Lesnes Abbey Procession...

I was rather uncomfortable with the Eucharistic "Flash-mob" held in Preston. I did understand the thinking behind it, but I am firmly of the opinion that bringing Our Lord out in a hold-all is not the way to impress upon people that the Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Sacrament really is God.

The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable it makes me.

So I was delighted that, last Sunday, we had our annual Blessed Sacrament Procession at Lesnes Abbey.

The ruins are in the middle of a park, rather than in the centre of a shopping area, but there are plenty of people who have gone to the park for a walk or a picnic, and they are left in no doubt that there is something special going on. We have First Communicants, altar servers, priests, deacons... there is music, prayer, readings... and Benediction.

There is much I dislike about the procession - the choice of music and the number of readings being my two main beefs - but it is a reverent occasion, and it is absolutely clear that we are there to worship Our Lord, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

We were certainly blessed as far as the weather went... the week before had been cold, wet and windy, and even the previous day had seen quite a bit of rain.

The beginning of the procession...

The procession goes round the park...

Benediction was given by Bishop Pat Lynch...

When it was time for the Blessed Sacrament to be reposed, the deacon (wearing a humeral veil) was accompanied by servers...

I've taken more detailed pictures of the ruins and given a little of the history in a previous post.

The Knights of St. Columba did a sterling job of marshalling the procession and providing first aid, and three of them agreed to pose for the blog...

Three of the First Communicants from Blackfen got to pose for photos as well, first with Bishop Lynch...

...and then with their Parish Priest, none other than Fr. Finigan (who has a much better understanding of photographic niceties, and who persuaded the girls to relinquish water bottles, put their hands together and stand over by the wall...)

Corpus Christi

Just a couple of photos from the Mass held on the Thursday. It was reasonably well-attended, despite the Thursday no longer being held as a Holyday of Obligation.

 

I didn't manage to get any photos of the actual procession because I was helping with the singing, and I haven't mastered the art of manipulating Liber and camera at the same time. Nevertheless, I found it profoundly moving. The weather was a little uncertain, so we only processed around the church. Maybe next year we can have an outdoor procession.

On a related note, I thought numbers were rather low for the Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul last Wednesday. It did occur to me that a lot of people may have thought that the Holyday had been transferred to the Sunday, like Ascension, Epiphany and Corpus Christi. The sooner the Holydays are put back to their proper places, the better...

Blogging Blues...

Before you protest that I frequently seem to say I'll stop blogging in a passive-aggressive attempt to elicit sympathy, I'd just like to make it clear that this isn't an attempt to gain sympathy and I am not going to stop blogging.

At least, not this week...

Mind you, my blogging has been so irregular of late that I doubt anyone would notice if I had stopped... (Note to male readers* - that was your cue to comment in the com-box that yes, you had noticed my absence, and yes, you were concerned, but you had decided to be understanding and let me have some space in which to recharge my blogging batteries... please also note that a failure to make such comments will result in me sulking, in as conspicuous a manner as I can manage on my blog... and probably on a few other blogs as well...)

Seriously, I just ran out of blogging steam.

I might take another week or so off, to allow time to stoke the boilers... (Another note to male readers: that was your cue to comment in the com-box that you hope I won't be gone too long...)

* Just in case you were wondering, female readers know instinctively when (and how) to answer this sort of cri de coeur, even if they choose not to do so. In the five years I've been blogging, I've found that men often just need the little pointers as to when such comments** are expected...

** Boxes of chocolates (real, not virtual) are an acceptable substitute for comments (real and virtual).

A Eucharistic "Flash-Mob"...

I'm not entirely sure about this...



Yes, it's a form of evangelisation. Yes, if people won't go to church, then this is a way of bringing Our Lord to the people, out on the streets...

But this is Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament! Yes, people are kneeling. I even get the idea that a couple of catholic shoppers, realising what has happened, have stopped to kneel for a while before moving on.

But it just doesn't strike me as reverent enough.

I would have liked the friar to have at least a humeral veil...

As for putting Our Lord in the holdall - euwwwww. Definitely not good.

There was a time, I understand, when priests carrying Our Lord in viaticum to the faithful would be accompanied by an acolyte ringing a bell. Catholics would kneel as he passed.

What's wrong with a Eucharistic Procession? That would achieve the same thing, but it would convey the reverence due to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. A few torch-bearers, a canopy or umbrellino (I have to confess ignorance as to when one uses a canopy rather than an umbrellino), a thurifer or two, and a few bells... much more likely to attract attention!! Much more... ummm... Catholic, if you know what I mean...

