High winds and holiness in a field in Norfolk

The bank holiday weekend at the end of May signals the start of our family pilgrimage to Walsingham. Together with around 60 other Catholic families we spend from Friday through Monday camping in a field, sharing food, conversation, support and prayer. It's a wonderful spiritual retreat complete with penances of high winds, cold nights and driven rain. Yet despite the privations (no showers for 4 days!) we always feel refreshed -- if physically tired -- after the pilgrimage. The daily Masses, the communal prayer (morning prayer, Rosary, night-time prayer), the talks and the fellowship all combine to provide a spiritual shot in the arm

This year we were particularly blessed to have Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke as our guest. His Eminence had kindly given his time to spend several days in a wet field in Norfolk with a small number of Catholic families: what a boost to our vocations that was. And what a gift to the Church ++Burke is. Please pray for this holy, humble and charitable prince of Holy Mother Church.

The only thing better than a favouite mantilla...

...is a favourite mantilla blessed by a favourite Cardinal!

++Burke with an exhausted crozier-bearer, Ramsgate  March 2014

I was delighted to meet Cardinal Raymond Burke earlier this year when he celebrated High Pontifical Mass at St Augustine's Shrine Church in Ramsgate. It was a glorious Mass (Fr Finigan's excellent description is well worth reading, and Mulier Fortis has some wonderful photographs of the evening) and we enjoyed meeting the very warm and affable ++Burke after the Mass at a reception. Many people asked him to bless items for them, and he obliged. I had a favourite Rosary with me, but alas! it had already been blessed by the admirable +Davies (of whom, as regular readers will know, we are great fans) and so I thought that I had nothing to be blessed. What a shame. Afterwards I discovered that a friend had had her mantilla blessed and that another had his missal blessed (and inscribed!) by ++Burke. Oh alas and alack! If I had only thought...

Well all was not lost. We were thrilled to have Cardinal Burke back again in England for this year's traditional Confirmations and to celebrate the LMS' annual requiem Mass at Westminster Cathedral. Cardinal Burkes schedule was unrelenting and we didn't have an opportunity to meet him again properly this time, but my dear friend Queen of Puddings kindly arranged to have him bless my favourite mantilla (the heavy-duty all-weather survival one) and I received it back - blessed!

Thrilled just isn't the word.

10 Ideas for Advent

A little late from the starting blocks with this, but still worth sharing: Father Tim Finigan has some excellent suggestions on his parish website of  ways to observe the season of Advent in order to prepare for the birth of Our Lord. I was particularly taken by the simple suggestion of praying a Hail Mary before opening a window on the Advent calendar: a tiny pause for thought and reflection.

Image from The Pod Company

The most cheerful thing to come out of Synod 2015 so far...

...possibly the only uplifting thing at all is this marvellous take of Gillbert & Sullivan's classic with an eye turned towards Teutonic heresy: I am the very model of a modern German Cardinal. We've been singing along  in chorus while I've been making dinner this evening.


"I know the Church’s history, from Schillebeeckx to G D Boff

I like to wear bad vestments and I’m apt to take my cassock off

I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of the traditionalists

I make outrageous statements and proceed to slander journalists

I’m very prone to avarice, and harbouring of catamites

And mawkish modern liturgies with troupes of female acolytes..."

It's worth listening to the whole thing ... full lyrics here.

Wouldn't it be spendid if somebody made an English version? Just saying.

Prayer for the family: Synod 2015

A friend, currently in Rome, asked me to share this prayer. Please pray: pray, pray, pray like you've never prayed before. The stakes are high and the smoke of Satan lingers ....

But above all remember Our Lord's promise: the gates of Hell will not prevail.

The Seven Sorrows of Homeschooling Mothers

This talk by a FSSP priest contains much food for thought and had me oscillating between tears of laughter and tears of sad recognition: any home educating mother will find something to relate to, and I think this deserves to be more widely shared.

Delighted

...to see that Linen on the Hedgerow is once again viewable. For some reason -- possibly because Blogger doesn't allow deceased authors -- it had been locked down with a violation of terms message for the past couple of months. If you aren't familiar with this wonderful blog then take advantage of once again having the opportunity to explore it; if, like me, you were an avid reader you'll simply be thrilled that it's back live: what a tribute to a lovely man and good strong Catholic. His online contribution to the Faith was immeasurable, and what I knew of his personal offline life reflected the same strength and values.

Richard's death left a yawning chasm in the Catholic blogosphere: things haven't quite been the same since. He is sorely missed.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

This post initially began as a pointer to the Wayback Machine Internet Archive which allows users to see websites that have been removed from the internet (as long as they've been archived). Checking the archive against the live URL I reaslised that Richard's blog was once again viewable in the ordianary way.

The Wayback Machine is still rather amusing should you wish to dig out that first embarrassing hand-coded HTML site you built 20 years ago complete with animated GIFs *cough* and awards. Remember when websites used to be given awards and list them on separate "awards pages". Oh the heady days of 1996 when the 'Net was much less cynical...

Yes, Rat Site Excellence. What we all used to strive for.