Saturday, 31 July 2010
Friday, 30 July 2010
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Twenty Five Pounds
Today's Papal Visit Controversy is that folks will have to pay to go to one of the events.
When I travel I pay my own fares.
National Express London-Birmingham return on the Sunday, arriving at 9.50am, so probably cutting it a bit fine, is £17.50 for an adult. I would have to pay £7.60 for a travelcard to get o Victoria Coach station, plus something in Brum to get me to Crofton Park.
By Train, you would have to drive to Euston to get the first train out of London, or take the last train into Town on the Saturday night and then sleep on the station, not generally recommended. The single fare is £44.80. So the return is probably £45.50, arriving Birminham New Street at 10.30am, so a bit late. Then you've got to get to Crofton Park.
That's just one example. SE London is not the furthest point in England or Wales from Birmingham. You can do Newcastle-Brum, Newquay-Brum and see if the travelling is easier on a Sunday. Conversely, presumably if you live in Brum £25 will exceed the notional costs of getting to the Mass.
Just as the universal postal service subsidises some letters, so some pilgrims will be subisidising others and in more ways than one, since no doubt people for whom the cost is prohibitive will pay nothing, which is only right.
£25, not much a story really.
Before the readers of The Independent get too irrate, I'll just say that I'm really happy to pay three times towards this visit, as a tax payer, in that collection and the money asked for to go to Birmingham.
Happy. Happy. Happy. :-)
When I travel I pay my own fares.
National Express London-Birmingham return on the Sunday, arriving at 9.50am, so probably cutting it a bit fine, is £17.50 for an adult. I would have to pay £7.60 for a travelcard to get o Victoria Coach station, plus something in Brum to get me to Crofton Park.
By Train, you would have to drive to Euston to get the first train out of London, or take the last train into Town on the Saturday night and then sleep on the station, not generally recommended. The single fare is £44.80. So the return is probably £45.50, arriving Birminham New Street at 10.30am, so a bit late. Then you've got to get to Crofton Park.
That's just one example. SE London is not the furthest point in England or Wales from Birmingham. You can do Newcastle-Brum, Newquay-Brum and see if the travelling is easier on a Sunday. Conversely, presumably if you live in Brum £25 will exceed the notional costs of getting to the Mass.
Just as the universal postal service subsidises some letters, so some pilgrims will be subisidising others and in more ways than one, since no doubt people for whom the cost is prohibitive will pay nothing, which is only right.
£25, not much a story really.
Before the readers of The Independent get too irrate, I'll just say that I'm really happy to pay three times towards this visit, as a tax payer, in that collection and the money asked for to go to Birmingham.
Happy. Happy. Happy. :-)
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Monday, 26 July 2010
Sunday, 25 July 2010
St James
One of the things ( and there are quite a few, as it goes,) that I like about the EF Mass is that sometimes on a Sunday, it's a big Feast and even when it's not those Saints who might have had their day, don't get forgotten.
And it is good to be able to think about the folks who have actually done the pilgrimage to Compostella on the actual day.
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Protect the Pope
I had a little look at Protest the Pope this morning. Not pleasant.
I had to jump into a conversation on Tuesday, which was about to go down the, '20 million, why all the money? Pope ha, ha.' line before that happened and declare myself, after which point everyone else brought themselves back from the brink.
Protect the Pope looks really good.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Team via Romea update
After a ding dong with a lamp post (ouch and after 890 miles) Gregory is recooperating with the Friars of the Immaculate in Florence before heading, by train, on to Rome.
Anna Marie and Joseph continue on two wheels.
Read about it here.
They've nearly got to £3k too.
Still time to donate....
Anna Marie and Joseph continue on two wheels.
Read about it here.
They've nearly got to £3k too.
Still time to donate....
Monday, 19 July 2010
Allotment News
Now it's the Summer hols, those would be those secret ones teachers have, it's time for the allotment diet game. This is where you can eat whatever you like in the veg/fruit dept as long a you have grown it yourself, but you are allowed to buy bananas as they are not native to Kent (yet - who says global warming, if it exists is all bad?)
At present, it could be renamed the 'if you don't go round and water your allotment, you are going to be hungry' diet game. Courgettes, if not watered, turn yellow and then drop off the plant. Not very appetising!
Hopefully, my beans will have grown enough by next Sunday that I will be able to have them for lunch with my parents. That will mean pots, beans, courgettes and onions and bananas!
No I don't get bored because the pleasure of eating stuff I have grown from seed outweighs the number of courgettes I have to eat. I could happily live on ratatouille! Yum.
At present, it could be renamed the 'if you don't go round and water your allotment, you are going to be hungry' diet game. Courgettes, if not watered, turn yellow and then drop off the plant. Not very appetising!
Hopefully, my beans will have grown enough by next Sunday that I will be able to have them for lunch with my parents. That will mean pots, beans, courgettes and onions and bananas!
No I don't get bored because the pleasure of eating stuff I have grown from seed outweighs the number of courgettes I have to eat. I could happily live on ratatouille! Yum.
A prayer meme
from Mac.
I think this is going to get a bit repetitive.
1 The Hail Mary
2 The Our Father
3 The Prayer in my Missal for when you've just been to Confession and the O salutaris hostia.
Doing this quickly before everyone else has already had a go.
I tag
Patricius, Patricius, Ben Trovato, Seraphic goes to Scotland and anyone else who fancies a go.
I think this is going to get a bit repetitive.
1 The Hail Mary
2 The Our Father
3 The Prayer in my Missal for when you've just been to Confession and the O salutaris hostia.
Doing this quickly before everyone else has already had a go.
I tag
Patricius, Patricius, Ben Trovato, Seraphic goes to Scotland and anyone else who fancies a go.
Saturday, 17 July 2010
St John Roberts
born Trawsfynydd
martyred Tyburn 1610
In between he studied at Oxford, went to Douai, Paris, Compostella, became a Benedictine, founded Downside and I have lost count of how many times he came to England before being banished, ministered to plague victims before being arrested after offering Mass, refused to sign on the dotted line and was martyred. A man of tremendous energy.
A bit of a 'do' this pm at Westminster Cathedral.
We saw the man who does the Bidding Prayers in Pothmadog, who is either a Headmaster or just has the presence of one. Last time we went there they went BP1 Pope Benedict. BP2 'that this country may return to the Faith' etc.
The winner of the 2009 National Eisteddfod U12 Cerdd Dant sang a poem about St JR. We sat right by where she was singing and it was worth going just to hear her voice.
Various other Welsh glitterati were there and Rowan Williams spoke.
Anglicansism to me seems to start by saying what I'm thinking, tell me it's too naive/simplistic, then tie me up in knots and finish proposing that we be joyous, whilst sounding unconvinced and disapointed.
I'm just not hard-wired that way.
And the rest shall be glossed over.
The singing was mighty and bilingual. The sound was undimmed whether it be singing through the medium of English or Welsh.
As I hesitated over whether this 'y' was i, u or ee, others were singing with gusto and in SATB, for the music was printed in our booklets. The Welsh; bilingual and able to read music.
PS My Greatgrandmother had a greengrocer's shop in Traws, so this is local. Not just a lake and a Magnox Nuclear Reactor, y'know.
martyred Tyburn 1610
In between he studied at Oxford, went to Douai, Paris, Compostella, became a Benedictine, founded Downside and I have lost count of how many times he came to England before being banished, ministered to plague victims before being arrested after offering Mass, refused to sign on the dotted line and was martyred. A man of tremendous energy.
A bit of a 'do' this pm at Westminster Cathedral.
We saw the man who does the Bidding Prayers in Pothmadog, who is either a Headmaster or just has the presence of one. Last time we went there they went BP1 Pope Benedict. BP2 'that this country may return to the Faith' etc.
The winner of the 2009 National Eisteddfod U12 Cerdd Dant sang a poem about St JR. We sat right by where she was singing and it was worth going just to hear her voice.
