A Catholic family

There can be no finer ambition in life than to bring your children up in an ethos that fosters the seed of Faith and engenders piety and love of Our Blessed Lord.

It is relatively easy to do (at least, on paper) but how many Catholic families undertake such a thing?

I know of some who kneel on the left hand side of the Church who would claim that such a regime would be a form of indoctrination, I think that they are probably right; we do need to indoctrinate in the true sense of the word and that process begins very soon after birth when the new born are admitted to the family of Christ through Baptism.

And how many Catholic families sit around the dining table and recite Grace before meals?

Few, in the non traditional camp, I suspect.

When I broach the subject with non traditional Catholic friends they look at me as if I have suggested that they should barbecue the family cat......hmmm.....OK, don't let's go there.

But simple acts such as praying together, living the Christian life every hour of every day rather than just half an hour on a Sunday morning, will give children the best possible start to life.

Recently, New Liturgical Movement featured a post on the young Catholic Artist, James Gillick.

I have never met James but I have known his uncle since we were eleven year olds together at a particularly challenging Dominican school, back in the mists of time.

James Gillick's mother is no other than Victoria Gillick, upholder of Catholic parental rights in the 70s and 80s. She attended the same school (St James' Burnt Oak) but we never met as boys and girls were strictly segregated.

It was a great joy, therefore, to find a video clip showing the daily home life of James Gillick and his wife and children.
And, when I saw James for the first time in this clip, I did a double take as he looks so very similar to his Uncle Bernard whom I last saw about 55 years ago (gulp!)

I will not use the awful phrase 'role model' and, instead, state that this branch of the Gillick clan is an inspirational example of a good Catholic family.

Wikipedia also feature James Gillick HERE

And here is a video of James at work in his studio

 

I was at school with Victoria Gillick!

OK, that may not vie with the headline: 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster' but it at least may have its origins in the truth.

You see, on holiday in Oz at present I am reading the great Victoria Gillick's book, 'A Mother's Tale' and, on page 92 she mentions that she attended a Dominican Convent School in Middlesex.

As far as I am aware, there was only one Dominican Convent School in Middlesex in the 1950s and that was St James's, Burnt Oak, my alma mater. I was there about the same time as VG but, no surprise that our paths never crossed as boys and girls were strictly segregated.

And, if you know not the name, Victoria Gillick, haste ye to Google and you will find that, as a young mother, she fought the battle against under age contraception advice from such knowledgeable folk as school nurses and GPs and, in fact, anyone other than the parents of the said child.
Fred the school caretaker had more authority than a twelve year old girls's mother both then and today.

She went to the High Courts and lost. How could she ever win? But she fought and that it what is important in my book.

I was working in leafy Cheltenham at the time and remember seeing yellow and black posters proclaiming 'Kill Victoria Gillick' - that immediately had me on side, a Catholic woman taking on the establishment? Brilliant!

I immediately donated the princely sum of five pounds to her fighting fund, peanuts today but the price of a night out for two then.

The poster was, of course, the work of the socialists; a degenerate bunch if ever there was one.

We could do with a Victoria Gillick today, a laywoman who is not afraid to speak out and to go the mile with the cretins who are in authority over us. Offhand, I cannot think of a male or female of her calibre today.

If you want to gain a flavour of the immense battle that she entered on our behalf, read her book: 'A Mother's Tale'. Or, just Google the name.