Catholic and Loving it!

Coming soon...

“Forty Years of Ecumenism - from Pope John XXIII to Pope John Paul II” at Driffield

Everyone is warmly welcome to an evening led by Father Tim Bywater exploring the topic of “Forty Years of Ecumenism - from Pope John XXIII to Pope John Paul II”.

This will be held in the Parish Hall of Our Lady and St Edward, Driffield, on Wednesday 10th September, starting at 7pm.

[link]

Forty years... forty years... why does that ring a bell? I wonder if anything else happened forty years ago...

Can't have been anything important or there would be some kind of talk on it or something...

It's been a while since I wrote about the survey in The Tablet. After asking about reasons for going to Mass The Tablet asked three questions beginning with the words "I can be a good Catholic without..."

Not so very long ago I saw a comic strip in which a man confessed to killing his wife and asked: "Does that make me a bad person?" It's become a bit of a catchphrase for relativists. "Bad People" are evil people like Hitler and the Spanish Inquisition. I cheated on the test, but I'm not a Bad Person. I stole from my mum, but I'm not a Bad Person. I don't go to mass, but I'm not a Bad Catholic. I'm a Good Catholic.

These figures are unhelpful without some kind of definition of a "good Catholic" and since everybody was left to define that for themselves I expect "a good Catholic" ended up pretty synonymous with "me", because "I'm not a bad person".

Percentage of people who strongly agree or agree by age...

"I can be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession"

18-35	36-45	46-65	over 65
43%	52%	49%	43%

"I can be a good Catholic without going to weekly Mass"

18-33	36-45	46-65	over 65
39%	45%	34%	27%

"I can be a good Catholic without marrying in the Church"

18-35	36-45	46-65	over 65
34%	45%	38%	25%

These questions are badly worded by the silly Tablet people because clearly there are exceptions. Can you be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession? of course you can... if you are six. Can you be a good Catholic without weekly mass? yes... if you are housebound. Can you be a good Catholic without marrying in Church? My friend Ben hopes so, he got a dispensation from the Bishop. If you can't be a good Catholic without marrying in the Church then it's game over for Ben (and so young...)

I'm going to assume these questions include hidden qualifiers along the lines of "if you are able bodied and above the age of reason" and I'm going to ignore the last one because it's stupid.

43% of Catholics say you can be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession. 43% of Catholics are wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 43% of Catholics have been cheated and lied to by priests who say (actual quote) "You don't need to go to confession, you haven't sinned, not real sins." Oh, that's okay then.

39% say you can be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. If you can get to mass, then no, you can't be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. Does that make you a bad person? I don't know, why don't you go to confession and ask?

These answers are depressing. I note with interest the 39% of respondents who say you can be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. Is that the same four in ten that don't come to mass mass every week?

Relativistic thinking is engrained in our culture. Earlier this year I wrote to a priest about a liturgical abuse and as part of his response he said "But seriously James, there are so many greater wrongs in the world on which to exercise our Christian concern, such as the wrongs of genocide, abortion and war in our world. In the face of such wrongs, I don't think this is a major breach (if a breach it is at all) which need overly preoccupy you.".

But seriously, this argument is false. We need to ditch the relativism. The fact that skipping a mass is not as bad as rape does not make it okay. Our entire culture justifies itself on not being as bad as some other comparably worse thing. This is how cohabitation, divorce, contraception and even abortion become so readily accepted, because I'm not a bad person, because I haven't actually tortured somebody to death.

Priests need to teach (with qualifiers of course, the housebound etc) that if you don't go to mass every week, you need to seriously entertain the notion that perhaps you are not a good Catholic but they need to explain that they are not therefore writing you off as completely evil. To be honest, I think it's time we dropped the term 'good Catholic'. We're all of us sometimes good and sometimes bad.

In Fit For Mission - Church [PDF] the Bishop of Lancaster puts it this way...

