The Portal November 2015 | Page 16

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: