The Church Suffering...

The phrase "the Church Suffering" most properly applies to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The Church on Earth is referred to as the Church Militant (with the Church Triumphant being all those in Heaven.) Unfortunately, "the Church Suffering" was the phrase which came to my mind most often when reading the book by Fr. Matthew Despard: Priesthood in Crisis: One Priest's Experience.

It's awful to contemplate. If even half of what Fr. Despard recounts is true (and Fr. John Abberton is of the opinion that his account does indeed ring true) then the Church in Scotland is in a shocking mess. The scandal of Cardinal O'Brien is merely the slightest tip of an iceberg which would sink a whole fleet of Titanics.

Just as Michael Rose's book, Goodbye Good Men exposed the homosexual culture existing in US seminaries from the 1970s until as late as the 1990s, Fr. Despard's book makes it clear that the Church in Scotland resembles the Augean Stables.

I couldn't bring myself to finish Goodbye Good Men, and I'm having problems reading Priesthood in Crisis. It is horrible.

Apparently the further appointment of Bishops in Scotland has been put on hold until the whole sorry mess has been fully investigated by the Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini.

I am sure that I cannot be the only person to wonder whether, given the total lack of appointments to the ever-increasing number of vacant Sees in England & Wales, the state of the Church south of the Border is coming under the same scrutiny as that in Scotland. After all, Pope Francis has appointed Bishops in other countries which have not had such long-standing vacancies (the Bishop of Buenos Aires being a case in point!)

By the way - it is interesting to note that the e-book is apparently no longer available for sale through either the Amazon UK or Amazon US sites...

Blogging Block...

I've been having problems with blogging material.

I don't seem to have had any.

After staring at my computer for the best part of an hour in the hopes that inspiration would strike, I have decided to give up and go into the church and pray.

I need prayers right now...

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a rather nice video from the Solemn High Mass in honour of St. Margaret Clitherow, celebrated at St. Wilfred's Church, York, on 4 May 2013. The Rudgate Singers sang Gregorian chant and polyphony by Victoria, Bardos, Croce and Webbe. The video isn't very "visual" but they've got a few nice tunes you can listen to.*

*That remark was meant to be funny...

A Walk For Life (As Opposed To A March...)

It's actually a sponsored walk, in aid of the Good Counsel Network. They do absolutely amazing stuff, giving real support to women in crisis pregnancies, many of whom would consider abortion to be their only option. Unfortunately, this support is not cheap, and there is no government help - there is, of course, plenty of money in the NHS to support abortion, but not to support mothers who want to keep their babies.

I received a message asking if I could advertise this...

Please come on Good Counsel’s Annual Wandsworth to Wapping Sponsored Walk... Good Counsel urgently need your help raising funds. Yet again this year we have broken all previous records for the number of pregnant women, planning to have an abortion, that we have counselled. This number has been rapidly increasing every year for a few years now. This means that we have been graced with the opportunity to counsel more Mothers than ever before and with the help of God save a greatly increased number of innocent unborn lives. This is very happy news, but means that our finances are stretched further than ever before.

When we are counselling women in order to help them to choose life for their child we offer them all the emotional, practical and moral support which is necessary for them to have the confidence to continue with their pregnancy. The emotional and moral support can take up hours of our time but in general does not cost very much. The practical support is much harder, and can include accommodation/help with rent, direct financial help to provide essentials such as food and clothes, legal advice, travel assistance to get to doctors/midwives appointment etc. etc. This is a huge burden upon us but it is vital that we are able to continue to offer this to all of the pregnant Mothers we see...

It is vital that we can raise the funds necessary to continue to offer this “safety net”. Our next big fundraising effort is our Annual Wandsworth to Wapping Sponsored Walk which is approx. 13 miles long and is on Saturday July 20th (starting with Mass at 10am and finishing at approximately 4pm with drinks and refreshments) and we want to get as many people as possible to join us and raise sponsorship for our lifesaving work. For more details please see our website.

If you're not able to manage the walk, perhaps you can donate some money to the cause, either through the direct PayPal link, or through the Just Giving charity page. There is even a postal address given on the Good Counsel page for old-fashioned cheques, as well as details on how to arrange standing orders and legacies.

Finally, cases like the one of Dr. Gosnell highlight just how evil abortion is. Don't forget that the Good Counsel Network relies on prayer and fasting to support its work in combating it.

I Like A Challenge...

I was collecting His Hermeneuticalness and Fr. Briggs from Chislehurst Golf Club, when Fr. Tim challenged me to do a post combining cats and golf... and then chortled out loud in a manner which suggested he thought I'd never succeed.

The gauntlet was down and I was up for a challenge - and, incidentally, short on ideas for more worthy blogposts. So I got thinking...

I'm certain that the Empress Eugenie, who lived in exile at Camden Place (now Chislehurst Golf Club) would have had a cat or two, if only to prevent mice nibbling at the gorgeous furniture. Unfortunately I have only been able to find a picture of her with what looks like a dog...

Nevertheless, the Empress was a devout Cat-holic (sorry!) who was responsible for getting the grotto at Lourdes reopened after the authorities had tried to close it down.

This spurious connection was unlikely to pass muster with His Hermeneuticalness. Undaunted, I scoured Google Images for pictures of the Empress. No cats. Determined not to be beaten, I changed my Google search terms, and struck gold...

Happy Feast Of The Ascension...

Well, yes, I do realise that technically it isn't celebrated until Sunday in England & Wales, but as the Extraordinary Form calendar celebrates the feast today, I'm sitting in the Small Hall in Blackfen waiting for our Missa Cantata.

