Worth A Try...

Ok, ok... I know I haven't actually got a snowball's chance in hell of getting into the top 3, but, at 80 votes, I guess things aren't too shabby for a blog mostly about hair, nails, cats and chocolate.  Somehow or other I managed to include enough religion to be nominated for the Best Religion Blog (Kat must have been on serious medication!) and I'm currently on page 2.

How about a vote (out of pity if nothing else)?  Pretty please...

Belated Thanks...

I had a very nice surprise this morning.  I was asking Hilda, our Sacristan, something before Mass, and Fr. Tim came in.  "Sorry," he said, "I forgot to give this to you before!  And that just arrived..."

"This" turned out to be a holy card of Our Lady - showing her Immaculate Heart, and an enamelled medal of St. Benedict in a pouch with a prayer.  It's a bit difficult to see, but it looks as if Our Lady's heart is crowned with roses... I've never spotted that detail before.  Anyway, they were apparently sent with the cross given to Fr. Tim at the London blognic, from Andrew at Unam Sanctam.  Belated thanks, Andrew, it was really sweet of you to think of me (and now you know why I didn't say anything earlier!!)

"That" was a postcard, all the way from Nagasaki.  I was slightly confused, as it was addressed to me using my Christian name (a closely guarded secret, as it's one I loathe, on account of there being a surfeit of us born in the same year!) but was obviously sent care of the church...  I then spotted that it was from Brendan Allen, of Guard Me With Your Glory fame (though he's gone a little quiet since the announcement of his engagement!)  Reading the card, I discovered that it made Brendan think of me.  Looking more closely at the picture, I think I can see why: the Cathedral is positively stuffed with ladies wearing mantillas (or should that be mantillae?)  So, many thanks to you too, Brendan.

The prayer to St. Benedict is worth reproducing, I think:

O Holy Father, blessed by God both in grace and in name, who, whilst standing in prayer with thy hands raised to heaven, didst most happily yield thy angelic spirit into the hands of thy Creator, and hast promised zealously to defend against all the snares of the enemy, in the last struggle of death, those who shall remind thee of thy glorious departure and the heavenly joys, protect me, I beseech thee, O glorious Father, this day and every day, by the holy blessing, that I may never be separated from our Blessed Lord, from the society of thyself, and of all the blessed.  Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Solemn High Mass...

I'm still trying to catch up with a backlog of bloggable items!

Tuesday was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, our parish's patronal feast.  The statue of Our Lady was duly dressed and her altar adorned with flowers, and there was a special Mass celebrated in the evening.  I was delighted that the set of books I had to mark before leaving work was for a small class of only 20 or so students, so I was able to escape early at 5:00pm... just as well, as I had been asked to organise a few bottles of wine and some nibbles for after the Mass.

Dr. Lawrence Hemming was deacon, and Fr. Charles Briggs was sub-deacon, and we had a cohort of our regular servers, as well as the schola which visits us on the first Saturday of the month for our regular Missa Cantata. I bagsied my favourite pew, and took a few photos.  I was aware that I'd gone slightly overboard on the previous Saturday (well, ok, 17 minutes' worth of footage, with a photo duration of 2 seconds, suggests that maybe I had gone more than slightly overboard...) so I was rather more restrained.  I did, however, manage to get some of my favourite points:

Blessing of the sub-deacon before the Gospel:

Incensing the gifts:

The Consecration - first genuflection:

The Consecration - Elevation of the Host:

The Consecration - second genuflection:

It was a magnificent occasion, and well worth making the effort to attend: Solemn High Masses, unfortunately, do not happen every day...

It Only Took Me A Week...

...I also had to cut the beginning (where the versus populum altar was being transformed into a beautiful ad orientem one) and the end (from the Ecce agnus Dei - at least I think that's where it ends) due to the file being way too big for You Tube otherwise... I also had to compress it a bit, and I haven't done that before...

A Bishop Who Takes His Role Seriously...

Wow ! Bishop O'Donoghue has really gone and done it again! Not only did he publish Fit For Mission? Schools, (for which he was hauled before a none-too-friendly and definitely disrespectful Parliamentary Committee) and, far from backing off, follow it up with Fit For Mission? Church, but he has also decided to tell his diocesan Social Care Agency exactly where they stand if they continue to disregard Catholic moral teaching.

And he hasn't tried to fudge the issue.

