We have finished our “mini-retreat” a bit early today. My special thanks to Bernard Riley and David Wheeler for the wonderful Lenten repast-a savory, fresh tomato and corn soup. We meditated on the theme of humility, particularly the humility of the Cross. As well, our prayers were directed to seeking to the grace to bear our own crosses in the imitation of Christ and anticipating the Passion narratives of Holy Week.
Present with us today were the holy relics of Ss. Thomas of Canterbury, Columbae, Bede the Venerable, Cuthbert and Edmund. We blessed the new icons of English Saints Augustine of Canterbury, Ethelbert and Thomas, as well as that of Blessed Elizabeth Barton. These reached us here in the States good offices of the Royal Mail and Bp. Damien Mead of the Anglican Catholic Church in the U.K. Many thanks, your grace!
The lessons for our retreat were made manifest in the life of Blessed Elizabeth Barton. For those of you who don’t know her. Known as “The Nun of Kent”, “The Holy Maid of London”, or “The Holy Maid of Kent”, she was an English Catholic Benedictine nun executed as a result of her prophecies against the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn. She urged devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and for people to undertake pilgrimages. Thousands believed in her prophecies and both Archbishop William Warham and Bishop John Fisher attested to her pious life.
When Henry sought his first annulment and began siezing the properties of the Church, Sister Elizabeth opposed him. She was condemned by a bill of attainder (25 Henry VIII, c. 12); an Act of Parliament authorising punishment without trial. She was hanged and beheaded for treason at Tyburn along with five of her chief supporters, and buried at Greyfriars Church in Newgate. Her head was put on a spike on London Bridge, the only woman in history accorded that humiliation.
For Palm Sunday
Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-Collect for Palm Sunday, 1928 Book of Common Prayer
The Cathedral Close 
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