Being at Spode brings to my mind recollections of Fr Austin Barker, who often came to lecture to us on social questions, and also gave us a very beautiful retreat. He was very dramatic and highly entertaining, and his name always brings to mind certain phrases, such as: “Watch it, sisters; watch it very carefully!’ I always remember hearing him speak about the children's mass on Sunday. He described it thus: ‘Rows and rows of children—tall figure at the end—rows and rows of children all squashed together—tall figure at the end, booming out instructions, and directions and prayers—My dear sisters', he would say appalled, and holding his head in his hand, ‘the divine sacrifice of the mass'.

Well, we all long to make this divine sacrifice real to the children— we would love to make them want to go to mass—we would all like to be able to say with Cardinal Newman, ‘I could hear masses for ever and not be tired'.