As your bishop, observing this forgetfulness taking place among us has been a source of great sadness to me:

• Those who ignore their responsibility to God and neighbour forget they are Catholic.
• Those who deliberately miss Sunday Mass forget they are Catholic.
• Those who never pray forget they are Catholic.
  Those who deny they are sinners and avoid confession forget they are Catholic.
• Those who live oblivious to the suffering of the poor forget they are Catholic.
• Those who dissent from the authority of the Church forget they are Catholic.
• Those who use contraception, IVF and embryonic stem cell research forget they are Catholic.
• Those who use pornography forget they are Catholic.
• Those who have sex outside of marriage forget they are Catholic.
• Those who commit homosexual acts forget they are Catholic.
• Those who exploit their power and position forget they are Catholic.
• Those who cheat on benefits or taxes forget they are Catholic.
• Those employers who exploit their workforce forget they are Catholic.
• Those who have racist, sexist or homophobic attitudes forget they are Catholic.

According to The Tablet, 43% of Catholics forget they are Catholic. Looking at that list, I reckon all of us forget at times. I wonder when our Priests are going to start reminding us.

I saw this and thought of the Faith Movement (I reckon they would like it)...

If you can't handle the swearing, you should be reading "Mormon and Loving it!" instead...

The following story is not for the sqeamish. Do not read this while standing up or eating. Have a glass of water by your side. I am typing this with one hand. It is taking ages, but I have ages because I'm not really able to do anything.

Our story begins with Mark and Monica, our friends in Italy who are to be married this weekend. We were due to go out to Italy for the wedding but due to reasons that are best described as "there are three of us managing on a single paltry northern income" we decided that it was not financially viable. We had the choice a while back between being people who can afford a car and trips to Italy or being people with a baby. We went with the baby and it was the right choice.

So, Mark and Monica are getting married and I decide to use my novice wood carving skills to carve them a wedding present. You don't really save money doing this, oak is not cheap and the piece I sourced (you don't 'buy' wood, you 'source' it) costs more than a toaster. Oh, and it takes ages to do. Anyway I thought it would be nice to do this wood carving (I'm not going to say too much about it so there's at least a bit of suspense) because it would be a bit more personal than a toaster and Ella prefers me to carve gifts because it means she doesn't end up with a house full of wood. Like I said, it takes ages and yesterday I was just finishing it off.

It was about 3pm and I had just made Leona a cheese sandwich for lunch. She was having a late lunch because she had slept a very long time that morning and I hadn't woke her so I could get on with my carving. While she sat in the high chair and munched away in the next room I thought I'd have a cup of tea and I decided to just scrape a couple more slithers off the wood while the kettle boiled.

I don't really remember what happened next. I was pushing the chisel through the wood when something slipped and the chisel slipped off and slammed in to my right hand. I was using a 'V' tool and one of the upper parts of the 'V' shape cut a line about an inch and a half long and really deep. Now, you have to remember here that I'm not prone to exaggeration, I'm a man who goes to see an all time classic film and then describes it as 'alright'. The cut was an inch long, it was deep. I could see parts of the inside of my hand that no man is supposed to see. Yellow parts (fat) and stringly parts (veins and tendons).

The body is remarkably good at dealing with this kind of situation, I looked at my hand and it looked fake. Like plasticine. It didn't really hurt (adrenaline) but I figured I would probably need to go to the hospital. My first thought was not "Aaarrrghh, my hand! my hand!" as you might expect but annoyance. I was really really annoyed that I was going to have to go to the hospital. Pretty soon it started to well up with blood. In hindsight it was less blood than you would expect for such a hole but I recognised the need for something to soak it up. We have no kitchen roll left (I was carving in the kitchen) and so I made my was to the dining room and did my best not to let Leona see as I ruined the table cloth and got some kleenex. I was a bit worried the tissue would stick but what choice did I have?

