Ad Multos Annos, Fr. Jonathon...

Today I was privileged to attend the Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of Fr. Jonathon Routh at Our Lady, Help of Christians, Folkestone.

It was a wonderful occasion. I had a brilliant vantage-point from which to take a few photos (I had been asked to sing the Ave Maria at Communion, and it was easier to stay up in the organ loft.) Part of the Sanctuary was out of my line of sight, but I think I got a few pretty good shots, a selection of which are shown here. The rest will (eventually) find their way onto my Flickr account.

First of all, the candidate for Ordination is called and presented, with the Rector of St. John's Seminary, Monsignor Jeremy Garrett, declaring that he had been found worthy for service as a priest...

The promise of obedience to the Ordinary, Archbishop Peter Smith...

The Litany of the Saints...

The laying on of hands...

Fr. Roger Nesbitt then invested Fr. Jonathon with stole and chasuble, which had been brought up by Fr. Jonathon's parents...

Fr. Jonathon's hands are anointed with the oil of Chrism...

And Archbishop Peter Smith presents Fr. Jonathon with the paten and chalice...

One of the deacons looked as if he was going to knock out the Archbishop with the thurible... despite this, the Archbishop didn't flinch at all...

Fr. Jonathon told me afterwards that he found the raising of the torches at the Elevation of the Host and Chalice to be extremely moving...

I'd just like to offer my congratulations to Fr. Jonathon, and to wish him many happy years of faithful service.

Success... (Possibly!)

Monsignor Furretti does not appear to have used the litter tray for a few days. She did go and kick the litter around a bit the last time I changed it - I can tell because it's in a neat pile to one side of the tray - and she may have peed in it so as to mark it as "hers," but she hasn't deposited anything more noxious.

She has been eating well, so, unless she is monumentally constipated, I can probably assume that she now goes out into the garden to do the necessaries...

This is a great relief to me. as I was beginning to wonder whether I should invest in a gas mask.

I suspect that the stag beetle hunting season is now over for this year. Either that or stag beetles are finally extinct in south-east London. Monsignor Miaowrini appears to have turned her attention to mice... (I'm hoping that blackbird and pigeon are off the menu for the time being!) Furretti doesn't appear to bring stuff home - though she's happy to play with whatever Miaowrini drags in.

I know a lot of people say that their cats bring them dead rodents as "presents." Sylvester certainly did, and he even brought me the occasional live offering. I thought Miaowrini was doing the same thing (only she doesn't seem to kill her prey) and would do my best to rescue her captives. It would appear that my swiping of her trophies has not gone down well... the last two times Miaowrini brought a mouse home, she took one look at me approaching, promptly picked the mouse up and ran off with it back out through the catflap.

Strangely enough, I don't feel inclined to upbraid her for her selfish attitude...

A New Definition Of Patience...

This really made me laugh for about 10 seconds. After that, I wanted to wring the pigeon's neck. How the cat managed to show such restraint beats me. My two hooligans wouldn't have shown such forbearance...

UPDATE: Ok, YouTube pulled the video for some reason. It was a pigeon or parakeet or some such feathered thing which wouldn't leave a snoozing kitty alone. The cat just did its best to ignore the bird, pushing it away gently. Like I said, I wanted to wring the bird's neck, it was that irritating. I saw the video on I Can Has Cheezburger? If you are curious as to why I didn't just delete the post rather than explaining the absent video, well, posts on Blogger exist in the ether even if they've been deleted, unless you over-write them, and I wasn't going to find another post to go with the title any time soon...

Happy Fourth Of July...

I guess that all my transatlantic readers (you know who you are, all four of you!) will be celebrating today (well, what's left of it... I'm a bit snowed under today!)

One of the most amusing posts for an ignoramus such as myself is the one by Vincenzo - three You Tube cartoons to explain what all the fuss is about. I think I like this one best...



...though I'm not sure about "the pursuit of happiness" ! Go over to Vincenzo's for the other two...

Returning To The Socks Motif...

Jonathan, Blackfen's senior MC, likes to make sure that the servers do not wear inappropriate attire on the Sanctuary. This includes an insistence on plain black socks, as one of our servers discovered last year...

Apparently James, Chislehurst's MC, is rather less strict. He occasionally plays the organ at Blackfen (extremely well, I might add) for weddings, funerals and other occasions when our usual organist is otherwise engaged. He was playing for the wedding on Saturday, and proudly showed off his red socks...

I persuaded him to run through the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria with me once the congregation had left - I'm singing it at an Ordination next week, and need all the practice I can get! I was delighted to find that I hit the top A without any trouble (I was a bit squeaky when I practiced it at Wonersh last week, but then I hadn't sung anything high for ages...)

On the subject of weddings, the one on Saturday was celebrated ad orientem, and I have to say that, from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the setup is much, much better than the versus populum one...

Shame about the chairs. Now, if Fr. Tim could just get some backless stools for the bride and groom, it would be absolutely perfect...

The Truth Behind China's One-Child Policy...

Back in April, I wrote a short post on the shameful silence of so-called "pro-choice" organisations (such as Marie Stopes) on the enforcement of the one-child policy in China.

Reggie Littlejohn posted a link in the com-box to a video report she'd made on the forced abortions and sterilisations happening in China. I felt that it deserved a wider audience, so I'm giving it a post of its own...

Lesnes Abbey Procession...

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

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

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

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

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

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

The beginning of the procession...

The procession goes round the park...

Benediction was given by Bishop Pat Lynch...

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

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

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

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

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

Corpus Christi

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

 

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

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

Blogging Blues...

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

At least, not this week...

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

Seriously, I just ran out of blogging steam.

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

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

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

A Eucharistic "Flash-Mob"...

I'm not entirely sure about this...



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Time For Prayers...

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

I'm with Bara Brith on this one.

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

First Catch Your Pigeon...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twitch of the mantilla to Red Maria.

I May Have Visitors...

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

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

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

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

Just Because You're Paranoid...

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

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

Oh really?

A spokesman from Westminster Cathedral?

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

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

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

St. Anthony Does It Again...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do pay them a visit.

Some Of You People Are Seriously Sick...

That's assuming my stats are correct.

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

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

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

A Few More Photos From Lourdes...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dean Peyramale has a statue outside the church...

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

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

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