What is it about Sundays . . .?

Looking back over some of my earlier posts, it occurs to me that Sundays are often days full of good news and optimism. So they should be, I suppose, being the Lord's day.

Today, we set off to Mass in lovely sunshine, an almost Spring-like day, admiring the growing number of flowers now suddenly appearing. I spotted a hellebore in our front garden. Often commonly called a Lenten Rose, it's timing almost spot-on.

I noticed too that some of the buds on our camellia are beginning to open with a hint of pink showing and promise of a great display.

We have daffodils just open in time for St David's Day on Tuesday. I'm noticing more and more how nature's calendar seems to fit in with the liturgical year.

Unfortunately the rain has now set in but that has meant I could tackle the ironing and then catch up on what's happening in the blogosphere without feeling that I should be doing some tidying up in the garden.

More good news from the Ordinariate Portal as more Anglican clergy have publicly announced their intention to resign and begin the process of reception into the Full Communion with the Catholic Church and eventual ordination as priests in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Great news!

The Chair of St Peter . . .

Tuesday is the feast of the Chair of St Peter. A recurrent theme on this blog is looking at Feast Days, Devotions and Catholic practices through the eyes of someone who was not brought up in the Catholic faith.

Of course the Chair in question, and in the photograph, may traditionally be thought to be the original chair used by the first Bishop of Rome but the Chair of a Bishop is not just a rather fancy chair that he sits in but it also has a symbolic meaning too. It represents his authority and is to be found in the Cathedral of his Diocese. That's of course where we get the name Cathedral from.

The Chair of St Peter therefore is a symbol of the authority of the first Bishop of Rome, the apostle Peter, and his successors the Popes including our current Pope, Benedict XVI.

To celebrate the "Chair" of Peter, as we do today, means, therefore, to attribute to it a strong spiritual significance and to recognise in it a privileged sign of the love of God, good and eternal Shepherd, who wants to gather the whole of his Church and guide her along the way of salvation. (Pope Benedict XVI on the Feast of the Chair of St Peter, 22nd February 2006)

Another useful point of reference is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

882. "The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, 'is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.'[LG 23.] 'For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.".

Almighty God,
as you built your Church on the
rock of St Peter's faith,
grant that with such a firm foundation
we may hold fast in every storm.

Home Sweet Home . . .

As I have mentioned once or twice before, the Pater Familias travels a lot on business and has done so all of our married life. It's quite normal for me to hesitate for a split second before answering when friends ask, 'and where is he this week, then?'

It's a bit like the joke about the Japanese tourist saying,'It's Monday, so this must be France' - A bit hard on the poor Japanese who are probably no more like this than a certain type of tourist of any other nationality.

What is more, the PF tends to work in areas that have seen their fair share of trouble in one way or another.

Fortunately he decided to postpone his latest trip in good time but it is very warming to know people have his interests at heart. I have had several enquiries from friends this week asking if he's at home in the UK or, as is often the case, in one of the trouble-spots we are currently seeing on all the news programmes.

I keep telling him his guardian angel is doing overtime!

Name Change . . .

It seems to be the period for changes and updates of blogs judging by the new layouts which are appearing.

I started this blog three years ago and I wanted a 'nom de blog' which went with the title and made some sort of sense so I decided upon Miss Ellen E. (A play on words of the title - Miscellany . . . ).

Although I thought it glaringly obvious, I was surprised to realise that not everyone 'got it' straight away.

I've always thought it didn't quite fit, however, as I'm a married women with grown-up children, and the Miss part always sounded false to me.

I do however wish to retain my anonymity for the sake of my family as much as for me so I've decided to use my Twitter name of Idle Rambler to sign my blog posts from now on. There again it was a bit silly to have two separate IDs for the same person so finally the two have become one!

I hope you'll still pop in now and again to see what this particular Idle Rambler is up to. I must confess lately I've been 'idling' a lot more than 'rambling'. Hopefully as the weather improves I'll be tempted to don the old walking boots a bit more often and post some photos of the lovely sights I've seen on my wanderings.

Another blessed Sunday . . .

Despite the constant rain outside today, my spirits are soaring. Why? I hear you ask.

Of course Sunday Mass is always enough to raise one's spirits and as always it was good to meet with fellow parishioners for coffee and chat afterwards.

And as Fr Finnegan points out here, nothing can dampen the enthusiasm one feels at the first tentative signs that Spring is on its way. We too have crocuses pushing their way through the last of the Autumn leaves; snowdrops and polyanthus too and lots of daffodils. Our camellia is also laden with buds. Hooray!

But the major reason for my good mood is the news that is spreading on the various websites, blogs and via Twitter of yet more courageous Anglicans who have today announced their resignation from the Church of England and their decision to begin the journey to be received into the Catholic Church via the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

A very warm welcome to Fr Aquilina and Deacon James Bradley from St John the Baptist parish in Sevenoaks and Fr Ed Tomlinson from St Barnabas parish in Tunbridge Wells who together with some of their parishioners will be making the journey into Full Communion with the Catholic Church at Easter.

Add to this the news of the ordination on Friday of another former Anglican, Rev Edwin Barnes to the diaconate for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and it's easy to look on the bright side.

You can find out more about this via the Sevenoaks Ordinariate blog and the Ordinariate Portal

Let's pray for all these courageous men, their families and their parishioners, not forgetting those who feel they are unable to follow suit at this time.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.