Much as I would prefer their Lordships to restore the Holydays, part of me recognises that such a restoration might put a bit of a crimp on the celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form on those days - it would become much harder to find clerics able to celebrate a Solemn High Mass, for example.

In the meantime, I must confess to a certain mischievous glee associated with today's feast. The Anglican Shrine in Walsingham has chapels for each of the decades of the Rosary. I was puzzled by the apparent emptiness of the Chapel of the Second Glorious Mystery, until I remembered that it was the Ascension of Our Lord, and happened to look up...

Twitch of the mantilla to His Hermeneuticalness for the photo...

Another Little Plug...

On Monday I explained that I'd been trawling through some stats and gave a bit of a plug to some new blogs I'd stumbled across, as well as a few others which send traffic in my direction.

Fr. Redman put up a brief comment suggesting that I might care to add his "little" blog to the roll - he writes The Latin Mass in Clifton Diocese along with fellow-contributors Caroline Shaw and Fr. Bede Rowe (who also writes his own blog, A Chaplain Abroad.) I published the comment, but decided, on reflection, that a little further advertising might be in order...

Fr. Redman's blog is excellent, and he has posted some beautiful pictures of behind-the-scenes stuff in sacristies and so on. Caroline appears to do the nuts-and-bolts advertising of Mass times... (I think Fr. Rowe saves his stuff for his own blog!)

The Media Still Spinning...

One of the reasons given by the mainstream media for failing to cover the horrifying story of Kermit Gosnell was that this was only of local interest, and it was being amply covered in Philadelphia itself.

Somehow or other the story of three women freed after being held in captivity for ten years in Cleveland, Ohio is not just of local interest. Maybe Ohio is just more of an international hub than Philadelphia.

Mark Lambert has written a very perceptive post on the media's choice of what counts as newsworthy.

Going back to Gosnell's trial - the jury is still deliberating. It will be interesting to see whether the case gets any more coverage once a verdict is reached. So far, other than the Telegraph blogs (Damian Thompson and Tim Stanley) and one article in the Telegraph USA news section, the only other UK piece I've found via Google has been in the Guardian... the latter, interestingly, actually blames pro-life activists for forcing women to have late abortions. If better sex education, contraception and abortion were more widely available, Jill Filipovic argues, then Gosnell and his ilk would never be necessary...

I mean, it is obvious, isn't it? After all, look at what has happened here in the UK. The sex education available since before I was a teenager (becoming more and more explicit at earlier and earlier stages as far as I can see) with free contraceptives available in school and abortion advice given by school nurses has led to a massive decrease in the number of abortions. If demand decreases any more, Marie Stopes will go out of business..!

A Few Additions...

Checking through my blog stats is something I do very rarely these days - my posting has become so erratic that my readership has plummeted, and  it's depressing. However, every now and then I trawl through to see the blogs from which people are visiting.

If I ignore visits via Google and shameless self-promotion on Twitter and Facebook,  most of my traffic comes through blogs by priests - His Hermeneuticalness, the inimitable Fr. Z, Fr. Ray Blake, Fr. Michael Brown, Fr. Simon Henry, Fr. Seán Finnegan and Fr. Bede Rowe make up the lion's share, mostly through their use of the movable blogrolls (except for Fr. Z) which promotes blogs according to how recently updated they've been. The most frequently referring non-clerical blogs are by Kate Edwards, Charlie J, Bruvver Eccles, and Ttony, again via their blogrolls rather than direct mentions.

These regular blogs are already on my own blogroll. When I trawl through my stats, what I'm really looking for are blogs or sites that I don't recognise - and then I click through to see if anything interesting pops up...

So, in no particular order, I'd like to highlight the latest additions to my blogroll...

Mary's Little Garden by Amy Johnson. She is a recent convert to Catholicism, and also writes a blog on religious vocations - for women as far as I can see - called Sursum Corda.

Nesciens is a blog dedicated to chant and other church music by Ben Whitworth. One of Ben's other blogs, Catholic Orkney, is already on my roll, but this new one has very different material on it.

Catholic Coffee appears to be a very new blog - there are only two posts on it so far, both pictures. There also doesn't appear to be an RSS feed enabled, which is frustrating. I wondered if it was a new version of Coffee Catholic - a blog I used to follow but which appears to have been taken over by a most unsuitable site showing tattoos... and THAT, my friends, is why I always plead with people not to delete blogs when they're finished - just disable comments and leave it to lie dormant.

Fr. Brendan McGrath writes on all things Catholic from the Great and Glorious Diocese of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It looks as though he's been blogging for a while, but I hadn't spotted him until now.

And finally, Sally Thomas writes Castle in the Sea - though, as a wife, mother, home-educator, poet, free-lance essayist, laundress, dog-walker, glasses-wearer, dinner-burner, porch-sitter and confession-goer, I'm not quite sure how she manages to fit it all in and keep her blog going too. Having said that, I'm not quite sure how she's managed to get from her blog to mine, because I can't find any direct link. There is a mystery to ponder!

Statues Of Our Lady...

There has been some discussion (and controversy) about a new statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in America. It got me thinking about images of Mary, particularly those based on apparitions.

It struck me that Our Lady always seems to appear in a manner which is not "strange" to the person watching. So, Our Lady was described as a young girl by St. Bernadette - a description better reflected in the mosaic in the Rosary Basilica than by the traditional statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. Our Lady of Guadalupe looks more Mexican. Our Lady of China appears to be... well... Chinese.












