Catholics From England

"A British civil servant had a great deal to say about Mathura in the 1870s. F.S. Growse belonged to the Bengal Civil Service and was the Collector of Mathura district. I quote from his 'Mathura: A District Memoir,' Bulands hahr 1882: The neighbourhood is crowded with sacred sites, which for many generations have been reverenced as the traditionary scenes of Krishna's adventures; but thanks to Muhammedan intolerance, there is not a single building of any antiquity either in the city itself or its environs. Its most famous temple - that dedicated to Kesava Deva- was destroyed, as already mentioned, in 1669, the eleventh year of the reign of the iconoclastic Aurangzeb. The mosque erected on its ruins is a building of little architectural value, but the natural advantages of its lofty and isolated position render it a striking feature in the landscape."

""The existence of such a race is simply assumed by those who find it convenient to represent as non-aryan any formation which their acquaintance with unwritten Aryan speech in its growth and decay is too superficial to enable them at once to identify" (320). He further complained that "a derivation from Sanskrit by the application of well-established but less popularly known phonetic and grammatical laws, is stigmatized as pedantic" (320)."

"Neither from the intrinsic evidence of indigenous literature, nor from the facts of recorded history, is it permissible to infer the simultaneous existence in the country of an alien-speaking race at any period"

""So many names that at a hasty glance appear utterly unmeaning can be traced back to original Sanskrit forms as to raise a presumption that the remainder, though more effectively disguised, will ultimately be found capable of similar treatment: a strong argument being thus afforded against those scholars who hold that the modern vernacular is impregnated with a very large non-Aryan element" (Growse 1883, 353)."

"In his Mathura: A District Memoir, Growse has recorded his exhaustive survey and research about Brajbhoomi. He was so overhelmed by the vandalism that visited the area repeatedly, that he wrote feelingly, although his home was in far away England. To quote: thanks to Muhammadan intolerance, there is not a single building of any antiquity either in the city itself or its environs.Its most famous temple - that dedicated to Kesava Deva (Krishna) - was destroyed in 1669, the eleventh year of the reign of the iconoclast Aurangzeb (Alamgir was also his name). The mosque (idgah) erected on its ruins is a building of little architectural value. Mahmud Ghazni was however the first iconoclast to vandalise Mathura. That was in 1017 AD about which Growse wrote: If any one wished to construct a building equal to it, he would not be able to do so without expending a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed. Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire and levelled with the ground. The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoils are said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels. The total value of the spoils has been estimated at three millions of rupees; while the number of Hindus carried away into captivity exceeded 5,000.... To go back to Aurangzeb, over two centuries after the desecration, Growse felt that: of all the sacred places in India, none enjoys a greater popularity than the capital of Bra}, the holy city of Mathura. For nine months in the year, festival follows upon festival in rapid succession and the ghats and temples are daily thronged with new troops of way-worn pilgrims. So great is the sanctity of the spot that its panegyrists do not hesitate to declare that a single day spent at Mathura is more meritorious than a lifetime passed at Benares. All this celebrity is due to the fact of it being the birthplace of the demi-god Krishna. In his chapter entitled The Bra} Mandai, the Ban Yatra and the Holi as Growse puts it: Not only the city of Mathura, but with it, the whole of the western half of the district has a special interest of its own as the birthplace and abiding home of Vaishnava Hinduism. It is about 42 miles in length with an average breadth of 30 miles and is intersected throughout by the river Jamuna. In the neighbourhood is Gokul and Brindaban, where the divine brothers Krishna and Balaram grazed their herds. He continues: Almost every spot is traditionally connected with some event in the life of Krishna or of his mythical mistress Radha."

"Of course, priesthood has its difficulties: often the things that are tiresome and harassing are not things that are integral to priestly ministry but responsibilities that have grown up around it. But we mustn't let them distract us from the profound significance of what we do, or from going forward together, from living our priesthood to the full, and from engaging with the challenges and dilemmas that lie before us. It's not for us to be disheartened about God's purposes and God's future. What is more, we know all too well the pattern of God's work in the world is a pattern of dying and rising. There's nothing strange about trouble. Our life must be one that is lived in patience but in faith in the power of God. Let us celebrate this day and this Holy Week in confidence and peace, and as we follow in the footsteps of Christ, our High Priest, let the wisdom of the Cross be our source of life and hope."

