Tuesday 11 February 2020

Someone writes in to complain about my reading in the cathedral. I should not have said “Responsorial Psalm”. How petty can you get? So here is the responsorial psalm for today:

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts.
My soul is longing and yearning,
is yearning for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my soul ring out their joy.

Isn’t this the point?

Wednesday 12 February 2020

I start to walk up the aisle to be a Eucharistic minister in the crypt chapel and am turned back at the altar rail by Father Pat due to Coronavirus. Communion will not be taken in both kinds. Not my week.

We hear of the Queen of Sheba. “She brought immense riches to Jerusalem.”

Thursday 13 February 2020

I go to the 5:30 Mass in the Cathedral, carefully sitting in the back and noting what the reader says. “The reading is taken from the Book of Kings.”

I got that wrong too.

“When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods, and his heart was not wholly with the Lord.”

Nor is mine. It wanders all the time. Today to the reshuffle and the sudden demise of the Chancellor. Such pointless badges of power.

Friday 14 February 2020 — St Cyril, Monk

I am back in the village church in the total quiet.

These are holy men who became friends of God, glorious heralds divine truth.

Saturday 15 February 2020

I forget Universalis on my iPhone so I just have the Book of Common Prayer.

Psalm 116 (117):

Oh praise the Lord all you nations
Acclaim Him all you peoples
Strong is His love for us
He is faithful for ever.

That says it all.