How To Spoil A Good Book...

...Jesus dies on page 1126 !

There May Be Trouble Ahead...

Not content with the furore over the MMR jab (which, IMHO, could have been avoided simply by allowing parents to opt for immunisation with three separate jabs for measles, mumps and rubella - it was the triple jab which occasioned the autism controversy), the Department of Health wants to bring in a new jab: the plan is to give jabs against the human papilloma virus (HPV) to all girls in Year 7 (that's the old First Year of secondary school for any middle-aged readers from England, and 11-12 year-olds for the rest of you.)

The Daily Mail has an article on it (I was in the garage a long time), though either they got the age-range wrong, or the Year Group for whom the immunisation programme is planned. Year 7's are 11-12 years old.

There are (surprise, surprise!) questions as to how safe this vaccine is.

Dr Szarewski [a researcher from the Wolfson Institute, London, who researches the effects of HPV] said safety data showed vaccination caused very few side-effects apart from a sore arm and some people who experienced flu-like symptoms.

But Jackie Fletcher of the vaccine awareness group JABS said: "We're worried about side effects reported in the U.S. including Guillain Barre syndrome, fainting spells and short seizures."

HPV is, of course, spread through sex, and the more partners a woman has, the more likely she is to contract HPV. Is it just me who finds it odd that no-one is mentioning abstinence as a sure-fire way of avoiding the virus?

...and how much do you want to bet that these 11 year-olds will be handed out condoms by the school nurse, to accompany the jabs... just to be on the "safe" side?

One To Watch...?

While waiting for the car tyres to be replaced, I amused myself by reading a paper... not something I do very often, as I usually get the news from the internet and (*sheepish grin*) the radio.

So I was interested to see in today's Daily Mail, a double-page spread alerting readers to a television programme next week. The programme, Channel 4's Dispatches, will give details about what actually happens to a foetus when it is aborted. The article was concentrating on the number of late abortions which are carried out in the UK, far later than allowed elsewhere, and highlighting the fact that modern medicine calls into question the idea that a foetus doesn't feel pain before 26 weeks' gestation.

The journalist who wrote the article, Deborah Davies, gives the impression that she is very much in favour of a woman's right to choose, but she is clearly unhappy with the number of abortions which are performed after 12-14 weeks' gestation... and obviously shocked by what medical staff have told her about the procedures used for such late-term abortions. I can't agree with her description of abortions in the first 12 weeks needing only a "simple" suction procedure - it's all pretty gross when you consider that a human life is at stake - but I'm interested to read that more and more people are beginning to question where a foetus is considered to be a "baby" in the making.

The article headline certainly made me sit up: "It's the great abortion taboo: what really happens to an unborn baby when a doctor terminates its life. Next week on TV, a surgeon finally breaks that silence. His words will shock you, but they need to be heard."

The article is also available online HERE. The Dispatches programme, "Abortion: What We Need to Know," is on Channel 4, Wednesday, 17th October 2007 at 10:40pm.

It's Been One Of Those Days...

I was a real cross-patch this morning. Last night, our parish sacristan had phoned to say she was feeling ill, and wouldn't be there to set up for Saturday morning's Mass and Benediction. So, no Saturday morning lie-in for me! Bleary-eyed, wet-haired and thoroughly disgruntled, I drove in early. Luckily, there is something soothing about preparing the sacred vessels for Mass. By the time I was able to sit down to pray the Office, I had regained a little composure, and was feeling slightly ashamed of my bad-temper. On the plus side, living alone means that I hadn't actually taken my temper out on anyone, but that wasn't the point.

I then found out that the wedding booked for this afternoon was actually a full-blown Nuptial Mass.

And then I was told that there was a Baptism between the wedding and Benediction.

And Sunday Mass after the wedding... I helped set up for the Baptism and prepared what I could for the Nuptial Mass, and then decamped... leaving the rest for the Deacon.

(I have no idea where Fr. Tim gets all his energy. I wish he'd bottle the stuff - I need some!)

