Venite Prandete

ANNE LINE ONE OF THE FORTY MARTYRS INDIVIDUAL FEAST DAY 28th FEBRUARY As a response to the training of priests at Douai and other seminaries that had developed in Europe and their effective mission in England, in 1585 legislation was passed by Parliament, under the rule of Elizabeth I, by which harbouring, maintaining or sheltering priests was deemed high treason and, as such, punishable by death and forefeiture of all property to the Crown.* Anne Line was executed by hanging on 27th February 1601 for harbouring Catholic priests. She was canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs on 25th October 1970. Martin Dodwell, in “The Neat-Herd’s Daughter, Anne Line, Shakespeare’s Tragic Muse” * introduces us to Anne Line: “The story of Anne Line, at least as it was passed on by the Jesuit John Gerard who knew her well, starts with her marriage to Roger Line of Ringwood. Both husband and wife were from Protestant families of minor landed-gentry, and Roger Line, the eldest son, was heir both to his fa...

  STARTING A MARY GARDEN The Feast of the Assumption is the culmination of the month of August, a month dedicated to Our Lady under Her Immaculate Heart: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:19. Ways of honouring Mary in the home include, naturally, praying the Rosary together as a family. Another supercharged way of prayer is to pray the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours – the public prayer of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI said: “I would like to renew my call to everyone to pray the Psalms; to become accustomed to using the Liturgy of the Hours, Lauds, Vespers and Compline.” (Wednesday Audience, November 16, 2011; see David Clayton and Leila Marie Lawler, “The Little Oratory, A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home,” Sophia Press, Manchester 2014). The Marian Antiphon for this time of year is the “Salve Regina” and it is worth starting or continuing a family tradition of singing the antiphon at night after the evening meal. As the Mass at the...