"I would say ... that for most of those coming into the Catholic Church that [i.e. not knowing what is going to develop in the Church of England] isn't the single-issue reason for their journey. The clergy and the people coming have long hoped for corporate reunion between the Catholic and the Anglican Church; that has been their genuine desire and hope."

"Remembering that every person has an innate God-given dignity is a key step on the path to effective criminal justice."

"We talk about Christmas traditionally as the season of good cheer, but I don't think that sort of Dickensian jollity really cuts the mustard in prison. I tend to take a slightly different slant; I describe it as the season of hope."

"Little public signs of faith are no harm. It's a sign that faith is not just a personal thing, but in a very simple way they are opportunities for us to proclaim the Gospel, to proclaim faith and all those things can only be good!"

"In these last fifty years since the foundation of the Diocese, so much has been done to build up the Church and in the proclamation of the Gospel and, with God's help, I look to guide and serve the Diocese to that same end."

"We can be held fast by goodness knows what, awaiting rescue goodness knows when. Even when it happens it can benefit others rather than ourselves. But the Lord will provide. The outcome is His. My plans must give way to His, and I’m content to go with that because I believe He has my best interests at heart."

"Have a think about your family, your work colleagues, your friendship circle. Think about five people whom you might begin to have a conversation with about your faith in Jesus Christ. It might be somebody who, during this time of the pandemic, has given up the practice of their faith or somebody who’s searching for deeper meaning because of the experience of disease and death in this past year."

"I know that without some fervour in the love of Christ, religion cannot be to you savoury, nor any work of goodness can be delectable, but every virtuous deed shall seem laborious and painful. For love maketh every work appear easy and pleasant, though it be right displeasant of itself. And contrariwise right easy labour appeareth grievous and painful, when the soul of the person that doeth the deed hath no desire nor love in doing of it. This thing may well appear by the life of hunters, the which out of doubt is more laborious and painful than is the life of religious persons, and yet nothing sustaineth them in their labour and pains but the earnest love and hearty desire to find their game."

"Buildings are important expressions of our feelings and intentions and provide a common space where we are at home and comfortable, and yet speak of our future. This is especially so with churches, which are extensions of our homes. The sacramental principle is at the heart of Catholicism, and no less so in its buildings."

"The celebration of a bishop’s ministry should not principally focus on the person of the bishop. The proper focus is God’s gift of episcopacy to the diocese; the particular bishop is always secondary to that."

"Kneeling is an act of humility, of dedication to something greater, of awe, of reverence. Being at church isn’t essentially about being part of a community—it’s about worshipping God. In worshipping—recognizing God’s true worth and therefore sinking to our knees before him—does in fact bind us as a community, both with one another in the present time and with those who have gone before and will come after us."

"The support of the communities implies concrete assistance to young couples because it can offer them knowledge and an important wealth of experience, while encouraging them, above all, to open themselves to the presence of God in their lives, a presence that will help them to support their love in a long, faithful, and fruitful marriage. When the parish communities take this responsibility seriously the ministry of marriage preparation has the potential to be a life-giving joy for communities and families. Their love is contagious and does everyone good."

"There are laws far more powerful for us Catholics, far more powerful than those espoused in Party political agendas and pushed by the vested interests of powerful pressure groups: Natural law, the structures of the human personality built into mankind by God the Creator into the mind and heart of human beings, and the Divine law, the law of Almighty God expressed in the Commandments and in the New Ways of Jesus Christ, illustrated so clearly in the Gospels; Divine and Natural Law which we must always obey and which can never be trumped by the Laws of man, however democratically expressed by Parliament – whichever Parliament – when they clash with the Laws of God. The Law of God is a much higher Law, the ultimate Law. To rebel against the design of the Creator is a grave matter indeed!"