Meanwhile, a friend of mine pointed out that one of my front car tyres was seriously flatter than the other. She offered to get her son to get it pumped up, but I said I'd go to a garage to get it checked out. I was sure that I'd had the tyres checked quite recently...

...and then realised that "recently" was somewhere in the region of three or four months and all I had done then was a check on the tyre pressure. It turned out that I needed all four tyres changed: three had degrading around the rim, and the fourth was balding on the inside. I thought I'd get the wheel alignment done while I was at it...

I'd hoped it could be done pretty quickly (I mean, how long does it take to change a tyre or two?) but a glut of customers also waiting for tyres to be sorted meant that the whole thing took about 2 hours... car garage waiting rooms are not the most comfortable of places...

Oh, the joys of car ownership!

21st Century Science?

Ok, this is a long post, and I warn you that I'm having a rant. Not quite such a major rant as the ones I have on pc language and heretical hymns, but close. Feel free to ignore this post, and come back tomorrow...

Although I trained as a Science teacher, I found myself straying into the Humanities for a couple of years. This September, I found myself back in the heart of the Science Curriculum. I'm now teaching 21st Century Science (the rather pretentious name given to the new GCSE courses.) The textbooks look very attractive at first glance (lots of glossy photos) and there is an impressive set of notes and lesson plans for teachers to use, with PowerPoint presentations and worksheets...

However, having explored the material for the past month and a half, I have to say that it's rather disappointing. The PowerPoints are uninspiring - no real attempt at interactive stuff, just larger copies of the words and phrases from the textbooks - and the worksheets assume easy access to the textbooks - very few schools, in my experience, would be able to fork out the money for each child to have a textbook to take home - which means that the worksheets are useless as a homework resource. The questions in the textbooks often assume that computer access is readily available, and suggest "research" to find out the answers...

...but that is just the mechanics of the course. And any new course is going to have teething problems as it's applied to the real classroom.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem is the content... or, to be more specific, the lack of content. I'm teaching the Chemistry Units: the first is "Air Quality," the second is "Material Choices" and the third is "Food Matters."

Air Quality is concerned with the main gases in the atmosphere, and pollution. Combustion is the main chemical reaction, and it is used to explore what pollutants are produced when fossil fuels are burnt. The effects of pollutants on health, and the use of technology to improve air quality are also considered.

Be still my beating heart... the excitement is almost overpowering...

I'm currently teaching Material Choices: you can't have all the groups doing the same topics at once because of equipment availability. Material Choices is all about choosing the right materials for a particular purpose, with the emphasis on polymers and plastics. Oh, and the disposal of polymers and plastics. Recycling features here.

Note that the full extent of technical knowledge of the whole of Organic Chemistry has been distilled (pun intended, sorry) down to polymers being long chain molecules, monomers being the molecules which make up the chains, and hydrocarbons being chemicals obtained from crude oil.

The final Year 10 Chemistry topic is Food Matters. How food gets from the farm to the plate. Farming methods and their effects on the environment. Natural and artificial chemicals in food (including food additives.) Possible links between obesity and diabetes.

Quite apart from the fact that most of the fun stuff in Chemistry appears to have been ditched, the amount of scientific content which the students need to learn is laughable.

I've nearly finished the first topic. I explained this to the students, who were aghast at how little they felt they had learned. So, to reassure them (and myself) that I wasn't missing out half the course, I checked the exam paper for the topic which was set in January 2007.

I wanted to cry. The questions were a variety of multiple choice (A, B, C, D etc.), connecting boxes with straight lines (eg. "wool" in one box and "sheep" in another needed to be connected to show wool comes from sheep) or filling in missing words or phrases (a choice of words and phrases was given.)

No explanations. No elaborating. No description.

And not much Science.

How To Help A Fellow Blogger...

...The American Papist has ended up as a finalist in some scholarship award or other. The winner is the blog with most votes. There is no registration process, and it takes all of two minutes to cast your vote HERE. By the way, American Papist is "Thomas Peters", and he's second from the bottom...

Mantilla-twitch to Newhousenewjob (who is busy copying my dream-reality-confusion trick!)

