Introibo ad Altare Dei

The boys have recently started Altar Serving. Well, we're yet to gt David up there, but "Slowly, slowly," as Fr Roman would say.

In the meantime, a video for you from True Faith TV on Altar Serving.
3:18-4:07 is probably the key to understanding the rest of the video.

40 Days for Life

Photos curtesy of Mic Con Photos. Thank you, Con!

Also,

From this week's Record:

Pillow Forts

Emily and I swapped sides of the couch last night. The world didn't end.
So, to wake her up this morning, her brother Aiden and I built a pillow fort around her. Although not quite as impressive as the one Adam, her other brother, and I built around her several months ago (that one included a kitchen chair atop the pillow-fort-on-the-couch), this one elicited a much more hilarious reaction.
Hopefully we'll film the next one.

Mustaches

Turned up early for Mass and had time to kill with friends, also I had a packet of emergency moustaches in my bag. I also think this is the perfect way to introduce Eliza, the dashing fellow in the grandpa moustache.

Alb-solutely Fabulous

For the last week I have been house sitting for my grand parents, the main perk of this is that I got to spend nearly two weeks with my Opa's library which is an amazing array of religious books and anything else that has caught his eye over the last 60 years or so. I fully intend to make a retreat at some point where I just lock myself in with a pile of his books, also there is a tabernacle in the garage. On Thursday Kelly came over to spend time with the library, and I made an alb.

I don't always sew for others but when I do it's always to make part of a religious outfit. It's starting to become a habit. ( I am so sorry) it was both one of the easiest and one of the hardest things I have sewn, and at times I curled up on the floor in despair but I got it done in the end.

Conversations with David

I recently had this text-conversation with David.


Me: 1 Thess 5:25

David: 1 Thess 5:28

Me: 1 Thess 5:24; 2 Thess 1:3a

David: Romans 1:12; 1 John 4:19

Me: Romans 8:35; 1 John 5:14

David: Matthew 7:7-11

Me: John 11:41

Me: 3 John 14; Jude 2

David: Philippians 4:19 & 23; 3 John 14

Discipline

Emily and I are going to learn this by the end of the year. I think we should aim for at least one cool Catholic song each year. At least.

This was last year's song.

I love having Catholic friends

From Let Me Be Catholic

Kelly

If Kelly gets to do a whole post on me then, as co-biographer, it is only fair that she too gets an entire post dedicated to her. So here is an extended biography of Kelly:

One of my few sisters in Christ Kelly is always willing to take some time out from 'the boys' with me. The first time I met her was on a camp we were both leaders on. Our friendship was cemented when I ran into her on the first day of Uni last year and we proceeded to spend the next week together. Sound familiar?

Kelly's special talents include getting away (most of the time) with not wearing shoes, handing out Miraculous medals to everyone, changing the subject and an ability to ask 'how are you?' and really mean it.

Having excellent ideas and not so excellent ideas that seem amazing at the time ( the time we played goblet of fire in my backyard) is also Kelly's specialty. I may have been there the first time we slept in an adoration chapel but only Kelly would have thought 'that was great! Lets do it again but with more people!' And the rest is history.

Yours in Christ
Emily

Emily

While Emily is writing short biographies of the people we're most likely to talk about on this blog, I'm going to give you a short introduction to my co-Author and the person who had the inspiration to start this blog.

So, here we go.


Good looking, witty and intelligent, Emily's friends support her through trials such as living in that other diocese and explaining to her family her life choices (such as donning a mantilla.) Emily shares many of the same æsthetic qualities as her aforementioned friends and, unlike Nicky, Emily is both a girl and especially blond .

What is more, Emily's cry of "That sounds like a great idea!" lead to the formation of our group. Her willingness to come on a bar stroll (it's like a pub crawl on which one only visits classy establishments and does not imbibe alcohol) and our shared ability to miss the last train lead to our unashamed camping out in the SBG Adoration Chapel one Monday night.

Her uncanny ability to be a member of this group and not be male makes her the ideal person to take a turn around the block with, and allows us to share conversations that, well, the others just wouldn't get. It's a girl thing.

A wonderful sister in Christ, we are blessed to have Emily as group-biographer, Official Blogger, especially as she is - hands down - the best Presbytery Kitchen Cleanerer; and I am blessed to have her as a friend.

Embrace it!

The Grace that is.

