A Transatlantic Visitor...

I was delighted that the incomparable Fr. Z found time to drop by and pay a visit to His Hermeneuticalness in Blackfen, just in time for the patronal Feast Day.

It appears that he was just a little puzzled by the name of Kent's famous brewery...

Irony...

It is rather amusing to reflect that, at the Blackfen Blognic yesterday, His Hermeneuticalness delivered his talk on Catholics and the new media without actually employing any techno-wizardry himself...

The Reluctant Sinner has posted a much more detailed account of the day, so do go and check him out.

Urgent Action & Fervent Prayer...

Yousef Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death for apostasy. He was never a practicing Muslim, but because of his ancestry, the Iranian court has decided that he should be put to death. He was arrested when trying to register his church.

Blondpidge has done sterling work to bring this to people's attention, tweeting, blogging and emailing. She has several suggestions for action, and provides telephone numbers, links and even a sample letter over on her blog.

She also reminds us of the need to storm heaven with our prayers.

Bloggers At Blackfen...

The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma had its meeting at Blackfen today. In good Catholic tradition, we started the whole day off with Mass... and we were especially blessed to be able to celebrate a Solemn High Mass. I think this may be a first - three blogging clerics on the Sanctuary...

We then had a talk from Fr. Tim Finigan on being a Catholic blogger. He had much encouragement to give us all, along with some words of caution. I do hope that he will publish the text of the talk online, because it was excellent.

Lunch was provided in the large hall by Trish and her gang of helpers. Leutgeb was first off the mark in reporting the meeting, and lunch was declared to be yummy. I can second that: it was positively scrumptious!

We had a brief business meeting, and then it was time for Vespers, which was for the Feast of the Dedication of the Parish Church.

It was an enjoyable, edifying and encouraging day, and I was delighted to be able to meet up with people I'd only previously encountered online: so a warm hallo to Fr. Sam Medley, Fr. Simon Henry, Anthony, Stuart and Richard; and greetings to old acquaintances: Dylan, Leutgeb, Annie Elizabeth, Fr. Michael Clifton, Paul Priest and Hilaire Belloc.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Vesper, who often comments, also paid us a visit!

There are a few more photos over on my Flickr page.

Change Of Address...

No, not mine.

The Crescat has moved over from Blogger to Wordpress, and very good the new blog looks too. Remember to update your links!

I love the quote she has at the top of the blog now (I heard it many years ago, and it's even truer now!)

If brought up on charges of being a Catholic I hope there's enough evidence to convict me.

A Little Good News...

A brain-damaged woman, who can only be referred to as "M," was at the centre of a High Court battle to have her food and fluids withdrawn. She has been in a minimally conscious state (having first been diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state) for over 8 years, and her family wanted to end her life.

That sounds rather harsh, but it is really just stating the truth. The family wanted to have her food and fluids withdrawn (though it's prettied up by calling it "stopping life-supporting treatment.") Effectively, that means that they would subject her to a horrifically painful death by starvation and dehydration - and, as in the case of Tony Bland, she would have needed painkillers to ease the suffering this entails.

Yogi Amin, who represented the family at the High Court, stated that the ruling allowed the High Court to decide whether a minimally conscious person should be allowed to die naturally, with dignity. He didn't mention that death by starvation and dehydration isn't actually what one would consider a dignified death.

Unusually, the medical authorities fought against the wishes of the family. They said that M was clinically stable, and the health authority pointed out that her life was not without positive elements. I must confess that I never thought a health authority would range itself on the side of the angels. Usually they're all for cost-cutting measures.

Fortunately for M, and possibly for others in a minimally conscious state, the judge ruled against the family.

This Makes Me Really Cross...

Quite apart from the self-righteous tone used by Baroness Flather in suggesting that the poor have too many children, particularly those from Pakistani or Bangladeshi communities, and that this really isn't necessary in Britain because of the welfare state and pensions (oho... someone hasn't been reading the news lately!), I rather object to the fact that none of the MSM have been open about the Baroness' vested interests in making such statements.

Baroness Flather is a director of Marie Stopes International.

One-child policy, anyone?

Massive twitch of the mantilla to Red Maria for highlighting that little connection.

The Kindness Of Strangers...

I had a very arduous teaching day today, and then meetings after school. Then I had to pop over to Bluewater to get some stuff (it's open later than the average High Street store.)

I stopped off at Boots to visit the Clinique counter. I've used lots of makeup over the years, and have discovered that cheap brands do not pay. My skin is quite temperamental, and Clinique really suits me best. The moisturiser I use is the Comfort On Call one - it soothes the slightly irritable flakiness I have a tendency to develop.

To my surprise, the counter was completely deserted. I waited patiently, assuming that the assistant was on a break. Eventually a young woman turned up, and I explained what I was looking for. She was very apologetic, explaining that she wasn't a Clinique specialist (there had only been one on earlier, due to sickness) but she'd seen the variety I wanted, and she said she'd look for it. I promptly plumped myself down on one of the make-over chairs.

The first assistant wasn't having any luck, so she called over another assistant and they both started rooting through cupboards. We had a good chat about different moisturisers, and I explained that this was my favourite. Then the first assistant called over the supervisor, to ask if she could check the stock cupboard.

Meanwhile, I'd spotted a tester for my moisturiser, and the supervisor, armed with the stock code, went to have a look in the back. No luck. I must have looked a little woebegone, because, when I asked if it was possible to buy the tester, the assistant said that she'd put some in a little sample pot, just to tide me over until I could get back to the shops...

Feeling in need of a little refreshment before heading home, I stopped at the Krispy Kreme shop. As I bought a hot chocolate and a mango creme doughnut (a new variety, which, really, doesn't quite work) the assistant asked if I'd like a complimentary glazed ring doughnut, hot from the oven.

Those little acts of kindness quite lifted my spirits.

On further reflection, I must have looked really exhausted...

Pondering My Next Purchase...

I love my little snazzy camera. It has served me well over the past couple of years, and I've taken some very good photos with it. However, this has rekindled my interest in photography - I have several old photo albums with "real" photos - and I decided that the time has come to upgrade.

I am not going to go the whole hog and buy a camera and a slew of lenses to be screwed on at crucial moments. I realised that what I actually do want is what is popularly known as a "bridge" camera - one down from the DSLR and one up from the point-and-click compact that I currently have.

By dint of several visits to Jessops (big, serious camera shop) and shops like Currys, I have narrowed it down to two possible choices: the Canon PowerShot SX30 IS and the Fuji FinePix HS20 EXR.

The Canon has the longer zoom - 35x optical zoom, 14 MP - and the zoom is button controlled (I can't remember the correct term, but I'm sure you understand me.) The Fuji has a shorter zoom (30x) and it's manual, but the picture is 16 MP.

Part of me is very tempted by the longer zoom. I also quite like the button-controlled zoom. However, my current Canon camera is protesting when I use the automated zoom (it's on its way out, hence the need for a new camera) and I am wondering whether a manual zoom might be better - the less automated bits there are, the less there is to go horribly wrong.

Then again, there's the battery. Canon has a lithium-ion rechargeable battery unit. Fuji uses AA batteries. I prefer the former, but maybe that's just because, back in the mists of time, rechargeable AA batteries used to be such a pain and never actually lasted any length of time. Maybe they've improved.

Price-wise the two cameras are very similar. I'm dithering...

Mind you, since I have to save up the pennies before I can actually get round to purchasing one of them, I have got a bit of time in which to dither. However, if any of you people out there know of any good or bad things about these cameras (from personal experience, that is - I've already read several reviews online) I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Watch this space...

Trepidation...

My next-door neighbour, the one who does the cat-sitting for me, caught me on the way back from Mass this morning. Apparently she has been watching the cats from her window each day - her flat looks out onto the back garden.

She has seen Miaowrini stalking the pigeons.

My neighbour also warned me that trouble is brewing. Furretti was up a tree the other day... and she very nearly caught a squirrel...

I dread to think of the state of my flat if she actually succeeds in bringing one home...

New Look...

A new academic year has started for us here in Merry Old England. It's a pretty exhausting time for teachers (IMHO) - at least until we've sussed out our new timetables and classes... and in some cases, new exam specifications as well.

To celebrate the fact that I'm not as zonked out as I was last weekend, I have revamped the blog layout just a little. I had a look at the "Dynamic Views" option as described by His Hermeneuticalness, and decided that I like the idea, so that option has found its way into the sidebar, as has the option to have updates from the blog emailed to you. Personally I prefer to use Google Reader for that sort of thing, but, if it floats your boat...

I think the colour scheme and background picture are pretty much set - it's my trademark "look," I think. Do tell me what you think of the overall effect, and I'm interested in any suggestions you may have for further improvements...

LMS Pilgrimage To Aylesford...

