Exciting times . . . !

What an exciting time it is at the moment! Since the reception of the three former Anglican bishops into Full Communion with the Catholic Church, followed soon afterwards by their ordination into the newly established Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, it's just been an incredible start to the New Year.

Now today we have the news from the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales that the long-awaited translation of the new Missal will be in use in parishes from September of this year.

"The bishops, following the Holy Father’s encouragement that this new translation is an opportunity for ‘in-depth catechesis on the Eucharist and renewed devotion in the manner of its celebration’, have decided that from September 2011 the Order of Mass in the new translation will be used in parishes in England and Wales. " Read more here.

Now, I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of catechesis will be available for us in our parishes to introduce the new translation of the Missal. No doubt there will be many who are not pleased but it is a great opportunity to think about the liturgy of the Mass and what it actually means.

I'm so excited I don't know where to put myself!

Fantastic . . . !

(Photo credit: Catholic Church in England & Wales)

What a day! Our Eldest was out of the house before me this morning - must be a first as Saturday is usually his day for a long lie-in. The reason for his early rising? To get to Westminster Cathedral in time to get a seat for the Ordination of the first priests of the new Ordinariate. And he was successful.

I on the other hand was busy here but not half as busy as in the Newton, Burnham and Broadhurst households I'll warrant. We prayed for the Ordinands at Mass this morning and afterwards I was able to have a quick look at Twitter on my phone and see how things were going. Isn't Twitter great? It's like having your own hotline to special events. With @AnnaArco, @PeterDCXW, @blondpidge et al tweeting from Westminster, you could get a sense of the excitement there.

It's amazing how fast things have moved; from being received into the Catholic Church on 1st January, ordained Deacons two weeks later and today being ordained Catholic priests.

Congratulations to the first members of the new Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham; Fr Keith Newton, the newly appointed Ordinary; Fr Andrew Burnham and Fr John Broadhurst. Plus of course continued prayers as they continue on their historic journey.

There are lots of interesting articles appearing all over the Internet even as I write. You might like to look at the homily here given by Archbishop Vincent Nichols at today's ordinations.

Roll on Spring!

I was fed up with the dreary picture of snow and ice that was behind the header of this blog. It was making me feel grey too whenever I looked at it so I thought I'd try and inject a bit of optimism with a picture of some of the beautiful blossom that I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing before too very long.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to be back blogging regularly but I thought I'd just drop by and update the pictures and header now that things are getting back to normal again after the heady but hectic days of Christmas.

Today is the first day of Ordinary Time so things should be quieter for a while. The decorations are packed away in their boxes and returned to the loft; front gardens hereabouts are adorned with sad-looking Christmas trees and the odd string of lights that still have to be taken down.

Just as the Church is entering the 'green season' again, so are our gardens.

In the very brief moments of sunshine we've had in the last few days, it's been lovely to see the crocuses pushing their way through the soil now that the snow has finally gone and we have a lovely bunch of very early daffodils by our front door that are already coming along nicely. Lots to look forward to. As I said in the title of this post . . .

Roll on Spring!