UCM Winter Warmer...

The weather today has been atrocious. Fortunately, the ladies of the parish UCM had arranged to hold a Winter Warmer lunch event this afternoon, which provided a bright spot in an otherwise wet and windy Saturday.

I don't like vegetables, so the potato and leek soup was not something I wished to eat, but I was fascinated by the use of an electronic whisk-blender thingy...

I'm afraid that I couldn't resist smirking when the blender attachment doobrey-whatsit fell in the soup and had to be fished out...

The sandwiches, homemade sausage rolls and homemade cakes were delicious... I was persuaded to buy a cake and take it home for the kittens to play with... unfortunately for the kittens, I am rather partial to chocolate sponge with fresh cream and jam filling, so it shall be mine, all mine.

Good food and good company - a very agreeable Saturday lunchtime.

Miss-ing The Point...

Miss Ellen E has been blogging over at Miscellany of Musings for three years now. She has given in to the latest makeover craze and has decided to use her Twitter nom-de-plume as her nom-de-blog: so, Miss Ellen E is now the Idle Rambler.

I have to admit, rather shamefacedly, that the play on words completely passed me by. "Miss Ellen E" = "Miscellany!" I suspect that this was because, in my mental processes, I shortened it to Miss Ellie, and just thought of Dallas. There. That's aged me.

Consecration Through Mary To Jesus...

About four years ago, I renewed my Consecration to Mary according to the method given by St. Louis de Montfort.

Not to be undertaken lightly, there are 12 days of preparation before the actual preparation begins, followed by a further three weeks. It was supposed to be an annual thing for me, but, while the spirit is willing, the flesh basically suffers from a combination of inertia and amnesia.

The Good Counsel Network is doing its best to encourage more people to make the Consecration this year. If we start tomorrow (20th February) then the day of Consecration is March 25th, which is, of course, the Feast of the Annunciation. There's nothing like doing things together as a group to help with motivation and perseverance...

Twitch of the mantilla to the Ecumenical Diablogger for highlighting the campaign!

I Never Thought I'd Say This...

...on two counts, actually!

Firstly, I never thought I'd agree with anything Cristina Odone had to say.

Secondly, I  dislike hype. Screaming fans are, for me, a turn off. Added to which I'm not really into pop music. My students, fascinated by the fact that I will burst into song at the drop of a hat, are flummoxed when they discover that I have no idea who the latest music sensation actually is.

However, it seems that teenage heart-throb, Justin Bieber, has spoken out against abortion, declaring, "It's like killing a baby!"

I still can't quite bring myself to listen to any of his music. But I shall be rather less scathing when the girls at school confess to being "Beliebers" !

A twitch of the mantilla to Bones.

It Has Been Two Weeks...

...I haven't posted anything about the kittens for two weeks, and I know that my two kittens have a great fan base out in the blogosphere! It has been wonderful to watch them develop.

Miaowrini (the younger of the two) is still rather skittish and clumsy, though less so than before. She hasn't fallen in either the bath or the toilet again. Furretti is far better co-ordinated, and is much more poised and elegant compared to Miaowrini.

I recently bought a replacement microwave, and, instead of getting rid of the box immediately, I thought I'd let the kittens play...

Furretti also loves playing with my pens... especially if I'm trying to use them...

...and Miaowrini is getting better at jumping on shelves...

Both kittens have discovered the kitchen surfaces - up until now these have (surprisingly) been kitten-free zones. I have had to put a large, heavy box in front of the catflap to discourage accidents - this is in the kitchen window, and they hadn't spotted it before. They are taking more of an interest in what is going on outside - sitting on the window ledge and looking out - and much excitement ensued when a neighbouring cat strolled past the window.

I shall be letting them out before too long...

Common Sense Has Prevailed For Once...

Pro-life groups appear to be delighted with today's High Court judgement on the proposal to allow women to take misoprostol, used in conjunction with the chemical abortion drug RU486, at home rather than in hospital.

Quite apart from the need to fight any attempts to make abortion seem as routine and unworthy of notice as taking a course of antibiotics,* I think that this is a victory for common sense. The horrendous consequences of taking this drug have been drastically downplayed by the media and the abortion providers.

Consider the following:

Firstly, the nature of the drug means that the woman must undergo her abortion over the course of a number of days. Even the president of the original makers of RU486 said “The woman must live with this for a full week. This is an appalling psychological ordeal” (Edouard Sakiz, chairman, Roussel-Uclaf, August 1990.)

Secondly, the woman would be likely to abort at home and suffer the distress of seeing the expelled embryo/foetus, which she would be required to keep and return to the hospital or clinic to help determine if the abortion is complete.