Various other Welsh glitterati were there and Rowan Williams spoke.
Anglicansism to me seems to start by saying what I'm thinking, tell me it's too naive/simplistic, then tie me up in knots and finish proposing that we be joyous, whilst sounding unconvinced and disapointed.
I'm just not hard-wired that way.
And the rest shall be glossed over.
The singing was mighty and bilingual. The sound was undimmed whether it be singing through the medium of English or Welsh.
As I hesitated over whether this 'y' was i, u or ee, others were singing with gusto and in SATB, for the music was printed in our booklets. The Welsh; bilingual and able to read music.
PS My Greatgrandmother had a greengrocer's shop in Traws, so this is local. Not just a lake and a Magnox Nuclear Reactor, y'know.
Friday, 16 July 2010
A Meme
Apparently, that mag we don't read, some of us because our PP doesn't have it at the back of the Church and you can't even read it on-line for free, that one, is running a series on, 'What would you say to the Pope, if you had a Private Audience with him?'
I'll kick off.
Nothing. I'd just listen and hope I didn't do anything too stupid.
Any better ideas?
I'll kick off.
Nothing. I'd just listen and hope I didn't do anything too stupid.
Any better ideas?
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Trying to get it right, only for it to go wrong
In my previous incarnation as the Head of Music in a Catholic Secondary School, oh so many times did I play the introduction for a hymn, only to be the only person in a School Hall or Church to actually sing the first verse. This is the musical equivalent of being punched in the face by 400 people. (No, I've never even been punched in the face by one person, I'm just guessing.)
On the flip side, at WYD 2000, I seem to remember someone doing a hymn practice for 2.1 million people on the Sunday Morning, saying that we would get so much more out of it if we all sang. As I munched on my pilgrim biscuits, bleary eyed, I wondered at how like me that guy sounded. Slightly pleading, slightly exasperated.
Now this may seem to fly in the face of the previous post, but vernacular hymns as I may have said before. What's that all about? I play a vanishingly small selection, but it does seem that the present Proper-free NO Mass derives from Low Mass with hymns.
It wasn't meant to be lik this.
Look what the CMAA submitted to VII in 1963
4. Regarding the music at Low Mass:
This Society respectfully urges that consideration be given to maintaining the sung mass as the norm for congregational service, and where necessity demands, that provision be made for a simplified form of sung Mass that requires only the service of a trained cantor to supplement the singing of the congregation. The singing of hymns at low Mass, a solution suggested by the 1958 decree, is not completely satisfactory, because it remains extraneous to the action at the altar.
Why sing, when what you are being pleaded/bullied into singing is not part of the Mass anyway?
How did we get to a point where you sing four hymns and none of the Ordinary?
Strange.
On the flip side, at WYD 2000, I seem to remember someone doing a hymn practice for 2.1 million people on the Sunday Morning, saying that we would get so much more out of it if we all sang. As I munched on my pilgrim biscuits, bleary eyed, I wondered at how like me that guy sounded. Slightly pleading, slightly exasperated.
Now this may seem to fly in the face of the previous post, but vernacular hymns as I may have said before. What's that all about? I play a vanishingly small selection, but it does seem that the present Proper-free NO Mass derives from Low Mass with hymns.
It wasn't meant to be lik this.
Look what the CMAA submitted to VII in 1963
4. Regarding the music at Low Mass:
This Society respectfully urges that consideration be given to maintaining the sung mass as the norm for congregational service, and where necessity demands, that provision be made for a simplified form of sung Mass that requires only the service of a trained cantor to supplement the singing of the congregation. The singing of hymns at low Mass, a solution suggested by the 1958 decree, is not completely satisfactory, because it remains extraneous to the action at the altar.
Why sing, when what you are being pleaded/bullied into singing is not part of the Mass anyway?
How did we get to a point where you sing four hymns and none of the Ordinary?
Strange.
The Past
Sometimes along with learning about the lives of Saints, I think that I should pay a bit more attention to the mess that was the world around them.
Lay it down!
