An Interesting Day...

Today has been one of those days. It started brilliantly, went rapidly downhill, and then scooted back up again.

It started off with an unscheduled early Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The co-founder of the FSSP happened to be on a camping holiday with his nieces and nephew, in the vicinity of Blackfen. "In the vicinity" actually turns out to be in the back garden of some parishioners - I haven't quite gotten to the bottom of who knew whom and why they decided to camp in a garden, but I'm more of a hotel person myself.

Afterwards, we all had breakfast and/or tea and coffee in the small hall, and I managed to get a few photos. The nieces were even more photophobic than me, and managed to duck much more quickly than I ever did... but you can see the odd elbow and ponytail...

My knee had been getting steadily better, so those are my crutches you can see at the bottom of the photo - I needed both hands for the camera, and I figured that I'd be ok.

We were scheduled to have a Requiem Mass a bit later in the morning, and, as the Sacristan was off sick, I cleared away after the first Mass and set up for the second. A lot had been sorted the day before, and Gregory helped a great deal this morning (no Dangermouse socks today, by the way) but, in order to get things done, I tried to avoid using the crutches in the sacristy.

I was pleased to make the acquaintance of Charles Finch, Director of the Cantores Missae music group, who was playing the organ for the Requiem Mass. He very kindly humoured me by posing for a photograph at the organ...

After the Requiem Mass there was rather a lot to pack away, and then I needed to set up the Lady Altar for an extra Mass tomorrow morning: I didn't want to leave it until the next day to set up as the Mass is at the horrendously anti-social hour of 6:30am. I have enough problems remembering everything at 6:30 in the evening.

By the time I got home, my knee was excruciatingly painful, and I reluctantly took some strong painkillers and went to bed for a couple of hours.

I had been invited to dinner by Leutgeb, and very nearly decided to cancel. However, she is an excellent cook, and, after my nap, I thought I'd make the effort. I had a lovely evening - the bolognese sauce (delicious) was made using Leutgeb's own-grown tomatoes, we chatted about the Pope's visit, watched the conclave sequence at the end of the film Karol (where Pope John Paul II was elected), watched the Newsnight interview from the night of Pope Benedict XVI's election (where Cristina Odone got told, in no uncertain terms, that Truth is not subject to a majority vote) and mused on the tendency of the media to interview small fringe groups of dissenting Catholics rather than people who actually believe what the Church teaches and go to Mass on Sundays.

I left very happy, clutching a pot of home-made plum jam, a brooch of Pope Benedict XVI (I want to wear it, but we both agreed that it would almost be a shame to remove it from the backing, which has the Pope's Coat of Arms on it!) and her copy of Karol, which I haven't seen yet.

I'm now going to have an early night... Mass is rather early tomorrow...