Hold On To Your Kids: a book review

Blessing at the end of Mass by Fr Andrew Southwell, at the 
St Catherine's Trust Summer School

This appeared in Voice of the Family at moment of peak summer busyness for me, so I am posting it here.

It begins:

I don’t like referring to children as “kids”, but this is the title of a book some readers may find interesting or useful: Hold on to your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter more than Peers, by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté. It was first published in 2004 but has been republished this year, with an extra chapter, by Penguin, nothing if not a mainstream publisher.

The idea expressed by the subtitle is not a new one. In 1997, the folktale enthusiast Robert Bly wrote a book called The Sibling Society: An Impassioned Call for the Rediscovery of Adulthood, which had a particular focus on how men find it difficult to come to maturity without good father figures. This might seem like a statement of the obvious, but Bly felt that he had to work very hard to get it across to his audience, and he wasn’t wrong.

Read the whole thing there.

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Home Education: in the Catholic Herald

The quiz at the SCT Summer School

My latest in the Catholic Herald.

The only people involved in a child’s education who have an overview of the whole process, from babyhood to adulthood, and who truly know the child, and his or her needs and ambitions, are parents.

They are their children’s primary educators, in a sense that encompasses the moral relationship between parent and child, and the practical and biological relationship.

To a teacher, your child is one among many pupils, as they try to get the class through the syllabus with as many children as possible keeping up, and not too many getting bored. They know little about what else their pupils are learning, or have learnt up to now.

It is simply impossible for teachers to pay that much attention to any one child. No teacher, however conscientious, can take the ultimate responsibility for a child’s education. That burden can never be lifted from parents. It follows that parents must know what is going on in their children’s school, and intervene when necessary.

Read it all there.

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LMS Oxford Pilgrimage 2024: photos

Last Saturday was the Latin Mass Society Oxford Pilgrimage, in honour of the city's Catholic martyrs. As usual we had a High Mass in the Dominican Rite, followed by a procession and Benediction. 

The celebrant was Fr Lawrence Lew; you can read his sermon here.

LMS Oxford Martyrs Pilgrimage, 19th October

Please support the annual Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage, which will be taking place on 

Saturday 19th October, the feast of St Frideswide.

11am High Mass in the Dominican Rite, in Blackfriars (St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LY) 

With Dominican chant and sacred polyphony from the Schola Abelis and the Southwell Consort.

William Byrd Mass for Five Voices

Thomas Tallis In Manus Tuas

William Cornysh Ave Maria

2:15pm Procession from Carfax to the site of the martyrdom of Blessed George Napier in Oxford Castle, and back to Blackfriars

3pm Benediction at Blackfriars.

LMS Residential Latin Course: photos

The Latin Mass Society's Residential Latin Course is an under appreciated event. It has benefitted teenagers and octagenarians, priests, seminarians, and novices, and the discount for clergy is extended to those who are planning to attend seminary the following year.

This year the week-long course (Monday to Saturday) took place in Park Place Pastoral Centre in Wickham, Hampshire, with 18 students -- equaling our largest ever group in 2019 -- and three tutors, who were able to offer different levels of Latin to the mixed-ability attendees. 

Park Place's modern chapel accommodates the Traditional Mass quite well, and attendees were able to participate in daily Mass. We even had two Sung Masses: one for the Assumption, and another for the final day.

The Latin Mass Society's commitment to Latin learning is ongoing, with our exclusive Latin coursebook, Simplicissimus, which uses the Latin of the Missal for all its examples and exercises, and support for clergy and seminarians doing online Latin courses. If you'd like to emailed when the next Residential course is announced, email info@lms.org.uk .

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SCT Summer School 2024: photos

Latin questions in the end of school quiz.

I've not had time to blog about the August events I've been involved, but here are a few photos of the first of these: the St Catherine's Trust Summer School, which took place Sunday to Saturday, 4-10 August, in St Cassian's Retreat Centre, Kintbury, for children aged 11-17. I founded the St Catherine's Trust as a vehicle for these events back in 2005, and we've done them ever since -- though we had to cancel two during Covid.

Iota Unum talks this autumn

The next season of Iota Unum talks is confirmed:

Friday Sept 27, Joseph Shaw: The family and Catholic culture

Friday Oct 25, Calum Miller: Should pro-lifers vote for Trump?

Friday Nov 29: Prof Tom Pink 'Conscience and the Law'

Talks take place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption; please enter by the back entrance into the basement: 24 Golden Square, W1F 9JR near Piccadilly Tube Station (click for a map).

Doors open at 6:30pm; the talk will start at 7pm.

There is a charge of £5 on the door to cover refreshments and other expenses.

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