Rosary Crusade 2007

"Isn't time fun when you're having flies?" as one frog said to the other...

No, I haven't lost my marbles... I just cannot believe that it's already a whole year since the last Crusade. Re-reading my post from last year reminded me how very much has happened in a short time.

Anyway, the next Crusade is this Saturday, 13th October. No doubt this will be a "biggie" as the 13th October is the 90th anniversary of the final apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal, when the miracle of the sun was observed by thousands of onlookers.

The procession will start outside Westminster Cathedral at 1:45pm and finish up at the Brompton Oratory. Fr. Julian Large will be preaching. Photos of last year's Crusade can be seen HERE.

Quiz Time

What Kind of Cross are You?

You are the San Damiano Cross: Rich in symbolism, this cross was first painted in the twelfth century gathering images from the Gospel of John. Christ is the central figure and is surrounded by the angels, the apostles and the Virgin Mary. The cross became well known because it was the cross in front of which St. Francis was praying when he received the call to rebuild the Church.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Twitch of the mantilla to Thorn in the Pew.

A plea For Help...

...this has appeared on the Sisters of the Gospel of Life blog: they are on the scrounge for any soundbites from people such as Cardinal Winning, Blessed Mother Teresa and so on, for inclusion in a PowerPoint presentation which they're busy putting together...

As part of the 40th anniversary events we’re organizing, we’re putting together a number of pro-life slide-shows on different themes. What we’re looking for are sound-bites from people like Cardinal Winning, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI speaking on specifically pro-life related issues. These would be sound clips that we could play over PowerPoint presentations. If you know of good sites on the internet or if you would be able to email clips to us, please leave a comment on this post or email us at info@prolifeinitiative.org

A very worthy cause, so if you can, send the info along...

Aaaaaarghhhhh !

Marking books can be a soul-destroying exercise. I foresee a week of detentions (can't have too many kids in at once) for non-completion of homework...

...accompanied by the gentle hint, "Of course, if you can show me that you've done the homework when you arrive at the detention, you won't have to stay long..."

Sooner or later, the penny drops...

Bad Luck For The All Blacks...

...looks as though my drawing of New Zealand in the Staffroom Sweepstake has sounded the death-knell for the All Blacks. They lost their match on Saturday, and so are out of the World Cup.

*sigh*

While googling the result, I found the following refreshing quote from the New Zealand captain...

"We can't do anything about it now. It's going to hurt for a long, long time. I'm lost for words. We believed we could come out and play well. We didn't play as well as we could have."

Makes a change to hear a team admit that they could do better!

I Must Be Crazy...

Somehow or other, a couple of months ago, in a moment of weakness, I allowed myself to be ambushed by two priests. Taken unawares, I foolishly agreed to give a talk at the Southwark Diocese Altar Servers' Reunion which happened in Gravesend this afternoon...

In reality, I didn't actually agree to anything... I suspect that the priests in question cooked up a co-ordinated pincer-movement attack, and I was effectively presented with a fait accompli...

I've been rather busy and very preoccupied lately. Last night I realised that I needed to rustle up a decent PowerPoint presentation and perhaps some sort of activity. So, I eschewed the blogosphere and settled down to work.

Unfortunately, as I was rather tired, I failed to take my usual precaution of saving things every couple of minutes or so. The inevitable happened. My previously reliable and co-operative computer decided to have a conniption at the very point I wanted to save the whole shebang...

I lost the lot. Not really wanting to face a room full of teenagers without any sort of visial aid, I decided to start again from scratch... and finished at about 2:30am.

The talk I eventually gave was a brief overview of the Rosary. I'm not entirely sure what the kids made of it...

My talk aside, the afternoon went very well. The youngsters had fun playing pool, ping pong and other things, and the majority took the opportunity to go to Confession. After the talk there was a bit more time for games, and we then prayed the rosary in the church and finished up with Mass. There were about thirty young people present: not too shabby given the number of major sporting events which were going on...

How Very Interesting...

Not that I'm trying to claim credit or anything, but...

