Catalina

http://greatcrusade.org/greatcrusade/Mass/Holy_Mass-web.htb

If you have never read this before, you must.

Mass will never be the same for you again.

(Just discovered the link doesn't seem to work- ry to google search The Testimony of Catalina On The Mass.)

Saint George

A Hymn For Saint George

Leader now on earth no longer,
Soldier of t'eternal King.

Victor in the fight for heaven,

We thy loving praises sing.

Great Saint George, Our patron, help us,

In the conflict be thou nigh;

Help us in that daily battle,

Where each one must win or die.

Praise him who in deadly battle

Never shrank from foeman's sword,

Proof against all earthly weapon,

Gave his life for Christ the Lord.

Great Saint George, etc

Who, when earthly war was over,

Fought, but not for earth's renown;

Fought, and won a nobler glory,

Won the martyr's purple crown.

Great Saint George, etc

Killing Me Softly

Last night down at St Charles a healing Mass with Eucharistic Adoration was held by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal from Bradford.
I was eager to go because I know what good guys they are, holiness just oozes from them.
I'd taken my Mum along with me, she has disabilities and usually if we go out she has to have a wheelchair with her.

I'd love to be able to write an in depth posting of everything that was said, but the whole thing touched me so deeply that I was experiencing rather than hearing what was said.
Fr Augustine who led the whole service spoke of the healing that people are in need of.
As he spoke, he said it as though he knew me, it was almost like he delved in to the depths of my soul and extracted every past dark despair that was still hiding there.
The reason for the title of this post is it brought to mind the song "Killing me Softly"
He really was telling my whole life in front of the congregation.
The thing is I think most people there probably felt the same.
Part of the healing service involved the reading of the woman with the hemorrhage. After which Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament was brought to each individual (We knelt along the Altar rail) and just for a moment you touched the humeral veil, with Our Blessed Lord there before you. Oh if only that moment was for longer.
Your Faith Has Healed you.

Think before you click

I do seem to be having a very generous helping of trials and tribulations at the moment.
In the last 24 hours I've had two mishaps regarding the computer.
The first one resulted when someone sent an invitation to join Pagii or something like that. )it's a bit like myspace or facebook) I'd clicked on one thing, that it asked me if ******* was my friend to click here.
Well what could I do? So I clicked. The darn thing gets your contact list, then sends an invite from you to join. So I've invited My Parish Priest, various other clergy and religious, my doctor's repeat prescription email among others to this thing. Snag is once you go onto the home page for it, the most viewed profiles pop up. They all seem to be bikini clad women in provocative positions. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
You'd think I learn my lesson. Ha!
Go onto SPES Blog site, I'm looking through the comments on the post about their visit to Hull and come across this strange comment which says click here. Yep, you guessed it. Spent the next million years having to virus check my computer.
James Thank you for the help.

These things are sent to try us

I'm beginning to think i shouldn't bother getting up in a morning.
Just looked out the window at my car and there is a HUGE dint in the side.

Oh Dear What Can The Matter Be!

Just spent the last 15 minutes locked in our downstairs Loo thanks to our decorators.
When they put the door handle back on, they never put the spindle that goes through the middle. Therefore when you pulled the handle the catch didn't move, and the door stayed firmly shut- WITH ME INSIDE. Jess was upstairs having a shower, so to start off with she didn't hear me yelling. Even when she did there was very little she could do.
Lucky for me our neighbour heard us and sent her son and husband round to the rescue.
Karl removed the handle, it was then we discovered they hadn't inserted the spindle.
Karl - They haven't stuck the thing back in the middle.
I look on the window ledge and see the missing door fixing.
ME- What this.
I manage to pass it through the window and in no time the door is fixed and I am released from captivity.

Oh well you can always find someone worse off - www.telegraph.co.uk/.../12/10/nbowling110.xml

We're Having A Heatwave

The workmen must feel the cold, poor lambs.
The thermostat was turned up to 30 degrees.
The heat knocked me out when I walked in. I'm off to put my grass skirt and flower garland on.

Infestation

I'm fed up with workmen.
I dread to think what is going on when I'm not in. Every room seems to be affected some way. Those that are not actually getting sorted are piled that high with stuff that you can't move in them.
I was very upset to find that one of the decorators had used my DVD ( Case) on the Divine Mercy as a drinks coaster.

P.S This is the work carried out on our house due to the floods last June.

What A Great Week.

Sometimes our lives briefly brush with other people who make such a deep impression, that after only a short time you feel like you've known them a lifetime.

That is how I feel after our visit from the students of the St Patrick's school for evangelisation.

Allen who is from China summed it up beautifully. He basically said - although coming from China I am an only child, in reality I am not an only child because you are all my brothers and sisters. (Although I think he put it more profoundly than that).

