Our new Diocesan Vocations Director doesn't have a blog, no priest in Middlesbrough Diocese will have a blog for a very long time. You know the sort of people that have blogs, and no priest wants to be tarred with that brush.

So he has a website and he posts things on it but it is definitely not a blog.

I am delighted if not a little overawed to have been asked to take on the work of Vocations Director for the Diocese. Overawed, not least because it is a great work for the Church in challenging times, but also because I have a hard act to follow, after the very blessed and fruitful work undertaken by Fr Gerard Robinson who has held the post for the last five years. Yet it is a very exciting work and one in which, in a sense, I really cannot fail. Why? Because as Pope Benedict reminds us in his Message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations which is on 25th April, “The fruitfulness of our efforts to promote vocations depends primarily on God’s free action…”, and how could the Lord not want us to have more priests – since the harvest is still rich and the labourers few? I truly believe that we could be about to see a growth of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. God’s grace is certain; all that is required is our generous cooperation.

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You can follow his ongoing not blogging at Called.org.uk

Today is Bilbo Baggin's birthday, the day Bilbo went off to live with the Elves in Rivendel and left Frodo to have some adventures on his own. Here in the West Hull Parishes something very similar is going on. Fr Massie is leaving us today to go and live it up large in Scarbrough.

Those with a keen eye for pebbles will note that this photo was taken in Bridlington (on a youth day) but it gives you the general idea...

It's the end of an era for the West Hull Parishes but it's also part of a series of moves taking place across the diocese today and I have to say I think the Bishop is doing the right thing. I've been saying for a while that I think Priests are left in parishes altogether too long and get rather too comfortable with their little personality cults forming around them, better to keep them moving.

We don't want too much of this sort of thing...

Over the last few years Fr Massie has ben a wonderful priest, confessor, mentor and a great friend to Ella and myself and we will miss him tremendously.

We will miss the way he never does anything for young people. Honestly, one of the mums at Church told me. Lots of people think this, because Fr Massie is unwilling to turn the Mass in to a circus, therefore he does nothing for young people...

The truth is that Fr Massie does more for young people than any other priest in this diocese and that's not often given proper recognition. Several times a year he organises youth days involving Football, Mass, talks and Benediction and twice a year he takes groups on conferences to hear talks by people like Bishop O'Donoghue.

Speaking of talks, he organises talks for secondary school aged young people with speakers including Delia Smith, Joanna Bogle , Fr Tim Finigan and even Mark Shea and for the sixth-form/student age group he spends £££s on Pizza so he can invite hordes of 16-25's to eat in his living room so that they can meet other Catholics their age and hear a talk by one of his steadily growing band of mysteriously un-lapsed twenty-somethings (must be some kind of voodoo magic).

You won't know about any of this youth work though, because the dicoesan youth people flatly refuse to support or publicise it. Nice.

Here's a photo during a trip with the youth to the Fransiscan Friars in Bradford. Fr Massie is just whispering (loudly enough for me to hear him) "Watch out for that fellow over there with the blog..."

Fr Massie often warns people as I approach... last week he told our Celebrating Family project worker that I am the L'enfant terrible.

I should also mention that Fr Massie has a variety of handy skills including candle lighting for which he was applauded by non other than the home secretary Alan Johnson...

Dancing..

Navigation (oh look, young people again)...

Saying the rosary (wierd traditionalist!) and walking at the same time!

Playing with children's building blocks (though my tower was higher)...

The thing I will miss most about Fr Massie (and he probably doesn't even think about it) is having somebody to share fatherhood with. Being a young Catholic dad is quite a lonely experience because I have no friends my age to go through it with (wives don't count).

In many ways, the role of the priest in the Church is similar to the role of the father in the family and this leads to a situation where Fr Massie, despite the fact that he doesn't have any children, is the only other Catholic dad I know.

Because of the dearth of Catholic parents regularly taking their children to Church, Fr Massie has never really been in regular more often than once a week contact with a child from birth before. I get the feeling that for both of us, Leona is the first child we have watched grow and develop from birth and we are both of us together learning to be a father to her in our own way.