A light-hearted post . . .

In praise of the humble hot water bottle . . .

Thinking about the readings from Genesis that we've been listening to all week, I would like to suggest a little addendum:

And on the eighth day God said, 'Let there be the hot water bottle, paracetamol, ibuprofen and all manner of pain relief' And so it was. They became readily available in the local pharmacy. And God saw that it was good.

And the Pater Familias and I both gave thanks to God for that this week. The PF returned home from his latest trip to foreign climes with a little extra gift, in the form of a nasty stomach bug. A day or so of his writhing around with a hot water bottle clutched to his stomach obviously had an adverse affect on me as I developed a bad back which also necessitated the hot water bottle treatment. Luckily we're a multiple hot water bottle family!

Thank goodness my back is back to normal now and the PF is much improved.

Disaster . . . !

I've just had a mini domestic disaster! After years of training everyone else in the family to be extra careful with drinks near the computer, I managed to spill a whole cup of coffee all over the desk at home. Isn't it amazing how much one fairly small mug contains once it's spread out all over the floor and various surfaces?

I was dying for a gulp of coffee too, but had to set to immediately with kitchen roll and mop up.

The PC seems to have come off unscathed but I'm not sure about my iPhone. I think the camera may have had it. I'm currently draining my phone upside down on kitchen paper - you never know, it's worth a try. I think the rest of the phone is OK.

And the moral of the story is . . . if the light is beginning to fade and you have a full cup of coffee in your hand, make sure you switch the light on before you try and place it on a coaster which is only fractionally larger than the base of the mug! Still got a sense of humour, anyway.

Update:

Phone has now 'dried out' - without the assistance of a spell in The Priory! Thanks be to God. It was an interesting exercise; as gradually, first the sound reappeared in stages and finally the condensation in the camera lens evaporated.

The Blessing of Throats . . .

Do you have the Blessing of Throats in your parish on the Feast of St Blaise? We do.

This tradition stems from the story of St Blaise healing a boy with a fishbone caught in this throat.

It made me think about these sort of traditions and devotions in general. It was interesting to note that when I started looking for some information to confirm my understanding of the feast and the tradition, I found a link to an article on the Blessing of Throats under the title, ' British Folk Customs'. What is the difference between a 'folk custom' and a 'religious tradition'? Where does tradition and/or custom end and superstition begin?

Fr Dwight Longenecker has a very interesting post on just this subject. You'll find it on his blog Standing on my Head.

I hope you all manage to get though the rest of the Winter free from throat problems.

Feast of the Presentation, Candlemas . . .

The Feast of the Presentation is one of those feasts that, as a new Catholic, at first when I saw it listed in the Ordo, I asked myself, 'Presentation? What's that all about?'

To the uninitiated, it's not immediately obvious. Who or what is presented, to whom, and why?

Like very many other things in the Catholic faith, some of the meaning/origin of this feast has slowly been revealed to me (not in the sense of divine revelation, although, I suppose one could argue that the Lord uses people and things for his own purposes . . . ) Anyway, I digress.

As I became more familiar with praying the Rosary and the various 'mysteries' on which we meditate, I learned a little more about this joyful mystery of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple.

It refers of course to the presentation of Christ in the Temple, as, following Jewish tradition, every first-born child was to be presented to God. Also, again according to Jewish tradition, Mary would have been considered 'unclean' for 7 days following the birth of her child and would not be considered 'purified' until after another 33 days, bringing the total to 40 days after the birth of Christ.

Coincidentally, this is about the same period of time, I remember, having to present myself and our baby to our GP following the birth of our children for the '6 week check' for both mother and child. I wonder if this is still the case?

So it is really a combination of events that are being celebrated; both the presentation of the first-born child to God and the ritual purification of His mother Mary.

Of course the other significant happening at the time was the prayerful exclamation by Simeon giving thanks to the Lord on seeing the Messiah . . .

'At last, all -powerful Master,

you give leave to your servant

to go in peace, according to your promise.

For my eyes have seen your salvation

which you have prepared for all nations,

the light to enlighten the Gentiles

and give glory to Israel, your people.'

This beautiful prayer which we recite during Night Prayer throughout the year.

Finally, one more time when I remember hearing the Feast of the Presentation being mentioned is in relation to the Season of Christmas.

Quite early on, I learned that Christmas does not in fact end after the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' but continues up to to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and some say they even leave their crib in place until the Feast of the Presentation when Christmas may by considered well and truly over.

As to the name 'Candlemas'; this refers to the practice of lighting candles and processing into Mass on this day symbolising Christ's entrance into the temple. Candles are usually blessed in churches on this feast too.

I didn't mean to go rambling on so long when I started to just jot down a few thoughts about the feast. In fact what started me off was again something to do with the Divine Office.

We have been praying the Alma Redemptoris at Evening Prayer since Advent and will now revert to another Marian anthem such as the Ave Regina Caelorum. For one last time . . .

'Mother of Christ! hear thou thy people's cry,

Star of the deep, and portal of the sky!

Mother of him who thee from nothing made,

Sinking we strive, and call to thee for aid;

Oh, by that joy which Gabriel brought to thee,

Thou Virgin first and last, let us they mercy see.'