A few days ago I added the text on the right-hand side about "The Purpose of this Blog." However, what is said there needs some clarification: as the text says, it is my conviction that Ali will one day be regarded as one of the great saints, but the identification of individuals as saints is not done so much to honour them, as to honour the work that God has done through them.
Ali was in no doubt whatsoever that she owed everything to God and to the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. While Jesus's sacrifice is made present sacramentally at each Holy Mass, Ali particularly liked to be present for the 3pm Good Friday Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. It upset her greatly that she was too unwell to be present last year. As she would probably need me, I had expected to stay at home and not attend the service myself, but Ali insisted that I attend it for both of us. My journal for Good Friday 2013 records that Ali especially wanted me to remember her at the 'reproaches' and that she was in tears speaking about them, recalling how beautiful she had found the service, especially the reproaches, when she first attended (at Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester) on Good Friday, 1991. My journal records that she was in tears several times on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday 2013, speaking of Jesus and how he suffered for her.
The last interview Ali gave was on Ash Wednesday 2012. It was a major interview, broadcast on the BBC World Service on Good Friday of that year. In fact, Ali was not too well during the interview, and she very much appreciated the kindness and sensitivity of the programme's presenter, Mark Dowd, and the producer, Caroline Dunne, who came to our home in Dorset to interview Ali.
The interview can be heard online: here. An article written by Mark Dowd following the interview can also be read: here