I think that we can develop an attachment to a particular image of Our Lady (or group of images) based on what is most familiar to us, and anything which does not fit in with this can appear to be distasteful or even repugnant. I used to hate the mosaic of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Rosary Basilica because the proportions seemed all "wrong" somehow, giving her a creepy expression. One day I was struck by the realisation that the face was indeed all wrong - for a grown woman, that is - but actually spot on for a 12 year-old girl. Now I have become rather attached to the mosaic image.

The statue which has caused the upset is Our Lady of Good Help in Wisconsin...

Not my favourite statue... but I can see where it is coming from - the apparition of Our Lady of Good Help to Adele Brise in Wisconsin in 1859...

Having said that, I think that there is a much worse example - the statue of Our Lady currently in Ely Cathedral...

I Just Couldn't Resist...

I haven't quite reached this stage... but I suspect that it's due to lack of funds rather than any signs of sanity...

 

Not Quite The Worst Example Of Parallel Parking, But...

This has gone viral on YouTube...

I felt a real pang for the driver - I am not brilliant at parallel parking if I have an audience. I can get flustered if I think I'm being watched, and have occasionally had to be talked through the manoeuvre. Having said that, even I could have managed to get into the space shown in the video in much less time. Alternatively, having driven in and out a couple of times, I probably would have gone to look for an easier space...

More Cat Stuff...

Salmon slivers worked in the past...

As I mentioned yesterday, Monsignor Miaowrini has been acting strangely and is sporting a new "shaved patch" look. She hasn't been scratching, but Cardinal Furretti has, and bald patches can be cause by flea irritation, so I decided that I would apply some flea stuff to the back of their necks.

As with the worming medicine, they really don't like this stuff. I am at a loss to understand why - they don't object to being scratched there... but one touch with the liquid and they're out of the catflap faster than you can say "Vet."

This time I decided to be sneaky. When both cats were inside waiting for dinner this evening, I closed the catflap. Then I cracked open the smoked salmon. Both cats were very keen on the smoked salmon...

I then pounced on one cat (I had them in two different rooms) in mid chomp and administered the drops. She ran away, mortally offended, leaving the remaining morsels of salmon. Meanwhile, I pounced on the other cat and repeated the exercise. Same reaction.

I wasn't too worried... I figured that the smell of salmon would overcome all sulks in due course.

It hasn't.

Both cats tried to escape through the closed catflap. One growled at the other - I'm not sure who. Furretti gave ground first, and because I tried to administer a sliver of salmon to Miaowrini, she jumped onto the highest bookcase, mortally offended. I retrieved her and made a fuss of her, and she has now condescended to sleep at the foot of my bed... but now Miaowrini is sulking and resisting all blandishments, running behind the sofa if I try to approach her.

The salmon slivers remain uneaten...

Miaowrini In Trouble...

This evening Monsignor Miaowrini came in and curled up behind my knees while I was lying down reading. She normally only does this when it is extremely cold, so I was a little surprised, but didn't think too much about it, and, after petting her a bit, I left her alone.

When I decided to get up again, I started petting her so that she would move over and not get squished. Suddenly I noticed that there was a large bald spot on her side. It was completely smooth and hairless - not stubbly, and the fur around the bald patch was sleek and thick. The skin didn't appear to be inflamed, and I couldn't see a wound. It was almost like when she had her fur shaved for her operation.

Then Cardinal Furretti came in. The two cats appeared to be having some sort of a spat, and I wonder if Furretti had grabbed a mouthful of fur from Miaowrini. Miaowrini just came up towards a very watchful Furretti, and rolled over in a submissive way, but then stretched out her paws as if to attempt to catch the other. The two of them chased each other around the chair, and then separated...

Then the two cats crouched, staring at each other with hostility from underneath separate pieces of furniture...

Furretti appears to have regained her poise - she is now on my duvet, grooming contentedly. Miaowrini is definitely upset - though she has now retired to her cat bed. She isn't licking the bald patch, and isn't scratching. Her bed is in the middle of the hallway - she won't sleep in it if I place it in a corner - so I can keep half an eye on her. But if she doesn't calm down, I will have to take her to the vet...

I think I prefer it when the cats stick to attacking the local wildlife rather than each other...

A Sign Of Things To Come...

Teachers in England are no longer allowed to state what they believe to be true. Robert Haye was sacked because he told his pupils that homosexual activity is a sin. This was confirmed by the High Court.

Not only was Mr. Haye sacked, but he was banned from teaching anywhere in the country. That decision was upheld by Michael Gove.

Now, where does that leave Catholic schools? In theory, because all teachers in Catholic schools sign a contract to uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church, all Catholic schools in England & Wales should expect to find themselves with a shortage of teachers, no?

...No?

On a more serious note, this case has serious implications for all teachers who subscribe to a religious belief - if that belief is contrary to the government's agenda. All that is needed is for a group of students to ask an "awkward" question (and students love to push boundaries) and that teacher can be sacked on the basis of their answer.

Watch this space.

Congratulations Are In Order...

Joanna Bogle (Auntie Joanna Writes) has been made a Dame of St. Gregory in one of the last acts of Pope Benedict XVI. Many, many congratulations are in order - it is a well-deserved honour, as Joanna has been an indefatigable defender of the Faith for many years.

The Rehabilitation Of St. George...