It rather puts the bishops down-South to shame, especially after they have caved in on the Adoption Agencies thing.  On a side note, it also makes the Southwark Diocese's Towards a Vision consultation exercise look pretty wishy-washy too!

Twitch of the mantilla to the South Ashford Priest.

Fighting Against Evil...

I mentioned before that the government's Human Fertilisation & Embryology (HFE) Bill was nothing short of diabolical.  The creation of human-animal hybrids, the allowing of embryo experimentation and the proposals to make abortion more freely and easily available are all vicious attacks on the sanctity of human life, and, dress it up as you will, those attacks stem ultimately from one source.

It has its report stage, and third reading on October 22nd.

We have a duty to fight against evil, we cannot just passively hope it will go away.  So, if you are in the UK, write, email or telephone your MP.  This site will help you figure out who your MP is if you don't know already.

Try and get to the Rosary Crusade of Reparation on Saturday, October 11th, starting at 1:45pm outside Westminster Cathedral and finishing at the Brompton Oratory at about 5pm.

Alternatively, attend the 1000 Crosses for Life event on Saturday, 18th October.  Starting at 1pm from Westminster Cathedral, the procession will be walking across Lambeth bridge, re-crossing the river at Westminster bridge and ending with a mourning ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

And, whether you are in the UK or not, pray for the defeat of this monstrous legislation.

More details about action which you can take can be found HERE.

Holy Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle,

be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host,

by the power of God,

thrust down to hell Satan, and all wicked spirits

who wander through the world

for the ruin of souls.  Amen.

Last One... I Promise...

I am working on a YouTube video of last Saturday's Missa Cantata.  I was a little overenthusiastic - I took over 500 photos - and it all needs sorting out a little, so it's taking longer than anticipated! (I also took some photos of tonights stunning Solemn High Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, but they really will have to wait until I have some spare time!)

Busy, Busy, Busy...

As I said in a previous post, this is looking like the week from Hell, blogwise... (it's pretty good otherwise!)  So that you don't think I've died, or anything, I thought I'd put up a cat post.

Sorry...

...but isn't this little mite adorable?

Worldwide Rosary For The Unborn

On Saturday, 18th October, between 9am and 10am, everyone is being asked to pray a rosary for the intention of an end to the surgical and non-surgical killing of unborn babies.

This is being co-ordinated by the St. Michael the Archangel Organisation: the idea is that, if everyone prays at this time, then there will be rosaries said somewhere in the world throughout the 24 hour period... "circling the Earth with multiple waves of rosaries."

Advertise it.  And pray it.

For Those Who Have Mastered Giving Their Cat A Pill...

I read this over at The Ironic Catholic, and she must be slightly off the wall on some sort of medication: giving the cat a bath is not something to be undertaken lightly (I have given Sylvester a bath, but that was because his digestive tract reacted very badly to travel on the Woolwich Ferry... and I held him down while my sister wielded the shower attachment...)

This is only part of the story...

"Some people say cats never have to be blessed. They say cats are spiritual goners from their first swat. Others, mostly calendar makers, find them akin to angels on earth, needing nothing in their inherent perfection. Others say if you can bless a plastic religious article bought at favorite Shrine X but made in China, you can certainly have a living, breathing cat blessed.

I've spent most of my life moving from one opinion to the other. But since my parish doesn't have a blessing of the animals on the Feast of St. Francis, I am reduced to covering my kitty's spiritual bases by blessing him informally, in my home, using water, prayer, and song. So on the eve of the Feast of St. Francis, I have some advice you might consider as you place your feline friend under your arm and head for the bathtub."

Time For A Rant...

I've made a little progress, I think... I have succeeded in weaning myself off the on-all-night radio which resulted in me waking up in such a foul mood as I gradually became aware of the latest anti-Catholic, anti-life, amoral slant of the BBC on whatever was in the news.

I still listen to Radio 4, but more as an aid to drifting off (generally during the 11pm comedy slot) and it is on sleep mode, so switches itself off after an hour.  Unfortunately, I haven't quite managed to stop myself listening in the car.

Today, on my way home after a fabulous Missa Cantata and a very enjoyable lunch in the Robin Hood & Little John pub, I flipped on the radio.  It was obviously the afternoon play, and I quickly realised that it was about Pope John Paul I.  I should have switched it off then and there, but I was intrigued that a play could have been written about a Pontificate which lasted only 33 days.

