Pondering The Purpose Of Blogging...

Why do you read this blog? Having had a break from blogging for the best part of a month, I have been pondering why I bother to blog at all. His Hermeneuticalness kindly assured me that it was a good thing for me to continue, as it was an apostolate - bringing the Catholic Faith into the wider arena of the blogosphere.

I understood the need for priests (such as Fr. Zuhlsdorf, Fr. Ray Blake and Fr. Michael Brown) and religious to blog about the Faith, but have often felt that I, as a lay woman without any real theological training, was less "necessary" as a Catholic blogger. Necessary is the wrong word, of course, because no Catholic blogger is "necessary," but indulge me.

I am genuinely puzzled - it appears that people still check my blog regularly to see whether I have written anything new. I am an ordinary, middle-aged (*sobs*) lay Catholic woman with traditional leanings. I have taught RE in the past and have been a catechist for many years, but I don't have any formal training in theology, though I have studied it informally. I love the Holy Father, and I want to help to promote the truths of the Catholic Faith. I really am intrigued... why do people bother to check this blog?

This isn't just idle introspection and navel-gazing. Honestly!

Please, tell me why you read this blog...

...Is it the cat posts?

I really need to know, because I am wondering whether I should continue to have cat posts on this blog, mixed in with everything else, or whether I should ditch the cat posts (and possibly start up a dedicated cat-themed blog for the exploits of the Monsignori.) Personally I think the cat posts are part of the whole Mulier Fortis ensemble... and, after all, my kittes are definitely traddy Cat-holics. They proved this beyond any shadow of doubt when they shredded The Tablet and left the Catholic Herald unscathed...

UPDATE: I see that I need to be more explicit. I am very humbled by the supportive comments, but I am NOT going to give up blogging! I want to know whether the cat posts intrude into what is, presumably, a catholic apologetics blog... or whether my readers view the blog as a bit of a mish-mash, with cats and Catholicism intertwined...

Saint Philomena...

I was delighted to hear from Fr. Tim that we will have a votive Mass in honour of St. Philomena tomorrow, her feast day.

I have a devotion to St. Philomena because there is something contrary about her which appeals to me - it's the same quirk in my nature which makes me prefer St. Teresa of Avila's slightly ascerbic style to the more sugary-sweet approach of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. I imagine St. Philomena to be thumbing her nose at the modernists and sceptics as she works miracles for those who turn to her, despite the cries of those who claim that she never existed.

If you want to find out more about the discovery of her relics and the establishing of devotion to the saint, check out the Living Rosary page about her.

But Latin Is So Hard To Learn...

More proof that Latin isn't just for intellectual types. I have it on good authority that altar servers of 8 years old were able to make the responses for the Preparatory Prayers at the foot of the altar (the Introibo ad altare Dei - ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam bit) and here is a clip of one young chap belting out the Marian anthem after his elder sister's First Holy Communion.

Yes, you read that correctly... his elder sister's First Holy Communion.

His Hermeneuticalness (leading the chant from in front of the Lady Altar) is hidden by a pillar. The little chap singing the chant with such gusto is the one sitting down - the lighting was a bit difficult for my little mobile phone camera, and I don't have any video-editing software, but you can just see him. His elder brother (I think it's his elder brother) seems to be a little under the weather and is leaning on the front of the pew, but I've heard him singing the anthems on other occasions...

If he can do it, so can the rest of us. Check out the Our Lady of the Rosary Church Choir blog to get details of the chants coming up and to hear recordings of the music so that you can get practising...

From The Oldie-But-Goody Files...

Today's the Feast of St. Dominic, and so I felt it was an opportune moment to bring out one of my favourite jokes.

Which Religious Order has been the most successful, the Society of Jesus (aka the Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola) or the Order of Preachers (aka the Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic)?

Well... consider this: the Dominicans were founded to combat the Albigensian heresy, the Jesuits were founded to combat the Protestant heresy.

Now when was the last time you saw an Albigensian? Boom Boom!

(I offer that little jest in memory of a dear friend, Dominic Mary, who was a Third Order Dominican. Requiescat in pace.)

Keeping Tabs On Us All...

The idea of microchipping people is pretty high on the "Ewww!" scale for me. My pets are microchipped. That seems like a good idea - my cats can't tell anyone where they live. But my gut instinct jibs at having people chipped.

This isn't science fiction any more. It appears that a Florida company has been approved by the FDA to chip people so that their health details can be accessed quickly. This sounds like a good idea (in theory) as occasionally health records are needed pretty quickly and a patient isn't always in a position to give details. However, the instances where medical details are needed that urgently are quite rare (I've spent lots of time in hospitals, both as a patient and as a member of staff) and the fact that these chips are also designed for security and financial applications (listen very carefully to the spiel from the Chairman/CEO on the video clip) is ringing several alarm bells.

Yes, the powers-that-be probably already know where I am due to debit cards, my driving license, council tax, national insurance number, car registration etc. etc. But actually being chipped is, IMHO a step too far.

Twitch of the mantilla to Bones.

Sensing A Pattern...

I'm beginning to worry about the impression people have of me.

Over the weekend, I was bewailing my lack of internet access, and had mentioned that it followed my installation of a new cable modem. The response from several different sources was the same:

"Hmmm. Did you check that it was switched on?"

On reflection, I might have to cut down on the blonde jokes and cat posts...

(And before anyone else asks, yes, it was switched on.)

Reviving Old Traditions...

I am keen to clock up as many of the old traditions as I can. Plenary and partial indulgences. Fasts and feasts. And, of course, blessings.

Fr. Z is great on this sort of stuff. He posts oodles of stuff about prayers and blessings, along with why they were instituted and the deeper meanings ascribed by the Church to little rituals. My mobile phone isn't really the best way to read blogs, though it is better than being totally without internet access, but I did happen to spot this little snippet from Fr. Z about the blessing of grapes on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Mass was in the evening, so I had time to go shopping. Two bunches of grapes were duly purchased and delivered to the Sacristy. And so, after Mass, Fr. Tim went and got his little Rituale and then blessed the grapes...

I've eaten about 25 of them. That's more grapes than I usually eat in a year...