Pilgrim Ways

The Catholic Spring Blossoms Into Summer.

When Cardinal Vaughan laid the foundation stone in 1895, he told Bentley not to design a Gothic cathedral. His preference was for something Italianate. What he got was a design which Bentley said should not be "confined to Italy, England or any other nation", but rather that it should be absolutely primitive Christian - Byzantine, celebrating the universality of the Church. The design, which would enable the congregation to see and hear all the great liturgies, and would not be seen to compete with the gothic of Westminster Abbey, could be expedited without unnecessary delay. Cardinal Vaughan combined vision and a sense of what was achievable. Here would be the celebration of what Cardinal Manning called the Catholic Spring. Seven years (and twelve and a half million hand-made bricks) later, in 1903, the fabric of the building was indeed complete, and the first major religious service was the funeral of Cardinal Vaughan, who, like John Bentley, died just before the completion of the main structure. As a child brought to London to see the cathedral I remember the impact that the building had upon me. For many Londoners it was not until a redevelopment in 1976 led to the clearance of the buildings in front that the piazza was created and the full vista of this magnificent building could be appreciated by passers by. For my generation other obstacles impeding people's view of the Catholic Church in England have likewise been swept away.

Primarily this was because of the ministry and example of Cardinal Basil Hume. In him, Manning's Spring finally blossomed into Summer, and through him the remaining impediments blocking people's view of the Catholic Church in England have been demolished. It took the return of a Benedictine monk to Westminster to achieve this. Let that pilgrim have the last word: .

Meditation Life is a Pilgrimage, by Cardinal Basil Hume OSB OM The greatest grace which God can give is the knowledge that He loves each one of us more than any lover ever loved his, or her beloved. To realise that, and to allow it to sink deep into our hearts and our minds, can change our lives completely. Who can separate us from that love? As we approach the last bit of the journey there are days when we fear that we face an unknown, unpredictable, uncertain future. That is a common experience. But do not worry; because the time comes when we no longer carry heavy bags and all those possessions. We shall travel through the cold, grey light of a bleak English morning into God's Spring and Summer; into His light and warmth. "This day you will be with me in paradise"(Luke 23:43).This day will inevitably come for each one of us, we do not know when. But it most surely will come and what a joy it will be when we hear the words: "This day you will be with me in paradise." We must move in our spiritual lives from thinking of death as the great enemy and begin to think about "this day" as the one when we shall be going home, the one for which we were made and for which the whole of our lives is the preparation. Life is indeed a pilgrimage as we walk each day closer to its end, which is the vision of God. We are made for that and life is a preparation for the moment when we move from this situation into eternal happiness. Joy and sorrow, agony and ecstasy, pain and well-being: they walk hand in hand up that hill which is called Calvary. But beyond it to a place where there is no more death, no sin, no pain, only empty tombs and life everlasting.