Known by Catholics in Perth as ETG (which along with SBG and CYM form the Catholic three letter acronyms) Embrace the Grace is the Youth camp run by the Respect Life Office at the start of December each year. After not being able to go for the last few years due to prac I was back again this year along with Callum and Tom.

Snap shots to give you a taste:

(Totally stole some of these from The Record)

The theme was Life and Grace and we had some brilliant speakers, brilliant people and brilliant prayer and Adoration. 

It would take pages and pages to write everything we did so I will leave you with some highlights..

1. Adoration and daily mass.

2. Group enrolment into the brown scapular and miraculous medal.

3. Lauds with the monks.

4. Rev Fr Giles' talk on life and grace.

5. femininity and masculinity talks ( I don't know what the masculinity talk was like but the femininity one was pretty amazing, Jonathan Doyle gave part of the talk so it was great to get a males perspective and that stopped it bordering on militant feminism as some femininity talks tend to do. Also the talk didn't centre exclusively on modesty, which was great for those of us who have heard the modesty talk many times before. plus we got tea cups! ) 

Team St Angela Merici.

Yours in Christ,
Emily.

Tyson

Since we can't clearly remember how we met as a group, and since this blog was started in part to help us keep track of what happens in this group, I would like to introduce you to Tyson. (We might do some other introductions later, such as actually introducing ourselves. Or each other.)

Tyson joined us for the first time two weeks ago, after I met him at a meeting for Forty Days of Life (which begins on Ash Wednesday this year; you should come to it. Yes, you. More on what 40DFL looks like in other places in Australia: here)
On a personal note and given the history of 40 Days here in Perth, I was a tiny bit suspicious when he rocked up. My initial thought, which I quickly cast aside (when he recognised what "CYM" stood for) was that he was from one of the student groups who tried to 'get involved' last year in order to disrupt the prayer.
Anyway, after the meeting, after hearing that I was on my way to SBG, he kindly offered to drop me there. I offered to take him to The Presbytery and introduce him to the Priests & Br Gilbert. As heaps of us were there, he and I both ended up staying for a considerable portion of the night.
He has been at SBG almost as often as me this fortnight and might as well will move in.

I could tell you more about him, but I figure I'll wait until I actually have his permission to do so.






Pax in Christo
-Kelly

New Year Resolution

Either

• Sleep more

or

• Spend more time in Adoration

There is no other option.
I may as well spend hours without sleep in His presence, since someone in our group already does this whenever he's in the Chapel. Or Mass. Or praying the Rosary.

Friendship

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."”- C S Lewis

I was going to write a reflection here on the friendships I've developed with the great people I hang out with; I was going to start this reflection with a cool quote from Chesterton or Lewis, for I was sure that they'd have written something amazing on friendship.

I was right. I'm no longer posting a reflection of my own. Rather, here is some copy-pasta from Lewis for you:

Lewis, The Four Loves:

Christ, who said to the disciples "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good Friendship, increased by Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing.

 Ibid.:

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. . . . It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that gives value to survival.

Third Class awesomeness.

Unexpected presents are the best. Unexpected Catholic presents are even better (don't question how this is possible, they just exist at a level of uber-goodness that is somehow better than the best)

The story: I arrived at a persons house to find him in the kitchen in an explosion of holy cards and medals saying something to the effect of "Did I really order 50 how to say the rosary cards?" I immediately knew what had happened... Catholic on-line shopping had arrived. He then proceeds to start picking up medals and putting them in my hands.

I now have third class relics of St. Joseph, St. Padre Pio, St Therese of Lisieux, St. Jude and St. Faustina.

I know. My friends are amazing.

My response was to go a little crazy and put them all on my scapular:

I may have also made a noise like a 12 year old at a One-Direction concert as soon as I was alone. Although I am unimpressed with the jingling sound I make when I walk now (oh Catholic problems) a solution shall have to be found.

Speaking of relics...

There was recently a first class relic of St Francis Xavier in the diocese I don't belong to but spend most of my time in. I had never seen a First class relic before, and the first time I heard his disembodied hand was coming I honestly thought it sounded a bit manky, but it's not because it looks like this:

Photo from here

  I also didn't know an awful lot about St. Francis Xavier so I read ETWN's write up on him. 

I ended up going to see the relic while I was on a date, which also included a beach rosary (I was ridiculously impressed) which meant that for the rest of the week my conversations ran along the lines of

"What did you do on the weekend?"

