Blessing Of Vestments...

After The Suppository printed its dreadful article, so many people were upset by it that they decided to donate money to enable Fr. Tim to buy some vestments - thanks to both Damian Thompson and Fr. Z for co-ordinating their campaigns!

Today as promised, after Benediction, we had the new rose vestments blessed.

Here you can see two of our senior servers training up three new recruits in the correct angle at which to join their hands...

And then the blessing itself...

Taking A Leaf Out Of Cato's Book...

Further to His Hermeneuticalness' comments about The Suppository, Vincenzo has cooked up a little picture for him...

Welcome Back, Jackie...

Looks like Jackie's back. Hopefully she won't disappear again.

Sadly, her mother-in-law has just died, so any prayers for the repose of Ingeborg Parkes would be greatly appreciated.

Requiescat in pace.

Double Standards...

It seems that there is an interesting case of double standards going on... Paulinus points out that the Catholic Adoption Agencies have bent over backwards to comply with the SOR legislation which makes it an offence to discriminate against anyone in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education and public functions on the grounds of sexual orientation... and yet Stonewall Housing does exactly that, even making its discriminatory selection criteria clear on its website... not only is it not prosecuted, the BBC's flagship charity, Comic Relief, gives it financial support.

Now, why doesn't that surprise me...?

Biology Fail !

Occasionally, my students say really silly things... a previous example I've given is "Miss, what's the liquid form of water called...?" To be fair, the student did actually know the answer, and there was a real "D'oh!" moment as the rest of the class dissolved into fits of giggles.

There is much amusement in the Science Faculty office as we share some of these bloopers. We smile, and hope that the kids will acquire a little more general knowledge as they get older... and hope it's not anything we taught them which is responsible...

However, it's not quite so funny when a similar gaffe is made by someone who, not so long ago, was in charge of a whole country...

Apparently, Bill Clinton is of the opinion that an embryo is unfertilised. It wasn't a one-off followed by a "D'oh!" moment either... he made the point five times.

Even more worryingly, Barack Obama's nominee for Surgeon General didn't pick up on the mistake.

I guess the entrance requirements for medical school have been dumbed down... try not to get sick if you live in America...

Twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Z.

Rumours & More Rumours...

Fr. Ray Blake seems determined to be the cause of a heart attack... all I saw, from a quick check of some blogs during a spare five minutes was "Today: An Announcement..."

The rumours are low-key rather than the frenzy we had a short while ago, which makes me wonder whether this is the real thing.

I have a dreadful sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach...

Watch this space!

Thanking Our Priests...

As we are now entering the second week of Lent, I am aware that I need to start organising our annual Chrism Mass "demonstration" in support of our priests.

A few of us started it in Southwark in 2003, and we've gone from strength to strength - a group of us wave placards and cheer as the priests process in to Mass, and we hand out small cards as a "thank you" - last year's card is shown on the left.

Following on from the success of the demo at Southwark, Westminster diocese had their own little "thank-you demo" for the past couple of years, and last year I think there was a third diocese to experience it (I forget which one!)

The Chrism Mass is where the priests of the diocese come together to renew their allegiance to their Bishop, so it seems to be a particularly good opportunity to have a public display of gratitude for all that our priests do for us.

I am singularly devoid of good ideas for this year's card, so any prayers for divine inspiration would be greatly appreciated...

The Southwark demo will be on Maundy Thursday, 9th. April 2009, at St. George's Cathedral, starting at 10:35am (the priests process in at 11:15am) and then some of us will go off to the Three Stags pub, on the corner of Kennington Road and Lambeth Road. If any of you are free that morning and would care to join us, please come along.

Say It With Flowers...

I really dread it when people give me flowers or plants as a present. It's lovely of them to think of me, and I don't want to appear ungrateful, but they really are a disaster in this house...

One time, I was given a beautiful pot plant with lovely red flowers. Don't ask, because I don't know what plant it was, it just looked very nice. Yes I am a Biology teacher. No, I don't know the name of the plant... it was green with red flowers... you have a problem with that?

Anyway, I placed it on a table in the living room. Gradually, I noticed that the flowers disappeared... not unsurprising, you might think... but there weren't any dead flowers to be seen, and no fallen petals. Then the leaves started disappearing. No sign of dead or fallen leaves.

Eventually I caught Sylvester taking a snack from what he had obviously decided was the kitty equivalent of a salad bar. By this time, the plant was little more than a stick in a pot. He pretty much decimates anything floral. So this little photo made me chuckle...