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I have posted this on my own blog, Autumn's Leaves , but thought it worth reproducing here too. A conundrum. As we all know, the new revised order of Mass will be upon us from the first week of Advent this year. This will be a challenge for Priests and parishioners alike, especially those who have memorised the Liturgy by rote after years of repetition. All of a sudden, the familiar words have changed, and will necessitate a slower, more thoughtful reading, which can't be a bad thing. But for a while, I would expect a fumbling through Missals, or printed Mass sheets for a while... But no, our Priest has decided that a PowerPoint screen above the altar with the revised words on will do. When he announced this at the end of Vigil Mass on Saturday, there was an audible gasp which rippled around the sanctuary. He assured us that it wouldn't "get in the way of the Sacrament" but that it was about time the Church "joined the modern world". My heart plu...

 The link to the video was sent by my friend Frances Molloy (photo below), founder of the Pastoral Care Project in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England. I was involved with the Project to a limited degree while based in Solihull, near Birmingham, from 2000 to 2002.   Here is a brief history of the Project from its website: In 1989, I was leading a Spiritual Development programme (Light Out of Darkness written by Sr Kathleen O’Sullivan SSL) and the theme of that particular week was ‘finding God in my weakness’, Romans 8.26-27. I met a lady with dementia in an EMI (Elderly and Mentally Infirm) Ward at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, while visiting as a church volunteer. She was also blind and yet seemed to have an awareness which captured my attention. She couldn't remember her name – and yet she had this great awareness of God and others. Reflecting on the scripture and the visit, I became aware of how special and unique each person is. The visit highlighted th...

No matter where you fall on your opinion of this man , it is time now to pray for everyone concerned. In particular, we should be praying for the many people who placed so much faith in his ministry. They are finding all of this quite devastating. Let us pray. . . . For priests who are ill or in any kind of difficulty, that our prayer may reach them all and give them true spiritual consolation, that it may strengthen their certainty of the Lord's love for them, which is also manifest in the sign of his Cross. For those called to the priesthood, that their choice may be motivated solely by the desire to glorify God and to serve him in their brethren, communicating to them the gifts of the divine mercy of the Lord who came to find those who were lost and to restore to life those who lived no longer. For priests who are in difficulty, so that, through prayer, they may accept enlightenment from the Lord in order to rediscover the joy of their identity as men in the world but n...

Today's saint of the day is Blessed Osanna Andreasi  of Mantua (1449 - 1505), a Dominican tertiary, stigmatic, and mystic. The daughter of Italian nobles Nicolaus and Agnes, she is reported to have had her first mystical experience at the age of five: a vision of the Trinity, the nine choirs of angels, and Jesus as a child her own age, carrying His Cross. Feeling called to the religious life, Osanna rejected an arranged marriage and became a Dominican tertiary at the age of 17; however, she waited 37 years to complete her vows so she could care for her brothers and sisters after the death of her parents. At the age of eighteen she experienced mystical espousal to Jesus -- like St. Catherine of Siena , she had a vision in which Our Blessed Mother made her a bride of Christ, placing a ring on her finger. When she was thirty she received the stigmata on her head, then her side, and finally on her feet. She also had a vision in which her heart was transformed and divi...

Little Voice: Terry Pratchett - choosing to die : "I caught Terry Pratchett's BBC2 documentary on assisted suicide by chance last night. Watching it was depressing and desperately sad. The fo..."