A Typical Sunday In Blackfen...

One is never bored at Blackfen.

The parish is a lively one, and there is usually something going on. Of course, there are only 52 Sundays in the year (give or take) and so the calendar does occasionally get a little full...

This morning was an example.

First there was the 9am English Mass with children's liturgy and the children's choir chanting things like the Introit and singing the Mass propers. Directly after that, there was a Religious Sister and a Lay Brother from an Orthodox convent in Belarus selling icons and stuff to raise money for their work looking after orphans and disabled people. I had been tasked by Annie Elizabeth to get something "nice" which meant that I was in absolute agonies in case my ideas of "nice" didn't pass muster. I took comfort from the fact that directly after I nabbed one of the icons, several other people came up and asked about the same one. Meanwhile, the altar servers were changing various things over from green to purple as it was Quinquagesima in the old calendar, as well as setting up the gradines and arranging the altar for Mass to be celebrated ad orientem. Music for the usus antiquior Mass also had to be laid out.

It goes without saying that Mass was wonderful. It's almost the oasis of calm in the middle of the maelstrom. Even so, the Confessional door is opened and shut so often that I have occasionally wondered if a revolving door might help.

No Baptisms this week. Gosh, the Parish Priest is slacking!

Tidying up after the Mass and setting up for the Novus Ordo evening Mass is pretty routine. All the servers help (though some of the younger ones have been known to try to escape). Today, things were a little more hectic, as the Religious Sister and the Lay Brother were busy selling more of their icons, and that meant that rather more people than usual were in the Small Hall.

The choir practice was therefore held in the little room with all the cupboards which is between the church and the Small Hall. I know this because I fell over Leutgeb putting them through their paces when I was getting stuff from the cupboards...

The Senior MC wanted to refresh the gas canisters on his supply of lifebelts  It was considered desirable that the servers and Parish Priest received training for what to do in the case of flooding (well, Blackfen is built on... ummm... a fen...) to compliment their training for what to do in the case of fire.

Sadly, I had one of my frequent blonde moments, and managed to press the wrong button, so the video of the operation of the lifebelts didn't record. I did manage to get a photo or two of the aftermath...

I believe that the parish club was preparing to watch some rugby match this afternoon - something to do with six nations. I wasn't paying attention because, thanks to the eagle-eyed Zephyrinus, I discovered that I had yet another flat tyre.

At least this time I could wait for the breakdown services in the comfort of the parish club...