A lesson from Fum and Gebra

Oh, it's too warm to be putting anything too serious on here. I came across a  very unusual video recently. It's simply about a friendship that has developed - between an owl and a pussycat! Yes, Fum the cat and Gebra the owl broke all the cat/bird rules and became the best of friends. Sadly Fum died in May.  Maybe we could be a little less quick to say things are impossible - or other people are impossible? Click on the picture to see - and smile.

A great birthday

Well, made it to 60. Last Thursday was my birthday. By lunchtime my shelf, two tops of chests of drawers and my mantelpiece were full of cards. In the morning the kids of Year 3 in our parish school invited me to share their post-First Holy communion party with them, which was great fun. The whole of Key Stage 2 sang "Happy Birthday" in the playground, and zillions of cards were stuffed into a huge yellow folder. Fantastic.  Then I took it easy for the rest of the day, with phone calls coming in at regular intervals.

The main celebration was planned for the next day, Friday. Months ago I had discussed what to do, and I requested a hog roast, as we had had one when I was made a canon, and it had gone down very well.  So hog was ordered, sides prepared and everyone prayed for the rain to stay away. Well, I'm glad to say we all had a lovely evening. I think around 200 came - we had asked people to sign up from the parishes. My brother and sister joined us and their other halves, and a few friends too from various aspects of my life. It was all very informal: lots of chat, lovely food, plenty of wine or beer. It was just as I had imagined. Two cakes were needed to feed the multitude, one with the 6 and the other with the 0. 

The stream of cards became a flood, reaching I would say over 200. I've got enough wine to last a lifetime, a good supply of various funny mugs, some excellent books, and several beautiful objects, including an original stoneware piece.

I'm very grateful to everyone who helped make it a very special occasion. I have to say I don't feel any older.

The prayer of Jesus

Oh, it's been over a week since I posted - so 2 videos to make up!

When I was in seminary I remember being fascinated by efforts being made to re-create what the Lord's Prayer would have actually sounded like when spoken by Jesus. The language that he used was Aramaic, which is still the liturgical language of some of the Eastern Rites of the Church. So one way of doing such a re-creation is simply to listen to the Our Father as spoken or sung by our fellow Christians of today. 

So here are two such versions, both set to music. One is an Australian recording and the other American.  The first is a little New Agey, but still beautiful. The second, slightly longer, has a man speaking the prayer then a choir singing it. So here is the Our Father or Abun d'bashmayo, version one - click on the picture.

And so here is the second version - click on the picture here too.

Priest and people

I came across a video that I'd seen before - and maybe posted here. But I think it's worth looking at again, as it says a lot about the relationship between priest and people... It's in Spanish, but with subtitles. 
Click on the picture...

Of Lewises and wall paintings

The beautiful weather continues... at least for the moment. On Saturday I was invited out for lunch, and afterwards we decided to take an afternoon trip into the Vale of Glamorgan. For the non-locals, this is the rural area west of Cardiff as far as Bridgend. It's a place of pretty villages, winding lanes and, especially at this time of year, green everywhere.

We headed first to Llantrithyd. This tiny village is one of the "sources" of my own family history. Thomas Lewis was born there in about 1735, and presumably his forebears had been like him, "aglabs" or agricultural labourers there for generations further back than that. His grandson Richard Lewis moved into Cardiff to work at Penylan farm, where he met Elizabeth Harding. Their daughter Jane married my great-grandfather, Baptist minister David Jones.

We walked through the silent churchyard and found the ancient church open (left). It is a little in need of some tlc, yet I easily spent a little while absorbing the peace, and thinking of the generations of Lewises who had lived there.

Then we moved on to the nearby - and better known - village of Llancarfan. The church here is on an even older site, being the location of St Cadoc's clas or community 1500 years ago. It has been in the headlines as the removal of whitewash is revealing 15th century frescoes. I was surprised how much has already been done. The Seven Deadly Sins emerged first, followed by a large St George and the Dragon. Work will continue, I imagine, for years to come. The style reminds you of the "new" medieval frescoes in St Teilo's Church at St Fagans - but these are the real thing! Click on the picture to visit the church website.

If you're in visiting distance, or passing through South Wales, St Cadoc's Church in Llancarfan is well worth a visit. Fr M approves....  and you might pop into Llantrithyd too! 

It's not about the nail

At my rapidly advancing age (big 60 later this month) I've observed a lot of people. What about this men and women bit - are there real differences? I remember reading "Men are from Mars, Women from Venus" years ago and, well, yes, there was something in it. One of that book's main proposals is that women's deepest wish is to be listened to, have their feelings "validated", while men's deepest is to be needed. So the worst thing you can say to a woman is "I don't care what you're feeling", and to a man "I don't need you". 

Anyway, I came across a little video which puts some flesh on this, at least the women's side of it. It's a clever little piece called "It's not about the nail" - see what you think! Click on the picture.

Hmmm...bilocation?

In busy parish life, I am often faced with a clash in my diary. This evening I want to be two places at the same time, but not having the gift of bilocation, it's going to be difficult. Strangely the two clashing appointments symbolise two very different aspects of a pp's life. 

At 7pm in our parish primary school, Christ the King, there is a termly meeting of the full Governing Body. In a Catholic school the Governors have authority in at least four areas - the appointment of staff, the admission of children, the supervision of the curriculum and the distribution of the money. Or who does the teaching, who gets taught, what they get taught and how you pay for it! I am a great believer in Catholic schools, and also believe that parish clergy should be involved in the governing of our schools - not all priests agree...

But also at 7pm in the house of some parishioners is the "post mortem" on this year's

Celebrate Wales a month ago. Now I am a great supporter of Celebrate too, and this year we are seeing some very positive developments in our 3 Churches as a result of Celebrate. More of that in a later posting.

So, what to do? The education of our children or the stirring up and celebrating of our faith? Well, I'll attempt both, I think. I'll go to the Governors then at maybe 8pm make my excuses and zoom over to the Celebrate meeting.

Two very different meetings... Thank God for our living Church!

God's great dancefloor!

A few days ago I posted a song by Matt Redman, an English singer and songwriter of contemporary Christian music. He often works with a similar American worship leader, Chris Tomlin. Chris is involved in an annual Christian gathering in the US aimed at students. The 2013 meeting was entitled Passion 2013 and was held at the Georgia Dome, a covered stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. It attracted 60,000 young people, and there are several videos from it available on Youtube. If you want to see 60,000 young people really enjoying themselves with no drugs or alcohol in sight, watch Chris Tomlin leading them in one of his songs with the great title "God's Great Dance-floor". Someone who saw it over my shoulder thought it was a Coldplay concert - which is fine by me!  Catch it here

These are some of the words - I like the idea of being really alive when we dance to God's music, and it reminds me of this image I saw a few years ago.

I’m coming back to the start where You found me.
I’m coming back to Your heart
Now I surrender, take me, this is all I can bring
You’ll never stop loving us no matter how far we run
You’ll never give up on us
All of heaven shouts: let the future begin
I feel alive, I come alive, I am alive - 

on God’s great dance floor.

words Chris Tomlin

A Bede-y eye

I was up earlyish this morning, so, for the first time, I think, I'm posting this first thing on a Sunday morning. Looking out of my office window the sun is shining in a beautiful blue sky, and all the trees that face me have that green which is special to spring. Today is Trinity Sunday, and we all certainly have so much to praise God for, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Yesterday was the feast of a saint special to me as a past student of the Beda in Rome. St Bede, better known as the Venerable Bede, is the patron of the Pontificio Collegio Beda, to give it its full name in Italian. Why was this Roman seminary dedicated to Bede? He lived around 700AD, and is one of the greatest English saints. He was a monk at the monasteries of the north-east,at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth in present-day Sunderland. It's believed that he never travelled far from there, yet managed to leave behind him one of teh great classics of religious and historical writing. "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People" is a principal source for all we know about Britain after the Romans, and brought him the title of "Father of British History". A profound theologian and skilled translator, he is the only English-born Doctor of the Church.  He is also credited with popularising the use of "A.D." in our date system. He is buried at the magnificent Durham Cathedral.

