Archbishop Vincent Nichols on preparing for Pope Benedict's visit . . .

Mac has posted an excellent video about The Papal Visit on her blog which reminded me of this video in which Archbishop Vincent Nichols looks forward to the visit of HH Pope Benedict in September.

Archbishop Nichols talks about ways in which we can prepare for the Papal Visit. He makes a very good point that it is important to prepare well.

He's right of course; just about anything we do can be much improved by good preparation whether it's cooking; painting woodwork; writing an essay or delivering a speech. The more effort we put into the preparation the better the end result -at least that's always been my experience (a lesson sometimes learnt the hard way by lack of revision leading to poor exam results!)

One of the best ways that we can all prepare for Pope Benedict's visit is by prayer. We can, and I think should, all be praying for the success of the visit not just on a personal level but that it is successful on a parish, diocesan and national level for the Catholic Church in this country.

God of truth and love,
your Son, Jesus Christ, stands as the light
to all who seek you with a sincere heart.
As we strive with your grace
to be faithful in word and deed,
may we reflect the kindly light of Christ
and offer a witness of hope and peace to all.
We pray for Pope Benedict
and look forward with joy
to his forthcoming visit to our countries.
May he be a witness to the unity and hope
which is your will for all people.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Our Lady, Mother of the Church — pray for us.
St Andrew — pray for us.
St George — pray for us.
St David — pray for us.

Papal Visit - a flurry of activity . . .

There seems to be a sudden increase in information coming from the Papal Visit organisers. The Twitter feed has a flurry of tweets today including a link to the weekly audio update here.

In this update Mgr Andrew Summersgill talks about arrangements for Pilgrims, including the decision to reduce the Pilgrim contribution for Hyde Park to £5. Good news for Pilgrims but more work for those parishes where monies have already been collected (like ours) and refunds now have to be arranged.

He also mentions the launch of the online souvenirs shop (glad to see I got in early on that one! :-)).

For anyone on Twitter who doesn't know about the Papal Visit feed it's well worth adding - @thepapalvisit

Papal Souvenirs . . .

Like many bloggers, I expect, I have added @thepapalvisit to my Twitter feed and it's a very useful way of keeping up to date with official news about the forthcoming visit.

Having a bit of spare time this evening and in the mood for a bit of light relief, I thought I'd have a look at the official souvenirs now being offered for sale to commemorate the Papal Visit.

I must say, they all seem in fairly good taste although I don't know that I'd particularly want to buy a flashing candle.

Looking further afield at some non-official suppliers, I came across some very interesting T shirts and hoodies. Most of them quite acceptable though not to my personal taste but then I think I'm getting past the slogan T shirt stage!

GBTP? - God Bless the Pope, of course!

And finally, a couple of designs you definitely won't see me in this September . . .

And looking to the States, I have to admit, I find this little chap quite appealing . . .


Being middle-aged and boring, I'll probably end up with a Papal mug - after all, you can't go wrong with a china mug, can you? Who knows, maybe I'll really push the boat out and buy a matching tea-towel!

I wonder if any other bloggers have come across any really super duper souvenirs for sale yet (or even any particularly tacky ones!)

Saints on parade . . .

I usually look at the ordo at the weekend to see what lies ahead in the way of Memorials, Feasts, Solemnities etc.

Some Saints are better known than others, at least to me. Quite often I find a Saint that I know very little about but I'm gradually improving my knowledge by 'googling' them and finding out a little more about their lives.

The week ahead is a good example . . . Tomorrow we have St Joachim and St Ann, the parents of Our Lady so quite important in the scheme of things, you could say!

Thursday is the turn of St Martha; again a saint who is well known to us and we have had the Gospel reading about Mary and Martha just last Sunday. We will all be familiar with that age-old question, 'am I more of a Mary or a Martha and what, if anything, should I do about it?'

Saturday is the Memorial of St Ignatius of Loyola, famous for founding the Society of Jesus or the order of Jesuits.

But Friday's Saint - St Peter Chrysologus, is this week's mystery guest for me!

I've vaguely heard of the name but that's about as far as it goes. I've probably heard the name before and confused it with the similarly sounding St Chrysogonus (a martyr under the persecution of Diocletian ) - it's all Greek to me (pun intended!).

