Miserable weather but Sundays are never miserable days . . .

A miserable wet day here in soggy Surrey but Sundays are always sunny in many ways.

The Pater Familias arrived home safely from his latest business trip. Interesting that his plane left two hours late but managed to arrive only an hour and a half behind schedule. How do they do that? And is it legal? They must have been over the speed limit to make up half an hour! What is the speed limit for a jumbo jet, anyway?

It was too late for a family lunch so we had family supper instead which meant a lovely restful time after morning Mass before anything important needed doing at home.

After catching up with a few jobs and having a peek at Twitter, Our Eldest and I made our way back to church for Rosary and Benediction. I know I say this nearly every week but is is becoming one of the highlights of my week.

I couldn't find a video which includes all the same settings of the hymns that we sing (O Salutaris , Tantum Ergo etc.) and all of Benediction but this video is beautiful and one of the best I could find of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

Taking things for granted . . .

It's early Sunday evening and I've just been catching up on what's going on in the blogosphere which is one of my favourite ways of relaxing at the end of the weekend.

I try not to take anything for granted and I do appreciate how fortunate we are to have a comfortable home, loving children, employment etc. etc. but it has never really occurred to me quite how fortunate we are with our parish. There is a theme underlying some blogs of discontentment, of a yearning for certain things that are apparently not readily available to all.

I had not realised that it is fairly unusual to have regular Rosary and Benediction, for example, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament several days a week and frequent Confession. Is it really very unusual, I wonder, or are those blogs that I've been looking at describing some sort of minority ghetto where such devotions are not practised?

I thought everyone was encouraged to go to Confession regularly and have reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. Maybe I've just been taking things for granted after all. At Mass tomorrow, during the silence after Holy Communion (which I gather is not kept universally) I will try and remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive as members of our parish where everything possible is done to encourage us in our spiritual development. Thanks of course to our parish priest.

Aahhh - Beautiful Benediction . . .

I've not long since got back from Rosary and Benediction.

I always enjoy this devotion. N0 matter how busy a Sunday or weekend it's been, it provides a little oasis of calm in the middle of the afternoon and I come away calm and refreshed, ready to tackle the rest of the day.

Today was extra special as our organist was able to play for us and we sang O Salutaris; Tantum Ergo;and Adoremus in Aeternum - you can't beat a little bit of Latin now and again!

Afterwards no-one is ever in a hurry to rush you away and as our organist quietly played Schubert's Ave Maria, the altar servers reverently cleared the altar and many people stayed behind to continue praying. Ah, bliss . . .

Rosary on Sunday ...

As I was saying, May begins tomorrow so that means this Sunday we'll be having Rosary in the afternoon followed by Benediction.

It's always a bit of a rush and does mean that we can't go very far for a walk or a drive in the afternoon because we need to be back by 4pm (well a bit earlier really as I like to be there in good time to 'get in the mood' as it were) but it's worth it. There's something very special about this Sunday afternoon devotion. It's quite a different atmosphere to Sunday Mass which can be quite noisy with so many young families around us.

As soon as you enter the church, you can feel the prayerful atmosphere. On a sunny day, if you get there a bit early you often find one or two people enjoying the last few minutes of sunshine outside the church door, chatting quietly before entering the cooler interior of the church. Of course, if it's pouring with rain, it's a mad dash to get inside before you end up a dripping mess!

After Benediction I enjoy staying for a few moments absorbing the peace and prayerfulness which is almost tangible in the church with the smell of the incense still very much in the air.

Whatever the weather and however much of a rush it is to get there, it's just a really lovely thing to do.

Contrasts . . .

I'm really pleased that I managed to get to Rosary and Benediction this afternoon. It was a lovely prayerful time in a solemn looking church as all the statues and the large crucifix are now veiled in purple cloth. I'm so glad we still practice this in our parish. It makes Passiontide so much more 'real' somehow.

What a contrast to yesterday. There was a wedding in the parish and the church was overflowing with beautiful flowers; in the sanctuary, at the foot of every statue and on the pew ends. Quite right too, of course. The florists did an amazing job having just a small 'window' in which to transform our Lenten church into a splendidly joyful one and back again in just a few hours. It did make the contrast all the more obvious.

I must say I was a little bit anxious at Mass this morning when one of our young altar servers placed his candle a little too near one of the veiled statues for my liking. I'm sure it was perfectly safe but I could just imagine Our Lady suddenly being veiled with a fire blanket rather than the purple cloth!

Grumpy old woman ...

I have a dreadful feeling that I'm turning into a real-life 'Grumpy Old Woman.'

The Mass that we go to on a Sunday is usually a lively one as we have a choir with quite a number of young members and a lot of young families in the congregation. This has always been one of the reasons we enjoy this Mass but I've noticed that the noise levels before and after Mass seem to be increasing. I wonder if today's Gospel reading will have any effect. (The Cleansing of the Temple). It certainly sounded a bit like a market place before Mass in our church today!

By contrast, in the afternoon, we had a beautiful, prayerful half an hour with the Holy Rosary followed by Benediction.

Thank goodness, the Grumpy Old Woman didn't hang around too long!

Lenten Devotions

After a few light-hearted posts - nothing wrong with smiling (!) I thought it was about time I wrote something a bit more serious.

We are fortunate in our parish that during Lent we have the opportunity to go to both Rosary and Benediction and Stations of the Cross every week; Rosary and Benediction on Sunday afternoons and Stations of the Cross on Friday evenings.

I've noticed that as the weeks go on the numbers tend to increase at both devotions, as word gets around maybe.

I find both of these are very important in my Lenten preparation. They provide a much-needed oasis of calm in a fairly busy life and help me to focus on what is really important.

Unfortunately we had to miss the first Stations of the Cross on Friday as we had a minor crisis to deal with at home (all sorted out now, DG!) I did manage to make Rosary and Benediction on Sunday though which was as prayerful as ever. Our PP had to manage without any altar servers as those who would normally attend were busy at the Cathedral. We have a few faithful servers who come along to Benediction most Sunday afternoons.