The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Someone posted this on Facebook and I found it amusing so I thought you might too. Where the Hell is Matt gives some more information about this guy who does a dance in different places round the world. His site says Matt is quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny." Well I don't know about the "quasi" bit, since the above video has had over 31 million views. I scheduled it for 9am so that you can have something to smile at when you hit the desk in the morning.

Now this could be fun. Mgr Basil Loftus, who writes a weekly column for the Catholic Times, has threatened to sue Fr Ray Blake for "suggesting that he is a heretic" if various comments are not removed from his blog within seven days. Fr Blake is standing firm by the principle of free speech for his commenters and says that he relishes the thought of a trial in a British court for heresy. (See: British Heresy Trial ~ Coming Soon! ) My guess is that the public gallery will be full. UPDATE : it seems that Fr Mildew has been threatened as well.

Best article today has to be the Daily Mail's in-depth examination of the popemobile  complete with explanatory picture. Teachers might be able to compose some good physics problems from some of those data - weight 5 tons, 0-60 in 6 seconds, top speed 160mph. I wonder if Jeremy Clarkson will get to play with one of these vehicles. He could have an ecumenical dialogue afternoon at Brands Hatch where the Stig drives five tons' worth of popemobile at 100mph into the Archbishop of Canterbury's Vauxhall Corsa to see which comes off best - or something. On a more serious note, the respected John Allen writes: Benedict to step into buzz saw of dissent during upcoming UK visit . He also points out: "Secularism is famously Benedict’s bête noire, and he’s coming to the right place to engage it." He thinks that there is ground for hope because "any contact with Benedict at all usually improves his image, since the real man is inevitably less foreboding than the caric...

You just never know when these pesky Papal Ninjas are going to turn up. I did not realise that I had some undercover Papal Ninjas in my parish but an indiscreet photo posting on Facebook alerted me to the fact that one of my young MCs is in fact primed for action. I wonder how many more of them are hidden somewhere on the ceiling of the sacristy cupboard. UPDATE : Anna comments: "That's Joe... but I'm sure Greg has superpowers too. In fact, he's the invisible Ninja to the left of Joe." Ach! These Ninjas and their disguises - I can't keep up with them.

As has been widely reported, the Scots have produced a new "St Ninian's Day Tartan" for the Papal Visit. The Holy Father will be in Scotland on 16 September which is the feast of St Ninian. ( Chief Sub of the Week award goes to the writer of the headline in the Scotsman: They've plaid it well ahead of papal visit .) The tartan was designed by Matthew Newsome: all 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament have been given either a tie or a scarf with the tartan. It is woven with symbolism: the white line on blue field draws upon Scotland's national colours. The green reflects the lichens growing on the stones of Whithorn in Galloway, where St Ninian first brought the gospel to Scotland over 1,600 years ago. The white lines are also accompanied by a pair of red lines, reflecting the colours of Cardinal Newman's crest. The thin yellow lines in the tartan, together with the white, reflect the colours of the Vatican. Each white line on the green contains exactly e...

Fr Z writes about a piece by Eugene Kennedy, ex-priest and humanistic psychologist, (whose book was required reading at the seminary back in the day) on the reform of the reform, stating that "His piece is so turgid that it is hard to know just what he is driving at." As an example he quotes: Joseph Campbell termed this massive tear in the fabric of life as "Mythic Dissociation." When this occurs we find ourselves in what poet T.S. Eliot describes as The Waste Land . This basic estrangement from any feeling for the mystical energy of the church as the Sacramentum Mundi , the mystical mirror in which the beleaguered world can see a reflection of its profound longings and strivings, can be observed in the way the sacraments are almost exclusively discussed. They are spoken of as static objects to be regulated rather than living symbols to be celebrated. The Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford generally looked down on dynamic psychology and psychoanalysis...

When I led the 99 names of Allah Prayer Vigil at Westminster, it was noticeable that across the Piazza some sharp-suited types were discreetly taking photographs so I flattered myself that I had made it into a file somewhere at MI5. It was nice to find out today that I am being followed on Twitter by @foreignoffice . This is probably because they gave me press accreditation for the Papal Visit - a kind gesture of the FCO who considered that some Catholic bloggers ought to be included as well as " bona fide media organisations." Mind you, they are following nearly 15,000 other people which goes to show that HMG is not slow in adopting new technology. All of which means that if our spooks at some time in the future become engaged in implementing a restoration of the former Government policy of hunting down priests, I probably won't be in with much of a chance. This reminds me of a conversation reported to me by a fellow seminarian many years ago, during the "Milit...

Look at what they have designed as a sanctuary for the Mass of beatification of Cardinal Newman! Damian Thompson has described it as having the aesthetic vision of the late L Ron Hubbard. Messa in Latino refers to it as an orribile struttura among other things. Fr Z has a poll . As of the time of posting, the results are as follows: With the appointment of Lord Patten, Her Majesty's Government seem keen to avoid Britain being a laughing-stock on the historic occasion of the Pope's visit, but it is embarrassing to think that images of this pseudo space-age sanctuary will be shown around the globe. I wouldn't blame the Holy Father if he were to sit in the chair and whisper "Beam me up Guido!"

After the end of the Via Romea cycling pilgrimage to Rome, I was invited to the family home for dinner and this cruel but celebratory cake. It shows Gregory fallen off the bicycle, Joseph as Big Ears and Anna Marie in last place. All agreed it was "Not Fair!" (The 18 was for Joseph's birthday. Congratulations!)

