I blog therefore I am

Looking around, things in the electronic media are a little grim and a great deal less than edifying.

I'd display a link to the latest L'Oréal insult/ advert from the Vatican, but the English language version has been removed.

There was a time when blogging was very helpful to me in lots of ways and the mood was buoyant.

2015 is looking to be a very busy year and I have lots of things in the pipeline, several of which will be taking up a great deal of my time beyond the working week.

The list of subjects and activities in which I am involved that are unsuitable for this blog is now so long as to make it a nonsense.

For me, the time for blogging is over and my time will be better spent grafting in other ways.

Happy New Year.

Talking sense on the family

Talk to a two year old.

The crib is completely natural if you are two, because *hopefully* the basis of your world is mummy, daddy and you.

Who is the most important person in the scene? The baby!

Add in some animals to boot and kings with presents and there we are.

Now to teach my nephew the lesser Christmas fact of Auntie Leutgeb's birthday.
He can help me blow my candles out.

Christmas thank yous

Quite frequently, Christmas cards get used as a means of thanking people, so

In the spirit of Christmas thank yous ... ( that's a plural you haven't seen before.)

Thank you to all the priests who have said all the Masses I've been to.

Thank you to all the priests who have said the Masses I haven't bothered to go to.

Thank you to all the priests who have heard my confessions.

Thank you to all the priests who have sat in confessionals when I didn't bother to go to Confession.

Thank you to all the people who do jobs in churches that no-one ever sees.

Thank you to all the religious in enclosed orders praying for the world.

Thank you to all the people looking after children.

Thank you to all the people caring for sick and elderly relatives.

Thank you to the people who look after people who are not their relatives.

You can "chime in" with some thank you in the com box if you like.

Bedraggled pigeons

Not being familiar with the literary device that places a woeful, rain drenched bird, widely regarded as vermin by Londoners, at the start of a piece of writing as a means of captivating and enthralling the listener, I'm sticking with the book by Alfred Delp S.J., which contain his Advent reflections.

Rather than battling the drizzly capital, he was arrested after the August '44 bomb plot and was hanged on Candlemas 1945.

For the First Sunday in Advent 1943, he starts by saying that they have lit the first candle, not knowing if they will be alive when they get to the Fourth Sunday; Munich was being bombed heavily at the time.

Turning back to the beginning

Almost time for this again.

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.