I have started typing this post about 7 times, but it's amazing how much stuff there is to do, when you are supposed to be doing nothing! I am still at University (although, now totally exam- and work-free!).
Hm, lemme think...where do I even start with my tales of what I have been up to these last 20 days...shall I start with seeing the Queen, or the President of Ireland, or with my retreat, or final oral exam, or getting my results, or the BBQ, or the many videos I have watches, the Ball, or the hours waltzing around shopping malls...
How about I start from the beginning..
Are you sitting comfortably?
right, then I shall begin..
Continuing on from my last post on Saturday 4th of June...I went to watch Star Wars with Chris & one of his bestest buds (also called Chris...why is everyone called Chris? My boyfriend, my brother, my good friend, my boyfriend's best-friend...?!!)
I fell in love with Yoda. He is so small, compact and cute that I would question anyone's sanity if they didn't just find him adorable! Yoda like do I.
Wise Yoda is.
The next couple of days were spent going to daily mass, hanging out at the Catholic Chaplaincy for 3-4hour lunch breaks and then watching dvds with my friends/in bed!
On Wednesday Queen Elizabeth came on a tour of my city which was very exciting. The roads were all blocked off with hundreds of police cars. We knew she was in one of the museums and the rumour was that she was going on a walk-about when she got out. Being lazy students with nothing better to do, a friend & I decided to push our way through the crowds of 'adoring fans' and spent about 40mins under the scortching heat waiting for her to come out. When she eventually came out she was about 50 metres down the crowd from us, and had got into her car without walking past our end of the crowd. My friend managed to see her, but despite my jumping up and down I didn't get any glipse of her or her yellow hat.
pah! oh well! I have seen Prince Charles up close, and John Major too. And of course John Paul II, but I can't I cant ligitimatly add the Queen to my list of famous people I've seen as, technically speaking, I didnt *see* her!
HRH Liz
That evening I went to my first ever Tridentine mass. That's the mass that was in place globally in the Western Catholic Church before Vatican 2 in the 1960s. It was quite interesting; it's all in Latin and the Priest faces his back to the congragation for the whole time. Communion can only be recieved while kneeling down and on the tongue.
While of course I am happy with the Novus Ordus masses (i.e. the ones we have nowadays) I do feel that we have somewhat lost the reverence and love towards the Eucharist that the Tridentine masses fosters. Nowadays, the majority of people in the congragation recieve Christ Himself in the Eucharist without even appreciating or being aware of it. But I definitly agree that mass in the venacular is a good thing.
Anyway, the following day I had my oral exam. They asked me some pretty dodgy questions like "If you were Health Secretary how would you divide up the budget between spending on abortions and spending on IVF." I don't think any of my answers were very satisfactory as they kept nit-picking on everything I was saying, and so in the end I said; "Well, to be honest with you, if I was Health Secretary I would probably ban all public funding for abortions and IVF anyway!!"
The high-light of the next few days was going to see the President of Ireland. A good friend of mine is the new Chairman of our University's Ireland society, and he invited the President to come over to England and inaugurate the University's Ireland Society. I didn't really know who she was but now I do!!
My dad then came back from Saudi for the summer! Yey!! Hii daddy! Glad you are back!! -x-x-x-
I also went on a 3 day retreat last week to stay with Benedictine nuns down in Kent. It was so so nice. We joined in with all the Divine Office & Holy Hours with the nuns (matins, laudes, compline, vespers, sext, none) & of course mass. The theme for the retreat was 'the Beatitudes' which was nice, as it really gave me a chance to contemplate and meditate them and to really think about what they mean.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land.
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Plus, the group I went with from the Catholic Chaplaincy was awesome! I had such a fun time with them and they made it even more memorable.
Minster Abbey - The Chapel
a pretty flower
The dude himself
The group + nuns + papal flag
the Chapel again
The next few days were spent going from one BBQ..
fruit salad! Mmmm...!
Dominican BBQ-ing!
to dinner...
someone threw a chip in the water jug...
to other dinners...to garden parties....and so on!
my life honestly isn't like this normally! Just post exams!
Last Saturday I went on a mini pilgrimage to Walsigham, a Marian Shrine in Norwich. A couple of hundred years ago a guy had a dream (which was approved by the Vatican as being authentic) of Mary telling him to build a shrine in Walsigham of a replica of the Holy Family's house in Loreto. Mary has never appeared (in an approved apparition) here in England, so Walsigham is the closest we have to a Lourdes or Fatima!
The occasion was for the National Day of prayer for Vocations in England and my brother & I both went with a Dominican nun & brother.
My brother got chosen to carry the statue of Our Lady of Walsigham on the 40 minute procession. Here he is:
bro + our Lady statue. Doesn't it look like he is talking to baby Jesus?! How sweet!
back of brother carrying our Lady statue
The day was nice. I got to lead a group of people on the 40 minute procession as we said 2.5 rosaries in the sweltering heat! (penance + prayers --> hopefully more vocations to the priesthood and/or religious life!)
