Philippa White

Absolutely here for 'I the Lord of sea, I the Lord of sky '. Petitioning for this to replace the other.

Ah sorry, replied in haste and saw previous replies from @themedievaldrk.bsky.social and @mthrjo.bsky.social at leisure!

I would expect it to be a Gospel book (all the gospels in the first case, and either the same or a single gospel in the second. OR a gospel lectionary book, which was and remains a thing.)

FRIDESWIDE'S GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS!

😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲
SIXTH CENTURY!

They're lovely, aren't they! Very pretty.

Brno is gorgeous! (jumping in to a thread I'm not part of with people I don't know, that's how much I want to share my Brno love)

I do not wish to sound fatalistic here, still less to condone bad safeguarding responses. But I do think that in the last 5 years some senior clergy have been treated as abusive when they've merely fallen short of perfection, and I don't think it's realistic to expect constant perfection.

I don't know, I wasn't on the commission and it would be inappropriate to speak about it if I were. There is a well publicised case in which she's been blamed for responding badly - but I don't know that it's always possible to respond perfectly (and what she's accused of is not covering up abuse).

Mmmm hmmmmm.

'Not a Donatist' is... really important and not, it seems to me, applicable to quite a lot of "orthodox" (dog whistle-y) people.

Ditto for training non-residentially.

(your comment far better than mine!)

I've seen it said this morning. 'Too soon, not the right time, too much of a blow to Catholics and conservatives.' It will never be the right time for Catholics and conservatives!

Broadly positive. She's not going to be a revolutionary, but I'm not sure the first woman to be ABC ought to be a revolutionary. Some high profile mistakes but whomst among us etc. I suspect outweighed by the times she's got it right and had no profile for it.

Haud dificile!

They are also *excellent* shoes!

Isn't it just!

Isn't it just!

(I never pass up the opportunity to share this. I love it.)

In a game of pure delight, Clare beat Galway by one point:
Clare 1 goal and 17 points, Galway 19 points.
“Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”

After Mass, the rain had drained away
Into a tide of sunlight on which we sailed out
To St Macdara’s Island and dipped our sails –
Both of us smiling, radiant sinners.

At the end of Mass, exactly twenty-one minutes,
The priest advised: “Go now and enjoy yourselves
For that is what God made you to do –
To go out there and enjoy yourselves
And to pray that, in the All-Ireland
Championship hurling quarter-final between Clare and Galway
In Croke Park, Clare will win.”

The congregation was flabbergasted, but everyone fluttered
And swung around and uttered that extraordinary phrase:
“You are beautiful.”
I shook hands with at least five strangers,
Two men and three women, to each of them saying:
“You are beautiful.” And they to me:
“You are beautiful.”

As if the Consecration were the “now”
In the “now” of the Hail Mary prayer:
“Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”
At the Sign of the Peace he again went sombre
As he instructed the congregation:
“I want each of you to turn around and say to each other:
‘You are beautiful.’”

The congregation splashed into laughter
And the church became a place of effortless prayer.
He whizzed through the Consecration
As if the Consecration was something
That occurs at every moment of the day and night;
As if betrayal and the overcoming of betrayal
Were an every-minute occurrence.

To the congregation he gravely announced:
“I want each of you to pray for a special intention,
A very special intention.
I want each of you – in the sanctity of your souls –
To pray that, in the All-Ireland
Championship hurling quarter-final this afternoon in Croke Park,
Clare will beat Galway.”

He whizzed along,
Saying the readings himself as well as the Gospel;
Yet he spoke with conviction and with clarity;
His every action an action
Of what looked like effortless concentration;
Like Tiger Woods on top of his form.
His brief homily concluded with a solemn request.

Out onto the altar hurried
A short, plump priest in late middle age
With a horn of silver hair,
In green chasuble billowing
Like a poncho or a caftan over
White surplice and a pair
Of Reeboks – mammoth trainers.