An extraordinary day, but lets remember where we're going!

February the twenty-ninth is unique in coming round only once every four years, and quite rightly is recognised as an enjoyable quirk of our Calendar: hence odd traditions, such as proposals of marriage made by women, on this date. One reason for this post is the novelty of having one dated Feb. 29th, but I do have a serious point.

We are moving towards something entirely more important. Good Friday. I think this is an appropriate time to remind ourselves that we are engaged in a pilgrimage to Calvary. Spiritual warfare may rage around us; in Lent we remember particularly to beware of the devil's temptations, and now is the time to set our sights on the prize. The sacrifice of Christ.



We are only a few weeks away from the Triduum. Now, in this extraordinary moment of the secular calander, we must remember an even more sensational time will soon be upon us. Prepare for Jerusalem.

Prayers for Bishop

Kevin Dunn, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle received Extreme Unction last night, the 57 year old remaining in hospital. The Bishop's family arrived last night, as his condition was described as "precaroius", although this morning was "more stable".

Please remember Bishop Kevin in your prayers.

www.rcdhn.org.uk

Some great music.

Sang this at a choral evensong once. You'll like it. Promise.

I'm back!

Well, its nice to be back in the UK, having had a fantastic week away in France. I arrived at the weekend, but pure laziness has prevented me from blogging until now. :-)

While skiing on the Continent, I stumbled across the resort's "church". Nominally Catholic, it was a squat, ugly, grey building. Not content with being built out of the most sinfully dull and cheap materials, it also refused to conform to basic geometry, the east wall not being perpendicular to the north and south, resulting in an even uglier church of trapezium shape. Worse still, the altar was off-centre, built out of roughly hewn stone resembling breeze blocks, oval (looked like some kind of kiln), with a polished wooden top, no crucifix, and worst of all - the tabernacle was placed in the centre of this monstrous altar in the form of a brass dunces cap, being a strange cone sunk into the surface of the altar - and not even a light to suggest to my confused self what it actually was! It took several minutes to work out what it must be! Needless to say this was in France..
:-P

These people should be reported to the New Liturgical Movement!

Off on my hols...

OK, readers, just as suddenly as this blog appeared, it'll disappear for a short while, as I'll be on the Continent with my family. I'll do my best to find an internet cafe if I can, to post while I'm away. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some little reccomendations.

One of the books that I'm taking to read on what will be a long and boring journey is the Navarre Bible's version of Luke's Gospel. The University of Navarre, connected to the Opus Dei movement, has produced several fascinating volumes. This one comes an in-depth yet accesible commentary, which even I can completely understand. I'd reccomend it to all of you.

Until next time,

Augustine

Don'tcha love the government?

Spot the difference?

The Government can't. It has recently emerged that in 2006 the government sent two million pounds to the Staffordshire market town of Newcastle-Under-Lyme, which was meant for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, the largest city in the North East. If people up North needed any more proof that our Londoncentric Government is truly, even wilfully ignorant of the North, here it is. Perhaps we should do a Berwick...

Just thought I'd share this:

Noticed this on an Anglican blog. Am currently seething with jealousy. God bless smells and bells Christianity. :-)

Which reminds me; what's the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?

Don't know?

You can negotiate with a terrorist

Berwick change?

According to the BBC, the town of Berwick is considering becoming part of Scotland, once and for all. A Scottish Nat. MSP is calling for the change, along with the leader of the Berwick borough council...

Any thoughts on this?

Oh no...

I'm succumbing to teenage stereotypes and watching back to back Scrubs...

Gotta love it :-)

Publicity advice.

How does one get ones blog noticed? Is there any way to make it come up more often in search engines etc? How does one build up a steady supply of readers? Would appreciate advice from more experienced bloggers...

Opus Dei Ordinations

Andrew, who deserves a mention on the merit of being first to comment on this new blog, has some great photos of an ordination Mass, on his blog here. It reminded me of a short video clip I saw recently, of the Opus Dei prelate ordaining 38 priests in Rome a few months ago. The clip, which I hope you'll enjoy, can be found here.

Augustine, Ambrose and Lent

Everyone knows the connections between Augustine and St Ambrose, bishop of Milan. The New Liturgical Movement has some fascinating pieces on the Ambrosian Lent, which begins today, here. A tenuous connection, I know, but you'll love the pictures! :-)

The First Post

This is hopefully the first of many posts on a new blog. Welcome, everyone, to "Love of your Love". You can call me Augustine; more on that later.

"For love of your love I shall retrace my wicked ways." These are the words of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, written in his spiritual autobiography "Confessiones." In using the pseudonym Augustine, I intend to follow in his footsteps into an intimate and thoughtful relationship with the Lord Jesus. Augustine was a great theologian and Saint, who rose from being a sinner and a heretic to being a learned and holy man.

"For love of your love."

This should be the Christian's motto. Everything we do should boil down to this: that we love God because he loves us, lowly as we are. His love is unconditional. His love offers salvation. His love offers hope. It is our challenge to respond to this love.

I hope you will come back to this blog, and read what I have to say. I'll try not to make this blog about me, but rather as a tool for Augustine's two great abilities: learning and teaching. Using this blog I hope to find new ways to practice my Christian faith, and in doing so teach others to do the same.

Finally, as a concession to my own vanity, please publicise this blog! I'd love to get some regular readers.