I may have mentioned before that, being of a scientific inclination, I used to tend towards a purely rationalistic approach to the Faith. I say rationalistic rather than rational because I now know that such an approach is anything but rational. Instead it is the attempt to reduce everything to purely human levels, and explain away anything which even remotely smacks of the supernatural.

After all, it was fashionable to be sceptical about the claim that St. Peter was buried beneath the High Altar at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and to explain it away as a sort of legend, a story to encourage us, concocted in those oh-so-credulous medieval times. Now, however, science has confirmed that there are bones under St. Peter's dating from the first century, and since they are wrapped in gold cloth with the inscription "Here lies Peter" (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea) it's pretty probable that these are the bones of the fisherman himself.

A similar scenario has played itself out in the same way at the Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-Walls... the bones are almost certainly those of, ummm... St. Paul.

What a shocker. The information carefully passed down over 2000 years or so (not that long, really) turns out to be true. Who would have guessed it?

St. George appears to be one of the casualties of the rationalistic approach to the Faith. He couldn't possibly have existed, because of the story about him slaying a dragon... and we all know that dragons don't exist...

But, as Fr. Blake so rightly points out, the dragon can be seen as an image of the spiritual life, of the struggle that goes on within all of us until the beast is tamed and brought into the presence of God. Considered in this light, the dragon is a very real one.

I'm delighted that St. George appears to be making something of a comeback, rescued from the list of saints who were declared only legendary or mythical and downgraded in the Calendar. I shall be hearing a Missa Cantata in honour of St. George in about half an hour (the schola is running through the propers as I type) and promise to say a prayer for all my blog readers.

Sprucing Things Up...

Well, as promised, I have tidied up the blog a bit. The Kitty Kill Count gets to stay - it seems to be the one thing that everyone looks at!

Looking at the outclicks from my blog, I doubt that many people used my blogroll as a portal on a regular basis, so I decided to change the static, alphabetical order to one which reflects recent updates. However, with over 100 blogs on the roll, it would be a hassle to have all of them up with the snippets of the latest posts, so I opted for the 25 most recent. I also pruned out the dead ones, and any which were invitation-only.

UPDATE: I have put the full blogroll further down the sidebar - I missed being able to see the whole list!

Mistakes do occasionally happen. If you see that your blog does not appear on the blogroll, let me know and I will consider its reinstatement!

Feeling Uninspired...

The start of term has sucked all inspiration and energy from my brain. The cats appear to feel much the same way, and are refusing to do anything cute for the camera. In desperation I pinched this from the Cheezburger Lolcats site...

It made me smile... 

Some Things Never Change...

Back in March, the incomparable Fr. Z posted evidence that kitties have always demonstrated the tendency to walk all over one's work, be it on laptop, foolscap or parchment...

Fr. Z speculated on the possible response of the monk whose work this was, but I suspect that the reaction was probably more like the one I encountered at school yesterday...

"Miss, my book appears to be all muddy..."

"Ah, yes... I need to apologise for that. I'm afraid my cat jumped on it... Sorry about that."

"Oh, that's ok Miss..."

*Loud chorus of voices from around the room accompanied by scuffling sounds as several teenagers try to get a good look...* "What, you've got cat prints on your book? Can I see them...? Go on, show me..."

A Lighter Note...

The powers that be in North Korea seem to be doing a little sabre-rattling. It is difficult to take them seriously when the leader bears an uncanny resemblance to the star of Gangnam Style...

Also, the army patrol along the banks of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong doesn't look too threatening...

Picture Credit: REUTERS/Jacky Chen

Let's face it, they're not going to get very far in those heels, right?

Mind you, there's always the possibility of nuclear conflict...

More Thoughts On Gosnell...

The case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell is truly horrific. The silence of the mainstream media is disgraceful. However, the attempt at a media blackout has been thwarted because the mainstream media is no longer able to decide what constitutes news.

People react strongly if they feel something is being covered up. There were a lot of calls for the mainstream media to report on the trial and what the charges are. Twitter reached around 23,000 tweets per hour on Friday on the Gosnell case, and that can't have gone unnoticed. So the continuing silence is rather spectacular.

I would just like to reassure my readers that none of the links in this post have any distressing images (unlike the ones I warned about in yesterday's post.)

Several blogs have reported the case in full. Ben Trovato, Mark Lambert and Joe Shaw were able to get the message out from the UK, and bloggers at The Telegraph have now picked up on this, with Damian Thompson and Tim Stanley both writing excellent pieces. It is still not front page news, and this is something I find pretty amazing, even though I know it is something the overwhelmingly pro-choice mainstream media would like to ignore.

Google now has several entries for Kermit Gosnell (it didn't have on Friday!) and the Wikipedia page on Dr. Gosnell has changed from "is under consideration for deletetion" to "was under consideration" so I suppose that is some sort of progress.

Yesterday, I felt sure that the mainstream media would have to bow to public pressure and report on the case of Kermit Gosnell killing babies after they had survived abortion. After all, despite its awful record on human rights and its draconian one-child policy involving forced partial-birth abortions, even the Chinese government allows a child to live once it has been born.

However, Ben Trovato (the Countercultural Father) has given the media silence some considerable thought, and concluded that the media is marshalling its arguments so as to place a pro-abortion spin upon them. His post is really outstanding in its analysis, and I think that we need to heed his warning and prepare for the onslaught.

Mainstream Media Ignores Multiple Murder Trial...

No, that wasn't a headline I'd ever expect to write. But it seems to be what is happening right now over in the US. It seems to be happening here in the UK too - I haven't spotted any media reports about a doctor being tried for multiple counts of murder, though Father Ed Tomlinson did say that the Daily Mail had given it a brief mention.

