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"Truly, it is the indescribable sweetness of contemplation which you give to those who love you. In this you have shown the tenderness of your charity, that when I had no being you made me; and when I strayed away from you, you brought me back again to serve you and commanded me to love you." The Imitation of Christ
Friday, 27 June 2008
Fly In The Ointment...
This made me chuckle. It pretty much ranks up there with "Face it, hippies, it's over..." as one of my all-time favourite quotes.
Twitch of the mantilla to the Pastor in Valle who spotted it first.
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One-ape-manship?
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But Spain has, I think, just trumped the UK in the crazy stakes. They now want to introduce legislation giving rights to apes.
John Smeaton has a very clear exposition of why this is completely illogical - especially in view of the fact that Spain allows unborn human babies no rights at all.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Wow!
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Below you can see Newhousenewjob, along with New Man, looking totally radiant. Many congratulations to the two of them.
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1) Did you save me any wedding cake?
2) When do I get invited round for lunch/dinner to be shown all the wedding and honeymoon photos??
Fasting Before Communion
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I have to say that I believe the argument for calculating the fast from the beginning of Mass overwhelming. Sunday Mass generally lasts about 45 minutes (well, the Novus Ordo ones I've attended last that long, unless they're special events like Confirmation Masses - in which case they're even longer.) If you're calculating the fast from the time of receiving Communion, you are basically starting the fast about 20 minutes before Mass. Unless you scoot in just before the Entrance Procession, that means that you just have to refrain from eating or drinking as you make your way to church. Effectively, this isn't a fast undertaken as deliberate preparation for the reception of Our Lord's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Re-introducing the obligation of a three-hour fast strikes me as a very good idea. People would have to consider carefully whether they wished to communicate at the Mass, and would have to plan (and prepare) accordingly. I think it would help to interrupt the assumption that reception of the Blessed Sacrament is automatic just because a person was present at Mass.
Three hours is not an overly taxing period to go without food. If Mass was very early, say 8:30am, then a person could just skip breakfast, and have a leisurely brunch after Mass. This is hardly an impossible task: many people have a very lengthy lie-in on Sunday mornings, surfacing some time around 11am wanting to be fed... it's the explanation many give for preferring to attend evening Mass!
Alternatively, if the Mass attended was later, say 10:30am, then, should breakfast be considered absolutely essential, a person could arrange to get up early and have breakfast before 7:30am...
Of course, fasting from midnight is even more salutary...
Lager and Ale...
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Curiously, there is a special blessing, in the Old Rite, for beer... I believe that Fr. Tim is waiting for the most opportune moment, and I shall endeavour to capture the occasion for posterity (and the blogosphere!)
Anyway, it seems that Real Ale is having a bit of a resurgence in popularity, and not just in our club. The Daily Telegraph has more on the boom in Real Ale sales HERE.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
That Time Again...
Yes, folks, I've been sent another blonde joke. I'm too tired out after tonight's Parents' Evening to post on anything more serious... you can find that stuff by visiting the usual suspects (the Brighton Blogger, His Hermeneuticalness, the chap with the Latin dictionary, etc. etc.) ... but blonde jokes are my own speciality, so....
Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those expensive double-pane energy-efficient kind.
Yesterday, I got a call from the contractor who installed them.
He was complaining that the windows had been installed a whole year ago and I hadn't paid for them yet.
Now just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am stupid. So I told him just exactly what his fast-talking sales-rep had told me last year, namely that, in just one year, these super-dooper windows would pay for themselves!
"Helllooooo!" I told him, "It's been a year!"
There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up... He hasn't called back, probably too embarrassed about forgetting the guarantee they made me. Bet he won't underestimate my intelligence again...
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Empire Building
I was surprised at how many people responded to my last post on Ikariam, the web browser game which lets you build up a civilisation. I'm curious to find out whether people stuck with the game, or got bored and moved off to pastures new. I do know that a certain blogging priest admitted to having checked on "his people" first thing in the morning before heading off to Westminster Cathedral for the Pontifical High Mass, and wanted to know how many towns I had!
Well, time for an update: I have four towns, and the capital is at level 17 (a maximum capacity of 1541 individuals.) All four of my towns are at maximum capacity, and I am holding back on increasing capacity for the moment as I'm keen to get a fifth town up and running. I haven't decided which resource I shall try to get... marble seems to be the most useful commodity for building and expansion purposes, but I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my citizens happy unless I can increase my wine production...
...and some time on Thursday morning, my scientists should have succeeded in researching bureaucracy, and I'm intrigued as to what will happen next.
So far, my capital city has progressed from this...
...to this...
...and somehow, by dint of arranging museum collections for them to admire and keeping them supplied with plenty of wine in the tavern, I have succeeded in making my citizens very happy indeed...
Well, time for an update: I have four towns, and the capital is at level 17 (a maximum capacity of 1541 individuals.) All four of my towns are at maximum capacity, and I am holding back on increasing capacity for the moment as I'm keen to get a fifth town up and running. I haven't decided which resource I shall try to get... marble seems to be the most useful commodity for building and expansion purposes, but I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my citizens happy unless I can increase my wine production...
...and some time on Thursday morning, my scientists should have succeeded in researching bureaucracy, and I'm intrigued as to what will happen next.
So far, my capital city has progressed from this...
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Interesting...
You Are a Boston Creme Donut |
![]() You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out. |
Mantilla-twitch to that fellow Boston-Creme Donut, Karen.
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Not Silenced... Just Relocated...
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Not quite sure why...
But anyway, you can find it HERE. Mantilla-twitch to the Pastor in Valle.
His picture is an improvement.
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