House groups and Our Lady

Katherine of Aragon, 1485-1536
Queen of England, 1509-1536

I'm a little annoyed with myself. The house is divided into small groups of about 8, presided over by a member of the formation staff, to meet for prayer and social activity, every other Friday night. Tonight is one of those nights, and, in our group, we are going to meet to say the Rosary together, and then each of us will share a little on a shrine in our diocese.

I was tempted to talk a little about Katherine of Aragon, who died in my parish, Buckden St Neots, and is buried in the Anglican cathedral in Peterborough, formerly St Peter's abbey, now in the parish of St Peter and All Souls and Our Lady of Lourdes. But then I remembered that it is not technically a shrine, because there is no official cause for canonisation...yet, though I'm sure there are many praying for it (I know of at least one!). You can visit Queen Katherine in Peterborough Cathedral, and there is no cost upon entry; many obviously do, and her tomb is often decorated with flowers and pomegranates placed there by holy souls.

Anyway, a while ago, I wrote a short article in a magazine about the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and, finally, the reason why I am annoyed is because I cannot find my copy of said magazine! I was hoping to read it to the group, but instead, I have a fine little publication compiled by Tim McDonald, the shrine manager, to commemorate the centenary of the shrine in 1997. It is a little souvenir, a collection of news articles and postcards, I earned while I volunteered as assistant sacristan in summer 2009, and so I'm glad it will come in handy today!