Resurrexit Sicut Dixit!

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

I feel full of life and vitality after a solemn and gruelling passiontide. There has been many things I have been itching to write; this Blog actually replaces a personal diary I have written almost constantly since 1993. So it's been strange not to record my thoughts and musings over this crucial time in my spiritual year.

Also it has been such a good thing not to have blogged. I have desperately needed space and distance from obligations to anything outside of my family and vocation of father and husband. It has been wonderful to enjoy life without thinking "ooh, I must blog about this!". So I am resisting the temptation to write retrospectively about the last couple of weeks, but will simply pick up where I have left off.

Thank you, faithful readers, for all your support and comments which were gratefully received after my abrupt blogging hibernation. Having had a certain amount of success on the blogging circuit, I had begun to be arrogant and impulsive about the content of Lacrimarum Valle, without calling to mind the apostolate nature of this exercise. In a way I have a responsibility as Catholic father to present this vocation in its glory, as an inspiration to finding out more about the Faith. Little Madeleine is the true star of the show; she's the fulfillment of marital love and a symbol of the future of the Church. As a child dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she has the tender prayers of the Mother of Humanity, and our responsibility is to help her realise this blessing.

This afternoon's Tridentine Mass in the Birmingham Oratory's Cloister Chapel

I look forward to sharing my spiritual reflections with you over this Eastertide.

Pour forth upon us, O Lord, the Spirit of Thy love, that by Thy loving kindness Thou mayest make to be of one mind, those whom Thou hast fed with these paschal sacraments. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.