Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass for your Sunday (obligation or none), either live or on the internet? Let us know what it was. Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
Also, are your churches opening up? What was attendance like?
For my part,…
Remember… real priests wear rosacea!
Rose madder:
Let’s have a poll. Choose your best answer. Anyone can vote, but only registered and approved users can comment.
And here is another for those who saw rose or pink… what shade?
Yeah… just go with it.
Speaking of madder, I am reminded of the scene in the Aubrey/Maturin novel by Patrick O’Brian‘s HMS Surprise. (UK HERE) The ship’s surgeon, an eminent naturalist, Dr. Stephen Maturin was conducting an experiment on some rats. He had been feeding them madder. He intended eventually to dissect them to see if the red stuff had colored their bones and penetrated to the marrow. It was not to be. Hungry midshipmen ate his fat, madder saturated rats whilst he was marooned on St. Paul’s Rock. Note the spiffing partitive genitive in the first sentence of the following:
In time it appeared that Babbington had eaten of the Doctor’s rats; and that he was sorry now.
‘Why, no, Babbington,’ said [Capt.] Jack. ‘No. That was an infernal shabby thing to do; mean and very like a scrub. The Doctor has been a good friend to you – none better. Who patched up your arm, when they all swore it must come off? Who put you into his cot and sat by you all night, holding the wound? Who – ‘
Babbington could not bear it; he burst into tears. Though an acting-lieutenant he wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and through his sobs he gave Jack to understand that unknown hands had wafted these prime millers [aka rats] into the larboard midshipmen’s berth; that although he had had no hand in their cutting-out – indeed, would have prevented it, having the greatest love for the Doctor, so much so that he had fought Braithwaite over a chest for calling the Doctor ‘a Dutch-built quizz’ – yet, the rats being already dead, and dressed with onion-sauce, and he so hungry after rattling down the shrouds, he had thought it a pity to let the others scoff the lot. Had lived with a troubled conscience ever since: had in fact expected a summons to the cabin.
‘You would have been living with a troubled stomach if you had known what was in ‘em; the Doctor had -’
‘I tell you what it is, Jack,’ said Stephen, walking quickly in. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon.’
‘No, stay, Doctor. Stay, if you please,’ cried Jack.
Babbington looked wretchedly from one to the other, licked his lips and said, ‘I ate your rat, sir. I am very sorry, and I ask your pardon.’
‘Did you so?’ said Stephen mildly. ‘Well, I hope you enjoyed it.
Listen, Jack, will you look at my list, now?’
‘He only ate it when it was dead,’ said Jack.
‘It would have been a strangely hasty, agitated meal, had he ate it before,’ said Stephen, looking attentively at his list. ‘Tell me, sir, did you happen to keep any of the bones?’
‘No, sir. I am very sorry, but we usually crunch ‘em up, like larks. Some of the chaps said they looked uncommon dark, however.’
‘Poor fellows, poor fellows,’ said Stephen in a low, inward voice.
‘Do you wish me to take notice of this theft, Dr Maturin?’ asked Jack.
‘No, my dear, none at all. Nature will take care of that, I am afraid.’
Stephen is eventually revenged in a creative way – involving laxatives – which also kept him true to his Hippocratic Oath.
Later in that same book, by the by, Jack will debauch Stephen’s pet sloth with grog and turn it into an alcoholic.
Which it’s tough going for the Doctor on the high seas, as Preserved would put it.
But I digress.
Have a rosy Sunday.
UPDATE:
And Army has brought back the great Pinks and Greens!
best point in the Sunday homily. John the Baptist preached repentance because all of us need to repent. all of us need to go to confession. (two weeks in a row for that point to be made in the Sunday homily!) the city allows us 89 in attendance at any given Mass and we looked to be right about at that.
also of note, yesterday i went to a different parish for Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass (the one at my parish was inconveniently early in the morning). an elderly priest who was not familiar to me was the celebrant. he said that as bad as 2020 has been, the ongoing effects of 1968 are worse. he recounted being a seminarian in those days when sem faculties were strongly discouraging any form of Marian devotion. he went along with the times and largely ignored the Blessed Mother. about seven years ago he had a serious illness that necessitated a long convalescence. during that time he returned to Marian devotion. he mentioned that he now does some work with the seminarians and is encouraging them to keep the Mother of God close to them at all times.
With the library harder to get to these days, I’ve been thinking of splurging and buying the complete series. This post is not helping the temptation, Father… ;)
The Pinks and Greens were originally for officers only and phased out ca. 1957 … right as my father graduated Officers Candidate School (he was pretty miffed about not being able to wear the P&Gs). The new iteration looks sharp — except for women wearing the male service hat … and the hat is too tall and the saddle shape is a bit too much; oh! and enlisted members wearing a waist belt.
