Now that's what I call a Palm Cross!

For anyone who didn't follow the link posted by Dominic Mary in his comment on my last post, this is where it would have led you . . .

I think it might take a little bit longer to make one of these beautiful Palm Crosses. All you girls out there who like to braid your hair into French plaits probably have a head start on the rest of us! :-)

Palm Sunday . . .

I love this picture and the way we can see through the Palm to the Crucifixion.

The symbolism is obvious but it is still a very powerful picture, I think.

We have many examples in modern day history where we can see public opinion turn from a cheering crowd to a baying mob. The power of the group can be very frightening and it can change so quickly just as the cheering crowd which welcomed Our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday turned, in a matter of a few days, to a bloodthirsty mob demanding the death of that same Jesus.

We had a good crowd at Mass this morning. We managed to process outside around the church and the rain kept away. Our procession involves walking along the road in front of the church and despite the recent furore in the press we suffered no ill affects. In fact it was just like any other Palm Sunday. Cars drove past and totally ignored us.

In our parish we are given palms which are more or less in their natural state. In other words they are leaves not crosses.

As a youngster, we used to meet together a few days before Palm Sunday to fold the palm leaves into palm crosses. In my Anglican parish, I think as many bodies as possible were roped in to help with this - Mothers' groups, youth groups, Confirmation groups etc.

I looked through lots of videos to try and find one that explained clearly how to do this and this is the best I could find that showed the crosses as we used to make them. (There is no sound, it's not your speakers playing up!)

Feast of the Annunciation . . .

Looking at the calendar, there is a surprising number of Feasts that fall during Lent so we have plenty of days of joy to provide a bit of respite and lighten the mood of Lent.

Today's Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord is one of the most beautiful. It is such a significant feast after all. Where would be without Mary's willing acceptance of the role entrusted to her as Mother of Our Lord, Mother of the Church, our Mother?

The story of the message brought by an angel is so familiar to us that we almost take it for granted but what an incredible story it is.

I find it very difficult to imagine what it must have been like for a young girl in Mary's situation to hear the familiar (to us) words spoken by the angel Gabriel,

'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you . . . '

And yet, such is Mary's faith, that she humbly accepts this with her response,

'I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you have said.'

Trying to think of modern day comparable situations just doesn't work. There are no comparable situations!

We are lucky where we live in that we can hear the Angelus bell from our local Catholic church which is still rung (albeit automatically) at noon and 6pm. Quite often on my day off I'm outside at midday coming back from a short walk or doing a bit of gardening and it's lovely to hear the bell and be able to quietly pray the Angelus.

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:

And she conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;

blessed art thou among women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord:

Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh:

And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,

that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord,

Thy grace into our hearts;

that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son,

was made known by the message of an angel,

may by His Passion and Cross

be brought to the glory of His Resurrection,

through the same Christ Our Lord.
Amen.

Man of Sorrows . . .

Man of sorrows, wrapt in grief,

Bow your ear to our relief;

You for us the path have trod

Of the dreadful wrath of God;

You the cup of fire have drained

Till its light alone remained.

Lamb of love our comfort be:

Hear our mournful litany.

By the garden filled with woe,

Where to rest you oft would go;

By your agony of prayer

In the desolation there;

By the dire and deep distress

More than human mind can guess,

Lord, our grief in mercy see:

Hear our fervent litany.

By that bitter cup of pain,

When your strength began to wane;

By those lips which once did pray

That it might but pass away;

By the heart that drank it dry

Lest the human race should die,

In your pity grant our plea,

Hear our solemn litany.

Man of sorrows, let your grief

Purchase for us our relief;

Lord of mercy, bow your ear,

Slow to anger, swift to hear:

By the cross's royal road,

Lead us to the throne of God,

There to sing triumphantly

Heaven's glorious litany.

(Matthew Bridges)

I love this hymn that we've just begun praying at Morning Prayer this week. Like many hymns, it can be used as a very good meditation. I just thought I'd share it with you.

Vernal Equinox - Spring bulbs and weeds!

Yay, it's the Vernal Equinox at last! Actually to be precise it occurred yesterday at 17.32 GMT.

You're never too old to learn, are you? I always think of the Equinoxes occurring on the 21st of the month but I've just discovered today that the date varies from year to year. It's all to do with Leap Years and that the Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to go around the Sun. We have to allow for that extra 0.25 day somehow.

In case you couldn't guess, science was never my strong suit (I've yet to discover what is!) so I'm expecting all those science teachers out there to correct me on this one.

All that matters to me is that the days and nights are roughly the same length at the Equinoxes and the Vernal Equinox is the beginning of Spring, and more importantly, the end of Winter - hooray!

When I heard the weather forecast last night and the promise of a lovely day, I decided that I would have a good few hours in between Mass and Rosary and Benediction to get out in the garden and do some much-needed tidying up.

I should have learned, it's never a good idea to make plans - something always seems to get in the way of their being realised. I woke up this morning with a rotten head-cold and spent that time dosing myself up with hot lemon etc. and resting. Still I did manage to take a few photos. A lot more leaves and weeds in evidence than there might have been if all had gone to plan.

I thought I might get away with sneaking this tiny little gnome into the pot on our front doorstep - none of the family have commented in the 5 years of so since he took up residence!

You may remember a few weeks ago, when we had a lovely mild day which actually coincided with my day off, I mentioned that I'd visited the local garden centre. These pansies are only now beginning to show signs of life after our long winter.

Crocuses, a bit late but much in evidence.

Again, quite a bit later than normal, the first few opening buds on the camellia. The shrub is covered with loads of big juicy buds so promise of a great display to come.

By the way, I did get to Mass, and Rosary and Benediction was beautiful - O Salutaris, Tantum Ergo and Adoremus. People still remember the Latin and join in with gusto.

Passiontide, Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday . . .

It doesn't take much to confuse me, as many people will be able to testify!

There are a lot of things in the Catholic Church that I have found, and sometimes still do find confusing.

Passiontide, Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday is one such example.

Growing up as Anglican, I don't remember hearing people referring to Palm Sunday as anything other than Palm Sunday but in the Catholic Church, sometimes people talk about Passion Sunday rather than Palm Sunday.

I see in our Diocesan Directory the Sunday which marks the beginning of Holy Week is described as 'Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord' and in my Sunday Missal, the term is 'Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)'

It took me a little while to realise that, nowadays at least, Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday are different names for the same day in the liturgical year. Apparently the 5th Sunday of Lent used to be called Passion Sunday and the following Sunday Palm Sunday - I hope you followed all that.

Now again, we have added to the mix, the term Passiontide which begins tomorrow, the 5th Sunday of Lent.

This is the season approaching Holy Week when we focus on the Passion, the power of the Cross and the Kingship of Christ.

In our parish as in many other parishes, we follow the custom of covering all the crucifixes and statues with purple veils. (I remember this too from my childhood in our Anglican parish.)

This really makes an impact for me. I find the large crucifix behind the altar a very good focus for prayer and when you look up and see nothing but a large purple veil, it really makes a big impression. It's a terrible loss, not being able to see Our Lord.

A cause for celebration . . .

I'm celebrating! This is where you ask me what I'm celebrating . . .

I'm celebrating that split-second of time after receiving Absolution when I was actually in a State of Grace. That infinitesimally small period of time when I was actually reconciled to God. Isn't Confession a marvellous Sacrament?

Of course, I'm sure we've all felt that feeling of the weight of sin being lifted from our shoulders and the sensation of 'floating on air' for a while. Sadly, it's all too short a period of time for me. But just for an instant, it's the most marvellous feeling in the world.

I don't know about you but sometimes this is more palpable than others and as today was one of those time, I felt moved to celebrate.

That's all I wanted to say. Back to normal now.

Update:

As Berenike has correctly pointed out, I am guilty of quite a large chunk of poetic licence here.

Obviously I should not have used the term being in a state of grace when really what I meant was being without sin of any kind. Reading my post again, it does make it sound as if I routinely leave the Confessional and almost immediately fall into mortal sin! I was trying to express in my inadequate way the feeling which comes with absolution; that feeling of having wiped the slate clean, of being completely without sin of any kind, even the smallest venial sin. A fantastic feeling, even if poorly expressed.

Quarant'Ore . . .

I'm very grateful to Dominic Mary of Libera me Domine not just for this super picture of the Quarant'Ore at The London Oratory but also for the encouragement to go along and take advantage of this great opportunity for prayer in such a beautiful church.

I'd been thinking I might use my day off to go up to Victoria and visit the Cathedral and nearby bookshops so his post just came at the right time for me.

I had a super day out. The weather has been so much kinder recently and it was great to walk around London without having to fight against a biting wind or driving rain.

I timed my outing just right. Setting off in my own time after the morning rush, I got to The Oratory in time for a good period of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and then was able to move to one of the side chapels for Mass (Novus Ordo, Ad Orientem, for those of you who are interested in this sort of detail) before making my way back to Victoria and on home. Naturally, there were also coffee-stops and window-shopping to fit in along the way!

There are so many situations and people that I wanted to pray for, it was great to have this chance today. Needless to say, I included all my blogging friends in those prayers.