"oh, I went on a date"

"Cool, what did you do?"

"We venerated St. Francis' arm then went to the beach and said a rosary :)"  

I didn't take any photos, being the kind of person who takes a camera with them on holidays then leaves it in the hotel the whole time, but I guess some one else was taking photos because the next week I showed up in The Record so I will hack their picture:

God bless you.

Sic non potuistis una hora vigilare mecum?

My friends and I need to sleep more.

Too often do I fall asleep in Adoration. Our crazy, unofficial Horarum leaves me - and I think most of us - lacking in sleep. My goal for the week after exams: do up a more official, personal Horarum that actually allows for sleep that doesn't take place during Adoration.

All Saints 2012

Baby Jesus in Anthony's Arm; Bernadette; Dorothy

Baby Jesus in Anthony's Arm; Joan of Arc

Bernadette & Dorothy with  Jean Vianney's Wig

Anthony with Jesus and Joan

Old Man Rasta Baby Jesus

Old Man Rasta Baby Jesus

Sanguis Christi, inebria me

Emily and I decided to start chronicalling our intoxicating (and sobering) experiences of Christ.
Below is a post from my personal blog - Kelly Thinks (Occasionally) - about the week which started this.

This past week has been so full of blessings.

Although this actually stretches back further than a week, I will only start last Sunday because I want to do something like justice to what my Lord has been doing for me. I will start by offering a few quotes which sum up my feelings, thoughts and experiences; then, I will outline briefly what's been happening; finally, I will offer some other thoughts on these matters, some questions.

***

Firstly, I must quote Emily who yesterday morning summed up the week in this manner:

When you get retreat knees from spending all week with your frineds; without having been on a retreat!

 From Callum, on his blog Catholic Splash:

O Mother most Pure, hold us in your arms, just as you did hold your dearly beloved Son’s fragile and wounded Body.
O pray for me Our Lady of Sorrows, let me share in your sorrows, the sorrows of your Precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (x)

From Bishop Giaquinta, founder of the Pro Sanctity Movement:

Every Apostle, indeed every Christian, must rest on the heart of Christ. The Church, aware of her birth from the heart of Christ, needs to return to His heart in order to be truly faithful. (x) 

 We must correspond with all of our strength, that is, to the maximum, to this love of the Father and of Jesus, accepting and actuating the message received. (Ibid.)

The three dimensions of holiness are personal, fraternal, and societal. As Pro Sanctity, we must be convinced that holiness is the only possible solution to social problems. This, however, does not mean our personal holiness is the only thing we are responsible for, but rather, we are called to be active in the second and third dimensions as well. (Quoted here)

From St John Vianney:

...the more we know of Him, the more we love Him. (Quoted here)

***

Sunday 9th:

Holy Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception; Lunch; Adoration and Holy Conversation at the Parish of St Bernadette; Theology of the Body and St Thomas More's Parish

Monday 10th:
Holy Hour and Holy Mass in the Holy Spirit Chapel at UNDA; Conversations about the Faith afterward

Tuesday 11th:
Adoration at All Saints' Chapel; Work, concluding in a lesson on music history which started with Gregorian Chant and finished with a discussion on the Holy Trinity with year fours

Wednesday 12th:
University; Holy Hour & Holy Mass at St Therese's Chapel with CYM followed by supper and fellowship; Holy Hour at the Parish of St Bernadette 

Thursday 13th:
University; Work; NDSSJ Sleep Out, including Divine Office, the Holy Rosary and other prayers, and fellowship

Friday 14th:
 Waking at UNDA; Divine Office - Lauds & Matins; Angelus & Holy Mass at St Therese's Chapel with CYM; catching up with my Spiritual Director; Eucharistic Adoration at Sacred Heart Parish

Saturday 15th:
Rosary Walk around Lake Monger; Holy Mass at the Parish of St Bernadette; holy Conversations followed by All Night Eucharistic Adoration at the same

Sunday 16th:
Holy conversation and walking prayer; Young Adults Gathering at the Redemptorist Monestary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help; Holy Mass in the Church of Sts Peter and Paul

***

What return can I make to the Lord for the good that He has done to me? What shall a man give in return for his life?

How do I live in a manner worthy of these gifts which he has so generously given me?

How do I become a Saint?