A twitch of the mantilla to the marvellous Fr. Z. He's got a poll running at the moment if you want to register your feelings... at the moment the majority seem to think it's a great idea. Do go over and contribute... but it would be nice to get a comment or two here first, as I'm feeling a little neglected... (Yes, I know I should post more, but I've been busy...)

A Time For Prayers...

Just when things seemed to be settling down, it all flares up again. There is some really horrible stuff happening right now. Not to me personally, I hasten to add... but all the baptised are parts of the Body of Christ, and so we are all affected by the wounds.

I'm with Bara Brith on this one.

St. John Vianney, pray for us.
St. Pio of Pietrelcino, pray for us.

First Catch Your Pigeon...

I came home this afternoon to find both kittens looking guilty. I assumed that they had knocked something over, or perhaps had brought home yet another stag beetle. If stag beetles actually do become extinct, I suspect that my two little hooligans will be partly responsible.

I walked into the sitting room, and found that it was covered in feathers.

There were so many feathers that I thought they'd ripped open one of my pillows, or perhaps the duvet. Then I remembered that I don't have any feather pillows, and the duvet is synthetic too. I realised that some sort of battle had been going on, because several balls of paper, pens and ping-pong balls had been unearthed as well.

Furretti was going into ecstasies over one of the feathers she had caught...

Miaowrini was prowling around by a small side table between the sofa and the bookcase. I prepared myself to find blood, guts and other gore, but the erstwhile owner of the feathers appeared to be very much alive, and fighting back, which explained Miaowrini's cautious approach...

It seems that, while there are some basic instincts in operation here, the kittens (both of whom were abandoned) are rather at a loss once they succeed in catching their prey and bringing it home. They obviously need mum to show them how to dispatch the critters... or perhaps I just feed them too well...

I grabbed a towel, pulled the sofa out (there were even more feathers strewn along behind the sofa) and snaffled the pigeon. I was a little unsure as to how badly injured it was - there appeared to be chunks missing from its wings, and bite marks near its neck - but when I opened the towel outside, the bird flew off - very unsteadily, but it did eventually made it up to the safety of a neighbouring rooftop.

It Isn't Working, So We Need More Of The Same...

I get so tired of hearing the same old stuff - namely that, if we had more sex education we would have fewer teenage pregnancies.

I am now a woman in my forties (aaaarghhh! How did that happen??!!) and even I had sex education lessons in school. It was a single-sex school, because most were, back then. It was a Catholic school, though I don't recall the Church's position being taught positively. It was a Comprehensive school. We had our first sex education lessons in the first year - what is now Year 7 - at the age of 11. There was no mention of abstinence as an option. We were told about condoms, the need for spermicide, the cap, the coil and the Pill. STDs were discussed. Condoms were seen as the answer to those, as were family planning clinics. Contraception was assumed to be something that every thinking girl ought to know about.

The attitude that everyone must be having sex was endemic in the medical profession - I discovered this when, aged 17, I was rushed to hospital because my periods were so heavy I nearly died - I needed a transfusion of seven units of blood. The doctors were convinced I was pregnant and having a miscarriage, and would not accept my assurances to the contrary. I was 17, I wasn't on contraception, I must therefore be pregnant. I did explain that I hadn't had sex, but that little point was ignored.

But I knew the facts of life. ALL my friends knew them. We all knew about contraception. Girls occasionally got pregnant - it was always assumed that they must have been too stupid to get contraceptives. With hindsight, (basically, knowledge of contraceptive failure rates) I wonder if that was, in fact, the case.

I've now been teaching for 13 years. I have seen government after government decide that we need more sex education - both in the number of lessons and in the explicitness of the material. Most horrifyingly, the push is for sex education to start earlier and earlier. The attitude is "If we can only teach them about contraceptives before they become sexually active, everything will be alright." and "Obviously, the reason for the high teenage pregnancy rates is that no-one has access to contraception."

But there is more contraceptive availability than ever. Condoms are on open display in every supermarket. the morning-after Pill is promoted in schools, free contraceptive advice (and contraception) is advertised in schools, sexual health clinic information is up in doctors' surgeries and hospital waiting rooms, and council offices, and jobcentres, and libraries...

However, I never had any figures at my fingertips to rebut the constant refrain that "more explicit sex education, earlier and more often" is the only solution to the teenage pregnancy crisis...

Now Caroline (aka Blondpidge) has done an excellent, evidence-based post on the effect of government policies on the teenage pregnancy rates in this country. There has, as I suspected, been no effect. Sex education - or rather, let's be honest, pushing contraceptives - does not have any effect on the rates of teenage pregnancy.

Twitch of the mantilla to Red Maria.

I May Have Visitors...