Back in June, I posted a snippet on what a "kick-ass" Cardinal the Aussies in Sydney had. In addition to the idea of starting a Cardinal Pell fanclub (there are at least two now on Facebook) I also suggested that we might want to petition for him to sort out the Church in England & Wales when Cardinal Murphy O'Connor resigns...

Today's Catholic Herald therefore makes for very interesting reading: Cardinal Pell has been added to the list of possible successors by Paddy Power, the Irish bookmakers. And at 10-1, he's not exactly an outsider...

...excuse me a minute, I just need to go and place a bet...

40th Anniversary (Oh The Shame Of It...)

The 40th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act is going to be marked on Saturday 27th October by a rally in Parliament Square, London, followed by a march down Victoria Street to Westminster Cathedral where there will be a service of remembrance, healing and hope. The rally starts at 2pm and the service at 4pm. We need to make sure that there are as many people as possible to draw media and public attention to the pro-life cause.

More information can be found at the Time for Change website.

I Couldn't Resist This One...

Yes, ok, I am showing off...

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Twitch of the mantilla to Newhousenewjob...

I Want One...

...I don't care if it's a children's book. I want a copy: the Pope's life story as seen by his cat.

The more I hear and read about this guy, the more I love him. I mean, an "authorised" biography (must be... Monsignor Ganswein wrote the foreward) written from the point of view of a cat. That is just so cute...

Unfortunately I have to wait for the English translation. I wonder if it will take as long as the English translation of the Missal?

Guardian Angels

Another of my favourite feasts: celebrating the fact that we have a Guardian Angel each. It's the Guardian Angel's job to help you reach heaven safely, and so, in times of temptation, or when in doubt as to the best course to take, we should always remember that our own angel cannot lead us astray, and we should implore his aid.

I'm really tired, so this is a short snippet, but I just couldn't let such a feast day go by unremarked: my own Guardian Angel has certainly been working overtime, and he's far from finished... if Guardian Angels had hair, mine would have torn most of his out, and the little remaining would have turned white by now... I also suspect that he'd also have hit the vodka-and-valium cocktails a while back (I must be a sore trial, what with all my wayward wanderings...!)

Oh, and Fr Ray has another excellent post on angels... the writings of St. Bernard, from the Office of Readings for today's feast... I was planning to put in a few quotes, but Fr Ray has done the lot!

Also, I remember posting the lyrics for the hymn to one's Guardian Angel: so I'm linking to it HERE.

Kolbe's Gift

I went to visit a neighbouring parish this evening: the Ten Ten Theatre were performing Kolbe's Gift. It had been advertised in our parish as a Deanery event, and I had been lucky enough to snaffle a ticket before our parish allocation sold out.

I very nearly didn't go: I'd had a long day at school, had missed lunch, was tired and aching (damp weather does this to me) and I was contemplating a meal out instead, or possibly a takeaway, but in the end, curiosity got the better of me.

I'm very pleased that I changed my mind: the acting was superb (and the chap playing Kolbe was uncannily like him to look at) and I hardly noticed the time whizz by. The play was in two acts (I think... I'm not really into the terminology) with the first act concentrating on a brief "biography" of Kolbe and the events leading to his martyrdom. There were one or two scenes with the chap who was saved by Kolbe's heroic act: anyone unfamiliar with the story would have found the changes from one time period to another rather confusing: in my tired and befuddled state I took a while to cotton on, but soon got the hang of it. I am rather hampered by my preference for stories to progress in a linear fashion!

The end of the first act is Kolbe's death... several of the audience hadn't realised there would be an interval, and so when refreshments were announced, we were rather surprised at the abrupt "ending." The second act concentrated on Franciszek Gajowniczek, the person saved by Kolbe, and his reaction to being saved.


This was one of the most moving parts in a very moving play. Quite apart from the amazing story, the bit that brought tears to my eyes was the scene between a journalist and Franciszek. She was very hostile, and asked, in a sarcastic manner, what he'd done with his life since being saved by Kolbe. On finding out that he'd been a civil servant in the local town hall for twenty years ("err, twenty-one years" corrected Franciszek) the journalist asked why he had been saved by Kolbe, when Kolbe was such a great man, with such a fine intellect, and with so many achievements to his name, and all Franciszek had done with his life was to "push a pen around!"

