed.It was the Early Church that Compiled the Bible from the accounts of people who were alive at the time of Christ and could give witness.

One of the oldest Christian documents in existence is the Didache, also known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which was written between 50-150 A.D. and was used to instruct new Christians or catechumens. It says:

In regard to the Eucharist--you shall give thanks thus: First, in regard to the cup: --We give you thanks, our Father, for the holy vine of David your son, which you made known to us through Jesus your son [who was a descendant of David]. Glory be to you forever. In regard to the broken bread [the bread is broken at every Mass]: --We give you thanks, our Father, for the life and knowledge you have made known to us through Jesus your Son. Glory be to you forever. At this the broken bread was scattered on the mountains, but brought together was made one, so gather your Church from the ends of the earth into your kingdom. For yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever. Let no one eat or drink of this Eucharist with you except those who have been baptized in the name of the Lord; for it was in reference to this that the Lord said, 'Do not give that which is holy to dogs.'(See below in what the Welsh and Irish Teachers say about this)

If you are in any doubt that Jesus has enough of his 'flesh' to go round from generation to generation till the Second Coming, this passage in John 6 is preceeded by the Miracle of the Loaves and Fish. Just think what relevence this is coming before this passage about the Eucharist.Panis Angelicus-Bread of the Angels.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, the third *Bishop of Antioch, who provided the first written evidence that the Church called itself “catholic’ [meaning “universal”] referred to the Eucharist [Body and Blood of Jesus received in Communion at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass] in the following terms in his letter to the Ephesians written before 110 A.D. when he was on his way to Rome to be martyred for his faith:
Come together in common, one and all without exception in charity, in one faith and in one Jesus Christ, who is of the race of David according to the flesh, the son of man, and the Son of God, so that with undivided mind you may obey the bishop and the priests, and break one Bread which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ.

Ignatius, also wrote in the letter to the Smyrnaeans
Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior, Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their own disputes.



St Augustine, one of the earliest writers in the Church writes:

... I promised you who have been baptized a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s table, which you now behold and which you became partakers of last night. You should understand what you have received, what you will receive, indeed what you should receive daily. The bread you see on the altar and that has been sanctified by the word of God is the Body of Christ. Through these things the Lord Christ wished to entrust to us his Body and his Blood which he shed for us unto the remission of sins. If you receive them well, you are that which you receive. The Apostle says, ‘One bread and we, the many, are one body.’ [1 Cor 10: 17]

St. Augustine also makes it clear that Christ was holding his own flesh in his own hands when, entrusting us to his own Body, [for] he said: ‘This is my Body”[Mt. 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24]. Indeed he was carrying his own Body in his own hands.”




http://www.catholicfaithandreason.org/fathersoneucharist2b.htm For more writings of the earliest Christians.

Early Welsh beliefs-Gildas

If is interesting in looking at the sins that Gildas writes down that it is quite clear that the ancient Church in Wales held identical beliefs, being, as it were in full Communion with Rome.

The word 'Host' is the consecrated Bread, Body of Christ, called after 'Hostias'=Sacrifice-Latin)

'From Gildas' Penitentials:

If a monk vomits the Host during the day from an overful stomach, he shall not presume to take his supper, and iff illness is not the cause, he shall expunge his offence with seven special asts, but if illness is the cause,rather than gluttony, then with four special fasts.

If anyone loses a host through carelessness, leaving it to be consumed by wild animals and birds, he shall do penance for three forty day periods.'

He who allows the Host to fall to the groundthrough carelessness, shall go without supper.

Then the Penitentials of Cummean

If by some accident someone negligently loses the Host, leaving it for animals and birds to devour, if it is at all excusable ,he shall still do penance for three fourty day periods, if not, ofr a year.

He who knowingly gives the Host to someone who is excommunicate shall do penance for forty days. (Soneone not conirmed in the Church's faith)

He who allows the Host to fall to the ground through carelessness shall do a special fast.

Further:
If someone lets a mouse eat it = 40 days fasting
Loss of the Host =Twenty days
Loss of the receptacle of the Host=:three forty day periods in the year.
Dropping the wine on the altar accidentally=7 days penance
spilling a lot of wine on the altar=seven days fasting
Dropping on the straw on the floor=7 days penance
Spilling the wine from the chalice at end of Mass=40 days penance.
Vomiting the Host =20 days penance if it goes into fire,if not 40 days. If dogs eat it 100 days.If the cause is illness, he shall sing 100 psalms

there are two more pages in 'Celtic Spirituality' (by Oliver Davies-available from ama zon )declaring sins connecedwith the Host, the Bread of Heaven as Christ called it himself)It was quite clear the seriousness with which they regarded the Host or the Lords supper and how they looked after it during and after Mass in direct obedience to the words of Christ.