"Having the faith and living the faith opens you up, in fact it is quite the opposite to the accusation that it is causing us to be inward looking, on the contrary, having the faith turns the lights on in the world."

"The mainstream church is not what it should be, there was an absence of zeal for the truth and an absence of loving self-sacrifice for our Lord Jesus Christ. Most people loose their faith at university, but I actually found my faith there, it's bizarre, but I can only attribute it to other people's prayers, and I decided to only to the masses of the Society of Pius X. The Society of Pius X, really is the only organization that teaches the faith integrally and practices it too, it doesn't make compromise, it's difficult to justify in many people's minds, as they accuse us of disobedience, but in the effective moral absence of a hierarchy which is sanctifying the faithful, the Society of Pius X is filling that void."

"Thou speakest as a fool, for by the God of Heaven in whose grace I trust and in whom is my firm hope of victory, I would not have one more than I have, even if I could... Dost thou not believe that the Almighty can through this humble little band overcome the pride of these Frenchmen, who boast of their numbers and their strength?"

"War without fire is worth nothing—like sausages without mustard."

"Owre Kynge went forth to Normandy With grace and myght of chyvalry Ther God for hym wrought mervelusly; Wherefore Englonde may call and cry: Deo gratias! Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!"

"He applied his mind with all devotion to encompass what could promote the honour of God, the extension of the Church, the deliverance of his country and the peace and tranquillity of kingdoms."

"[Henry V was] very wise and capable in everything he undertook and he had an iron will. When he ruled France, he made greater conquests than any before him for many years past. He was so feared by his nobles and captains that there was no one, however close or dear to him, who was not afraid to go against his orders."

"Henry the fift, I wish you not forget, At Agent Court, thinke what a field he fought: When all the powre of Fraunce him round beset, Ten thousand men, them to subjection brought. Though night before, they Bonfires great did make, And made their boastes, what prisoners they would take."

"If we set aside the charges of sacrificing the welfare of his country to an unjustifiable war of aggression, and of being a religious persecutor, Henry V stands before us as one of the greatest and purest characters in English history, a figure not unworthy to be placed by the side of Edward I. No sovereign who ever reigned has won from contemporary writers such a singular unison of praises. He was religious, pure in life, temperate, liberal, careful and yet splendid, merciful, truthful, and honourable; 'discreet in word, provident in counsel, prudent in judgment, modest in look, magnanimous in act;' a brilliant soldier, a sound diplomatist, an able organiser and consolidator of all forces at his command; the restorer of the English navy, the founder of our military, international and maritime law. A true Englishman, with all the greatnesses and none of the glaring faults of his Plantagenet ancestors, he stands forth as the typical medieval hero. At the same time he is a laborious man of business, a self-denying and hardy warrior, a cultivated scholar, and a most devout and charitable Christian."

"Henry V was by far the greatest king in Christendom, and he deserved the estimation in which he was held, both for the grandeur and sincerity of his character and for the greatness of the position which, not without many favouring circumstances on which he could not have counted, he had won. It was very much owing to his influence that the great schism was closed at Constance; it was the representative of the English church who nominated pope Martin V, the creator of the modern papacy: and although the result was one which ran counter to the immemorial policy of kings and parliaments, of Church and State, the mischief of the consequences cannot be held to derogate from the greatness of the achievement. It is not too much to suppose that Henry, striking when the opportunity came and continuing the task which he had undertaken without interruption, might have accomplished the subjugation and pacification of France, and realised the ambition of his life, the dream of his father and of his Lancastrian ancestors, by staying the progress of the Ottomans and recovering the sepulchre of Christ. This was not to be; and he had already done more than on ordinary calculations could have been imagined, compassed more than it was in England's power alone to hold fast or to complete. England was nearly exhausted; it could only have been at the head of consolidated France and united Europe that he could have led the Crusade. In him then the dying energies of medieval life kindle for a short moment into flame; England rejoices in the light all the more because of the gloom that precedes and follows: and the efforts made by England, parliament, church, and nation, during the period, are not less remarkable than those made by the king."

