Preparing For The Beatification...

This evening we had a parish film evening, when we had the opportunity to watch the film Pope John Paul II.

It was organised by one of the families in the parish, and we started by praying John Paul II's prayer for families, which brought a lump to my throat. The film (I think it started out as a mini-series) was excellent, and towards the end I was in tears, remembering John Paul II's last few days. It really brought home to me how he offered his sufferings for the good of the Church.

Oh Woe Is Me...!

John Paul II is to be beatified this Sunday.

Many years ago Fr. Richard Whinder gave me a rosary which had been personally blessed by Pope John Paul II. Unfortunately for me, the rosary was swiped from my desk drawer by some little so-and-so. I am now ruefully contemplating the fact that I have lost what was probably a second class relic...

I am able to console myself with the further reflection that I have been in the same room as a Beatus... admittedly it was the Paul VI Audience Chamber, but I was quite near the front... a lot nearer than the photo I've got here...

(And yes, I know that is a photo of Pope Benedict XVI... I couldn't find one of Pope John Paul II in front of that ghastly sculpture... and it was before my digital photography days, so I don't have my own. In fact I was taking proper photos, but I seem to recall that my camera died in the Audience Hall!)

Anyway, I think it was October 2003 (I'm a little hazy on this... it was definitely during a school half term holiday, not a Christmas Easter or Summer one, but I can't remember which... and I might have gotten the year wrong!) I was close enough to observe a very amusing scene. Newly married couples would go up in their wedding regalia to get a blessing from the Pope. The instruction was that they should kneel down on the kneeler provided, get their blessing and walk off.

One bride knelt down but she wanted to touch the Holy Father as well, and held out her hand to him. I saw quite clearly, much to the annoyance of the officials, that the Holy Father responded by reaching out and touching the bride's hand. She was overjoyed, but her spouse had been far more conventional, and had already moved off by this point... so she moved off after him, grabbed him and nipped back to the side of the Holy Father's chair, where both of them got a special blessing as a reward for her perseverance!

There's Some Other Vote Going On, Apparently...

It seems that, although my cat post opinion poll is definitely a trending topic among the more discerning members of the Catholic Blogosphere (His Hermeneuticalness actually admitted that it had featured during a lunch he'd attended), there seems to be some sort of referendum being held next week in England. Or it might be the whole UK. Or something.

Something to do with how votes are counted...

I'm afraid that I know little about it, and care less. I will vote - I'm just not yet sure what my vote will be. Either I'll vote "yes" to AV for my first choice and "no" as my second... or I might do it the other way around...

This "explanatory" video did make me smile though...

Feedback...

I've put a little poll in the sidebar, as I'm interested to discover whether or not I do too many cat-related posts, according to my readers, that is....

The poll is open until 6 May.

An Unfortunate Trip Down Memory Lane...

I genuinely forget how old I am.

What I really mean is that I remember how old I am when I stop to work it out, but I actually have to stop to work it out. I only remember that I am well into middle-age when I refer to something which happened "a few years ago" and the reaction of my listeners reminds me that "a few years ago" was probably before they were born.

I had one of those moments last night.

I'd read a friend's facebook status, and a link she'd put up reminded me of various songs I used to listen to. We then chatted on Skype, and I showed her one of my favourite old albums.

Her face was an absolute picture... "Oh wow!" she exclaimed in total amazement, "that's a... wow! an actual music cassette!!"

*sigh*

I now feel like a museum piece...

Very Odd Indeed...

It really is extremely odd. For some reason, over 30% of my visitors came to my blog today after doing a Google search for "chicken"...

Why did the punk rocker cross the road? Because he was stapled to the chicken.

A commenter alerted me to the fact that the previous chicken picture I posted was a foreigner to these shores, so, to keep John of Hayling happy, here's a more local variant - the Buff Orpington...

And, in an attempt to be helpful, a few more chicken varieties...

Roast...

Baby...

And Nugget...

Heheheheheh...

The Exsultet...

As promised, here's the recording of the Exsultet I made at the Easter Vigil in Blackfen... There's not much to see...

I missed recording the start of the chant because I was distracted by the misbehaviour of the Paschal Candle (it refused to stay lit) until it was taken into the sacristy to be trimmed a bit. It reappears at 1:45 or thereabouts...

The True Cross...

On Good Friday I was very blessed to be able to venerate a relic of the True Cross.

Please don't quote that hoary old chestnut about all the relics of the True Cross making enough for a forest. It's a lie. Actually there's not even enough to make one. Oh, and the Church's Tradition was right about the bones of St. Peter being under St. Peter's, and they found the bones of St. Paul just where the Church had always said he was, so I'm happy to accept what she says about the Cross as well...

Happy Easter..!

My two kittens wanted to wish me a Happy Easter when I was putting up the post about the Easter Vigil at Blackfen. I am sure that it had nothing to do with the big Easter Egg I had just unwrapped...

They weren't even slightly amused when they discovered that cats shouldn't be given any chocolate...

Catholic Bloggers & The Easter Bunny...

If Easter is all about the Bunny, let's wait three days and see if lil' Thumper here resurrects...


A mantilla-twitch in the direction of Fr. Jay, who posted that one four years ago...

And now, meet the Easter Bunny...


Another mantilla-twitch to the Pastor in Valle, who posted the second photo two years ago.

Catholic Bloggers tend to have a sick sense of humour when it comes to the Easter Bunny...