The new uniform ought have reflected the 1945 period when enlisted wore the same olive-drab color trousers and jacket, with no waist belt. Officers should wear the pinks and greens with waist belt. But nobody asked me!
Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
— Guy
Dusty rose. With trim that was reddish purple on white, which actually looked quite sharp.
We had a baptism, and it was pretty joyful.
Which it’s a pleasure to see you’re a Aubreyiad fan. It’s the great sea story of the world, sure.
I chose rose madder. But be advised my wife is of the opinion that any assertion I make as to colour is not to be relied upon. Would I disagree with her? Never in life, my dear. You can check my answer here:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=172554251247220&ref=watch_permalink
So, here, we are only allowed 25 people at Mass – doesn’t matter how large the building – even at St. Joseph’s Oratory (I’ve been turned away from there 3 times so far and once from my home parish so far. . .but St. Joseph’s Oratory . . .25 people only – did you see the pic ? Does anyone think that 2 COVID-19 virions could even find each other in there? . . .That, would be a miracle.)
Several weeks ago, a pastor at a neighboring parish who is a friend of mine, had to ask parishioners to only register for Sunday Mass every second Sunday – “so that others may have a chance to attend.” As a general rule, I don’t even try to attend on Sundays now – so that others may. But I managed to patchwork a system together where I can attend daily Mass at 2 different parishes from Monday thru Friday without putting anyone out.
Today, at the conclusion of my pastor friend’s 11:00 am Mass (rose pink vestments – I voted), Father announced that anyone who had just watched the streamed Mass (such as myself) and who wished to receive Holy Communion, could present themselves at his church’s narthex outside at exactly 12:30 pm. It was cold ! We had a brief prayer , received Communion, Father blessed us, then we left.
During his homily, Father said that St. Paul “provides us with a recipe for life” ; has left us instructions on how we should be living. During the part of his homily which referred to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 , Father spoke on joy:
“Joy is one of the basic qualities of the faith and our vocation is to radiate that joy – even if we are not feeling it so much this year . . . It’s true that Jesus was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’, yet on the very eve of his death he left his disciples with the words,’These things I have spoken to you that my joy might be in you and your joy be complete.’
. . .True joy is not freedom from suffering because it is not something , but it is someone who is God. It’s not the good feelings that can disappear into thin air, but something deeper and lasting. It’s the awareness that we are created in love for a purpose, and that we are doing everything we can to fulfill that purpose in the simple ways that St. Paul suggests in our second reading from the first letter to the Thessalonians. And that book – that letter, is one of the first, maybe the earliest part of the New Testament written barely 20 years after the death of Jesus.”
Usually, when we refer to St. Paul’s recipe or instructions given in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 we consider 4 things: We are to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in all circumstances, to hold fast to what is good and to abstain from every form of evil. But Father provided emphasis on a fifth point: We have to be willing to let God sanctify us.
He concluded with a beautiful jewel I hadn’t heard before:
“It has been said that , ‘ if only your heart could become a crib God would become a child again on earth‘. We can do that not by escaping into sin, but by taking to heart those words of St. Paul: Live gratefully ; abstain from evil; pray always; live joyfully. Amen.”
Purple vestments. We are at Gaudete Sunday so we are almost at Christmas but not there yet. This is analogous to how we most likely are in our spiritual life where we may be on the right track but not there yet.
It was announced that we will have extra confession times in the evenings next week and are all encouraged to go.
Earlier in the week I was out of town but was able to snag a spot at a nearby church to attend the mass for Immaculate Conception (one has to register online as in our diocese we have a limit of 50 people per Mass irrespective of the church size). It was NO but a beautiful sung mass. One silver lining in the current Wuhan Virus situation is in some churches the placing of cantors back in the rear balcony where they belong. The homily was short but to the point. We all try to plan, for example a recent snow storm with many power outages was weathered well by those who planned ahead and had candles, generators, etc. God also has a plan. His plan for salvation started with the conception of the Mother of God. Even when things seem to be chaotic as they are in our world now, we have to remember God is in control and has a plan. Also remember the first words the angel said to Mary – be not afraid.
Communion was done a little differently at this church than what I had seen before. Everyone stayed in their pew and the priest came up and down the aisle and gave communion. I was able to receive kneeling and on the tongue as several others did.
It is the morning of Monday; I should be readying myself for work not looking up partitive genitive.
I said “rose pink,” but I am not confident that this was the right choice. It’s the rose fabric that CM Almy sells. We had a veil and burse in that fabric already, and the lady who did the linens went on at length about how Almy always would have it in stock, and so we got the chasuble, cope, etc. made in the same fabric. But they made us a new burse and veil anyways, so there wasn’t any need to have matched the old ones, and we could, I suppose, have found some Roman rosacea after all …