I've been pretty much doing that on my own anyway, but I have particularly appreciated the moments when Fr Massie and I have spent time together with Leona and the experience of being a father with a child has been a shared one.

We will miss Fr Massie tremendously but of course as he leaves another priest arrives. Fr John Wood is coming to us from Withernsea where he has been saying Mass for my granddad. What do I know about him? Precious little. Last year Ella and I attended a training day for people who read at Mass and he gave an excellent talk on bidding prayers. That's about all I know.

Please pray for all the priests in Middlesbrough Diocse who find themselves in new parishes today.

I've put a few more photos online on Flickr and you can read a bit more about Fr Massie's departure on the West Hull Parishes Youth Group Blog.

When you have a six week old baby it's a bit difficult to dissapear for a week, mum tends to notice and I can't imagine she would be very happy about it. So when Fr Massie started hassling me to drop everything for a week long silent ignatian retreat in Hornsea I was pretty certain that I wouldn't be going. At the last minute he told me that it would be okay to go for a day, so I did. Mums notice days, but you can get away with it.

The retreat was based on the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius, these are a month long series of prayers, meditations and contemplative practices. The retreat was only a week long so Fr John Edwards who was running the retreat somehow condensed them down to only a week. I was there for a day... I wasn't sure if I would be trying to do the full week in a day or just a day, I wasn't sure if just a day would make sense, I wasn't sure of anything. I know very little about Ignatian retreats.

I drove to Hornsea last Friday under beautiful blue skies, listening to the local radio station discussing the "news about Michael Jackson", I wasn't entirely sure what the news was and they were not about to tell me and instead said things like "this morning we're discussing the news about Michael Jackson" and then they said things like "it all happened last night our time". I wondered if he had been arrested but the back to back Michael Jackson songs were a strong clue of what had really happened, but they were too polite to mention death on a Friday morning while people are driving to work.

I arrived in time for silent breakfast which was surreal - I wandered across the kitchen looking for the fridge only to discover it was at the other end of the room so I wandered all the way back to open the fridge door only to discover that there were jugs of milk on the table. Then Fr Massie gestured to my mug which I took as an offer of tea and gave him a thumbs up, but is communication of that kind allowed? I don't know the rules! A few minutes later Fr Massie gestured to my cup again - I thought he was offering a top-up so I gave a thumbs up but then went to take my mug away for washing and gave me a strong look of contempt when he realised I hadn't quite finished my tea. Can you give people "looks" on silent retreat?

It turned out that the plan was not for me to cram in a full month of ignatian spirituality in to a day but instead to join them for the days that they did while I was there. Each day Fr John Edwards gave a conference on the theme of the day and told us the grace we would be asking for, in the morning that I was there we were meditating on the passion and the grace we were praying for was "Sorrow, affliction, confusion. Because of my sins, Our Lord is going to his Passion; Anguish with Christ in anguish. Tears; intense pain for his great pain, Suffered for me.

Happy stuff - in the evening we moved on to the ressurection where we asked for the grace to share in Christs joy, so while I was there I meditated on the sorrows of the Passion followed by the joys of the Ressurection which worked quite well. It was a heavy day for me because I wanted to make the most of my one day, so where the programme had an hour and a half gap during which we were supposed to do half an hours meditation, I spent the rest of the time praying or reading my bible. Twelve hours of God-time is a lot in one go when you're not used to it. When I left, I was absolutely shattered.

As Fr John said, the purpose of the retreat is to set up "laboratory conditions" in which to pray and listen to God and I think it worked really well, I'm very glad I went. I don't know if I could cope with a week of what I did, but if I was there for a week I think I would have done things differently and spent more of the non-prayer time on, well, non-prayer. Richard Marsden spent some of his time going for walks and runs on the beach, perhaps I might have spent some time drawing.

All in all, a great thing to have done and someday I would like to do a longer version. My advice to anybody in a position to get along to something like this is to do it, especially if you're young with long holidays, because once you have a family it's very difficult to arrange.

Oh, and do read Richard's account of the retreat. He was there all week.

