In case you were wondering . . .

In case you were wondering . . .

I'm just taking a little blogging break. I'll be back soon.

Divine Mercy Sunday . . .

Tomorrow is the Octave Day of Easter which is also Divine Mercy Sunday.

We have celebrated this in our parish for the past few years. I am still a little hesitant about embracing this whole-heartedly. Probably because it is so alien to my upbringing but I do have difficulty with devotions based on private revelations. Funnily enough, I've never felt like this about Lourdes and St Bernadette. I can't explain or rationalise this but I admit to knowing very little about the history of Divine Mercy Sunday so I thought I'd do some research.

As usual, once I started looking, I discovered all sorts of things that I was unaware of and the depth of my ignorance. Here are just a few of the points that made an impression on me.

It's not just coincidence that The Octave of Easter was chosen to celebrate the feast. It is appropriate because the Feast of the Divine Mercy has three distinct dimensions each emphasising an aspect of the paschal mystery - merciful love, atonement and covenant.

It is because of God's mercy that we have forgiveness of sin through the sacrament of Confession and this needs to be celebrated.

Like the Old Testament 'Day of Atonement', the Feast of Mercy is an annual celebration of this forgiveness of our sins.

The readings for this Second Sunday of Easter reflect this theme of forgiveness of sins and mercy. The Gospel reading is in fact the one where the sacrament of Confession is instituted by Christ when he appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room and said, 'For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.'

Thirdly, the Feast is a Covenant of Mercy. Just as in the early Church the newly baptised would wear their white garments until the Octave Day so we too, having renewed our Baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil, also reaffirm the Sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist on this day.

Now we come to the bit about Sr Faustina Kowalska. If I'm interpreting things correctly, then the idea of the Feast of Mercy was not something newly created by Sr Faustina after her reported private revelations. The celebration of the Octave Day of Easter was mentioned by several in the early Church including St Thomas the Apostle, St Gregory of Nazianzen and St Augustine. You can go into it all in more depth here.

I think that like many 'Catholic practices' I am getting used to it! When I was first received into the Church, I really didn't 'get' the Rosary. I couldn't understand how people could find it prayerful. Now, after many years of going along on a Sunday afternoon to join with others in a public recitation of the Rosary, I too have come to love this method of prayer and the Rosary is usually the first prayer I turn to.

A little flutter or a little footie . . .

I'm neither Irish nor much interested in horse-racing but even I have noticed that tomorrow is the day of the Grand National. I mention the Irish factor as most of the horses seem to have either Irish riders, trainers or owners, or in some cases all three.

Being female, I'm much more interested in who was wearing what on Lady's Day at Aintree today.

Typically, I would always choose a horse to back by its name rather than by form - I did say I was not really into horse-racing!

Looking at the card for this year's National, I suppose the obvious choice for Catholics must be 'Preists Leap'. Strange spelling!

Apparently the horse was named after the legend of a priest ambushed by brigands on an escarpment in Kerry. Cornered, he turned his horse towards Bantry and jumped. "In the town there's some rock, with four hoof marks where the horse landed," trainer Tom O'Leary explained. "Only it's four miles from the mountain."

By the way, the odds were 66/1 at the time of writing.

I'll be focusing on the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday, especially as Number 2 Son managed to get a ticket for Wembley.

Scrabble for Dummies?

Have you heard the latest? Scrabble has announced it will be changing the rules to allow proper nouns to be used. Apparently this is to encourage younger people to play the game.

A spokeswoman for the company said the use of proper nouns would "add a new dimension" to Scrabble and "introduce an element of popular culture into the game".

People's names, place names and brand names will now be permitted. Shame, I say!

I wonder if text spelling will be allowed in the next 'makeover'?

Apologies for the inverted 'S' in the photo. I only realised after I'd put the board away that I'd placed the tile upside down for the photo. It's not my misuse of the apostrophe!!

Do you love life?

Thanks to Matthew Warner of Fallible Blogma for this great pro-life video created by him.

This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad . . .

Our Easter Vigil lived up to expectations! It was a beautiful liturgy made all the more special by the fact that we had baptisms and receptions during the Mass.

Back to Mass this morning which has quite a different 'feel' to it. As people were leaving, a young family passed by and we exchanged Easter greetings; the youngest child proudly showed me an Easter basket left by the Easter Bunny whilst his older sister was displaying her Easter Bunny toy pinned to her cardigan - and why not? I would be very disappointed if the Easter Bunny hadn't left me something edible of the chocolate variety on the breakfast table this morning!

Not much more to add really except to wish everyone a very Happy Easter. I hope you enjoy the beautiful video, chosen for the music as much as for the images.

Waiting . . .

I had very little time, nor inclination if I'm honest, to blog yesterday or even switch on the computer.

After a beautiful Holy Thursday liturgy including an excellent homily, both of which I found incredibly moving, I eventually got home about 20 minutes after Midnight.

Leaving an empty church - empty in every sense of the word, is very strange. No Blessed Sacrament, naturally; no adornment of any kind; no candles; the altar stripped bare and the crucifixes and statues still veiled really left me feeling bereft.

Our Good Friday followed much the same pattern as it has for the past twenty years or so. We began in the morning by joining the ecumenical Walk of Witness through the High Street following a large wooden Cross and stopping at various 'Stations' along the way for a short meditation. Despite the weather forecast we escaped without a drop of rain and I think we had an even larger crowd this year than last.

Then home for a short break before going to church in the afternoon for the Veneration of the Cross.

Today is very much a day of waiting, I feel. In church we have the Office of Readings in the morning and then the church is invaded by florists and other helpers who begin preparing for the culmination of the Triduum this evening, the Easter Vigil.

So, I have found an odd hour this afternoon to try and put a few words down about the Triduum and how we have celebrated so far.

'If ye love me . . . '

No time for much blogging for obvious reasons but I hope you enjoy this beautiful rendition of Thomas Tallis' 'If ye love me, keep my commandments'. It's a lovely haunting background for meditation during this evening's vigil with Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We began our preparation for the Great Feast of Easter in earnest last night when we attended the Chrism Mass at the cathedral. It's always a very moving experience to see so many of our diocesan clergy gathered together renewing the commitment that they made at Ordination before the Bishop and all those assembled from across the diocese.

The blessing of the oils including the Chrism also makes a great impact and adds an extra dimension to the liturgies in our own parish when the oils are used and we are reminded of this Mass where they were blessed by the Bishop before being distributed to the Deaneries and on to individual parishes.