Quick Question...

In light of the recent meetings for bloggers in exalted places and not-so exalted places and even less exalted places, I have a quick question...

Does unexpectedly running into a fellow Catholic blogger in the workplace constitute an unofficial blognic...? How about if tea (mine) and sandwiches (his) are involved...?

May The Fourth Be With You...

I'm a little tired this evening, and wasn't planning to do much active blogging... but, alerted to the above pun on Facebook (May 4th, geddit?) I couldn't resist posting this little commercial gem...

Sod's Law In Operation...

I tried very hard to follow the Vatican's Blogger Bash on Monday, via the official livestream video, and then via SQPN's livestream... as the saying at the Vatican apparently goes, "Yesterday's technology tomorrow!" The audio and video kept cutting out, only cutting back in when there was a round of applause... I did manage to get a few screenshots, which I'll try and add tomorrow. Interestingly, the connection actually appeared to improve when someone went into the corridor and filmed the participants chatting to each other... probably this improvement was in part due to all the bloggers stopping their blogging, tweeting and facebooking to get themselves some well-deserved fizzy stuff.

Fr. Tim has put up a very good summary of the whole thing.

I had originally intended to join in with today's more relaxed blognic, forgetting that, unfortunately, the Tuesday after the Bank holiday is a work day. Bummer. By the time I got home, the blognic was probably over, but, to be honest, I fell asleep on the sofa and forgot to Skype...

Maybe next year...

New Blog Arrives...

Denita is a Catholic Manga artist, (so only good clean anime, along with Manga-style religious pics) and has just started a brand new blog, mainly to showcase the pictures she paints, which I think is an absolutely great idea.  Although she claims to need help (as a newbie) I'm pretty sure that she's figured out the basics all by herself.

However, I'm sure that encouragement wouldn't go amiss, so, if you get the chance, pop on over to Denita's blog and introduce yourselves!

Did I mention that she loves cats...?

I'm Getting Tired Of Saying This...

I wrote a whole post about people who stop blogging about a year ago, and I've said it before in countless emails and comboxes whenever I've discovered a blogger threatening to remove their blog.

How hard is it to understand: by "removing" your blog you don't remove the links which may have been created. These links tend to get hijacked by adult-content sites. It's all very well to say that we can take the links out of the blogrolls, but it doesn't help with tracking down all the links which have been made in individual posts.

Added to this, sometimes, in order to encourage traffic to visit another blog, a blogger (like me) might post something along the lines of "Jenny has made a good point about this and you can read her opinion at her blog," giving a link. This is done to be kind, as, if I just copy and paste what Jenny actually said, people will be less inclined to go and visit Jenny's blog. If Jenny then goes and deletes her blog, not only does that leave me without a record of what Jenny actually said, but if someone clicks on the link they risk getting diverted to a site selling Viagra (at best) or some really objectionable stuff.

I'm not being paranoid. A friend of mine didn't listen to my warnings about five years ago, and then had to spend several days contacting Blogger to try and get her blog put back up because of the stuff which was now associated with her name.

It isn't rocket science. One doesn't have to continue blogging. It is possible to stop. You can simply disable comments, so nothing further can be added without your say-so. And what you have written previously remains as a record.

Please, out of courtesy to any bloggers who may have been kind enough to link to you - DON'T DELETE YOUR BLOG!

Preparing For The Beatification...

This evening we had a parish film evening, when we had the opportunity to watch the film Pope John Paul II.

It was organised by one of the families in the parish, and we started by praying John Paul II's prayer for families, which brought a lump to my throat. The film (I think it started out as a mini-series) was excellent, and towards the end I was in tears, remembering John Paul II's last few days. It really brought home to me how he offered his sufferings for the good of the Church.

Oh Woe Is Me...!

John Paul II is to be beatified this Sunday.

Many years ago Fr. Richard Whinder gave me a rosary which had been personally blessed by Pope John Paul II. Unfortunately for me, the rosary was swiped from my desk drawer by some little so-and-so. I am now ruefully contemplating the fact that I have lost what was probably a second class relic...

I am able to console myself with the further reflection that I have been in the same room as a Beatus... admittedly it was the Paul VI Audience Chamber, but I was quite near the front... a lot nearer than the photo I've got here...

(And yes, I know that is a photo of Pope Benedict XVI... I couldn't find one of Pope John Paul II in front of that ghastly sculpture... and it was before my digital photography days, so I don't have my own. In fact I was taking proper photos, but I seem to recall that my camera died in the Audience Hall!)

