In place of a dedication are the words, "I give you my whole self, so that it is you, Lord Jesus, who lives, and works and prays in me".

They are the final phrase of the Grail Prayer. The Grail, a Catholic Secular Institute for women, organised “Family Circles” from the 1950s – small groups in parishes reading the scriptures, praying and studying the Faith – the Grail providing the discussion material.

From 1960 Pat and Brenda formed these groups throughout the Diocese. Later Bishop Worlock took a great interest.

Diocesan Reps of Family Circles met at Grail HQ in Pinner each October. I had known Pat and Brenda since knocking on their door in Sept 1962, but in October 1972 my wife and I, as Reps for Brentwood Diocese, re-met Pat and Brenda again at Pinner. Many of us were seeking a closer union with the Grail, whose spirituality enthused all of us to live and spread more fully the Christian life.

So it was that married Grail Partners were formed – Pat and Brenda were leading lights. Encouraged by the Grail, inspired by its spiritual ethos, Bishop Worlock, knowing the work Pat and Brenda were achieving in the Diocese, chose Pat to be the first married Deacon for the Diocese.

Pat, in his work for ecumenism, in establishing the shared church in Brighton Hill, in the villages and St. Joseph’s parish, but above all in the work he and Brenda did in welcoming, perhaps more than 10,000, people into their home for prayer, for spiritual and practical counselling, for support, for spiritual and physical healing – in this they have more than any people I have known in my 79 years, fulfilled in their lives the Grail Prayer:

Lord Jesus I give you my hands to do your work.

I give you my feet to go your way.
I give you my eyes to see as you do.
I give you my tongue to speak my words.
I give you my mind that you may think in me.
I give you my spirit that you may pray in me.
I give you my whole self that you may grow in me.
So it is you, Lord Jesus, who lives and works and prays in me.

Pat and Brenda