After 10 minutes, I couldn't take any more.

Pope John Paul I was presented as a simple man who was horrified to find himself elected Pope, and was uncomfortable with all the trappings of the Papacy.  In the teeth of his advisors, he indicated that he wished to do away with all the pomp and circumstance; he kept emphasising that he was a priest, and wished to be treated, first-and-foremost, as a priest: "I am a priest, not a king!" he declared, as he indicated that he would abolish the papal tiara.

This may well be the case: I know little of Pope John Paul's pontificate, and I believe that he walked into St. Peter's for his coronation rather than being carried, and that he wasn't crowned with the papal tiara.

But what upset me was the tone of the piece.

The Pope was portrayed as a reformer, a simple, but very determined, man, who was fighting against the "powers-that-be" in his mission to return the Church to "the people."  Much was made of his struggles with the advisors, who were doing their utmost to maintain the status quo, so much so that they were actually described as being his enemies.

And then there was the issue of artificial birth control.  The Pope was supposed to have declared, several times, that the encyclical Humanae vitae was, quite frankly, wrong, especially in view of the population crisis, and the Pope was calling for another review.  He also claimed that the media briefings were not his own words, but that his views were being distorted and misrepresented: one of the cardinals even went as far as to say that all copies of the Pope's previous pronouncements in favour of artificial contraception had been located and hidden in the Vatican Secret Archives.

The implication was that the Pope's enemies were horrified that the Pope might want to change the Church's "policy" on artificial contraception, and therefore arranged for his death.  I have to say that I may be jumping to conclusions here, as I was so disgusted by the blatant bias and obvious agenda of the BBC in putting this play on the air that I switched the radio off. However, if anyone can prove to me that the play actually ended differently, then I'll send them £10.

But, of course, Mark Thompson is a Catholic, and they listened to the viewers and didn't actually show Popetown (selling it elsewhere doesn't count!) so you can't possibly accuse the BBC of anti-Catholic bias...

Yeah, right... and I'm the next Pope.

Stating The Bleeding Obvious...

I was interested to learn, via the BBC, that the excavation of Cardinal Newman's grave has failed to find his body...

It turns out that he was not buried in a lead-lined coffin, and, although an inscribed plaque from the coffin, and brass, wood and cloth artefacts were found, no trace of his body remained.

According to Peter Jennings, speaking for the Birmingham Oratory, "burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition of the body unsurprising."

Personally, I would have expected the bones to decompose rather more slowly than wood or cloth,even in damp conditions, but I don't claim to have any specialist knowledge of decomposing bodies.  However, the thing which puzzled me was the attitude of the BBC report:

"Newman's body may have decomposed, as his coffin was not lead-lined," and, "Newman's remains are thought to have decomposed."

I am somewhat puzzled as to what else they consider might have happened...

Celebrations...

It's going to be quite a busy week, I think. Our regular monthly Missa Cantata with our visiting schola is on Saturday morning, and then there's the usual Sunday Missa Cantata with our choir singing the Rossini propers, and, to celebrate Rosary Sunday, Rosary and Benediction in the afternoon.  I don't know if there's an extra Mass on Monday (Fr. Tim has started saying an extra evening Mass when he gets back from the seminary, unless he's visiting somewhere (like Maiden Lane))  Then, on Tuesday evening there is a Solemn High Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. On Wednesday, I have a few after-school meetings, Thursday is Rosary and Benediction night, and Friday night there is the regular Low Mass at Chislehurst (7:30pm.)  Oh, and I have to teach, mark books, and plan lessons.

Eating and sleeping will have to be fitted in somewhere...

Not sure about blogging.  I might have to take a week off...

Glad To Sea I'm Not The Only One...

... having to put up with appalling spelling from those I teach.  Leutgeb appears to have the same problem...

October... Month Of The Holy Rosary

I like October.  I suspect this has something to do with the fact that September is over, and therefore the first (and longest and toughest) term is more than halfway through: the half term holiday is always at the end of October.  After the stress of breaking in new classes, the first holiday of the new academic year is always a welcome break.

