I suppose that many like me will be attending Mass away during August. I can't imagine anything worse than seeking out an Anglican church in France when there are so many parish churches of the local tradition administering the Holy Sacraments without church politics being involved. We won't even have to think about their validity or who is in whose college of priests and deacons. Living in Wales this will truly be a holiday! If I am attending Mass in the same place in France over several weeks I try out of courtesy to make ourselves known to the officiating priests ( they often minister in large groups not parishes these days). As yet we have not been refused; on the basis that there is unlikely to be an Anglican Mass nearby in rural France anyway and that we will be welcome. I don't have to say that I will be praying the same Divine Office that they will, although perhaps I should. I may even (most probably) be sharing more than that with them sooner than later, even as a layman, now that the defeat for traditional Anglicans like me has been so comprehensive. Let's be truthful presided over by one who despite the rhetoric has not shown any ability to honour the promises and 'concern' for those of us whose only crime was in all conscience to abide by the Anglican formularies regarding Holy Orders unbroken for five hundred years until the new 'credo' of the 1990's. So I will make my pilgrimages while on holiday to the Norman Abbeys and particularly to Bec where earlier more noble and honourable and orthodox Archbishops of Canterbury emanated. At the feet of Lanfranc and Anselm I will pray for the Anglican church and those of her number whom she has rejected, for the family and for parishes here. Sad? Yes! Bitter? Never! Holiday reading? The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. Get my drift? Of course you do! Assumptiontide with fellow catholics too. Heaven indeed!! Happy Holidays. Until September Adieu!
