Happy St. Joseph's Day!

Lacrimarum Valle in Deutschland

I enjoy looking at referrals on the Sitemeter feature. I love seeing how people find this blog, especially so I can network with other bloggers. I stumbled across a German Blog: Credo Ut Intelligam! Having not paid a great deal of attention to my Year 8 German class, I used the help of Google Translator to understand what this great nation is saying about me. Here it is, verbatim:

Lacrimarum Valle made itself on the search for the biographic anchorage of the “master of the rings” in the life J.R.R. Tolkiens. After a suggestion for Rohan and the old person forest he presents now two towers, which lay on Tolkiens way to the service in the Oratorium of Birmingham.

Fantastic! The above must be read with a German accent. Hurrah for the universal Body of Christ and for the universal language of Latin (which Google Translator can't currently help us with!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

School with Pugin and Rosmini

When I was glancing down my labels list, I was disappointed to see that I have only written one post on Pugin. The plan, after seeing his masterpiece in Cheadle, was to visit and report on more places in the Midlands designed by Pugin. I already have St. Chad's Cathedral in mind, which is the mother Church of our Birmingham Archdiocese and the first Catholic Cathedral to be built in this country following the reformation. To wet your appetite, here is the sanctuary:

Astute readers will note there used to be a Pugin rood screen there. I will write much more soon. My current medical placement is very close to the Cathedral, so I am blessed at lunchtimes to be able to pray there and occasionally attend their 12.15 Mass. I will take some more pictures in due course, and hopefully visit the crypt for the first time.

As a stop-gap I want to mention one other Pugin building which has been an inspiration for me: Ratcliffe College Independant Catholic School in Leicestershire.

It is here where I spent my formative years as a weekly boarder, and was confirmed in 1996 (if I remember correctly). It is a religious building founded by the Rosminian Order, originally in 1845 as a seminary. In 1847 it became a private school. While I was there we celebrated its 150th anniversary and I was thurifer at a High Latin Mass celebrated by Cardinal Basil Hume.

One aspect which will always remain unknown to me is Pugin's original Chapel. It is still possible to see the great rose window (although not in these pictures - it is at the back of the school). This part of the building has since been converted into a two-story school block. When I was there it was used as a history department, and a R.S. room (complete with altar!) with lots of stories of ghosts abounding.


The new Church is Byzantine-style, and what I think to be rather attractive. It is able to accommodate all 750 pupils for school assemblies. Not really in keeping with Pugin's original architecture, but still.

One of my ancestors has his name engraved on the World War memorial behind the sanctuary (H.W. Coghlan, died during the First World War). Another of my ancestors, Col. Charles Coghlan, wrote the musical accompaniment to the "Old Boys Song" (words by Rev G. Burton, D.D.) which I shall hasten to sing (actually, say):

1. Once more in Alma Maters bowers we meet to crown another year.
And ev'ry sight recalls the hours when we were laughing youngsters here
The pranks we played the jokes that flew
The mirth that bubbled in the brain;
and gazing on the picture, few but wish they could be lads again.

Chorus: Then come all ye boys of Ratcliffe, raise the brimming bowl and let your song, both loud and strong under the rafters roll Then here's to the wolds and woodlands and the wreake that by them runs And the heath that's dear to all hearts here old Ratcliffe and her sons.

2. Again we breathe the cloisters peace old voices echo in the hall.
And batsman poses on the crease the crashing elm receives the ball
Now for a dip in sultry June
Within the islet cool we stand
or lounge a lazy afternoon beside the millstream rod in hand. &C.

3. That bell within its lofty perch that summon'd us to work or play,
That bade us to our place in church, rings out again our holiday
Oh, could it toll above the noise that murmurs over land and sea
And gather here all Ratcliffe boys, what mercy greetings would there be! &C.

4. Now some have made their homes afar and some are laid within the loan,
And of so many few there are who meet in this their boy-hood's home
Yet here their hearts are still entwined like ivy round an aged stem
And we will keep them all in mind, and pledge a cup for us and them! &C.

Although I have some bitter memories from my time there, reading this song (which I hasten to add is probably no longer sung) brings a tear to my eye and the overriding happy memories to mind! If any of my old school mates are reading this, I join my affections with you in offering up prayers to Our Lady.

There is also an initiative to beatify Antonio Rosmini, a prominent 19th century Catholic philosopher. He founded the Institute of Charity (the Rosminians) and ordered the foundation of Ratcliffe College. He is a particularly controversial figure in light of two of his books which were placed on the Church's Index of Forbidden Books in 1849 (The Five Wounds of the Church and The Constitution of Social Justice). These have since been reconciled with Church teaching since the Second Vatican Council, whose themes were in many ways prefigured by Rosmini. In 2001 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger signed a declaration which applied a historical-critical method to the Church's magesterium and reversed the Holy Office's condemnation of 40 propositions in 1887. My feelings on this are currently neutral, and I shall attempt to find out more in due course from some of my Rosminian friends. Still, I pray for his beatification along with Newman's. He was declared Venerable on 26th June 2006.