Usually when I nick myself there's a little blood and when it's wiped up the wound is blood free until a little more blood seeps in. There was no seeping here. As quick as I soaked tissues in blood more blood came and more tissues were required. I got to the phone and had the shortest phone call I've ever had with Ella's mum. "Do you have the car?" "Can you come and take me to the hospital I've cut my hand very badly" "Thanks, see you soon!". Ella's mum know my penchant for understating things so she knew it must be bad. She didn't give me any of that "Are you sure it needs the hospital, put a plaster on it" nonsense. She got in the car with Ella and they set off immediately.

Meanwhile it was clear I needed to do more than grip kleenex and hold my hand in the air. I ran upstairs and got the medical box from which I took some steri-strips. James' top tip for everybody: Get some steri-strips. They are not cheap but they are amazing. They are what doctors use in place of stitches on medium sized cuts. They are duck tape for the body.

Of course, to use steri-strips you need scissors and our medical box has scissors but blow me down if I could find them. I ended up grabbing some of Ella's craft scissors which were visibly grubby but again, what choice did I have? I used the steri-strips to hold the flaps of skin together. This was trickier than it sounds because I was working one handed and because the inside of my hand is made of mush so the flaps of skin were folding in on themselves. I can only describe it as trying to use one hand to tape together two sheets of floppy soggy paper which are floating on thick custard. I had to use the stickyness of the steri-strips to lift the skin out so I could line it up and tape it together. Have I mentioned that all the while I was doing this, I was also trying to kep on top of the blood flow and that steri-strips, awesome as they are, don't stick too well to blood.

I got there in the end though and it really did help slow the flow, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off. Where was Ella's mum and the car? Leona was calling so I went in with my now much cleaner hand and explained what had happened. I don't think she understood a word I was saying, I had a sudden urge for a glass of water, I got in the kitchen and suddenly was feeling feint so I sat on the floor, head between my knees. I felt better so I had a drink and felt better still. I kept my hand high above my head for a while and then decided in the interests of speed to get Leona in the car seat. I don't know how I did it, I lifted her using my arms and no hands and she was cooperative.

Finally, Ella came to the door. I hopped in her mum's car and we were on our way to Hull Royal. Ella's mum dropped us off at A&E while she kindly took Leona home to look after her. The service at A&E was very good, the lady at reception was talking to somebody else but as soon as she saw me she immediately ended the conversation and came to my aid. I was lead in to a small room where a nurse did the whole 'can you bend your fingers?' thing and then sent me for an x-ray with a form that said 'severe laceration'. They did the whole 'can you bend your fingers?' thing again. Every time they bent my fingers the whole wound went funny and sort of slid around inside. I wish they would tell each other that they already did it. I was zapped with gamma radiation and they established that my bones had escaped unscathed.

Then, we waited. I was to see the doctor and the doctor was busy. Now things took a while but eventually I was called in and, yes, he did the 'can you bend your fingers?' thing. He made me open and close my fist which felt like squelching a handful of grapes. Ewww. He felt around inside my hand with his little finger and then, well, then things went a bit Monty Python.

The doctor went over the corridor to have a discreet talk with one of the nurses about my hand, only she clearly wasn't aware that I was stood five feet away because she loudly said things like "No! Don't make it worse!" and then explained to him how to set about fixing my wound. You need to 'explore' it, she said. So he came back with some tools and had a poke around inside. Then he went back and asked what to do next, she told him to wash it and then put some stitches in.

He put a paper blanket over me which I commented was 'very star wars' which it was but he laughed awkwardly like a man in trouble. Then he took a syringe and injected me six times with something to numb my hand. They were the six most painful injections of my life, I think because of how tough the skin on the palm is. Next he used a syringe minus the needle to squirt huge quantities of sterilised water in to my wound until he was satisfied it was clean.

The stitches came next, the nurse handed the doctor a sewing kit thing and said "are you okay" and he said "um, er, yes". I have seven stitches in my hand, but two of them are right on top of each other so it's a six stitch wound really. The little half moon sewing needle thing passed through my hand nine times. The first time, the doctor pulled the needle through and then so far away that all the thread followed after. I used to make that mistake sewing badges on my scout uniform. On another occasion he put the needle through too close to the wound and when he tightened the knot the string just tore through my skin and came away. Fun and games. Towards the end the anti-pain stuff started to wear off and I was weighing up in my head whether to mention it and have another six painful injections or just to endure the pain of the last few stitches. I went with endurance and it hurt like hell, but on reflection, I think it hurt less than the injections.

