This is beautiful...

That faithful to the sacrament of matrimony every Christian family may cultivate the values of love and communion in order to be a small evangelizing community, sensitive and open to the material and spiritual needs of others.

The following story is not for the sqeamish. Do not read this while standing up or eating. Have a glass of water by your side. I am typing this with one hand. It is taking ages, but I have ages because I'm not really able to do anything.

Our story begins with Mark and Monica, our friends in Italy who are to be married this weekend. We were due to go out to Italy for the wedding but due to reasons that are best described as "there are three of us managing on a single paltry northern income" we decided that it was not financially viable. We had the choice a while back between being people who can afford a car and trips to Italy or being people with a baby. We went with the baby and it was the right choice.

So, Mark and Monica are getting married and I decide to use my novice wood carving skills to carve them a wedding present. You don't really save money doing this, oak is not cheap and the piece I sourced (you don't 'buy' wood, you 'source' it) costs more than a toaster. Oh, and it takes ages to do. Anyway I thought it would be nice to do this wood carving (I'm not going to say too much about it so there's at least a bit of suspense) because it would be a bit more personal than a toaster and Ella prefers me to carve gifts because it means she doesn't end up with a house full of wood. Like I said, it takes ages and yesterday I was just finishing it off.

It was about 3pm and I had just made Leona a cheese sandwich for lunch. She was having a late lunch because she had slept a very long time that morning and I hadn't woke her so I could get on with my carving. While she sat in the high chair and munched away in the next room I thought I'd have a cup of tea and I decided to just scrape a couple more slithers off the wood while the kettle boiled.

I don't really remember what happened next. I was pushing the chisel through the wood when something slipped and the chisel slipped off and slammed in to my right hand. I was using a 'V' tool and one of the upper parts of the 'V' shape cut a line about an inch and a half long and really deep. Now, you have to remember here that I'm not prone to exaggeration, I'm a man who goes to see an all time classic film and then describes it as 'alright'. The cut was an inch long, it was deep. I could see parts of the inside of my hand that no man is supposed to see. Yellow parts (fat) and stringly parts (veins and tendons).

The body is remarkably good at dealing with this kind of situation, I looked at my hand and it looked fake. Like plasticine. It didn't really hurt (adrenaline) but I figured I would probably need to go to the hospital. My first thought was not "Aaarrrghh, my hand! my hand!" as you might expect but annoyance. I was really really annoyed that I was going to have to go to the hospital. Pretty soon it started to well up with blood. In hindsight it was less blood than you would expect for such a hole but I recognised the need for something to soak it up. We have no kitchen roll left (I was carving in the kitchen) and so I made my was to the dining room and did my best not to let Leona see as I ruined the table cloth and got some kleenex. I was a bit worried the tissue would stick but what choice did I have?

Usually when I nick myself there's a little blood and when it's wiped up the wound is blood free until a little more blood seeps in. There was no seeping here. As quick as I soaked tissues in blood more blood came and more tissues were required. I got to the phone and had the shortest phone call I've ever had with Ella's mum. "Do you have the car?" "Can you come and take me to the hospital I've cut my hand very badly" "Thanks, see you soon!". Ella's mum know my penchant for understating things so she knew it must be bad. She didn't give me any of that "Are you sure it needs the hospital, put a plaster on it" nonsense. She got in the car with Ella and they set off immediately.

Meanwhile it was clear I needed to do more than grip kleenex and hold my hand in the air. I ran upstairs and got the medical box from which I took some steri-strips. James' top tip for everybody: Get some steri-strips. They are not cheap but they are amazing. They are what doctors use in place of stitches on medium sized cuts. They are duck tape for the body.

Of course, to use steri-strips you need scissors and our medical box has scissors but blow me down if I could find them. I ended up grabbing some of Ella's craft scissors which were visibly grubby but again, what choice did I have? I used the steri-strips to hold the flaps of skin together. This was trickier than it sounds because I was working one handed and because the inside of my hand is made of mush so the flaps of skin were folding in on themselves. I can only describe it as trying to use one hand to tape together two sheets of floppy soggy paper which are floating on thick custard. I had to use the stickyness of the steri-strips to lift the skin out so I could line it up and tape it together. Have I mentioned that all the while I was doing this, I was also trying to kep on top of the blood flow and that steri-strips, awesome as they are, don't stick too well to blood.

I got there in the end though and it really did help slow the flow, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off. Where was Ella's mum and the car? Leona was calling so I went in with my now much cleaner hand and explained what had happened. I don't think she understood a word I was saying, I had a sudden urge for a glass of water, I got in the kitchen and suddenly was feeling feint so I sat on the floor, head between my knees. I felt better so I had a drink and felt better still. I kept my hand high above my head for a while and then decided in the interests of speed to get Leona in the car seat. I don't know how I did it, I lifted her using my arms and no hands and she was cooperative.

Finally, Ella came to the door. I hopped in her mum's car and we were on our way to Hull Royal. Ella's mum dropped us off at A&E while she kindly took Leona home to look after her. The service at A&E was very good, the lady at reception was talking to somebody else but as soon as she saw me she immediately ended the conversation and came to my aid. I was lead in to a small room where a nurse did the whole 'can you bend your fingers?' thing and then sent me for an x-ray with a form that said 'severe laceration'. They did the whole 'can you bend your fingers?' thing again. Every time they bent my fingers the whole wound went funny and sort of slid around inside. I wish they would tell each other that they already did it. I was zapped with gamma radiation and they established that my bones had escaped unscathed.

Then, we waited. I was to see the doctor and the doctor was busy. Now things took a while but eventually I was called in and, yes, he did the 'can you bend your fingers?' thing. He made me open and close my fist which felt like squelching a handful of grapes. Ewww. He felt around inside my hand with his little finger and then, well, then things went a bit Monty Python.

The doctor went over the corridor to have a discreet talk with one of the nurses about my hand, only she clearly wasn't aware that I was stood five feet away because she loudly said things like "No! Don't make it worse!" and then explained to him how to set about fixing my wound. You need to 'explore' it, she said. So he came back with some tools and had a poke around inside. Then he went back and asked what to do next, she told him to wash it and then put some stitches in.

He put a paper blanket over me which I commented was 'very star wars' which it was but he laughed awkwardly like a man in trouble. Then he took a syringe and injected me six times with something to numb my hand. They were the six most painful injections of my life, I think because of how tough the skin on the palm is. Next he used a syringe minus the needle to squirt huge quantities of sterilised water in to my wound until he was satisfied it was clean.

The stitches came next, the nurse handed the doctor a sewing kit thing and said "are you okay" and he said "um, er, yes". I have seven stitches in my hand, but two of them are right on top of each other so it's a six stitch wound really. The little half moon sewing needle thing passed through my hand nine times. The first time, the doctor pulled the needle through and then so far away that all the thread followed after. I used to make that mistake sewing badges on my scout uniform. On another occasion he put the needle through too close to the wound and when he tightened the knot the string just tore through my skin and came away. Fun and games. Towards the end the anti-pain stuff started to wear off and I was weighing up in my head whether to mention it and have another six painful injections or just to endure the pain of the last few stitches. I went with endurance and it hurt like hell, but on reflection, I think it hurt less than the injections.

He tested the wound a little by poking and squeezing it and as he did so yellow fat squirted out between the stitches. Then I was bandaged up and sent on my way. As I was leaving the nurse explained that I had had 'minor surgery' on my hand and advised me not to get it wet, lift anything or risk taking it to work. Ella's dad took picked us up and took us all out for a meal to celebrate Ella's brother's GCSE results which were really good. I had pizza because you can eat pizza with one hand.

I've been off since then, bored out of my head unable to blog, unable to play computer games, unable to do much really. Writing this blog entry one handed has taken so long that I went back to work yesterday and this morning the stitches are coming out. I'll let you know how I get on.

I saw this and thought of the Faith Movement (I reckon they would like it)...

If you can't handle the swearing, you should be reading "Mormon and Loving it!" instead...

It's been a while since I wrote about the survey in The Tablet. After asking about reasons for going to Mass The Tablet asked three questions beginning with the words "I can be a good Catholic without..."

Not so very long ago I saw a comic strip in which a man confessed to killing his wife and asked: "Does that make me a bad person?" It's become a bit of a catchphrase for relativists. "Bad People" are evil people like Hitler and the Spanish Inquisition. I cheated on the test, but I'm not a Bad Person. I stole from my mum, but I'm not a Bad Person. I don't go to mass, but I'm not a Bad Catholic. I'm a Good Catholic.

These figures are unhelpful without some kind of definition of a "good Catholic" and since everybody was left to define that for themselves I expect "a good Catholic" ended up pretty synonymous with "me", because "I'm not a bad person".

Percentage of people who strongly agree or agree by age...

"I can be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession"

18-35	36-45	46-65	over 65
43%	52%	49%	43%

"I can be a good Catholic without going to weekly Mass"

18-33	36-45	46-65	over 65
39%	45%	34%	27%

"I can be a good Catholic without marrying in the Church"

18-35	36-45	46-65	over 65
34%	45%	38%	25%

These questions are badly worded by the silly Tablet people because clearly there are exceptions. Can you be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession? of course you can... if you are six. Can you be a good Catholic without weekly mass? yes... if you are housebound. Can you be a good Catholic without marrying in Church? My friend Ben hopes so, he got a dispensation from the Bishop. If you can't be a good Catholic without marrying in the Church then it's game over for Ben (and so young...)

I'm going to assume these questions include hidden qualifiers along the lines of "if you are able bodied and above the age of reason" and I'm going to ignore the last one because it's stupid.

43% of Catholics say you can be a good Catholic without the Sacrament of Confession. 43% of Catholics are wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 43% of Catholics have been cheated and lied to by priests who say (actual quote) "You don't need to go to confession, you haven't sinned, not real sins." Oh, that's okay then.

39% say you can be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. If you can get to mass, then no, you can't be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. Does that make you a bad person? I don't know, why don't you go to confession and ask?

These answers are depressing. I note with interest the 39% of respondents who say you can be a good Catholic without going to weekly mass. Is that the same four in ten that don't come to mass mass every week?

Relativistic thinking is engrained in our culture. Earlier this year I wrote to a priest about a liturgical abuse and as part of his response he said "But seriously James, there are so many greater wrongs in the world on which to exercise our Christian concern, such as the wrongs of genocide, abortion and war in our world. In the face of such wrongs, I don't think this is a major breach (if a breach it is at all) which need overly preoccupy you.".

But seriously, this argument is false. We need to ditch the relativism. The fact that skipping a mass is not as bad as rape does not make it okay. Our entire culture justifies itself on not being as bad as some other comparably worse thing. This is how cohabitation, divorce, contraception and even abortion become so readily accepted, because I'm not a bad person, because I haven't actually tortured somebody to death.

Priests need to teach (with qualifiers of course, the housebound etc) that if you don't go to mass every week, you need to seriously entertain the notion that perhaps you are not a good Catholic but they need to explain that they are not therefore writing you off as completely evil. To be honest, I think it's time we dropped the term 'good Catholic'. We're all of us sometimes good and sometimes bad.

In Fit For Mission - Church [PDF] the Bishop of Lancaster puts it this way...

As your bishop, observing this forgetfulness taking place among us has been a source of great sadness to me:

• Those who ignore their responsibility to God and neighbour forget they are Catholic.
• Those who deliberately miss Sunday Mass forget they are Catholic.
• Those who never pray forget they are Catholic.
  Those who deny they are sinners and avoid confession forget they are Catholic.
• Those who live oblivious to the suffering of the poor forget they are Catholic.
• Those who dissent from the authority of the Church forget they are Catholic.
• Those who use contraception, IVF and embryonic stem cell research forget they are Catholic.
• Those who use pornography forget they are Catholic.
• Those who have sex outside of marriage forget they are Catholic.
• Those who commit homosexual acts forget they are Catholic.
• Those who exploit their power and position forget they are Catholic.
• Those who cheat on benefits or taxes forget they are Catholic.
• Those employers who exploit their workforce forget they are Catholic.
• Those who have racist, sexist or homophobic attitudes forget they are Catholic.

According to The Tablet, 43% of Catholics forget they are Catholic. Looking at that list, I reckon all of us forget at times. I wonder when our Priests are going to start reminding us.

Coming soon...

“Forty Years of Ecumenism - from Pope John XXIII to Pope John Paul II” at Driffield

Everyone is warmly welcome to an evening led by Father Tim Bywater exploring the topic of “Forty Years of Ecumenism - from Pope John XXIII to Pope John Paul II”.

This will be held in the Parish Hall of Our Lady and St Edward, Driffield, on Wednesday 10th September, starting at 7pm.

[link]

Forty years... forty years... why does that ring a bell? I wonder if anything else happened forty years ago...

Can't have been anything important or there would be some kind of talk on it or something...

The people over at CASE have just released a website especially for young people.

Lots of pages on God, Sin, Sunday Readings and sections for Boys Only and Girls Only etc, etc.

Check it out!

You, sir, have the most boring blog I have ever seen. Take it off the web.

I, sir, can change my blog. Your face is stuck like that.

I thought it was about time for a facelift, in January... since then I've been pottering about on Saturday afternoons for an hour when Ella is at archery. It's taken months but here it is.

