Book Sale Still On

My  summer book sale remains until August 15. Special discounts for my blog readers. Go here for the details.

Condoms and AIDS

Watch this and pass it on. When you view a video like this you realize that the secularists are not really concerned about stopping AIDS in Africa. What they're really looking for is a cure for AIDS that will still allow people to be sexually promiscuous.

This is a result of the contraceptive culture. It's like, "C'mon, we've solved the little problem that sometimes women get pregnant when you have sex. So we've got the pill and contraception and abortion. Problem solved. Venereal disease? No problem. We've got antibiotics. STDs? No big deal. We can treat those. Condoms for AIDS? Yeah, they don't work too hot, but it's the best we can do. Abstinence??? Self discipline??? Faithfulness in Marriage??? One sexual partner for life??? Listen, that's just no do-able."

In other words, we've come to believe that we can take care of any unwanted consequences of sexual promiscuity, and we just can't get our heads around the idea that we can't solve this AIDS thing quite so easily. So they don't really want a cure for AIDS. They want a cure for AIDS that also allows totally free sexual activity.

H/T Fr Ray Blake

Transfiguration

More on Beautiful Churches

I should have known that my post on why Catholic should build beautiful churches would register an indignant comment from someone who pointed out that we should not build beautiful churches while there are poor people in the world. That, of course, was the argument of one of the apostles. You may remember that Judas Iscariot objected to the costly ointment being poured over Jesus' feet in worship. "The money," he protested, "should have been given to the poor!"

Was this just because he wanted the money for himself and he was in charge of the money bag? He was certainly accused of stealing from the money bag, but even if this is so I doubt if it was his true motive. I suspect Judas Iscariot really was concerned for the poor, and I suspect his complaint was not a smokescreen for his own greed. Furthermore, I expect Judas saw Jesus' ministry solely in social justice terms. Not only should the money from the ointment have been given to the poor, but he probably saw Jesus' whole mission that way. Perhaps Judas could be called the first liberation theologian.

Now this is a tricky business, and I write as a well off, well educated middle class American. I am a very lucky and (in world terms) very rich person. However, I will not be fobbed off with a shallow guilt trip. There is a serious point here. Jesus did come to bring liberty to the captives, to help the poor, and to set the prisoner free. Catholics are always to have a 'preferential option for the poor.' We ourselves are meant to live in apostolic simplicity. However, to reduce Jesus' life and mission simply to a peace and justice agenda to help the poor is very dangerous.

Let's be simple: Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, came to earth to redeem the world and to save poor lost sinners through the forgiveness of sins. The Church's mission to the poor is the result of this action of love in the world. Because Jesus came to die for all humanity we see in all humanity the image of the redeemer. We see in them the one who died for them. We minister to them as we would minister to him. Indeed, in his most powerful sermon on the subject this is exactly what he said, "Inasmuch as you did it to one of these little ones you did it to me, and inasmuch as you neglected them you neglected me."

So we must labor night and day to minister to the needy of all sorts, but without Christ's saving work we can't really understand why it would be necessary to do so in the first place. So first things first: let us thank God for our redemption and share in that redemption so that we can then do His work in the world.

Aha! and this brings us back to the need for worship and sacraments and beauty and truth. We cannot truly experience Christ in the world without knowing his redemption and sharing his redemption through the life of the church and we cannot do that without first understanding and accepting the truth of the gospel, and we cannot truly worship him unless we worship in Spirit and in Truth and we cannot do that if we are worshiping him not in beauty, but in ugliness and unworthiness. You might even argue that work among the poor is incomplete unless first we behold the face of Christ in beautiful worship. Unless we first learn to find his face and gaze upon it in beautiful worship how can we hope to recognize his face in the face of the poor.

So what then, is 'beautiful worship'? Some readers misunderstood my post on beautiful worship to mean extravagant worship. This is not what I meant at all. Costly and extravagant churches are not necessarily beautiful. Witness the costly monstrosity which is the new cathedral in LA. Likewise beautiful churches are not always costly. Many a village church, many a humble chapel, many a simple inner city church is beautiful but poor. What makes a beautiful church are certain principles of beauty, a certain priority of worship, a certain simplicity and dignity, a certain atmosphere of prayer.