There are always those who will walk away from this Truth , like the Jews who left appalled, unable to see with the eyes of faith-understand. The Bread and the Wine on the altar are not a reenactment of the Crucifixion over and over every time, but truly a visitation to that one time, when we stand at the foot of the Cross with Mary and the Apostle John.

Well who could show love better than that? Who can face the Eucharist and deny the teachings of Christ? And bear in mind there are many more references from the people who were made into human torches and fed to the lions. They all believed in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist-literally.I am glad I came to understand this.

Madeleine McCann

How good that at last Gerry and Kate McCann have had this tremendous injustice takn from their shoulders. They are now able to focus on getting their child home and employing new directives. It is the opinion of many people , psychics and otherwise, that those who hold Madeleine are actually known to the family, and it has been some kind of punishment or grudge. If it is and you who have her are reading this, Give her back to her parents now. You have done much damage, hurting a little child.Give her back. She is not yours and remember there is Divine Justice.

Haut de la Garenne goes on

Because there is little yet to go on until all the investigations are complete, the Sun newspaper is making wild and unsubstantiated claims against a well known personality, whose own background has been spotless.They will never learn and I hope the person in question sues the newspaper concerned. We have a right to know facts, not spurious allegations against people (like the McCann's were) who then haveto start defending themselves against something entirely without foundation, which gives them and their families enormous grief, just so they can sell their newspapers.

Coroner at Bridgend's Comments

The Coroner investigating the teenage suicides today has come to the conclusion with the first three that they did comitt suicide. He was scathing of You Tube allowing videos to be shown instructing young people on tips on how to do this.There are also apparently occult websites which the feeble minded will go on for kicks. I am once again speechless that these sites are not taken down or at least blocked. I really enjoy You Tube but it seems unregulated and allows people to make the most outrageous and dark videos, like the libellous ones accusing the McCann's of the death of their daughter. How cruel is that? I hope it will be possible for the McCann;s to sue all who publish these libels and take no thought for the fact of the feelings of people already hit hard by the abduction of the child. Let us hope there will be justice for all and hope Madeleine returns very soon.

Gordon C Wateridge from DT today-arrested

The case against a man accused of sexually assaulting girls at a former Jersey children's home was adjourned for a month yesterday.

Gordon Wateridge is charged with three offences of indecent assault on girls under 16 between 1969 and 1979 when he was warder at Haut de la Garenne.

The 76-year-old was remanded in custody and will next appear before St Helier Magistrates' Court on April 14.#

Seeing with the Eyes of Faith, a ghostly Revelation at Rockfield, Prayer for Tuesday of Holy Week

The Cwm , here to the north of Monmouth, the Jesuit Missionary Priests had their headquarters, the College of St Francis Xavier. The documents raided from there after the death of Fr David in 1679 are in the Herefordshire County Records Office.
Below :Two photos of St Cenedlon's Church, Rockfield
Below:The Tombstone of St David Lewis 'Father of the Poor' hung 1697 outside the door of the Priory Church of Our Lady (St Mary) at Usk.













I remember when I was working for a university exam once, the lecturer asking us to think of the expression 'the mind's eye', something which I found quite difficult to think of. If you think of it as seeing with the eyes of faith it is easier, because it is actually to see, with God's help 'into the life of things'.Tennyson mentions this in his poem 'Morte d'Arthur' (The Death of Arthur) and also mentions that the key to real 'seeing with faith' is prayer.Prayer is always comforting 'plugs you in to God', bringing security in a crazy world.

‘The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within himself make pure! but thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.

I love these words, because prayer keeps you 'in tune' with God. We, as human beings are religious beings. we belong to another order, another dimension. we have not fixed home forever on this earth, no abiding city, and even in the most insignificant parts of our life, we actually belong to another world. What we see here, feel here ,touch here, is not all there is.Sister Mary David Totah writes 'Prayer is born of the conviction that the world we live in is not two dimensional; it is born of he conviction that we are surrounded by an invisible world, that God is our supreme reality and deepest truth.There is something of eternity in us, we have the capacity for God. We have a capacity to know God and receive his revelation, because we are made of the image of God and because God has revealed himself to us in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ',crucified, resurrected and present in the Eucharist until the End of Time. These things are revealed to us if our eyes are opened and we don't vew the world as a 'blind life within the brain', that we truly see what is there, the young child,the baby the young mother or father in the face of an elderly person.The essence is the same.

St Cenedlon's Church-my private encounter with the Communion of Saintsa ghostly experience!

