Solemnity of the Epiphany

The Three Kings have arrived!

A prayer for a visit to the Crib during Christmas time

[This prayer was adapted from a meditation of St Edith Stein]

Dear Jesus, your hands reach out to us as we come to the Crib.
We come like the shepherds who followed the call of the angel.
We come like the wise men who followed the star.
“Follow me” say your little hands.

May we always listen to you when you call us.
Keep us together in faith and in hope.

Dear Jesus, your open hands welcome us, and they ask us at the same time.
They ask us to be at the service of your Peace.

Open our hearts to people who are suffering.
May each of us offer signs of friendship and welcome to people who are less well off than us.

Dear Jesus, your open hands welcome us, and they ask us at the same time.
They ask us to give our lives to you.

May we choose the way in life that you want us to follow.
In the light of Christmas, may we face the problems of life today, together with people of other Churches and religions.

Mary, you are the Mother of Love.
You praised the great things done by the Lord.
You sang about how God kept his promises to the people of Israel.

Mother of Love, protect our families.
Help them to stay together.
Give them the happiness of loving and passing on life.

Amen.

New Years Day

Zero and I enjoyed a day out in London for the New Year. The Central Line wasn't enjoying a good start to the year, so we made it in to London in time for 11 am Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception instead of our originally intended 10 am at St James' Spanish Place.

A bout of second adolescence set in as soon as we came out from Mass. The car involved here is a very nice one indeed - a Bentley. My other car, of course, is a Ford!

After some lunch, and getting lost around this part of London ...

... the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden .... "Seven Dials, Covent Garden – London's most fashionable shopping area", according to their website, and with quite a history if you have time to explore the site ... we finally found our way to the London Transport Museum. This is an excellent museum, with rather a lot squeezed into the space available.

I want to be a train driver when I grow up ...

... and Zero wants to be a bus conductor.

This is the example of the famous Routemaster bus in the exhibition. The no.11 is my favourite bus route - the full length of the route goes from Fulham in west London, via the Kings Road (very posh shops) to Victoria, whence to Parliament Square, Whitehall, the Strand, past St Paul's Cathedral and through the City of London to Liverpool Street Station. It can be a much more interesting ride back to Liverpool Street on the way home than using the Circle Line!

This bus would attract some very odd looks if it were to make its way along the A12 to Romford today.

Someone is a dedicated follower of fashion ...

A piece in the Times newspaper for 1st January 2009 covered some of the new regulations that came into force yesterday. Amongst them is one about the use of flares during night time rescue work. This is now forbidden, having been overtaken by the use of night vision goggles by many of the agencies involved in such work. However, a sentence in the Times report clarified that the wearing of flared trousers by rescue crews was not covered by this ban on flares.

A happy and blessed new year to the readers of this blog.

A little miracle .....

.... is that the office is still tidy three weeks into the school term!

What the tidy office looks like ....

That funny grey area between the desk and the book shelves, now seeing the light of day, is the floor....

You will notice on this second photgraph that there are some empty shelves .... though I do hope to fit a two drawer filing cabinet under the shelves in the right hand corner.

And here you will notice that there is some work on the desk .... This is to prove that teachers might not be at school during the summer holidays, but they are working hard to prepare for the coming year ... Notice, too, more of that strange phenomenon, the floor, now visible to the naked eye ... A great achievement, which is possible in the context of the tidy office but was next to impossible before then, is to have just one job at at time on the desk.

So now you have seen where it all happens ....

International Eucharistic Congress: two more photographs

I have just been sent two photographs taken on the morning of the Statio Orbis Mass. The first was taken before Mass began, and the second during my reading. The Cardinal is Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec - I wasn't altogether alert to this photograph being taken, but it has come out quite well!

Ten Bridges Walk

I spent Sunday afternoon walking from Tower Bridge to Albert Bridge. This was taking part in LIFE London Regions "Ten Bridges" sponsored walk.

Two nephews setting off for Citizen Ken's palace.

Some of the people we met along the way - though Faraday was outside the Institute of Electrical Engineers, he is a physicist really....

... Oliver Cromwell ...

.... the burghers of Calais ....

.... St Thomas More ....

In the sunlight after a shower of rain, the pagoda in Battersea Park looked particularly splendid.

Two photographs

The first photo is of the flowers I have in my living room at the moment. The first lily has opened out superbly.

The second is of the statue of Our Lady of La Salette. This is from a lcoal parish Church dedicated to Our Lady of La Salette, that I had reason to visit this afternoon.