Here are beautiful places of worship I have been to which are not first and foremost architectural and aesthetic wonders: the chapel in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, the convent chapel where Archbishop Romero was martyred, the church of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, numerous inner city Catholic churches which were humble places of prayer. In each one, however, the priests and the faithful did their best to make their humble churches beautiful.

Last thing: there is a beautiful scene in the movie about St Damian of Molokai. When he arrives at the leper island the little church is filthy. The doors and windows are broken, the altar is covered with junk, the vestments are rat-eaten and the chalice is dented and bent. Very simply and quietly we see hi go about his very first job: the beautification of the church. He starts to sweep and clean. He mends the altar linens. He fixes the chalice. He builds the church. Then he lights the candles and says Mass.

Of course splendid buildings are nice too, and they are worthy for the reasons I expounded in yesterday's post, but this too is really what I meant about Catholics building beautiful churches.

Why Catholics Should Build Beautiful Churches

I used to wonder why the church, in her venerable wisdom, had a memorial feast day for the dedication of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. What's the big deal? It's just a church building right? OK, it's bigger and older and more beautiful than most churches, but so what. The church is really the people right? Well, yes and no. Certainly St Paul talks about us being 'living stones' being built up into the 'temple', but that image only makes sense if there is such a thing as a physical temple made up of real stones.

So why should Catholics build beautiful churches? Lots of reasons. First of all, our faith is an incarnational faith. We believe that the Son of God took flesh of the Blessed Virgin and entered this physical realm of human history. That transaction within history registers as the expression of God's everlastingly beautiful glory and power alive in this world. So a Catholic Church that is beautiful and built to last is a witness to the incarnation. It's beauty also represents the sacrifices of time, talent and treasure to build such a temple fit for God. "This is not just a meeting hall!" the beautiful Catholic Church proclaims. "This is a temple where God dwells in our midst as Christ his Son came to dwell in our midst."

Furthermore, so many churches were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary because she, in a most unique way, is the temple of God on earth. She is beautiful. She is full of grace. She is transcendent and eternal because of the graces received from her Son. So too, the Catholic Church should be a silent witness to these truths. Here we have built a temple that is beautiful and transcendent and full of God's presence and grace. Here the Son of God dwells in his sacramental presence. This great Church is therefore a reminder of the Blessed Virgin, and if a reminder of her, then a reminder that her destiny is the destiny of each one of us. We too are called to be temples of the Holy Spirit. We too are called to be transformed by hard work, sacrifice and God's grace to become everlastingly beautiful. We too are called to an eternal destiny.

Here's another reason: a beautiful Catholic church proclaims our values. It says, "This church is going to last 1000 years. It will be so beautiful that no one will dare to tear it down.We believe in the eternal truths that are so beautiful and true and everlasting that no one can ever destroy them. Furthermore, we believe in values that are everlasting and never change. We aim to live lives that are as solid and dignified and beautiful and true and everlasting as this building. Our doctrinal truths, our moral truths, our love, our life, our joy--all of these are everlasting and this church speaks silently and eloquently that what we hold dear we are willing to invest in, and we are willing to sacrifice much to build a witness that will last long after we are gone. This will speak to believers and unbelievers a truth that is beyond words and which will lift them to prayer which is beyond words.

In every age people spend money building beautiful temples to their gods. If you want to see what gods a society worships look around for the beautiful buildings. Which buildings in our cities are built with marble, fountains, high ceilings, silver and gold fittings, oriental carpets and fine furnishings? Banks and insurance companies mostly. There you find the temples we have built to our gods. Then look at so many modern Catholic Churches--built on the cheap with tawdry materials, cut corners, shoddy workmanship, poor design by ignorant architects who are working for their own glory trying to 'be creative'. A beautiful, traditional Catholic Church protests against all of that vulgarity and low life with great dignity and power.

A beautiful Catholic Church speaks all these truths silently in stone. When we build temporary, secular looking structures we say exactly the opposite. When we build in cheap materials, cut corners, choose poor stuff, tacky figurines and go the way of plastic, mass produced fiberglass, then we are (often literally) building in wood, hay and stubble. Why are we surprised therefore, that our Catholics have a faith that is cheap, temporary, second rate and falling apart? Our faith is incarnational. I believe  that if we invested more money in building and maintaining our beautiful buildings that we would actually be investing in a stronger faith for the future.

