Roses and Jessamine

Feeling Bloggoflattened (new verb)

2009-09-18T01:32:00.001+01:00

... work it out.

Film Night

2009-09-12T01:01:00.002+01:00

MALENA

Set in World War II, filmed in 2001.

Parish film night this Wednesday 16th September 2009 7:30 p.m. ~ usual place; sign up at the church entrance

Fundraising for St Mary Magdalen's Building Project

Nobody reads your blog unless...

2009-09-12T00:53:00.001+01:00

... you read others. So it's symbiotic and inter-relational.

Blog Hiatus Oct 2008-2009

2009-09-12T00:17:00.001+01:00

Sometimes it's nice to have some time off... but it's calling me again.

one of those memes

2008-10-30T00:32:00.005Z

1. Where is your cell phone? Insignificant.
2. Where is your significant other? Significant.
3. Your hair color? Brunette.
4. Your mother? Alive.
5. Your father? Dead.
6. Your favorite thing? Mass.
7. Your dream last night? Surreal.
8. Your dream/goal? Heaven.
9. The room you’re in? Lounge.
10. Your hobby? Singing.
11. Your fear? Publicity.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here.
13. Where were you last night? Home.
14. What you’re not? Humble.
15. One of your wish-list items? Humility.
16. Where you grew up? Europe.
17. The last thing you did? Blogged.
18. What are you wearing? Boots.
19. Your TV? Plasma.
20. Your pet? Chihuahuas.
21. Your computer? Fast.
22. Your mood? Philosophical.
23. Missing someone? Jesus.
24. Your car? What?
25. Something you’re not wearing? Anorak.
26. Favourite store? Waitrose.
27. Your summer? Indian.
28. Love someone? Yes.
29. Your favourite colour? Aquamarine.
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today.
31. Last time you cried? Sunday.

Tagging Joe Versus The Volcano...

The rules are to answer the questions with one word only.

Thanks to Maggie Clitheroe for the meme.

widows and Gandhi

2008-10-29T21:48:00.006Z

Parish Film Night ...

WATER

Wednesday 12th November
7:30 p.m.
same place

Sign up on the list at the church entrance

Pray for England

2008-09-24T19:28:00.005+01:00

Prayers to Our Lady of Walsingham

[Photography by Lawrence OP]

HFE Bill update

2008-09-24T16:39:00.013+01:00

In our society, the vulnerable are being sacrificed for the sake of the strong.

~ Dr. Peter Saunders, General Secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, and Director of the Care Not Killing Alliance.

Anything could happen in the HFE Bill scenario ... The most important thing to do now is pray.

~ Countess Josephine Quintavalle, co-founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE)

This [HFE] Bill needs to be totally redrafted within an ethical framework.

~ Dr Louise Brown, Public Policy Consultant for Christian Concern for Our Nation (CCFON)

The name of the [HFE] Bill does not reflect the fact that it is about family, not embryology.

~ Rebecca Bensted, MA Law (Cam), advisor to the Family Law Review now undertaken by the Centre for Social Justice and committee member of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship

The House reconvenes on October 6th. It is likely the Third Reading and Report Stage of the HFE Bill will be scheduled for debate soon after - any time from October 13th onwards. This is now a crucial time to influence your MP.

It is overly cynical and naive to think that MPs are unconcerned about losing/gaining constituents now. The Crewe, Nantwich and Glasgow East By-Election defeats were devastating for Labour. The forthcoming Glenrothes by-election in Scotland, expected late October/early November, will be crucial to Gordon Brown's credibility. Combined with a possible leadership contest with David Miliband and/or James Purnell, MPs cannot afford to further alienate public opinion.

23 amendments have been laid for the Third Reading/Report Stage of the HFE Bill to date. Some are pro-life and pro-family; many are not. More amendments could be laid at the last minute, as late as on the day of the reading. It is unlikely all will be 'moved' for debate and voting - there are too many amendments and not enough time. It is up to the Speaker of the House, Michael Martin, whether they are moved. Therefore, it is important to focus on the most contentious issues of the Bill and contact your MP now.

What You Can Do:

Find out your MP's voting record
Write to your MP about the Bill
Arrange a meeting with your MP to discuss - find out what day of the week their Local Surgery is held. Email your MP or phone the Commons switchboard 020 7219 3000.
Download this briefing pack and more info on the amendments
Write to Gordon Brown BROWNG@parliament.uk asking him to permit free votes on every part of the HFE Bill (withdrawing the Whip)
Sign this petition
Spread the word: Facebook it, email it, talk about it
Pray

[Photography by Catherine]

let's meet up

2008-09-22T18:03:00.005+01:00

Blognic tomorrow in London: Tuesday 23rd September, 6-8 pm, with Fr. Z:

Details here

Providentially coinciding with the HFE Bill Conference 10am -4pm

Hope to see you there.

caged birds can sing

2008-09-19T22:21:00.008+01:00

Parish movie night again:

THE CHORUS (Les Choristes)

Wednesday 1st October 2008
Same place; same time 7:30 p.m.

Sign up on the list at the church entrance

A must-see film.

Next film night here.

Who Would You Be In A.D. 1400?

2008-09-17T23:19:00.007+01:00

Your result for The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test ...

The Prioress
You scored 13% Cardinal, 69% Monk, 53% Lady, and 41% Knight!

You are a moral person and are also highly intellectual. You like your solitude but are also kind and helpful to those around you. Guided by a belief in the goodness of mankind you will likely be christened a saint after your life is over.
You scored high as both the Lady and the Monk. You can try again to get a more precise description of either the Monk or the lady, or you can be happy that you're an individual.

Take the test

Thanks Aussie Coffee Shop

Madonna Lactans

2008-09-09T08:11:00.005+01:00

Galaktotrofousa (Madonna Lactans)

Monastery of St Heracles

Troodos mountains, Cyprus

Photography by jandudas, 2008

Maria Bambina

2008-09-08T16:23:00.007+01:00

Hail, Infant Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou forever, and blessed are thy holy parents Joachim and Anne, of whom thou wast miraculously born. Mother of God, intercede for us.