Strange, isn't it?

Kermit Gosnell is on trial for the murder of seven newborn babies and one woman patient. There are several other charges which were recommended, almost too many to mention. I can't bring myself to read the stuff in detail - I keep having to switch away from the horror of it. It seems that there would have been many other cases of murder, only clinic records have been destroyed.

The only reason I know about this case is that a few people have been so outraged over the lack of media coverage that they have posted information on Twitter and Facebook, and from there it is now hitting the blogosphere.

I can't help thinking about the contrast with the media outrage over the death of Savita Halappanavar - ostensibly because she had been denied an abortion (and the reality of that case was completely different, as Caroline Farrow has so brilliantly explained.)

I have to add a warning here. Unless you have a strong stomach, don't click on the links that follow - some of the images are so horrible that I would rather I hadn't seen them myself (and I've cut up all sorts of stuff in my time as a scientist.) I would not actually include the links if I didn't think it was vital that this story is given as much publicity as possible before the mainstream media and politicians try to bury it. There already seem to be moves towards removing the Wikipedia entry on Kermit Gosnell. You can take stuff off the internet, but the evidence is there to find if people dig deep enough, and the more links there are, the harder it is to bury.

When Dr. Gosnell's clinic was raided after the death of a woman patient, the police found a macabre scene: severed baby feet of various sizes kept in see-through containers and bodies of babies in a freezer and in the basement. The upper spinal cords of some of the babies had been severed. Keeping the feet, almost as trophies, seems particularly perverted!

Although he is also accused of carrying out illegal abortions (24 weeks is the limit in Philedelphia) Dr. Gosnell carried out most late-term abortions legally. That isn't what he is being tried for. Allowing babies to be partially born and then killing them by sticking a needle into the brain before the baby is fully delivered is a perfectly acceptable procedure - legally. The main reason that Kermit Gosnell fell foul of the law is the technicality that the babies were actually delivered alive and then killed. The method of killing, and what he was killing are the same in the legal and illegal cases. It's all about timing.

And therein lies the reason for the media silence.

The case provides incontrovertible evidence that what we dreadful pro-lifers have said all along is true. Abortion is not simply the removal of a clump of cells or a blob of tissue. Abortion is the killing of a baby.

Time For A Re-Vamp...

I've been feeling rather under the weather this past week. I even found myself craving tangerines, though I'm regretting having succumbed to the temptation, as they're awkward to peel and I keep finding bits of tangerine peel everywhere, as well as having squirted juice in my eye on more than one occasion.

Anyway, I have been singularly devoid of blogging inspiration all week. I've concluded that I need to do a bit of blog spring-cleaning as a way to get the creative impulses firing. The blogrolls are way, way too long to be useful, and I suspect that several of the links are dead. They need some serious pruning,and I may change to the snippet-based rolls which change according to the most recent posts.

I think I shall retain the colour scheme and the background photo of the Rosary Basilica at Lourdes... Not sure about keeping the Kitty Kill Counter, though I suspect that, if I take it down, the cats will go on a murderous spree in revenge for being downgraded...

Any comments welcome...

Happy Feast Day !

Today is the transferred Solemnity of the Annunciation. Happy Feast Day!

Eccles Has A New Career...

I really do think that Eccles has a duty to write some new songs for the Church. I'm sure he could give Paul Inwood a run for his money. He's certainly got Gilbert and Sullivan sussed...

If you are in need of a good chortle, do go and read Eccles' latest composition: I am the very model of a modern liberal Catholic...

Just a snippet to whet the appetite:

I am the very model of a modern liberal Cath-o-lic,
I teach that faith before the 1960s was dia-bo-lic.
The services in Latin we rewrote in the vernacular,
With errors in translation that were really quite spectacular.
We threw out all that chanting in the style known as Gregorian -
It's really just of interest to a dusty old historian!
No ancient hymns we now allow - of classics we won't have any -
Instead, we sing "Shine, Jesus Shine" and Inwood's new cacophony!

Priceless!

Frequent Confession...

Vox in Rama posted a picture of a book she's just finished reading on Facebook. As her book addiction is far more serious than mine, I was rather amused to note that it was a book I had bought and read several years ago.

It really is an excellent book - not least because it explains so clearly why going regularly to Confession to confess venial sins is such a help in the spiritual life. As someone who has been discouraged in the past by the attitudes of some priests (and Bishops), it is great to hear the practice given a positive press.

"What we have in mind is the frequent and regular Confession of a person who in general does not commit mortal sin but rather lives a life of union with God and is bound to him by love. Such a person may, nevertheless, be guilty of many disloyalties and failings. He may have various weaknesses and bad habits and perverse inclinations, and he may have to struggle hard with his inordinate desires and his self-love. It is not a matter of indifference to him that here and there he has acted against his conscience, even though it be in nonessential matters."

Do go and read Vox in Rama's review in full too.

An Honest Film Review...

I'm an impulse blogger. If I think too much about the construction of a post, it goes horribly wrong, and I have to ditch it. Against my better judgement, I stopped to think about a couple of posts last week... and have decided to consign them to the bin.

My impassioned cri de coeur on Facebook provoked the reply that I should put up another cat photo. Well, the kitties are squabbling, and not amenable to posing for photos, so you've been spared that one. However, I remembered seeing this clip from Honest Trailers, and it made me chuckle, so I thought I'd share...

