catholiclefty

Today isn't St. Patrick's Day. However much people want to walk around with silly hats, get stupidly drunk, or hilariously rant 'how dare the Church move St. Patrick's Day' (!!!). It just isn't.

As Advent has now started, I've completed over a year of doing the Office of Readings from the Divine Office and so am back at the beginnings. My impression here is mixed - a lot of the scripture readings are of variable value, some relevant and interesting, and others seem far too Old Testament mindset and not especially valuable to the modern faith. Equally the second readings - all of them are more or less relevant, but while some are thought-provoking and re-enforce the faith, some are just dull and pedestrian. I'll give it another year, most likely, and re-evaluate my thoughts next year.

And, it is December 6th. Someone I used to rather like - a very long time ago indeed - will turn 30 today, which is a vaguely scary reminder of the fact we're all getting old rather quickly.

The new Church year - lectionary year A, at that - is about to begin, and we are to enter Advent, when we first look towards the Second Coming, and then look at those looking towards the First Coming. A strange, short season, which goes by far too quickly to make a big commitment to. On the other hand, it is always nice to be in a real season again, after semi-interminable months of Ordinary Time!

Not much to say about this week. Lib Dem conference went well with a lot of sensible ideas (bet that won't happen at Labour next week...), queues at the Northern Rock, Cambridgeshire Police saying we've got lots of immigrants and not enough police, zero progress in Iraq, threats over Iran, Israel continuing to unconscionably squeeze any remaining life out of the Gaza strip, and floods all over Africa (of course, this last one not exactly plastered all over the media).

The visit of the Bishop to our Church last weekend seemed to go well. I may have mentioned this before, but we do have a very very good Bishop. Thank God for that!

I do have problems with the word 'Bishop' though since the Monty Python sketch 'The Bishop'. I don't even think it is a good sketch, but it does come to mind every time someone says the word 'Bishop'. Hmm...!

So, yesterday was our first Ascension Thursday that wasn't actually Ascension, given it has been moved to Sunday. It feels downright odd to do things this way around, even if the day itself is reasonably arbitrary (after all, so is Christmas, but I expect we won't start moving that to the nearest Sunday anytime soon).

So, SS Peter and Paul (saints, not a ship!) today. I was trying to work out why they share a day, when all the other important people get a day each. It seems to be either that tradition has it they were martyred on the same day (even though they almost certainly weren't), or because of some typically oblique comment made by St Augustine. Which isn't really a very satisfying answer. Oh well.

Our Cardinal has been 'causing waves' by asking for the time limit for abortions to be lowered from 24 weeks. Good for him. If it saves some lives, it is worth it. And the secular arguments for such are strong too.

Unfortunately we live in such a convenience society that abortion is just that - another convenience. Somehow, when it is the unborn child, we are willing to accept that. Yet almost no-one would accept murdering the child after he or she is born, even if 'unwanted', or disabled.

Frankly, it irritates me that abortion has become an issue associated with the right (less here than in the USA, but still). Perhaps I've missed the point of lefty politics entirely (though I don't think so), but I thought we were about speaking up for and helping the weak, those unable to speak for themselves. I can't see how abortion fits into that. Even if you don't accept a religious aspect to life, it seems bizarre that we are sticking up for abortions of children past the time when they could possibly survive outside of the womb.

I do strongly believe that the best way to remove abortion from our society is to make it no longer the 'least worst' option for people. Decent socialist policies could achieve much of that, hopefully most. Certainly more than going down the route of merely banning it through the law, which just drives it underground, cutting the numbers by a little perhaps, but it isn't the real solution. Frankly, people can always stick knitting needles in themselves if they feel they have no other choice. We have to improve those choices - and that kind of thinking *is* why I am on the left of politics, in the hope we can achieve just that.

Goodness knows I don't want our society to have the intolerant religious undertones to political debate that they have in the USA - but equally I think we are going too far in the other direction here. Reading some of the comments attached to that news story are plain alarming in their virulence against religion and the concept that religious people have beliefs and opinions and the right to express them too.

