The Lord and the children, the Doctor and the artist

Beautiful First Holy Communions at St Brigid's this morning. The expected rain didn't turn up, and everything went well. We had 21 children, easily the largest group we've had at St B/St P since I've been here. The church was packed, which was lovely to see, and there was a nice atmosphere. I had a strong awareness of the importance of family life, and of the role of love there in particular. God is love, and so He dwells wherever there is love, and that includes in our families.

The children were excellent, and quite a few tears in parents' eyes when they all came up to sing the Our Father with me, hands joined around the altar. Great to be able to hold kids' hands without all the child protection stuff getting in the way. They all belong to their families, but they belong to God's family too, and somehow coming up close to the altar inside the rails gives a loud message to us all.

Zillions of people then came over to the Hall for refreshments and loads of sweaty little hands on mine helped me to cut the cake. So sweet.

I haven't been watching the new Doctor Who, as I somehow can't get into the new Doctor. However, as I saw some interesting trailers about Vincent van Gogh, I looked up the latest episode on iPlayer while I was having a cup of tea this afternoon, and I ended up watching the whole programme. The Doctor comes across a despairing van Gogh a short while before what we now know was to be his suicide. As is well known, he only ever sold one painting in his life. The Doctor and Amy try to give him confidence, by taking him in the Tardis forward to the present day to an exhibition of his work. I found what could have been rather cheesy quite moving as van Gogh was enabled to realise how he came to be understood and appreciated.  After they deposit him back in his own time, they hope perhaps they have changed history and avoided his death - but it was't to be...

Doctor Who is yet another  programme, like the recent last episodes of "Ashes to Ashes" and "Lost" which have a religious/spiritual slant. Fascinating that such TV is quite at home with themes of redemption and afterlife...