I never quite understood the allure of a musical which everyone said was so very sad. My idea of entertainment is something that will take me out of everyday humdrum activity and/or make me laugh. Even the name of the musical sounded like a bad omen... and then to hear that they'd made it into a musical film made me want to run screaming for the hills.

Looks like I got it right...

The Resurrection Story...

As a catechist and former RE teacher, I used to despair when confronted by students who, after 11 years of Catholic schooling, got Christmas and Easter completely confused. Something similar happened last Sunday when my minicab driver (who claimed to be Catholic) asked me: "I get that Jesus was nailed to the cross and died on Good Friday... but Easter Sunday... what's that all about then?"

I gently pointed out that anyone could get himself nailed to a cross... it was the rising again from the dead which was the really amazing thing that got Christians all excited!

So I was delighted to see that some families do still pass on the Faith... heartfelt congratulations to Annie Elizabeth and family...

Continuing The Cat Theme...

I was fascinated by this video - The Science of Cats. I knew quite a few of the facts detailed, but there were some new snippets of information... and I suspect that some of the related videos might be worth investigating, if only to play to a class at school as a little "treat" at the end of a lesson. Well, how else can we increase "general knowledge"?

Enjoy...

It's Been A While...

Zephyrinus pointed out that it has been a while since I posted any funnies from the Lolcats Cheezburger site. I explained that my own kitties have kept me busy writing about their own antics. However, I really couldn't resist this one...

Photos From The Vigil At Blackfen...

I've been struck down with the dreaded lurgy (the bane of all teachers once on holiday!) and so I've been a little slow to get some photos up on Flickr from the Easter Vigil.

Keith and Michael were in charge of the Easter Fire again this year, just to make sure that we wouldn't be needing to ask if anyone had a light when it came to lighting the Paschal Candle. Like barbecues, the Easter Fire is obviously a "man" thing. One year Fr. Tim's vestments are going to catch light along with the candle, I fear. He had to use a branch instead of a taper...

I was pretty impressed with the performance of my mobile phone camera, though I cheated for the crowd photo and used my flash...

Do go over and see the rest on Flickr.

A Spectacularly Blonde Moment...

Thursday had been exceptionally busy. That is the only excuse I have been able to come up with...

I knew that I (and some of the servers) would probably be in need of some refreshment after the Maundy Thursday Mass - just a brief visit to the club before spending the last hour watching at the Altar of Repose. So I went to the cashpoint to get some money out.

As I was removing my card, I suddenly remembered that I needed to buy some food items, as Good Friday was a Bank Holiday. I grabbed the card and shot into the shop next to the machine. I paid for my purchases by card and rushed off to Mass.

It was a long evening. At 10:20pm I offered to go and order a round of drinks while the servers finished rearranging the pews. This was considered very good planning on my part, and off I went, very pleased with myself...

...until I discovered that, in one of those blonde moments, I had failed to take the money out of the machine after removing my card...

Further enquiry revealed that the money hadn't been returned to the machine, so obviously someone found themselves £30 richer...

Good Friday...

The Good Friday Liturgical Action of the Passion isn't very photogenic, at least not in the Novus Ordo - the altar is stripped bare, and a lot of what is going on is very "static." I've never attended the Good Friday service in the usus antiquior, though, so maybe it is equally bleak.

Nevertheless, I have a small selection of photos over on Flickr...

Maundy Thursday...

I've been rather busy, as school didn't finish before Holy Week this year, and it felt as if we went right up to the wire before breaking up for the Easter Holiday.

As a result, I didn't feel very well-prepared for the start of the Triduum. However, all that was soon forgotten as the Mass was beautiful, and the stripping of the altars very poignant. Fr. Finigan gave a really moving sermon on the importance of the Priesthood for the life of the Church. It is a point I have made countless times before - without the men who sacrifice everything to follow God's call and become priests, there are no Sacraments. Without the Sacraments there is no Church.

I didn't take many photos - my phone was almost completely out of battery power, and I'd forgotten the charger (and my proper camera) - but there is a small selection over on Flickr.

He Died For Me...

I've mentioned before that I returned to the practice of the Faith about twenty years ago, after what I like to call my Damascus Road conversion. I was seriously ill at the time, in chronic pain and on crutches. One night I couldn't sleep, and felt impelled to read a children's book I'd been given for my Confirmation - Adventure of the Amethyst by Cecily Hallack. I've described the book in more detail in another post. I finished the book, fell soundly asleep for the first time in months and woke up six hours later, knowing that I simply had to find the nearest Catholic church.

I didn't actually want to go to Confession, or see a priest... I just had to get to the church, without knowing exactly why.

There were plenty of difficulties in this - mostly my lack of mobility and the fact that I didn't actually know where the nearest church was. By the time I found it, it was about 5pm on a grey September Saturday. There wasn't a soul to be seen anywhere, and the church appeared to be closed. I eventually found an open door and found myself in the Nave of the church, staring up at the largest crucifix I had ever seen.

I sank down into a pew, suddenly aware that Christ had died that awful, terrible death on the Cross for my sins. Not only that, but I knew with absolute certainty that it was my sins which had nailed Jesus to the Cross, as surely as if I had wielded the hammer... All the sins I had committed since my Baptism seemed to rise up, forcing me to acknowledge my betrayal, and I also knew that Jesus had known that I would betray him. Despite this, he went to the Cross willingly, even gladly.

And with an awful clarity, I also knew that Jesus would have suffered and died for me even if I had been the only one to be saved.

