11 TLMs, books, Dutch stuff & ordinations!

Alrighty... It's about time I posted properly... So you'll now have the pleasure of "listening" to me ramble on about what I've been up to over the last wee while!

Okay, so, about a week and a half ago, I had the pleasure of attending the TLM in St Audoen's Church in Dublin, where the Lassus Scholars and Piccolo Lasso sang Mozart's Coronation Mass. Great stuff altogether... It was really beautiful, and it didn't feel at all like just a performance or anything like that... A little piece of heaven. :-)

Oh! And I couldn't possibly let the opportunity pass without mentioning that the day before I was in probably the best bookshop in Ireland... Though I will have to go back again, as it was the wrong side of payday and so I had to resist the incredible temptation to buy, well, practically everything in sight... sigh...

I'm so proud of myself, that I actually did manage to leave the shop without buying anything... (we'll just not talk about the books I bought in the other bookshops that day...)

Then, this past weekend, I was in Holland, visiting a good friend of mine (who never updates her blog, but we'll forgive her!) in Aarle-Rixtel, a wee village in the south of Holland. Anyway, we had a great time chilling out, catching up, saying a wee prayer (or three) in the "Mariakapel", watching some great movies, and came home with a suitcase full of stroopwafels (which, for the most part, have already been demolished by the lads in work), speculaas, and hopjes (yaay! hopjes!) and have had to leave the poffertjes for my next visit (though to pacify me, I have had promises of waffles when I visit Norway next month)... Of course, I have unfortunately been denied the opportunity to have any of these yet, having stupidly booked a dentist appointment for a root canal yesterday morning... In hindsight, not one of my cleverest moves, considering the ridiculously late night thanks to delayed flights. (And flights! I will not even START on those! And the obscene price I paid for a bottle of WATER on my way home!!!)

Anyway. While I was away, there was something very important happening back in Ireland... (Well, apart from Fr Owen celebrating 5 years as a priest!) Yep, at the weekend, Deacon John Egan became FATHER John Egan!

Carole has written more about that over on her blog, if you're interested.

We have another ordination coming up this weekend, too... Deacon Philip Kemmy... if you could maybe keep him in your prayers. :-)

Anyway... I'll shut up now before I bore you all to tears... ;-)


P.S. I really wish I hadn't forgotten the majority of my HTML programming from uni... Tis really frustrating when the formatting won't behave itself! :-(
P.P.S. Mind you, I'm probably the only person who'd be annoyed by such things...
P.P.P.S Not to mention the fact that my blog has, what, three readers?!
P.P.P.P.S I really am going to stop with the P.S.'s now...
P.P.P.P.P.S Or maybe now!

3 Semi serious post, for a change...

Well, Wednesday past was the first anniversary of my aunt's death. A strange old day, altogether... It's very hard to believe that it's been a whole year since Kathleen passed away -- in many ways it has been the fastest year EVER! Of course it's got me thinking of all the things that have happened in the last year... I'm in a very different place now from where I was 12 months ago... (although I've only moved 5 minutes round the corner, hehe!)

For starters, I'm almost 3 stone lighter, as I've managed to tackle some of the hangups I've had about my weight since, well, forever... Quit smoking, which I have been putting off doing forever... Then there's the swimming lessons, which have helped get rid of -- or at least lessen -- that phobia of water that hand been hanging around since, well, forever! As far as faith is concerned, a year ago, I don't think I'd even heard of the Tridentine Mass, let alone actually BEEN to one... let alone purchased the oh-so-wonderful "Baronius Missile", or even thought about driving in the not-quite-Dublin-city-centre... and, well, I could go on about some of the other wonderful things that have happened, but you get the point... ;-)

But over the last year, when things have happened, I've always felt a little sad that Kathleen wasn't here to see them - to see me fit into her really cool purple cords (which are now actually getting too big), or looking smashing at the Youth 2000 ball, wearing her jewellery and all dressed up and looking girly for a change, with not a baggy t-shirt in sight! (Though I do think she may have disapproved ever so slightly at my change of footwear halfway through the evening... from "nice girly heels" to much more comfy trainers... but hey, at least they matched the dress...) At the same time, I wonder would any of these things happened had Kathleen not died? She must be putting in a good word for me or something....

And how much has changed since this photo was taken of her with her little sister...

Many times throughout the last year I have had cause to think about one of the lines from one of the Prefaces for Lent... "You teach us to live in this passing world with our hearts set on the world that will never end..."

It also reminds me of a great prayer I have discovered recently, about Complete Trust in God...

Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life with fear. Rather, look to them with full confidence that, as they arise, God to whom you belong will in His love enable you to profit by them. He has guided you thus far in life.

Do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all trials. Whenever you cannot stand, He will carry you lovingly in His arms. Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same Eternal Father who takes care of you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day of your life. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace then, and put aside all useless thoughts, all vain dreads and all anxious imaginations.

~ Saint Francis de Sales

4 It's in God's hands

I was looking for something today, and came across this, which I wrote around this time ten years ago... And I was just thinking how true it is... It would certainly do no harm to remember He's got it all sorted, even if things don't seem to be making any sense sometimes.

It's In God's Hands

Strong and powerful, yet able to comfort
And hold tenderly. The same hands that
Created the tiny daisies and soaring eagles
Are also able to carry the weight of the world.

The one who has already planned our road ahead
Doesn't expect us to travel on our own.
On the contrary, our lives are in His hands.
Only He is in control of our destiny.

"We place our destiny in the hands of the LORD, not in the hands of men, because His mercy is as great as His majesty." (Sirach 2:18)

2 Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur

There was a post on DCF recently that reminded me of all the millions of Latin phrases I found a couple of years back... I had my Dominican friend (that's a Dominican priest, not someone from the Dominican Republic... Just in case any of you thought any different... ADRIAN!!!!) tortured with funny quotes I'd find online, and would regularly sneak one into my email signature at work to see how long it would take my boss (or our American colleagues) to notice it and comment on it... I used to have them all on my computer somewhere (WHICH computer is the problem!), but have no idea where they're at now. But I can still remember some of my favourites...

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
(If you can read this, you're overeducated)

Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
(If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!)

Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur
(Oh! Was I speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips out.)

Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua.
(The only good language is a dead language.)

Bene, cum Latine nescias, nolo manus meas in te maculare
(Well, if you don't understand plain Latin, I'm not going to dirty my hands on you)

Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse )
(You know, Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore

Estne tibi forte magna feles fulva et planissima?
(Do you by chance happen to own a large, yellowish, very flat cat?)

Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum
(Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe)

Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus
(Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries)

Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!
(May barbarians invade your personal space!)

si in animis habeatis scidam latrinariam in domo mea ponere, vosmet rogate si possitis velocius currere quam saxum quod vadit cum celeritate nonaginta milia passuum per horam
(If you’re thinking of putting toilet paper on my house, ask yourself if you can outrun a ninety-mile-an-hour rock.)

audite: modo de colosseo rationem interfectorum recentissimam cognovi- Leonibus triginta duo Chrisitanis nihil clepsydra addita ad spatium mortis subitae
(Listen: I just got the latest score from the Colosseum- Lions 32, Christians 0, in a sudden-death overtime!)

Of course, most of these can be found in Henry Beard's books...


And speaking of Latin, I was just commenting to Éamonn last week, how after 3 years of studying Latin at school, all I can remember is one of the first sentences from our first year text book, which was "Cornelia est puella Romana quae in Italia habitat..."

And speaking of Éamonn... (Hehe! This is where I get my own back...) At his invite, myself and my friend (who some of you DCF-ers would know as Norwegianblue) went down to Dublin last Friday for the Stations of the Cross and the Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday in St Audoen's Church, which was, by all accounts, really powerful stuff. The music was incredible, with Allegri's Miserere being a highlight for me... (You can read more about it on his blog)

Anyway. I had asked Éamonn, when getting directions to St Audoen's, "Is it possible to avoid the city centre?", seeing as I had this great phobia of driving in Dublin City Centre... To which I was told "Yes, just about." Not realising that this was a very precise truth, and St Audoen's was, oh, a whole QUARTER OF A MILE from Dublin City Centre (!!!), I therefore decided to drive! In hindsight of course, it was a very good call, as I probably would have not gone, and therefore missed the whole thing (plus as an added bonus, I'm not quite as terrified of driving down there now... but not quite ready for O'Connell Street just yet!)... But I have now learned that if I am ever going to ask Éamonn anything ever again, to listen very carefully to his response and not to leave anything open for interpretation!!!

Wow. This has actually been a proper post after all... That wasn't my intention... Hang on and I'll go back and delete it!

6 OK, so...

I guess I'll have to think of something to put down here....

Right. Well. Recently I've been helping my brother work on our family tree, which is all very interesting. We've been finding out all sorts of mad things about the family! I'll be interviewing my Grandmother this weekend, which will be pretty interesting -- her and her family lived through the Belfast Blitz during World War II. This is a pretty good site that I've been looking at too... Especially reading some of the old newspaper articles from the 1800's onwards.

OK, will that do for a first "proper" post?! Interesting enough???