The Weekend



On the plus side, last weekend provided an opportunity to co-operate with the Holy Father's request for penance in aid of peace in the Lebanon without my having to decide how exactly to do that. For example:

1) Temperature reading of 101° at Long Beach airport. We're a touch further north than that so I assume a few degrees warmer also. And a good dose of tropical humidity up from Mexico.

2) At 2 in afternoon on Saturday the electricity went down. It stayed down until noon-ish on Sunday. Southern California Edison refused to either provide any recorded information worth listening to or a live human being to confirm that they actually knew about the power failure. Oh, the nice recorded lady does tell you (eventually, after you've punched in your life history in numerical format) that you may hold and speak to one of their representatives. If you do that and hold long enough, the nice recorded lady comes back on the line and in her perkiest voice says "Remember not to touch any downed power lines. Good-bye!" And then she hangs up on you.

3) Some neighbors chose that afternoon and evening to have a party. They had power. Power enough to run the stereo, anyway, and play one tune. I don't know the name of this tune but it uses electronic instruments exclusively and consists almost entirely of a noise sounding something like "Whumpa-chunka". Accent on the "Whump". The Love of My Life claims that more than one tune was played. She insists that the beat varied. She may be right. Tempo and beat have always been my weak point.

So, I offered up heat, noise, and a towering rage at Southern California Edison for the Middle East. Oh, yes, and whatever you call it when everything to drink has gone warm because you've run out of ice.

That's why you didn't see anything here at The Inn about St Mary Magdalene, Dan Brown's favourite saint, whose feast day it was on Saturday. Her hometown of Magdala lies next the sea of Galilee in the north and is subject to rocket attacks these days from Hizballah.

Yesterday, along with being the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, was also the Carmelite feast of Our Lady of Divine Grace. This feast marks the octave day of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For a short time the 23d was kept as the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces but after the Vatican Council of the 1960's it was changed to Our Lady of Divine Grace.

The collect for the feast Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, omnium gratiarum Mediatricis:

Domine Ieus Christe, noster apud Patrem mediator, qui beatissimam Virginem Matrem tuam, matrem quoque nostram et apud te mediatricem constituere dignatus es : concede propitius; ut, quisquis ad te beneficia petiturus accesserit, cuncta se per eam impetrasse lætetur: Qui vivis et regnas cum eodem Deo Patre in unitate. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator with the Father, who didst deign to make Thy blessed virgin Mother our own mother also, and mediatrix between Thyself and us, gracously grant that whoever comes before Thee to ask Thy bounty may be gladdened by obtaining all he asks through her: Thou who art God living and reigning with the same God the Father. Amen.