News round up

Jesu Mercy, Mary Pray.
Fr Charles Smith R.I.P.
Very much the end of an era for those of us who knew, admired and respected him as parish priest of St Mary Mags at Oxford. After his time we witnessed the sad decline of a once famous "shrine parish." From the sublime to the ridiculous, one might say.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7022318.ece

 Lenten reading here:
Riches indeed! Choose from readings from the Church Fathers, the lives of the medieval saints as related by Pope Benedict, Fr Faber and Cardinal Newman, and selections from the writings of St John Vianney.
http://www.lovethechurch.com/lent/

 It doesn't get more positive than this. Mgr Peter Elliott on the Anglican Ordinariates
http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/02/what-is-this-personal-ordinariate/

More Anglican patrimony - a candidate for canonisation?
A reflection on the Anglo-Catholic Thomist Fr Eric Mascall by Prof William Tighe
http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/02/eric-lionel-mascall-as-anglican-patrimony/

Saint-Pierre-du-Chemin, capitale des amoureux!
On a lighter note, here's a link to the village and church of St Pierre du Chemin which boasts possession of the relics of St Valentine. It's just a few kilometers up the road from our farmhouse in the Vendee.
http://www.vendee.fr/actualites/3147/saint-pierre-du-chemin--capitale-des-amoureux.htm