Belated Thanks...

I had a very nice surprise this morning.  I was asking Hilda, our Sacristan, something before Mass, and Fr. Tim came in.  "Sorry," he said, "I forgot to give this to you before!  And that just arrived..."

"This" turned out to be a holy card of Our Lady - showing her Immaculate Heart, and an enamelled medal of St. Benedict in a pouch with a prayer.  It's a bit difficult to see, but it looks as if Our Lady's heart is crowned with roses... I've never spotted that detail before.  Anyway, they were apparently sent with the cross given to Fr. Tim at the London blognic, from Andrew at Unam Sanctam.  Belated thanks, Andrew, it was really sweet of you to think of me (and now you know why I didn't say anything earlier!!)

"That" was a postcard, all the way from Nagasaki.  I was slightly confused, as it was addressed to me using my Christian name (a closely guarded secret, as it's one I loathe, on account of there being a surfeit of us born in the same year!) but was obviously sent care of the church...  I then spotted that it was from Brendan Allen, of Guard Me With Your Glory fame (though he's gone a little quiet since the announcement of his engagement!)  Reading the card, I discovered that it made Brendan think of me.  Looking more closely at the picture, I think I can see why: the Cathedral is positively stuffed with ladies wearing mantillas (or should that be mantillae?)  So, many thanks to you too, Brendan.

The prayer to St. Benedict is worth reproducing, I think:

O Holy Father, blessed by God both in grace and in name, who, whilst standing in prayer with thy hands raised to heaven, didst most happily yield thy angelic spirit into the hands of thy Creator, and hast promised zealously to defend against all the snares of the enemy, in the last struggle of death, those who shall remind thee of thy glorious departure and the heavenly joys, protect me, I beseech thee, O glorious Father, this day and every day, by the holy blessing, that I may never be separated from our Blessed Lord, from the society of thyself, and of all the blessed.  Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.