Arles, Anglicans and eye-drops

"Sur le pont d'Avignon...." Bienvenu au blog du Pere M. Yes, the September Pilgrims are heading to France next year, to Provence to be precise. And we are already full with a waiting list - and that's on the day of our reunion meeting from this year's trip. Each year I am bowled over by how folks will put their deposits down in such numbers. After I proposed Provence for 2011, organizer Billy has been working extra hard to put a deal together, with problems concerning companies, hotels etc etc. We're going to stay in Arles (left), visiting Avignon, Nimes, the Camargue, Aix-en-Provence, the Pont du Gard and many other sites. It's somewhere I've wanted to see for ages, so it looks like I'll have 49 others with me when at last I get there!

Now, in the news we've got this business of Anglican bishops becoming Catholic, and joining an Ordinariate. In theory sounds like "a good thing", but I don't quite get it. Why can't they just become Catholic? What are these bits of Anglican inheritance that they are going to be allowed to keep?  I'd like to think that I'm as ecumenical as the next man, but, like so much else in life and particularly in religion it's no good if it ain't real. And I'm not sure that this is... I need to look into it a bit more, I think.

Poor old Fr Tomy had chicken pox two weeks ago and now he's got a viral infection in his eye from it. Welcome to Britain!  Seems that as it's not so common in India, their immunity is lower, and the chicken pox virus, which lies dormant in all of us once we've had it, decided to make a bid for freedom and go for his left eyeball! Anyway, he's fine, and taking loads of eyedrops and stuff. He'll survive.