Ordinary Of Ordinariate Has Extraordinary Meeting...

Sorry about the post title... I couldn't resist!

Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, was granted an audience with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. This is, according to those in the know, a great privilege, and quite a rarity (compared to the number of audiences granted by Pope John Paul II) demonstrating that our Holy Father is taking a keen personal interest in the former Anglicans who are swimming the Tiber!

This is very positive news for them, and I'm sure that it must be encouraging for all those former Anglicans who might have wondered what sort of a reception they'd get from the rest of us. It must take an incredible amount of courage to leave the faith in which one has been brought up, perhaps having to face opposition from those nearest and dearest, especially if one is unsure how much of a welcome one will get.

Just over halfway through Lent, I would like to offer my encouragement to the members of the Ordinariate who are preparing to be received this Easter.

A mantilla-twitch in the direction of Fr. Tim.

Does God Exist...?

I spotted this video over on Facebook, courtesy of Christian Holden who runs St. Anthony Communications. It's a bit fuzzy, and I wouldn't completely agree with the definition of evil given, but the name of the speaker was certainly an eye-opener!

An Arachnophobe's Nightmare...

This report from Wired is seriously high in the "Yuck!" factor. I'm not an arachnophobe, but, in addition to preferring spiders to be outside of my living space, I also prefer spiders to be out of sight and out of mind.

The flooding in Pakistan last year led the country's spider population to take refuge in the trees. Millions of spiders. And, with the flood waters taking rather a long time to go down, the spiders made themselves at home. A while back, I posted a photo or two of a spider in the church here which had managed to build itself a web from the church roof down to the pew in just a few hours. Imagine what millions of the blighters can do over a few months...

Ok, don't imagine. Here's what they actually did...

There is a silver lining in this cloud: the number of malaria-spreading mosquitos is much lower than usual, especially given the larger amount of stagnant water around.

Latest Pro-Life Video...

I saw this over at Ecce Homo, and I agree with Clifford: it's too cool not to watch!

Starvation Diet...?

Anita Moore has summed up, perfectly, my reaction when I first discovered the Extraordinary Form of Mass - I felt as if I had been being fed dry bread and water when, all the time, there was a fabulous feast available, if only I'd known about it. I was pretty angry when I realised that the Mass had been stripped of all the little "extras" which made it Catholic - this was when I first understood my father's outraged comment after he'd attended a Novus Ordo Mass: "It's all turned Protestant!"

Anyway, go on over and read Anita's excellent post.

The Latest Cure At Lourdes...

Serge François has been reported as experiencing a "remarkable" healing of his herniated leg when he was praying at the Grotto at Lourdes in 2002. He said that he felt a warm glow in his leg, and all of his suffering suddenly disappeared. Now he has walked the pilgrimage route between France and Spain, the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

I'm not quite sure why no-one has called it a miraculous cure. I thought that it might be something to do with the condition - a Google search of herniated legs brought up lots of references to sciatica and herniated discs leading to back and leg pain, but not much on what a herniated leg actually is.

Nevertheless, the 20 doctors who have examined his case have concluded that the healing was certainly remarkable - they haven't said "Oh, it just got better spontaneously!" or come up with any explanation. Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic Church doesn't go round calling just anything a miracle, and the Medical Bureau at Lourdes is particularly careful - of more than 7000 unexplained healings at Lourdes, only 67 have been recognised as miracles.

I'm sure that Serge François isn't too worried about whether his healing is officially recognised as a miracle... and it sounds pretty miraculous to me too!

The New Missal...

The Catholic Truth Society is well on track to have the new Missal ready for Advent 2011. The new Missal is needed simply because the previous English translation of the Latin was pretty dire, there is no change to the Mass itself.

To allow us all to get used to the corrected translation, there will be interim Altar Missals available to cover the period from September to Advent. In addition, the current publications produced by the CTS which have the order of Mass, such as The Simple Prayer Book will have the corrected translation from June.

