Urgent Prayer Request...

The wonderfully entertaining Dominic Mary (of Libera Me fame) has been a little quiet of late. I've just heard from a mutual friend that he's been having some health problems, and they have rather put a crimp in his blogging (and facebooking) activities. He's due to undergo some sort of biopsy tomorrow - details are sketchy at the moment, but it is quite a serious procedure, and your prayers would be greatly appreciated.

I'll let you know more as soon as I am able...

Now There's A Problem With Blackberries...

Seems that Apple doesn't have a monopoly on glitches...



Mantilla-twitch in the direction of Matthew Warner (who actually tweeted it rather than blogged it, but even so...)

Start As You Mean To Go On...

After showing photos of what I considered to be the best possible way to see out the old year, I thought I'd post a couple of photos showing the best way to usher in the new one...

Before Mass, Fr. Tim led us in singing the Veni, Creator Spiritus...

And then we had Mass...

And then we had Exposition (followed by Benediction at the end of the Holy Hour.)

Beautiful!

Just To Make You Smile...

I have no idea what this is about, or what they are supposed to be singing, but for sheer joy and exuberance, this takes some beating...



Twitch of the mantilla to Ches.

Not The Best Of Starts...

One of my (many) New Year's Resolutions was to make much more of an effort to get up early, and especially to ensure that I spend half an hour in the church before Mass (I've been slacking of late!)

I was therefore not amused to discover that I'd slept through my alarms this morning. Fortunately, the kittens were hungry and amused themselves by reaching under the duvet to see if they could touch my toes. They could. But only if they extended their claws...

I have since discovered that this affected any iPhone users who had single alarms set. Fr. Z was almost caught out by it too, so I'm in good company.

I am getting ever so slightly hacked off with iPhone glitches... Oh well, only one more year of my contract to go...

Best Quote Of The Year (So Far...)

An interesting response regarding my recent change of hair colour:

"Well, I suppose if one can't have a church with Gothic architecture, the next best thing is to have Goth parishioners..."

"If I was Goth, my hair would be black!"

"Oh no... haven't you heard? Grey is the new, sophisticated Goth..."

Seeing Out 2010 In Style...

This is definitely my preferred method of bidding goodbye to the old year - especially as there is a Plenary Indulgence attached (and remember, one doesn't need to restrict the springing of Holy Souls from Purgatory just to the month of November!)

We started off with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and the recitation of the Rosary...

Then we had some time for silent prayer, Fr. Tim reminding us that our prayer should consist of adoration of Our Lord, contrition for our sins during the past year, thanksgiving for all the many blessings we have received during the past year and supplication for the graces we will need during the coming year. I don't know about anyone else, but I really found that little reminder (more a reflection, actually) really helpful in keeping focussed!

We then sang the Te Deum - a little rapidly, I thought, but Fr. Tim maintained that the Te Deum should be chanted at a manly pace, akin to marching. I would have preferred it a tad slower - my Latin isn't quite up to speed!

Benediction proceeded along familiar lines - the Tantum ergo, the incensing of the Blessed Sacrament and the actual Benediction...

Rather beautifully, the camera recorded the time of the photo of Benediction here as exactly midnight! Outside we could hear fireworks exploding and cheers coming from the Parish Club...

We then recited the Divine Praises in reparation for blasphemies, the Blessed Sacrament was reposed to the strains of Adoremus in aeternum, and we finished up with the Marian anthem of the season, the Alma, redemptoris mater...

Finally, Fr. Tim invited all present into the small hall for a glass of wine and some chocolates, to celebrate the New Year... I managed to avoid the Cadbury's Heroes and stuck to the rather more interesting Guylian chocolates which were also on offer.

Sadly, I had to decline the wine, as I needed to drive home. I am, however, having a small glass of celebratory fizz (a rather good Christmas present) - I convinced myself that it was imperative to get the photos up on the blog as soon as possible, and so might as well have something to keep me going...

Having finished both the glass of fizz, and the blog post, I shall call it a night. There's another Plenary Indulgence available later on...

Happy New Year !

At the time this post goes up (assuming all is well with Blogger and the world in general) I shall be receiving Our Lord's Benediction at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, having sung the Te Deum to see out 2010. I hope to take photos, but they might be delayed a little.

I would just like to wish all of my readers a happy New Year, with prayers and best wishes for 2011.