Checking that no famous Newman hymn escapes an outing in September, I found myself listening to a couple of MIDI versions (Aren't we all grateful things have moved on a bit!) of things and happened upon Fanny Crosby and Lay it down!
Leaving aside the musical worth, I'm digging the dark glasses.
Don't mess with Fanny! Of course she is wearing them because she was blind and her biography on the link says:
Fanny Crosby was probably the most prolific hymnist in history. Though blinded by an incompetent doctor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blindness, she said:
'It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.'
In her lifetime, Fanny Crosby was one of the best known women in the United States. To this day, the vast majority of American hymnals contain her work.
She died in 1915, aged 95.
8000 hymns. Impressed.
She would not care if you were liturgically entertained as long a you laid it down sinner.
Monday, 12 July 2010
Lovely Voice
is my stock phrase when I have to pass comment on the 'Archbishop' of Canterbury.
(Who was it who sent St Augustine to Canterbury? Oh yeh and St Cuthbert had hard words on his deathbed about avoiding the, 'We know better than the Pope when to celebrate Easter,' people. It's all in Bede.)
Splintered Sunrise has a great commentary on the present situation, quoting Fr L on Rowanspeak with a useful insight into how the folks who have to dialogue with Anglicans get on.
Personally, Anglicanism would cause me to short circuit big time. I have to be very careful to err on the side of silence when in Anglican Churches so likely am I to commit a faux pas. However, it must be hard to leave if you were born into it. It's not brill looking at lovely old Churches in the UK and none of them are Catholic, but we get by.
I might be a rubbish Catholic, but at least Catholicism is true and I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
(Who was it who sent St Augustine to Canterbury? Oh yeh and St Cuthbert had hard words on his deathbed about avoiding the, 'We know better than the Pope when to celebrate Easter,' people. It's all in Bede.)
Splintered Sunrise has a great commentary on the present situation, quoting Fr L on Rowanspeak with a useful insight into how the folks who have to dialogue with Anglicans get on.
Personally, Anglicanism would cause me to short circuit big time. I have to be very careful to err on the side of silence when in Anglican Churches so likely am I to commit a faux pas. However, it must be hard to leave if you were born into it. It's not brill looking at lovely old Churches in the UK and none of them are Catholic, but we get by.
I might be a rubbish Catholic, but at least Catholicism is true and I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Holidays are here again
and having broken up with only vague plans, already things are taking shape in a very good way.
In other news the allotment is parched but alive and if I eat a restricted diet of peas, broad beans, courgettes and tomatoes, I can live entirely from my own produce vegtablewise.
To beat the local roadworks I bought a bike last w/e and have relearnt how to ride. You never forget? Well it wasn't quite like that early last Sunday morning over in the park. The change from turf to tarmac was a surprise too. Not planning on Rome, but I can certainly use it for local trips. I'm even ventueing from pavement to road now. Yes, it does have a basket. Where else can I put my 'Plainsong for schools' book1 and my shopping?
In other news the allotment is parched but alive and if I eat a restricted diet of peas, broad beans, courgettes and tomatoes, I can live entirely from my own produce vegtablewise.
To beat the local roadworks I bought a bike last w/e and have relearnt how to ride. You never forget? Well it wasn't quite like that early last Sunday morning over in the park. The change from turf to tarmac was a surprise too. Not planning on Rome, but I can certainly use it for local trips. I'm even ventueing from pavement to road now. Yes, it does have a basket. Where else can I put my 'Plainsong for schools' book1 and my shopping?
Via Romea making excellent progress
They've done over 400 miles since Monday.
Pop here to read all about it and to make a donation.
The charities? Mary's Meals and The Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Inititive.
Pop here to read all about it and to make a donation.
The charities? Mary's Meals and The Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Inititive.
Monday, 5 July 2010
Team via Romea
is go.
I saw them in their fetching yellow shirts this am - each one a winner and hope they are now somewhere near the coast.
I saw them in their fetching yellow shirts this am - each one a winner and hope they are now somewhere near the coast.
Sunday, 4 July 2010
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