The Dangers Inherent In Generalisation...

I don't normally link to Failbook - although it's often side-splittingly funny, sometimes the jokes can be a little risqué... and sometimes very offensive.

Failbook is done by the same people who do the I Can Has Cheezburger? LOLcats site, and consists of various Facebook messages and statuses which are weird, funny or downright insane. The tag line is "Too Funny to Unfriend..."

This made me laugh out loud... and demonstrates why generalisation can be a bad idea...


see more Failbook

and, if you do click on the link, you have been given fair warning...

Solemn High Mass Video...

As promised, I've turned my photos of yesterday's Solemn High Mass into a "video" so that you can all share the experience... I realise that I might be inciting envy among those unlucky enough not to be able to attend, but, well, I guess I can live with it...

Although, as I already explained, I wasn't able to record the music live, the soundtrack accompanying the photos is actually by the same choir... and the first and last pieces were sung at the Mass last night - Croce's O sacrum convivium and Schubert's Salve regina. The middle piece is Elgar's O salutaris (F major). I used the tracks, with permission from the director, Charles Finch, and if you want to buy a copy of the CD (I highly recommend it, and it's a snip at £12.99) you can contact Charles Finch by email or go to the website.



Enjoy!

Feast Of Our Lady Of The Rosary At Blackfen...

Oh wow... I'm still buzzing after the Solemn High Mass we had for the Feast Day. It was awesome!

I had been asked to collect two of the sacred ministers and our preacher from North Greenwich Station - the Jubilee Line really is so much easier if you're trying to get across South London - and so I had to battle against rush hour traffic... knowledge of a few back routes helped me to avoid snarl-ups on the A2, and I managed to get everyone to the church in plenty of time.

That left me plenty of time to set up my camera (I brought the monopod as well) and to settle down to pray a Rosary in church before anyone came in. Gradually, things started to get busy for Patricius, who was MC for the evening's ceremonies: in addition to putting the ministers through their paces, some extra clergy arrived unannounced (and not all at once), which necessitated last-minute rearrangements of the seating plan as the clergy had to be arranged in order of seniority... Jonathan helped with that, but it was a bit of a scrum at one point...

Fr. Charles Briggs, Parish Priest of Chislehurst, was present in choir. Although he doesn't have a blog himself, he features frequently on the blogs of Fathers Finigan and Brown... and of course here as well. Although he wasn't in any of the main photos, he did make it onto one...

The choir was superb - Cantores Missae - directed by Charles Finch. They sang Victoria's Missa Ave Maris Stella, as well as some beautiful pieces I'd never heard before.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to record anything - it would have incurred an extra fee, as this is a professional choir and they have to make a living out of it. However, Charles Finch gave me permission to use some of the music from their latest CD to accompany the photos that I've taken. I shall put a YouTube "video" slideshow up as soon as I can put one together.

When I saw the vestments in the Sacristy, I didn't think much of them. I'm not too keen on flowers as decoration (as opposed to real flowers) but seen in situ I thought they didn't look too bad. It did look a little like upholstery material...

I had great fun taking the photos. It was a challenge to catch certain moments - like the synchronised biretta movements...

Fra. Lawrence Lew preached up a storm - he really made the point that Europe is ashamed of its Christian roots, and that the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary can help us to recall those roots. I managed to snaffle the copy of his sermon, and it'll find its way onto the blog shortly... I really liked Fra. Lawrence. It was wonderful to meet him in person after having read so much of his on the Dominican students' blog, Godzdogz, and having seen his beautiful photos on Flickr. I hope my driving didn't scare him too much...

I missed the Pax between the celebrant and deacon, but caught the one between the deacon and subdeacon...

And a few more of my favourite moments...

Dominic Mary was at the Mass as well, in fine form, and he popped into the parish club for a quick bitter lemon afterwards... I was delighted to meet Fr. Nicholas Schofield again - blogger emeritus, as he described himself - as well as Fr. Richard Whinder. It was somewhat disconcerting to realise, while swapping reminiscences en route from the station, that I first met Fr. Richard while he was completing his degree, well before he went off to seminary... and now he's a Parish Priest. I feel really old...

As I said, there will be a YouTube production coming soon. In the meantime, do have a look at a selection of the photos over on my Flickr page.