I thought I would mention my trip to St Cenedlon's Church at Rockfield (Llanoronwy) near Monmouth in association with these sentiments. The biggest prayer for me has always been the Mass.I went to Mass for some years before I saw and felt with the eyes and feelings of faith, that the Church never prays alone. Present there with us were the souls of the Faithful Departed all come to the food of the Cross forever, gathered and taught by the heirs of Christ and St Pater. However my own prayers have always been haphazard. I tend to talk to God informally like Noah.Like: 'Father in Heaven, please can you do something about my knee-it's really painful' or 'Father in Heaven,please help my son do well in his exam, keep him confident and focused'. We have after all been told by Christ himself to ask and it shall be given unto us.Further Jesus said 'Knock and it shall be opened to you! And hey, that is where it's really at. That door opening. He said 'Seek and your shall find'.Sometimes, though, the Holy Spirit finds you!!!

I started to write my book (sounds grand that, but what I mean is I was gathering information for my book which will be a Catholic history of Monmouthshire.) During the latter part o the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many laws were passed against Catholics in the UK. Henry VIII had demanded an annulment for his thirty five year old marriage to Catherine of Aragon (daughter of he King and Queen of Spain)with whom he had a daughter because his new love would not have an affair with him, as he had with her sister and had insisted on being Queen.ThePope would not agree and what happened is history. Many people died and all sorts of misery ensued. A new church was brought into being by Henry, his own church and people were made to join it or face heavy fines. Clergy who would not capitulate were simply martyred-perhaps being closer to wat was at stake. Things reached painful regions when priests and those who helped them were martyred. Sons of British Catholics trained in Rome and Douai came home and during the times of the lies of Titus Oates were hung drawn and quartered for being 'spies'.

Housewives who sheltered priests were executed too, like St Margaret Clitherow of York were martyred, placed under a heavy door with stones placed on the door until she was crushed to death. Her 'crime' was to hide a priest. It is no wonder the church had to go underground and at times headed by hotheads and unwise people like those of the Gunpowder Plot, which many believe was known about for some time, but allowed to go ahead in order to panic people further against Catholics. Indeed the great families who had benefited from the proceeds of Church property and land would go to some length to keep it.Anyway here are the Penal Laws:-

1559, Act of Supremacy: Monarch makes himself supreme governor of Church of England, clergy to take oath of supremacy on pain of deprivation.

1559, Act of Uniformity: imposed Book of Common Prayer, one shilling fine for failure to attend church on Sunday.Monasteries and convents dissolved, religious turned out-some to France, some to starve.

1563, forbidden to defend papal supremacy on pain of Praemunire (forfeiture of property).Priests or reigious efusing to be executed.

1571, treason to call monarch heretic or schismatic, treason to introduce papal bulls.

1581, treason to convert or to be converted to Catholicism, fine of £20 per month for recusancy(ordinary people)

1585, treason for Jesuits or seminary priests to enter the country.Pain of death, hanging drawing and quartering)

1587, suspected recusant who failed to appear for trial incurred guilt.

1593, recusants restricted to within five miles of their homes.

1605, convicted recusants to receive Anglican communion once per annum on pain of fine and eventual forfeiture of property.

1605, recusants barred from office and professions.

1678, recusants barred from parliament.

1692, recusants incur double land tax.

1699, recusants barred from purchasing or inheriting land.

1778, Relief Act: Catholics permitted to own land.

The last is a relief act, which began the restoration of the Church and its people.

In my researches about the recusant period which started with the Martyrdom of the 'Father of the Poor' (Tad ur Oedolion) at Usk I found something rather good in the middle of this horrible time. Anglican priests turned a blind eye to Catholics being secretly buried in Churchyards marked only by the IHS on their gravestones and that there was a general distaste among the ordinary folk in Monmouthshire for what happened to their priests. David Lewis was the son of the formerHeadmaster of Abergavenny School, he was one of the people. the main tormentors, whi had benefited from Church lands were a different class of people, strongly supportive of England and the English systems of government. the great Catholic Monmouthshire families were systematically 'milked of all their assets -but they, (the Herberts (descended from the Earls of Worcester-who lived at Raglan until the Civil War took them to Treowen , the Jones, the Morgans) remained loyal to the Faith to this day.

I heard that several priests had been buried in St Maugham's Church (named for St Mawgan -Celtic monastery of yore) On visiting I contacted the Vicar who was enormously helpful, explaining that Bishop Matthew Pritchard, Vicar Apostolic of the Western Region was buried beneath the altar at Rockfield. Bishop Matthew had a hard life, there is no doubt, scooting along hedgerows at night to his next Christening or marriage or Mass, returning to Perthir House, where he had kin to rest.The house had the advowson of the church (owned it) which was strange-a Catholic family deciding who should be vicar. St Cenedlon's is still a beautiful church near Monmouth. The very kind Churchwardens came specially to show me around and let me in. I found Bishop Matthew's tombstone, beautifully inscribed under the altar and was told there were numerous other buried priests of the recusancy era in the churchyard.I was interested to see he lived until over 80 a record in those days, I thought.