We now have pretty pictures, links, an archive that works better, related items, and most importantly... two sheeps in the top left corner (we have been married three years).

Hopefully this means the layout problems on the old blog design are gone... no doubt this design will have problems of it's own. Let me know if you spot them.

Difficult readings last Sunday for a blogger. Difficult readings. It all started out so well in the Old Testament...

If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

Fr Massie's example in his homily was that if you know that there are sharks in the swimming pool and you don't warn him, then it's kind of your fault when he gets eaten by sharks. Bloggers like this sort of passage because, loosely translated, it says "criticise people or else". It's a license to write things like this.

But that's the Old Testament and unless I plan to put myself right with God by slaughtering several thousand animals (might be tricky) I should probably stay awake while Fr Massie reads the Gospel reading...

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Jesus always spoils the fun. An hour of boredom every Sunday morning and now this... tell him his fault, between you and him alone. Sounds bad for blogging, or at least, the kind of blogging that says "Fr Thingy did whatever and I don't think he should". Sounds like if he isn't happy, then Damian Thompson should be having a private word with the Bishops. Sounds like Fr Tim Finigan should never have blogged this (he should speak to them privately), Fr Z should never have blogged this (he should send his red ascii in a sealed envelope). Also, these bishops should have criticised an American policitician in private.

Closer to home, the Bishop of Lancaster in his very public Fit For Mission - Church [pdf] wrote that "Episcopal Conference statements and documents have a tendency to be often flat and 'safe' at a time when we need passionate and courageous public statements that dare to speak the full truth in love".

So hold on a moment. There seems to be a lot of public criticism going on, even by Bishops. Is everyone showing a flagrant disregard for what Christ has to say on the subject or is there something else going on here?

I think there are two main situations in which it might be acceptable to criticise publicly...

When there is imminent danger, either when the person is at risk of causing harm to themselves (you are using that chisel wrong) or if a person is intentionally causing harm to others. If somebody is in the process of shooting a classroom full of children, I highly doubt our Lord would want us to wait for an opportunity to question their actions in private.

When there is risk of scandal. Scandal, in the traditional sense, is when somebody's actions lead others to do wrong. St Thomas Aquinas covers this in his Summa Theologia where he says: Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2:11, "Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects."

As I see it, a significant number of priests in the Diocese of Middlesbrough are consistently undermining the teaching authority of the Church, that's a pretty imminent danger of scandal concerning faith. I fully intend to rebuke in public.

And in the words of John Lennon... I'm not the only one...

Stumbled across this on Catholic Dads...

I was at my local big-chain bookstore one Sunday and decided to check out their books on male spirituality. Having trouble locating that section, I asked the young, multiply pierced woman at the information counter, "Can you direct me to your books on men's spirituality?"

She snorted. "Books on men's spirituality? I've never heard of any. I know we don't have a section on that topic. Maybe you can look under war books. That's quite sizable."

"But you have quite a large section on women's spirituality," I said. Half joking I added, "Is there some sort of discrimination going on here?"

She bristled. "Hey, you're talking to the wrong person about discrimination. I'm a feminist."

[...]

Meanwhile, the church seems less and less hospitable to men. In most parishes, 80 percent of the staff are female. Church attendance is lower for men than for women. A lot of the energy in spirituality recently has emerged from the women's movement. Men are on the outs.

[...]

...Men need a place where their fear is welcome. Where all of who they are is welcome."

That may be where some of the difficulty for the church lies. The church is fine as long as all the externals look good. It doesn't usually welcome mess. One danger of the church's involvement in a men's spirituality movement is that it will devolve into an attempt to "tame" men, to mute our passion or simply channel it into pre-approved efforts.

My suspicion is that the real fear of the men's movement is what will show up when men explore their shadows. Men's anger needs to be welcome. Men's pain need to be welcome. Men's sexuality needs to be welcome. But what men often hear is, "Don't bring this or that to the table because it's not welcome here."

[link]

Let's say that again...

Men's anger needs to be welcome. Men's pain need to be welcome. Men's sexuality needs to be welcome. But what men often hear is, "Don't bring this or that to the table because it's not welcome here."

Interesting article from MercatorNet...

University students face four competing world views as they navigate their way through modern culture. They can only choose one of them.

[...]

The four worldviews are:

1) Fideism, which says that faith is the sole means at our disposal in the quest for truth; we can therefore refer to it as the philosophy of sola fides;

2) Modernism, also known as rationalism, scientism or positivism, which says that reason is the sole means we have in our quest for truth; we can refer to it as the philosophy of sola ratio;

3) Postmodernism, also known as cultural or moral relativism, or nihilism, which says there is no such thing as objective truth and that, therefore, faith and reason are of no use; we can call this philosophy that of nec ratio, nec fides; and

4) Catholicism, which says that the search for truth requires both faith and reason; we can thus refer to it as being based on fides et ratio.

[link]

Today I discovered that all around the world people are taking sword fight scenes from films and putting lightsabers in them.

View the top ten.

Not that any of my readers would be so stupid as to believe everything they see on TV...

Today is not Hadron Collider Day

All the world's media is going bananas over "first beam" day at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the world's most stupendous particle-punisher, which switched on this morning (following an initial hiccup which appeared to be fixed by the traditional expedient of turning it off then on again). Today, it is being strongly implied, is the moment of truth - today is the big day, when the LHC might unmask the elusive "god particle" - or alternatively destroy the world and indeed perhaps the entire universe.

There's just one snag with all that - it's cobblers. All the good, interesting stuff from the LHC - the Higgs deiton, the dark matter, the possibly planet-gobbling black hole dimensional portal threat and/or universe-buster runaway strangelet or monopole soup plagues, dessert topping apocalypses etc - none of that's on offer today. All of these excellent possibilities require the LHC boffins to actually collide some hadrons - well, duh. The clue's in the name. But they aren't ready for that yet. IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2008 22 - 23 September 2008, London

What's happening today is the inaugural, gentle bowling of some initial protons around the entire 27-km subterranean ultrachilled superconductor magno-track. That's your lot.

[link]

Bloody journalists. They always get the science wrong! At least they report on religion properly... oh wait.

If anybody is really concerned, check out hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

Learning to sing, is, of course, impossible. Which is why this course is a waste of time:

Learn to Sing

A free 5 week course for all ages, aimed at newcomers to singing and those who have not sung for a while.

Starting on Tuesday 23rd September, 7pm at the Main Hall, Brittain Building, Teesside University, Borough Road.

[link]

If it were possible for people to learn to sing (which of course, it isn't) then when when our parish was faced with an absence of musicians, people could have simply learned to sing (but that can't be done) instead of it being seen of a desperate situation requiring a digital organist because "people can't sing if there is no music".