He tested the wound a little by poking and squeezing it and as he did so yellow fat squirted out between the stitches. Then I was bandaged up and sent on my way. As I was leaving the nurse explained that I had had 'minor surgery' on my hand and advised me not to get it wet, lift anything or risk taking it to work. Ella's dad took picked us up and took us all out for a meal to celebrate Ella's brother's GCSE results which were really good. I had pizza because you can eat pizza with one hand.

I've been off since then, bored out of my head unable to blog, unable to play computer games, unable to do much really. Writing this blog entry one handed has taken so long that I went back to work yesterday and this morning the stitches are coming out. I'll let you know how I get on.

This is beautiful...

That faithful to the sacrament of matrimony every Christian family may cultivate the values of love and communion in order to be a small evangelizing community, sensitive and open to the material and spiritual needs of others.

Hi there readers,

I am posting to inform you that James will not be blogging for a while as he has injured himself! The term the hospital used was "Severe Laceration". That is right, James by the mercy of God did not chop off his fingers but it was a near miss. Whilst doing his beloved wood carving James tried to take a shortcut. The message to be learned here is NEVER TAKE SHORTCUTS especially if they involve blades or maybe fire.

We managed to get to A&E ok and it was that bad that we did not even make it to the waiting area we were just rushed straight in! A bit of prodding and an x-ray later and he was fine to be stitched up. We were advised that he should not use his hand for heavy lifting or typing to ensure that it is properly healed and that no damage to tendons would occur... we don't want him to loose the use of a finger!

I will post anything he wants of particular importance but as you know I am personally rubbish at blogging so you may have to wait!

Oh, Mark and Monica we have not forgotten to send your wedding prezzie it's just James needs to regain the use of his hand before we can finish it to send it... I am sure you will cope :o)

Over and out.

I love how the seminarian speaks in Roman numerals... but seriously, there is a lot of good here. This is taken from a recent Q&A session between the Pope and seminarians.

Michael Horrer, Seminarian: Holy Father, my name is Michael Horrer and I am a seminarian. On the occasion of the XXIII World Youth Day of Sydney, in Australia, in which I took part with other young people of our diocese, you constantly reaffirmed to the 400,000 youth present the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in us young people and in the Church. The theme of the Day was: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1: 8).

We young people have now returned -- strengthened by the Holy Spirit and by his words - to our homes, our dioceses and our daily lives.

Holy Father, how can we live the gifts of the Holy Spirit in practice, here in our country and in our daily lives, in such a way that our relatives, friends and acquaintances feel and experience his power, and how can we exercise our mission as Christ's witnesses? What can you advise us in order to ensure that our diocese stays young, despite the aging of the clergy, so that it also stays open to the Spirit of God who guides the Church?

Benedict XVI: Thank you for your question. I am glad to see a seminarian, a candidate for the priesthood of this diocese, in whose face, in a certain sense, I can rediscover the young face of the diocese. And I am glad to hear that, together with others, you were in Sydney where at a great celebration of faith we experienced together precisely that the Church is young.

For Australians too, it was an important experience. At first they looked at this World Youth Day with great skepticism because it would obviously cause a lot of bother and many inconveniences to daily life, such as traffic jams, etc.

However, in the end -- as we also saw in the media whose prejudices crumbled, bit by bit -- everyone felt involved in this atmosphere of joy and faith; they saw that young people come and do not create problems of security or of any other kind but can be together joyfully.

They saw that faith today is a force that is present, a force that can give people the right orientation. This is why there was a moment in which we truly felt the breath of the Holy Spirit who sweeps away prejudices, who makes people understand that yes, here we find what closely affects us, this is the direction in which we must go; and in this way we can live, in this way the future unfolds.

