Wednesday, March 02, 2011

A crowd of young parents...

...packed out a room at St Joseph's, Epsom, this evening for a talk on the sacrament of Penance. Yes, I mean a big crowd - they get about 700 people at the main Family Mass on Sunday mornings, and here were a large number of them, coming for the latest in a series of evening sessions on preparing the children to recieve the sacraments. I was amazed. We keep hearing about how the Church is supposed to be dying, numbers dwindling, etc, but it just isn't.

It was a priviledge to be there as part of a team with Dr Pia Matthews talking about the Sacrament of Penance, and how it works, and what it's all about...there was a great atmosphere, everyone attentive, a good blend of humour and seriousness, an air of realism, faith, and much goodwill. These are families who see their children and the Faith as being of central importance in their lives...

Earlier in the day, I was at a press conference about the H. Father's new book on Jesus of Nazareth...

And in between, a happy family time, helping to collect a small relative from school and walking along with him swinging a schoolbag and chattering agreeably.

1 comment:

Manny said...

That is great on the crowd on Penence. Remarkable, actually. Every so often one gets these glimpses of hope. I saw the exerpts on the H.Father's book, the exerpts on exonerating Jews from crucifying Christ. Excellent. The man is brilliant.