If, like me, you're not part of the current loser generation of rapidly ageing people who seem to think they invented sex (and English) and the world started in 1962 then you probably don't find the idea of experimenting with things that were commonplace in the Church for say, hundreds of years, terrifying.

If that's you, then you might be interested in this: An Idiot's Guide to Square Notes.

But remember, only people that can already sing can sing and those people just don't exist in the Church these days. If they did, you'd see them on X-Factor.

Address by the Holy Father to Young People Outside Notre Dame Cathedral...

Address by the Holy Father to Young People Inside St Joseph's Parish Hall...

And this is what he said...

Dear Young Friends,

After our prayerful celebration of Vespers in Notre-Dame, your enthusiastic greeting gives a warm and festive tone to our meeting this evening. It reminds me of that unforgettable gathering at World Youth Day in Sydney this past July – at which some of you were present. This evening I would like to talk to you about two very closely related matters; they represent a real treasure to be stored up in your hearts (cf. Mt 6:21).

The first has to do with the theme which was chosen for Sydney. It is also the theme of the prayer vigil which is about to begin. I am referring to a passage taken from the Acts of the Apostles, a book which has most appropriately been called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). In Sydney, many young people rediscovered the importance of the Holy Spirit for the life of every Christian. The Spirit gives us a deep relationship with God, who is the source of all authentic human good. All of you desire to love and to be loved! It is to God that you must turn, if you want to learn how to love, and to find the strength to love. The Spirit, who is Love, can open your hearts to accept the gift of genuine love. All of you are seeking the truth; and all of you want to live in truth! This truth is Christ. He is the only Way, the one Truth and the true Life. To follow Christ means truly to “put out to sea”, as is said several times in the Psalms. The way of Truth is simultaneously one and manifold according to the variety of charisms, just as Truth is one while at the same time possessing an inexhaustible richness. Surrender yourselves to the Holy Spirit in order to find Christ. The Spirit is our indispensable guide in prayer, he animates our hope and he is the source of true joy.

To understand more deeply these truths of faith, I would encourage you to meditate on the importance of the sacrament of Confirmation which you have received and which leads you into a mature faith life. It is vital for you to understand this sacrament more and more in order to evaluate the quality and depth of your faith and to reinforce it. The Holy Spirit enables you to approach the Mystery of God; he makes you understand who God is. He invites you to see in your neighbours the brothers and sisters whom God has given you, in order to live with them in human and spiritual fellowship – in other words, to live within the Church. By revealing who the crucified and risen Lord is for us, he impels you to bear witness to Christ. You are at an age marked by great generosity. You need to speak about Christ to all around you, to your families and friends, wherever you study, work and relax. Do not be afraid! Have “the courage to live the Gospel and the boldness to proclaim it” (Message to the Young People of the World, 20 July 2007). So I encourage you to find ways of proclaiming God to all around you, basing your testimony on the power of the Spirit, whom we ask for in prayer. Bring the Good News to the young people of your age, and to others as well. They know what it means to experience difficulty in relationships, worry and uncertainty in the face of work and study. They have experienced suffering, but they have also known unique moments of joy. Be witnesses of God, for, as young people, you are fully a part of the Catholic community through your Baptism and our common profession of faith (cf. Eph 4:5). The Church has confidence in you, and I want to tell you so!

In this year dedicated to Saint Paul, I would like to entrust you with a second treasure, which was at the centre of the life of this fascinating Apostle: I mean the mystery of the Cross. On Sunday, in Lourdes, I will celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross together with countless other pilgrims. Many of you wear a cross on a chain around your neck. I too wear one, as every Bishop does. It is not a mere decoration or a piece of jewelry. It is the precious symbol of our faith, the visible and material sign that we belong to Christ. Saint Paul explains the meaning of the Cross at the beginning of his First Letter to the Corinthians. The Christian community in Corinth was going through a turbulent period, exposed to the corrupting influences of the surrounding culture. Those dangers are similar to the ones we encounter today. I will mention only the following examples: quarrels and conflicts within the community of believers, the seductiveness of ersatz religious and philosophical doctrines, a superficial faith and a dissolute morality. Saint Paul begins his Letter by writing: “The word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Then, the Apostle shows the clear contrast between wisdom and folly, in God’s way of thinking and in our own. He speaks of this contrast in the context of the founding of the Church in Corinth and in connection with his own preaching. He ends by stressing the beauty of God’s wisdom, which Christ and, in his footsteps, the Apostles, have come to impart to the world and to Christians. This wisdom, mysterious and hidden (cf. 1 Cor 2:7), has been revealed by the Spirit, because “those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are folly to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

The Spirit opens to human intelligence new horizons which transcend it and enable to perceive that the only true wisdom is found in the grandeur of Christ. For Christians, the Cross signifies God’s wisdom and his infinite love revealed in the saving gift of Christ, crucified and risen for the life of the world, and in particular for the life of each and every one of you. May this amazing realization lead you to respect and venerate the Cross. It is not only the symbol of your life in God and your salvation, but also – as you will understand – the silent witness of human suffering and the unique and priceless expression of all our hopes. Dear young people, I know that venerating the Cross can sometimes bring mockery and even persecution. The Cross in some way seems to threaten our human security, yet above all else, it also proclaims God’s grace and confirms our salvation. This evening, I entrust you with the Cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit will enable you to understand its mysteries of love. Then you will exclaim with Saint Paul: “May I never boast of anything, except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). Paul had understood the seemingly paradoxical words of Jesus, who taught that it is only by giving (“losing”) ones life that one finds it (cf. Mk 8:35; Jn 12:24), and Paul concluded from this that the Cross expresses the fundamental law of love, the perfect formula for real life. May a growing understanding of the mystery of the Cross lead some of you discover the call to serve Christ unreservedly in the priesthood and the religious life!

We are about to begin the prayer vigil, for which you have gathered here this evening. Remember the two treasures which the Pope has presented to you this evening: the Holy Spirit and the Cross! As I conclude, I would like to tell you once more that I have confidence in you, dear young people, and I want you to experience, today and in the future, the esteem and affection of the whole Church! May God be at your side each day. May he bless you, your families and your friends. I gladly grant my Apostolic Blessing to you, and to all the young people of France!

Hi, Ella here...

Well, I have just got back from the study day for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. I have to say I was a little disappointed - when it said it was a study day, forgive me, but I thought it would be one! It was most definitely not!

I foolishly expected it to be a day of studying the importance of the Holy Eucharist (that being the key) perhaps looking at preparation for mass and getting the most out of mass with particular reference to our ministry and then lastly how we take that out to the people we minister to. Today however was not like that!

The talk was by Sister Mary Bernard Potter. She briefly touched on taking communion out but to be perfectly honest I found the talks hard to follow, maybe it's a dyslexic thing. I dunno but the speaker seemed to be telling lots of little stories that were not really linked so there was no real structure (hence finding it hard to follow) like one story was about one of her nephews taking up a lamb to the altar at Christmas, then he disappeared and turned up at the the altar with the ciborium... he said "did you see me? did you see me? I brought up the teapot!" this was because at their family table there was always a teapot. Some of the congregation were charmed and some where not but regardless I am not sure what that story had to do with the Blessed Sacrament.

She told lots of stories but I didn't really get what she was trying to say. It was all over the place and I just came away feeling confused.

I am all for talks on taking it out to the community but as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion going to a study day or even a reflection day I expected some of the focus to be on our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. There was a mention of what the Holy Eucharist was (and I quote) "by helping people to believe in themselves they can create a better world, that is what the Eucharist is". Now I don't deny that as Christians we strive to take this aspect of Christ to the world but primarily the Eucharist is our Lord who died for us that we may have salvation!

There was also a large chunk devoted to how bad the world is getting... you know like knife crime and how the Church was not seen to be doing anything to do with that but once again I did not see how this related to why we were there.

There was also a feel of how the Church was too constricting - another quote: "we become paralized by the institutional Church and we become like sheep" Um... would it not be better to help us to take the beauty of the Church and the Mass to people. If this is a hard concept was this meeting not the place to teach us how to share the beauty of the Church by implying it is "an institution" it is implying you think it is a bad hindering thing. The Church is not, if we can just help people to see. When I tell my daughter not to run across the road I am not institutionalising her I am helping her to see that some rules are there to help her.

She also said: "People are looking for spirituality, not religion. Spirituality, not something that boxes you in" She spent a few moments looking at being faced with problems of people wanting communion who cannot receive for some reason or another and what would the Lord do he wouldn't refuse them if they wanted to receive him and yet in John 6 Jesus did turn people away."This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" It is a hard teaching and as ministers of holy communion we should be trained in how to deal with talking to people who are maybe from a different denomination or divorced and remarried to help them understand these Church teachings and that they are not there to hurt them but to help them to grow closer to Christ.

I hate to seem negative but I was really looking forward to a bit of study... running the local youth group you put your energies into the youth and you yourself need to be replenished and I just felt confused and frustrated that I did not get what was being said.

A lot of the people there really enjoyed it and maybe it was a generational thing as she did pitch it at the over 55s I dunno but at least I could tell James that they used metal chalices and plates... he will be pleased :o)

As I say many, people enjoyed it and maybe if I had know it was a reflection I would not have had such expectations and therefore been less disappointed who knows. Though I did wonder why our own fine adult formation team did not do the talks as it surely counts as formation? I suspect they are quite busy.

Personally, I wish I had gone to Archery.

Ella...

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia', but only slightly less well known is this:"

Don't expect to get anything out of anything organised by the Diocese of Middlesbrough. Go for a laugh, go out of morbid curiosity, go out of necessity but never ever go because you are interested in the subject at hand and hope to get something out of it. If that is your goal, read a book.

That's not entirely fair of course. There have been good things organised by the diocese. The commisioning day for readers was really quite good and Caroline and Kit Dollard put together an excellent presentation where we learned things. Some of the talks organised by the adult formation department have been good too. I'm not saying you won't get anything out of anything , I'm saying "Don't expect to". The failure rate is too high. If you have a better offer, like archery or a tooth extraction, take the better offer.

It's simple. When the Pope teaches at the World Youth Days or in his Encyclicals or recent visit to France, he is attempting to spread the Gospel and bring the world closer to Christ. When the Bishop Drainey teaches the same is true, making it well worth a visit here and here. When Fr Massie teaches, this is also the case, though his homilies are not online.

The problem is, a significant portion of the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Middlesbrough have a deliberate agenda to turn the Church from Holy and Apostolic to Inclusive and Community Focused. So when you go to a large Diocesan event, you are playing Russian roulette. You might get somebody doing something excellent or you might get liberal relativist shite. You don't know until you get there and by then it's too late, which is why, as I say, if you have another offer you should take it.

Like many games of chance, however, there are ways to improve your chances. In this case, I think Ella could have avoided a wasted day simply by taking a glance at the leaflet.

This is the leaflet for the 'Inspirational Study Day' that Ella foolishly went along to. Ella, what were you thinking...

Let's look at this now...

"Ministers of Holy Communion"

When you read the phrase "Ministers of Holy Communion" alarm bells should be ringing. I know that in real life everybody uses phrases like this all the time, talking about 'eucharistic ministers' etc. This is not real life. This is a leaflet for a study day by people who are teaching, who are supposed to know what they are talking about.

"Inspirational Study Day"

Q: What's the difference between a 'Study Day' and an 'Inspirational Study Day'?
A: Lipstick.

Sexist jokes aside, beware of pronouns. A study day is a study day. An inspirational study day is something else. 'Inspirational' is liberal code for 'study free'. Studying involves notes and lectures and facts and memorising things. Stick the word 'Inspirational' in front and you can lose the notes and lectures and replace them with poems and nice stories about people's nephews.

The Speaker

If a big deal is made of who the speaker is, be suspicious. Personally, I've never heard of Mary Bernard Potter SP, but she's being billed like Bruce Willis. It's as if she is the main selling point of the day. An audience with Mary Bernard Potter.

I don't entirely understand why a nun from another diocese would be hand picked to run a study day for Extraordinary Ministers. Google tells me she co-authored some catechetical books. No doubt she's a minor celebrity among catechists. I've nothing against minor celebrities travelling the country giving talks, but they shouldn't do it under the guise of a diocesan study day.

Lest you think I am exaggerating the Potter-centric nature of the day, turn the page and look at the next part of the leaflet...

Wow. It's like a CV and it makes me wonder... Why so much information about the speaker and so little information (two titles) about the subject matter? That tells us something about where the priorities are. The very existence of this lady is clearly more important than the task at hand.

"Chaplain"

We read that Sister Mary "works as an Assistant RC Chaplain". Is that right now? Because in 'On Certain Questions on Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest' it says:

It is unlawful for the non-ordained faithful to assume titles such as "pastor", "chaplain", "coordinator", " moderator" or other such similar titles which can confuse their role and that of the Pastor, who is always a Bishop or Priest.

Music

As part of this 'inspirational study day' there is a mass. Mass is good. The mass has music and you will of course remember the recent survey where people were asked "what is important about the mass" and only 29% said music.

Better devote an entire page to the music group then...

I'm not having a go at the musicians, Ella says they did a good job. My problem is with the mindset that says "I know, it's a study day, so clearly we need to publicise the credentials of the musicians at the mass".

Anyway... that's enough to be going on with. My point is this... It's glaringly obvious that this is not going to be a study day.

Ella should have known to go to Archery.

NOTICE: I am married to an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. I know that the following is not reflective of the vast majority of extraordinary ministers. This blog entry should definitely not be interpreted as 'extraordinary ministers = bad'. No. This blog entry is about disturbing widespread abuse of Church teaching on extraordinary ministers.

I wrote today about an 'Inspirational Study Day' that Ella went on, the leaflet for which I reproduce below:

"Ministers of Holy Communion"

Let me be blunt. The only ministers of Holy Communion are priests. Laypeople can be extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion but only in extraordinary circumstances.

In 'On Certain Questions on Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest' we read:

The canonical discipline concerning extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion must be correctly applied so as to avoid generating confusion. The same discipline establishes that the ordinary minister of Holy Communion is the Bishop, the Priest and the the Deacon.

[...]

"when necessity and expediency in the Church require it, the Pastors, according to established norms from universal law, can entrust to the lay faithful certain offices and roles that are connected to their pastoral ministry but do not require the character of Orders"

[...]

With regard to these last mentioned areas or functions, the non-ordained faithful do not enjoy a right to such tasks and functions. Rather, they are "capable of being admitted by the sacred Pastors... to those functions which, in accordance with the provisions of law, they can discharge" (50) or where "ministers are not available... they can supply certain of their functions... in accordance with the provisions of law"

Translation: Priests are allowed to ask lay people to take on tasks that belong to the priest. Lay people don't have the right to these tasks, but they are capable of doing them if asked.

Let me use an analogy guaranteed to offend. This is a bit like when a teacher asks one of the kids to take a message down to the school office. The teacher is asking a non-teacher to take on a task that belongs to a teacher because the teacher recognises that the kid has the capability of doing this task. The teacher is not appointing the child any kind of permanent position. The kid has an extraordinary role, a special responsibility granted for a special reason or occasion.

This is the sort of context under which we should understand the use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. They are lay people who have been given "supplementary and extraordinary" permission to take on a role ordinarily reserved for priests.

Unfortunately, liberal clergy have completely misrepresented the Church's position on this. The way they present the Church's teaching is like this: They are like a teacher who says to a child "previously you were not allowed to go in the corridor on your own during lessons, now you are allowed!" This is a gross misrepresentation. They say things like "lay people were not allowed to distribute communion and now you are".

Like all the best lies, it has a grain of truth. Yes, lay people were not allowed to distribute communion. Yes, lay people are now able to distribute communion. These things are true. But the implication is that a power has been granted.

Instead of having the attitude of a child who has been given extraordinary permission to be out of class during lesson times. Lay people are being taught that some aspect of the priesthood has been made open to them. More specifically, has been made open to women and married men.

This is the long term agenda. Slice by slice, bit by bit, take things that are unique to the priesthood and find ways for laypeople to do them. Usually, a situation is found where the Church allows something in extraordinary situations and then, as the Church herself put's it... utilise "the abuse of multiplying "exceptional" cases (cf general absolution).

Next on the list is the so called 'eucharistic prayer service'. In very special serious exceptional circumstances when it cannot possibly be avoided the Church says that laypeople can lead prayer and distribute communion. To the untrained eye (and there are a lot of untrained eyes) this looks a lot like mass. Readings, Blah Blah Blah, Amen, Our Father, Blah Blah, Queue for Communion. What's the difference? The difference, is that women and unmarried men and women can do it. Did I mention that women can do it?

That's the goal. A church with no priests. Just lay people praying, singing and sharing bread and wine. Priest shortage solved. Feminists satisfied. Everybody happy.

Oh sure, somebody will need to consecrate the hosts, but some theologian somewhere just needs to hint that maybe some kind of 'baptism of desire' type situation is even conceivable and Ta-Da! We're there.

Think I'm exaggerating? I've already had somebody from a certain parish (think 'Robin Hood') brag to me that their parish is so developed that they don't need a priest to cover when their priest is away. They just have a 'eucharistic service'. They've had several already.

Now read this (Again, from 'On Certain Questions on Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest'):

1. In some places in the absence of priests or deacons,(90) non-ordained members of the faithful lead Sunday celebrations. In many instances, much good derives for the local community from this useful and delicate service when it is discharged in accordance with the spirit and the specific norms issued by the competent ecclesiastical authority.(91) A special mandate of the Bishop is necessary for the non-ordained members of the faithful to lead such celebrations. This mandate should contain specific instructions with regard to the term of applicability, the place and conditions in which it is operative, as well as indicate the priest responsible for overseeing these celebrations.

2. It must be clearly understood that such celebrations are temporary solutions and the text used at them must be approved by the competent ecclesiastical authority.(92) The practice of inserting into such celebrations elements proper to the Holy Mass is prohibited. So as to avoid causing error in the minds of the faithful,(93) the use of the eucharistic prayers, even in narrative form, at such celebrations is forbidden. For the same reasons, it should be emphasised for the benefit of those participating, that such celebrations cannot substitute for the eucharistic Sacrifice and that the obligation to attend mass on Sunday and Holy days of obligation is satisfied only by attendance at Holy Mass.(94) In cases where distance or physical conditions are not an obstacle, every effort should be made to encourage and assist the faithful to fulfil this precept.

I wonder if Bishop Drainey recalls giving a special mandate for non-ordained members of the faithful to lead such celebrations. I wonder if anybody has approved any texts.

I know what my guess is, and it's not confined to that particular parish either. Lay people are being groomed at a diocesan level. Training days for Ministers of Communion have been little more than preparation for the phasing out of priests.

Phase out the priests and you phase out Christ.

Fortunately, I think Bishop Drainey might just have the balls to turn this thing around. I certainly hope so, because nobody else is going to do it.

Looks like Fr Daniel O'Leary came to our very own Middlesbrough Cathedral this evening...

Fr Daniel O'Leary, Fr Daniel O'Leary... Where have I heard that name before... oh yes. Making Everybody Welcome conference. After he gave the keynote speech, a lady asked him when (not if) he foresaw women priests in the Catholic Church. "Women Priests" he said, "are not on the agenda.... Yet." Still, at least he was honest enough to admit there's an agenda.

The Tablet, thanks be to God, has the worst website in the world. All the 'best' articles are not available online (I'm gutted, I really am), we can't see much in the way of actual articles (you have to pay for them) but the blurbs are free... Fr O'Leary provides us with some wonderful quotes. Here's a couple...

"To be excessively scrupulous in trying to eliminate all sin is to miss the point of Christ's example and, as one priest finds, too much virtue can even hurt you"

[link]

too much virtue can even hurt you... ah yes. I distinctly remember Matthew 5:48... "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (but careful now, too much virtue can hurt you)."

"Parish priests of great experience understand church teaching. But fragile people need compassion rather than restrictions placed on God's unconditional love"

[link]

Ah yes, of course, "church teaching" equals "restrictions placed on God's unconditional love". I think I saw that in the Catechism once...

Well-known best-selling author O'Leary even features on YouTube where he bastardises the Church's teaching on the importance of family life. Like all the best lies, it has it's grain in truth. Home is a holy place, God is present in all we do. Fr O'Leary, thinks that the reality of Christ living the temple of our bodies and being present in our lives somehow makes our homes more holy than, say, our Churches.

In the first video things are not so bad... It's in the second video that he says this...

We sometimes think that doing the holy things, in the holy places, with the holy people is holier than cleaning up the mess at home, preparing meals, going out to work getting on with the neighbours.

This is not so.

The home is the holiest of all places.

The real presence of Christ in the Tabernacle perhaps comes in a close second?

Because the gap had become too wide between the ordinary things we do and the Church itself. The gap had become so wide, we hardly connected them really.

We did feel the holy things were to do with the parish and the weekend and the churches and the masses. Of course they're holy, but their not the holiest.

Mass. You know, Mass which people have been calling Holy Mass all these years. Well it's not the holiest. My house is holier than Mass...

But its not easy to say. It's nearly easier to dance it or to sing it than to say it.

WTF? How do you sing something you can't say?

Look. Here's something easy to say...

Humanity, our everyday lives and our families can only be considered holy in light of the incarnation. If Christ did not become human and die for us, then it's all bollocks.

God became man. Jesus, Son of God, became one of us. That is why our everyday human activities are holy. That is why we can point to actions like wiping a babies bottom and making the dinner (hopefully not at the same time) and say 'whatever you do for the least of these'. That is why the founder of Opus Dei was able to say "Sanctify your work. Sanctify yourself in your work. Sanctify others through your work."

But our work, our lives, our relationships and our wiping of bottoms can only be sanctified if we leave our homes and go to the holy place. To the Mass, which is not simply a community gathering, a prayer meeting or a shared meal. No. In the Mass we are taken, really, to Calvary itself. To the holiest of places, to the place where Christ himself offers his body as a sacrifice for the world and says 'Take this, all of you, and eat it...'

Our lives, our homes, our families, can only be holy if they are sanctified in the sacraments.

What is it about Middlesbrough Diocese and dissident people from Leeds? If it's not Neo-Pelagian Nuns it's Dissident Daniel.

Fr Daniel O'Leary is parish priest in Ripon. If St Wilfrid were still around, I expect he would be feeling ripped off. Still, he won't be the worst thing in our Cathedral tonight...

Look at him... At least there's no danger of anybody mistaking him for a priest.

Despite earnest efforts by the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Talk Like a Pirate Day has not been moved to the nearest Sunday.

Note to the confused. Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day and not Talk Like a Murderous Old Cow day. Pirates are fun!

Yar!

On the feast of St James, at Santiago de Compostella in Spain, they use a six foot high thurible. Which is awesome.

I'm sure there's a tenuous link with piracy in there somewhere.

James Hook?

From the Holy Cross Parish Newsletter...

Mass intentions for the coming week:

Sat 20th 6.30 pm Fred Knapp Thurs 9 am Harold Ward

Sun 10 am Pat Hyland Fri Holy Name 9.15 am Bill Kemp

Holy Name 11.30 am Chris Herbert Sat 9 am The Parishioners

Mon 9 am Service of the Word and Holy Communion 6.30 pm Mary Jones (RIP)

Tues 7 pm Service of the Word and Holy Communion Sun 10 am Jill Kemp

Wed 9 am Michael Whincop (A) Holy Name 11.30 am Fred Higginson

[link]

Spot the two pseudo Masses? Service of the Word and Holy Communion. So let's see, there are readings and then people receive communion. No danger of confusing that with Mass then!

The Church does allow non-ordained faithful to lead celebrations on a Sunday...

In some places in the absence of priests or deacons,(90) non-ordained members of the faithful lead Sunday celebrations. In many instances, much good derives for the local community from this useful and delicate service when it is discharged in accordance with the spirit and the specific norms issued by the competent ecclesiastical authority.(91) A special mandate of the Bishop is necessary for the non-ordained members of the faithful to lead such celebrations. This mandate should contain specific instructions with regard to the term of applicability, the place and conditions in which it is operative, as well as indicate the priest responsible for overseeing these celebrations.

It must be clearly understood that such celebrations are temporary solutions and the text used at them must be approved by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

[link]

My understanding of this, is that it refers to parts of the world where there is an absence of priests. I'm thinking remote African villages where a priest visits twice a year if they are lucky. I'm pretty sure it doesn't refer to weekday masses, but, let us be generous in our interpretation. Let's imagine it refers to a part of Hull where there is a priest living in a presbytery next to the Church. Let's imagine it includes days when there is no obligation to attend mass. Let's imagine "absence of priests" means "several priests within driving distance"

"A special mandate of the Bishop is necessary for the non-ordained members of the faithful to lead such celebrations"

It would be distinctly ungenerous to interpret the whole paragraph as referring to weekday masses and then pull a 360 when it comes to the mandate from the Bishop saying, "oh yes, but that's only for Sundays".

Has there been a special mandate from the Bishop?

I'm going with.... um.... let me think... No.

No, Because there's nobody would be so daft as to write to the Bishop saying: "Dear Bishop, Sorry to bother you but I don't want to cancel my weekday Masses and I haven't actually asked any of the priests in my area if they can cover but would it be okay if lay people ran a service instead? What's that? Sure, I'll send some texts over for you to approve right away."

What's happening here is "Women and married men can't be priests so let's try to find a way for them lead services and give out communion". Then we can 'prove' that women and married men can do these things just as well as a celibate priesthood.

The whole thing stinks.

I hope that the other priests of the West Hull deanery will ask Fr Pat about this and perhaps pass on their concerns (if they have any) to the Bishop.

The Hull Faith Forum talks are pitched for young people of secondary school age. They are held on Monday Evenings at 7.30pm at the Endsleigh Centre, Beverley Road, Hull.

Monday 29th September
Philip Neri
Fr Richard Whinder (Priest of Southwark Diocese)

Monday 13th October
Edmund Campion
Michael Turner (Head of History, Stonyhurst)

Monday 27th October
Blessed Giorgio Frassati
Fr John Paul Leonard (Middlesbrough Diocesan Youth Service)

Monday 10th November
Catherine Labouré
Sr Brenda Matherson (Hull Evangelisation Project)

Monday 24th November
Maria Goretti
Fr Colman Ryan (Parish Priest of All Saints, Thirsk)

I know several really brilliant, strong, heroic, single mothers who have brought up some really brilliant sons and daughters.

That makes it difficult for me. I'm a Dad. How do I carve out my niche? Find my place? Define my role?

How can I suggest there is anything good about having me around without implying that somehow there's something deficient in a family without a father?

Even pointing to the heroism of women who manage on their own seems a bit harsh on Ella... Is the only reason I can see for having a Dad around that Ella is not brilliant, strong or heroic?

So yeah, despite that fact that I take being a Dad pretty seriously and regularly feed Leona, changer her nappy and play with her (the latter, being the most important). I feel pretty marginalised at times, like my involvement is mostly an optional added extra.

The only way I can really have a purpose as a Dad, above and beyond 'assistant to mum' is if there is some role in parenting that only a Dad can fulfil. That a single mother can never provide, not because she is a failure, or didn't work hard enough, or wasn't heroic, but simply because she isn't a Dad.

Of course, that implies there's, like, you know, a difference between men and women. Not only that, but it suggests there is something men can 'do' that Women can't.

So basically, if I am to feel I have any kind of purpose as a father, I have to consider myself, in some teeny tiny way, superior to women.

That's sexist of course, which is why we're not allowed to see any value in a father, or men in general, which is why the Dad is always the clown in sitcoms.

What's a Dad to do?

Most people have a story to tell about some cherished childhood possession of immense personal value to them that they kept for years and years and then one afternoon while they were out at a friends house their mum decided to sort through their room and throw out some old toys and out went the special thing that had been held on to for so long.

I have no idea what Ember Days are, but when I read things like this, I feel like somebody went in my room when I wasn't home and threw a load of stuff away without asking me if it was important.

Now I don't even know what's missing.

You know those little square notes and that funny language.. I'm sure there were supposed to be some of those around here somewhere as well.

Since my previous exhortation that you back up your photos back in April, Mark & Monica have suffered a failed laptop and lost mucho photos and work. Not molta bene. Matt from Sign Language was here last night asking how to do backups because his laptop just got sent to Hungary for repairs and he lost everything. "They told me I should be doing backups" he said.

If it was up to me, every computer sold would come with a desktop like this:

Do a backup. Now. Go and buy an external hard drive, you can get a 500gb one (larger than you ever need) for just under £60. It's worth it. Plug it in and copy your files to it. Photos, work everything.

Warning on USB Drives

Another visitor I had last night was Fr Massie who was doing something many people do when it went wrong. I have known this happen to several people and you could be next!

USB Drives are NOT bombproof supernatural magical data storage devices. They fail. If, like many people, you use your USB Drive to store your only copy of all your files, you will lose them. Many USB Drives fail after about a year... how long have you had yours?

DO NOT KEEP YOUR ONLY COPY OF ALL YOUR PRECIOUS FILES ON A SINGLE USB STICK

Make a folder (Right Click > New Folder) somewhere on your computer that you can find.. My Documents or on the Desktop. Call the New Folder 'USB Backups' and in there make another folder called '2008-09-26' because you are doing this today. In your USB drive use the 'Edit' menu to 'Select All' and then 'Edit > Copy' then go over to your '2008-09-26' folder and 'Edit > Paste'. You now have a copy of your files on your USB drive and a copy on your computer. You can carry on using your USB drive as normal, just remember to do another backup every now and then.

Do this TODAY. Do it NOW.

Fr Massie said somebody told him it would cost £30 to do data recorvery. More like £300. Fortunately, in this case, I was able to fix his drive which had a corrupted partition (no end marker). He was lucky. Many drives fail permanently.

Go. Back things up. Now.

Shamelessly lifted from Popple...

I don't know if you've been following the Skull a Day blog. You really should. It's a great one to stick in your feed reader (you do have a feed reader?) and then it pops up now and then (every day, in fact) with skeletal goodness.

The premise is simple, this guy makes a skull every day for a year (the year has passed and the blog is based on fan submissions). You get things like this...

So yeah, there's generally a fair amount of food involved. Anyways, we like it, and I mention it now for the following reason: There's a Skull a Day Book!

I also mention it for another important reason: You can never have too many skulls!

Well, as Mrs Blob said, she and I went to Maryvale where we are doing the Catechists course. It was all looking pretty good we left the youth club in the capable hands of James and Sister Brenda. Michelle was feeling prepared and invigorated for the journey and not remotely worried that we had just found out that there was a Malayalam mass on and that none of the Indian kids would turn up the week we had invited Sr Brenda as a guest speaker!!

So we set off, Michelle masterfully drove her mothers car, an automatic that she was not used to, and we were blinded, well she was I could look away from the swathes of on coming lights of people travelling away from Birmingham. We arrived in one piece slightly tired, slightly blinded and a little nervous. We headed towards what we assumed was the main building all of a sudden a million floor lights came on I was half expecting paratroopers to be abseiling out of helicopters!! But it was just a man who asked who we were? "Um Michelle and Ella", "O yes" he replied, as if someone had warned him of our coming. In we went he got the room list, "umm" "oooh" it was not looking good. He had our names in the diary just not in rooms "We will ask Mother" he said but ah ha no need he found us a room "you're going to love this" he said "you can have no.13" It was the best!! I could not have asked for more so we walk to the top of the stairs and there it was the old chapel! So we set down our things and went to make a long awaited cup of tea. Some how we did not get as far as the kettle boiling before we had to move our things out of the room, a family of 3 had just arrived and needed it, so up we trudge again the steps working the knees nicely and removed our bags. By the time we had got down the stairs Mother had been alerted to our problem and we had two separate rooms, much to Michelle's relief I am sure as she seemed to think I was going to interrogate her in the night! (I don't sleep well you see :o)) We finally got to our rooms and we had to make Michelle's bed but that was the end, we cracked open a deserved bottle of wine and some cheesy Doritos and settled down to an episode of Desperate Housewives.

We were up almost at the crack of dawn the next day to attend morning prayer at 7am, we decided to stay for mass at 7:30, this was technically for the people doing the BA divinity and our mass was at 9:30, but with breakfast starting at 8:30 we would not have had enough time to fast before so we opted for the earlier mass. We then had some breakfast and got our handy badges, but what were we going to do whilst everyone was in mass... more desperate housewives? No we did not, we were sad and looked at the course notes, where I discovered that my booklet was missing half the pages. Not meaning to seem the "that student" I sheepishly told the speaker, who knew of our misfortune the night before, somehow (due to the charming rapore we had built up) the group seemed to think that I was the scallywag!! (Much