Friday 29 December 2006

In the Mountains

Well and I have arrived in Austria.

We flew out to Munich on Wednesday and spent the night there before taking the train over the border to Kitzbühel the next day.

The snow is not brilliant, but I have seen it worse.

We got up early today and did a bit of skiing before the lift queues got too big.

Hopefully some more snow soon!

Tuesday 26 December 2006

Christmas Eve Night and the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord

Christmas Eve saw and I at the Cathedral for Form of a Servant. Music was very good. No smoke this year though.

We were then at Midnight Mass at Mary Mags. Mthr J was celebrating and we did a proper figure of eight procession with the Celebrant in a Cope carrying the bambino and blessing of the crib, with the Celebrant then exchanging the Cope for a Chasuble for the rest of the Mass. It was good to see things done properly. I was thurifer and enjoyed generating lots of smoke. Mthr J said to me before the service she expected to see 360s in the procession. Well of course!

On Christmas Day morning we had Fr T celebrating. was thrurifer and did her first ever 360 in the procession. Well done! *claps*

We then retired home for Christmas Lunch.

Sunday 24 December 2006

Advent IV / Christmas Eve

Well the first of todays services is out the way.

I was Crucifer at Mary Mags for the 10:00 Sung Mass this morning and was thurifer. We had a visiting celebrant who preached a wonderful sermon about how although The Blessed Virgin Mary was the mother of Our Lord if you looked through her ancestry (as given by St Mathew) (OK it is actually listed as St Joseph's) some of her ancestors (notably David) were not exactly 100% moral. He also said that he enjoyed celebrating for us because we did liturgy well and that poor modernised liturgy with no real meaning was driving people away from the church. He also criticised those parts of the church that claim to speak 100% for God, normally when discussing sexual morality. There was more too, but I enjoyed it which is unusual for a service that went on over the regulation 10 minutes.

After church we went to Whitefriars for s couple of pints.

Now I am relaxing before serving at Form of a Servant at the Cathedral this evening and Midnight Mass at Mary Mags where I get to have fun by being thurifer.

Friday 22 December 2006

The Christmas run starts.................

Today was the Lord Mayor's traditional drinks reception.

This evening I have the first of my Christmas services as and I are serving at the Carol Service at the Cathedral.

After the service , , mkp, Mthr J and I are going to Whitefriars for a few pints.

Saturday 16 December 2006

Friday 15 December 2006

I had a text from a friend in Kitzbühel today ask...

I had a text from a friend in Kitzbühel today asking me if I was coming over soon. And I replied "Yes, in just under two weeks"

Hooray!

And snow is predicted for the weekend too.

Thursday 14 December 2006

I had my first Christmas drinks reception of the ...

I had my first Christmas drinks reception of the season this lunchtime, with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. They had got a proper robed children's choir singing carols, but I didn't find out where from.

Wednesday 13 December 2006

Update

Yes it is time again for one of my irregular updates.

Was serving at the Cathedral on Sunday. On Sunday the Dean was preaching. In my personal opinion, even ignoring the content, he is a poor preacher. He basically spend his entire sermons making quotes every other sentence - it makes him sound like he has swallowed a concordance!

He also likes to keep his chasuble/dalmatic/tunicle on after the service during coffee. This is at odds with the fact he always is pictured (eg on website) wearing collar and tie pretending he is just a minister and not a priest.

In other news it is 's birthday on Monday, and on Saturday we will be celebrating at the Nursery Tavern. They are having a beer festival! :)

And speaking of pubs the Whitefriars web site is now live.

Last night was Full Council. It got quite fractious and didn't finish until 23:30. Mind you that is short compared with some of the ones we were having a couple of years ago.