Anna & The King...

...oh, ok... actually it was even better than that - Anna Arco got to meet the Holy Father.

I am soooooooo jealous.

At the Herald's pre-Papal Visit party, I jokingly said to Anna that when she went for the Conference, she should take me along as her official photographer, and then, while she hob-nobbed with the Holy Father, I would occupy myself by chatting to Mgr. Ganswein...

She didn't keep to her side of the bargain... *sniff*

...probably because she didn't actually expect to meet Pope Benedict. She did remember to pack the little black frock, but had a bit of a panic because she didn't have a mantilla handy - fortunately a friend came to her rescue!

Anna actually spoke to the Holy Father, and (this is where her professionalism kicked in... I'd have been gibbering quietly!) she told the Holy Father how much hope and joy his visit had brought to people in the UK.

And you can read Anna's own excellent talk at the Conference...

Pontifical High Mass...

I've been asked to advertise the following, and am delighted to be able to do so...

The Prior and community

of the Dominican Priory of the Holy Cross, Leicester

are pleased to announce:

PONTIFICAL SOLEMN HIGH MASS AT THE THRONE

followed by the consecration of a Shrine to the English Martyrs

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Wednesday 8th December, 2010 at 7pm

Celebrant: Bishop Malcolm McMahon, OP, Bishop of Nottingham

Clergy are invited to sit in choir. Please bring cotta and biretta, and stole if receiving communion. Clergy and servers who would like to take part are asked to contact the Sacristan - they would need to be free to attend a few rehearsals.

Happy Feast Day !

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary...

I must make sure that my camera batteries are all fully charged for this evening's Solemn High Mass...

Oh, and Terra has some interesting information about the Battle of Lepanto - the reason for today's feast...

How To Be Patronising, In One Easy Lesson...

I'm having a rant here. I've been seething for a while, and I need to share...

A little bird told me that a few priests commented unfavourably on the Holy Father's visit to the UK.

"Oh yes, it was a success... but it was too dominated by men... there weren't enough women involved..."

My first response was to utter "What the..." and then realise that the rest of that phrase was unsuitable... I was reduced to spluttering incoherently. What I wanted to say was that the statement was unbelievably patronising. On several counts.

Firstly, if it was a reference to the fact that the concelebrants were all male, well durrr! That's what happens when you have an all-male priesthood. Why should women be up there on the sanctuary if they are not fulfilling some liturgical function? Are you trying to suggest that there should be a few "token" women there, so that we don't feel left out??

Secondly, did you not notice all the serviettes, women readers, women bringing the gifts for the Offertory, women accompanying celebrants who were distributing Holy Communion? Is Carol Vordeman not a woman? (I believe she was a compere for one of the events, I forget which.) Do all those women not count?

What about all the women who helped in the background? The ones who washed and ironed the altar linens, the ones who ironed the concelebrants' vestments, the ones who organised pilgrim groups, the ones who worked with the children for the Big Assembly... Don't they count? Or, does the fact that they worked behind the scenes mean that they are unworthy of notice?

What about all those women who turned up to the events, often with their families in tow, just to catch a glimpse of the Holy Father on this historic occasion, who did nothing but show their love for the Holy Father and for the Church through their presence, their penance and their prayers? I guess they don't count either!

Which patronising idiot decreed that you had to be up there on the Sanctuary or you weren't "involved"?

It makes me soooooo mad.

There are only two types of people who would make that sort of statement: the hard-core feminists, who didn't turn up to the events anyway and the wishy-washy men who hope to curry favour with them by parroting politically-correct phrases without thinking them through...

Liturgical Chicken...

Courtesy of Hilary over at Orwell's Picnic. You click on this link, and then click play. The idea is to see how long you can survive before you have to click stop.

Looking at the link URL, it seems to be a setting for the new translation of the Gloria.

This blog post carries a health warning. I was frozen in shock for 50 seconds. I now need to go and have my ears syringed or something... I also need a restorative brandy. It is not a game for the faint-hearted...

...and certainly not a game for anyone who likes music.

Progress Report...

I was very, very touched by all the messages of support and prayers for Sylvester's recovery (when there was still hope for it) and prayers for me (once he'd died.)

