A November Sunday.

I liked this picture, so decided to post it for no better reason that it made me chuckle: (gaun yirsel, Mr Spock!)

Today has been quite chilled.  I sub-deaconed High Mass, then decided to be less couch vegetable than normal.  Instead of sitting in front of a computer, I went out, grabbed a Spicy Italian from Subway (a sarnie rather than Bruno Tognoli! Ooer Missus!!) and caught a bus to Blackford Hill, where I enjoyed some superb views of Edinburgh and Fife.  Home and a nice cuppa of Whittard's excellent 1886 Blend and then a splendid dinner of chicken casserole followed by Bread and Butter pudding.  A fine autumn Sunday indeed!

Sunday a day of rest?

 

I spent the morning preaching and celebrating at the Good Shepherd Murrayfield (babies and the baptising thereof was left to the Deacon Brenda!) and then went to lecture on the history of St Michael and All Saints where I am officially attached.  Most illuminating it was too!  Curates with rich wives, mega wealthy High Church spinster sisters, social outreach to fallen women - good rollicking stuff!  Tonight I had a fancy for Evensong and tootled off to Old St Paul's where Anglican chant and Stanford in A reminded me that I am at heart a "Stale Expressions of Church" man, rather than a "Fresh Expressions" fiend!  Then a fish supper for my tea - life is good!

Sunday in Springtime

With a friend coming up to visit and arriving on the 12.07 at Waverley, High Mass at St Michael's was going to be impossible with it's 11am start today. So it was Old St Paul's Ho! 10.30 start and just at the top of the steps from the train station - nae bother I think. Aye. Right.

The High Mass was a Nuptial Mass. They were still doing communion when I shot out the door at noon having received the Blessed Sacrament! It was a nice service, with a better choir than St Mike's and a good sermon. My only mumph's were: They used that bl**dy silly Handsel thing from the new marriage liturgy (pretentious pseudo-Celtic mince IMHO) and someone needs to hand out diet and exercise plans at the door - loadsa tubby Piskies!

That said, the day proceeded nicely with the Dutch Landscapes exhibition and lunch at the Queen's Hoose (Roast lamb and the trimmings!), a long walk up Arthur's Seat in the glorious spring sunshine, chocolate cake in the Grassmarket and din-dins at Emmaus (chicken and broccoli in a cheese sauce with roast spuds and peas, followed by ice cream fruit salad and chocolate caramel sauce. And we meet again in Berwick tomorrow!

A Sunday in Ordinary Time.

The usual 2 services this morning, interspersed with prayers for healing, it being the 1st of the month. I took the rare chance to sit in a pew at 10.30, as I had an NSM celebrating and a lay officiant leading the Liturgy of the Word. I simply surfaced from a pew after the Gospel in dog collar (OK, I was wearing trousers as well), did the address for the youngsters (having moved them to the front so I could ensure I was being notionally listened to - even our lot will leave their copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at the back when I haul 'em up front. If they hadn't, I'd have told them how it ends - I'm evil that way! Quite interesting to see how the service handles from that perspective. I must do something about the Offertory!

Yesterdays visit to St Francis Xavier's reminded me that, for all the number of times I have been inside it, I have never really taken time to look at it properly. Accordingly, I dropped in this afternoon to look at leisure. They have some rather good modern stained glass and an impressive set of painted Stations of the Cross. Not to my personal taste to be honest, but that's life. Then I popped up the hill to the Carmelite Convent where we went for a quiet day some time back for Evening Prayer and Benediction. Very nice actually. Prayerful, despite the sisters singing the Psalms at a pitch suitable only for devout bats, rather than tenors, as is the wont (in my experience) of female religious everywhere and of every denomination. Although they usually pitch the Magnificat at a singable level. It's a little haven worth remembering on a Sunday Evening. Half an hour of peace, and they even have silence after the reading and the reflection to let God in. Not your usual RC gabble. Could almost have been Anglican.

Then I went for a steak at the pub and off to blog. Life of Reilly really.