It's not too late to go along yourself - the Quarant'Ore finishes tomorrow with Benediction at 7pm. For more information have a look at the Oratory website.

Westminster Cathedral was looking quite magnificent in the afternoon sunshine and the piazza was relatively quiet so I couldn't resist taking a photo. Sorry, I'm not proficient enough to be able to fit all of the tower in the picture without standing in the middle of the road!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I always feel a bit of a fraud on St Patrick's Day. I haven't a drop of Irish blood in me, as far as I'm aware but being a Catholic, in this country at least, seems to mean celebrating St Patrick's Day.

I'm very happy to join in the celebrations and am always made to feel very welcome as 'Irish for the day'. So I'll raise a glass to all my Irish friends and wish you all a very Happy St Patrick's Day.

I hope you enjoy this haunting rendition of St Patrick's Breastplate. It was either this or Glorious St Patrick. I couldn' t make up my mind so I hope I've made the right choice!

The Beautiful Game . . .

I occasionally make references to 'the beautiful game' as I do like to watch the odd bit of footie now and again.

Time for an 'ode' I think:

Myth's river - where his mother dipped him,

fished him, a slippery golden boy flowed on,

his name on its lips.

Without him, it was prophesied,

they would not take Troy.

Women hid him,

concealed him in girls' sarongs;

days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...

But when Odysseus came,

with an athlete's build,

a sword and a shield,

he followed him to the battlefield,

the crowd's roar,

And it was sport, not war,

his charmed foot on the ball...

But then his heel, his heel, his heel...

I did like the quote by the author of the poem, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, when interviewed on Radio 4, 'I'm a lot more likely to watch football than he is to read poetry!'

Who's a lucky girl then? . . .

See what I found on the breakfast table this morning!

A gift from Number One Son . . . and gifts arrived in the post from the other end of the globe (Manchester!) from Number Two Son - TGF Amazon!

Even the Pater Familias left me something as he's also away. Who's a lucky Mum then?

As I was taking photos of the flowers above, I couldn't resist a snap of these lovely daffs too - Ooh, you can' t beat a bunch of daffs at this time of year- nothing like it to cheer you up after a long, miserable winter.

And . . . even as I type, Number One Son is preparing supper for the two of us - TGF M&S!

Now, if I'm quieter than usual in the next few days, you'll know why . . . I'll be busy counting my blessings - and they are manifold (to use a good old-fashioned Biblical expression).

The best laid plans etc. . . . .

Well, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself yesterday . . .

I had my Laetare/Mother's Day post all ready and 'scheduled' for posting today in anticipation of my being busy 'waited on hand on foot' as befits the day! I should have known better of course - 'pride alert . . . pride alert' - I should have recognised the signs! It never fails - whenever I'm feeling pleased with something I've done, you can guarantee I'll get my 'come-uppance' somehow.

I'd decided that I'd write about the outward signs of Laetare Sunday as witnessed at Mass this morning. Naturally, the signs weren't exactly as I'd predicted so I had to rush to my trusty iPhone and quickly stop the scheduled post before it hit the general public.

Here is the now amended version of that post.

Laetare, Jerusalem!

"Rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow."

Did you notice any changes in your parish at Mass today? Vestments, flowers, music . . . ?

Flowers? Well, we haven't been having any flowers in church during Lent, and I was expecting to see some today but there were none in evidence. It had obviously been decided that 'no flowers in Lent' means just that.

Music? We have been having music during Lent so no change there, but I was expecting especially joyous hymns but to my untrained ear, they seemed to be very much as we've been having during the rest of Lent.

Vestments? I was hoping to see both our Parish Priest and our Deacon 'resplendent in rose' this morning but as our Deacon was not present at the Mass I attended, I had to forego that pleasure. Nevertheless our Parish Priest did wear rose-coloured vestments - hooray!

Despite my predictions being slightly out, it was a lovely Mass and even better thanks to a bit of sunshine and the feeling that, finally, Spring might really be just around the corner.

As well as being Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent is also Mothering Sunday or Mother's Day though the origins of both of these terms is a little different. I wrote quite a detailed explanation about the customs of Mothering Sunday last year so I won't repeat it again here. If you're interested you can have a look back here.

Mothering Sunday, a reference to the Second Reading from Corinthians, which indicates our right to be called the sons of God as the source of all our joy, and also because in the past the faithful used to make their offerings in the cathedral or mother-church of the diocese on this day.

In England, Spring bulb flowers are often given to mothers. In our parish the children all present their mothers with a daffodil. Mind you, until fairly recently they would be brought into church at the offertory after the Children's Liturgy session and as a result not many of them survived intact until the end of Mass!