Well, we've just got back from Mass at St Joseph's. Since we had the Baby (which is nearly two years!) we don't make it to Wednesday evening Mass as often as we used to.

Tonight we made a special effort because during Advent Fr Massie organises special Rorate Masses by candlelight in which we sing the Rorate Caeli.

The Rorate what now?

Fr Roderick will explain...

In a recent issue of The Tablet there is a 'Tablet Special' on 'Humanae Vitae 40 years on'. I haven't read it because I can't read it online for free but I am reliable informed that it contains an article which describes the reaction of the English Bishops to Humanae Vitae as "a deafening silence of dissent".

The plan was simple, don't publicly disagree with the encyclical, but don't teach it either. Just be silent on it.

Fr Massie took a brave stand against that in his homily today. He said that following the teaching of the Church, following Peter, could at times feel like walking on water. But that Jesus will be there to hold us when we begin to sink.

Jesus called out to them, saying, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ It was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’

A mass to celebrate 150 years of the Sisters of Mercy in Hull.

I might have gone, only it was held during working hours and by invitation only (it being in a school and all). Ella got an invitation though because she works there.

In the presence of several diocesan priests two students from the school (young people, not priests) gave the homily.

This evening Fr Stephen asked Fr Massie if he knew who would have been responsible. Neither of them knew but the names of some of the school staff were suggested.

So... is it possible for a lay person to be 'responsible' for what happens at a mass? If not who was responsible?

...or am I right in thinking that none of the diocesan clergy think this is important enough to worry about?

From last Sunday's gospel (which every one of them would have read outloud): The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great.

Update (30th Sept): I don't know how they got the idea, but I've heard that some folk have interpreted this blog entry as me "having a go" at Fr Stephen. This was definitely not my intention. If anything, I have portrayed him as caring about what goes on. He is definitely a good man and if I have accidentally defamed him here then I apologise. Also, another eyewitness to the conversation between Fr Stephen and Fr Massie tells me that I have it the wrong way around - apparently it was Fr Massie who asked Fr Stephen. Again, apologies if I got it wrong.

I think most people are familiar with the "legend" of St. Francis of Assisi. He was the saint who could speak to animals, for this reason he is often portrayed conversing with birds or beasts.

But if people are incredulous when it comes to a man who can speak the gospel to animals, then they will be shocked to hear the other claim...

He could speak the gospel to Children.

It is only fitting then, that Fr. Massie took the opportunity to take the youth of his parish(es) to the Franciscans Friars of the Renewal in Bradford. The Fransiscan Friars of the Renewal may not speak to animals (at least, not in public) but they speak the Gospel to me, and I hope, to the kids Fr Massie brought from West Hull.

Before we could begin our journey however, Della (who we were giving a lift), Ella and I had to call in to P. Immison butchers on Boothferry Road to book a Goose (our Goose is Booked) for next week's Michaelmas celebraitons. That done, we were on our way. The journey to Bradford wasn't a race (that would have been dangerous) but everybody was trying to get there first. We nearly got lost in Bradford but had a jammy moment when I recognised the positioning of a couple of fields from a google maps aerial photo and knew the way. We got there second. Michelle foolishly tried to follow Fr Massie.

We arrived early and had our lunch in the street outside the St. Pio friary. Then we wandered in for orange juice and biscuits and to meet a couple of friars. It was like guess the accent. There was a very Italian sounding monk from Brooklyn and then a monk who looked very Eastern European but then said "hello chief" in a northern accent.

We kicked off with a talk about holiness and were told "it's not enough to pray while your driving to work or in the shower, you need to set aside time for prayer". It's a little sad to think that it's radical to talk about working your life around prayer (rather than fitting prayer in to your life) but it is radical and certainly something Ella and I need to work on. He also talked about love as being about giving yourself and not about feelings which again, is radical but sound.

We had a short break and then piled back in to the church for mass. We celebrated the feast of St. Padre Pio (another fransiscan). The guy with the Italian accent gave the homily which was all about sainthood and how it's about personal holiness and not working miracles or supernatural phenomena. He talked about the universal call to holiness. He talked, like the guy before the mass, about the importance of making time for prayer.

