Happy Friday friends,
Earlier this week was the feast of St. Edward, King of England, known as the Confessor, as opposed to his uncle, also king, also named Edward, but known as the Martyr.
For reasons I doubt need explaining, I have a particular devotion to St. Edward. This year his feast fell on a travel day, so I wasn’t able to make it to Mass, which I otherwise ordinarily do, supplying a small relic of the king which is in my keeping to go on the altar.
When I worked in Westminster, I used to walk across the square to pray at his tomb every year. It was a small silly pleasure of mine to enjoy barging past the queues of tourists and, when challenged by the berobed ticket collector, announce loudly that I was a Christian there to pray at the tomb of the saint and isn’t simony a sin, even in the Church of England?
This is, if you are ever there, something to try. All these churches cannot, in good conscience or policy, charge members of the faithful to come in and pray. And if you announce that as your intention, they will let you in. But they will assign
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