You rightly said this was a strong moment of which we would take home with us a little spark. In daily life however, it is far more difficult in practice to perceive the action of the Holy Spirit, or even to be personally a means to enable him to be present, to ensure the presence of that breath which sweeps away the prejudices of time, which creates light in the darkness and makes us feel not only that faith has a future but that it is the future.

How can we do this? We cannot of course do it on our own. In the end, it is the Lord who helps us but we must be available as instruments. I would say simply: no one can give what he does not personally possess; in other words we cannot pass on the Holy Spirit effectively or make him perceptible to others unless we ourselves are close to him.

This is why I think that the most important thing is that we ourselves remain, so to speak, within the radius of the Holy Spirit's breath, in contact with him. Only if we are continually touched within by the Holy Spirit, if he dwells in us, will it be possible for us to pass him on to others.

Then he gives us the imagination and creative ideas about how to act, ideas that cannot be planned but are born from the situation itself, because it is there that the Holy Spirit is at work. Thus, the first point: we ourselves must remain within the radius of the Holy Spirit's breath.

John's Gospel tell us that after the Resurrection the Lord went to his disciples, breathed upon them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." This is a parallel to Genesis, where God breathes on the mixture he made with the dust from the earth and it comes to life and becomes man.

Then man, who is inwardly darkened and half dead, receives Christ's breath anew and it is this breath of God that gives his life a new dimension, that gives him life with the Holy Spirit.

We can say, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is the breath of Jesus Christ and we, in a certain sense, must ask Christ to breathe on us always, so that his breath will become alive and strong and work upon the world. This means that we must keep close to Christ.

We do so by meditating on his Word. We know that the principal author of the sacred Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. When through his Word we speak with God, when we do not only seek the past in it but truly the Lord who is present and speaks to us, then -- as I said in Australia -- it is as if we were to find ourselves strolling in the garden of the Holy Spirit; we talk to him and he talks to us.

Here, learning to be at home in this environment, in the environment of the Word of God, is a very important thing which, in a certain sense, introduces us into the breath of God. And then, naturally, this listening, walking in the environment of the Word must be transformed into a response, a response in prayer, in contact with Christ.

And of course, first of all in the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist in which he comes to us and enters us and is, as it were, amalgamated with us. Then, however, also in the sacrament of penance, which always purifies us, which washes away the grime that daily life deposits in us.

In short, it is a life with Christ in the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God and in the communion of the Church, in her community. St Augustine said: "If you desire the Spirit of God, you must be in the Body of Christ." Christ's Spirit moves within the Mystical Body of Christ.

All this must determine the shape that our day takes in such a way that it becomes structured, a day in which God has access to us all the time, in which we are in continuous contact with Christ and in which, for this very reason, we are continuously receiving the breath of the Holy Spirit.

If we do this, if we are not too lazy, undisciplined or sluggish, then something happens to us: the day acquires a form and in it our life itself acquires a form and this light will shine from us without us having to give it much thought or having to adopt a "propagandist" -- so to speak -- way of acting: It comes automatically because it mirrors our soul. To this I would then add a second dimension that is logically linked with the first: If we live with Christ we will also succeed in human things.

Indeed, faith does not only involve a supernatural aspect, it rebuilds man, bringing him back to his humanity, as that parallel between Genesis and John 20 shows: It is based precisely on the natural virtues: honesty, joy, the willingness to listen to one's neighbor, the ability to forgive, generosity, goodness and cordiality among people.

These human virtues show that faith is truly present, that we are truly with Christ and I believe that we should pay great attention to this, also regarding ourselves: To develop an authentic humanity in ourselves because faith involves the complete fulfillment of the human being, of humanity.

We should pay attention to carrying out human tasks well and correctly, also in our profession, in respect for our neighbor, in being concerned about our neighbor, which is the best way to be concerned about ourselves: In fact, "existing" for our neighbor is the best way of "existing" for ourselves.