Then we wandered over the road so the male youths could get their football fix, Leona liked watching the football flying high in to the air and coming down again. Because things had been running a little late the football lasted all of three minutes and then it was back to the church for Holy Hour.

For those who don't know, a Holy Hour is an hour of Eucharistic adoration. We began with evening prayer (sung in the Gregorian style) and then knelt and prayed in silence (occasionally interrupted by the singing of songs from the youth200uk songbook). All the while confession was available and a steady stream of young people went to confession. A surprising number actually. To spend an hour in front of the blessed sacrament is a wonderful thing to do.

The day ended with food. Chilli con carne, soup, cakes, all good. Leona made lots of friends and Fr Massie asked me what I thought of the day... I said it was a good thing. It's difficult not to make the following paragraph controversial, because Fr Massie asked me why I thought it was so good when I often do not think things back home are good.

To understand why it's good you have to get away from the aesthetics of the thing. Forget whether it's traditional (monks in habits) or modern (youth200uk song book) or even if it's conservative or liberal. The reason this is good and so much else is pap is simple. Jesus Christ. The whole point of the Church is to meet Christ. It's an icon, a window, a painting, a lens. That's why these faith sharing things are so poor, because the window has become a mirror and Christ is left out of the picture. With the Fransicans in Bradford the window is open and the light is so bright you have to shield your eyes. This is why I call this and this good religious art and this bad. Because the former are windows to God and the latter is puke on a wall.

Anyways, a great day was had by all and I think the kids got a lot out of it. I hope we can go again next month.

It's probably fair to say I was a bit harsh about Fr Massie and his digital ways. Tonight he did good. Firstly, we had a new rite latin mass. Later, he continued to teach us Gregorian Chant.

We are working through the Missa de Angelis in the plainsong for schools book. It's quite challenging when you don't know any of it but after several runs through we are getting somewhere. Fr Massie's friend Fr Augustine from Pluscarden was down for the night on his way to a meeting of novice masters (he's a monk and a novice master) and he was able to give us tips as well.

All in all, it's great to see that progress is possible and that Fr Massie is serious about getting this stuff in to some proper masses.

The Infamous floods of old Hull Town delayed the barbecue season... but we're making up for it. Last week we went to Frances' BBQ, today was Michelle's.

Michelle has had a rough time of it lately, what with her house flooding and all. Not only that, but she had to endure a Digital Homily this weekend. You might think with all that her BBQ might suffer. Well, let me tell you, Michelle does a cracking good BBQ complete with cheesy Doritos (mmm), Cherry Tomatoes (where did they go so fast?) and Meat.

Did I mention there was meat?

Fr. Massie displayed classic priestly cheek by suggesting Michelle offer coffee and then being the only person to want it and then to let her go to all the bother of brewing proper coffee. Then, he said "is there anything for desert?" shortly followed by "that raspberry pavlova looks nice" indicating he knew full well there was desert when he asked.

Then, when Michelle asked if anybody needed anything he said "Yes, a Phillips screwdriver". After the high-tech shenanigans of this morning he had to ask Ella's sister for help changing a light bulb in his car.

A great time was, as they say, had by all.

There's an old joke. There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who don't.

It's a joke that usually has to be explained (and consequently, not a very funny one). Counting in binary begins with 0, then 1, then 10 (because there is no 2). Therefore, 10 is binary for 2. There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't. If at this point you are laughing then you are very easily amused.

We live in what some have called 'the digital age'. It started with music stored digitally on CD (okay so arguably it started with Morse Code or even more arguably scratches on a cave wall) and before you knew it we had Digital Watches, Digital Cameras, Digital Television, Digital Hymnals...

...wait a moment, did he just say Digital Hymnal?

Now a Digital Hymnal, if it was what you might think it was, would be great. If everybody collected a hymn book on the way in to mass and when they opened it up the pages cleverly displayed the next hymn then we would be free from the limits of a paper hymnal. Nobody would need to find pages, we wouldn't need numbers on the wall, just glance in the book and sing what you see. Ella could select good hymns instead of the limited selection from one particular edition Hymns Old and New. People with arthritis wouldn't need to fumble with pages and you could have a switch on the side allowing a large print/high contrast view for those with impaired vision. Hey, you could even pipe different words depending on the location of the singer in the room for antiphonal singing.

