De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YV-q9dDzrO/ The graveyard at Owslebury Church, just next to the old school house. This property was owned by the people for whom Br. Francis' father worked. The latter's family lived in a lodge house elsewhere on the property. Longwood estate, heading for the house where Br. Francis' house spent the early years of his life. Posted with Blogsy

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YV96d2DzqF/ A couple of weeks ago, just after Easter, I offered to take Br. Francis on a drive around some old haunts of his childhood that I frequently pass when out cycling in the countryside to the northeast of Southampton: Longwood (nr. Owslebury), Longwood estate (his father was at one point a groundsman on Longwood estate and the family lived in a lodge house on the edge of the estate), Owslebury Primary School, Kingsworthy (nr. Winchester, where his family moved to while he was still quite young)... Francis hadn't been back around those parts since he was a boy. It was nice to give him this opportunity to reconnect with his childhood before we (the Brothers' community in Southampton) leave to return to Liverpool in the summer. Some more Instagram-ed photos to follow...

Myself and Br. Francis here in Southampton are gradually clearing out unwanted stuff from our 4-storey, 22 bedroom community house - and its cellar - in preparation for closing the community and moving back to our Liverpool community in August (another 2 skips filled during the Easter holidays). There's a lot of history here for the congregation as well as for each of us personally: we are both former pupils and Francis is also a former Head... not easy. The house will be given over to our school here (St. Mary's College) for them to make use of.  As a result of having so many jobs to do relating to the move, I'm not undertaking my usual multi-day sponsored cycle this year. I am, however, doing the national Swimathon sponsored swim for Marie Curie Cancer Care on the evening of  Sat. Apr. 27th (next Sat.).  I'll be doing the maximum 5km distance and, to add an extra challenge, a 100 mile (160 km) cycle from Southampton to Fleet and back that same morning. If you...

I rediscovered this gem of a song today, composed by the great John Barry (music) + Hal David (lyrics) and performed by the inimitable Louis Armstrong (his last recorded performance). I hadn't realised that it was written for and used in the George Lazenby Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". It makes me want to see this film for the first time. I knew the song from a tv advertising campaign from some years ago, but didn't know where it originated. Just listen to that trumpet of Armstrong's. Absolute class. The song itself is sublime; a laid back, evocative and beautiful love song, with subtle harmonic shifts and dreamy strings. Can't stop listening to it right now.