The last point (and I could go on) is that a church is not just a meeting place. It is a house of prayer. It is a place that becomes hallowed with prayer. Therefore it must be a place that lifts the heart to prayer. The human heart is vulnerable to beauty. The beauty of worship and the beauty of a church building lifts even the hardest heart to prayer. In a beautiful church people's hearts are opened. They stop and gaze and lift their eyes upward and as they do the fall to their knees, and even the most unlearned stumble and mumble the words their stuttering tongues seek to find: Holy, Holy Holy is the Lord God of  Hosts.

Dedication of Santa Maria Maggiore

The two domes of Sant Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Mother Mary

A  reader has asked where support for the Catholic Marian doctrines of Our Lady's perpetual virginity,  the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven comes from. He doesn't say, but I suspect he is a Protestant who is considering the Catholic faith.

I think he needs to read Mary-A Catholic Evangelical Debate by my friend David Gustafson and Mrs Longenecker's favorite author. It is a complicated matter because it touches on the core and the whole of the Christian faith.

However, the short answer is this: The Marian dogmas come from our reflection on the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus Christ is God made man. In the fullness of time God sent forth his Son born of a woman. (Gal.4.4). The Son of God took his human flesh from his mother. Therefore that humanity had to be sinless. Mary is called 'full of grace' (Luke 1.28) If sin is the absence or lack of God's glory and grace (all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God) then if Mary was 'full of grace' she was not lacking in God's grace and was therefore sinless. When did that sinlessness begin? It must have begun when her life began. Thus we believe that by a special act of grace (empowered by Christ's sacrifice on the cross) Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her life. This is what we call the Immaculate Conception.

Mary continued in this Christ-won perfection throughout her life, and part of this perpetual purity is the fact that she remained a virgin her whole life. This we call the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin. One of the results of original sin is death and bodily corruption. As she was preserved from original sin she was therefore delivered from the death and bodily corruption which is the result of this sin. Therefore she was taken up into heaven at the end of her earthly life and this we call the Glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.

Anyway, that's the short version. Read the book for a more detailed debate.

Buy More Books

Dont' forget my summer book sale now going on... Go here for more info.

Rosary Beads Save Soldier's Life

Here's a story about a young British soldier serving in Afghanistan who claims his rosary beads saved his life. He was on patrol when the beads broke. He bent down to pick them up only to see that right in front of his foot was a landmine. Had he gone one step further he would ahve ben blown to bits.

It reminds me of the story in Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor trilogy when Guy Crouchback says that the St Christopher medal didn't save his brother from dying in the first world war. Old Crouchback disagrees, "You see, your brother came to see me the night before he left for the front to say good bye. He told me that he and some other soldiers went to a brothel the week before and a girl sat on his lap and began to unbutton his shirt. She discovered the St Christopher medal and said, "Are you a Catholic?" he said he was and the girls said, "Let's just go for a walk instead." So you see the St Christopher medal did save his life."

Well, the Waugh story is fictional, but when you walk by faith you begin to see that God's providence does work through life in a mysterious and tangential way. All things do work together for good for those who love God and who are called acccording to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28) but it's rarely clear just how that happens. The life of faith is therefore an adventure--we step out and go with God, and we will only see the whole picture one day in the distant future when all things are suddenly crystal.

The Vicar on Canine Communion

Guest blogger, The Rev'd Humphrey Blytherington is Vicar of St Hilda's, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and is an avid member of the Great Snoring Morris Dancers.


I must say, I haven't seen poor old Lavinia so worked up for some time. It seems that a lady vicar over in Canada has administered holy communion to a dog. At the clergy fellowship lunch Fr Giles said he was scandalized, but not surprised. Said he wouldn't be surprised at anything the female clergy might do. "What next?" he asked, "taking communion to the zoo and administering to a gorilla?"

Well, poor old Lav was practically apoplectic poor soul. Nearly in tears. Said Giles had no idea about anything at all and that dogs were God's creatures too. "What would St Francis have done?" she said, and didn't Our Lord himself say something about dogs picking up the morsel of bread from the master's table? We all got into quite a lather about the whole affair and Lavinia admitted that from time to time when their own doggie was feeling under the weather that she and Georgie had more than once laid hands on her for healing and even anointed the old girl (the doggie that is) with holy oil.