And the latter subsequently gives rise to those initiatives that cannot be programmed: communities of prayer, communities that read the Bible together or that even provide effective help for people in need, who require it, who are on the margins of life, for the sick, for the disabled and many other things. This is when our eyes are opened to see our personal skills, to assume the corresponding initiatives and to be able to imbue others with the courage to do the same. And precisely these human things can strengthen us, in a certain way putting us in touch anew with God's Spirit.

The head of the Order of the Knights of Malta in Rome told me that at Christmas he went to the station with several young people to take a bit of Christmas to the homeless. While he himself was turning back, he heard one young man telling another: "This is more powerful than the discothèque. It is really beautiful here because I can do something for others!" These are the initiatives that the Holy Spirit inspires in us. With few words they enable us to feel the Spirit's power and we are made attentive to Christ.

Well, perhaps I have not said very practical things just now, but I believe the most important thing is, first of all, that our life should be oriented to the Holy Spirit, because we live in the milieu of the Spirit, in the body of Christ, and from this we experience humanization, we nurture the simple human virtues and thus learn to be good in the broadest sense of the word. Thus, one acquires a sensitivity for good initiatives which later, of course, develop a missionary force and in a certain sense prepare the ground for the moment when it becomes reasonable and comprehensible to speak of Christ and of our faith.

[link]

"Well, perhaps I have not said very practical things just now" - Wow, I wonder what he says when he get's really practical...

This is genius...

For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.

[link]

But sixteen pints! Sixteen!

The other day I mentioned that getting to Osmotherley for the Pilgrimage to Mount Grace depended on me getting stuff done. That wasn't entirely true. What it depended on really was Michelle. Michelle who kindly drove us to Osmotherley. It was heaving it down when Michelle turned up at our house and she kindly humoured us when we insisted on going to Sainsburys for some waterproof clothing for Leona. Waterproof clothes for Babies are very sexist. We ended up buying boy ones because the girl ones seem to be designed on the principle that baby girls don't go out in the rain.

Unfortunately, we neglected to take a map. Our knowledge of the roads in the North Yorkshire Moors is not bad but, well, not good enough. Fortunately the owners manual for Michelle's car had a map showing the location of the various dealerships and we were able to use that map to get as far as Helmsley. After Helmsley, things went a bit wrong. The dealership map only showed major roads and Osmotherley isn't on any major roads. I took my best guess at it's approximate location and got it wrong, not far wrong, but far enough that we ended up driving all the way over the moors and out of the North end to the Stokesley roundabout from where we had to head back on ourselves to get to Osmotherley which was happily signposted from the A19.

Oh well... we arrived in good time and glorious sunshine and had a walk down in to the village where we had the pleasure to use the Toilet of the Year 2004 (they had a certificate on the wall and everything). After that, we sat on a park bench and had sandwiches and watched some chickens. This was an ideal opportunity to try out Leona's brand new wellington boots as the ground was still a little wet after the morning downpour.

After sandwiches we couldn't resist having a cup of tea and slice of cake in Church House. The ladies there had made an overwhelming array of cakes to choose from! I had carrot cake which is my all time favourite cake, Ella had walnut cake and Michelle had some kind of Pavlova. Leona had a bit of everybody's and became better acquainted with a hen. All caked up we set off through the village and stopped off at the Catholic Church, the Church in Osmotherley is interesting because it doesn't look like a Church. It was built at a time when anti-Catholic feeling was running high and there was a need to keep a low profile. From the outside it looks like any other house in the village, you can see in this photo of the interior how the Church is practically hidden in the roof with sash windows to match the rest of the village...

We hoofed it up through the village to the Lady chapel for to say the rosary before Mass, we were just saying hello to Bishop Drainey who always makes an effort to get around and talk to people when we were approached by photographer Mike Morrisey who took our photo with the Bishop for the Catholic Times so now we are famous at last. We also unexpectedly bumped in to our parish priest Fr Massie who is away on holiday. We asked why he was working when he is on holiday and he said "this isn't work, this is pleasure".