After taking my photos, I knelt to pray and somehow it was brought home to me, that they suffered all sorts of privations, especially in defence of the Eucharist,the lack of tact and wisdom of some people impacting so hard on all Catholics, and the lies of Oates. These men gave their lives in the service or the original church and died unmarked, though I suspect greatly loved . I decided to pray the glorious mysteries of the rosary. The churchwardens had left me alone for a while.

I pray the Glorious Mysteries

I thought, 'Lets do it'.Now I pray with my iPod. Greg and Jennifer Willets of www.rosaryarmy.com have made all four mysteries which you can download from iTunes free. I said out loud, I am praying this rosary in the hope of the Resurrection of all the recusant Priests and those who died for the Faith during the sixteenth,seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and those who helped them. I selected the correct one from the iPod, put my earbuds in and taking the rosary from my pocket, I crossed myself and invoked the Trinity 'In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit' I began and commenced reciting the Apostles' Creed: 'I believe in God, the Father Almighty,Maker of Heaven and earth......'

I began to have a prickling sensation at the back of my head, such as you get when you are being watched. what happened next was far outside the bounds of anything I had experenced before. Curiously I was initially panicked but then relaxed. From every corner of the church seemingly through walls, the floor, ceiling everywhere some strange beings came, all wearing black, old fashioned casssock style garments (though nothing was really detailed about them) They knelt there and took out what I felt might be rosaries as they were using their hands and as the prayer continued ,I felt they prayed with me. They took no notice of me at all (thank heavens!) the only thing I thought was 'Oh well, I better speak out the rosary bit o the prayer said on the Ipod with Jennifer and Greg, or they won't hear it'. It startled me, that I had felt them so real I did this! The prayers and meditation continued Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost.....I began to feel the person near me had quite a big nose-even though these people were sort of fuzzy with fuzzy faces, I was aware of this one person, kneeling near me. I was nervous the churchwardens would come back, not because I was doing anyting wrong, but because they might think I was a religious maniac, but it is a spiritual act of mercy to pray for te faithful departed, especially for these men. I spoke out the words and there was a peculiar echo to them like a communal whispery echo. I was not afraid, they took no notice and when the final prayers came, which was the 'Memorare' of St Bernard of Clairvaux they simple dissolved again. I stayed there a minute to try to take in what had hapened.

I mentioned it to a spiritual director at a retreat I was on and he said it seemed I had been permitted a glimpse into te Communion of Saints. You know 'You never pray alone-the Communion of Saints will support you in prayer-those who still live and those who await the second coming in heaven. I thanked God for the privilege. I saw them, because I was praying there, they needed my prayers. Since then I pray more especially for the Faithful departed, who have ot departed so far. They are still there with us when we pray, died in the faith, stronger than us. So this Easter, think of them all there-the reality of heaven. This IS my body, Christ's sacrifice on the Cross once and forever.

Problem is then you start thinking, 'Am I good enough? Am I holy enough?' and the answer is 'no'. Yes to 'do you believe the promise of Christ?' no to have you done enough to repent answer for your failings. I try but I am not there yet.My sins are like spam in an inbox. No matter how many I delete, there are always more....Yet I can only try, and ask myself, 'Whyever, did God love me so much, to take my sins on his back and kill them, so that I can join him in heaven? Love so amazing so divine.Wish I was worthier...

Few days later I received an article with a photo of a painting of Bishop Matthew - and his huge nose.....Strange or what? I will post later in the year about another more public revelation in Monmouthshire in the nineteenth century, that of The Blessed Virgin Mary at Capel y ffin. This was never investigated because it was a private revelation accorded a pilgrimage every year on the last Sunday of August.

About Christ:The Prophecy

Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken, and his generation were concerned he was cutt off out of the Land of the Living, at his being struck dead for the disobedience of his people. He was given a grave with the wicked,and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit. It was God's good pleasure to rack him with pain, if he gives his life as a Sin-Offering. He will see his offspring and prolong his life, and through Him, The Lord's good pleasure will be done.

After the Ordeal he endured, he will see the Light and be content
By his knowledge, the upright One, my servant, will justify many by taking their gift upon himself.

Hence I shall give him a portion with the many and he will share the booty with the mighty for having exposed himslef to death and for being counted as one of the rebellious, whereas he was bearing the sins of many and interceding for the disobedient.Continued from the Prophet Isaiah.

Madeleine McCann

I am glad the Express have now done the decent thing and apologised to Gerry and Kate McCann for the lurid and completely false claims made about them. they believe she is alive and will be restored to them by Grace of God. Let's all pray for that.

Haut de la Garenne

The digging gows on as the police comile more and more names of people they want to interview both inside and outside Jersey.There comes a point where words actually fail you. They have now broken intoa third chamber and are excavating there and the Cadaver dogs have confirmed a body there too.....requiescant in pacePoor babies.