This year they were handed out to all the Mums as they left the church at the end of Mass so hopefully they at least survived until they got home.

Simnel cake is also traditionally made to celebrate the occasion (this cake has also become an Easter Cake recently, however - shame!). The word "simnel" comes from the Latin "simila," a high grade flour - Now that's something I've only just discovered this year.

I hope all you Mum's were treated in some way today. Happy Mother's Day!

St Baldred and St Billfrith . . .

Who? I hear you ask. I have a calendar from the White Fathers and they obviously are not using the National Calendar for England and Wales.

Today is the Feast of St Baldred and St Billfrith.

First of all, I misread it and I thought it said . . . but no it wasn't St Baldrick - shame, that would have made my day!

I've always liked these Celtic and Old English Saints. I know very little about them but the names are just so appealing.

St Baldred of Glasgow was a Scottish bishop said to have succeeded St Kentigern (Mungo) at Glasgow. St Baldred died at Tyningham in 756 and was buried there but the monastery was destroyed by the Danes two hundred years later. His relics were lost until discovered by Elfrid, a priest from Durham and they were enshrined with those of St Billfrith (Bilfred).

St Billfrith was a contemporary of St Baldred, a monk hermit at Lindisfarne. He was an expert goldsmith. He was responsible for the cover of the Lindisfarne Gospels. Another great loss as the cover of gold, silver and gems was melted down at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

If parents nowadays are tired of the traditional saints' names and are looking for something different for their children, how about looking to these old Celtic and English saints for inspiration? How cool would it be to have a Baldred, an Elfrid or an Erconwald in your class!

The Rich Man and Lazarus . . .

Well, after my 'day of decadence' yesterday what more salutary lesson could there be than today's Gospel reading at Mass - the story of the rich man and the beggar at his gate. This is one of those readings that is always guaranteed to make me squirm in my suburban comfort.

You can bet that when I went to the supermarket today, I made a bee-line for our local Big Issue seller who always stands at the entrance to our local shopping centre. He must have wondered what was up as I gave him my very 'bestest' smile and greeted him like a long-lost friend (not that I usually ignore him, of course).

"My son, remember that during your life you received good things, just as Lazarus received bad."

"Save us from the blind pursuit of wealth; make us sensitive to the needs of others"

Shop 'til you drop . . .

A very rare occurrence in our family today - the Pater Familias and I had a day out together in the middle of the week . . . and even rarer - we went shopping together.

Of course being a woman, I quite often have a 'mooch' around the shops on my day off, but to do this with one's 'nearest and dearest' is not usually my preferred option. The PF shops likes a typical man and I'm sure most women readers will understand what I mean by this. But, over the years we've reached a compromise on the rare occasions when we shop together. In fact when I say 'shop together' what I really mean is; we travel to the shops together and leave together, and maybe meet at an agreed time for coffee or something to eat but otherwise we go our own sweet way. It works for us!

The PF had suggested an outing to the new Westfield Centre near Shepherd's Bush a while ago and as he'd had a meeting cancelled today, he 'nobly' postponed his other appointments so that he could drive us there (a few brownie points earned there, I think!

I'm not that keen on big shopping centres generally but as it was midweek it was relatively quiet and a pleasure to wander around. It's a great place for people-watching; there are plenty of coffee shops and I was impressed by the abundance of comfortable seating areas throughout the centre in the walkways - and free wi-fi. So you can imagine lots of 'well-heeled' youngsters (and not-so-youngsters) chatting with friends and playing with their iPhones. There were quite a few laptops in use in the coffee shops too, I noticed.

Here's the cocktail bar in 'The Village' - definitely the place to see and be seen in the centre, right in the middle of all the top-end designer shops - you name it, it was there - Gucci, Prada, Joseph, Louis Vuitton etc. etc.

I wouldn't want to do this too often, but it was quite fun living the high live for a few hours. Back to normal tomorrow and feet firmly on the ground.

Gwnewch y pethau bychain . . .

'Gwnewch y pethau bychain' - 'Do the little things'

Happy St David's Day to all my Welsh friends and readers.

Not being Welsh myself, I know very little about St David or 'Dewi' as he's often referred to in Welsh. After a little research, one of the things I discovered is that among his last words to his followers, in his final Sermon, he said,

'Be joyful and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about.'

That sounds pretty good advice to me, whether Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish or of any other nationality. In the same way that little or venial sins can lead to more serious sin, little acts of charity can gain momentum and bring great results. We all know about the ripple effect. I've decided I'm going to try and bear that in mind during Lent.