Success... (Possibly!)

Monsignor Furretti does not appear to have used the litter tray for a few days. She did go and kick the litter around a bit the last time I changed it - I can tell because it's in a neat pile to one side of the tray - and she may have peed in it so as to mark it as "hers," but she hasn't deposited anything more noxious.

She has been eating well, so, unless she is monumentally constipated, I can probably assume that she now goes out into the garden to do the necessaries...

This is a great relief to me. as I was beginning to wonder whether I should invest in a gas mask.

I suspect that the stag beetle hunting season is now over for this year. Either that or stag beetles are finally extinct in south-east London. Monsignor Miaowrini appears to have turned her attention to mice... (I'm hoping that blackbird and pigeon are off the menu for the time being!) Furretti doesn't appear to bring stuff home - though she's happy to play with whatever Miaowrini drags in.

I know a lot of people say that their cats bring them dead rodents as "presents." Sylvester certainly did, and he even brought me the occasional live offering. I thought Miaowrini was doing the same thing (only she doesn't seem to kill her prey) and would do my best to rescue her captives. It would appear that my swiping of her trophies has not gone down well... the last two times Miaowrini brought a mouse home, she took one look at me approaching, promptly picked the mouse up and ran off with it back out through the catflap.

Strangely enough, I don't feel inclined to upbraid her for her selfish attitude...

A New Definition Of Patience...

This really made me laugh for about 10 seconds. After that, I wanted to wring the pigeon's neck. How the cat managed to show such restraint beats me. My two hooligans wouldn't have shown such forbearance...

UPDATE: Ok, YouTube pulled the video for some reason. It was a pigeon or parakeet or some such feathered thing which wouldn't leave a snoozing kitty alone. The cat just did its best to ignore the bird, pushing it away gently. Like I said, I wanted to wring the bird's neck, it was that irritating. I saw the video on I Can Has Cheezburger? If you are curious as to why I didn't just delete the post rather than explaining the absent video, well, posts on Blogger exist in the ether even if they've been deleted, unless you over-write them, and I wasn't going to find another post to go with the title any time soon...

Happy Fourth Of July...

I guess that all my transatlantic readers (you know who you are, all four of you!) will be celebrating today (well, what's left of it... I'm a bit snowed under today!)

One of the most amusing posts for an ignoramus such as myself is the one by Vincenzo - three You Tube cartoons to explain what all the fuss is about. I think I like this one best...



...though I'm not sure about "the pursuit of happiness" ! Go over to Vincenzo's for the other two...

Returning To The Socks Motif...

Jonathan, Blackfen's senior MC, likes to make sure that the servers do not wear inappropriate attire on the Sanctuary. This includes an insistence on plain black socks, as one of our servers discovered last year...

Apparently James, Chislehurst's MC, is rather less strict. He occasionally plays the organ at Blackfen (extremely well, I might add) for weddings, funerals and other occasions when our usual organist is otherwise engaged. He was playing for the wedding on Saturday, and proudly showed off his red socks...

I persuaded him to run through the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria with me once the congregation had left - I'm singing it at an Ordination next week, and need all the practice I can get! I was delighted to find that I hit the top A without any trouble (I was a bit squeaky when I practiced it at Wonersh last week, but then I hadn't sung anything high for ages...)

On the subject of weddings, the one on Saturday was celebrated ad orientem, and I have to say that, from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the setup is much, much better than the versus populum one...

Shame about the chairs. Now, if Fr. Tim could just get some backless stools for the bride and groom, it would be absolutely perfect...

The Truth Behind China's One-Child Policy...

Back in April, I wrote a short post on the shameful silence of so-called "pro-choice" organisations (such as Marie Stopes) on the enforcement of the one-child policy in China.

Reggie Littlejohn posted a link in the com-box to a video report she'd made on the forced abortions and sterilisations happening in China. I felt that it deserved a wider audience, so I'm giving it a post of its own...

Lesnes Abbey Procession...

I was rather uncomfortable with the Eucharistic "Flash-mob" held in Preston. I did understand the thinking behind it, but I am firmly of the opinion that bringing Our Lord out in a hold-all is not the way to impress upon people that the Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Sacrament really is God.

The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable it makes me.

So I was delighted that, last Sunday, we had our annual Blessed Sacrament Procession at Lesnes Abbey.

The ruins are in the middle of a park, rather than in the centre of a shopping area, but there are plenty of people who have gone to the park for a walk or a picnic, and they are left in no doubt that there is something special going on. We have First Communicants, altar servers, priests, deacons... there is music, prayer, readings... and Benediction.

There is much I dislike about the procession - the choice of music and the number of readings being my two main beefs - but it is a reverent occasion, and it is absolutely clear that we are there to worship Our Lord, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

We were certainly blessed as far as the weather went... the week before had been cold, wet and windy, and even the previous day had seen quite a bit of rain.

The beginning of the procession...

The procession goes round the park...

Benediction was given by Bishop Pat Lynch...

When it was time for the Blessed Sacrament to be reposed, the deacon (wearing a humeral veil) was accompanied by servers...

I've taken more detailed pictures of the ruins and given a little of the history in a previous post.

The Knights of St. Columba did a sterling job of marshalling the procession and providing first aid, and three of them agreed to pose for the blog...

Three of the First Communicants from Blackfen got to pose for photos as well, first with Bishop Lynch...

...and then with their Parish Priest, none other than Fr. Finigan (who has a much better understanding of photographic niceties, and who persuaded the girls to relinquish water bottles, put their hands together and stand over by the wall...)

Corpus Christi

Just a couple of photos from the Mass held on the Thursday. It was reasonably well-attended, despite the Thursday no longer being held as a Holyday of Obligation.

 

I didn't manage to get any photos of the actual procession because I was helping with the singing, and I haven't mastered the art of manipulating Liber and camera at the same time. Nevertheless, I found it profoundly moving. The weather was a little uncertain, so we only processed around the church. Maybe next year we can have an outdoor procession.

On a related note, I thought numbers were rather low for the Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul last Wednesday. It did occur to me that a lot of people may have thought that the Holyday had been transferred to the Sunday, like Ascension, Epiphany and Corpus Christi. The sooner the Holydays are put back to their proper places, the better...

Blogging Blues...

Before you protest that I frequently seem to say I'll stop blogging in a passive-aggressive attempt to elicit sympathy, I'd just like to make it clear that this isn't an attempt to gain sympathy and I am not going to stop blogging.

At least, not this week...

Mind you, my blogging has been so irregular of late that I doubt anyone would notice if I had stopped... (Note to male readers* - that was your cue to comment in the com-box that yes, you had noticed my absence, and yes, you were concerned, but you had decided to be understanding and let me have some space in which to recharge my blogging batteries... please also note that a failure to make such comments will result in me sulking, in as conspicuous a manner as I can manage on my blog... and probably on a few other blogs as well...)

Seriously, I just ran out of blogging steam.

I might take another week or so off, to allow time to stoke the boilers... (Another note to male readers: that was your cue to comment in the com-box that you hope I won't be gone too long...)

* Just in case you were wondering, female readers know instinctively when (and how) to answer this sort of cri de coeur, even if they choose not to do so. In the five years I've been blogging, I've found that men often just need the little pointers as to when such comments** are expected...

** Boxes of chocolates (real, not virtual) are an acceptable substitute for comments (real and virtual).