You can find out more about Bede here a very good Wikipedia article. To find out more about the Beda in Rome, my seminary, visit their website here.
The pic shows Bede's shrine at Durham Cathedral

10,000 Reasons

My secular musical tastes are, well, catholic. In religious music, too, I go from medieval Masses to contemporary choruses. These usually come from a background that's not Catholic, and usually pentecostal, evangelical or whatever. Having had involvement in Catholic Charismatic Renewal since 1974, this music is not alien to me at all. There is nothing like a rousing chorus to get a congregation going. So I thought I'd share some from time to time here. 

One of my current favourites is Matt Redman's "10,000 Reasons"  also known as "Bless the Lord My Soul". A UK writer and singer born in 1974 and based in Brighton, catch him singing it here in a video filmed for some reason in an empty church. This song was only written a year or two ago, and won a Grammy recently for worship songs. It helps if you crank up the volume a little too!

A fire on the Earth

For the feast of Pentecost, I have lifted a meditation from one of the blogs I read, that of Msgr. Charles Pope in Washington DC.

What a wondrous and challenging feast we celebrate at Pentecost. A feast like this challenges us, because it puts to the lie a lazy, sleepy, hidden, and tepid Christian life. The Lord Jesus had said to Apostles, and still says to us: I have come to cast a fire on the earth! (Luke 12:49). This is a feast about fire, about a transformative, refining, and purifying fire that the Lord wants to kindle in us and in this world.

The Readings today speak to us of the Holy Spirit in three ways: The Portraits of the Spirit, the Proclamation of the Spirit and the Propagation by the Spirit. Let’s look at all three.

I. The Portraits of the Spirit – The Reading today speaks of the Holy Spirit using two images: rushing wind, and tongues of fire. These two images recall Psalm 50 which says, Our God comes, he does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, round about him a mighty tempest. (Psalm 50:3).

Rushing Wind – Notice how the text from Acts opens: When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.

This text brings us to the very root meaning of the word “Spirit.” For “spirit” refers to “breath,” and we have this preserved in our word “respiration,” which means breathing. So, the Spirit of God is the breath of God, the Ruah Adonai (the Spirit, the breath of God).

Genesis 1:2 speaks of this saying the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And Genesis 2:7 speaks even more remarkably of something God did only for man, not the animals: then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen 2:7).

So the very Spirit of God was breathed into Adam! But, as we know, Adam lost this gift and died spiritually when he sinned.

Thus we see in this passage from Acts an amazing and wonderful resuscitation of the human person as these first Christians (120 in all) experience the rushing wind of God’s Spirit breathing spiritual life back into them. God does C.P.R. and brings humanity, dead in sin, back to life! The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us once again as in a temple (cf 1 Cor 3:16). It has been said that Christmas is the feast of God with us, Good Friday is the Feast of God for us, but Pentecost is the Feast of God in us.

Tongues of Fire – The text from Acts says, Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

The Bible often speaks of God as fire, or in fiery terms. Moses saw God as a burning bush. God led the people out of Egypt through the desert as a pillar of fire. Moses went up on to a fiery Mt. Sinai where God was. Psalm 97 says, The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory. (Ps 97:1-6). Scriptures call God a Holy fire, a consuming fire (cf Heb 12:29) and a refining fire (cf Is. 48:10; Jer 9:7; Zec 13:9; & Mal 3:3).

And so it is that our God, who is a Holy Fire, comes to dwell in us through his Holy Spirit. And as a Holy Fire, He refines us by burning away our sins and purifying us. As Job once said, But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold (Job 23:10).

And he is also preparing us for judgement, for if God is a Holy Fire, then who may endure the day of his coming or of our going to Him? What can endure the presence of Fire Himself? Only that which is already fire. Thus we must be set afire by God’s love.

So, in the coming of the Holy Spirit God sets us on fire to make us a kind of fire. In so doing, he purifies and prepares us to meet him one, He who is a Holy Fire.

II. The Proclamation of the Spirit. - You will notice that the Spirit Came on them like “tongues” of Fire. And the reference to tongues is no mere accident. For notice how the Holy Spirit moves them to speak, and ultimately to witness. The text says: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

So behold how the Holy Spirit moves them to proclaim, not just in the safety of the upper room, but also in holy boldness before the crowds who have gathered.

Notice the transformation! Moments ago these were frightened men who gathered only behind locked doors, in secrecy. They were huddled together in fear. But now they go forth to the crowds and boldly proclaim Christ. They have gone from fear to faith, from cowardice to courage, from terror to testimony!

And how about us? Too many Christians are silent, dominated by fear. Perhaps they fear being called names, or not being popular. Perhaps they are anxious about being laughed at, or resisted, or of being asked questions they don’t feel capable of answering. Some Christians are able to gather in the “upper room” of the parish and be active, even be leaders. But once outside the “upper room” they slip into undercover mode. They become secret agent Christians.

Well, the Holy Spirit wants to change that, and to the degree that we have really met Jesus Christ and experienced his Holy Spirit we are less “able” to keep silent. An old Gospel song says, I thought I wasn’t gonna testify, but I couldn’t keep it to myself, what the Lord has done for me. The Holy Spirit, if authentically received, wants to give us zeal and joy, and burn away our fear, so that testifying and witnessing are natural to us.

Note also how the Spirit “translates” for the apostles, for the crowd before them spoke different languages, but all heard Peter and the others in their own language. The Spirit therefore assists not only us, but also those who hear us. My testimony is not dependent only on my eloquence, but also on the grace of the Holy Spirit who casts out deafness and opens hearts. Every Christian should remember this. Some of our most doubtful encounters with others can still bear great fruit on account of the work of the Holy Spirit who “translates” for us and overcomes many obstacles that we might think insurmountable.

III. The Propagation by the Spirit – In the great commission the Lord said, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age (Matt 28:19ff). He also said, as we have noted, I have come to cast a fire on the earth and How I wish the blaze were already ignited (Luke 12:49).

But how is the Lord going to do this?

Perhaps a picture will help. My parish church is dedicated to the Holy Spirit under the title: Holy Comforter. Above the high altar is the Latin inscription: Spiritus Domini, replevit orbem terrarum (The Spirit of the Lord, filled the orb of the earth). (See photo, above right, of our high altar).

And yet, we may wonder how He will do this.

But the walls of my parish Church answer the question. The clerestory walls are painted Spanish Red, and upon this great canvas are also painted the lives of 20 saints, surrounding us like a great cloud of witnesses (cf Heb 12:1). (See also, video below). And over the head of every saint is a tongue of fire.

THIS is how the Spirit of the Lord fills the earth. It is not “magic fairy dust,” it is in the fiery transformation of every Christian, going forth into the world to bring light and warmth to a dark and cold world. THIS is how the Lord casts fire on earth, THIS is how the Spirit of the Lord fills the orb of the earth: in the lives of saints, and, if you are prepared to accept it, in YOU.

In the end, the Great Commission (Matt 28) is “standing order No. 1.” No matter what else, we are supposed to do this. Parishes do not deserve to exist if they do not do this. We as individual Christians are a disgrace, and not worthy of the name, if we fail to win souls for Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord is going to fill the orb of the earth, but only through us. The spread of the Gospel has been placed in your hands (scary isn’t it?).