I do miss him - we'd been together for over 13 years - and the flat feels rather empty without him.

Different people react in different ways to the loss of a pet. I have noticed some people eyeing me speculatively (His Hermeneuticalness looked ever so slightly wary as he expressed his condolences on his return from holiday, for example!) - it's as if they are unsure whether or not I'm going to burst into tears at the slightest mention of cats.

I'm not that type, I'm afraid.

It is true that I declared, at the tender age of 10, that I would never have another cat as long as I lived, because my darling Otto had disappeared (probably cat-napped for his fur - there had been a spate of cat disappearances in the area at the time.) But that resolution lasted all of 30 seconds after my mother fished out a sorry-looking kitten from the Blue Cross kitty-carrier, saying, "I totally understand how you feel, but let me take the kitten out just so she can have a drink of milk before I return her to the Blue Cross, darling!" One look at the poor mite toddling over to the saucer (she had rickets, which was why my mother had picked her, wanting to give her a better life) and my heart melted.

So, I intend to get a cat (possibly two, to keep each other company as I'm out quite a lot) as soon as possible. And yes, it is safe to tell cat jokes in my presence...

Photos...

I was given a "spare" rose to wear during the Rosary Procession yesterday. Just after Benediction, I happened to glance down, and caught sight of the rose against my black mantilla, and immediately thought it would make a beautiful photo... and so I aimed my camera...


Yes, I have reached the point where I assess everything in my life as a potential photo opportunity...

Seriously, though, I have been frustrated on more than one occasion when I have wanted a particular photo to illustrate a blog post, and all the best ones on Google Images turn out to be copyrighted by various photo companies. So, I decided that I'm going to start up a collection of stock photos, and keep them together on Flickr... of course, that means that anyone who uses them is supposed to give me a link back, and it's not supposed to be used for commercial purposes...

You can find them in my Stock Photo set...

Rosary Sunday...

On Sunday afternoon, as it was Rosary Sunday, we had the recitation of the rosary, a Marian Procession and Benediction. I was determined to get some good photos, especially of the statue of Our Lady - I thought that the ones I took on Saturday suffered from poor lighting arrangements!

It had rained pretty steadily all morning, culminating in a real downpour just before the Marian Procession was due to start, and that put a lot of people off. Several families were away at various events as well, so numbers were rather low. I had visions of the procession having to stay inside, but it seems that Our Lady wasn't too keen on that idea. The rain suddenly stopped, and, although it didn't happen in time for the photos, the sun came out for a while.

We started off with a hymn and the recitation of the rosary in front of the statue at the Lady Altar. I'm still using crutches to get around, although I can hobble about without them, the damp weather is making everything much more painful. I also suspect that I wrenched my knee a bit when carrying Sylvester to the vet - he weighed around 7kg, which is rather a lot of moggy to carry, even without a dodgy knee... As a result, I had taken the trouble to position myself carefully so as to get a clear view of the statue (there is a rather inconvenient pillar which gets in the way if I sit in the wrong position) as well as being able to get photos of Benediction, without having to change pews. Unfortunately, the best-laid plans of mice and men and all that... one of the servers needed to kneel at the main altar rail... completely blocking the view. If one of the younger servers had been there, it wouldn't have been such a problem (they're shorter!) I had to use the wonders of photoshop to compensate... I do hope that Stanley won't mind being photoshopped out...

I do love photoshop... Anyway, that was only a minor blip. After the rosary, Fr. Tim recited a prayer and then some ladies from the parish Union of Catholic Mothers carried the statue out of the church...

When the statue of Our Lady was returned to the Lady Altar, we then had Benediction at the High Altar. There was a little bit of a delay while the candles were lit...

Then Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament... I don't know why, but I always find the bow at the phrase veneremur cernui (from the Tantum ergo) very moving indeed - which is why it's one of my favourite shots...

We chanted the Litany of Loreto - I posted a video of that before; then Fr. Tim recited the longer prayer for England - the one which nearly made him blub. I guess facing ad orientem helps at times like that! After that, we received Benediction itself...

After the Divine Praises, Fr. Tim went back to the Lady Altar for the Salve Regina.

The whole thing was extremely moving - we need more devotional processions! I can't wait until Thursday - the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary!