Reasons to be cheerful!

Archbishop Vincent Nichols is quite right, of course: complaining and gossiping are most unedifying.

Our Lord, of course, would never have complained about the legitimate religious authorities of his time (or if He did we are not meant to know about it: see here).

Seriously, though, we do have a responsibility to use the new-found power that ordinary Catholics have acquired of airing their concerns via the social media with prudence and charity.

Leaping from that to another issue entirely, have I ever mentioned that I love To Kill A Mockingbird?

"Gertrude, I tell you there's nothing more distracting than a sulky darky. Their mouths go down to here. Just ruins your day to have one of 'em in the kitchen. You know what I said to my Sophy, Gertrude? I said, 'Sophy,' I said, 'you simply are not being a Christian today. Jesus Christ never went around grumbling and complaining,' and you know, it did her good. She took her eyes off that floor and said, 'Nome, Miz Merriweather, Jesus never went around grumblin'.' I tell you, Gertrude, you never ought to let an opportunity go by to witness for the Lord."

So here is something to cheer you all up:

Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3) - the very edifying Ian Dury and the Blockheads