In the Past two years, my own parish, after a year of training, stepped out into our neighborhood, and went door to door and into the local park. And we announced Jesus Christ, and invited people to discover him in our parish, and in the sacraments. And we were in the local park and the market last week doing sidewalk evangelization.

Before we count even a single convert, this is already success because we are obeying Jesus Christ who said, simply, “Go!” “Go make disciples.” And, truth be told, we ARE seeing an increase in my parish. Our Sunday attendance has grown from about 450 to 520, a 15% increase. We are growing, and our attendance, while average for a downtown city parish, is going in the right direction. God never fails. God is faithful.

Spread the news: it works if you work it, so work it because God is worth it. Go make disciples. Ignore what the pollsters tell you about a declining Church and let the Lord cast a fire on the earth through you! Fires have way of spreading! Why not start one today? The Spirit of God will not disappoint.

I know this, my parish has a future because we are obeying Jesus Christ, we are making disciples. How about you and yours? If parishes do not obey, they do not deserve to exist and can expect to close one day, no matter how big they are today. I, in my short 50 years on this planet, have seen it: parishes once big, booming, and, (frankly), arrogant, are now declining and some are near closure. It happens to the best, if they do not evangelize, if they do not accomplish “Job 1.” The Lord wants to light a fire. Why not become totally fire? Let the Spirit propagate the Church through you (I am not talking about the person next to you, I am talking to you).

Happy feast of Pentecost. But don’t forget that the basic image is very challenging, for it means getting out of the “upper room,” opening the doors, and proclaiming Christ to the world. Let the Holy Spirit light a fire in you, and then, you can’t help but spread light and heat to a cold and dark world.

Let the evangelization of the whole world begin with you.

This video features details from the clerestory (upper window level) of my parish of Holy Comforter here in DC. Notice the tongue of fire above each saint. The paintings show how the Spirit of the Lord fills the orb of the earth, (see photo above), through the lives of the lives of the saints (this means you). It is not magic, it is grace, working in your life, through your gifts, and your relationships, that the Lord will reach each soul. The cloud of witnesses on the walls of my Church say simply, You are the way he will fill the earth and set it on fire. Let the blaze be ignited in you!

Will and Monifa

How about these two for a bit of sheer end-of-Easter season joy? I haven't smiled at a video so much for ages. 
A few years ago we held a youth event in our 3 Churches called "Refresh". Several of the kids asked if I was on Facebook, and if not, why not. So I joined and duly became a Friend of some of them. So I get to know what's going on with some late teens/early 20s. 

Well, one of them posted this video today. It just makes you smile, and rather puts "Britain's Got Talent" and "The X Factor" in the shade. Will and Monifa, a bartender and a fitness instructor, drive up to a petrol station with TV screens...   Part One is here and Part Two is here. 
So thanks, Rhys. Fr M approves - enjoy!

Living Church

Wow... something must be wrong - it's a lovely sunny Bank Holiday!! Obviously God forgot the holiday in organizing the weather :)  Anyway, I'm a little tired today after a very busy day yesterday, so I am, as my mother used to say, "lying low". 

Yesterday started with 9 o'clock Mass at St Paul's, but I had to move quickly to get back to St Brigid's for First Holy Communions at the 10.30 Mass. Aaaaah... only three children but what angels. It was a lovely celebration, and continued with cups of tea etc over in the Hall, complete with unbelievably sweet cake. Then it was a dash up to Corpus Christi, our High School, which was hosting "Celebrate Wales". If you've visited this blog before, I hope you will have checked out Celebrate from the right hand column >>> These are Catholic faith-filled wonderful weekends that happen all over the country. Organized jointly by local people and central Celebrate resources, they grew out of an annual Celebrate Week at Ilfracombe. So this is the third Celebrate Wales weekend, and it's of particular pleasure to me that each year a few more parishioners attend. So I spotted Haydn, Barbara, Dan, Max and Ceri among others. 