I said that was going a bit far, but tried to lighten things up a bit by telling the story about how old Canon Farnsworth once got finagled into doing a funeral for a budgerigar. Seems one of the old women in the parish had a dog die, and the undertaker twisted Canon Farnsworth's arm to turn up and say a few prayers at the graveside for the pooch. When he rolls up it turns out that there's a coffin and pallbearers and the whole kit and caboodle for the poor deceased hound. So Canon Farnsworth put a good face on it and did his best. Then at the bunfight afterwards one of the old ducks offered him a cucumber sandwich and said, "Lovely service vicar." then said in hushed tones, "My Bobbie was in the coffin too."

"Your Bobbie??" said Canon Farnsworth. "Who on earth was your Bobbie?"

"My budgie" said the old dear. "He passed six months ago and I knew Harriet's dog was about to go so I popped him in the deep freeze until Sammy passed."

Canon Farnsworth nearly spit out his tea and sandwich, but managed to say, "Well, I wish I'd known, and I'd have said a prayer for Bobbie too."

What do I think about it all? Well, I'm not really fussed. I can't see it has done any harm to offer the doggie the Holy Communion. I'm sure the lady vicar didn't mean to offend anyone. Storm in a teacup really.

Daphne? Yes, well. There is a bit of a sore point. Made me a bit cross I must say. Daff read about it in the Daily Telegraph and simply snorted a bit (as she does) and said, "Doesn't make a bit of difference. What the silly woman gave the dog was only bread anyway. Might as well have given him a Bonio and been done with it."

I tried to pick her up on the point and say that she was a bit out of line, but she put down her paper and said, "Just what do you believe about Holy Communion anyway Humphrey darling?"

But I wasn't going to take the bait. I try to avoid these little theological spats with Daff if I can. What? Yes Nigel, I don't mind if I do have another half a lager shandy. Thanks very much indeed. Very kind.

Trad Clip Art

I'm looking for traddy clip art for my parish bulletin. Any leads?

Book Sale on Now!

Don't forget my summer book sale! Go here to learn more.

Considering Catholicism

When a Protestant who is considering the Catholic Church calls me for advice the conversation goes back to some recurring difficulties. So here are some commandments for converts.

1. The Catholic Church is not just another denomination. It's very different from all the Protestant churches you have ever attended. Behave as if you're visiting a foreign country.
2. Be curious, not critical.
3. You're right. There are plenty of hypocritical, heretical and lukewarm Catholics. There are a fair few Prots like that too aren't there?
4. The Catholic Church is huge. Don't compare it to your Protestant sect. Compare it to all Protestants of every kind in every Prot organization everywhere. Did you find some loony, left wing scary Catholics? Remember the Episcopalians. If we have to answer for radical theologians and loony leftie nuns you have to answer for Kitty Schori, Mary Glasspool,  the Jesus Seminar and Matthew Fox.
5. I know it seems like you're "not getting fed." Once you're received into the church you'll be fed alright: Fed the Body of Christ. Be patient.
6. Stop imagining that there's a perfect church somewhere. Utopianism is an American disease. If you expect conflict and imperfection you won't be so disappointed with the Catholic Church (or with life generally for that matter)
7. The Catholic Church is in an epic battle with modernism. Don't just complain about fuzzy feel good sermons, comfort hymns and carpeted churches. Join those of us who are working to 'reform the reform' and play your part.
8. You wonder where the 'fellowship' is. That's because a typical Catholic parish is huge and socially varied. Protestant churches tend to develop congregations from the same socio economic background. No wonder they have 'good fellowship'. In the Catholic Church you will find your 'fellowship' in one of a huge number of sub groups. Once you've swum the Tiber, join the Women's Club or the Knights of Columbus or the Pro Life Group or the Carmelite Prayer Group or the Third Order Franciscans.
9. Yes, we do read the Bible, but we read it within the tradition and prayer of the Church. The Scriptures are woven into the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. Be prepared to see the Scriptures you love in a totally fresh and exciting way.
10. Ask why you are considering the Catholic Church. If you're just church shopping you still have a long way to go. The big question is authority. If you have come to believe that the Catholic Church really is the fullest expression of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and that the Holy Father is the God-appointed successor of Peter, Christ's apostle on earth, then get yourself into the Catholic Church as soon as you can. Everything else will follow.