Often, during Stations of the Cross, the meditations seem to focus on the sins and injustices which are committed by others. Then, to say that Christ died for our sins can seem very glib and easy. In contrast, to recognise that Jesus would have suffered all that just to save one soul is something to treasure for all eternity.

How much must God love each one of us...

I've Won An Award...

It's about time... I haven't had any awards for simply ages, and so I was rather pleased to get this... until I realised that it was awarded for being unpopular...

(Ok, ok... it's for being not as well-known as other blogs!)

I got the award earlier in the week from the most excellent Countercultural Father. Unfortunately, having been rather busy with Confirmations and stuff, I didn't get around to awarding the Liebster Award to anyone else, and now quite a few of my options have already received the award from other sources.

The current requirements have evolved over time and are as follows:

1. Post the Liebster award graphic on your site.
2. Thank the blogger who nominated the blog for a Liebster Award and link back to their blog.
3. The blogger then writes 11 facts about himself or herself so people who discover his or her blog through the Liebster post will learn more about him or her.
4. In addition to posting 11 fun facts about themselves, nominated bloggers should also answer the 11 questions from the post of the person who nominated them.
5. The nominated blogger will in turn, nominate 9 other blogs with 200 or less followers (I'm guessing for my nominees) for a Liebster award by posting a comment on their blog and linking back to the Liebster post.
6. The nominated blogger will create 11 questions for his or her nominated blogs to answer in their Liebster post.

So, 1 and 2 are already completed... thanks Ben... remember that no good deed goes unpunished!

Finding 11 fun facts about myself might be a bit tricky... I'll settle for 11 facts...

1. I am a Catholic woman... I returned to the Church just over 20 years ago - in my defense, I had been very poorly catechised after being baptised at 13 to get my sister into a Catholic school.
2. I love the Usus Antiquior.
3. I wear a mantilla.
4. I love cats. Actually, I am crazy about them.
5. One of my cats (Cardinal Furretti) is named after a dead Pope (Mastai-Ferretti was the family name of Blessed Pius IX.)
6. The other cat (Monsignor Miaowrini) is named after the Papal MC (Monsignor Guido Marini.)
7. I teach Science.
8. I loathe inclusive language - it's usually insulting to women.
9. I love driving, but am not always lucky with cars.
10. I have severe problems with my knees (a legacy from a road-traffic accident in my teens and surgery which went wrong) and one ankle (the result of falling down the sacristy steps after Mass one day.)
11. I closed the A2 motorway in both directions when I got hit (twice) by an articulated lorry one morning in the rush-hour, spinning across three lanes and colliding with the central barrier before coming to rest, upside-down... it took the fire brigade 45 minutes to cut me out of the car.

Now to answer the questions posed by Ben...

1.  What inspired the title of your blog?  Well, I wanted to have a title that indicated my faithfulness to the Church as a woman, especially because I was tired of being "represented" by the feminazi types. I also wanted a snappy Latin title. Not knowing any Latin, I asked my Parish Priest what he thought I should call my blog...I would never have been brave enough to come up with that title myself, especially now I know it's a title used for Our Lady...
2. Why should people read your blog? Errrrm... well... there is stuff about cats and stuff about Catholicism...
3. What is your personal favourite post on your blog? That's a difficult one. I think that the most influential post has to be the one on the dilemmas of a traddy womynpriest... I think it was a post that went round the world, aided and abetted by Frs. Finigan, Blake and Zuhlsdorf, and helped along by Damian Thompson. But really, I think my best post is one I wrote arguing against the Stand Up for Vatican II crowd, pointing out that their stand was contrary to the teachings of, ummm... Vatican II.
4. What has been the most popular (most viewed) post on your blog? Strangely enough, it appears to be a game of Liturgical Chicken... how much of the music can you stand before you hit the stop button. I'm not sure how many people stumble across it while looking for real chickens, but at 19,142 page views (according to Blogger) it is far and away the most popular post. For comparison, Felix Fidei Defensor is second most popular - at 1,681 page views. Chickens are more popular than cats? Who knew??
5. Which post on your blog has attracted most comments? I don't usually get many comments, 2-3 is about average Occasionally I get a spike when something happens such as my cat dying. At first I thought that the post with most comments (33) was my Laywoman's Guide to the Usus Antiquior, but further delving revealed that it was actually a post on tacky hymns (47).
6. What other hobbies or interests (beyond blogging) are you prepared to admit to? Photography, singing and going out for dinner.
7. What are your hopes for the new pontificate? The same as my hopes for the old pontificate.
8. Where is your favourite place of pilgrimage, and why? Lourdes. It's one in the eye for anyone who claims not to believe in God or miracles because they are "rational."
9. Who is your favourite spiritual author, and why? Aaaaaaaaaaaargh. It depends what mood I'm in. Ummm... St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort. Or possibly St. Alphonsus Liguori. Or maybe Ven. Louis of Granada. Or perhaps Dom Lorenzo Scupoli. Or St. Francis de Sales... As for why, well, that would take forever...
10. Which of these questions did you find it most difficult to answer? The previous one!
11. Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party? No.

My 11 questions are very similar to Ben's (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery) so...

1. What inspired the title of your blog?
2. Why did you start to blog?
3. What is your personal favourite post on your blog?
4. What has been the most popular (most viewed) post on your blog?
5. Which post on your blog has attracted most comments?
6. What other hobbies or interests (beyond blogging) are you prepared to admit to?
7. What has been your closest brush with death?
8. Where is your favourite place of pilgrimage, and why?
9. Who is your favourite spiritual author, and why?
10. Have you ever experienced a miracle?
11. Which of these questions did you find it most difficult to answer?