"Why you? What's special about you? He could have saved anybody..."

"That's precisely the point," Franciszek answered: "He could have saved anybody. He chose to save a nobody..."

I spoke to the person in charge of sound and lighting at the interval, and asked for permission to use the pictures on my blog: I also asked if there was a website. The Ten Ten Theatre visits schools and community centres, and they seem to do a couple of pro-life/pro-chastity plays. They have a website, but there doesn't appear to be anything up on it yet... I was also told to check out Ten Ten Productions (but that's similarly afflicted.) I did manage to find a leaflet that gave an email address: office@tententheatre.co.uk

Anyway, the blurb on the back of the leaflet explained that:

"ten ten theatre exists to advance the social, moral, spiritual and cultural education of children, young people, young offenders, prisoners, teachers and the general public through drama and the performing arts.

"We visit schools and community venues throughout the UK and are a non-profit-making company."

I would heartily recommend seeing anything this group put on!

UPDATE: Whatever was wrong with the links appears to have been ironed out, and both of them are now active. Information on Kolbe's Gift can be seen via the Ten Ten Productions link above, or directly from HERE.

New Pro-Life Site

I've just heard that there's a new website to check out: Life. It looks pretty snazzy (though to be honest I haven't had a chance to look at it in any detail, but it was recommended by a friend who's pretty hot when it comes to websites...)

I'll also plug a few more pro-life sites...

First and foremost (it's my first port-of-call for all things pro-life in the UK) is the SPUC website. They also send out email alerts to make sure that you know what horror story is happening next... (the Mental Capacity Act comes into force today: what a disaster!)

Then there is LifeSite (which is another roundup - but a little more transatlantic in its focus)

The Sisters of the Gospel of Life have their blog, of course, but it is sometimes a little slow in being updated (as they're rather busy, I should imagine...)

I used to have a link for the Good Counsel Network, but I checked it, and it appeared to have been taken over for advertising... if anyone knows where their link has disappeared to, I'd be very grateful if you could let me know in the com-box...

Ok, I'm rather tired. That's the lot for Monday! Back again tomorrow, after I've had a chance to go to a play about St. Maximilian Kolbe...

Awards, Awards...!

Heheheheh... I've been awarded a "Mathetes Award" (ha, not just a nomination, an actual, bona fide, real goodness-to-Betsy award!)

No, I didn't know what a Mathete was... I was rather dubious at first, as it sounds altogether too energetic, so not at all my kind of thing. However, my award came from White Stone Name Seeker (to be fair, she got it in first) and from the Catholic Warrior...

Anyway, what is a Mathete when it's at home?

It seems to be a brand new award being passed out. It is the Mathetes Award, created by Dan King of Management by God to recognize those who take to heart the Great Commission and further God’s Kingdom by creating more disciples for Him. According to Dan, mathetes is the Greek word for "disciple".

The rules for the award, as posted by its creator, are as follows: Winners of this award must pick five other "disciples" to pass it on to. As you pass it on, you are asked to mention and provide links for (1)the post Dan King of Management by God as the originator of the award, (2) the person that awarded it to you, and then (3) name and sites of the five that you believe are fulfilling the role of a disciple of Christ.

Ok, not easy, as nearly everyone I know seems to have been "done"... apologies if you get double awards as a result!

1. Newhousenewjob (because she's been doing the disciples stuff for aaaages, in person as well as on blog!)
2. Leutgeb (simply because she is determined to focus on the positive)
3. Fr. Owl of the Remove (he's feeling insecure!)
4. Orthfully Catholic (seminarians definitely fulfil that role, Orthfully does it even more so!!)
5. My favourite Roman Neanderthal because he's cute.

It was a really difficult choice... I just went through the blogroll and checked quickly to see if they'd been "done" already...
Enjoy, and spread it around a bit!!