What welcome news. God bless you. Wise idea to keep in close touch with the good Father M.

So glad you'll be joining us in the dining room of Father M's club in January.

Another Spong alert for you -- this is an old one, but it shows you the mindset of the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church.

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/5658/

This sermon alone would provoke a Vatican response, were he a Catholic. His books would earn him excommunication, I have no doubt.

The problem with TEC is that it simply no longer defends the faith. At this rate, they'll be holding Wicca chant circles in the Episcopal cathedrals inside of five years.

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s laughter and dancing and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!

-- Hilaire Belloc

How splendid.

Have you read Robert Hugh Benson's "Confessions of a Convert"? If not, I recommend the entire thing, but especially the beginning and the end. He speaks about Providence with a poet's voice.

A huge snippet from the last chapter:

"As, then, I look back from this present moment...I see God's plan with me lying like a golden thread through all the tumbled country through which I have come, up from the pleasant meadows of home and school, the broken slopes of ministerial work, the caverns and cliffs of the shadow of death, up to this walled and battlemented plateau, from which for the first time the world is visible as it really is, not as I had thought it to be. I understand now that there is coherence in all that God has made -- that He has made of one blood all the nations of the earth; that there is not one aspiration out of the darkness that does not find its way to Him; not one broken or distorted system of thought that does not flash back at least one ray of eternal glory; not one soul but has her place in His economy. On the one side there is thirst and desire and restlessness; on the other, satisfaction and peace; there is no instinct but has its object, no pool but it reflects the sun, no spot of disfigured earth but has the sky above it. And through all this ruined wilderness He has brought me, of His infinite goodness, to that place where Jerusalem has descended from on high, which is the mother of us all; He has brought me out of the mire and clay and set my feet upon the rock; He has lifted me from those straying paths that lead nowhere, on to the broad road that leads to Him."

Fine recommendation, Lorraine.

In fact, all of Fr. Benson's historical fiction is wonderful and inspiring--particularly if you like English pre- and post-Reformation history.

Christine,

I've only read "C. of a C." and "Come Rack, Come Rope!" But I enjoyed both tremendously.

I keep saying "Come Rack! Come Rope" needs to be made into a film, and that Mel Gibson would be just the one to do it. The PP circle thinks it's a funny idea, but I'm quite serious.

That is a fabulous idea. I've always thought there should be a movie about Edmund Campion. I heard rumors, after the Passion was released, that Mel Gibson planned to make a film about the Machabees family but then Apocolypto turned out to be his next project.