We fly to thy patronage, holy and amiable Child Mary, despise not our prayers in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, glorious and blessed Virgin.

Pray for us, holy Child Mary.

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O almighty and merciful God, Who through the cooperation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of the Immaculate Infant Mary that she might be the worthy Mother of Thy Son, and didst preserve her from all stain, grant that we who venerate with all our hearts her most holy childhood, may be freed, through her merits and intercession, from all uncleanness of mind and body, and be able to imitate her perfect humility, obedience and charity. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

[image: Maria Bambina, Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity, Milan]

find out more

2008-09-08T15:53:00.007+01:00

One-Day Conference -

The Human Fertilisation & Embryology Bill: Understanding the Latest Developments; How We Can Combat Them

Tuesday 23rd September 2008
London

Details here

jail for advising against abortion

2008-09-08T15:21:00.005+01:00

Pregnancy advice centres, nurses, doctors and midwives in the UK could face prosecution and a two-year prison sentence if they convince a woman to forgo an abortion, under proposed amendments to the HFE Bill.

Tabled by John Bercow, MP for Buckingham (Conservative), the amendment, if passed, will make it a criminal offence for a crisis pregnancy centre to advertise that it provides abortion-related services if it does not recommend having an abortion.

Other amendments to the Bill proposed by Dr Evan Harris, Lib Dem MP for Oxford & Abingdon, include the abolition of the right to conscientious objection by doctors and pharmacists wishing to refuse to prescribe or dispense contraception, including the morning after pill.

The good news is some MPs are putting forward pro-life amendments as well. See here.

At this crucial stage, write to your MP urging him or her to vote against the Bercow and Harris proposals and in favour of the pro-life amendments.

The HFE Bill Report Stage and Third Reading are scheduled for October.

call for justice

2008-09-06T10:59:00.009+01:00

Senator Joe Biden has called for the full withdrawal of Turkish troops from Northern Cyprus, the Kathimerini reports.

Barack Obama's running mate said the continued Turkish occupation of the island was an "anomaly".

The bold statement is bound to please Greek-American and Cypriot-American voters, numbering 1.2 million in a 2001 census, and throw a cat amongst the pigeons in the murky waters of Turkish-NATO relations.

While John McCain fobbed off a reporter in June as to why he did not sign a letter, along with 73 other senators (including Obama), urging President Bush to publicly support the religious freedom of minority Greeks living in Constantinople, the Democrats have stuck their necks out.

Obama's stance on abortion is problematic for Catholics, but in the Greek Orthodox-Islamic scenario, who is closer to Rome?

This week in Rome, the Holy Father received a programme from the Community of Sant'Egidio organised in conjunction with the Archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostom II, to hold an event titled "The Civilisation of Peace: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue" in Cyprus this November. The community holds the event annually to keep alive the spirit of the World Day of Prayer called by Pope John Paul II. Last year's event in Naples was attended by Benedict XVI.

[Image of Cypriot prisoner of war: fortunecity]
[Map of Cyprus: Commonwealth Secretariat]

it's that dawkins thing again

2008-09-04T18:44:00.023+01:00

Meme from Aussie Coffee Shop:

"Where were you and what were you doing at...?"

1. JFK's Assassination 22/11/1963
Floating around the universe, unborn. Hmm, this raises ontological questions...
2. England vs Germany World Cup Semi-Final 4/7/1990
Northern Ireland: worrying about my university graduation ceremony the next day; having supper at a restaurant with my friends and our respective parents. What's the World Cup?
3. Margaret Thatcher's Resignation 22/11/1990
Brighton, East Sussex: working and living in a boarding school for well brought up young ladies. Caught the late-night news and thought: "Good."
4. Princess Diana's Death 31/8/1997
Tokyo, Japan: came home from work and stared at the TV images trying to decipher the Japanese, then called to my husband, who was cooking, "I think Diana's dead." "No way!" he said, and rushed out. We sat there for ages, stunned, and talked conspiracy theories.
5. Attack on Twin Towers 9/11/2001
Larnaca, Cyprus: on holiday. When I turned on the TV I thought it was a low-budget movie at first. But the footage was on a loop and there was no commentary, just an eerie soundless scene while the news station waited for more information. Time stood still. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I knew the world would be different after that.
6. Election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the Papacy 19/4/2005
Brighton, East Sussex: at home, preparing supper for a guest, TV on. When the announcement came, I made the sign of the cross and said: "Thanks be to God". Then the bells of our parish rang wildly like wedding bells. All that week the flag of St. Peter hung outside our church. Mood: buoyant.

I'm tagging Elena Maria Vidal - Tea at Trianon, Maggie Clitheroe - Don't Know What I'm Doing, The Crescat, Bara Brith and Epiphany of Faith.

[Image: beusse.net]

a simple natural phenomenon

2008-09-03T08:04:00.006+01:00

"Keep in mind the theory of natural formation according to which there are no superficial impressions", says Fr. Gianfranco Berbenni, titular professor of Science and Theology in the Face of the Holy Shroud at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University Master's degree programme in Science and Faith ~ Zenit reports.

The Holy Father announced three months ago that the Holy Shroud will be put on solemn exposition in the spring of 2010 to foster "a more attentive contemplation of the Passion of Christ".

Time to book a flight to Italy?

we've come a long way...

2008-09-03T06:49:00.005+01:00

Irrefutable evidence to counter Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

... since victoriana

2008-09-03T06:12:00.006+01:00

Brighton Beach has, among other joys and woes, several second-hand book stalls where I picked up this book last week for £2.50. Apart from 'really useful' tips like one should never use a knife on asparagus, and when accompanying ladies who express a wish for refreshment, it is not necessary to select a very expensive restaurant or confectioner's (?), Mrs. Humphrey also advises: "The small minority are those who regard church services in their true light as lifting the thoughts above earthly things and yet by no means unfitting them for earth. Where, for instance, could a better law of good manners be found than in the Book of Books? A glance at the end of the fourth chapter of Ephesians will show a code of conduct that, if followed, would make a man a perfect member of society."