Ignatius the Soldier

A reader has sent in this image of St Ignatius of Loyola spearing a heretic. Where's that picture of me with big stick?

Anglo Catholics to Stay and Fight

Am I allowed to yawn at this point? Here's the news: Anglo Catholics are divided about what to do next? Errm, so what's new? Some have vowed to 'stay and defeat women bishops'. Uhh, not likely. Others will stay and 'fight on' even if women bishops are ordained. No surprises there then. Others will stay for 'family reasons' or 'financial reasons'. What was that about 'hating your mother and father and brother and sister for the sake of the gospel?'

Some readers think, because I converted from Anglicanism that I was Anglo Catholic. I never was. I was a happy Anglican who thought he had found C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity. I valued Catholic ways of praying and celebrating the liturgy, but I also valued the Evangelical preaching and love of Scripture, the Charismatic's emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit and the Liberals' emphasis on peace and justice. My motto has always been, "A man is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies."

I've certainly respected many of the Anglo Catholics I worked with. I liked their scholarship, their devotion to the faith and their tradition of going to the tough parishes to do God's work. I liked their sense of theater, their sense of humor and their self deprecation. I liked their feisty spirit and their jaunty warrior spirit. However, I never really bought into their 'church within a church' mentality. I thought their 'Catholicism' too often to be ostentatious, overly aesthetic and precious. I disliked the effeminate subculture that too often went with Anglo Catholicism, and I disliked the self inflicted blinders they wore when it came to the Catholic Church. I never joined their confraternities and sodalities or went on their pilgrimages and retreats, and if I had tried to join I would probably not have been welcome.

Therefore, my emotions about Anglo Catholics are mixed. There are so many good folks still in that sub set of Christianity, and I like them and pray for them and hope they can come home to Rome and bring their greatest treasures with them. However, I feel impatient and sorry for those who still quiver and dither and wring their hands over the whole sad state of the Church of England.

Yes, yes, it's sad to see where the Church of England is going, but my advice is to pull up your socks, bite your lip, have a stiff drink and swim the Tiber.

Summer Book Sale!

Book Sale!!

Time for a summer book sale--special offers for readers of my blog.

All of my books are available to purchase through my website. The only one not available (because it is being reprinted by Ignatius Press and will be out in the Fall) is More Christianity.

All books are $5.00 off. Here's how it works: you go to the website. You choose the book or books you want. You pay full price for them through PayPal. You put a note in the payment page saying you're taking advantage of the summer book sale. I send you the book along with a personal check for $5.00. (Don't forget to include a note if you want me to sign the book!)

You can buy as many copies as you want, but the sale ends on August 15.

The Way of the Cross

Just completed my first Sunday as the new parish priest at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish. Got a very warm welcome and we're off to a flying start. The homily was about what a parish is for, and therefore what a parish priest's job is.

I spoke about the cross being made up of the vertical beam and the horizontal. The vertical represents our worship of God and fulfills the first commandment to Love God. Therefore the first priority of the church is not social work or pastoral concern or political change or being nice people or even education or catechesis, but worship, devotions, prayer and the sacramental life. Therefore the parish priest's first job is to lead the people to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, bow down before him his praises proclaim." Part of that job at OLR is going to be to build a new church. Plans are well underway and you can follow the progress of that exciting project here.

The second beam of the cross is the horizontal. This fulfills the second of the greatest commandments, to love our neighbor as our self. This horizontal relationship is not possible without the vertical. You can't have the horizontal beam on the cross unless the vertical is established first. There's nowhere to hang the horizontal if the vertical isn't in place. There are two sides to the horizontal: pastoral care--which involves fellowship, looking after the sick and the poor and the housebound and the elderly; looking after the children, the needy, the prisoners, the bereaved; helping the poor both in our parish, our community and the wider world. The other side of the horizontal beam is evangelism and education. Sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the faith in the Catholic Church. We plan to be pro-active in evangelism at OLR, using the new media, using the old media and using personal contacts and witness to share the faith.

