Biting the hand

When I see the letters STL and PhL after a priest's name, apart from thinking it's good that he has some degrees, I also reflect on the lay people who paid for his studies.

Tuition fees for undergraduates in the UK are now £9k per annum. There is a recession on, so getting a job when you graduate is not easy for many people.

Whilst it would be ridiculous for priests to be lumbered with student debts and only right that we support their education and material needs, is it not reasonable for lay people to expect priests to use that education and their gifts to uphold the teaching of the Church?

When I contribute to the collection for the upkeep of the cathedral, does that include the hall attached to it? Should I not expect that groups using it support the teaching of the Church?

Puer natus in Bethlehem

A spritely recording here.

Happy Feast Day

Totus Tuus, by Gorecki, written for and first performed, I believe, during Blessed John Paul II's first visit to Poland as Pope.

Ear worm time

Played this last Sat as a nod to the Britten centenary and am quite taken with it.

Happy Feast Day

Um no thanks.

In a spoof post, The Tablet cites this as what we should play, sing, listen to and generally actively participate in.

Oh whoops, they are for real.

Meantime lots of people can sing this and have been for lots of centuries.

I'll go with the option 2 please.

After all the western staff system was invented to notate it, so it must be quite important.

Plus document after document after document from the church keeps telling us it should have pride of place.

My nuanced reading of that is that it should have pride of place.

Happy Feast Day