Anyway, I think it was October 2003 (I'm a little hazy on this... it was definitely during a school half term holiday, not a Christmas Easter or Summer one, but I can't remember which... and I might have gotten the year wrong!) I was close enough to observe a very amusing scene. Newly married couples would go up in their wedding regalia to get a blessing from the Pope. The instruction was that they should kneel down on the kneeler provided, get their blessing and walk off.

One bride knelt down but she wanted to touch the Holy Father as well, and held out her hand to him. I saw quite clearly, much to the annoyance of the officials, that the Holy Father responded by reaching out and touching the bride's hand. She was overjoyed, but her spouse had been far more conventional, and had already moved off by this point... so she moved off after him, grabbed him and nipped back to the side of the Holy Father's chair, where both of them got a special blessing as a reward for her perseverance!

There's Some Other Vote Going On, Apparently...

It seems that, although my cat post opinion poll is definitely a trending topic among the more discerning members of the Catholic Blogosphere (His Hermeneuticalness actually admitted that it had featured during a lunch he'd attended), there seems to be some sort of referendum being held next week in England. Or it might be the whole UK. Or something.

Something to do with how votes are counted...

I'm afraid that I know little about it, and care less. I will vote - I'm just not yet sure what my vote will be. Either I'll vote "yes" to AV for my first choice and "no" as my second... or I might do it the other way around...

This "explanatory" video did make me smile though...

Feedback...

I've put a little poll in the sidebar, as I'm interested to discover whether or not I do too many cat-related posts, according to my readers, that is....

The poll is open until 6 May.

An Unfortunate Trip Down Memory Lane...

I genuinely forget how old I am.

What I really mean is that I remember how old I am when I stop to work it out, but I actually have to stop to work it out. I only remember that I am well into middle-age when I refer to something which happened "a few years ago" and the reaction of my listeners reminds me that "a few years ago" was probably before they were born.

I had one of those moments last night.

I'd read a friend's facebook status, and a link she'd put up reminded me of various songs I used to listen to. We then chatted on Skype, and I showed her one of my favourite old albums.

Her face was an absolute picture... "Oh wow!" she exclaimed in total amazement, "that's a... wow! an actual music cassette!!"

*sigh*

I now feel like a museum piece...

Very Odd Indeed...

It really is extremely odd. For some reason, over 30% of my visitors came to my blog today after doing a Google search for "chicken"...

Why did the punk rocker cross the road? Because he was stapled to the chicken.

A commenter alerted me to the fact that the previous chicken picture I posted was a foreigner to these shores, so, to keep John of Hayling happy, here's a more local variant - the Buff Orpington...

And, in an attempt to be helpful, a few more chicken varieties...

Roast...

Baby...

And Nugget...

Heheheheheh...

The Exsultet...

As promised, here's the recording of the Exsultet I made at the Easter Vigil in Blackfen... There's not much to see...

I missed recording the start of the chant because I was distracted by the misbehaviour of the Paschal Candle (it refused to stay lit) until it was taken into the sacristy to be trimmed a bit. It reappears at 1:45 or thereabouts...

The True Cross...

On Good Friday I was very blessed to be able to venerate a relic of the True Cross.

Please don't quote that hoary old chestnut about all the relics of the True Cross making enough for a forest. It's a lie. Actually there's not even enough to make one. Oh, and the Church's Tradition was right about the bones of St. Peter being under St. Peter's, and they found the bones of St. Paul just where the Church had always said he was, so I'm happy to accept what she says about the Cross as well...

Happy Easter..!

My two kittens wanted to wish me a Happy Easter when I was putting up the post about the Easter Vigil at Blackfen. I am sure that it had nothing to do with the big Easter Egg I had just unwrapped...

They weren't even slightly amused when they discovered that cats shouldn't be given any chocolate...

Catholic Bloggers & The Easter Bunny...

If Easter is all about the Bunny, let's wait three days and see if lil' Thumper here resurrects...


A mantilla-twitch in the direction of Fr. Jay, who posted that one four years ago...

And now, meet the Easter Bunny...


Another mantilla-twitch to the Pastor in Valle, who posted the second photo two years ago.

Catholic Bloggers tend to have a sick sense of humour when it comes to the Easter Bunny...

Easter Vigil At Blackfen

The Easter Vigil at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, is beautiful. Because Easter is so late this year, although the sun had officially set fifteen minutes before the start of the Vigil, there was still quite a bit of twilight. I had a major panic as I started to take photos - the display screen appeared to have switched off, and I thought I'd broken my beloved camera. Fortunately, through much pressing of random buttons, I managed to get things going again.