I arrived in the middle of Eucharistic Adoration, during which there is also personal ministry. Then after a relaxed lunch and time to catch up with some of my many, many friends in Charismatic Renewal, I had to prepare for Mass at 2.45 where I was principal celebrant. These Masses are great, I love them. So joyful, with loads of participation in so many different ways - little children, older children, youth etc etc.  But very demanding too, if you're going to give as much as everybody else does. So, after getting back home at 5 o'clock I just had time for a quick cuppa and sit in my favourite chair before evening parish Mass at 6. And after that, to put it simply, I flopped. But what a beautiful, priestly and fulfilling day!

So I'm just relaxing today, recharging the batteries for the week ahead, and with one eye on the four weeks beginning a week today when I'll be on my own - but that's another story... This morning Max and Ceri were in Mass so I invited them in for a coffee and we spent most of the morning the joys of "Celebrate"!

Meanwhile, it's time for a fun video that I spotted somewhere. What happens to a soaking cloth up in the space station? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield shows you the amazing effect of weightlessness. Take a look here.

 Pic shows Chris Hadfield walking in space

Celebrate Wales

Reading Francis

I was talking with a couple who are getting married next year. Somehow (no idea how) we got on to body language. You can take all these things too far, of course, but we are indeed "reading" one another all the time, I think. 
So what would we make of Pope Francis' body language?  I found a video of him greeting the other cardinals soon after he was elected, and I find myself "reading" tremendous warmth and humanity into our new Holy Father (no, that doesn't mean it was not there in previous Holy Fathers!). 
See what you think here.

Tabgha thoughts

A few folk suggested I put the front page of last week's newsletter on here...
Do you have favourite places? Are there spots where something happened in your life, or that are just so overwhelmingly beautiful? I love the Canadian Rockies – and the view over Snowdonia from Beaumaris on Anglesey. Horsehoe Bay in Antigua as the sun set and sipped a pina colada – or Rhossili beach stretching away into the distance. I could go on… so could we all, I expect. And high on my list would be Tabgha, and the area around it, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Tabgha is the place where tradition says today’s Gospel happened. On a pebbly beach Jesus was cooking fish for breakfast. Into water such as Tabgha’s St Peter jumped, and a small chapel encloses some bare rock called the “Mensa Christi” or Table of Christ, where breakfast was perhaps served – by the Messiah. Over there, perhaps, Peter was asked by the Son of God whether he loved him – or not.

The Franciscans have built into the rock overlooking the Lake a Greek theatre style area for Mass. A tree, olive I think, overshadows the circular altar next to which a cat slept the last time I celebrated Mass there. A little further out a modern sculpture depicts Jesus raising Peter up from his knees. The whole setting is quite simply beautiful – altar, tree, statue, beach, lake. And after Mass you walk down to the little beach and paddle where Jesus paddled. Here the smell of a charcoal fire wafted over the rippling waters as Peter swam ashore, instantly taking him back, as only a smell can, to his three denials, also by a charcoal fire.
Here in this beautiful spot called Tabgha, creation held its breath, as it had some thirty years before not too far away up in Nazareth, where a young woman called Mary considered her answer to an Invitation. Here in Tabgha we wait again – with Jesus. He declared this fisherman to be the rock on which he will build his church, but the rock has crumbled into three denials. So now, in order to be sure, Jesus must wait for an answer to his question – the question – “Do you love me?”

The other Tissot

Every Lent our local Council of Churches - Churches Together in Llanishen and District - organizes discussion groups. This year they were particularly popular, drawing over 60 people. The sharing each week was inspired by several works of art depicting scriptural themes. Then after Easter a get-together/reflection/thanksgiving is held, and this year it was the turn of Christ the King to host this, so I went along on Tuesday.

