What's been going on

I returned about a week ago from my holiday in Italy and it's been one of those busy seasons. A few days before I came back, my uncle Chris went to his reward after battling cancer for several years. R.I.P.

I intend to take a week's break or so from blogging, after which I shall resume my musings/ramblings and tell you about the more interesting points of the holiday.

In the meantime, a slightly belated happy birthday to my friend Oliver, who recently announced the closure of one blog, but appears to have started another. Happy birthday as well to our dear Mulier Fortis!

Ad multos annos!

Seen this?

Right now I'm fairly sure that the blogosphere has been buzzing with people looking at reports of yesterday's Pontifical High Mass at Westminster Cathedral, so I thought something a little different might be in order.

At the risk of displaying preferential treatment, Oliver has put up a little piece on allegiance to the Queen. If your latin is as bad as mine, then you may find it a tad difficult, but you shouldn't find the point too hard to understand.

In what I believe may be a first (possibly even a historic moments) Bishop Williamson has given an interview which is unusually free from outrageous and hilarious statements. Fr Z has given his customary reply with points. I can't help but feel that a radio or TV discussion between these two would be very interesting.

Finally, the Ceremoniere has a post many of us may identify with.

New site

I have been asked to advertise the St Conleth's Catholic Heritage association. According to a friend of mine who is often in Ireland, the Church there is in something of an odd state, so please spare a prayer for their efforts.

Moving along

Apologies for a long absence. The last month has been pretty busy with the last stage of my second year at university, which left little time for much more important things like blogging.

I am afraid that I show little signs of producing much more as I am currently on holiday in Italy with limited access to a computer. Nevertheless, I will keep you updated on anything interesting which I might do/see/otherwise.

The restoration of Our Lady

Thanks to today's Moment with Mary bulletin, I found out that today is the date when in 1866 Blessed Pope Pius IX gave the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (this title has been changed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help-much to the annoyance of my friend Oliver) to the Redemptorists.  The church of Saint Matthew which had housed the icon had been destroyed by troops during the Napoleonic invasion, but the image of Our Lady was saved by a good soul.  Pio Nono exhorted the Redemptorist Fathers (who had built the church of St Alphonsus on the site where St Matthew's had been) to "Make her known!  Make her loved!  She will save the world".

This makes me wonder how we can harness devotion to Our Lady as a means to evangelisation.  A number of converts to Catholicism have rightly owed their decision to enter the Church to the intercession of Our Lady, one of whom is St Alphonsus Ratisbonne.

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, pray for the salvation of the world.

Request for prayers

A good friend of mine will undergo a long operation on Tuesday the 29th of April.  Please pray that it will go well.

Things put into perspective

With academic work getting rather trying at the moment, it was possibly providential that I served a Requiem Mass today. Actually in the last few months, I have ended up at Requiem Masses (without meaning) too, and have found them highly helpful in reminding me that however stressful we might find our everyday concerns, there are things to be slightly more concerned about, such as continuing to know, love, and serve God with the time we have left. It's rather disconcerting to consider how when we will go before God, we might find that our priorities were mistakenly arranged.

How encouraging given this then, that God is always willing to have souls return to Him in spite of anything they might done.