Our Lady of Walsingham

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, the titular feast of the Ordinariate in England and Wales and the patroness of England -- and by extension of the English-speaking people.  Our Lady of Walsingham is also the titular patroness  of the cathedral of the American Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.

This page is a comprehensive website which will give you an entrance to as much or more history of the Walsingham  apparition and shrine as any on the web.

A parish shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham:

A collect for Our Lady of Walsingham:

O God, who through the mystery of the Word made flesh, didst in thy mercy sanctify the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and wondrously place it in the bosom of thy Church: Grant that being made separate from the tabernacles of sinners, we may become worthy indwellers in thy holy house; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

The Filial Correction

Of course, you've heard about it by now.  I can't imagine that anyone who frequents this little store-front located down one of the back alleyways of the internet can possibly have failed to learn of The Filial Correction.  

So this post isn't really to inform you of it.  It's more in the nature of hoisting the flag and showing a bit of solidarity with the good folk who put it together.  And in some cases probably kissed their careers good-bye in doing so.

Here's the document in question then.

And if you are in sufficient agreement, you can make your agreement public here.

What good will it all do?  Dunno.   Francis has the plenitudo potestatis and who has the authority to say him nay?  Nobody I know of.  But the alternative is to do nothing.

It's Ember Day in Michaelmastide

Well, it is here anyway.  At  least for the next three hours.

I should've mentioned this before but we were busy.  (See below)  But there are two more coming up on Friday and Saturday so you can go here and learn about stargazy pie for a proper Emberday abstinence meal.

(Is it Ember Day or Emberday?  I've seen both.)

To Add to Your "Best" List

See's dark chocolate truffles,  with the dark, soft chocolate center are (is?) the best confection in the world.

An uncompensated endorsement for those who worry about that sort of thing. (Unless you count the free one they gave me when we went into the shop the other day to buy some candy for Mary's aunt who is recovering from a broken hip, and now that I think of it, could use a prayer or two if you have a moment.)

How To Tell When You Have the Perfect Marriage

It's when you forget your wedding anniversary and she isn't bothered by it.  She even says that she did too and only remembered when her sister sent her congratulations.

So we went out to an early dinner with some friends and had some good talk and laughter.   And not for the first time I wonder how I got so lucky.

The Voynich Manuscript Decoded

Fully aware that even though I found this research project absolutely fascinating, nobody else probably will I still can't resist passing along the link to this essay.

I've read about the mysterious Voynich manuscript and all the scholars it has puzzled over the years.  And now someone's got a handle on it.

Spoiler:

It's a Merck manual for medieval physicians and pharmacists.

September 12 - Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

Cum iucunditate Nativitatem beatæ Mariæ celebremus, ut ipsa pro nobis intercedat ad Dominum Iesum Christum.

Dearly beloved, the day of the blessed and ever venerable Virgin Mary so long desired, is here.  Let our land rejoice in the greatest exultation.  Let it shine in the light of the birth of such a virgin.  For  she is the flower of the field, from her bloomed the precious lily of the valley.  Through her birth the nature inherited from our  first  parents is changed. Their sin is blotted out. That unhappy curse of Eve in which it was said:  "In sorrow you shall bring forth children," is, in the case of Mary, ended, for she bore the Lord in joy.
-- II Nocturn, lectio iv, - St Augustine, Bishop

Why No-one Should Ever Rely on Me for Proof-reading

Because I see what I expect to see rather than what's actually there.

Take the "Some Saints for September" section over there on the left hand column.  Miss Chadwick's drawings for September do reside there at the moment.  But for a short while on this 4th day of September her drawings for Septuagesima graced that space.  Both words do, in fact, begin with "Sept".  But as I have now learned -- alas, not for the first time -- one does have to read the entire word in order to post the correct picture.