As well as several works that I knew, there were plenty that were unknown to me, and among them was one called "Crucifixion : the View from the Cross" by a painter new to me, James Tissot. As its name suggests, this painting attempts to depict what Jesus may have seen on Good Friday afternoon. In a way it connects with Dali's famous Crucifixion, itself based on that dawn by St John of the Cross (left), both showing the Cross from above.

Tissot (nothing to do with watches!) turns out to be an interesting chap. Born in Nantes in 1836 he mixed with Delaunay, Whistler, Degas and Manet. Later he moved to London for over 10 years, returning to Paris in 1882. In 1885 he seems to have experienced some kind of re-conversion to Catholicism, and devoted the rest of his painting career to religious, and in particular scriptural scenes, completing about 350 works before his death in 1902. Most are in the Museum in Brooklyn, and many are online at jamestissot.org. While some critics are sceptical about this re-conversion, as it was fashionable at the time, the works seem very sincere, and this "Crucifixion" has become the best known.

Some Easter joy - or nun fun

We are just coming up to one month since March 13th when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was elected Pope and took the name Francis. It was an exciting evening, and I came across a fun video of a convent in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their recording of an album was interrupted by news that there was white smoke...   Take a look here.  

These are the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Founded in 1997, they have grown from 4 sisters (pictured left with late Cardinal O'Connor of New York) to 115. Average age is 28, average age at entering is 21. Check out their own website here to see a religious order really making excellent use of modern media. 

But more than that, look at the video and the website if you want to see some happy young women... who also happen to be Catholic nuns in 2013!

Under (Frozen) Milk Wood

Brrrrr... Easter week, and it's still cold.  Monday I visited Laugharne in west Wales. I was invited to take a trip, partly to mark 35 years of priesthood, and chose the little town where Dylan Thomas spent his last four years. The M4 was busier than I expected - I suppose everyone was determined to get out and about despite the cold. Pont Abraham services where we stopped for coffee, could do with a bit of a spruce-up...

We turned off the A40 at St Clears and were soon at the top of the long and fine main street, with many fine 18th and 19th century houses. The Castle loomed up at the bottom of the hill, where the main square is on the site of the town quay, silted up many centuries ago. It was lunchtime, and we repaired to a friendly fish 'n'chip place where I had some very nice haddock. Then we set out along the seashore walk (left) to the famous Boathouse, home of Dylan.

Oh... my... goodness. I have never been so cold since Canada in the 1980s. In addition to the general chilliness, the wind was whipping in across Carmarthen Bay. . With a shirt, thick woolie and winter anorak zipped and buttoned, but no hat, scarf or gloves, it was my head that suffered. We peered through the glazed door of the famous shed  where Dylan wrote (right) , and pressed on to look down on the Boathouse itself. I'd had enough by then - and we headed back via the backstreets of what I discovered is a lovely little place. Slowly my head reconnected itself to the rest of my body, which process wasn't really completed until a cuppa back home. 
Note to self : must go back to Laugharne, of which Fr M. approved - but only when it's warmer!

Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

We had a fantastic climax to our Holy Week last night at the Easter Vigil and this morning at Easter Sunday Mass. Last night we were baptizing three adults - Ceri, Dan and Tia. Everything went very well and there was a lovely happy atmosphere. One of the highlights was that when I gave a kiss of peace to the new Catholics I received a lipstick imprint which remained on my right cheek throughout the rest of Mass - much to everyone's amusement! 

This morning 10.30am was a Family Mass, which Christ the King do very well - thanks to the kids' caring direction by Marie and her team. Well, it was excellent imho (that's "in my honest opinion" for those who don't know). Below is a picture of the altar cloth that was brought up at the Preparation of the Gifts.  One ex-teacher commented as he left "11 out of 10 for getting 400 people smiling as they leave Church". Alleluia!

Many, many thanks to all in our 3 Churches who have worked so hard together to make this a very special Holy week and Easter!