It was a lovely sunny day, too sunny perhaps. We sat on our coats on the wet grass and when I put the camera down it steamed up. I put another layer of factor 40 on the babe as mass began. I thought the liturgical setup was a great improvement on the last time, as temporary altars go it was really quite tasteful with wind proof candles and everything. I still don't entirely understand why Bishop Terence hasn't started using the Benedictine Altar Arrangement. I know Pope Benedict hasn't mandated it, but he has set a clear example even using it at the closing mass at World Youth Day in Sydney. Do we generously follow the Pope's example or do we only follow him when he spells it out?

Another complaint... earthenware bowls. Reprobated, therefore, is any practice of using for the celebration of Mass common vessels, or others lacking in quality, or devoid of all artistic merit or which are mere containers, as also other vessels made from glass, earthenware, clay, or other materials that break easily. - Redemptionis Sacramentum 117 I wonder if these are the same earthenware bowls that featured at the Postgate Rally.

The pluses however far outweighed the negative... We actually sang some actual latin. That's right, and nobody died or anything. So it turns out it can be done! And Bishop Terence gave a beautiful and deeply personal homily, I'm going to steal some of it from Bashing Secularism who is a proper journalist and therefore wrote some of it down.

Over the last month I've taken the opportunity to have a break - a holiday. It was an important moment for me because of what happened to me over the last six months. I've not really had the time or the opportunity to reflect and ponder on everything that's happened. The strange thing though is that I began to go through my thoughts and feelings right back to the time when I was asked to be your bishop. The only way I could express them to myself was in terms of a dying, of a grieving and a mourning for something which apparently was being suddenly taken away from me.

I expect it's the fact that the position and life of a bishop is so public and to a certain extent it was the end of me as a private person - and there's a lot of private person within me. It was a genuine process of grieving and mourning. A wave of emotion would cut through me at the most unexpected moments and I could do nothing about it until it had literally taken it's course.

At times like that you need people around you who have experienced something similar who can not only sympathise but can empathise.

I've no doubt that there are people here who are going through periods of grief or mourning. Perhaps someone close has died - a husband, a wife, a family member, a close friend. Perhaps it's another type of grieving over a relationship, a change in your life where you've had to leave something of great value behind you. The last thing you want to hear in these types of situations is 'For goodness sake, pull yourself together. Get on with life.'

Yes there's a time to hear that and a time to respond to it. But we have to mourn, we have to grieve, it's a very basic human thing to do. We literally need a shoulder to cry on, someone to support us and stand by us, someone who has been there, who has passed through that door as well.

..."Mary followed Jesus on the way of the cross. For her it was not a devotional prayer but the reality of her son's final hours on this earth with a painful, shameful death. She knew what grieving and mourning were all about.

..."Refuge in grief, star of the sea pray for the mourner pray for me.

..."At the foot of the cross, Mary was given to us in the person of John as Our Mother too.

..."Where she has gone, we too, by God's grace, should also aspire to go."

[link]

Bishop Drainey exhorted everybody to spread the word about the shrine to Our Lady at Mount Grace and described it as the diocesan shrine to Our Lady. He used her title "Our Lady of Mount Grace" and said that this pilgrimage to Mount Grace is the most important diocesan pilgrimage after Lourdes. I remember he used equally strong language about Nicholas Postgate at the Postgate Rally (he couldn't attend but he sent a letter). He is clearly a man who highly values what he described as "local patrimony" and that's a really good thing.

Leona kicked off a bit during the Eucharistic Prayer so I had to take her to the back where some kind people offered to let us go and sit in the house but Leona was having none of it, she kicked until I put her down on the muddy floor (in her wellies of course) and then she walked all the way through the crowd back to where mummy was sitting.

After the beautiful sunshine it started to rain almost as soon as the mass was ended. We had a cup of tea and a piece of cake in the rain. A lady introduced herself who reads this very blog and knows all about Fr Tim Finigan, Bashing Secularism and ourselves. She told a beautiful story about her husband who having been diagnosed with a terminal illness and only a short time to live was asked if there was anywhere he would like to go. He chose the shrine to our Lady at Mount Grace and so it was on Mount Grace that he spent his last day before he died. It really is a special place to so many people in so many ways.

