Leo Wong

Dunstan Thompson

God often makes unexpected appearances, He did so in their lives as well. Philip and Dunstan were visiting Walsingham one weekend, not far from where they lived, when a procession of the Blessed Sacrament passed by. Dunstan suddenly fell to his knees and made the sign of the Cross – all before his shocked companion. Philip immediately sensed there was something much greater than his earthly relationship with Dunstan, and that it would have profound consequences for their lives. It did. After Dunstan told Philip that he had made a complete confession and reconciled with the Church, Philip knew that meant an immediate end to their sexual relationship. At first, Philip felt isolated and abandoned, but soon realised it was a great blessing, for it liberated him from a life of sin which he always knew to be wrong. Better yet, Dunstan’s Catholic reawakening led Philip to become a Catholic as well, discovering what he had providentially been told, by a friend, as a young man: “You will never find love until you find it in the tabernacle.” The two remained very close companions (Philip served as Dunstans’ literary executor after the poet’s death in 1975) but, faithful to Catholic teaching, never sinned with one another again. —William Doino Jr., “A Catholic gentleman: the inspiring life of Philip Trower”

The action or suggestions of the devil is like water dripping on a stone. An aggravating drip, drip, drip, drip. The action of the Holy Spirit is like water gently falling on a sponge. —Advice from Fr William of Farm Street to Philip Trower

I have come across few men in my life of now 90 years whom I have so instantly warmed to and liked. —Philip Trower on Pius XII

St. Moses the Black. HT Philip Trower

I was in my father’s study looking for something to read and for the first time I noticed a book called Trower on the Epistles. It was by an ancestor who had been Bishop of Gibraltar in the early 19th century. In those days the Church of England had two bishops to look after the members of its flock living on the continent. One was Bishop of Gibraltar, the other Bishop of —–. Anyhow, on opening the book almost the first passage my eyes fell on read something like “as the Church of Rome so wrongly maintains……”

With a suddenly intense feeling irritation I snapped the book shut and put it back on the shelf saying to myself, “If all you can talk about is what’s wrong with the Church of Rome. I’m not interested in anything else you have to say.”

—Philip Trower, at that time not yet a Catholic

“Cousin Curly” is the only person I have known to have a devotion to John the Baptist. —Philip Trower

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and the Levites, said to all the people, “Today is holy for you to the LORD your God. Do not mourn and weep,” for they were weeping when they heard the words of the Teaching. Nehemiah 8:9, Robert Alter (HT Philip Trower)

The only specifically religious idea or practice I remember getting from our Nanny was that of “offering things up” when something went wrong. “Offer it up darling,” she would say, “offer it up.” It is not of course a specifically Catholic idea. But I have never heard it referred to except among Catholics. —Philip Trower

What would Nanny have said? —Lord Carrington, quoted by Philip Trower

With the other boys in my group I remember discussing what we had been told about not going to Holy Communion if we had done something seriously wrong until we had told God we were sorry and made a resolution to do our best not to repeat the sin. I can still recall the sense of awe we felt and how it was reflected in our voices. In those days Anglican children didn’t receive Holy Communion until they had been confirmed. —Philip Trower

Only Christianity can confront this. —Sir William Gosselin Trower, father of Philip Trower

Faith is a gift from God to those who will accept it.

I can best perhaps describe it as a holy light-heartedness which I have often since noticed in Catholics who have lived and loved their religion since early childhood. —Philip Trower, “How I Became a Catholic”

Catholics are catholic, not ideologues.

Welcome

Who art in Heaven,

Our Father is in heaven; heaven is our home. We are not necessarily far from heaven. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and perhaps, within us. But heaven is not earth. “Meaning in the Our Father”

The office of the US presidency has been hijacked in the most cynical, undisguised, arrogant, unprincipled, often dilettante, and sometimes thuggish manner imaginable. —John Harris, New Year’s Day, 2021

Mr. Trump excelled at chaining a name to an epithet during his mercurial political career: Lying Ted, Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe. It was effective in a childish way. What if we, as unplayful adults, insistently link our nation’s plunderers to the evidence of their plunder? “I won’t support Mr. Biden’s bills, whose presidency is illegitimate… our nation’s policy with China will remain in free fall until we have a legitimate president… I’m not surprised by the bid to pack the court, since it reflects the bullying anomy which brought this illegitimate regime to power.” Always, every day, speak the horrible truth out in the open. —John Harris

Chief Nolo considers idle chatter a great corruptive of sacred mission. John Harris