The last bit of wildlife brought in by the kitties was another stag beetle, and they left it for me in the kitchen yesterday - I think it must have nipped a kitten once too often, because the half-dead beetle had been chewed, and one of its mandibles was rather mangled.

Today I think that more wildlife has been brought home. Perhaps I'm being overly paranoid, but I doubt it. I mean, does it look to you that Miaowrini just wants to pick out a good book to read...?

UPDATE: I think that the existence of visitors is almost indisputable...

UPDATE 2: Both cats are taking an interest in my bookcase now. All personal animosity and rivalry has been put aside in the face of a common enemy. And, just after taking the next photo, I saw a mouse, obviously spooked, shoot across the room. The cats are still staking out the bookcase, so, either they are very stupid cats or I have more than one mouse in the house...

Just Because You're Paranoid...

Daphne McLeod, in writing to Cardinal Burke after he had cancelled the talk he was due to give, mentioned that Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice had enemies who were actively working to undermine the group.

It is true that the advertising of the Cardinal's talk was rather unwise, and might have been sufficient on its own to cause the Cardinal to withdraw. However, anyone who is in any doubt that the group is being actively attacked need only to see the news in today's Catholic Herald blog. Mark Greaves reports that Westminster Methodist Hall were told that a spokesman for Westminster Cathedral had confirmed that Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice were not the kind of people who should speak in Westminster Hall.

Oh really?

A spokesman from Westminster Cathedral?

Is this the same Westminster Cathedral which hosted the concert "The 99 Beautiful Names"? Or perhaps it's the same Cathedral which hosted the book launch for The Gospel According to Judas... Or, dare I say that it might even be the same Cathedral which allowed a sequel to the anti-Catholic film Elizabeth to be filmed inside its premises... Or is it the Cathedral which hosted a meeting of the Parkinson's Disease Society (a Society which advocates the destruction of human embryos and the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos)?

Since it is the same Cathedral which sells The Suppository (a publication which actively opposes Catholic Church teaching) I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a spokesman for the Cathedral has opposed a meeting of a group which is actually faithful to Church teaching.

It seems that Daphne isn't quite as paranoid as one might think...

St. Anthony Does It Again...

We had two really lovely boys serving the Masses at Lourdes. Joshua, the younger of the two, wrote a very moving guest post for Fr. Finigan's blog. His uncle Thomas, the older of the two, was rather accident-prone - he managed to leave his cassock behind one time, and got lost, and then he dropped his cassock down near the dome of the Rosary Basilica (he was left holding the handles of the bag, while the rest of the bag and contents plummeted down over the balustrade!)

Well, it seems that Joshua also managed to lose something - a 3-D picture of Our Lady, which, somehow or other, fell out of a bag or something in the luggage compartment of the coach. It wasn't missed until much later, and calls to the coach company failed to locate the picture.

The loss of the picture was accepted in a penitential spirit. Prayers were, however, said to St. Anthony by the family.

This evening I received a phone call from the lady who owns the company. She told me that the picture happened to turn up in the office...

...and today is St. Anthony's feast day...

Mary's Dowry Productions New Website & Blog...

Mary's Dowry Productions produce some really good DVDs and stuff... they specialise in making documentaries and films about saints and martyrs, especially the English and Welsh ones. Mary's Dowry Productions is run by the Bevans family - Gary Bevans being famous for painting a replica of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in his parish church at Goring-by-Sea.

The old website isn't going to be taken down (much to my relief - see one of my previous rants on this topic) as there are quite a few useful links on it, but they do want people to be able to update their blogrolls and so on.

Do pay them a visit.

Some Of You People Are Seriously Sick...

That's assuming my stats are correct.

According to Blogger, my post on the game of Liturgical Chicken has received nearly 11,000 views... compared to just over 1,600 for the second-most popular post, the one about my heresy-destroying kitty cat.

I don't know which is worse: the fact that I posted it, or the fact that you lot seem to want to read it...

For those of you who were hoping to find pictures of actual chickens, trust me, playing Liturgical Chicken is much more fun...

A Few More Photos From Lourdes...

A little selection of the photos I took this year...

First of all, is there anywhere round here that sells rosaries or statues...?

Mass in the St. Gabriel Chapel - the plaques on the wall are in thanksgiving for prayers answered, or requests for prayers for the benefactors' intentions...

The first Mass in the chapel was a "catechetical Mass" celebrated by Fr. Charles, while Fr. Tim explained what was happening to the younger children, and led some prayers (such as an Act of Contrition) at appropriate points...

The weather was a bit grim, which made the photos a little more "atmospheric"

We had one Mass in the austere but beautiful Crypt of the parish church...

Dean Peyramale has a statue outside the church...