Finally, we consider who is on the cross. It is Christ the King. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, Strong and Mighty. It is through the cross that we encounter Christ. It is, as we bear the cross that we encounter Christ. This is why Catholics insist that the crucifix is front and center. We preach Christ, and him crucified. This cross of Christ is where we meet the King of Kings. It is where we encounter him, and it is in this crossing place of the vertical and horizontal--loving God and loving neighbor that Christ is experienced and passed on.

The Clinton-Windsor Link

Guest blogger, Duane Mandible is a contributing editor to The Truth Hurts, a bi-monthly journal of politics, economics and opinion. He also contributes regularly to Freedom Monthly; Illuminations and The Sojourner. Duane is the author of Guns and Knives will Save Your Children's Lives. He is Vice President of the Sacred Society of St Philibustre, and enjoys hunting rattlesnakes, square dancing and watching re runs of comedy classics. He is unmarried.

On this weekend in which the daughter of former United States President Mr William Jefferson Clinton (a nominal Methodist) was married to a Jewish man, I wonder anyone has noticed the remarkable similarity of this woman to Princess Anne of the Royal House of Windsor in England?

We should not be surprised. Anyone who has read the work of the remarkable seer and prophet, Mr David Icke, will understand that there is a supernatural bloodline that connects all the members of the royal families with the ruling families of the United States. This bloodline comes from alien invaders of our planet millennia ago. These 'angel beings' (who were really demonic) interbred with primitive human beings and were thus able to remain in what would be an otherwise hostile environment.  In previous centuries they were worshipped as 'divine kings' and this same bloodline has continued down to the present day. They are actually 'reptilians' and can transmogrify at will into terrifying reptile-like creatures.

The Bush Clan, the Kennedy Clan, the Clinton Clan are all related as are the Rockefellers, the Rotshchilds, and Mr Bill Gates the inventor of the computer. (notice the facial similarity between Bill Gates and Princess Anne. They could be brother and sister!) Virtually each one of the American presidents were connected through this ancient bloodline. What about Jimmy Carter you might ask? It is well known that the Kennedy family got good Southern girls to serve as servants on their estate. Remember 'Miz Lillian'? Jimmy Carter's mother? Well, she worked as a maid for the Kennedy family, and you can put the rest together.  Yes, Jimmy Carter was Joe Kennedy's love child! Get some old photographs and see for yourself. Didn't Jimmy Carter have that same Kennedy toothy grin?

Bill Clinton is connected to the Rockefellers in a similar way. He is the offspring of Winthrop Rockefeller who was governor of Arkansas. You can read about his background here. I have not yet been able to investigate the genetic background of President Barack Obama, but clearly this supernatural bloodline would come through his mother as black people have never been part of this superior race.

As David Icke reports, the people who rule the world get together on a regular basis to participate in occult ceremonies where they transmogrify together into their true reptilian selves. Infants are sacrificed and their blood is drunk. This diet of baby blood is what helps them to live so long. (Elizabeth the Queen Mother lived to the ripe old age of 107!) Princess Diana was one person who was unlucky enough to think she could take these people on, and she was sacrificed as the 'Goddess Diana' in a tunnel under Paris on the site of an ancient temple to Diana which was close to that location in Roman times.

People who are clear sighted and wish to know the truth only need to look for the information, more and more of which is freely available through the wonders of the internet age. My simple words of warning are, do not believe the appearances. Be alert! The Illuminate are real. They control the media. They control the airwaves. They are putting fluoride in our water, and mind numbing drugs in our hamburgers and hot dogs. I will write more about this in future columns.

Gimmee More Blog Posts!

Was the cry from a faithful reader. I realize that despite my good intentions I did no blogging last week. I also realize that I have been making more and more excuses. But it works like this: I blog when I think of stuff to blog about, and this means my mind is buzzing on this or that. It takes in a snippet here, a morsel there, processes it, comes up with a connection or an idea and then the blog post is born.

This isn't happening at the moment because my mind is buzzing over lots of other stuff associated with the new parish responsibilities. Details like buying some new stuff for the parish, shopping online for a chalice and ciborium and dealing with details of meeting people, parish staff, planning a renovation of the parish offices, setting up systems for ministry etc. Oh yeah,  Ali's sister and her four kids are here from England too for a summer holiday, and this weekend is my first weekend in my new job. The welcome at Our Lady of the Rosary parish has been very warm and happy so far!

But if you're patient, I'm sure things will settle down and we'll get back to normal soon.