Sunday 23 November 2014

Turning back to the beginning

Almost time for this again.

Sunday 16 November 2014

Confession British Style

Was talking to a friend yesterday and the subject of where do you go to Confession came up and I said, mostly Westminster Cathedral.

We both agreed we like the queue there. A lot.

I also like the anonymity, the proper box and labour under the idea that I get the priest I need/deserve.

So in the spirit of democratic memes:

Where do you prefer to go to Confession and why?

Only positive reasons will be posted.

So no horror stories, thanks.
We all have one of those t shirts.

Getting a bit of context

So having read the chatty book on St John Paul II, it's time to get some perspective on post-war Europe, behind the Iron Curtain.

Enter Anne Applebaum.

Didn't know quite how many people were arrested by the NKVD, post-45, how many people disappeared into the Gulag system or were placed in newly vacated German concentration camps.

Then there's the huge population movements as those pesky millions who live the wrong side of the border or who are ethnically German or perhaps have a German surname, but haven't spoken German for a few generations get booted about the place.

And I've only read the first third.

Friday 14 November 2014

Quiet City

Conducted this last night, amongst other things.

Sunday 9 November 2014

Commemorated in perpetuity

By the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Thiepval Memorial.

Lance Corporal Michael Higgins MM, RIP
7493 Second Battalion Irish Guards.
Enlisted Ennis, Co Clare
Killed on the Somme 15th September 1916

My Great great uncle.

His brother, Thomas, returned with a damaged foot.

His brother, Richard, my great grandfather returned with frostbite and shell shock.

It's good to think that one of the poppies at the Tower of London is for him, one of the 888 246, British and Commonwealth war dead from WWI.



Thursday 6 November 2014

Veritatis Splendor

Is what I was reading on the train last night, because I'm not in a light reading frame if mind.

According to some, it appears that one no longer need acknowledge the enduring absoluteness of any moral value. All around us we encounter contempt for human life after conception and before birth; the ongoing violation of basic rights of the person; the unjust destruction of goods minimally necessary for a human life. Indeed, something more serious has happened: man is no longer convinced that only in the truth can he find salvation. The saving power of the truth is contested, and freedom alone, uprooted from any objectivity, is left to decide by itself what is good and what is evil. This relativism becomes, in the field of theology, a lack of trust in the wisdom of God, who guides man with the moral law. Concrete situations are unfavourably contrasted with the precepts of the moral law, nor is it any longer maintained that, when all is said and done, the law of God is always the one true good of man"


Via ipieta.

But then I got home and read Bishop Athanasius Schneider. :-)

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Nos Da

Ar hyd y nos.

Holl amrantau'r sêr ddywedant
Ar hyd y nos
"Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant,"
Ar hyd y nos.
Golau arall yw tywyllwch
I arddangos gwir brydferthwch
Teulu'r nefoedd mewn tawelwch
Ar hyd y nos.
O mor siriol, gwena seren
Ar hyd y nos
I oleuo'i chwaer ddaearen
Ar hyd y nos.
Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd
Ond i harddu dyn a'i hwyrddydd
Rhown ein golau gwan i'n gilydd
Ar hyd y nos.



Sunday 2 November 2014

Calendar Confusion

Today being 2nd Nov is:

Rome. All Souls Day
E&W All Saints Day (OF)
EF everywhere 21st Sunday after Pentecost

Next Sunday in the OF, is it

The nth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Remembrance Sunday?

Or d, 'none of the above'?

'This year celebrated on,' is a brilliant way of communicating the shifting sands that the Church has chosen to build herself on just now.

Why not go the hole hog, fix Easter and move Christmas to the third Sunday of December? I'd have suggested the fourth Sunday, but that would sometimes clash with New Year's Eve and we can't do anything that might upset the secular applecart.


Saturday 1 November 2014

Another non-question

Who should pick the music?

It's already been picked.

P.1724 LU 1961

Introit for All Saints.

If you want to pick music, you need to be the conductor of a secular ensemble or choir.

We spend a lot of time at work discussing repertoire, editions and how we are going to source the score and parts. Then we have to crow bar rehearsals into a packed working week.

On Monday, I conducted an extract of a Haydn oratorio at Prize Day. You will be fascinated to know that the orchestral parts were printed off IMSLP, my HoD sourced a continuo part for the chamber organ we hired, from I don't know where and I got the full score (Dover Edition) from Schott's Great Marlborough St. The choir parts, he did.