...and I think that he is buried in the Crypt.

I always thought it strange that, although he was portrayed very harshly in the accounts I'd read of the life of St. Bernadette, there were quite a few positive references to Dean Peyramale in the town, as well as the statue outside the parish church. The newer film about St. Bernadette (the one starring Sydney Perry) shows him in a much kinder light, and, given how positively he is represented in the town of Lourdes, it is probably more accurate.

I can hardly believe that it's only been a week since we returned... roll on next year's trip!

Presents From My Kittens...

So far I've had a live baby bird, a live stag beetle, at least one live mouse (one rescued and released, and at least one other, probably now dead somewhere in the house) and one definitely dead mouse (not chewed)...

I suspect that Miaowrini is the one who goes hunting, but I'm not entirely sure.

I need to train them to bring me a nice cheezburger...

A Visit From Our Transatlantic Cousins...

I was on the Woolwich Free Ferry the other day, when a blast from a horn alerted me to the fact that we had a visitor from across the pond...

I apologize for the quality of the photo - but the iPhone has an awful camera. I just didn't expect to see the U.S. Coast Guard sailing up the Thames, or I'd have made sure to have my trusty digital camera to hand. The unusualness of the event is testified to by the two cyclists who abandoned their bikes in order to catch a photo opportunity!

Rumours...

There are rumours circulating... I have heard that CAFOD has taken to cold-calling previous donors, and has been putting pressure on in order to raise funds...

If CAFOD wants to enjoy a privileged position as a Catholic charity with collections taken at Masses, it should have to support Catholic teaching...

Bartrès...

Wednesday morning was the nicest one we had weather-wise, though it was a little breezy. This was very good news, as it was the morning we were due to go to Bartrès. We were so fortunate to have Mass in the parish church there. It was all the more poignant for me to realise that St. Bernadette would have recognised the church as it was - the one in Lourdes burned down and was rebuilt in a slightly different location, and the Crypt of the Immaculate Conception basilica (just above the Grotto) had only just been built when St. Bernadette left Lourdes to join the convent at Nevers, so she never saw the other chapels there.

I took a few photos, but not during Mass, as I was leading the singing, and manipulating a camera and various bits of music at the same time is not a skill I possess...

At the end of Mass, Fr. Tim brought out a sample of St. Bernadette's handwriting exercises...

...and we were able to venerate a relic of St. Bernadette...

Something I hadn't spotted on previous visits to Bartrès (despite it being bang smack in the middle of the graveyard) - the grave of Marie Lagües, the foster-mother of St. Bernadette.

St. Bernadette's own mother couldn't breastfeed her due to burns to her breasts in an accident with a candle. Marie Lagües had just lost her own baby, and so agreed to act as wetnurse for a small fee - the family were reasonably well-off at this point.

Later, when the family became destitute and St. Bernadette's health took a turn for the worse, it was decided that she should go to live in the relatively healthier air of Bartrès, where, in return for looking after the sheep and helping with her foster-mother's children, St. Bernadette would be taught her catechism, learn to read and write and be fed a better diet. In fact, due to her tiredness after her day's work and her ill health, St. Bernadette found learning very difficult, and Marie Lagües was not a patient tutor, so the bargain wasn't kept. When the parish priest at Bartrès left to join a monastery, St. Bernadette decided that she would be better off back with her family. Shortly after her return, she saw Our Lady for the first time.

The Lagües' family house has been preserved as a museum, and St. Bernadette's little cot-bed can be seen...

The photos of the interior aren't as clear as I'd like because the room is behind glass - presumably to deter relic-hunters from denuding the place!

I had planned to allow time in Bartrès after Mass for lunch and exploration of the museum and surrounding area. There was, I'd noted last year, a nice little café / restaurant which looked like it would be good. Alas, the best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that... The museum was only one room (and a gift-shop) and it closed at 12noon for a two-hour lunch-break. Fortunately we'd had plenty of time to see the room before Mass. Then, rather embarrassingly for me (as organiser), it transpired that Wednesday was the chef's day off, and no food was available...

My fellow pilgrims were very understanding, and didn't utter a single word of reproach. The grandmother of the group had packed supplies, and several families wandered off to explore the surrounding area - I believe they did find somewhere that did food. I went for the easy option, and chose to stay for a glass of lager, safe in the knowledge that I'd be able to enjoy a late lunch back in Lourdes. Nevertheless, I was completely flummoxed by this!

The café owner had probably noted that Wednesday was his quietest day - most pilgrimage groups attend the Wednesday morning International Mass and then return to their hotels for lunch. To be fair, he explained that, should we wish to arrange a visit in future, he'd give the chef a different day off that week...