Blessing Of Vestments...

After The Suppository printed its dreadful article, so many people were upset by it that they decided to donate money to enable Fr. Tim to buy some vestments - thanks to both Damian Thompson and Fr. Z for co-ordinating their campaigns!

Today as promised, after Benediction, we had the new rose vestments blessed.

Here you can see two of our senior servers training up three new recruits in the correct angle at which to join their hands...

And then the blessing itself...

Taking A Leaf Out Of Cato's Book...

Further to His Hermeneuticalness' comments about The Suppository, Vincenzo has cooked up a little picture for him...

Welcome Back, Jackie...

Looks like Jackie's back. Hopefully she won't disappear again.

Sadly, her mother-in-law has just died, so any prayers for the repose of Ingeborg Parkes would be greatly appreciated.

Requiescat in pace.

Double Standards...

It seems that there is an interesting case of double standards going on... Paulinus points out that the Catholic Adoption Agencies have bent over backwards to comply with the SOR legislation which makes it an offence to discriminate against anyone in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education and public functions on the grounds of sexual orientation... and yet Stonewall Housing does exactly that, even making its discriminatory selection criteria clear on its website... not only is it not prosecuted, the BBC's flagship charity, Comic Relief, gives it financial support.

Now, why doesn't that surprise me...?

Biology Fail !

Occasionally, my students say really silly things... a previous example I've given is "Miss, what's the liquid form of water called...?" To be fair, the student did actually know the answer, and there was a real "D'oh!" moment as the rest of the class dissolved into fits of giggles.

There is much amusement in the Science Faculty office as we share some of these bloopers. We smile, and hope that the kids will acquire a little more general knowledge as they get older... and hope it's not anything we taught them which is responsible...

However, it's not quite so funny when a similar gaffe is made by someone who, not so long ago, was in charge of a whole country...

Apparently, Bill Clinton is of the opinion that an embryo is unfertilised. It wasn't a one-off followed by a "D'oh!" moment either... he made the point five times.

Even more worryingly, Barack Obama's nominee for Surgeon General didn't pick up on the mistake.

I guess the entrance requirements for medical school have been dumbed down... try not to get sick if you live in America...

Twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Z.

Rumours & More Rumours...

Fr. Ray Blake seems determined to be the cause of a heart attack... all I saw, from a quick check of some blogs during a spare five minutes was "Today: An Announcement..."

The rumours are low-key rather than the frenzy we had a short while ago, which makes me wonder whether this is the real thing.

I have a dreadful sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach...

Watch this space!

Thanking Our Priests...

As we are now entering the second week of Lent, I am aware that I need to start organising our annual Chrism Mass "demonstration" in support of our priests.

A few of us started it in Southwark in 2003, and we've gone from strength to strength - a group of us wave placards and cheer as the priests process in to Mass, and we hand out small cards as a "thank you" - last year's card is shown on the left.

Following on from the success of the demo at Southwark, Westminster diocese had their own little "thank-you demo" for the past couple of years, and last year I think there was a third diocese to experience it (I forget which one!)

The Chrism Mass is where the priests of the diocese come together to renew their allegiance to their Bishop, so it seems to be a particularly good opportunity to have a public display of gratitude for all that our priests do for us.

I am singularly devoid of good ideas for this year's card, so any prayers for divine inspiration would be greatly appreciated...

The Southwark demo will be on Maundy Thursday, 9th. April 2009, at St. George's Cathedral, starting at 10:35am (the priests process in at 11:15am) and then some of us will go off to the Three Stags pub, on the corner of Kennington Road and Lambeth Road. If any of you are free that morning and would care to join us, please come along.

Say It With Flowers...

I really dread it when people give me flowers or plants as a present. It's lovely of them to think of me, and I don't want to appear ungrateful, but they really are a disaster in this house...

One time, I was given a beautiful pot plant with lovely red flowers. Don't ask, because I don't know what plant it was, it just looked very nice. Yes I am a Biology teacher. No, I don't know the name of the plant... it was green with red flowers... you have a problem with that?

Anyway, I placed it on a table in the living room. Gradually, I noticed that the flowers disappeared... not unsurprising, you might think... but there weren't any dead flowers to be seen, and no fallen petals. Then the leaves started disappearing. No sign of dead or fallen leaves.

Eventually I caught Sylvester taking a snack from what he had obviously decided was the kitty equivalent of a salad bar. By this time, the plant was little more than a stick in a pot. He pretty much decimates anything floral. So this little photo made me chuckle...

A Foretaste Of The Heavenly Banquet...

This morning saw Blackfen's monthly Missa Cantata with the visiting schola. I haven't ever been at an Ember Day Mass before (at least, not consciously) but I had been warned that it was a long service due to the five readings, four graduals and a canticle (along with about seven collects) which preceeded the Epistle.

