Thanksgiving 2013

We did without my world-famous-in-this-house turkey giblet gravy this Thanksgiving.  You see, today is not only Thanksgiving Day but The Memsahib's birthday.  (No, I won't tell you which one.  As has been mentioned before, that would be more than  my life is worth.  She very well might tell you, but I'm certainly not going to.)  So we can't have her spending the day in the kitchen basting a turkey can we.  Even if I do take over the gravy chores, that still leaves a fair amount of bother for herself on her day.

So we went along to one of the nicer Long Beach hotels for our festal meal.  They don't do the sweet potatoes quite as well as Herself does and they don't do the giblet gravy quite as well as I do, but all-in-all it was a fine meal in an elegant atmosphere.  And the wine was a step up from what I probably would have come up with.  No, not a step up; a couple of flights of stairs up.  No two-buck-Chuck here.

It was going to be just the two of us but quite by accident we met some long-standing Irish friends there at the same time.   So congeniality reigned.

And now we are home and there is mince pie in the oven.

I hope your day was suitably happy and appropriately thank-filled.

And for the day that's in it, read here about the pilgrims, Jesuits, Squanto, the pope, and Thanksgiving.

[H/T to Fr Philips for the link.]

St Catherine Laboure, Christ the King, and the King of France

Well, that was interesting.  How long has the St Catherine Labouré/Miraculous Medal post been missing?  The full 24 hours since I posted it?  I suppose so.

Fortunately, it wasn't one of those garment-rending losses when hours of careful thought and typing have vanished into the æther.  This was actually a link to someone else's hours of careful thought, etc.  But still rather annoying.  One looks something of a numpty when one's blog features a headline and no post.

What was supposed to be referenced was this fascinating post at Tea at Trianon, in which one will learn about the Miraculous Medal, St Catherine Labouré (whose feast day it is today), Christ the King, monarchy in general and the Bourbons in particular.

I'm Probably the Only One. . .

. . .but I find this very funny.

Maybe if the Huffpost weren't so shirty about the whole thing.  But they are.  And I laughed all the way through.

St Columbanus

The 23d of November is the feast of the great Irish missionary and monastic founder St Columbanus.  As always on this day, The Inn reprints a paragraph from the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould's life of the saint (and not just because St Columbanus was a great traditionalist in his day, holding to the method of calculating Easter handed down to him by his spiritual fathers).

He [St Columbanus] received a good classical education, and resolved early to embrace an ascetic life. But the good looks and winning ways of the Irish girls were a snare to him. He tried to forget their bright eyes by toiling (desudavit) at grammar, rhetoric, and geometry, but found that at least syntax and the problems of Euclid were a less attractive study than pretty faces, and that the dry rules of rhetoric failed altogether before the winsome prattle of light- hearted maidens. He consulted an old woman who lived as a recluse. She warned him that if he wished to maintain his purpose of self-conquest he must fly to a region where girls are less beautiful and seductive than Ireland. "Save thyself, young man, and fly!" His resolution was formed; he decided on going away.

So he went to France.

And then Italy.

Really;  you could look it up.

Poirot Gets Evicted

They're not making the series any more, you know.   David Suchet is bowing out.   So that wonderful 1930s  art deco-ish apartment they built for him will be no more.

Read the sad tale here.

Has Pope Francis Saved Western Culture?

That's what New Liturgical Movement names the article but it's only tangentially about Pope Francis. It's more about liturgy, the Ordinariate, western English-speaking culture, the Anglican Use form of the liturgy and its effect on the culture. . . which doesn't make for a very racy title.

Here's a sample:

The connection between the liturgy and culture is profound. Man is made to worship God; his worship is what establishes and shapes that relationship with God; and this, in turn influences all our human interactions and is the most significant factor in contributing to the grace and beauty of our actions and interactions. The culture might be viewed as the aggregate, the vector sum of these and is a reflection of - or incarnation of - our core values, priorities and beliefs.

While this connection can be conceived as a symbiotic dynamic, with each - liturgy and culture -simultaneously reflecting and nourishing the other, the relationship between the two is not a partnership of equals. The liturgy is a more powerful influence on the culture than the culture is on the liturgy. So in consideration of a reform of the culture, we should always look to ourselves first and strive for liturgical orthodoxy and purity. Accordingly we should strive to have liturgical culture high culture that is noble and naturally accessible. This is a culture that it makes high demands of those who create these forms - the writers, artists, composers and architects - but never of those who see it and hear it. It should touch people and then draw them upwards through the beauty of its forms, in harmony with worship. This accessible divine beauty can touch the soul in a way 'beyond words' (I'm thinking of St Augustine here).

The rest can be found here.

The Real Reason for the Ordinariate

Some 500 years after England’s King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican is vowing to defeat the Church of England — not in the pews, but on the cricket pitch. The Vatican has launched its own cricket club — a move aimed at forging ties with teams of other faiths.

Rome’s Capannelle Cricket Club is hosting training matches that will lead to the creation of the Vatican team, the St. Peter’s Cricket Club.

The Vatican already has its Clericus Cup soccer tournament, which pitches the Swiss Guards against seminarians. Now, its cricket team will sport the official colors of the tiny city-state, yellow and white, and players’ jackets will have the seal of the papacy, two crossed keys.

More here.

1,000 Years of Irish History in Three Paragraphs

The aunciente Irish descend from the Spaniards whoe, above 1000 yeares agoe got that kingdome from the Graecians, and governed it with just and holie lawes, being holpen thereon by the doctrine and holynes of many holy miraculous and learned men of there owne, until the comeing of the Danes, the which by overthrowing and destroying churches and Universityes in that island, broughte in much barbaritie, and evill customes, with tyranny, after which there followed, even in the Irish themselves sinnes and offences against God, civil wars, and domesticall hatred, murthers, &c.

The remaining two paragraphs. 

All Saints Day

Today is the feast of St Paul's  "great cloud of witnesses".

O Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord:  grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous  and godly living;  that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee.  Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.

We went to the vigil Mass last night - yes, it's still a Holy Day of Obligation, even here in the Archdiocese of Hollywood . . .  probably where you are, too.

Some music for the day that's in it.  (You can't beat Ralph Vaughn Williams.)

. . . . .

I shall be reveling in SCD most of this weekend.  We'll see how that posting-to-the-blog-from-the-phone wheeze works.