For anyone who's interested who doesn't know much about this particular saint, here's a little of what I've discovered in my research:

Firstly, his name. Chrysologus, as all you Greek scholars will know, means 'golden-worded.' He earned this name apparently because he was an eloquent orator.

He was born at Imola in Italy in 406 and died there in 450. He was a Bishop and was made a Doctor of the Church in 1729 mainly due to his having written many outstanding homilies which have been passed down to us today.

One interesting note in his biography that I found might have a modern resonance - he got rid of the many of the last traces of paganism still practised by some of his flock, warning them especially against indecent dancing. "Anyone who wishes to frolic with the devil," he remarked, "cannot rejoice with Christ.

I wonder what he would have thought of today's liturgical dance?

If you'd like to delve deeper into the subject you'll find an excellent resource at Catholic Online here and another at New Advent here.

Get well soon . . .

Poor Mac is in the wars again! When I read her sorry tale this morning, after my initial feelings of sympathy and a 'note to self' to include her in my prayers at Mass this morning, I thought, I have the perfect Get-Well card for her . . . but how to get it to her, not knowing her address?

Simple solution, here it is:

How could you not do so when faced with this stern 'ministering angel'?!

Hope you're feeling better soon, Mac!

Lavandula and Mrs Popple - good bedfellows!

I'm probably not alone in checking the weather forecast more frequently than usual at the moment and actually hoping for rain!

This is the new picture for my blog header but I can't get it to show the whole thing so I'm showing you here.

I've really enjoyed this long spell of warm, sunny weather and I don't want it to end but my poor plants are very thirsty!

This morning I actually had a few minutes in hand and as I looked out into the garden munching my way through a huge helping of muesli I realised that at least the lavender is loving all this sunshine and couldn't resist popping out and taking a few photos to 'capture the moment'.

I've been tagged! . . .

I've been tagged by both Breadgirl and Kee to complete the meme begun by Mac that's doing the rounds at the moment so I guess I'd better knuckle down and get on with it. Thanks to both of you for thinking of me.

The rules of the meme as posted on Mac's blog 'Mulier Fortis' are:

Name your three most favourite prayers, and explain why they're your favourites. Then tag five bloggers - give them a link, and then go and tell them they have been tagged. Finally, tell the person who tagged you that you've completed the meme... The Liturgy and the Sacraments are off limits here. I'm more interested in people's favourite devotional prayers.

As this meme has been around for a little while now, it's very difficult to choose prayers that no one has chosen so I'm not going to avoid choosing the Hail Mary as my first and most obvious choice. It's the first prayer that I think of when I want to pray for any reason. Whether it's a quick 'arrow' prayer during the day when something happens or as part of the Rosary when I have more time to prayer it's always the first prayer that enters my head.

My second choice is the Prayer of St Richard of Chichester. This is one of those prayers that I remember from childhood. Not being brought up a Catholic I didn't attend a Catholic school but the local county primary school and each morning we had assembly which always included hymns and prayers and this was one of the prayers that we prayed often and has stayed with me.

Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,

For all the benefits thou hast won for me,

For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.

O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,

May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly,

And follow thee more nearly: For ever and ever. Amen.

St. Richard Chichester (1197-1253)

My third prayer is another prayer from my childhood. I think prayers learnt as a child are never forgotten and we grow into understanding them which is why I think it is so important to teach our children the formal prayers that we learnt ourselves.

Being brought up in the Anglican church, before receiving 'Holy Communion' we would prayer Thomas Cranmer's 'Prayer of humble access'.

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord,

trusting in our own righteousness,

but in your manifold and great mercies.

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.

But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy:

Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ,

and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,

and our souls washed through his most precious blood,

and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

This may be heretical but I still think that beautiful prayer says so much more than our own much briefer, 'Lord, I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed.'

That's the meme completed, now comes the hard part - who to tag (excluding clergy) as most of the people I would have tagged have already taken part.

I tag:

Battlements of Rubies

Campionist

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Mother's Pride

In Terra Aliena

Some of these bloggers have been fairly quiet recently so maybe it might encourage them to get blogging again.