I was amazed at how quickly the time seemed to pass: the liturgy was beautiful, and there was, for me, a real sense of the numinous. As Fr. Tim said in his sermon, this is what heaven is all about: the worship of God for all eternity.

I took a few photos: of the Mass itself, and of Benediction which followed. Enjoy!

We had so many servers for Benediction that they barely fitted in the photo... I shall have to consider moving back a couple of pews!

Fish On Fridays...?

When I first came back to the fold, I had picked up the idea that not eating meat on Fridays was something that Catholics used to do, but Vatican II had done away with all that, because it really wasn't very practical... and anyway, quite a lot of the world's population never ate meat at all due to poverty, and so not eating meat on Fridays was a bit pointless...

Of course, no-one ever pointed out that some other form of penance was supposed to be substituted... I discovered that snippet of information some time later. The problem was that deciding on a suitable Friday penance was soooo hard, as I usually didn't remember until the end of the day, by which time the opportunity for all suitable penances had pretty much expired... "Well, I haven't eaten any chocolate, so I'll make that my penance..." doesn't really cut the mustard.

It was actually through reading blogs that I discovered that abstaining from meat was still considered to be a requirement for Catholics in some parts of the world. Then I discovered that some people still observed the penance anyway, without any "requirement" and I thought I should try it.

It certainly reminds me that it's Friday: I loathe vegetables from the very depths of my being (potatoes don't count as vegetables, especially when chipped and deep-fried), and I'm not much of a fish-eater (unless you count fish fingers) so not eating meat is definitely something I notice.

Some people will still object that, if you do like fish, then substituting a nice salmon steak (or whatever) for your usual pork chop isn't much of a penance... this, however, is more a demonstration of how they view penance than anything else: it's not necessarily something unpleasant, or even terribly difficult. Instead, it's about doing something for the love of God, making an effort for His sake.

Fr. Longenecker has some further thoughts about not eating meat on Fridays...

Pound-A-Priest...

Fr. Zuhlsdorf has been so incensed by the attack on His Hermeneuticalness by The Suppository that he has set up a campaign to encourage everyone to pound Fr. Tim without fear of ecclesial penalties...

So, if you want to send Fr. Tim a donation of £1, you can do it by clicking on the "Pound Fr. Finigan" button, and Fr. Z will send the proceeds on... so that we can buy some snazzy silver candlesticks for the Lady Altar.

While you're at it, you can donate some money to Fr. Z as well...

Vincenzo's Done It Again...

...methinks Vincenzo has altogether too much time on his hands, but the result is definitely worth it!

Barbie Girl...

Matthew over at Creative Minority Report has posted about the latest Barbie to hit the shops: Tattoo Barbie. No, Cavey, don't get excited, not a military tattoo, just the body-piercing type.

Matthew has a few suggestions for forthcoming Barbies... Correctional Facility Barbie being one of them!

Weird...

I was feeling really ill last week. I felt so ill, I actually made the effort to go to see my GP. He listened to my symptoms (feeling dizzy, major headache for two days, pins and needles in one hand) stuck a thermometer in my mouth and told me that I had a temperature of 38.3 °C. This, as one friend informed me, is very nearly 101 F.

I am now much better, though feeling a little washed-out. However, I've noticed a curious side-effect... coca cola, one of my favourite drinks (when I'm not drinking alcohol) suddenly smells petrol-ly. It doesn't taste too great either!

Ok, I know there are a couple of medicos who read this blog... whassup?

This Made Me Giggle...

...and it would have been handy on our recent snow day... instead of which I had to trek around the back of the flats to clear snow from the cat-flap ledge before Sylvester would deign to go outside...

Making God In Her Own Image...

Laurence England writes a really good blog. He also is fortunate enough to attend an excellent parish (Fr. Ray Blake, the PP, is a really wonderful priest!)

Laurence has been reading up (via The Telegraph) on Cherie Blair's latest project: speaking on Channel 4's History of Christianity programme tonight, she is apparently complaining that,

...Women were "virtually invisible" in the public face of Christianity and that its failure to recover from the social changes of the 1960s was one of its "fundamental weaknesses. "Until the traditional churches fully resolve their relationship with the female half of the population, how can they expect Christianity to have a future in the modern world?" she asked.

Laurence's reply to this is very tongue-in-cheek, and deliciously witty... he uses yellow for his own comments, but that would look frightful on my blog, so I'm just picking them out in bold.

(Oh good grief, woman, just put the kettle on will you? I don't know...Nag, nag, nag...)

"Traditionally it was women who passed religion on to their children and who kept the church going through good times and bad, but when it comes to the public face of Christianity, women are virtually invisible." ("Why can't I be a priestess?")

