No deid yet!

Things improve: I'm still a bit chesty but less achy, so another day off should see me fine. Lest it be thought I am utterly idling, I have finally got around to looking into the possibility of doing some night classes to brush up me brain.  Ages ago, I got a ILA account, through which HMG (Jockland) gives me £200 to spend on courses.  I fancied cooking, but the only ones available were for professional qualifications.  So I looked around and realised I could always brush up my long defunct foreign language skills - revitalise my schoolboy French!  The Council do an evening class from Jan 26 and Embra Yooni do a course from 11 April.  So I shall begin to explore these avenues tout suite!

In the bleugh midwinter!

My unseasonal grump against the athesists was, as much as anything, the onsent of a mildly unpleasant winter chill (aches etc) - although the miserable sods do still need to get a life IMHO.  So, after struggling through a Christmas Day 8 hour shift, I phoned in sick today and kept warm and snoozed.  Tinned Macaroni cheese is a culinary sensation I had long forgotten about but enjoyed for lunch!  Mind you, I also went to Church - Mozart being the setting!

Peace on earth and goodwill to all - excepting noisy atheists!

A typical whinge from the Atheists on the Pope's "Thought for the Day" broadcast.

The National Secular Society described the Pope's broadcast as a slap in the face because it gave him access to the "unquestioned, unchallengeable Thought for the Day slot." "(It) may be a coup for the BBC, but it is a slap in the face for the thousands of clerical abuse victims who are still waiting for justice," it said on its website.

I just wish that this lot would get a life and leave the matter of religious faith to those who enjoy it or find it helpful.  Yes, clerical abuse is awful and the RC Church has behaved dreadfully and institutionally.  But dammit all, Benedict wanted to do summat when he was at the CDF and has made genuine inroads into addressing the problem.  These whining nihilists have unpleasantly inherited the mantle of Cromwell's Puritans and are as joyless, self-satisfied and damnably priggish as the Puritans.  Annoying and disgusting as I find some of the barmier "Christian" theologies around, these dour prigs keep me firmly out of the atheist camp!

Happy Christmas!

"Of Gods and men"

If you get the chance to catch it, go and see the excellent film "Of Gods and Men".  OK, it's in French and Arabic with English subtitles.  And it's about French Trappist monks in North Africa, the relationship between the abbey and the local village and living with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.  But it is beautifully shot and acted with several stunning performances (ace turn by former Bond villain Michael Lonsdale as Monk and Doctor Luc  - and the abbot is excellent too).  The dinner with wine and Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" is wordless, but moving to tears (the phrase "On the night before he was given up to death" springs to mind).  There is deep and brilliant theology and spirituality in there and it really is a "must see".

Nuns on the Run?

Not exactly great news has burst forth this weekend. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8211612/Get-thee-out-of-a-nunnery-bishop-tells-sisters.html and/or http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2010/12/15/nuns-leave-walsingham-priory-to-join-ordinariate/  I feel sad because I have met all three of the sisters who have decided to leave - indeed, I went around the High Kirk of St Giles with Jane Louise in full habit and we discovered that their douce Presbyterian gift shoppe was flogging rosaries to the faithful at a higher price than the Anglicans in Walsingham!

I can't say that this comes as much of a surprise and I think it is a pity that it all came to grief in this way but you can hardly have 3 sisters out of 7 in the house wanting away to Rome and still in residence.  I can understand the older sisters anger at being "left in the lurch" but they are supposed to understand what it is to "follow a vocation".  The thing is, a vocation is never static. Stable and rooted in Christ yes, but never static.  I can understand the call leading to a move of communion, particularly if part of that vocation has involved in living and working in an ecumenical atmosphere (one where admittedly there is hee-haw contact with Reformed Churches).  It's all very sad and I can only pray for those on the move and those who remain.