Then there was a holy hour of adoration which was nice. To end the day off there was mass..which was a bit dodgy. The main priest celebrating it had us all sit down at the beginning for about 15minutes as he reeled off a list of the different parishes represented this year, and then gave us the life history of all the priests present. I always think those sorts of notices should be kept till the END of mass (i.e. after communion and before the final blessing) and not after the initial opening of mass. In fact, I think it has been specifically mentioned in the GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missel). Plus, his welcoming speech was so long that he made us all sit down, so consequently we were all sitting when it came time for the penitential riet and the 'Lord have mercy' bit.
The priest then kept making up bits of the prayers and adding in his own words and phrasing, which isn't the greatest liturgical abuse ever, but still. It shouldn't really be done.
THEN, he got some random woman to read the Gospel!!!!!! There was 8 priests and 2 deacons present at the mass, there was absolutely no need to have some random person read the gospel! Plus it's not even allowed anyway.
At the end of mass I asked him whether he was aware that it's against the General Instruction of the Roman Missel to have someone who isn't a priest or deacon read the gospel during mass, but he told me that
a- she didnt read the gospel (which was a lie.)
b- that he had got permission from "the powers that be" but then he wouldn't tell me who these "powers that be" were.
He was very jumpy, and clearly making up excuses on the spot, and then he turned away from me and totally ignored me, so I just had to walk away.
*sighs*
it's very sad. I am praying for him.
On Sunday evening a group of us from the Catholic Chaplaincy watched a taped 3 hour reality tv show which has been pretty big in England recently (at least in the Catholic world!)...it's a show called 'the Monestary' and basically it's about 5 guys who go a live in Worth Abbey, a Dominican Abbey somewhere in England. The 5 guys live with the monks, participate in all the Divine Office and mass, and do manual labour with them.
It was a very good show. It was so nice to see something sane on tv, instead of the usual garbage that is most reality tv like Big Brother etc! I mean, how many tv shows have you see which explain how true freedom is actually achieved by obeying your superiors, and not actually doing whatever you want?!
On Monday evening I then went to a May Ball (the name comes from the fact that, not surprisingly, the Balls were traditionally held in May and not in June). 4 of my medic friends & I went (& Chris) and it was a lot of fun! Loads of food and games never-ending drink! (although I actually didn't drink a single alcoholic thing all evening! Not even a sip of champagne!)
Basically, how the balls work is that you buy a ticket, and then everything else is free; unlimited food, drink, rides (e.g. ferris wheel, hot air balloon, bouncy castle), music tents, comedians, hypnotists, magicians. The food is also amazing, everything from a freshly cooked hog roast to chocolate fountains, and sushi to donughts, cheeses, fruit, chip, hot dogs, belgian chocolates, cakes, hamburgers, ice-cream, olives, bacon rolls, waffles, crepes, kebabs...basically pretty much anything you can think of!
The ball starts at 9pm and lasts till 6am. So basically it's an all-night event. My friends & I left at 5am though. Here are some pictures from the evening:
fire jugglers
ferris wheel
fountain of milk chocolate (into which you dip strawberries, grapes, marshmellows, melon...etc) it was SO YUMMY!
A blurry photo of my friends & I
Artistic shot of the ladies
Chris + random statue of Marylin!
I've often wondered about the morality of May Balls...not from a getting-drunk-and-being-crazy point of view (because most people don't really get very drunk as the tickets are so expensive that I guess they think it's a bit stupid to get really drunk and then pass out and miss the whole ball...plus I have never been drunk in my life anyway!), but rather its morality from the perspective that it is such...excess. There is an excess of everything. People get food, take two bites and leave it there. They get a glass of something to drink, take a sip and then just leave it there. There is a hyper excess of everything...it is honestly sheer gluttony that drives you to keep eating all evening even when you are stuffed full already (that, and the fact that you paid a mini fortune for the ticket and want to get your moneys worth).
Hm, last year our Chaplain went to a Ball and I consider him a very holy man, so maybe I am just being a bit scrupulous..
At any rate, I guess this is the last year I will ever go to a ball anyway (as next year I will be working (still as a student) in hospital as so wont have any time).
Last night I went overnight punting with some of my medic friends to celebrate someone's 21st birthday. It was a lovely 1.5hour punt upstream to our destination in a lovely field, and we arrived at about 10pm. But 11pm I was freezing cold and a bit tired and wasn't too keen to stay there till dawn like the others. At about 00:30am Chris & I decided to walk back as he has to go into the lab today anyway, and I didn't really want to get back at the crack of dawn and then miss the whole of today by sleeping into the afternoon.
I have just got back from mass now and the weather outside is glorious!
I have a couple of books that I really want to read, & I may go outside and enjoy the sunshine now and read one:
-The Little Flowers of St. Francis
- The Confessions of St.Augustine
- The Mind of St. Therese of Lisieux
- Screwtape Proposes a toast (by C.S. Lewis)
I think I will start with the latter as I have been meaning to read it for ages and ages and it's apparently an amazingly good book. Basically, from what I understand, it's a book written in the first person by an older devil, teaching a younger devil how to better tempt humans and lead us astray into Hell. It apparently is extremely perceptive in its detailing of human sin and weakness.
*phew*
I am glad I have finally caught up on my blogging!
Enjoy the sunshine!
-x-x-x-
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