A good weekend...

It felt like the start of the holidays this weekend (though I still have to work for while yet...) All the family are home, as Ant is back from University, and Bernie and Charlie are back from their orchestra trip to Italy.

So went to adoration and confession first thing on Saturday (and how great it is that my teenage girls still see this as the best way to start a weekend - marvellous example for Charlie and Dominique). Then had a relatively quiet day at home until later in the afternoon when we went to the local County Show.

Last year, we won a number of prizes (well Anna, her mum and the kids did - I have no appropriate talents...) but this year we didn't win a thing (though I thought Bernie was unlucky not to win with her painting or her photography, and Anna didn't win with her muffins simply because they went for chocolate over fruit...but perhaps I'm biased).

In the evening went to see Toy Story 3 in the evening, which we all enjoyed enormously.

Today we went to the Extraordinary Form of Mass at Lancaster Cathedral - and this time you could really hear the impact of Nick Gale's training workshop: the Schola sang better than I have ever heard them before.

And this afternoon, we've packed Charlie and Dominique off to Sail Camp to improve their sailing - and Bernie is there as an assistant instructor. And has a summer job, so can't help at sail camp this year - but as her summer job is teaching sailing, she's not too disappointed...

More lies

According to Ruth Smith, who led the research on the increase in AIDS in older people:

"We must continually reinforce the safe sex message - using a condom with all new or casual partners is the surest way to ensure people do not become infected with a serious sexually transmitted infection such as HIV."

Actually, the surest way to ensure you do not become infected is to avoid 'new or casual partners.'

Those who practice chastity are at no risk of contracting diseases via sexual transmission.

But that would be unsayable...

10,000 celebration

I reached 10,000 hits yesterday and forgot to post about it.

I don't know if that's a lot or a little for a blog that's been going for a while - more than some and less than others, I guess. But I'm quietly pleased that someone out there is reading this...

Tagged

Blimey, Mac and Leutgeb!

Three favourite prayers...

Well let's start with the rules:

Name your three most favourite prayers, and explain why they're your favourites. Then tag five bloggers - give them a link, and then go and tell them they have been tagged. Finally, tell the person who tagged you that you've completed the meme... The Liturgy and the Sacraments are off limits here. I'm more interested in people's favourite devotional prayers.


I'm not sure I have three favourite prayers - probably don't pray enough.

So should I think theologically - one to the Father, one to the Son, and one to the Holy Ghost (I'm particularly fond of 'fill the hearts of thy faithful' etc)?

Or in terms of the language and imagery (I love the prayer to St Michael and the Salve Regina on that count)?

Or in terms of prayers that have particular memories for me (my mother saying the Hail Mary as she died)?

But I'm also conscious of the risk of this meme being very repetitive, so let's strike out into fresh territory.

I choose the Veni Creator Spiritus, because I love the melody as well as the words, and it evokes in particular memories of the children's confirmations at St James, Spanish Place; the Regina Caeli as a great resurrection prayer and a wonderful Marian prayer - and it has a wonderful melody too... and this prayer of Cardinal Newman's because we really should include him this year, and it has long been a favourite:

May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last.

And I tag Ttony, Fr Brown, James Preece, Radagast, and Athanasius.

Comparative seriousness of sins...

Last night I was reading 1 Kings 15, and came across this (Knox translation, of course!):

Rebellion is sin as witchcraft is sin, all one with idolatory is the unsubmissive heart. (v23)

This set me thinking about those who rush to point out that 'of course, nobody is saying that attempting to ordain women is as serious as abusing children.'

Are we so sure? Abusing children is intolerably evil: for whoever scandalises one of these little ones... and so on.

However, to attempt to ordain women within the Catholic Church is knowingly and deliberately to abuse the Church: the mystical body of Christ.

Are we really so sure we can say that is less evil?

OP - Obfuscating and Pernicious

Fr Timothy Radcliffe, OP, had a letter published in Saturday's (UK) Times purporting to explain "the Vatican's" position on the attempted ordination of women.

He wrote (inter alia): "The sexual abuse of minors is a gravely serious sin. The attempted ordination of a Roman Catholic woman raises different issues.

The priest presides at Holy Communion, the sacrament of our unity in the Church, and so an ordination that is productive of division would be a contradiction in terms. Many Catholics believe that women should not be excluded from ordination, but this will only be possible with the consensus of the communion of the Church."

Firstly, the opposition in the first paragraph (sin v different issues) seems to imply that the attempted ordination of women is not a serious sin.

Secondly, his reason against the ordination of women is a bit of a straw man: it is one of the reasons, but by no means the most telling: he makes it appear to be the only one.

Thirdly, Many Catholics believe that women should not be excluded from ordination,
is not a Catholic way of expressing this point: "many who claim to be Catholic believe" or even "many Catholics mistakenly believe" would be better; likewise the use of 'excluded' is prejudicial and partisan.

Fourthly, he knows full well that the Church teaches definitively that the ordination of women is impossible - it will not be possible by consensus or any other means.

Fifthly, the ecclesiology implied in 'the consensus of the communion of the Church' .is erroneous - and he must know that.

He should be ashamed of himself: pray for him.

What does 'being a Catholic' mean?

I ask the question, as it seems to me to be used to mean quite contrary things.

When I say that I am a Catholic, I mean that I am a baptised member of he Catholic Church; and that I hold to the promises made at baptism, including believing in one holy Catholic and apostolic Church - and further, by that I mean that I accept the teaching authority of the Church and (strive to) conform my will and intellect to it. And my guess is that many others mean the same; that until recently that is what everyone meant by it, and further that most outsiders would assume that is what is meant.

However, many other people, some prominent (politicians, journalists, academics, self-appointed experts) and some befuddled clergy and laity, seem to use the word in quite a different sense. Tina Beatie is a current example (much blogged about elsewhwere). Here the word seems to mean I am baptised may or may not attend Church and see it as my mission to change the Church to teach and be what I would like it to teach and be.

Frankly, I find the second usage dishonest.