She was filmed interviewing Britain's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, about the issue. "If you actually look at the formal structures of the Catholic Church you don't see a woman's face when you see people speaking for the Catholic Church... can we change that?" she asked. ("You and me, Cardinal, let's take on the Holy Father and march on Rome with an army of 10,000 women to be ordained! I know all the Apostles called by Christ were men, but Christ was, like, so 2,000 years ago. Get with the programme, man!")

Finally, when challenged about her use of contraception, Mrs. Blair replied,

"I'm a feminist…(rather than a Catholic?) How could I have done all the things I have done if I hadn't used contraception? Because actually every time I didn't use contraception I seemed to have a baby." (Publicly confessing your sins is one thing...but it sounds like you want to nail condoms to the church door in some German town and make Church teaching in your own image.)

I think that just about sums it up... 

Read what Laurence has to say HERE.

A Minor Rant-ette...

Grrrrrrr.

One of the (many) things which really gets up my nose is the mis-quoting of certain sayings and proverbs.

The particular bugbear I have in mind is "I want to have my cake and eat it."

Obviously, one must be in possession of the cake before one can consume it. Therefore, it seems to be rather important to have one's cake and eat it... which means that the saying is actually meaningless.

In fact, the expression is: "To want to eat one's cake, and have it too..." thereby suggesting that despite wanting to make use of something (so that it is ended or finished), one still wants to remain in possession of it, ready to make use of it at a convenient point in the future.

Rant-ette over. Thank you for listening...

A Nose By Any Other Name...

It seems that Red Nose Day is nearly upon us. I had hoped that I'd missed it (I don't watch TV) but that must have been Children In Need or some other fund-raising enterprise.

For those of you across the pond, who haven't been acquainted with Red Nose Day, it's part of Comic Relief, and people do silly things and wear red noses in order to raise money. You can't turn around without seeing (or hearing) that something ridiculous is being done "for charriddy" (though quite a few C-list celebs seem to try to resurrect their ailing careers by getting prime spots on TV...)

I have no problem with the idea of doing stuff to raise money for worthy causes. Unfortunately, I've become very choosy about which causes I will support. I won't support any charity which claims that it's offering reproductive "choices" to the poor in Africa (ie. "we think you're too stupid to be allowed to reproduce, so we're going to "encourage" you to have smaller families...") I don't want my money going to fund the killing of babies for research (so that's quite a lot of the medical charities scratched off the list), and I don't wish to support euthanasia (so that wipes off rather a lot of the charities which deal with disabled or elderly people.)

Red Nose Day and Comic Relief allocate funds to charities which do all those things. Avoid them.

It's a lot easier to pick a specific charity (or two or three), check them out via the SPUC Charities Page, and then give money with a clear conscience. SPUC, Aid to the Church in Need, Life, the Good Counsel Network, Cor Unum, and the Sisters of the Gospel of Life are examples of charities which support the teachings of the Catholic Church, and that's just a bunch I reeled off from the top of my head.

Think about where that money is going.

I Forgot To Mention...

Ooops. Big booboo...

Back in November, I asked Angela Messenger to pick me a Patron Saint for 2009... just for once, I managed to get it done before the year started.

However, after being assigned my saint, I promptly forgot all about him. Not good. Not very polite. Especially since I will probably be calling on him for help with something or other before too long...

So, who did I get?

None other than St. John the Evangelist.

Wow. Thanks Angela!

Blogroll Clear-Out...

After months and months of waiting, I have finally lost my temper with Blogrolling.com. It's a real shame, because I had used them for the whole of my blogging career to date, and, until the latest blip, they had been very good; this was why I was so patient with them.

In the latest update on progress, however, I saw that they proposed to include adverts in the blogrolls unless the subscriber pays $20. Now, I don't mind paying for an enhanced service - I pay for the upgraded version of Sitemeter - but I do object to being told that I have to pay to avoid adverts, (especially when I have been with Blogrolling for so long), without any idea when the service will be functional, or what sort of adverts will be appearing, and so on.

So, I've decided to move over to Bloglines. It was a mammoth effort, as I needed to load up all the current blogroll pages manually, and then subscribe to them, check the feed and then get the information back on my blog without losing anything, but I'm hoping that I won't need to do this again any time soon.

Links which are now "dead" will be removed, as will any blogs which have been inactive for what I consider to be a long time, unless they have indicated their inactivity is temporary and due to holidays, family commitments, Lent or whatever... I'm not totally ruthless!

It's been such a long time since I have been able to update the roll that there may be new or newly-discovered blogs which I missed. If you think I have missed you, and would like to be included on my blogroll, just drop me a link in the com-box.