A response to the elephants of Libera Me .

The other day I received video response to my Summorum Pontificum celebration . I was interested in the service provided by xtranormal which enables you to make your own animated videos and have just tried it out. I think many of you could have fun with this...

Bishop John Jukes has written a powerful and inspiring personal reflection on celibacy on the occasion of his 87th birthday. He might have issued this via the Catholic Communications Network or something, but he has shown considerable media savvy in sending it directly to Damian Thompson who has posted it in full on his blog, thus gaining the venerable Bishop and his important article quite a lot more readers than the official path might have secured. I hope that it is picked up and posted on official channels as well. See: A Catholic bishop looks back gratefully on 87 years of celibacy . (I have further reason to be grateful to Bishop Jukes since it was he who had the temerity to ordain me in 1984.) An amusing reference to this story was unwittingly provided a few minutes ago by Our Sunday Visitor on Twitter ( click to enlarge ): Don't tell Damian!

To my lasting regret, my formal musical education (piano lessons) ended when I was about 12 years old. When I was a student in Rome I did learn three chords on the guitar fairly quickly and can still strum out about half a dozen. The purpose of learning to twang a guitar was to offer some useful input to the class of five year olds that I taught while in Rome. Half of them spoke Italian and half spoke English so singing to them was an important weapon in my pedagogical armoury. Thanks to negotiating that derisory learning curve, I can play just about anything in the "20th Century Folk Hymnal" or "Songs in the Spirit", books which formed part of my liturgical music experience while at the seminary in the 70s and early 80s. There was a time when I played the piano or organ with much the same technique, (using a book with the melody and the guitar chords in it) in the absence of anyone who could do so with a modicum of competence. My "like riding a bicycle...

The Via Romea blog shows how the bikes of the intrepid three got carried home by the resourceful British Airways: Here is a close-up of the cycle rack: Of course, those photos are doctored. Here is the original advertisement that really clinched the deal:

Not having put candles in my ear before, I was intrigued by this sign in Chislehurst advertising Hopi Ear Candles (with the promise of more.) Now people often deride Wikipedia because of the edit wars that go on over entries concerning politicians or celebrities; but the relentless drive for citations and neutral point of view does have its advantages when it comes to an objective assessment of such things as ear candling . Reading the entry over dinner was most entertaining. In the "therapy" of ear candling, a cylinder or cone of waxed cloth is placed into the ear and lit, creating "negative pressure" (that sounds scientific, doesn't it?) Supposedly it thus draws wax and debris out of the ear canal. In fact, the material that results has been found to be residue from the burnt cloth. The FDA in America has warned that the practice is dangerous, for the eminently sensible reason that, "the use of a lit candle in the proximity of a person's face woul...

Here's a fun video to help you start the day if the time before your annual is starting to drag: "A Biologist's Mother's Day Song" Thanks to Jennifer's Favourite Links who heads her post "If there is a more fabulously nerdy video, I have not seen it." Two good rhymes: mRNA mitochondria That back in the day once belonged to ya [...] I roomed in your womb for nine whole months and never paid the rent Your glucocorticoids shaped my hypothalmic development In a whimsical way, and perhaps without intending to explicity, this song has a "light touch" pro-life message woven in (or perhaps "spiralled".)

LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw reports on an Exchange with the Tablet concerning the age of those who attend old rite Masses. In the post, he has some fine photos of the Chartres Pilgrimage, including the one above. In the course of his post, he says, as an aside: Still, we don't read The Tablet for logic. We read it for self-mortification. I must say that I admire Joe's fortitude. I take the easy option, fasting on bread and water, wearing a hair shirt and scourging myself with chains.

Hoping to help you smile as you hit the desk this morning, let me treat you to an exchange from the Health and Drugs section of Questionland ("Questions and Answers about Life in Seattle") where can i find shoes without any rubber in the soles? i read some research that separation from the earth, for example via insulative shoes and spending all day in buildings, is detrimental to health because we are electrochemical beings and our charge becomes too positive (too many electrons/free radicals). the soil/earth is negatively charged and adsorbs the excess electrons thus acting as a natural antioxidant bringing us back into balance. i'd like to walk without insulative shoes to see for myself. the only other suggested way to connect with the earth is to sleep with a foil blanket connected to a rod that is driven into the earth outside. that doesn't seem natural to me, although people seem to like it. The "Greatest Answer" was from A. Noyd: If you're ke...

Here's one to cheer you up as you hit the desk on a Thursday morning: H/T Fr Erik Richsteig at Orthometer

It is easy to forget anniversaries but Catholic Under the Hood has helped us with his post Today in Catholic History – Pius IX receives the Belgian Tiara . On 18 June 1871, the Ladies of the Royal Court of the King of the Belgians gave a tiara to Blessed Pope Pius IX in honour of the 25th anniversary of his pontificate. It may also have been given by the devoutly Catholic King as a gesture of support for the Blessed Pio Nono after the loss of the Papal States the previous year. The tomb of Blessed Pius IX ( above ) is in the crypt of the Church of San Lorenzo fuori le mura ; when Fr Briggs and I are in Rome, we go to make a visit. He is a great devotee of the saintly Pontiff and knows far more about him than I do. Over lunch today, he did not mention the auspicious anniversary of the Donation of the Belgian Tiara, which makes me think that he was sparing my blushes at being so ignorant. I very much hope that the Mgrs Ganswein and Marini persuade the Holy Father that the rest...