Mulier Fortis's lunch date might want to read it and take a few tips.

heart of Teresa

2008-08-26T15:31:00.004+01:00

St. Teresa of Avila

sculpture

Convent of Santa Teresa, Avila de los Caballeros, Spain

Photograph by Hakan Svensson, 2004

gifts

2008-08-22T14:26:00.006+01:00

Mac has kindly nominated me for the Blogging Friends Forever (BFF) Award in the Recently New Category.

I'm rather chuffed. The last time I won something was ABBA's Super Trouper album in a newspaper competition (I was 10).

So...as instructed by Mac, I nominate, in alphabetical order:
Adrienne's Catholic Corner, All The Little Epsilons, Don't Know What I'm Doing, Ecce Mater Tua, and The Roving Medievalist.

The Blogging Friends Forever Rules are:1. Only five people allowed.2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.3. One has to be someone new, or recently new to your blog, or live in another part of the world.4. You must link back to whoever gave you the 'Blogging Friends Forever' award.

parish party

2008-08-20T17:56:00.010+01:00

Parish BBQ
Sunday 7th September 2008
7:30 p.m. at the Community Centre

£6 a head.
All welcome.

Errandum: It starts at 6pm.

Babette's Feast

2008-08-20T13:12:00.010+01:00

Another parish movie night next week. The last one involved spirited discussions over whether Mel Gibson intended a US world domination allegory, and how water was a recurring image as a purifying force. I love our parish.

This time: BABETTE'S FEAST. Next Wed 27/8/08 7:30 p.m. same place. Sign up in the church.

Based on a short story by the Dane Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) of Out of Africa fame, whose life is a book in itself. Her father had lived among the Chippewa tribe in 19th century Wisconsin and sired a daughter before returning to Denmark. When Karen was 9, he hanged himself after being diagnosed with syphilis. The tragic irony is Blixen contracted syphilis from her philandering husband, the coffee plantation farmer Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, and was to suffer with symptoms all her life, and with anorexia nervosa. After her divorce, her well-documented love affair with The Honourable Denys Finch Hatton, brother of the 14th Earl of Nottingham and Winchelsea, ended abruptly when he died in a plane crash. Blixen returned to Denmark penniless and began writing only at 46, in English. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature and highly respected by Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Arthur Miller and e.e. cummings.

In 1992, Fr. Angelo D'Agostino SJ, MD, founded The Nyumbani Orphanage in the town of Karen, near Nairobi, Kenya - the location made famous by Blixen. The orphanage houses HIV+ children. Many of its volunteers come from Denmark, perhaps Blixen fans following her trail.

[Image: Nordiskfilm]

Next parish film night is here

i like my lamb pink

2008-08-20T12:01:00.007+01:00

Introducing Mint Sauce, my pet lamb in blogland. He was adopted yesterday from the (alas!) non-Catholic adoption agency Bunny Hero Labs. This photo shows the newborn Mint Sauce. He is now frolicking in his pasture in the sidebar. He has a voracious appetite and needs constant feeding. By clicking on 'More', he may be hand-fed. Will Mint Sauce grow? How long before he gets the chop?

Jeffrey's cat, Athelstan, over on The Roving Medievalist, is the least dextrous kitten I have ever seen. Try playing ball with him. Almost as maddening as the sound of Mint Sauce chomping.

God knows

2008-08-19T13:39:00.003+01:00

A friend of mine has foisted this book on me, perhaps thinking I could do with some theodicean instruction, but more likely to have something shared to talk about.

I'm a bit of a snob about paperback bestsellers, and highly suspicious of self-marketing 'prophets': read me! I'm an authoritative source of knowledge! (by the way, thanks for the cheque), but that's not to discount the entire field of publishing, research and writing. After all, if you have something to say, say it. Doesn't mean you're not talking cobblers.

I like not knowing everything. It gives me space to learn.

Jealousy of the Catholic Church

2008-08-19T12:42:00.003+01:00

The latest Carmelite martyr: a priest was tortured and killed on his way to celebrate Sunday Mass in Andhra Pradesh, India, Religious Intelligence reports.

Carmelite of Mary Immaculate Fr. Thomas Pandippallyil had celebrated Mass on Saturday night for the Sisters of the Chanda Mission. His body was found by the sisters the next day, his legs and hands crushed and his eyes pierced.

No group has claimed responsibility for the murder, although Hindu extremists are suspected.

"He did not die in vain because his body and his blood enrich the Church in India," Archbishop Joji of Hyderabad said. [Zenit]

We also have the hope of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest martyred at Auschwitz. In his words:

Courage, my sons, Don't you see that we are leaving on a mission? They pay our fare in the bargain. What a piece of good luck! The thing to do now is to pray well in order to win as many souls as possible. Let us, then, tell the Blessed Virgin that we are content, and that she can do with us anything she wishes.

[image: Religious Intelligence]

Amnos

2008-08-16T13:35:00.006+01:00

The Good Shepherd
c. 320-40 A.D.
ceiling fresco
Coemeterium Maius, near the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome

[Images around Christ, clockwise from the dexter ~ Adam & Eve; Moses striking the rock; Jonah under the gourds; a woman at prayer.]

Elvis lives

2008-08-16T11:03:00.009+01:00

It's the 31st anniversary of his death today

Nice to know Fr. Nicholas Schofield likes Elvis too.
I like the story that at the moment of his death, Elvis might have been reading about the Shroud of Turin in Frank O. Adams' A Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus, now held at the Catholic National Library at St. Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire.

where do you get your summer cotton from?

2008-08-15T23:27:00.006+01:00

According to an unpublished paper by University of Sussex economists, Sri Lanka could soon see a 4% drop in its clothing exports to Europe and an overall 2% drop in its GDP if it loses the trade concession known as 'GSP Plus', The Economist reports. In English, that means the poor will get poorer.

Awarded in 2005 to help rebuild the country after the devastating 2004 Tsunami, the GSP Plus is a preferential tariff agreement between Sri Lankan exporters and the EU. But strict EU rules on human rights, environmental and labour standards mean that the agreement is unlikely to be renewed after it expires this year, and Sri Lanka will suffer even more as a result.

With inflation already around 30% p.a., Sri Lanka cannot afford to re-house all its refugees (both war and Tsunami survivors) and fight a civil war at the same time, yet the fighting with the Tamil Tigers [LTTE] continues. Up to 75,000 people have fled their homes in northern Sri Lanka in the last two and a half months, according to a UN report [BBC News].

Where will all these people live? Europe cannot complain about migrating refugees and asylum seekers while we are effectively tying their hands against their own development.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has thrown out journalists from the war-torn areas, and is clamping down on visas for international NGO workers, accusing organisations like Save the Children of funding the Tamil Tigers. [Tamil Eelam News Services]

So if humanitarian aid organisations are not allowed to help, and our governments won't, how will all those homeless families, including the elderly, widowed women and orphaned children survive?

The Church can help.

[Image: 'Batticaloa' March 2,2005 by e.r.g.o]

one good reason to visit Barcelona...

2008-08-15T20:07:00.010+01:00

A friend of mine has just come back from a break in Barcelona and given me a precious medal of Our Lady of Montserrat (La Moreneta or Black Madonna).

Good timing. I need a medal.

Pic of Santa Cova or The Holy Grotto by epteamadv where the miraculous statue was found.

Bach's Ave Maria

2008-08-15T19:11:00.000+01:00

The Assumption

2008-08-15T17:46:00.007+01:00

EGID QUIRIN ASAM
Assumption of the Virgin (detail)
1717-25
Marble and stucco
Pilgrimage-church, Rohr, Bavaria

NICOLAS POUSSIN
The Assumption of the Virgin
1650
Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Paris

CORREGGIO
Assumption of the Virgin
1526-30
Fresco
Duomo, Parma

ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO
Our Lady of the Assumption with Sts Miniato and Julian
1450
Panel
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

BERNARDO DADDI
The Assumption of the Virgin
ca. 1340
Tempera on panel
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 - Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mozart's Requiem: Lacrimosa

2008-08-15T00:11:00.005+01:00

Lacrimosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce Deus, pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem! Amen!

That day of tears and mourning, when from the ashes shall arise all humanity to be judged. Spare us by your mercy, Lord, gentle Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest. Amen.

Thank You

2008-08-12T19:49:00.003+01:00

THANK YOU to everyone who gave their prayers, condolences, good wishes and kind thoughts for the repose of the soul of my father, interred today at Hove. Rest in peace.

I am particularly grateful to my priest and my fellow parishioners.

Santa Hilaria, ora pro nobis. Amen.

παντα ισχυω εν τω ενδυναμουντι με χριστω

Philippians 4:13

bereavement

2008-07-29T13:22:00.004+01:00

We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them to us.
Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we do not lose them by their return.
Not as the world gives, do you give, O lover of souls.
What you give you do not take away, for what is yours is ours also if we are yours.
And life is eternal and love immortal, and death is only an horizon, and an horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further;
cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly;
draw us closer to yourself that we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who are with you.
And while you prepare a place for us,
prepare us also for that happy place,
that where you are we may be also for evermore.

~ Bede Jarrett, OP

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Thank God for perfumers!

2008-07-25T20:12:00.011+01:00

A friend gave me a bottle of Floret for my birthday last week. I had never smelled it before and can best describe the smell as exquisite. It has top notes of sweet pea with underlying rose, tuberose and apricot, and a mysterious finish.

It was created, I now discover, to remind the perfumer of her childhood and the smell of her grandmother's garden...

It's my personal spikenard, received with thanks.

Proust, madeleines and memories

2008-07-25T19:06:00.005+01:00

And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before church-time), when I went to say good day to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of lime-flower tea. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it; perhaps because I had so often seen such things in the interval, without tasting them, on the trays in pastry-cooks' windows, that their image had dissociated itself from those Combray days to take its place among others more recent; perhaps because of those memories, so long abandoned and put out of mind, nothing now survived, everything was scattered; the forms of things, including that of the little scallop-shell of pastry, so richly sensual under its severe, religious folds, were either obliterated or had been so long dormant as to have lost the power of expansion which would have allowed them to resume their place in my consciousness. But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.

from Marcel Proust, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) Vol 1: Swann's Way, translated from the French by C.K. Scott Moncrieff (1922)

The Magdalene

2008-07-25T14:27:00.002+01:00

Gallery of St Mary Magdalen

Prayer to St Mary Magdalen by St Anselm

Catholicism is English too

2008-07-21T20:09:00.004+01:00

See Ed West's What Have ex-Anglicans Done For Us? [The Catholic Herald 18/7/08] for insight on prominent converts and their outstanding contribution to the Church in Britain.

one Greek island, love, marriage, Leonard Cohen and the rest...

2008-07-19T19:35:00.003+01:00

Milton a Puritan?

2008-07-19T18:45:00.005+01:00

The Adam and Eve Triptych
c. 1500
Text on Love from St. Paul, Corinthians I Chapter 13

Hail, wedded Love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring, sole propriety
In Paradise, of all things common else!

~ 'The First Love of Adam and Eve'
from Paradise Lost, John Milton (1608-1674)

Our Lady of the Angels

2008-07-19T15:41:00.005+01:00

some chuckly things

2008-07-19T14:39:00.004+01:00

the new Marianne?

2008-07-19T12:37:00.011+01:00

The handmade rosary on Ingrid Betancourt's right hand is prominent. The joy on the family's faces clear.

Betancourt's liberation from the Columbian jungle, after being held hostage by FARC insurgents for 6 years, is a strategic PR coup for President Nicolas Sarkozy.

While Sarkozy valiantly struggles to come back from being voted the most unpopular first-term president of France in 52 years, and is casting himself as peacemaker in the Israeli-Syrian theatre, the French-Columbian Betancourt could be a potent symbol for a new France: liberte et raison with a difference. This Marianne also has la foi.

Yet where is Mr. Betancourt a.k.a. Juan Carlos Lecompte in this family-faith scenario? The head of the family has been lopped off. Lecompte, who worked hard for his wife's release during her ordeal, told the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo of his fears that their marriage might be over. Betancourt went to France without him. [Associated Press]

It is unsurprising yet somewhat ironic that Betancourt was awarded - and accepted - the Knighthood of the Legion of Honour on Bastille Day, France's highest Order of Merit instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte...

[Image courtesy of the Huffington Post]

hope for Bastille

2008-07-16T20:36:00.003+01:00

The first martyrs of the French Revolution...

These 16 Carmelite nuns of Compeigne were guillotined for "crimes against the state" after kneeling and chanting the Veni Creator.

Still to be canonised, they need our prayers ... and we need theirs.

I like Roman Christendom's point on it.

i hear the rolling thunder

2008-07-16T19:47:00.001+01:00

one for the King...

birthday wish list

2008-07-16T18:09:00.004+01:00

the fantasy...

... and the reality

it's my party and i'll laugh if i want to

2008-07-16T10:30:00.005+01:00

For me tomorrow...

Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus

2008-07-15T15:30:00.004+01:00

Ave Verum Corpus, natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum immolatum in cruce pro homine. Cujus latus perforatum unda fluxit et sanguine, esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.

Hail The True Body, born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered sacrificed on the cross for mankind. Whose pierced side flowed with water and blood, let it be for us in consideration a foretaste of death.

right is might

2008-07-11T17:12:00.007+01:00

Hats off to Lillian Ladele, the council worker who dared to take local government to court over her right to refuse to perform gay marriages on the grounds of her Christian faith ... and won the case. [The Times]

What a courageous, outstanding woman. What a precedent this sets.

But the employment tribunal verdict might have come one day too late for Catholic and Muslim doctors wishing to exercise their right to conscientious objection on the grounds of their faith. The British Medical Association's AGM, held on 7-10 July, was to consider a proposal to remove doctors' rights to refuse to refer a woman for abortion. [LifeSiteNews]

Surely the BMA cannot fail to take the Ladele case into consideration now?

running scared

2008-07-11T16:42:00.004+01:00

The HFE Bill has been put on the shelf until October, Leader of the House Harriet Harman announced today. [The Universe]

Previously assigned a Final Report and Third Reading this Monday, July 14th, as reported here earlier, this astounding government turnaround comes in the run-up to by-elections in Glasgow East on July 24th.

Glasgow East, a Catholic stronghold, is likely to use the HFE Bill to vote Labour out, which would give Mr Brown a serious headache. By postponing final HFE debates until the autumn, the government is buying for time ... or running scared.

Or could it be that thousands of letters to MPs calling to oppose the Bill are working?

Brumel's Gloria

2008-07-08T15:36:00.000+01:00

there are heroes...

2008-07-08T15:09:00.005+01:00

God bless army chaplains like the Rev. Fr. Marcus Hodges in Basrah, Iraq.

At constant risk of injury or death, these priests put their life on the line to fulfill their ministry.

Writing in the New Statesman Faith Column, Fr. Marcus says: "[the chaplain] makes visible his membership of a kingdom of values and hope which he hopes will transcend the dirt and confusion that characterise armed conflict"

2008-07-08T14:40:00.003+01:00

Good Samaritans are alive and well. Two young women and possibly a third person stopped to help a 64-year-old man knocked down by a car in Gwent, Wales Online reports. The women tended to the man's hand injury, waited with him until the ambulance arrived, then disappeared...

if you can watch this and keep a straight face...

2008-07-03T17:13:00.002+01:00

... apply here for a medal.

this is what our MPs want...

2008-07-03T13:14:00.007+01:00

Prayer for the Unborn

thumbs up for haggis

2008-07-03T12:49:00.013+01:00

The English would do well to take a leaf out of the Scots' book, and follow in the footsteps of Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien, who has written to every MP to oppose the HFE Bill at Report Stage, ICN reports.

The proposed amendments to the Bill, if passed, will make abortion more easily available, allowing 'abortion on demand' - with the signature of only one doctor - and abortions performed by nurses and midwives.

Cardinal O'Brien said: "I would hate to think that as I myself grow older, I will look back at the passage of the legislation and ask myself whether or not I did everything possible to fight for the right to life of the unborn."

Write to your MP urging him or her to oppose the HFE Bill amendments at Report Stage. Quote from the Cardinal's letter here.

Report Stage and Third Reading of the HFE Bill have now been assigned to July 14th.

See Fr. Ray too.

it's a miracle

2008-07-03T12:34:00.005+01:00

Sign this petition to withhold Royal Assent to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill and let others know about it.
There are 1,326 signatures on it today.

skool's out

2008-07-03T11:45:00.006+01:00

Maroulla liked card games. I like the idea of this one for kids and big kids, teachers and parents.

blood is thicker than water

2008-07-02T19:30:00.008+01:00

Rest in peace to my aunt Maroulla [Little Mary], who died tonight in a Catholic old people's home. She was one of the first women to dare to ride her own Vespa in Cyprus ~ unprecedented on a Mediterranean island in the 1950s. She always wore her hair short and mannish, was fiercely outspoken, had a mathematical mind, and spent most of her life looking after her mother, Ioanna [Joanna] ~ my grandmother's sister. God rest their souls, and grant comfort to those who loved her and will miss her. Especially her nephew Andreas, friends Monica, Irma, and Panayiotis, and her cousin Liana.

Mahler 2 Resurrection

2008-07-02T16:52:00.001+01:00

The Excellence of Love

2008-07-01T13:29:00.007+01:00

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but have not love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor
and surrender my body to the flames,
but have not love,
I gain nothing.

Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.

Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies,
they will cease;
where there are tongues,
they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge,
it will pass away.
For we know in part
and we prophesy in part,
but when perfection comes,
the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child,
I talked like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man,
I put childish ways behind me.
Now we see but a poor reflection;
then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain:
faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.

St. Paul, I Corinthians 13:1-13

Work Wanted by An Extraordinary Woman

2008-07-01T10:28:00.014+01:00

If you have any special prayer intentions, or need a miracle worked, ask for the intercession of Mother Magdalen Taylor (1832-1900), who is now up for beatification. Saints in the making welcome jobs to do.

Heavenly Father, you chose Mother Magdalen Taylor to found the Poor Servants of the Mother of God to serve the poor and needy. While on earth she never failed to respond to those in distress, so confident of her intercession I pray you to grant me this favour ......... which I ask in the name of Jesus, your Son. Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

If you receive the favour, please communicate this in writing to Sr. B. McCarthy SMG, St. Gabriel's Convent, 7 Pembridge Square, London W2 4ED - to help the cause for beatification.

Elena Maria Vidal has some info on Mother Magdalen's historical novel Tyborne, about the English martyrs and Catholic life under penal laws, while Ruth Gilpin Wells' biography, A Woman of Her Time and Ours: Mary Magdalen Taylor SMG, is available by mail order from Andmeister Books London.

Ave Maria Habemus Papam

2008-06-28T20:41:00.002+01:00

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour

2008-06-28T19:37:00.005+01:00

also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help
and Theotokos of the Passion [Eastern Rite]
ca. 13th or 14th Century
Prayer to Our Lady

sea star

2008-06-28T19:21:00.001+01:00

Salve Regina

2008-06-28T19:16:00.000+01:00

unus cornus

2008-06-25T14:26:00.010+01:00

Woman and Unicorn
ca. 1470
Robinet Testard
illustration (vellum) from De medicinis simplicibus, Matthaeus Platearius
National Library, St. Petersburg, Russia / The Bridgeman Art Library

Virgin and Unicorn
ca. 1602
Domenichino
fresco
Palazzo Farnese, Rome
The Lady and the Unicorn "To My Only Desire"
ca. 1484-1500
Paris/Netherlands
wool & silk tapestry
Musee Nacional Du Moyen Age

corazon

2008-06-25T12:49:00.003+01:00

Quien Fuera (Who would be) by Silvio Rodriguez (1946--)

pelican love

2008-06-25T12:07:00.004+01:00

Of all birds the pelican loves its young the most, but when the chicks grow and begin to strike their parents in the face, the parents grow angry and strike back, killing their young. After three days the mother feels great remorse, and tearing open her own breast she bathes the dead chicks in her blood and restores them to life.

~ Legend from the Physiologus (ca. 2nd Century A.D.)

Adoro Te

2008-06-21T20:21:00.002+01:00

because my will is simple as a window

2008-06-21T18:01:00.006+01:00

Because my will is simple as a window
And knows no pride of original birth,
It is my life to die, like glass, by light:
Slain in the strong rays of the bridegroom sun.

Because my love is simple as a window
And knows no shame of original dust,
I longed all night, (when I was visible) for dawn my death:
When I would marry day, my Holy Spirit:
And die by transsubstantiation into light.

For light, my lover, steals my life in secret.
I vanish into day, and leave no shadow
But the geometry of my cross,
Whose frame and structure are the strength
By which I die, but only to the earth,
And am uplifted to the sky my life.

When I became the substance of my lover,
(Being obedient, sinless glass)
I love all things that need my lover's life,
And live to give my newborn Morning to your quiet rooms,
-Your rooms, that would be tombs,
Or vaults of night, and death, and terror,
Fill with the clarity of living Heaven,
Shine with the rays of God's Jerusalem:
O shine, bright Sions!

Because I die by brightness and the Holy Spirit,
The sun rejoices in your jail, my kneeling Christian,
(Where even now you weep and grin
To learn, from my simplicity, the strength of faith).

Therefore do not be troubled at the judgements of the thunder,
Stay still and pray, still stay, my other son,
And do not fear the armies and black ramparts
Of the advancing and retreating rains:
I'll let no lightning kill your room's white order.

Although it is the day's last hour,
Look with no fear:
For the torn storm lets in, at the world's rim,
Three streaming rays as straight as Jacob's ladder:

And you shall see the sun, my Son, my Substance,
Come to convince the world of the day's end, and of the night,
Smile to the lovers of the day in smiles of blood;
For though my love, He'll be their Brother,
My light - the Lamb of their Apocalypse.

The Blessed Virgin Mary Compared to a Window, Thomas Merton (1944)

hart

2008-06-19T10:57:00.008+01:00

movie buffs ...

2008-06-18T20:35:00.009+01:00

Our parish is starting a Film Night (we have a great priest).

So to kick off, we're screening something nice and gentle that won't generate any arguments:

Mel Gibson's APOCALYPTO.

Starting next Wed 25th June at 8:00 p.m. at a parishioner's house. If you're in the parish, sign up on the list at the back of the church.

Otherwise, any film suggestions for a good Catholic debate?

Next Film Night is here.

"I am not young enough to know everything"

2008-06-18T18:04:00.007+01:00

Thanks to Peter Kreeft and friends for these:

1. Give God what's right -- not what's left.
2. Man's way leads to a hopeless end -- God's way leads to an
endless hope.
3. A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.
4. He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.
5. In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma--but never let him be the period.
6. Don't put a question mark where God puts a period.
7. Are you wrinkled with burden? Come to the church for a face-lift.
8. When praying, don't give God instructions - just report for duty.
9. Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.
10. We don't change God's message -- His message changes us.
11. The church is prayer-conditioned.
12. When God ordains, He sustains.
13. WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning.
14. Plan ahead -- It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
15. Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.
16. Suffering from truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.
17. Exercise daily -- walk with the Lord.
18. Never give the devil a ride -- he will always want to drive.
19. Nothing else ruins the truth like stretching it.
20. Compassion is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.
21. He who angers you controls you.
22. Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.
23. Give Satan an inch & he'll be a ruler.
24. Be ye fishers of men -- you catch them & He'll clean them.
25. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
26. Read the Bible -- It will scare the hell out of you.

+ 1 more from me, #27 Families that pray together stay together.

put me on a plane today and i would go to...

2008-06-18T13:13:00.006+01:00

Mantova, near Verona, northern Italy

This city produced, amongst other things, Blessed Osanna Andreasi (feast day today), Virgil, the Festivalletteratura ... and my maternal grandfather's family.
Pic of Blessed Osanna here.

A Sacred Relic of His Most Precious Blood is housed in the Basilica of San Andrea in Mantova.

beardy guy in robes moment

2008-06-18T12:29:00.005+01:00

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

~ Socrates
(470 B.C. - 399 B.C.)

what do they mean, 'characters'...?

2008-06-18T11:11:00.002+01:00

You know the Bible 95%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

it's not all nudist volleyball ...

2008-06-18T08:47:00.008+01:00

A friend of mine has gone to live in Sweden for 4 months (go figure), and I'm going to miss him. Apart from being an invaluable member of our parish - altar serving, teaching Gregorian Chant, and being an astute social commentator - he's just a kind lovable person. Sunday afternoons will not be the same without him.

He's going to stay at a Bridgittine convent for a while. St. Bridget was a pretty amazing woman for her time (14th century). She married a lord and bore him 8 children, one of whom became St. Catherine of Sweden. After her husband's death, she founded the Order of St. Saviour.

St Bridget prayed for a long time to know how many wounds Our Lord suffered in His Passion. Eventually, He appeared to her and said: "I received 5475 blows upon My Body. If you wish to honor them in some way, recite fifteen Our Fathers and fifteen Hail Mary with the following Prayers, which I Myself shall teach you, for an entire year. When the year is finished, you will have honored each of My Wounds."

Our Lord makes magnificent promises to those who are able to complete this devoutly. The 15 St Bridget Prayers

Our Lady of the Pillar

2008-06-17T14:32:00.003+01:00

La Ciudad Hermosa - Beautiful City

2008-06-17T13:51:00.005+01:00

No. 36 of a work of 40 songs by Rolando Cori Traverso entitled La Ciudad Hermosa (Beautiful City).
No. 36 is dedicated to the martyrs of the Nazi regime Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), Franz Reinisch, Karl Leisner, Maximilian Kolbe, and of the Spanish Civil War, María Pilar, Teresa and María Angeles ~ some of those beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.

HFE Bill Loop

2008-06-17T11:54:00.006+01:00

A loophole in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill could permit some reproductive cloning without the need for fresh primary legislation, the Government has admitted.

While the update to fertility law maintains the ban on creating cloned babies, it has inadvertently made it much simpler for ministers to overturn it. If a reproductive cloning technique could be shown to be suitable for preventing the birth of children suffering from a rare type of genetic disease, it could be cleared for clinical use without changing the statute book.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “This power can only be used to permit the practice of curing an embryo or an egg of a serious mitochondrial disease. The Government will not use this power to permit the practice of reproductive cloning.”
Read the full article here.
Sign this petition to HM the Queen to withhold Royal Assent to the HFE Bill.

Martini-style Health Care

2008-06-17T11:21:00.004+01:00

Every local Primary Care Trust in England has been told that it has to have at least one new “GP-led heath centre” as part of the review of the NHS being conducted by Lord Darzi of Denham. These will have family doctors and nurses working in teams, and perhaps also provide services such as pharmacy, dentistry and minor surgery, The Times reports.

The private sector is being encouraged to run these centres. Companies like Virgin, United Health and supermarket chains like Sainsbury's will be offered contracts to finance 'higher quality' services such as extended opening hours. The commercialisation means small doctor's surgeries would lose patients and might have to close.

The 'super-surgeries' or polyclinics could mean the end of family doctors. The Martini-style health care - anytime, anywhere, any doctor - means patients will see a different doctor every time and have to explain their history all over again, while shutting down local surgeries in rural areas means the elderly and the sick will have to travel long distances to receive health care.

Salus Populi Romani

2008-06-16T19:20:00.004+01:00

One of the oldest icons, said to have been written by the Apostle St. Luke
Now in St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome - built in the 4th Century A.D. in response to a miracle
Hodogetria style of icon ~ Our Lady of The Way, The Guide of the Church

camera trick or something spooky?

2008-06-16T18:28:00.005+01:00

Apparently, a still of an apparition of Our Lady of Medjugorje with a blue cross taken on 26 May 2008 at 3:09 p.m. [Photobucket]

Considering Our Lady is apparently in front of them, the people seem remarkably casual about it. One is chatting away (attention deficit?). Looks like they're sitting round the campfire.

Hmm...

Rachmaninoff's Ave Maria

2008-06-14T18:54:00.001+01:00

Pieta

2008-06-14T17:04:00.004+01:00

geddit, Mr Bush, geddit?

2008-06-14T15:14:00.008+01:00

Hortensia Serra Poveda was a 29 year-old woman nine months pregnant at the time of Franco's genocide during the Spanish Civil War.

She begged her captors to allow the baby to be born first so that he could be baptised, however they refused and the mother and baby were killed.

Poveda, along with with 249 other Valencian martyrs, are now up for beatification, the Holy See announced this week. [Zenit]

... well at least he's moved up a few steps...

2008-06-14T14:23:00.012+01:00

Vatican, Jun. 13, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI hosted US President George W. Bush at the Vatican on June 13 for an extraordinarily cordial private talk.

The President addressed the Pontiff as "your eminence"-- ... But in an earlier meeting with Pope Benedict just over one year ago, President Bush had addressed the Pontiff simply as "sir."

Where's Laura's mantilla?

Wild air, world-mothering air...

2008-06-14T10:41:00.004+01:00

WILD air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere,
That each eyelash or hair
Girdles; goes home betwixt
The fleeciest, frailest-flixed	5
Snowflake; that ’s fairly mixed
With, riddles, and is rife
In every least thing’s life;
This needful, never spent,
And nursing element;	10
My more than meat and drink,
My meal at every wink;
This air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,	15
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,	20
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet	25
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,	30
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.

The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe
Gerald Manley Hopkins, Poems. London: Humphrey Milford, 1918
See the final verse here

Japanese Madonnas

2008-06-14T09:13:00.004+01:00

By the Carmelite Sisters of Japan
Carmel of the Holy Trinity; 27-I, 3-chome; Motomachi, Jindaiji, Chofu-shi; Tokyo 182

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

2008-06-13T22:37:00.003+01:00

Romanian Chant - St Anthony the Hesychast

2008-06-13T22:00:00.008+01:00

He's holding what looks like a Rosary. It's a komvoskini (Gk.) or prayer rope. Similar.

Hesychasm
from the Greek, hesychasmos, or hesychia - stillness, silencing, silence, quietening, calming, calm

Domine Iesu Christe, Fili Dei, miserere mei, peccatricis. (peccatoris if prayed by a male)
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Isn't it nice when the PM writes to you personally?

2008-06-13T18:08:00.012+01:00

10 Downing Street tells me (and 10,744 others) in response to our last petition:

"The Prime Minister made clear that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill would be subject to free votes on three ethical issues - on whether human admixed embryos are permitted within the strict limits set out in the Bill, on the question of permitting 'saviour siblings' in the context of rare genetic conditions, and on changing the IVF requirements for clinics to require the 'need for supportive parenting' to be taken into account (this replaces the words in the 1990 Act that requires clinics to take account of 'the need for a father'). Any amendments tabled on abortion would also be subject to a free vote.

These issues have now been debated in the House of Commons, on 19 and 20 May, and the position in the Bill was upheld."

Thanks for letting us know. Like we didn't already. At least that petition actually worked.
Sign this petition to HM the Queen to withhold Royal Assent to the HFE Bill.

sucker for pop quizzes...

2008-06-13T16:52:00.008+01:00

Apparently, this is me:

You’re Origen!

You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears.

Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

I'm not sure I want to be Origen, but it looks like I'm stuck with him now.

Thanks to MaggieClitheroe, (St. Jerome) for the quiz link.

Weirdly, St Jerome and Origen were connected in real life.

This is a work of His mercy

2008-06-11T13:07:00.006+01:00

I entered into unknowing,
and there I remained unknowing
transcending all knowledge.

1. I entered into unknowing,
yet when I saw myself there,
without knowing where I was,
I understood great things;
I will not say what I felt
for I remained in unknowing
transcending all knowledge.

2. That perfect knowledge
was of peace and holiness
held at no remove
in profound solitude;
it was something so secret
that I was left stammering,
transcending all knowledge.

3. I was so 'whelmed,
so absorbed and withdrawn,
that my senses were left
deprived of all their sensing,
and my spirit was given
an understanding while not understanding,
transcending all knowledge.

4. He who truly arrives there
cuts free from himself;
all that he knew before
now seems worthless,
and his knowledge so soars
that he is left in unknowing
transcending all knowledge.

5. The higher he ascends
the less he understands,
because the cloud is dark
which lit up the night;
whoever knows this
remains always in unknowing
transcending all knowledge.

6. This knowledge in unknowing
is so overwhelming
that wise men disputing
can never overthrow it,
for their knowledge does not reach
to the understanding of not
understanding,
transcending all knowledge.

7. And this supreme knowledge
is so exalted
that no power of man or learning
can grasp it;
he who masters himself
will, with knowledge in
unknowing,
always be transcending.

8. And if you should want to hear:
this highest knowledge lies
in the loftiest sense
of the essence of God;
this is a work of his mercy,
to leave one without
understanding,
transcending all knowledge.

Stanzas Concerning An Ecstasy Experienced in High Contemplation
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D., and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. (Washington: ICS Publications, 1979)

The Pardon of St John Chrysostom

2008-06-10T22:18:00.002+01:00

Mattia Preti (1613-1699)
Italy
The Pardon of St. John Chrysostom, ca. 1640
Oil on canvas

Rachmaninoff's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom

2008-06-10T21:41:00.003+01:00

10th Sunday of the Year A

2008-06-08T19:28:00.006+01:00

I've got a bit of a psychological block with the Inland Revenue, and by extension, auditors, accountants, bankers, financial consultants, salesmen, estate agents, debt collectors and ... just about anyone whose lives revolve around money. I'm no hippy anarchist (a girl's got to have shoes sometimes ... and champagne) but the Mammon culture is one big yawnfest to me. I'd rather stick a pencil in my eye than have dinner with a man droning on about money. (Believe me, I've been there.) My teeth go into grind mode when I get accosted by those fluorescent-jacketed street-corner fundraisers who open their arms at you like democracy activists stopping tanks at Tianamen Square. They grin at you and say overfamiliar things like "C'mon, baby, talk to me!" Excuse me but did I miss the beginning of our friendship? Once one of these grinners shouted at me triumphantly: "I've found you!" I shot back: "You just lost me".

I haven't forgotten the utterly crushed look on that kid's face. I'm also thinking about that arms-wide-open crucifixion pose. Those money-collectors are saying give me your money, but they're also saying "hug me". I'm not sure I'd want to go that far, let's not get too Californian encounter group, however... a polite no and a smile won't hurt. A metaphorical hug. A recognition of the person's humanity. That's the hard part : giving to strangers, or those who do things one doesn't like (same thing). Once x becomes a block, it gets harder to see the human being. I said "lives [that] revolve around money" but you could say that about beggars, the homeless, the poor. Everyone needs hugs. Especially those who don't get hugged much.

God hugs us in Communion.