I was asked to publicise the LMS Pilgrimage to Aylesford, and I'm delighted to be able to do so. I thought Fr. Tim had advertised it already, but it seems that, in my slightly bemused state last week, I put up a (real) poster in the church porch...

The music at the Mass will be contemporary with St. Simon Stock, which is rather exciting.

Good News...

Ches and Mrs Ches have just announced the arrival of a daughter... do pop over and give your congratulations!

First Friday...

Not the first Friday of the month, but the first Friday on which Catholics in England & Wales had to observe the abstinence from meat as mandated by the Bishops' Conference.

I don't normally eat breakfast, but was absolutely starving this morning, so popped downstairs to the school canteen when it opened for breakfast. I eschewed the bacon rolls on offer, and one of the cooks made me an egg muffin instead.

There was a certain amount of satisfaction in the change from "an odd person who doesn't eat meat on Fridays" to "a Catholic."

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice & Pigeons...

I was going to do some serious blogging this evening. I even left work relatively early. After all, it's the anniversary of Summorum Pontificum... and the SSPX have been in talks with the Vatican... all very important stuff. Alas, I arrived to find the living-room seriously carpeted in feathers, with a mangled pigeon corpse arranged artistically in the middle of it all.

It was rather bloody and a bit smelly - I think Miaowrini has really gotten into her stride.

I spent the early evening hoovering and cleaning up, and then I poured myself into the bath, along with a glass of wine.

I did consider doing a little light blogging before getting to bed, but there are two cats staring fixedly at a bookcase. Given that my cats aren't usually interested in the Barchester Chronicles or Agatha Christie, I surmise that something is trapped behind the bookcase.

I don't want to know what it is, so I'm abandoning the computer, and I'm going to go to bed instead.

I might get the chance to blog tomorrow... Don't hold your breath.

First Sign Of Old Age...?

Earlier on today, while driving, I had an absolutely brilliant idea for a blog post.

Now I can't remember what it was...

*sigh*

If any of you have any idea what I was going to blog about, let me know...

By This You Shall Know Them...

I think it is wonderful that the Bishops of England & Wales have decided to reinstate the practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays. I understand that this is the practice in the US during the Fridays of Lent, but we didn't even have that - the only two days we were obliged to abstain from meat here in the UK were Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. There was a vague awareness that penance was supposed to be done on Fridays, but it was never really mentioned, and therefore was often forgotten.

Now it is compulsory. It isn't necessary to eat fish, and it's true that it isn't a major hardship to forego meat on one day a week, but that isn't the point. All Catholics will now be carrying out the same activity on a Friday, as a reminder that Our Lord died for us on a Friday. It's a reminder to ourselves, as much as to those around us. It is a reclaiming of our Catholic heritage, and a reaffirmation of Catholic identity.

It does take a bit of getting used to - when I first started observing Friday abstinence it seemed to be impossible - I always found myself tucking into that bacon sandwich at break time, only to recall halfway through that it was actually Friday. Eventually I got the hang of it, though up until now there has been that temptation to substitute another penance instead because it was allowed.

We might want to consider reintroducing some other Catholic practices - such as bowing one's head at the name of Jesus, crossing oneself as one passes a Catholic Church, and saying Grace before meals (especially when eating out.)

I'm sure that there are many more Catholic practices which used to be common. Suggestions in the combox please!

Happy Birthday...

The statue of Our Lady in Blackfen was decorated for her Nativity. Sadly, having gone to the church straight from school, I didn't have my camera with me. However, I have a rather nice photo taken on another important occasion...

It was rather nice having Rosary & Benediction on Our Lady's birthday...

Urgent Appeal For Help...

My eyes are propped open with matchsticks right now, and I'm desperate to get to bed, but I just had to respond to this one - Clare from the Good Counsel Network has sent out an urgent and heartfelt plea for help.

Good Counsel (in much the same way as the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative) puts its money where its mouth is, and gives actual practical help to mothers in crisis pregnancies. These mothers would possibly have felt that there was no alternative to abortion without the help they receive from Good Counsel, and so the work that is done really does save lives.

I don't know if the Good Counsel Network would appreciate donations of actual goods via Amazon (as has been advertised before for the Sisters of the Gospel of Life when they have had an appeal) but funds are perilously low, so any money you can spare would be gratefully received.

The threat to the unborn is higher than ever, especially now. We need to show that we offer support for mothers who choose to keep their babies rather than have an abortion - something Marie Stopes and BPAS would never do. Please, please, help if you can, and everyone please pray for the work to succeed.