Saint Stephen's Blog
Homily given by Fr Christopher Basden, Saturday 22nd February 2020
It is lovely to be back here. I spent seven of the happiest years of my life (1983-1990) at St. Stephen’s, Welling. I thought it was the centre of the universe and just down the road I found a real “Bethany” at the house of Fred and Della.
Gwen has asked me to write something about my doings at the Beda seminary in Rome. As you may know I left Welling in September 2018 to spend a year as a Pastoral Assistant in Dover before going to the seminary. Dover remains my UK base as my flat in Welling is now rented out. I am really blessed to have Father Jeff Cridland as parish priest. Some of the older parishioners in Welling will remember him from his spell in Welling at the end of 1995.
This may seem like a strange time of the year to still be talking about Father Christmas, but it’s about now that many families begin to realise just how much he cost them in the weeks and months leading up to Christmas. And how much they now owe! Continue reading “After Santa’s Gone!”
On Friday 24th January a party of 18 set off on a coach to Paris. We travelled to Folkestone and then on the shuttle to Calais. Then it was the long coach journey to the Disney Hotel.
On March 29th next, England is to be rededicated as Dowry to Our Lady by the Bishops of England and Wales in conjunction with the entire Church of these two countries. To that end it is proposed that each of us should make a personal Act of Consecration to Jesus in Mary on the feast of the Annunciation and to prepare for that by following the method of St Louis Grignion de Montfort as simplified by Fr Michael Gaitley in the booklet, 33 Days to Morning Glory – a do-it-yourself retreat in preparation for the Marian Consecration. The booklets will be available at no cost.
Continue reading “The Rededication of England as Dowry of Mary”
