If You Can't Win Using Theology...

The Anglican Divines failed to win a theological debate against Edmund Campion despite his having been racked beforehand. Four centuries on, and Canterbury has recognised the futility of continuing to use theological arguments. Instead, they have challenged Rome to a cricket match.

The Vatican now has an official cricket club, comprised of priests and seminarians from the Vatican and the Roman colleges. The match between St. Peter's Cricket Club and the Church of England's team will probably happen in September, possibly at Lords.

Australia and England fight to win the charred remains of a cricket bail. I wonder what trophy Rome and Canterbury will contest... ?

Needless to say, I would be extremely keen to go and watch this one!

Ikea Have It Sussed...

A while back, Ikea produced a video which did the rounds on Facebook. They videoed an "experiment" - releasing 100 cats into one of their stores overnight, just to see what would happen. There was precious little "experiment" about the whole thing; as far as I could see, the exercise simply demonstrated that Ikea had worked out the golden rule of internet marketing: if you put a cat in the video, it's an instant hit.

The video itself was a bit of a disappointment to many people, as there was far too much talking about the cats from their owners, and not as much actual footage of the kitties themselves. Watching it carefully, however, made me wonder if this wasn't actually just the first step - and that an actual advert starring the feline explorers would eventually be released.

I was absolutely right, of course, and here is the finished article...

However, it would appear that not everyone is quite as positive about our feline friends. There is a spoof version of the advert, with an alternative ending. I am posting it here for the entertainment of Jonathan, Blackfen's Senior MC, who is forever asking whether my two cats have been turned into vindaloo yet. Before you start sending him death threats, I should just point out that Jonathan actually built the cats some rather nice steps to help them get to the cat flap...

Kitty Envy...

I thought it was about time for a kitty update.

All is not peace and harmony chez Mulier.

Miaowrini seems to be the better hunter - quite apart from being out more than Furretti, she appears to be the one bringing mice home to play. Furretti is usually asleep by my feet when this happens. The first indication that there is a catch is that Furretti wakes from a deep sleep and immediately scoots out into the hall. This contrasts with her normal relaxed awakening which involves much stretching and licking of various limbs. The two cats then play with the mouse, unless I rescue it.

I was too ill to get up the other night, and figured that I'd leave them to it, unless I heard screaming. The next morning, to my surprise, the mouse was still very much alive, and being watched by two fascinated cats...

There does appear to be some sort of power struggle going on at the moment. Miaowrini sneaked onto the bed when Furretti was out, and curled up in the favoured spot next to me, under my tray table. Furretti returned, and was most displeased by this turn of events. She promptly tried to get under the table too. I blocked her by encouraging her to settle in front of me... unfortunately she decided that she preferred to curl up on my stomach, and I was then trapped. When I finally moved, I succeeded in offending both cats.

This evening Miaowrini made another bid for the bed while Furretti was out. Furretti was sulking in the kitchen when I came home. I didn't want to move Miaowrini, so I'm sitting on the edge of the bed prior to getting in. Furretti has upped the ante by stretching across on to my lap for attention, and is getting the evil eye from Miaowrini as a result...

In the meantime I am attempting to placate both kitties, and give them each plenty of attention. I suspect that I am destined to fail...

Time For A Commercial Break...

My friends all know how much Coca Cola I drink, but I promise I haven't got shares in the company, and I'm not being paid to show this (unfortunately) but it made me smile, (and brought a lump to my throat) so I thought I'd share.

After all, we need to spread as much pro-life cheer as we can, right?

Oh, and there aren't any cats. But it still works.

Twitch of the mantilla to Matthew Archbold at CMR...

Finding St. Anne Line...

When I first decided to take private vows, my Spiritual Director advised me to adopt a patron saint, preferably one of the English martyrs. I had heard lots about St. Margaret Clitherow, but I couldn't find any sort of connection that made me want her as my patron, and so I started to look at St. Anne Line as a possible candidate.

The first thing I discovered was that there was very little known about her, other than brief accounts of her arrest, trial and her death at Tyburn. However, her feisty declaration, first at her trial and repeated on the scaffold, that she didn't repent of the "crime" of sheltering a Catholic priest but only regretted that she couldn't shelter more, really did grab my attention. I decided that Anne Line was the patron for me.

For a while, I knew very little else about my chosen saint. The internet, normally such a mine of information, yielded only three sources - one from the Catholic Encyclopaedia, one from Wikipedia and one on an American website with resources on the Faith for families. That was it.

A few years later, I got chatting to a friend of mine, Joanna Bogle, and St. Anne came up in the conversation. It transpired that Joanna had recently met a priest whose church was dedicated to the saint, and we decided to make a pilgrimage there. I've described in a previous post how we ended up going to visit a completely different church to the one we'd originally intended to visit before going on to our planned destination. That's what happens when you get two blondes in a car.

The two visits provided me with more valuable information about my chosen patron - much of which I used for my chapter about St. Anne in Joanna's book, English Catholic Heroines.

And now it seems that someone else has been interested in my saint. Martin Dodwell has written her biography, claiming that she was a muse for some of Shakespeare's work. Most appropriately, there is going to be a talk (and book signing) by Martin Dodwell held at the second of the two churches we visited - the church of St. Anne Line, South Woodford. Even more appropriately, the date of the talk is 2nd February - Candlemas - the 413th anniversary of St. Anne Line's arrest. The talk is at 3:30pm, followed by Benediction.

I am delighted to learn that the statue of St. Anne Line is no longer consigned to the presbytery garage (where it was being kept safe at the time of my pilgrimage.) Fr. Coveney reported to His Hermeneuticalness that the statue has been restored and moved inside the church in a place of honour, flanked by the framed account of her martyrdom and the famous painting of the Forty Martyrs, with votive candles in front. I can't wait to see it!