The Mass will be the only one in our entire Deanery tomorrow. Thanks to my auto-mobile friend Christiane, I am able to travel the 18km to Montmoreau where the Confirmation will be 'conferred' by our Bishop Dagens during that Mass.
It will only be the fourth occasion in my life that I have attended a Confirmation: the first in 1962 when I was myself confirmed by Archbishop King of Portsmouth (of blessed memory) at St. Laurence's church in Petersfield; the second at St. Mary's Cadogan Street, Chelsea (1986?) where I was a chorister when Bishop Crowley, then auxiliary in Westminster, came to 'do' the Confirmation; and the third at Arundel Cathedral in 1998 where then Bishop Murphy-O'Connor was celebrant during a Mass in which I played a minor role as sponsor to one of the girls at Elmhurst Ballet School in Camberley. It will be impossible to get through tomorrow morning without reflecting on these three events, but I will reserve prayers at the Mass for the young French Catholics who will, in that holy hour, be receiving this Sacrament.
I hope to report on Monday.
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