Things weren't just going wrong for me... the Paschal Candle had a very thin wick this year, and it wouldn't stay alight... the MC had to take it into the sacristy for a rapid wax trim. That seemed to do the trick. I wasn't surprised - when last year's Paschal Candle arrived in various pieces through careless postage and packaging, Gregory did a makeover on the previous year's candle, which saved the day.

Fr. Tim chanted the Exsultet, which I managed to catch on video - though I missed the first minute or so because I got distracted by the shenanigans with the Paschal Candle. I shall put up the video as soon as I've uploaded it to YouTube.

The servers had fun once again with the bell-ringing. I gather that one of the servers actually brought a couple of bells from home in order to be sure of getting one to ring!

Once the lights went on, the statues were unveiled and the flowers brought out, the church looked beautiful. The choir sang for all they were worth, and it was magnificent.

Once again, you can see a selection of photos on my Flickr pages.

Kitten Capers...

My two kittens have very different temperaments. Monsignor Miaowrini loves to go out - at the moment, with the gorgeous weather we're having, she's out almost all day. Yesterday she was entranced by a squirrel (according to one of my neighbours, whose flat looks out onto the garden) and, not yet able to climb the fence (Miaowrini is just the clumsiest kitten I've ever encountered) she followed it along the bottom of the fence right the way to the back of the garden until the squirrel escaped over the garages.

I was tired after the Good Friday liturgy, and fell asleep on the sofa at about 7pm. I awoke at midnight, and realised that Miaowrini was still out gallivanting. I called her a few times, but there was no reply. I did some washing up, steeling myself to go out hunting for her mangled corpse if she didn't return by the time I finished...

She came in through the cat flap just as I put the last plate away. She did her best to look nonchalant and innocent of all wrong-doing, but the smudge of what looked suspiciously like oil on her nose suggested that she had been up to no good...

Monsignor Furretti, on the other hand, really doesn't seem to like going out. I think she has had a run-in with a neighbouring cat - the same one that knocked Sylvester off the top-cat perch. Of course, it could just be that it is really very hot out, and Furretti is a black, long-haired cat. I pushed her out through the cat flap this morning to encourage her to go outside (she was eyeing the litter tray in a speculative way) but, after two minutes of her looking plaintive on the ledge, I relented and let her back in. I stroked her fur as she passed me, and was shocked at how hot her coat had become.

She much prefers lounging around inside, preferably on the table next to the computer (when I'm on  the computer) or on top of the computer monitor. Occasionally I wonder if she's worried I'll leave her - she was a rescue kitten, and was abandoned at the age of 4 months.

Anyway, I went out just before lunchtime, and, on my return, I thought I'd have a look in the garden to see if the kittens were out. They were both in the bushes round the side of the block. I stood at the garden end and called them down, and the two kittens came to see what I was up to...

They seem contented enough. I'll post more soon...

Good Friday...

I thought I'd try a photo of the High Altar in a sepia tone, because it looked so stark and bare. I like the sepia tone - black and white seems less effective (although I think black and white works better for portrait shots - one of the only pictures of myself that I like is a black and white photo!)

I found myself in tears during the veneration of the Cross. The choir sang O sacred head ill-used, which is one of my favourite hymns. Fr. Tim Finigan is seen here, creeping to the Cross in stockinged feet, along with Michael Baldry, our deacon...

A few more photos can be seen on my Flickr page.

Maundy Thursday...

The Maundy Thursday services at Blackfen yesterday were awesome. We had Mass in the Extraordinary Form, followed by Vespers, and then there was watching until midnight at the Altar of Repose...

My memory appears to be going AWOL... I was sure that last year we didn't celebrate Vespers, but Jonathan Hague, Blackfen's Senior MC, assured me that we did exactly the same last year!

The altar servers appear to have had great fun ringing the bells at the Gloria...

The Mandatum...

The choir were in good voice, though sadly our Choir Mistress, Brenda, was in hospital...

And the Altar of Repose was truly beautiful, thanks to the work of Hilda, our Sacristan...

You can see more Maundy Thursday photos on Flickr.

UPDATE: I have just looked at last year's post about Holy Week, and realised that Jonathan was absolutely correct in his assertion that we had Vespers as well... In my defence, there was a lot going on that week (like my car breaking down in a pretty catastrophic manner!) and so I've probably blotted the entire week from my memory as a way of preserving my sanity...

Something Strange...

For some reason I am getting an influx of hits from different people searching for images of chickens...

Hmmm. Must be nearly Easter.