Furthermore, the side effects of misoprostol/RU486 include haemorrhages possibly requiring a blood transfusion, severe pain requiring strong pain killers, incomplete abortion, rupture of the uterus, vaginal bleeding, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, muscle weakness, dizziness, flushing, chills, backache, difficulty in breathing, chest pain, palpitations, rise in temperature and fall in blood pressure.

This is hardly the impression that was being conveyed to the public when the proposal was being put before the High Court. The convenience and privacy of taking the drug at home was all that was mentioned.

So, as I said, a real victory for common sense. It is also a victory for women, who shouldn't be tricked into thinking that abortion is a simple solution to contraceptive failure. Congratulations must go to SPUC who did so much to highlight the dangers inherent in the use of this drug.

*Actually, I suspect that the abortion pill would have been given out much more freely than a course of antibiotics. Bacteria can fight back against the drugs used to kill them. Babies can't!

Catholic Herald Up For Award...

The Catholic Herald is up for "Best Catholic Newspaper" - none of the other British Catholic papers are in the running - hardly a surprise! The Herald is far and away the best paper in the UK, especially with Luke Coppen as editor and Anna Arco as their chief feature writer.

In any event, if you want to vote, you can do so HERE.

Twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Tim.

Happy St. Valentine's Day...? Perhaps Not...

Girls, be warned! Fr. Z has given advertising space to the schmucks at the Bronx Zoo who think that naming a Madagascan hissing cockroach after one's beloved is a cool St. Valentine's Day gift.

To be fair, Fr. Z did warn that the hissing sound might be the vase flying towards the giver's head...

Reading his post, I can say with all honesty that I am profoundly grateful I'm not likely to get any St. Valentine's Day presents... 

Back Again...!

Well, at the risk of inviting further disaster, I am delighted to say that my malfunctioning computer has been sorted out. Somehow or other, the registry had been completely corrupted. This necessitated wiping the whole shebang off and reinstalling Windows.

It took me a surprising amount of time to sort out the spaghetti at the back of the computer - what with keyboard, mouse, printer, monitor, speakers, webcam, external hard drive, internet connection and, last but not least, various power cables (yes, they are important... I actually spent three minutes wondering why my computer wouldn't work after I'd connected everything, only to realise that I'd hooked the power cable up out of the way and forgotten to reconnect it! I felt particularly blonde at that point...) I suspect it wouldn't have taken quite so long if the spaghetti hadn't been in such a tangle in the first place!

All fine and dandy, only I now have to reinstall all the programs I had on the computer. The data was saved, as far as I can see, but not the actual programs.

Looking at the blank slate of a computer filled me with a mixture of excitement (oooooh... it's like having a new computer... and I can load the programs I use most, and ditch the old, obsolete ones!) and dread (oh Lord... I have to find the CDs and activation codes, and actually spend time uploading the whole lot... it'll take forever!)

I've made a start... Chrome was the one thing the computer weenies put up for me (they were of the opinion that it's streets ahead of anything else!) and I have been trying to trace favourite links. It will take me quite some time, but blogging will be back on track shortly...

Apologies...

Having just gotten my blogging inspiration back, I was all fired up and raring to go. Unfortunately, my computer decided that it had had enough, and promptly conked out. Posting from a mobile phone is much more fiddly and much less fun, unless one has sorted the posts out beforehand! Hopefully my computer will be fixed soon...

Oh You Really Think So...?

The Catholic Herald reported that more than 140 Catholic theologians from universities in Austria, Switzerland and Germany have called for the Church to ordain women, end priestly celibacy and let lay people help select bishops, along with a few other changes, like allowing remarried divorcees to receive the Sacraments.

They said that enacting the reforms would attract people back to the Church.

Yeah, right. Because that really worked in the Church of England, didn't it?

Just To Make Deo Volente Happy...

It seems that Deo volente's hankering for a bit of the St. Ninian tartan to be shown, as well as a smidgeon of aubergine...

I aim to please...

Mass For The Feast Of St. Agatha...

Fr. Tim gave an excellent sermon at this month's Saturday Missa Cantata - which just happened to be the feast of St. Agatha. I was in the mood for a photo or two, and I don't often get the chance to snap the red vestments...

Maybe His Hermeneuticalness was reflecting on St. Agatha's role as patron of bellringers, but he swung the thurible rather enthusiastically during the Offertory, and the MC apparently failed to move the altar out of the way (it being a time-honoured tradition that all errors are the fault of the MC) so the bottom of the thurible came off with an appropriately ringing clang!

I managed to persuade the schola to pose for a photograph afterwards, along with our Organist Emeritus...

Yes, I Have Hopped On The Bandwagon...

*sigh*

Yes, ok, I shall admit it... I have been persuaded to give my blog a bit of a facelift. In this I am following the good example set by Fathers Finigan, Boyle and Blake (though, to be fair, I think Fr. Ray changed his blog a while back!) I haven't changed the blog since its creation in 2006, so it really was time for an overhaul, if only to improve loading speeds on mobile phones and whatnots...