O my God, O incarnate Word, may your Spirit be the cause of all my activities, of all that I do; may nothing in me come from myself, but everything from you.

- Venerable Antonio Rosmini Serbati (1797-1855)

Before I stray too far off-topic, here is one last picture I have of a Pugin building. No prizes for guessing which one this is:

Caption Competition

I thought I would have a go at my own caption competition. I have a few good ideas, and they all revolve around my daughter (it seems I'm milking her for maximum entertainment, doesn't it?)!

So here goes:

I look forward to seeing some of your suggestions for this odd scenario.

Via Crucis Continued...

I have published the next 3 stations of my Via Crucis presentation. This next three features Jesus falling twice. To imagine such weight and suffering would draw us to the conclusion that Jesus fell many more times, but for the purpose of the Stations of the Cross, we meditate upon a total of only 3 falls, and draw comfort in Christ's suffering as we recall the countless times we fall again and again into sin.

Jesus is prepared to take on all that suffering to spare us eternal separation from God, if only we would come to Him in Confession to be cleansed and reconciled to His Sacred Heart.

To continue the journey from the 7th Station, go here.

Or to begin the Stations afresh, go here (or see my introduction).

N.B. At the time of writing there were some connection errors with myFileHut.com (where my flash files are hosted) which meant the first 4 slides (up to station III) won't load. But hopefully this will resolve itself soon.

What do you think of Sacramentum Caritatis?

Did you manage to read the whole of Sacramentum Caritatis? What did you think??

Vote now!

Or go to my sidebar, where I have decided to make a permanent feature of a poll after the success of the previous poll.

I do hope people aren't voting more than once!!

Sexual Orientation Regulations

The following document was available at the back of church this weekend, courtesy of His Grace the Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols. I believe it is a letter to all priests in the diocese:

Dear Father,

SEXUAL ORIENTATION REGULATIONS

These regulations are about to be published. Only a very limited Parliamentary debate is being permitted. This will take place in the next few weeks. The Regulations come into force shortly afterwards. Now is the time to write to Members of Parliament, drawing attention to important underlying issues. Even though these Regulations cannot now be changed, these issues are of long-term consequence and MPs ought to be left in no doubt as to our views.

I would suggest that two key points are made:

1. In Defence of the Family:

These regulations impose on all involved in the work of publicly funded services the duty of making no distinction between a heterosexual couple and a same-sex partnership. They impose the view that in considering the good of the child no preference may be given to the benefit to the child of having a mother and a father as adoptive parents. We do not believe that this new principle of equivalence can be in the best interests of the child. This undermining of the family has far wider implications for the well-being of our society.

2. The Work of the Church in the Voluntary Sector:

The Regulations raise serious questions about future cooperation between public authorities and the Voluntary sector, in particular Christian Churches and their charities. The approach put forward in these Regulations reduces those who work in partnership with public bodies to being no more than agents of Government policy. This threatens to undermine a long tradition of public authorities and the Voluntary sector working together in mutual respect. It is unacceptable that such cooperation, which is of clear benefit, be jeopardised in this manner.

I ask you to urge your people to write to their MPs.

Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Birmingham

Name and address of MP:
House of Commons
London SW 1A OAA

To read more about the Archbishop's statement, click here. The above picture is of a statue "compassion" outside Selly Oak Hospital Outpatients Department in Birmingham. It is two naked men, and obviously not how I will practice medicine, so I thought it appropriate to illustrate some of these themes! (yes, I have finally been driven mad by political correctness)

A Prophecy...

This is just too funny to keep to myself... One of Joel Cole's friends has emailed around one of his 'prophecies' or 'visions of the future' relating to the Brompton Oratory. This, I believe, was something he initially published on Facebook (something I have yet to flirt with).

What are the chances of this prophecy coming to pass? Probably quite likely, should the fabled Motu Proprio ever materialise to give extra incentive... We at the Oratory in Birmingham, on the other hand, do not even have the word 'Tridentine' written on our church board once (despite having a secret little Old Mass in the 'upper room')!

As the ultra-trad apologist pointed out in his commentary to this prophecy, "Still a bit liberal (evening mass)"!

Next installment of Via Crucis

I have added the next three stations of the Via Crucis slideshow for your Lenten meditation. This begins with my favourite Station, Jesus meets His afflicted Mother.

To begin from the beginning, click here, or see my introduction to this Lenten journey.