Unfortunately, that's not what a Digital Hymnal is. The kind of Digital Hymnal I'm talking about, the kind employed by Fr. Massie in the West Hull Parishes (St. Wilfrid's, Corpus Christi and St. Joseph's) is more like an electric keyboard without the keys. Remember those awful demo songs where you type in the number and you can hear Fur Elise on the harpsichord, piano or barked by a not particularly convincing dog? Fr. Massie's Digital Hymnal is like one of those. It has a keypad and you type in the hymn number and it plays the hymn.

Personally, I find this deeply troubling and not because it sounds bad either. My problem is this: Playing an instrument during the mass constitutes an act of worship. Using an electronic device to play music does not. The existence of a box that makes music discourages human beings from making music themselves and as such discourages worship. God gives people gifts to produce music and in doing so they glorify Him.

I am fully aware that I stand in the minority on this one. The general consensus even among usually sensible sound Catholics is that any music is better than no music. I disagree, I think people singing without music (even badly) is more glorifying to God than the tone being set by machine.

So what to do? Well, for some time I've been considering a blog entry in which I would parody a service offering to replace all the parts of the mass with digital components. Why have extraordinary ministers cluttering up the altar when a simple mechanical dispenser can do the job? Why have humans do the readings when a recording could be used, who want's to hear some old woman when you can have a recording of Brian Blessed or Peter Dickson (who?). Why have a priest resident when the Pope himself can transubstantiate a vast supply and have it shipped out. Surely people would prefer Papal Eucharist to the regular kind? Speaking of the Pope, why have homilies by local priests when you could pop a TV on the lectern and have the Pope himself, live!

If all that seems a bit irreverent that's because it is! I'm not suggesting it. I'm not the one with a Digital Hymnal.

Calm down James. This isn't going any further. Your silly imagined situations are just that, silly imaginations. Nobody is going to, say, do a Digital Homily. No priest in his right mind would replace the Homily with a CD recording of some girl from Blackpool doing a talk at a conference.

Would they?

Today. Sunday 5th August 2007. Parody became reality.

Before mass this morning Fr. Massie draped unsightly orange extension cable across the sanctuary and when I gave him an inquisitive look remarked 'Digital Homily'. I thought he was joking. When the time for the Homily came, Fr. Massie took a frankly huge ghetto-blaster and placed it on the lectern, explained what we were about to hear and (after we waited through a bit of fast-forwarding) played us a talk on CD.

It's worth noting that the contents of the CD were sound enough. Amy from Blackpool didn't say anything untoward though it did feel quite long. I agree with Fr. Massie on this: it was a good talk and it was good for people to hear it.

What I don't agree with is replacing the Homily with a talk by a lay person, digital or otherwise. Certainly, that a Homily must never be be given my a lay person is clear. Redemptionis Sacramentum states:

[64.] The homily, which is given in the course of the celebration of Holy Mass and is a part of the Liturgy itself, "should ordinarily be given by the Priest celebrant himself. He may entrust it to a concelebrating Priest or occasionally, according to circumstances, to a Deacon, but never to a layperson."

...

[74.] If the need arises for the gathered faithful to be given instruction or testimony by a layperson in a Church concerning the Christian life, it is altogether preferable that this be done outside Mass. Nevertheless, for serious reasons it is permissible that this type of instruction or testimony be given after the Priest has proclaimed the Prayer after Communion. This should not become a regular practice, however. Furthermore, these instructions and testimony should not be of such a nature that they could be confused with the homily, nor is it permissible to dispense with the homily on their account.

Whether a homily can be given by a layperson as long as it is pre-recorded so the priest can vet it is highly suspect. So, frankly, I don't know what Fr. Massie is thinking. If he carries on like this and things go really well he might end up with 1000 people in his Church (that's 8 by the way).

Still, he could always invest in some Digital Parishoners.