The rain gave Leona an opportunity to try on her new raincoat and wellies in proper rain. Fr Massie said she didn't look very happy but I think she was loving it. She had that focussed look of a baby really concentrating on experiencing something. Of course, in the photo she looks like she's about to cry but it wasn't like that......

You can decide for yourself whether that constitutes child abuse or an important character building experience. We didn't leave her standing in the rain for very long and when I picked her up she wanted down again but I took her inside anyway. We visited the little shop and looked for children's books but were disappointed. They had a couple of really wordy ones but nothing for Leona aged kiddies, if anybody has any tips for good "I can't read but I like to turn sturdy pages and look at colourful pictures" religious books for toddlers then I'm all ears. We'd like something for her to do in mass but not too distracting.

We bumped in to Jane Cook, the Diocesan Adult Formation Advisor. That was really good because I've found things a little awkward there, I sent her an email earlier this year that caused more bad feeling than I had anticipated (it wasn't supposed to cause any bad feeling, it was just supposed to draw attention to something). I didn't want to fall out with Jane but I was (and still am) hurt by the way Fr John Lumley responded. If I spoke to anybody like that at work I'd be sacked immediately. I now know what people mean when say they were treated as though they were doing something wrong by complaining. I was told I was not being generous and should simply trust my parish priest. My reply to that letter was ignored.

Anyway, I am grateful to Jane because it was she who started speaking to me, something I would have found difficult with the awkwardness I was feeling between us. My thanks to Jane for taking that step. It turns out Osmotherley is her home parish which must be amazing. We left Jane stranded at the top of the mountain, their car was blocked in and they couldn't leave until all the other cars had left. We walked down the hill to the car and Michelle took us home by a far more sensible route of Michelle's design.

Poor Michelle, something went wrong in her car and the battery light came on and the power steering stopped working... she had to keep the engine running for fear the car wouldn't start again and use all her muscles to get the car around roundabouts. She dropped us off without stopping the engine. Thanks again to Michelle for the lift, it was a great day.

We began our celebrations with a Vigil Mass on Thursday. Fr Massie is on holiday at the moment so Fr Stephen Maughan said the mass and gave an excellent homily with many interesting connections between the Old and New Testaments regarding Mary, the Ark of the Covenant etc. He also sang the Sanctus (in latin) and he sang most (if not all) of the Eucharistic Prayer (in English).

It all fits in rather well with my own rather generous interpretation of Sacrosanctum Concilium which doesn't say "chuck the Latin, use English" but instead says the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin and then But since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended. and then steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.

If anybody wants to take those steps, so that we may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to us, we are very much interested. It would be brilliant if Fr William were to invite Fr Stephen to come around one Saturday afternoon and help him put on some kind of latin chant workshop at St Josephs. The Second Vatican Council says that 'steps should be taken' and the fact that fourty years on steps have not been taken brings the phrase 'silence of dissent' to mind once again.

Anyways... feast of the assumption. Leona walked pretty much all the way home from mass. We carried her over roads (too dangerous) and it was game over when we passed the cake shop... she just stands and stares at it until we pick her up and carry her away. Speaking of cakes, we celebrated the actual feast of the assumption with a blue Mary cake. We've taken Joanna Bogle's trinity cake idea and ran with it, freestyle...

Ella wanted the cake to literally be blue, so she put blue food colouring in the cake mix. Alas, cakes are not white, but yellow. So when you put blue food colouring in they come out green...

If anybody knows how to make a cake be blue then let us know... I expect the answer is to triple the dose of food colouring. Having said that, we need to start being careful about the chemical content of our cakes. Somebody is turning in to a cake junkie...

Hopefully she'll sleep it off. All in all we've had a good Feast of the Assumption. On Sunday there's a Pilgrimage to Mount Grace. I hope we can go... but it depends on me getting lots of stuff done on Saturday... so we'll see.