Welcome to Guided by the Lamb!

With the increasing secularisation of the United Kingdom, it can seem as though there aren't any Catholics left in the British Isles. The common assumption is that people are atheists by default (or, at the vest least, agnostics); and, unless you state otherwise, you are viewed as being completely apathetic to all things religious and spiritual—particularly Christianity. Any professed affiliation with a church of any kind is only had, it is supposed, for its social benefits (such as having your child admitted into a faith school) or simply because it's traditional (being baptised and confirmed is just the thing that has always been done).

Nobody goes to Church on a Sunday anymore; no one reads their Bible (except, perhaps, for the sake of satisfying some sort of intellectual curiosity); nobody spends time in prayer; and no one even remotely intelligent believes in a God that created the physical universe.

Yet, believe it or not, there are still devout Catholics living in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland: we have not yet gone the way of the dodo. It might not be popular or conventional in any sense, but there are those of us who continue to go to Mass on Sundays, continue to receive the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist, continue to read the Bible and the works of the saints, continue to do acts of charity in our communities, continue to say our daily prayers, and continue to place our faith in Christ who we believe was God incarnate and the redeemer of mankind.

This is a blog for such people—for Catholics living in the U.K. to give an insight into their life as a disciple of Christ in 21st century Britain and Northern Ireland, with all its many joys and many frustrations, with all its ugliness and all its beauty.

We would like to welcome you all to Guided by the Lamb, and we hope that you enjoy reading these posts as much as we have enjoyed writing them.

May the grace of God be with you all.