Mission Hearts

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Ruins_of_St_Augustines_Abbey.JPG

Although Blessed Margaret Pole was murdered on this day, her feast is actually tomorrow, because today is the great feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury.

I remember clearly the day I first saw the ruins of the ancient Benedictine Abbey of St. Augustine in Canterbury-a numinous moment. It was in August of 1980. I felt the presence of a great heart there.

Today, I beg St. Augustine to let me return to England. He was afraid to go, hearing horror stories of fierce kings and warlike men.

I have fears, and if I do, turn away from these, like brushing gnats away from my face in June.

St. Augustine and his companions brought Christianity again to England at the order of Pope St. Gregory, who saw the beautiful Angle-Saxons slaves in Rome and called them "Angels, not Angles."

May God in His Mercy let me be a missionary in that land.

I remember a hot day in Canterbury with one of my best friends not so long ago. We walked in the late Spring along the small river in the city gardens.

The ruins of the old abbey fascinate me, calling me from the ancient times to the present, as England desperately needs mission hearts.

God, make my heart like Yours. Let Catholicism rise from ruin into glory again in England.