Looking at what the good Fathers have done, I suspect that I have chosen the better part (well, the better template anyway!) - I hate having to read light text on a dark screen. My background photo, for anyone who is interested, is shown above, and is one I took at the Marian Procession at Lourdes last year. I think that the blue sky maintains some continuity with my previous colour scheme as well, so the changes won't be quite so much of a shock...

Consider yourselves lucky... Deo volente (who has also had a blog makeover) was trying to provoke me into aubergine or Papal Tartan!

UPDATE: Fr. Brown has done it too... That's the problem with reading blogs via Google Reader - you miss this sort of thing...

Mass at St. George's Cathedral...

In the absence of proper blogging, I thought I'd bring this important event to your attention - the Latin Mass Society is having a Mass for the Feast of the Apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes, on Friday, 11 February 2011, at 6pm at St. George's Cathedral, Southwark.

Do make the effort to attend if you can. Further details can be found on the Southwark North blog.

Catholic Medical Association Conference...

I've been asked to advertise the following conference from the Kent Branch of the Catholic Medical Association...

(Click to enlarge)

Anyone interested in attending should email Wendy Kane or telephone her on 07992 359 239. It looks as if it will be a valuable meeting for any healthcare workers.

Difficulties Blogging...

I'm finding it a little difficult to blog at the moment.

Life is pretty hectic, but not with anything that I can blog about. Work is taking up a lot of my time - parents' evenings, reports and marking feature heavily at the moment. The kittens are also keeping me fully occupied... but, aware that I have been wittering on about kittens far too frequently, I want to refrain from posting even more stuff about them... even if, not content with stealing my aniseed balls, they have been mugging me for my crispy duck pancakes with hoi sin sauce...

I shall try and get back to regular blogging shortly...

Smiles On Sunday...

It is rare to find a "clean" comedian these days. Milton Jones seems to specialise in one-liners, and he proves that you don't have to be rude to be funny.

I first heard him on the radio, so I had no idea how very mad he looked!

Anyway, just to make you smile this Sunday morning, I thought I'd share...

I particularly enjoyed the one about the Science teacher's funeral...

Underestimating Kittens...

Foolish, foolish woman that I am...

This evening, I happened to spot a shop in Bluewater which sells traditional sweets, such as aniseed balls, cough candy, barley sugars and licorice bootlaces. The sweets were even weighed out on old-fashioned scales and wrapped in paper bags! I treated myself to some aniseed balls and apple bonbons (a little trip down memory lane before I get to amnesia alley) and, on my return home, mightily pleased with my purchase, I put them down on my bedside table while I went to read my emails.

On returning to the bedroom, I discovered one kitten playing with aniseed balls, while the other was sitting in the middle of the other paper bag (which had kitten toothmarks in the bottom, along with a large hole) entranced by the bonbons...

Needless to say, the expensive catnip-filled balls and mice I have purchased previously for the amusement of my feline friends are lying around the flat, abandoned and neglected...

To Veil Or Not To Veil...

Vincenzo has posted an excellent article by Mgr. Charles Pope about Colombo Cathedral's mandate that women should be veiled in church. It seems, from the original piece, that concerns were being expressed about standards of dress, and so the Cathedral authorities decided to get everyone's attention with the head covering rule. Personally, although I would like the practice to be reintroduced, I think Colombo Cathedral's approach is a little heavy-handed...

This might surprise a few of you. But it all boils down to the reason for wearing a head covering. Mgr. Pope gives the main ones, and promptly demolishes them...

Canon Law no longer insists on women covering their heads in church. If that is the case, then I find it hard to understand why the cathedral in Colombo is insisting that women must be veiled. If, as they say, there are problems with dress standards, then I believe that those are what need to be dealt with. Sticking a veil on top of a woman's head will not make up for the fact that she is wearing an all-too-revealing crop top.

I choose to wear a mantilla - for a few reasons.

Firstly, I like the traditional idea that a woman's hair is her crowning glory, and as such it is veiled in God's presence as a sign of humility. I also like the fact that I have to stop on my way in to the church to put my mantilla on - this helps me to avoid treating the place as just another building - I put the mantilla on and in doing so I get the chance to recollect where I am and with Whom I am about to converse. This is the strongest argument (for me) about not exchanging the mantilla or veil for a hat. Hats are generally worn outside as well, and so there is no special indication that one is entering the house of God. Finally, the mantilla helps me to avoid distractions - it shields my face from those around me, and, rather like the nun's veil, encourages me to ignore whatever is happening at either side, encouraging me to turn my gaze towards the altar.

Many women feel self-conscious about wearing a mantilla or chapel veil. I would encourage them to give it a go - it feels strange at first, but you soon get used to it. I now would feel very odd indeed if I were to enter the church without my head covered.