The Friday night with the youth of our parish went really well, we had a fantastic turn out.

Jessica and myself along with a few others went out with them on the Saturday into the city centre for the street evangelisation. Although the bravest thing I did was hand out a few leaflets.

James over at Catholic and loving it (see links) has a post along with photos on his blog. Check it out.

SPES

As I mentioned in my previous post SPES are with us this week.
They have a busy schedule ahead of them. Already they have had a procession with prayers through the streets of Hull. ( missed that due to the workmen.) They are doing street evangelisation today, which sounds a little scary but yet a t the same time quite exciting, not that I'll get to see whats going on, yep you've guessed it- WORKMEN.
Tonight they are meeting the parents of our First Holy Communion children and leading them in a Holy Hour.
Tomorrow after more street evangelisation they are spending the evening with our Young people, which means I get an extra week off organising youth club.

The workmen are now supposed to be coming tomorrow. Funny how tomorrow never comes.

There are so many things that I need to be doing at the moment, I don't know which one I should start first. I feel like I'm plate spinning, the only problem is all my plates seem to be stopping at once and I'm running from one to the other only to see them come crashing to the ground.

The Vat return for work needs doing, which always feels like a mammoth task, although it never takes quite as long as I think it will. The thing is I'm going to be stuck at home waiting for workmen when I need to be at work.

SPES is visiting our parish this week, which is all very exciting. I will write more in detail about it later, however I'm stressed as I agreed to cook for them on Thursday, but everyone else as pinched my ideas for what to cook. Having said that I might not have a kitchen to cook in, it might be full of work men.

I can't post my photos yet as I'm having problems downloading them.

I don't seem to have heard from Andy for ages, although it is probably only a couple of days. Having said that the last phone call I had was four minutes long. Two of those minutes where spend explaing that he couldn't speak for long, the other two asking me to email some football results.

Andy has gone on his travels once again, so I'm going to make a big effort to keep up to date with the blog while he is away, although I've not made a good start as he went a week ago.

This trip is only a short one (By Navy standards). I think it is ten weeks. compare that to the last one of seven and a half months and its the blink of an eye.

Having said that I don't feel quite so brave this time.

This week work is supposed to be starting on the house after the flooding last June.

The worst part is waiting in for work men who don't turn up. Fist they don't turn up so you then ring them to find out what is happening, the person on the other end of the phone has to ring someone to find out what is going on but they will ring you straight back. Two hours later your still waiting.

The swines.

Jessica and myself went out last Friday afternoon, to Nostell Priory, which is a stately home near Wakfield. We had a rather nice time and I have taken some photographs which I'll post up when I'm a bit more organised.

It was nice to walk through the grounds and see all the wild primroses. We had afternoon tea in the tearoom, although between me and you the scone was a little on the dry side. I was also getting rather irritated by a child who was laid on the floor screaming because he couldn't have the drink he wanted. The Mother was one of those " Please don't scream, darling" sorts. I don't know which was worse the child or the parent.

Last night there was a family meal at the Skidby Mill restaurant, to celebrate my mum and Brother in law birthdays.

When we have a family meal it always ends up looking like the Waltons. I think there was 16 of us altogether. Actually I have to be honest going out with all my family at once is my idea of Hell. This may sound a little harsh, but that is how I feel. The thing is nothing is straight forward. My parents are always late, this is usually due to the fact that Dad has stayed at the nurseries to the last minute then rushed to get ready. This usually leads to some calamity.

True to style all the rest of us had arrived and partaking in drinks at the bar. Time was getting on and my parents are no where to be seen. I should perhaps add at this point when my Mum goes out she usually has to have her wheelchair with her, this combined with Dad pushing her usually adds to a farce that Frank Spencer would be proud of.

Anyway, my youngest sister phones to see what has happened. Dad has cut his lip whilst shaving and after an hour is still unable to stop the flow of blood. This is not good as Dad usually faints at the sight of his own blood.

It all ended up ok in the end, and it was a rather lovely meal.

Jessica went back to school today, so our routine is a bit better.

Since I last blogged we have a new pet. Tinkerbell the cat. To be honest I'm not a huge cat lover. I like Tinkerbell and I liked the cat that we had at home when I was younger, but I can't stand other cats that come and use your garden as a litter tray. There is patch in the garden that I've almost got as I wanted. One of the plants is a Carex grass. Some darling little pussy has left a great big turd right in the middle of it. Most cats have the decency to bury it. This however is just sitting there in the middle of my plant.

Anyway Tinkerbell is a black six month old cat. She keeps pinching my Rosary beads (although I don't think she takes them to say the Rosary) and attacks the ribbons on my breviary.