THE
P RTAL
November 2015
Page 16
“Release the balloons”
Trembling on the Edge of Eternity
Fr Nicholas Leviseur reviews
Father Augustine Hoey - A Biographical Memoir
O
ld men, however dull, become interesting the older they get.
Augustine Hoey at 99 7/8th is older than most and on that ground alone
deserves this modest but beautifully produced vade mecum. His life however
is of considerable interest not just for what he has done and is doing, but
because it portrays with painful clarity the collapse of the certainty of faith
and social purpose amongst the English since the end of the Great War.
Born into wealth, neither he nor his father fought
in either world war and his life has been a peculiar
mixture of engagement with poverty, comfort, other
worldliness, prayer and the sheer bloody minded
pursuit of his own salvation that perhaps ought never
to be wholly surprising in a monk.
left the novitiate and
returned to his title
parish of St Mary
of Eton, Hackney
Wick. “The return to
parish life taught me
once and for all that there is no going back to former
Kenneth Hoey was born on the 22nd of December situations and that what was once ‘golden’ tarnishes
1915, went up to St Edmund Hall in 1935 and to in the attempt to recapture it.” Hoey re-joined the
Cuddesdon in January 1939, was ordained deacon on Community of the Resurrection in June 1948, retaking
Trinity Sunday 1940, priest in 1941 and entered the the name Augustine, and remained there until July
Community of the Resurrection as a novice on the 24th 1994 when he was granted leave of absence before
of April 1945 aged 29. In September 1946, Augustine formal release in January 1995, taking passage for
Where to find us at prayer around the UK ... continued:
Jeffrey Woolnough: 01702 525323, 07956 801381 [email protected], Fr Bob White: 01268 543910
- [email protected], Deacon Richard
Cerson: 07910 388795 - [email protected] www.hockleyordinariateolw.blogspot.com
TorbaY The Church of Our Lady of
Walsingham with St Cuthbert Mayne, Old
Mill Road (junction of Ashfield Road), Chelston
TQ2 6HJ Mass: Sunday: