Our Lady of Mount Carmel- Pray for Us

This is undoubtedly my favourite Marian feast. Fr Gabriel in Divine Intimacy expresses its essence beautifully:

Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel indicates a strong call to the interior life, which, in a special way, is Mary's life. The Blessed Virgin wants us to resemble her in heart and mind much more than externals. If we penetrate into Mary's soul, we see that grace produced in her a very rich interior life: a life of recollection, prayer, uninterrupted giving of herself to God, and of constant and intimate union with Him. Mary's soul is a sanctuary reserved for God alone...

Those who wish to live truly devoted to our Lady of Mount Carmel, must follow Mary into the depths of the interior life. Carmel is the symbol of the contemplative life, of life wholly consecrated to seeking God and tending wholly towards divine intimacy; and she who best realises this very high ideal is Mary, Queen, Beauty of Carmel.

"Judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and justice shall sit in Carmel. And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness and security forever. And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence" Isaiah 32:16-18

Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Souls in Purgatory

Occasionally in Spain you will see a Carmelite nun nipping out of the convent to the chemist for medicines for her sisters. It is a sight that makes my heart beat faster. There is no colour on earth richer or more full of hope than the brown of the Carmelites.

More shorts

Currently I'm just enjoying the peace and quiet of rural existence. It is so quiet out here that your senses really do become more attuned to the movements of nature. There are times of quiet elation and joy in the stillness and beauty of it all. There is much to thank God for.



DH and I are really enjoying Taylor Marshall's podcasts on St Paul at the moment. I strongly recommend them to you. Yup I know it is the year for priests, but you're never really relieved of your duties to study Paul. The podcasts can be found here.

Husband is still unwell and being very let down by the health service, the delays in his treatment are nearly intolerable. I still remain undiagnosable, the GP has ended up saying I'll just have to learn to live with it, what ever it is. I'm nearly 6 foot and am struggling to keep my weight over 9 stone, my hands are still very painful and I know there is something amiss with my metabolism (the tiredness is chronic and has little to do with looking after DH). "Still it isn't life threatening, so get on with life".......so the doctor says. I'm offering my sufferings up for the priesthood....


The Year for Priests is so important. I wonder what you are dong for it? There are so many priests dear to me to pray for, at the moment I'm concentrating on one a week, but also saying a general prayer for all priests each day. Don't forget Bishops in your prayers.....and make a super human effort not to criticise them. Is there any way of letting priests know they are being prayed for......some anonymous card we could send them to let them know they are in our prayers and let them know their flock are faithful to the desires of the Holy Father?

Finally another physics based lolcat that made me laugh, this one may be going on my classroom wall.

Oxford odyssey

A not very good short story wot I wrote....


Margaret, I’ve enjoyed this little weekend coach holiday in Oxford, and if you weren’t now fast asleep next to me, I’d love to ask you what you thought. I think you enjoyed that farce at the Playhouse too much last night, you could hardly stay awake at Mass this morning. I wont wake you, we’ll probably be stopping at the Stafford services, you get a good kip in before then. Well, I’m glad you invited me, I haven’t been away since Frank passed on and this made a lovely change.

Oxford meant such different things to you and me. Though we were in the same class at school, you went to the right parish and the nuns at school were full of aspirations for you, filling you with thoughts of becoming a professional, a doctor or lawyer. I was at the “shawlee” parish, which to them meant Irish and ignorant, I had to work so hard to get into teacher training college with little or no encouragement. The irony is you found Thomas, married at 18 and had those wonderful boys of yours, including your Andrew who got into Oxford who you have been so proud of. So you rightfully have a claim on Oxford, it has memories for you. Me, teacher training in Liverpool and a lifetime teaching in the mill towns of Lancashire, marrying my Frank when I was close to retirement, having a few precious years with him and then….No, Oxford was for someone else, not me, nor any of the children that passed through my hands. Actually it brings out the old Labour socialist in me, but I won’t tell you that!

If those nuns are rustling their habits on some cloud up there, I wonder what they think of us, are they proud?. I can’t help remembering they ignored me in class because our Mam washed coal for a living, or that it how it felt to me as a schoolgirl.

Margaret, I really want to wake you up and talk about that Mass with you. I wonder what you made of it? When was the last time you saw three priests with birettas? Gosh what a sight, what reverence. Oh, and those altar boys….oh everything was just so right and so prayerful. I was nearly in tears, I was. I felt exhausted by the depth of prayer and closeness to God. I wonder what you felt?

The problem is it has got me thinking. I mean, I’m dreading my turn on the rota as Eucharistic Minister. I don’t want to do it anymore and I don’t know why. Father won’t be pleased, I’d be letting him down. But I can’t do it if it doesn’t feel right, can I?

Oh yes, and despite these knees, I’m going to genuflect properly once again, and get rid of that pathetic curtsey of mine, I can do better for Our Lord……

10 things...

The wonderful Mrs Pogle has circulated this meme and I've decided to join in, like her I'll open it up to anyone who is interested.

The "rules" are:
To keep this award, I must do the following:

1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
2) Share “ten honest things” about myself.
3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) Tell those 7 people that they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it.


The temptation, when it comes to me and my blog is to drop a significant consonant from the title, but I'll refrain.

(1) I have a Chinese name which means beautiful Cassia blossom
(2) I have one leg longer than the other which causes me to walk funny when I'm being too vain to wear my special insoles.
(3) I always wear a cheap perspex cross with a thorn embedded in it. The symbolism works on many levels.
(4) I have a weakness for military hardware and love military aircraft and ships.

(5) I like Strauss waltzes (and I've never admitted that to anyone before - there's real honesty for you)
(6) Scottish oatcakes, butter and marmalade ...what a treat!
(7) I'm allergic to asparagus
(8) I drive an N reg Rover 214 and am too attached to it, she's an old lady and the rust is getting such that I will need to replace her
(9) I cannot multitask, I can't even hold a conversation if the telly is on
(10)I would like to travel the length of the trans Siberian railway one day....

What about you?

A bit if a winge

I’ve been meditating on why it is so difficult to talk calmly and rationally with many good Catholic Americans about a cautions approach to Capitalism. So many think that is has to be the only way of doing anything, the only alternative being Socialism and this being intrinsically evil.

This is not intending to be a political post. I’m worried because some seem to hold the tenets of Capitalism closer to their hearts than their Faith. They use their Faith to justify their belief in Capitalism, they say “my Faith shows that Capitalism is the only valid economic process”. This is dangerous. Faith should never be used to justify any theory. It is absurd as using Faith to justify a particular theory in science as being better than another scientific theory. One place we end up in, if we go down that route is the academically unsatisfying backwater that is “Intelligent Design”. There is an embarrassing lack of academic rigour both for scientists and theologians in intelligent design, the Church is rightly sceptical of its merits. Incidentally, can it ever work the other way round, has anyone ever been brought to a deeper understanding of their Faith by wholehearted embracing of a political theory? Has anyone ever said “My wholehearted embrace of Capitalism/Socialism has deepened my faith, hope and charity”. Would you trust them if they did?

Now this I say, that every one of you saith: I indeed am of Paul; and I am of Apollo; and I am of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?
1 Cor 1:12-13

How can we be a “right wing Catholic” or a “left wing Catholic”? The universiality of the Church demands that the C of Catholic is branded on our heads and pierces our hearts, it can not lead to unstinting political allegiance, or unstinting allegiance to an economic theory (we have to let go of this idea), our allegiance is to Christ alone. Christ in the poor, the naked, the hungry, the lame, the neighbour who tells you uncomfortable truths, the neighbour you like, the neighbour you can't stand and Christ manifest in the Magesterium of the Church and the great Sacraments of the Church.

So, why are our American brothers and sisters in Christ often such truculent political idealogues? Partly, I think as they see us in Europe as inherently leftist, they see the old world as a failure and leftism being the epitome of failure, it makes them love America more. Partly also because the spirit of Frontierism seems hardwired into the American psyche. Wagon trains roll and strive, achieve, make good by your own hands and love your liberty. A regulatory state such as appears in Leftist governments gnaws at the very soul of the Frontierist. He feels emasculated and threatened. Importantly, the American will also have a strong sense of family, and a sense that the family is the most precious thing. It could be argued however that some Americans cannot see beyond the family and a concept of wider networks of humanity and wider bonds of charity and affection. In many ways there is nothing to admonish in loving your country, Frontierism or strong family values, they are all valid and life-affirming. However they can be quite insular mindsets, firstly there is an inability to see and love much that is good in Europe and beyond, secondly Frontierists do not interact with their environment they conquer it and do not listen to its needs and thirdly a totally family centred approach falls apart if it is not thoroughly bound into the wider communion of the Church Militant, Triumphant and Suffering.



We all have mindsets, I’d like an American perspective on prevalent European mindsets. My grouse is a worry that some of us will hold onto these mindsets at the expense of failing to let Christ work in our hearts.

Completely Different

Some time ago my union sent me a questionnaire to fill in on workplace bullying, this is a topic of some interest to me, as I have alluded to in the past. I dutifully filled in the questionnaire including the very PC, equal opportunities bit at the end, this included the question:

State your sexual orientation:

• gay
• bisexual
• heterosexual
• prefer not to say

It struck me that this is a totally daft question: what does it mean? It must just be referring to our capacity for sexual love, and at that our capacity for sexual love devoid of higher human feelings. Is the question referring to more that our preferred means of genital stimulation? If it is a higher question than that, then surely we are all bisexual, indeed our capacity for love should not be restricted by age, race or gender. If is is purely about sexual feelings, then surely it is a simply a matter of the preferred means of genital stimulation. How should a Catholic answer this question? I don't think they should.

Heterosexual is NOT the correct answer. We should not define ourselves by the criteria of others. The labels start to stick. Ours in not a world of homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, but it will become so if we let it.

Incidentally, these questionnaire setters think they're so PC, but they forget the obvious, surely in the interests of inclusivity, there should be a box to tick for those that would call themselves Onanists.

News

MIL (Phyllis)died peacefully in her sleep earlier this week, I humbly request you please pray for her soul.

There is much I wish to write about, but it doesn't seem quite appropriate at the moment. DH is devastated....

I will however say that I am finding great solace at the moment using "Divine Intimacy" by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, which has been beautifully reprinted by Baronius Press. Whilst MIL was suffering and we were wondering why the good Lord was not taking her from us in her agony, the following passage gently instructed my raging heart:

Just as the Holy Spirit dwelt in the most holy soul of Christ in order to bring it to God, so He abides in our souls for the same purpose. In Jesus he found a completely docile will, one that He could control perfectly, whereas in us He often meets resistance, the fruit of human weakness; therefore, He desists from the work of our sanctification because He will do no violence to our liberty.

I'd not really got anywhere near appreciating the relationship between our free will and the will of God before reading that.

I also noticed for the first time that the battle for the soul really does take place as someone dies. I may write about what I saw at some later date, but not now. I just ask you to recall what you already know, that the prince of this world will do his best to lead you away from God right up to the time of your death, and that he seems to show a special interest in those that are doggedly faithful to God. This is not an excuse to lapse away from your faith but a reminder to make sure you embrace and submit to your faith and the sacraments even more fully.

I do fear the Catholic blogworld is getting more egocentric, argumentative and obsessed with earthly and largely irrelevant goings-on....this is not the work of God. Please be warned, and practice even greater humility and vigilance.

Why Red?

Why red vestments for Pentecost?

I was pondering this today and wondering why white is not used. Luckily my 1962 Missal came up with an answer:

Red signifies the fire of love towards God and is therefore the liturgical colour for Whitsuntide, the Feast of the Holy Ghost, the God of Love;....

It did strike me how visceral red is. How the Holy Spirit needs to be indwelling within our bodies for God's love to be manifest. The Holy Spirit doesn't hover over the Church, He needs to burrow into each and everyone of us and find a welcome home. Penetcost surely then is the feast of God's sublime gift to us and the red is our Passion united to Christ's and ignited by the flame of the Holy Spirit.

Incomprehensible!

Shorts

Tis a humid day and husband is rather ill. Whilst he sleeps the the worst of it and his medication away, I'll provide you with a taster of what has impinged on my fragile consciousness this week.

Baroque music on our "award winning" (not sure about that) national classical station, Radio 3, has really been getting on my nerves recently. Now given the choice, I'd spend my life in the Baroque, but there is something about modern recordings that really annoys me. Has anyone else noticed that they sound about as lively as if they'd been recorded for the holodeck of the Starship Enterprise? You want to smell wig powder, musty velvet, sweat and sawdust and all you get is a whiff of Glade plug-in air freshener. Some goon has been let loose with the digitiser and tried to make the music atmospheric. Baroque music at its best is raw, unsentimental and full of life, everything these recordings aren't.



Vascular dementia, double incontinence, burgeoning bed sores, hypertension, leg ulcers and much more, and that little old lady I love so much doesn't qualify for nursing care on the NHS. The system stinks. I'm going to fight this one. We had a lengthy meeting about her Care Plan earlier this week. It was horrid. I dared to mention that she had a great need for spiritual care and whilst they were sympathetic in an ignorant and politically correct kind of way, you could tell it wasn't going in...."Yes, but how critical are her spiritual needs to her health and recovery, is this a low, a medium of a high need?".......It is a critical need!!!!...."Yes but how does it aid her recovery?".....She isn't going to recover, she is dying, ah yes but you don't have anything to do with peoples souls do you....well you should...you can't dare to mention that she is dying because that would mean she needs palliative care and that costs money. Still, we had some precious moments praying with her, softly spoken prayers, but very beautiful and she mouthed along and made the sign of the cross. Problem is, the devil is lurking close by, it is never too late for him to torment a soul...keep praying, it is all we can do.

Cats, I'm not a cat lover, in fact I loathe them. More specifically, I loathe the pampered, dumb looking, over fed house cats that turn their owners into fur-worshiping brain dead cat slaves. Having said that, I'm developing a soft spot for the feline psychokiller that lives next door. I've watched it drag rabbits more than the cat's body weight across fields to eat. It seems to go for the larger prey, rats and rabbits. It is a master of its art and if it can keep the bunnies off our marigolds, it is OK by me.

N Korea. It is a mouse that roars, just remember that this mouse has the mange, halitosis and cancer, why are we pandering to its own sense of importance? Now my university text books on nuclear fission are not part of the official secrets act, and they do make it clear that whilst getting a lump of fissile nuclear material critical and explosive is not too difficult, doing it in a timed and controlled way from a warhead to explode in just the right way at just the right height above the ground is a far from trivial matter. What I'm trying to say is that an underground test, is not the same thing as having a working weapon of mass destruction. Portray the N. Koreans as a world superpower with the ability to frighten the US and some gink will make them a working weapon out of hatred for the US, they will be incapable of doing so themselves without outside help.

Is it me or are the Spring nights uncommonly light this year? We live fairly far south in England but a mile from the nearest street light and it never seems to be getting dark, full moon or no moon.

Cucumber sandwiches, leaf tea in bone china cups with saucers, are needed, time to put the kettle on.

Something Missing

MIL is dying, that is a fact, even if some of her closest relatives think she will pull through. The phrase used by the nurses looking after her is “she is weary”. Very upsettingly her elder sister went to see her yesterday and whilst she was incapable of verbal communication she cried twice.

When we saw her last week she was very frail but she atleast had a twinkle in her eye and when I held her hand and looked her in the eye and said “the Infant is looking after you, isn’t he?” she replied confidently “Of course!”. Last week, the pain she’d been experiencing for years didn’t seem to be there. The anxiety and worry and feelings of worthlessness that had also dogged her later years also seemed to have gone, whilst she slept for most of our visit a beautiful smile played across her face.




Unfortunately for us, there is a drama playing out of which she is mercifully unaware. Care for the elderly in England is about as subtle as moving boxes of books around the Amazon warehouse. The bottom line seems to be, she cannot die where she is. For the last 6 weeks, since a particularly viscous bladder infection, she has been in and out of hospitals and intermediate care centres with the “hope” of being able to send her back to her flat in sheltered accommodation. The intermediate care centres now don’t want her and she will probably need constant supervision so going back to her flat is not an option either. The family all now dread the thought of her slipping away unnoticed in some dreary nursing home.

How have we let this state arise? I suppose in the past she would have died a long time ago, her long life is largely down to the physician’s skill and her great fear of meeting her Maker. What is sad is that everyone of us close to her live in houses too small to accommodate her, and is desperately trying to earn a living and hang onto his or her job. The old fashioned option would have been to take her in and care for her and cherish her in her last weeks. This just can’t happen now, and we are the poorer for not being able to care for our elderly in this way. Nor does the hospice movement in England provide care for the elderly dying who are simply dying of old age which would allow them to fade away in their own beds in their own homes, surrounded by their own things and close family. Nor are there hospices for the dying elderly. Why do we all fear nursing homes so much?

The answer is, whilst some are brilliant, many are hopelessly understaffed, dreary and soulless. It all seems too much like the warehousing of unwanted books waiting to be pulped.

The wholesome and Catholic option is what is missing. It is not the care that the state can provide that matters the most. Along with newborns, the dying should be our most cherished members of the Church. They are closest to God and this is so tangible as you sit with them and cry. Both newborns and the faithful dying are the greatest evangelists the Church has to offer. When we are with the dying, we seem to have forgotten how to listen to them and to be near them in the way God wants. We are so busy caring for the physical body, we become absent minded about their souls. Whilst, thank God, in MILs case priests have visited and she has received the Sacrament of the Sick, this is in danger of becoming just another thing on a “to do” list, like her laundry and conversing with the social workers. Why do we laity find it so hard to pray for and with the dying? Christ is physically with them as they die, we should be as willing to be there as we are to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.

St Rita - Model of Charity and Patience

We are fast approaching the one day of the year when my blog gets a serious number of hits. Dear blogger, I've decided that I ought to write something to make your visit a little more meaningful.

I am going to write something of a personal reflection on St Rita, my confirmation saint, whose feast day is on Friday.

St Rita is seen as a model of charity and patience. She was a peacemaker between antagonistic families, she worked selflessly to do God's will, and she had supernatural patience with her difficult husband and during her protracted and embarrassing illness in the convent.

What exactly makes her a saint of such popularity?

These are my opinions:

Nobody becomes a saint through passively suffering abuse. Personally I do not subscribe to the view that she suffered beatings and intimidation from her husband as a result of his drink problem. Even if she did, this is not what makes her a saint. I'm reminded of something attributed to the great St Philip Neri (whose feast day is soon too), he said "I would let boys break wood on my back, provided they didn't sin". To live with someone on the path of self destruction, (like her husband) requires prayer, patience and charity. What ever is done by the partner it is done in order to try to save the soul of the addict and this requires at least guiding him away from greater sin. The marriage bond is dedicated to helping the marriage partners get each other to heaven. Passively allowing oneself to be abused as part of the "obedience" of the marriage bond entails the abuser being led into greater sin, to me it is not saintly behaviour. Though we have no evidence for it, I'm sure her marriage was one of happiness amid the suffering. She was certainly a woman who loved well, this is seen in her relationships with many others too.

When her sons wished to avenge the murder of their father, Rita prayed that they would not sin and that they would enter into God's grace. Again this shows her care for the souls of others.

When in the convent it wasn't her rigourous mortifications that made her saintly. They were just a manifestation of her desire for total abandonment to the will of God.

What an honour was then bestowed on her, the only stigmatic ever with a foul smelling wound! Just meditate on that for a moment....to willingly take on the malorodourness and ugliness of the crucifixion in obedience to the Lord. I only hope I can have half her fortitude and trust in the Lord.

She is a very special woman, for her ordinary upbringing, ordinary education, her courageous response to the vows in marriage and the consecrated life and her profound love of Christ Crucified.

Happy Birthday to Me

It is my 40th today. Deo Gratias!

And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, and direct thou the work of our hands over us: yea, the work of our hands do thou direct.

Psalm 89.

Remember folks,

the right judgement we are capable of,
the right judgement that is a gift of the Holy Spirit
is NEVER, can never,
be enhanced by alcohol.

Stay awake, stay sober.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

These new style blogger blogs. I can't leave comments on them probably because I refuse to get a g-mail account.

So sorry, Jackie, Kirk and Sir George, Suffering World and others but until I've worked out what I'm doing wrong, you'll never know I've visited......

musings of a half educated halfwit

I'm determined to get back to blogging. I miss it. However, without going into details, things are a little tough at the moment. My Lenten illness did ease somewhat after Easter, but I'm uncommonly tired and my GP is a little concerned about some of my test results. But enough of this, I'm sick of being asked how I am, I don't want to become my illness. There is still the arrogant, idealistic, headstrong nearly-fortysomething in there with a head full of thoughts that need ordering and perspectives that need straightening.

One of the big issues for me at the moment is that everything is taking me so much longer to do that my prayer-life has taken a bit of a tumble. One day, while driving, feeling guilty about my curtailed prayer routine, I said a quick Our Father on the dual carriageway stretch of my route home. It got me thinking. I've always had a problem with the "Our Father", yet another thing that causes a chasm to open up between me and the Incarnate Word whom I desire so much. I'd love, like St Teresa of Avila, to be able to dwell on it for hours a line at a time, but this has evaded me.

In my twenties, I even, shamefully arrogantly, thought there might be something wrong with the the prayer (something missing from it), until it occurred to me that it is actually something wrong with me, not the prayer. I was finding it disjointed and more of a list than a prayer, I didn't feel I was engaging with God the Father when saying it.....This never really left me till quite recently.

Whilst most of my schooling was empty, I'm glad I studied my Latin and got an A for my O'Level (one of only a few, I'm too lazy to be a grade chaser).

Anyway, I decided to meditate on the Lord's Prayer in Latin rather than English. This has been a real blessing. There is a poetry about the Latin and a subtlty that seems to be missing in the English. No, there isn't some hidden, esoteric meaning to the prayer that only Latin scholars (albeit shabby ones) can grasp. It is that I've found a wholeness to the prayer that does allow me to meditate very gently and slowly on what it contains.

"Forgive us our trespasses" seems a long way from "demitte nobis debita nostra". For a start, demitte is quite passive, like dismiss or loosen, and therin lies the key for me to the next line, we are also asked to "dismiss", "not hang on to" all those transgressions that have been committed against us. We can burn ourselves up into a seething, mean spirited and nasty mess by constantly going over all those things that have been done against us. We have to let go or we will not let God enter our hearts for our own sins to be forgiven.

When David cries out to God in the Psalm "Against you alone have I sinned", I used to want to answer back, "I wonder if Uriah the Hittite would agree with that?". But then I didn't understand sin. Sin is a willful separation from God, sin is only committed against God, those transgressions against us by our fellow humans are opportunities for sin by the transgressors, the frightening thing is how they can make us sin too if we hold onto them and hold onto any malice for the transgressor.

Then today at Mass the contrast between the Lord's prayer and Agnus Dei had me weak and tearful. "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi", "Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world", only "tollis" is a lot more physical than "take away", it suggests carry, raise up, it suggests heaviness.

Only the Lamb of God can physically take on the burden of our sin and raise it up. What a contrast to that "letting go" that we in our humility must do.

Fire

The Poor Clare Sisters in N. Wales have just sent their e-mail newsletter out to those like myself who subscribe to it. In it they describe Holy Week as the "Week of Fire". I like that, and this year it seems particularly poignant.

Pray for the souls of those who have died recently.

Please pray also for Fr Nicholas Schofield and Philip who have both lost their fathers recently.

Pray also for Tom who has recently lost his grandmother.

Pray too for my husband, he is suffering much at the moment, but his Faith is strong, his demons are spiteful and peeved.

Pray too for his mother. She is fading away in hospital, it is almost a relief she seems to be in the 1930s most of the time, working in the cardroom of the local mill like she did before she married. The reality is undignified and deeply frustrating.

I too am in need of your prayers. I have had Lupus-like symptoms for the last month, affecting both my physical and mental wellbeing. A barrage of tests has yet to come up with a diagnosis...I'm of the opinion it is just a lenten thing, it will pass but it is very unpleasant, it takes me ages to do anything and it is a real penance to feel so separated from my brain. Conversations involving more than one person are a real struggle, I start drifting towards "sleepytime". I'm rather grateful for blogger world, it allows me to communicate at my own speed and unlike real life there is a "backspace" key.

God Bless all my readers. Have a good Holy Week, you are in my prayers.

Nay rights.

A report on the local television last week was about a club opening specifically catering for people with learning difficulties. The DJ was a transvestite with learning difficulties, the clientele was also predominantly people with learning difficulties (dreadful term isn't it). It was being hailed as a great way for people to express their sexuality who would normally feel excluded from other mainstream clubs.

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It is reported that in Oxford from next September, girls aged 11 upwards will be able to send a text to receive the morning after pill.

***********

It is reported that the rules governing the advertising of contraception and abortion on the television will be relaxed.

***********

ALL this news is totally unedifying and totally against the true dignity of the human being; body and soul.


We are being encouraged to sink to "lowest common denominator" lifestyles as if these are a human right. The right to be Naff.

So what should be our response? We have to rise above this sh*te, stand up for the dignity of every human being and stand up for the Faith we profess. This does involve our public and private morality. Private; learning to examine our own conscience regularly, desiring regular confession, aiming for full obedience to the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Public; hmm, this is more than pressure groups and petitions, this is having the C of Catholic branded on our foreheads, taking the mockery and abuse that will come when we question the "right to be naff".

In an ideal world, we would all have superiors to whom we had total obedience and who would speak regularly on matters of public AND private morality (and our need for God's grace through the Sacraments), who would uphold the faith and in turn show total obedience to Rome....it would make the morass that we find ourselves sinking into more likely to act as a seed of grace for the lost souls of this nation.

How far from an ideal world are we?

Sanctuary

Please continue to pray for my DH, he is not a well man. We made a special journey of many miles to an 8am Mass (1962 Missal). Many moons ago, DH wanted to be a priest. OK, the year before he had wanted to be a train driver, but as a 10 yr old boy and with the generous backing of some missionary fathers he entered junior seminary. Something happened there that has left its mark, but no it wasn't at the hands of any of the priests (though some of them were nasty brutes), and it was more serious than the maggots the religious sisters left in their cooking.

Suffice to say, he needs reminding every now and then of the times before junior seminary, of helping to serve the Mass like he did (pre VII), of feeling the honour of being an altar boy, of the dignity and reverence of the priesthood. DH is no mad traddie, but he loves the Lord and he loves seeing men behave with dignity, in the most dignified way they can, as priests.

Over time too many sanctuaries have become violated. The Lord's sanctuary has had its altar rails stripped away, reverence has been erroded. I can not help but see a parallel to the lack of dignity afforded to our own bodies.

When we know our bodies have been violated, in whatever way, we can not turn back the clock, but we can kneel before the Lord in His sanctuary, and His healing Grace is boundless.


Picture found using Google of the Catholic Church in Earl Park Indiana (demolished after a fire in 2000)

Ps 95: Praise and beauty are before him: holiness and majesty in his sanctuary.

Listen to Les

Words of wisdom from the last recession. Genius!

Sorry for the unexpected pause in blogging. A series of events have conspired against me....

Swollen and very painful hands and feet (so I'm off work)and can hardly type.

I also suspect I got thyroid problems (this has been going on for years but has got worse recently), we're waiting for the barrage of blood tests to come back before we proceed any further with this, but it is a nightmare of foggy brain, intense tiredness,tinnitus, overactive metabolism and weight loss.


Also some of my husband's demons have resurfaced and are giving him a good pasting. As a wife, it is support, prayers and patience that are needed....oh and making sure the little sods don't start waving their big fat red butts in your face and becoming your demons too.

What a lent!

With God's grace, and in God's time, all will be well.

For the Holy Father

Dear Reader,

Visit here for a very important post from Blogging Lourdes, and do as your informed conscience directs.

Thank you.

Noble Simplicity

Read into the title of this post what you want.

Prompted by the nasty mess heaved up by the Tablet this week, many are now meditating on the Mass and the "needs of the people". Here are my thoughts.

Recently, the need for some spiritual succor has proved too great and I’ve headed off to the Oxford Oratory for Mass on two occasions.

Both Masses were Novus Ordo and facing the congregation, one in Latin one in English. Both were very prayerful. The reason for this was the strict adherence to the sacred liturgy. No priest breaking off mid way through to ask Mr. Smith how his hip operation went. No children on the altar for the Lords Prayer. No hymns. Sermons that actually tackled the meat of the Gospel reading.

Mass is often about endurance. Recalling that prayer is a battle, Mass can often be the ultimate conflict. Sometimes this is down to scrappy liturgical “interpretation”, sometimes it can be down to an ill prepared congregation (been to a school Mass recently anyone?). The battle to remain focused and concentrate prayerfully on the sacred mystery is intense. I’m afraid, often I’ve left Mass feeling utterly defeated.

Nevertheless, sung solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary form is also a feat of endurance. So many distractions, so much beauty, so much for one scientist with a very short attention span and complete inability to multitask to take in. In some ways, and in no way disrespectfully, it is like asking someone who enjoys a quick shower to get something meaningful out of a long soak in a candle-lit bath.

It is nice not to have to face this conflict and go to a simple said “say the black do the red” Mass. A subtler battle then takes place between your more selfish human nature and your desire for union with God. It is altogether more intimate and humbling.

Some nice and very Oratorian touches were the sheer reverence and time taken over the cleaning the chalice, the use of the altar rails and the extra priest that appeared during communion to pray in reverence before the open tabernacle whilst the celebrant distributed the Eucharist.

Incidentally the chalice cleaning would have been lost from the view of the congregation had the Mass been ad orientem, I personally found it profoundly moving and don’t believe this ritual should be exclusively for the altar boys’ eyes only.

Pray for our priests, pray for the Church.

Rupture

The battle lines that are being talked about between the liberals in the Church and those who are conservative and openly loyal to the Holy Father seem at first to be very plausible. There can be no doubt that rupture in the Church is forged by those with their own agenda and that agenda is not Christ centred or Petrine. I just have a small problem with defining these liberals as the enemy. Whilst my sympathies do not lie near them (I’ve seen them wreck too many schools and as a result too many children’s notion of the Faith to even like them), I do feel it is unhelpful to point a wagging finger at them and say they are the root of all that is wrong with the Church.

This can’t be good for the Church. It is all too black and white, good versus evil, them against us. Whilst I do not doubt that there are some seemingly within the body of the Church who are hell bent on destroying it, playing out some real life “Lord of the Rings” with our fellow Catholics is wrong.

I offer a humble solution below. Look to the Apocalypse (chapters 2 & 3). The beginning of Revelation concerns the Seven Churches of Asia, the members of the Body of Christ. John is made aware of all the possible sources of rupture that could exist within this body. Forget the liberal/conservative split, look here for guidance, it offers a salutary lesson that we must look, each and every one of us, to our own failings and possible causes for rupture.

Ephesus: A righteous church, but Christ warns John that “they may have less love now than formerly”, I see the most startling parallel with our own conservative brethren here. It is a trap we can all fall into.

Smyrna: A persecuted Church. Hammered by the devil, great saints will be forged here, but isn’t it worth remembering that where persecution is greatest, there are also great opportunities for harm to be done, a persecuted church is asking that all its members behave like saints here on earth. Would not anger, hatred and a desire for vengeance swell in my heart if I were a Catholic in Iraq, the Holy Land or China?

Pergamum: This resembles the Church today in the affluent west. Many openly flouting the laws of the Church yet calling themselves Catholics. Real repentance is called for from all of us, no matter how small our transgressions are. For those of us of a conservative mind set, are we not guilty of the sin of omission, for not shouting out loudly enough what the Church stands for in such a way that others will hear and take note.

Thyatira: A persevering Church, a grade A for effort but only a D+ on sound teaching and theology. A church openly welcoming false prophets and possibly New Age “spirituality”.

Sardis: The sleeping church. Aaaargh, I know this one too well!

Philadelphia: A conservative church that loves the law and doesn’t want to think too much about anything else. Christ promises to protect them but recognises their weakness. The Philadelphians would probably not make good missionaries.

Laodicea: Wealthy and lukewarm. Offensive, repulsive and a travesty, it offers no solidarity to the poor, the uninformed and the oppressed. Just remember, lukewarm can feel hot if your hand has previously been in cold water. However, we are not a Church of relatives, we are a Church of absolutes, and lukewarm is lukewarm and vomitsome.

Render therefore to Caesar...

Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God, the things that are God's. Matthew 22:21

I don't have much of an objection to paying tax. I do object to disproportionate taxation, like the obscene levy we pay on fuel in this country. I am also think inheritance tax in morally unjustifiable. However I'm a subject of this rotting land and a moderately obedient one at that.

However I do wonder if Caesar is not just getting a little greedy in the things that he thinks he owns and the things he thinks we ought to be rendering up to him.

Caesar thinks he knows what will make us happy. We are supposed to follow his dreams through the meritocracy in which we live, following his aspirations for us, living his dreams, gaining his qualifications, passing his examinations, getting his promotions. We are likely to forget Caesar does not own our dreams or our happiness.

Caesar thinks he knows what we should learn. Actually Caesar is terrified of knowledge, that's why he insists on the wholesale institutionalisation of learning from early years to the grave which greatly inhibits free thinking and creativity. That's why he is terrified of homeschooling and school teachers developing their own curriculum. Caesar does not own our minds or the minds of our children.

Caesar thinks he owns our health and our safety. He legislates manically, telling us what tests we ought to have for our health, what pills we ought to be popping, how our public spaces ought to be arranged so as to manage risk and prevent accidents. He is obtrusive, nannying and mercenary, he plays with peoples' natural tendencies to care and makes them believe he always knows what is best. Caesar does not own our bodies or our health.

However Caesar does own our fear and he plays with it endlessly. Our fear of crime, our financial worries, our employment worries are all his. Give these back to Caesar and get on with living and loving as instructed to in the Gospels.

I used to be nearly envious of priests and the life consecrated to God. No mortgages, little in the way of taxes...all that obedience and submission and all totally devoted to the will of God....Not any more.

Our poor brother priests have to contend with the crippling bureaucracy of "Child Protection", "Health and Safety Legislation", "Disability awareness" and building "fit for purpose" insanity. Couple this with grossly unfair water rates, endless diocesesan initiatives, emasculated Catholic (in name only) schools and a large heap of the bureaucratic cr*p the rest of us have to put up with and the priest's life truly has a large chunk of it rendered up to Caesar. It is a grotesque and unnecessary "Kaiserschnitt" ripping the heart and soul out of parish life and leaving many a priest lonely and confused and desperately trying to reconnect to his vocation.

Ubi Caritas

I couldn't help thinking as I drove home from work that it may be a good idea if Bishop Williamson (SSPX)went on retreat. I'd like to see him on the same retreat as some of the most beardy, sincere and well meaning, sandal wearing, guitar hugging, Catholic priests from our shores. I'm not sure what the outcome would be but I have no doubt it would be for the good of the Church.