I'm delighted to hear that the CTS are planning to bid for the rights to publish  the hand Missals in time for Advent as well - the previous hand Missals had horrible artwork and the paper was so thin you could see the type on the other side as well. The bindings were terrible as well, and fell apart at the drop of a hat.

The CTS has a wonderful attitude towards liturgical books:

Since the new Missal is to have a more accurate and beautiful translation of the sacred texts, CTS felt that the volume ought also to reflect that beauty in its design and materials. We felt it important that this book of the altar be more than functional. The nature of the liturgy requires that it have a beauty and a presence which assists priests and faithful to worship within a sacred environment. The Congregation for Divine Worship’s own instruction on the Missal states that it “should be marked by such a dignity that the exterior appearance of the book itself will lead the faithful to a greater reverence for the word of God and for sacred realities” [Liturgiam Authenticam, 120]

It's incredibly encouraging. I realise that many people are of the opinion that, if the Mass would just be said in Latin there wouldn't be the need for the arguments over a "corrected" translation, but, since Mass is available in the vernacular, and the majority of people attend the Novus Ordo in the vernacular, it is important that the translation is accurate... as well as not sounding like a conversation one might hear anywhere on the street - Liturgy is supposed to be sacred!

Details about the timetable for producing the Altar Missals and People's Missals can be read on the CTS website.

Relics & Reliquaries...

Fr. Tim was given some reliquaries a while back...

Stephen (in the middle) then got some dark blue felt to act as backing, and we just have to wait for the relics to be mounted and labelled. I'm hoping that the reliquaries will make an appearance on the High Altar for Laetare Sunday, when we have a new antependium (I hope I spelled that correctly) to match the rose High Mass set of vestments. I shall, of course, bring my camera...

Kittens & Catflaps...

As the title of the post suggests, this is going to be another post about the exploits of my two kittens. If you're uninterested in kittens, and usually read this blog for the Catholic bits or the blonde jokes, then try again another day - this post will not interest you in the slightest.

Since Wednesday, I have been trying to encourage my kittens to use the catflap. It's more complicated than you'd think, mostly because the catflap is actually in the kitchen window, and so there's a bit more involved than just sticking a bowl of food one side of the flap and letting nature take its course...

My next door neighbour (the one who cat-sits for me) has been helping me, shoving the kittens out one way and acting as "fielder" to prevent straying kittens from discovering the hole in the fence.

Yesterday's weather was horrible - very cold and windy - so I didn't go out with the kittens.

Today my neighbour was unavailable, but it was sunny this afternoon, so, using a chopstick as a prop, I wedged the catflap open and proceeded to walk round the garden to the kitchen window. By the time I got there, Furretti was looking out at me...

Without my neighbour to prod her in the behind, Furretti took her time to study the outside world from the safety of the window sill. I stood outside in the cold (this section is in shadow, and there was quite a breeze blowing!), calling her name and trying to encourage her to step over the threshold. In retrospect, I think that the cat had more sense than me...

Of course, the younger kitten, being far more inquisitive than Furretti, (so far, Miaowrini's fallen in the toilet, the bath and the swing bin because of her general nosiness) just had to have a look to see what was going on...

Eventually, Furretti made it through the flap. She knocked the chopstick over, but was far enough out for it not to matter...

I waited for Furretti to jump down on her own, and let her explore the bushes...

Meanwhile, I propped open the catflap again, and allowed Miaowrini to have a look through. At one point I thought she was going to take the plunge...

...but she decided against it, and shot back inside.

After a short while, I called Furretti and she ran back to me, allowing me to pick her up and put her back on the ledge below the window. She seemed pretty happy to be going back inside, though I had to open the catflap for her. On Friday afternoon I'd started to walk away, thinking I could return to the flat and call her in from inside the kitchen, but she got very anxious and ran after me, so I guess she's not quite ready to be alone outside.

A week or so more, and I think the two kittens will be able to go out, at least during the day (they're a bit small to be let out at night, as we have lots of foxes in the area) and I'm definitely looking forward to them using the garden rather than the litter box!