October also sees the feasts of several of my favourite saints, in the Novus Ordo calendar, that is... The Guardian Angels (2nd October) is quite an important feast (yes, I know it has the rank of memoria but saints' memorial days doesn't sound right!!), as I love to think about how confusing angels must be to Protestants and liberal Catholics: after all, Jesus himself said that we each have our own angel, so it's very Scriptural to believe in angels, but they're not very fashionable because, well, frankly, they're a bit redolent of medieval piety, and you can't exactly rationalise away an angel the way that you can, say, explain away the feeding of the five thousand as the miracle of everyone sharing their packed lunches.  

Angels are, in a way, the spiritual realm getting a bit "in yer face" and challenging you to believe, or not.

My Guardian Angel is, I am sure, white-haired and hitting the vodka-valium cocktails while checking the small print of the contract he signed up for at my conception... he's gotten me out of quite a few hairy situations...

Other favourite saints include St. Teresa of Avila (wonderfully ascerbic), St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (introduced devotion to the Sacred Heart), St. Ignatius of Antioch (barking mad... was planning to force the lions in the arena to eat him if they seemed reluctant), St. Luke (all those wonderful infancy narratives), and St. Jude (patron of hopeless cases.)

And there are more saints with October feasts to celebrate, though I'm not quite as devoted to them: St. Thérèse of Lisieux (a little too saccharine-sweet for my tastes), St. Francis of Assisi (he's been hijacked a bit too much by the green lobby, and I can't stand "Make me a channel of your peace"!), St. Edward the Confessor, St. Paulinus of York, and St. Simon (he loses out a bit because of sharing his feast with St. Jude.)

But, of course, the most important feasts in October have to be Our Lady of the Rosary and also Rosary Sunday.  The Rosary is a wonderful prayer.  It takes a bit of getting used to, and you have to get over the idea that you need to pray each "Hail Mary" meaningfully, but once you realise that this is just a "background chant" to your meditation on the Mysteries, the Rosary becomes easy and a huge comfort in times of trouble.

My parish being Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, we celebrate both feast days in style!

For Rosary Sunday, we've got the recitation of the Rosary and Benediction in the afternoon.  For the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (Tuesday, 7th October) we're having a Solemn High Mass (I think!) in the evening (though possibly a Missa Cantata, if we can't get a deacon and sub-deacon.)  It's going to be a real treat!

The Things They Say (3)...

From one of my Year 7 students' books, when asked to describe useful chemical reactions:

"Burning is a useful chemical reaction.  Burning food is good because it kills off all the bacteria, and makes it safe to eat..."

Occasionally, one wonders about their home lives...

Apologies...

...Life really is very hectic at the moment, and I haven't got the time, energy or patience to sift through the news at the moment: needless to say, most of it is pretty bad!

The HPV vaccine in schools controversy is simmering in the background, and the HFE Bill rears its ugly head with people agitating for fewer restrictions on abortion. Fr. Blake has a couple of reports on the increasing violence against Christians in India. 

There is more, but I really need a break...

So, here's another cat picture.  Proper blogging will, hopefully, recommence shortly.

Fr. Longenecker's Claim To Fame...

...Sorry, but whatever else he has done pales into insignificance beside this one: he met Mel Gibson. And talked to him. And suggested a scene for his film, The Passion of the Christ.  Like, wow!  You can read more about it HERE...

Compulsive Cat Behaviour...

more cats

I love the "I can has cheezeburger" site.  Lots of cat pictures.  Silly captions.  Not quite sure where the odd, mixed-up words come from, but it really fits.

Spin...

I'm not entirely sure where I stand on the HPV vaccine thing.  On the one hand, I am wary of the possibility that this will encourage promiscuity (I'm ok, I've had the jab, so I'm not going to get any STDs, so I can have "safe" sex), and it might give a false sense of security (Ok, I don't need to worry about cervical cancer as I've had the jab)  On the other hand, the vaccine will help to reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

I did wonder about whether this was being brought in rather too quickly.  It had the feeling (and this was gut reaction on my part, based on the little information on the vaccine which had made its way into the media) of a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the government.

Then the Catholic school in Manchester banned it, even though the Church said that the vaccination wasn't against Church teaching...

Then I read what Joe had to say on Catholic Commentary.  It would appear that the school is a victim of media spin.

Apparently, the school had been involved in trials of the vaccine.  Several students involved in the trials suffered side effects (nausea, joint pains, headache and high fever) so the school governors decided against having the vaccine given at school, but recommended that pupils dhould receive the jabs through their GPs.

Now that really puts a completely different spin on things!

And maybe my gut reaction was right after all!