Tag Archives: God

silence: in church and the sea…

This morning, Andrew and I woke up at home, got up, had some breakfast and then went to Church. As I said on twitter…

We arrived at St George’s just before two friends from Changing Attitude Ireland and they joined us in the pew. Throughout Mass it was clear that the LGBT community is welcome in the church. I knew I was welcome in St George’s, now I am finding out that Andrew continues to be surprised and pleased at how he is welcomed and valued there too. Among the hymns we sang were Blessed John Henry Newman’s Firmly I believe, and truly, God is Three and God is One. Also, O Jesus I have promised to serve thee to the end. The hymn before the prayer of consecration was my favourite, Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

It is in the silence of our hearts, that we find and listen our God. We find that He loves us, whole, complete, and sinners as we are. In the peace and quiet of St George’s today I felt the love of God, something which was rather absent from the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin yesterday.

After lunch, we returned for the Northern Ireland Maritime Service of Thanksgiving and Commemoration of those who have no known grave but the sea, which was attended by H.M. Lord Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast, Dame Mary Peters, D.B.E..

This was particularly poignant for me this year as I now have a connexion to the Battle of the Atlantic through my husband. Andrew’s grandfather, Alexander McFarland served on M.V. Victor Ross, which was torpedoed and sunk by U-boat U-43. The simple service had music from Sumsion which I remember singing in Ripon, and even remember trying to learn the accompaniment on the organ. I’ll let you listen to it as sung by the choir of Ely Cathedral.

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May 13, 2012 1 Comment Short URL , , , , , , , , Blogging, Church of Ireland

Don’t let inaccurate reporting on Scout Promise spoil St George’s Day celebratings

When Scouts make their Promise they earn the right to wear the World Membership Badge.

As many Scouts in the United Kingdom prepare for St George’s Day commemorations, The Sunday Times, has reported that The Scout Association (TSA) has plans to change the Scout Promise. It is sad that this story has been published today as many of us as members will be renewing our Promise as the Founder, Lord Baden-Powell OM asked.

The story in The Sunday Times is littered with inaccuracies, including the first sentence.

FOR more than a century, budding Cub Scouts have cheerfully pledged to do their duty “to God and to the Queen”. Now the wording of the famous oath is to be reviewed, according to one of Britain’s senior Scouts.

It is not possible for budding Cub Scouts to have pledged their duty ‘to God and to the Queen’ for over a century. Cub Scouts only came into existence in 1967, when the Wolf Cub section was renamed. Also, as we are very well aware this year, Her Majesty The Queen has been reigning for 60 years only: before that Scouts made their promise to do their ‘duty to God and to the King’. The second sentence states that it is an oath: it is not. It is a Promise.

According to Scout UK Headquarters, when a journalist contacted TSA it was made plain to him that the suggestions made were without any basis in fact.

Today, the UK Chief Commissioner, Wayne Bulpitt has reconfirmed:

We have absolutely no plans to make changes to our Scout Promise. Scouting has been offering development opportunities to young people from across the United Kingdom for over 100 years within the framework our Promise and Law.

We are proud that the Queen is our Patron, the Duke of Kent is our President, and that the Duchess of Cambridge has recently become a volunteer with Scouting. We continue to offer adventure and development opportunities to our growing membership of over 525,000 young people and adults.’

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April 22, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Blogging, news, Sunday Times

Quote

A prayer of St Aloysius to Our Lady

Our Lady of Oxford

Most holy Mary, to thy faithful care and particular protection and to the bosom of thy mercy, to-day and every day, and particularly at the hour of my death, I commend my soul and my body. All my hope and consolation, all my trials and miseries, my life and the end of my life, I commit to thee, that through thy most holy intercessions and by thy merits all my actions may be directed and ordered according to thy will and that of thy divine Son. Amen.

Indulgence, 200 days, once a day. Leo ⅩⅢ, March 15, 1890.

April 4, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , catholic, Our Lady, Oxford

The core issue: will you kiss the leper clean?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

John L. Bell & Graham Maule

This verse was sung at our Covenant of Commitment in All Souls’ Church in Belfast by a large congregation back in May last year. I wonder what many people thought it meant. (more…)

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January 14, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , Belfast, Blogging, charitable, christian, Counselling, LGBT, NSPCI

St Michael: thrust down to hell Satan…

The painting's story is from the Bible (I King...

Image via Wikipedia

Holy Michael Archangel, defend us in the day of battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.–May God rebuke him, we humbly pray: and do thou, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust down to hell Satan and all wicked spirits, who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

Who is like God?

Last year, I posted about Who is like God on this date.

Today we meditate:

The Archangels

from The Golden Legend

We must honour the angels because they are our servants. They minister to us, as we read in Hebrews:

Are they not ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who are to receive the inheritance of salvation?

All are sent for our sake – the highest orders to the middle orders, these to the lowest ones, and the lowest to us. This sending of the angels is in accord, firstly with the kindness of God, because it shows how much he loves our salvation, since he directs and dispatches the noblest spirits, those who are joined to him in intimate love, to procure salvation for us. Secondly, their mission also befits the angels’ love for us, for it is of the nature of ardent love to desire intensely the welfare of others. For this reason Isaiah said:

Behold, Lord, here am I! Send me!

The angels can help us because they see us in need of their aid, with bad angels warring against us. Thus the law of angelic love requires tat they be sent to us. Thirdly, their sending also meets the neediness of mankind. The good angels are sent to inflame our hearts with love. As a figure of this we read that they were sent in a fiery chariot. They are sent also to enlighten our understanding and bring us to knowledge, as is show in a figure in the angel who held an open book in his hand. And they come to strengthen any weakness in us to the limit of our need, as we see in 1 Kings where we read that the angel brought to Elijah a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water, and Elijah ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, to Horeb the mountain of God…

We should honour the angels because they are our brothers and fellow citizens. All the elect are assumed to the angelic orders, some to the highest, some to the lowest, and some to the middle orders, according to the diversity of their merits…

We are to honour the angels because it is they who bear our souls up to heaven, and this they do in three ways. The first is by preparing the way, so we read in Malachai:

Behold, I send my angel, who will prepare the way before your face.

The second is by conveying souls to heaven along the prepared way; so Exodus:

Behold I will send an angel, who shall go before you into the land which I promised to your fathers.

The third is by putting the souls in their place in heaven; so Luke:

It came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.

The Golden Legend

The Golden Legend is a collection of stories about the saints compiled by Blessed Jacobus de Voragine O.P., †1298.

 

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September 29, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , catholic, O.P., St Michael the Archangel

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