And my nine nominees for the Liebster Award are:

Vox in Rama Audita Est

Zephyrinus

Defénde Nos In Proélio

Arundel & Brighton LMS

Sub Umbra Alarum Suarum

That the Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill

Left-Footer

The Path Less Taken

Thoughts From A Catholic Oasis

I'm afraid that I couldn't be bothered to work out which blogs didn't have big readerships - and am quite sure that many of the blogs I have named have more readers than me... but I have avoided the really big hitters such as Fr. Z and His Hermeneuticalness... and, actually, any priests, as they tend to have a captive audience of parishioners anyway...

Palm Sunday...

Well, we didn't get to have a Solemn High Mass today, but had to "make do" with a Missa Cantata.

We're obviously spoiled rotten in Blackfen if a full-blown, all-the-trimmings, Missa Cantata with outdoor procession and chanted Gospel is considered "make-do" !!

The only reason that I knew how long the ceremonies lasted was because I was writing down the times of various bits to allow for future scheduling. It really didn't feel like 2 hours 31 minutes.

I think that having a procession outdoors when it's snowing might actually be a step too far.

The server who got to be cross-bearer seemed to enjoy himself...

You can see more photos over at Flickr.

Housework...

I have come to the conclusion that housework is pointless if one has cats.

As soon as I remove one pigeon carcass and hoover up the feathers, the kitties bring me another one. I suspect that the cats have discovered a source of birdseed which they are using as bait.

A New Initiative Worth Noting...

Totally frustrated with the rubbish being spouted by Prof. Beattie and her ilk in the name of Catholic women, Caroline Farrow hit on the brilliant idea of getting together a petition of support from faithful Catholic women.

It's rather like the Chrism Mass demo that I used to organise with Joanna Bogle. Sadly, the demo at Southwark had to stop because they moved the Chrism Mass from Maundy Thursday, and getting time off school and work was harder to arrange... though Westminster's is still going strong, I think!

Anyway, Caroline's petition doesn't require a physical presence, just a virtual one. Basically, sign up if you agree with the following...

"I am a faithful practicing Roman Catholic woman, who attends Mass at least once a week and who believes in and practices the Church’s teachings, specifically pertaining to matters on sexuality, contraception, abortion, marriage and the ordination of women. I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is sympathetic to and representative of the needs and concerns of women and their children, wherever they may be in the world. I would like to offer our new Pope Francis, my prayers and support and thank him for his continued protection and support of mothers and their unborn children. I fully endorse Church doctrine in relation to women’s issues."

Personally I would be inclined to reassure people that failing to live up to this ideal is no bar, provided one accepts that the ideal is true and something to strive for, rather than attempting to change Church teaching to suit our sinful natures.

However, if you want to sign up, Caroline has started a specific blog for signatures... please do go over and give your support.

Mainstream "Meedja" Spinning...

A full teaching day at school means that I haven't had the opportunity to watch the Holy Father's Inaugural Mass, nor to check out many of the reports. Having read this (excellent, as always) piece by Fr. Simon, I think I shall be sure to eschew any of the mainstream media reports.

I always advise my students to remember that, if they ever copy and paste information from another source, they should either change key words (rather a lot of them) or put the remarks in quote marks. The sort of plagiarism cited by Fr. Simon would be enough to get coursework thrown out by the Exam Boards...

It's Been One Of THOSE Days...

And Now For Something More Edifying...

One of the best pieces I have read on the election of Pope Francis is from the Provost of the London Oratory. It is such a relief to read something so sensible after all the nonsense.

"Reading the newspapers since the election of our new Pope, pious Catholics will find material that fills them with hope and joy and speculations that might give anyone sane a stroke if they happened to be true. We should not allow what we see in the press or on the Internet to disturb our serenity and distract us from prayer. That would be playing into the hands of the devil, who dreads and despises the prayers of the faithful (any timidity one might have about mentioning the devil in these modern times, by the way, has been dissolved by the fact that Pope Francis mentioned that enemy of God and man at least twice, in startlingly direct terms, in sermons on the first days after the election)."

I particularly enjoyed the reference to Hans Küng as "the Swiss entertainer" !

A Little Humour...

Some people are getting a little over-wrought about our new Pope. Personally, I think we need to give him time... after all, being made responsible for the world's billion or so Catholics must be a bit like being hit with a ten-ton truck. Getting stressed over whether he wears the papal red shoes is perhaps a little premature. He's 76 years old, and wearing in a new pair of shoes is no joke at any age, especially if you do a lot of standing and walking. I seem to recall reading somewhere that his feet are far bigger than anyone else's in the conclave, and the ones made for possible popes just weren't big enough.

So I thought I'd share this little snippet.

A twitch of the mantilla to Damian Thompson.

Photos From Laetare Sunday...

We had a Solemn High Mass on Laetare Sunday (something of a tradition at Blackfen!) but I only just realised that I hadn't put up my photos on Flickr. That oversight has now been corrected!

One of the servers was very anxious to know if we were going to have a Solemn High Mass next weekend, on Palm Sunday. Unfortunately, Fr. Finigan has been unable to find a subdeacon, so it won't be possible. This news appeared to cheer the boy up immensely. That means he gets to carry the cross and bash the church door with it... apparently, at a High Mass the subdeacon carries the cross!

Every cloud has a silver lining for someone, it seems...