"King Henry left no one like him among Christian kings or princes. His death, not only by his subjects in England and France but in the whole of Christendom, was deservedly mourned. He was pious in soul, taciturn and discreet in his speech, far-seeing in counsel, prudent in judgement, modest in appearance, magnanimous in his actions, firm in business, persistent in pilgrimages and generous in alms, devoted to God and supportive and respectful of the prelates and ministers of the church. War-like, distinguished and fortunate, he had won victories in all his military engagements. He was generous in constructing buildings and founding monasteries, munificent in his gifts, and above all pursued and attacked enemies of the faith and the church. Thinking of his memorable deeds, people felt awe at his sudden and terrible death [and] mourned inexpressibly."

"[O]ur older men [do not] remember any prince ever having commanded his people on the march with more effort, bravery or consideration, or having, with his own hand, performed greater feats of strength in the field. Nor, indeed, is evidence to be found in the chronicles or annals that any king of England ever achieved so much in so short a time and returned home with so glorious a triumph."

"Take him all round and he was, I think, the greatest man that ever ruled England."

"The simple record of Henry V's achievement is sufficient to establish him as a great king... His ambitions in France were inspired by a new vision and new methods [and], given the years, energy and luck he might have reshaped the development of both nations just, as in brief space, he had restored the fortunes of England."

"I'm hopeless. I always manage to get money somehow, so I don't take it seriously enough."

"One thing I do regret is not doing more directing. I have done bits of directing but I do regret not doing more. Ages ago people assumed I would go on and do this, but I don't know why I didn't, but there is something coming up which has a writer attached to it and there has been some trouble in getting it going and I have been given the chance to direct and star in it."

"Lift up your eyes and see the star!"

"The one essential for sanctity is the capacity to love."

"The one thing she [Mary] did and does is the one thing that we all have to do, namely, to bear Christ into the world."

"We go through life with dark forces within us and around us, haunted by the ghosts of repudiated terrors and embarrassments, assailed by devils, but we are also continually guided by invisible hands; our darkness is lit by many little flames, from night-lights to the stars. Those who are afraid to look into their own hearts know nothing of the light that shines in the darkness."

"God's will for you is to serve him, in his way, as he chooses now. It is only a want of humility to think of extreme vocations, like being a nun or a nurse, while you try to by-pass your present obvious vocation . . . Today you have to use what you have today, and do not look beyond it."

"Prayer alone can teach us to concentrate again, can lead us to absolute trust in God, and make our minds ready for other essential things . . . for the contemplation (not mere observation) of beauty."

"It seems a law of fallen nature that life must always come to its being through darkness, and this makes us even more aware of its beauty. Dawn is lovelier because it comes after night, spring because it follows winter."

"Christ is among us His heart like a rose expanding within us . . ."

"To surrender all that we are, as we are, to the spirit of love in order that our lives may bear Christ into the world – that is what we shall be asked."

"The beginning of human happiness, and even of human sanity, is to begin to know God . . . Goodness draws the human soul as a tide is drawn by light."

"Love is most likely to spring from another's need for us, and the fact of spending ourselves for another always generates new life in us. To give life is the purpose of love, and we love those people most of all whose needs waken a response in us that floods us with creative energy, causing us to put out new green shoots of life."

"I did something particularly heinous that allowed me to wake up. I had to lose something. Sometimes you have to lose something that is worth more to you than your drinking."

"[quoting Charles Bronson] "Tom, what I'm trying to say is, right? What I'm trying to say is, son... Is sometimes, yeah, you've gotta cut a little piece of yourself off, yeah? No matter how much it hurts, in order to grow, yeah? In order to move on. D'you know what I mean? What are you having for your tea?""

"If I believe any man in history can beat me, I'm not gonna be the fighter I think I'm gonna be."

"Generals who are terribly busy all day and half the night, who fuss round, posting platoons, and writing march tables, wear out not only their subordinates but themselves. Nor have they, when the real emergency comes, the reserve of vigor that will enable them, for days if necessary, to do with little rest or sleep."