While indulging one of my guilty pleasures yesterday, watching Neighbours (!) - episode 4941, there was a rather odd presentation of the Catholic Church given.

There was a priest who firstly didn't seem too concerned about needing to baptise a child ('we all find our own way to God' or something like that - not exactly strict Catholic dogma), then he wants the most expensive meal on the menu in the pub, twists someone's arm in order to get them to pay for it, and then reveals the 'terrible secret' (better known as common knowledge!) that you don't need a priest in order to baptise someone in an emergency ('but don't tell anyone or I'll lose my job'). Err, yes, ok.

Not *quite* accurate. Still, Neighbours does at least have 'human' clergy like those you find in the real world, rather than the gnashing hell-fire people you find lurking around the internet (mostly in America, mind).

The quasi-eugenics project in the name of 'common sense' and 'alleviating suffering' continues. The way in which this 'screening out' of diseases via the already troubling IVF occurs is nothing short of playing God.

Goodness knows I have doubts and difficulty with a large part of what the Church teaches about sexuality and reproduction - but they are right on the mark here. There's no such thing as a 'right' to have a child, and there certainly isn't such a thing as the 'right' to have a child who doesn't have some disability. People who believe in God believe in a God who loves us all equally. People who don't should sit down and have a good long think about where this kind of 'playing God' is taking us. Very troubling.

I thought I'd better just mention something about Trinity Sunday, before it gets forgotten with Corpus Christi on Thursday.

I'm not sure I see the problem with the Trinity. It's a mystery, after all! That seems a sufficient explanation. I have conceptual difficulties with it - but that's pretty much the point! I also have difficulty with the relationships between the different members - but that doesn't affect the core doctrine of the Trinity.

Anyway, we had a 'youth mass' for the three churches in the city, and it was quite good, different music from the usual Saturday evening mass. A big Church is a good thing when it is too hot outside too, as it tends to be cooler inside than outside... :-)

Well, it was 6th June 2006 today. And it's been a lovely day :-) Warm and sunny.

Seriously though, even *if* the number 666 is the 'number of the beast' (and it is dubious that it is - it could well be 616, for example) it does us no good to take stock in numerology and suspicion. The Book of the Apocalypse is many things, but it isn't meant to be an exact roadmap of the end days. Fortunately the Catholic Church is very sensible on these matters - although it isn't a difficult conclusion to come to. Jesus was very exact about the fact that 'we would not know the hour' and just to try to be prepared for whenever it may be. If in doubt, go with what Jesus says!

In fact, I find it almost offensive that people try to forecast events bringing about the end times - whether by overly literally reading the Bible, or by trying to move world events in a certain direction (eg. with Israel). It should be completely obvious that Jesus is not *bound by events*. The end will come when the end will come.

So, also, we had Pentecost on Sunday, which puts an end to Eastertide. That went very quickly. I'm not sure I'm very good at Eastertide - I seem to be much better at Lent. Maybe it is just that Lent is more focused, or - more likely - it's just that I'm better at the miserable parts than the joyous parts :-)

In any event, I kept up saying Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer (from the Liturgy of the Hours) for the whole of Lent and Easter, which is better than I expected to do, so I guess I should congratulate myself a little. Now of course I need to try and keep it up through 'ordinary time', which may well be a more difficult concept. At least I now know that 'Ordinary' time means 'counting time', as in ordinals, as opposed to 'boring time without any major events' (!) - though there is some element of the latter involved... :-)

At some point I'll have to try and introduce doing the Office of Readings as well. Probably at Advent, I suppose.

So today we celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM). I can't say I like the term 'BVM' - it makes Mary sound like some management-speak, or some kind of music style, or something equally inappropriate. Still, it seems we're stuck with the abbreviation. Oh well.

It's also half-term. Too many children about. Far too many children.