Eve of The Ordinations and Profession

As I write it's a cold and rainy night (in the height of summer!) and I'm snuggled up in my bed. Today I spent nearly the whole day out of the house and in the Catholic community. I can really feel the excitement level rising! Priests, seminarians and lay people are beginning to arrive. One girl who has come up to fill a soloist role in our cathedral choir mentioned she recognised several Catholics, including a priest, on her flight alone.

Stress levels are rising too. Our choir director at the cathedral was very tense, hard not to be with all the divas around! One woman behind me wouldn't stop with the passive-aggressive comments, and the terrible singing (as if she was in her death-bed) in my ear. However, the real highlight was the arrival of our male cantor who practiced a communion verse, and did it so beautifully my skin broke out in goosebumps. It was a take on the Magnificant, but tailored for a male voice, and he was angelic! I was amazed that the four young people thee, including him, spent their time practicing and the over 50s wouldn't stop whinging. I really hope we stay like this as we get older so we can just get on with the worship of our Father and Creator, rather than turning it into an ego-fest!

My poor friend (and other choir director) is stressed as well. She keeps having nightmares about the choir going terribly wrong (always due to some people who don't turn up for practice). She's really been banging her head against a wall trying to deal with them. Tomorrow she's going to be asking for an explanation for why they weren't there for the final practice, which really stuffed us around because we couldn't practice the drone for the Kyrie. On top of all this the organ she's used to working with has broken last minute, so we may have to do a lot of it unaccompanied. Oh, pray for us, St Cecilia!

I really can't wait for tomorrow! I'm going to record the Masses and I'll see if I can put up the highlights. It should be spectacular!

New Marist Window

So, I'm going to Sunday morning Mass regularly at the Cathedral now. I watched the servers and felt a little sad, I must admit, that I wasn't up there helping, but I was glad it was an all-male sanctuary. I reminded myself that this was my little cross and I prayed briefly for their vocations.

Yesterday there was a big gathering of Marist brothers for a new window in the Cathedral celebrating there 100 years presence in the diocese. I know it's terrible, but I don't buy that the Marist brothers look after the poor anymore, the local school (which they own in conjunction with the parish) is private and very wealthy. A vast majority of the children there don't come to Mass on a Sunday, the Cathedral would be packed with a lot more young people than I see there on a Sunday, and I'm constantly hearing about how anti-Catholic many of them are, along with many of the teachers. The Marist brother who got up to present the window to the bishop spoke about helping the youth, and I just sat there and remembered how empty the youth group is, and how wealthy many of the youth who go there are.

I'm sorry, but wealthy children are not marginised!

Blessing the window.

At least blessing was beautiful, the prayer was quite vivid. When the bishop had done his thing, he and all the brothers sung Salve Regina, it sounded beautiful, especially with just male voices.

Afterwards, I caught up with my baptism/confirmation sponsor, who is one of the brothers. I didn't even know he was coming down. A couple of years ago he moved up to Emerald, after 13 years here, for some sort of missionary work. It turns out they're finished up there and he's moving down to Sydney as well, so hopefully I'll run into him again. He's a lovely man, with a very good heart, espeically for the poor.

That's the thing that makes me sad about the Marists, individually they are lovely people, but somehow as a group they've lost their way a bit. I don't see any refuges for the poor run by them, it's all business now. I must remember to pray for them, becasue they have the capacity to be such a good force, especially as the 'little brothers" of Mary.

Parish Family Picnic

One of our priests organises a parish family picnic regularly. Yesterday we went down to the beach. It was a small gathering, probably because of the weather, but it was fun, and we even had the local priest, who used to serve my parish show up, it was so good to see him again. He's from Nigeria originally, at first he had a little trouble with English, and I think the culture too, he mentioned how passionate the Nigerian people are about their faith. But he's such a friendly person and he seems to be settling in nicely.

Me and my friend's brother watching cricket.

A couple of people went down to the river in kayaks. Most of us went over and played cricket. I sat and watched with a friend and chatted because cricket is even more boring to play. My friend then set up a game of ultimate frisbee, I actually got up and played, mainly because I didn't want to have to exercise later. I'm glad I did, I forgot how fun sport can be, and my team actually won. I had problems catching, especially since my pants were loose >.>...but it was lots of fun. I actually have a blood-blister on my foot, so I think that's evidence! I was so exhausted last night I just collapsed into bed, and still didn't get up for 7am Mass, I really need to fix that!

Another St Francis de Sales Prayer

 It's so heartfelt ^.^

Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life;
rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise,
God, whose very own you are,
will lead you safely through all things;
and when you cannot stand it,
God will carry you in His arms.

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same understanding Father who cares for
you today will take care of you then and every day.

He will either shield you from suffering
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.

Awesome!

I love this Presbyterian church, it's good to see some loud and proud humour. They change it every week too. Maybe I should lobby our parish for a similar sign, but more Catholic orientated like "Transubstantiation - change we can believe in!" ( I stole that from here by the way)

Forbidden fruit creates many jams.

Near-final Practice

This is one our last practices before the ordination night. We're sounding pretty good. I was having problems with "Veni Creator Spiritus", but I feel a lot more confident in the choir, I just need to practice the Latin and placement of the words (it seems a little random sometimes).

The team

Altar Serving

I forgot to mention, my last day of altar serving was last Sunday. I was glad it was over, it really hit me that that was the last time, but I was happy to just be able to relax and take in the Mass in future. It was a bit of a disaster, we lost our priest a couple of minutes before Mass and we made a few other mistakes, and so I'm definitely not tempted to go back.

The priest in charge of training servers was very supportive too. I'm glad it ended so well. I'll continue to pray for the servers too, that this becomes a vocation for them