Today is the feast of Christ the King and we all know what that means... to the Bat... um... Kitchen?

That's right biscuit time, though I can try to play the child card for the fetching look of the biscuits I cannot for the clearly skillful decor which Leona has kindly tried to hide under the sprinkles :o)

It began with a log fire.

Snow outside, a dining room table pushed out of the way and sitting around on the floor beside a real log fire. That's how it began.

"Do you know why are you here?" Fr Massie asked. I thought that was a bit deep, but it turned out he was checking they knew what Sunday it was. Hands went up, somebody knew that it was the feast of Christ the King and Fr Massie explained that it is also Youth Sunday and that for this occasion the Bishop has recorded a special message.

We sat by the fire and listened to Bishop Drainey's Message to Young People to Mark Youth Sunday 2008 which was maybe a bit high brow in places for some of the younger kids. I thought Fr Massie did a good job afterwards of explaining it. He asked them what they remembered and one girl said "God loved us in to existence".

He made sure they understood three points. That God loved us in to existence and wants us to search for Him, That God has given us gifts and He wants us to use them and finally that the Bishop wants us to meet with him this Lent and it will change our lives.

Next, Fr Massie gave a short talk on two saints who made Christ king of their lives. Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio and Maria Goretti. I had never heard of the former but he is a good Saint. Fr Massie had to tell the latter's story very carefully because some of the children present were quite young so he said only that she was attacked and forgave her attacker (the forgiveness part is the most important part anyway).

After that we went over to the hall for a fun bit of cutting and sticking. The kids made (well, decorated) candles. A good time was had with PVA glue, glitter and shiny shapes.

After the candle making they processed over to the Church, four of them carrying a statue of Christ on one of those, um, statue carrying things - the very same one I once carried Mary on when I were a lad. Here's some of the candles they made...

Lovely. The atmosphere in the church was great as they knelt down for Adoration and Benediction. For me, this is the most important part of the day - when we come before the Lord himself and adore him.

After Benediction we gathered back in the hall for some of Michelle's excellent Chi Rho Cakes...

All in all a great day with a great bunch of kids. Let's end with a wonderful quote from Pope Benedict...

Dear brothers and sisters, this is what interests God. The kingship of history is of no importance to him -- he wants to reign in people's hearts, and from these, in the world: He is the king of the entire universe, but the crucial point, the place where his reign is at risk, is our heart, for there God finds himself encountering our freedom. We, and only we, can block his reign over us, and so we put obstacles to his kingship in the world: in our families, in society, in history. We men and women have the ability to choose which we wish to side ourselves with: either with Christ and his angels or with the devil and his followers, to use the Gospel's exact language. It remains with us to decide whether to practice justice or iniquity, to embrace love and pardon or vendetta and the hatred that kills oneself. From this our personal salvation depends, but so, too, does the salvation of the world. Because here Jesus wants us to associate ourselves with his kingship; because here he invites us to work together for the coming of his Kingdom of love, of justice and of peace. It remains with us to respond to him, not with words, but with deeds: choosing the way of active love and generosity toward our neighbor, we ourselves allow Him to extend his dominion in time and space.... Let us renew with courage our decision to belong to Christ, to bring about in service his Kingdom of justice, of peace and of love.

[link]

I haven't time to blog about the celebrations of Christ the King, National Youth Sunday here in Hull (watch this space). I know that Mulier Fortis didn't have a very good time of it at Blackfen...

I was expecting something a little special for National Youth Sunday...

Alas! I was to be very disappointed. Not only did Fr. Tim say the Mass with his back to the people (thus preventing me from checking whether he had donned a red clown nose for the event) but he also omitted to do the comedy skit after the sermon on the subject of sheep and goats.

Of course, the last straw for me was the fact that I didn't get given any chocolate (Fairtrade or otherwise) ... not even a sniff of a cocoa bean appeared after Communion. Think of the loss of opportunities to exhort the congregation to avoid over-filling kettles and to use low-energy lightbulbs...

So now I'm sulking...

In the meantime, one of the young people who attended the Diocesan gathering in York sent me this clip they recorded on their mobile phone...

Okay... only joking.