Happy Day

Yesterday was a very happy day - for two reasons.

Firstly I got a blog friendship award from Adrienne. I have only been blogging for a few months and already I have met such wonderful people. It is a nice community to belong too. I love my award and have put it on the side of my blog so you can see it too.

Secondly, when I got home a wonderful surprise awaited us. Like two expectant grandfathers, AGA and I have been hovering around the dahlia we have in a pot on the balcony and yesterday there it was - our first bloom. All red and silky, turning its face towards the courtyards and the sun. I took a photo of it to show you.

Prayer Request

I am not sure how many out there read my little blog but to those who do - or if you just passed by and are reading this on your way to something else - I have a request to make.
Could you please remember Alice and Laura in your prayers. They were born on Sunday but two months premature. They are so tiny: 2lbs. 4oz. and 2lbs. 7oz.
Their Parents are understandably concerned and my Godmother (their Grandmother) has asked for all our prayers.
Thank you.

A poem

I read a lovely poem today and thought I would share it on my blog.
It is called 'To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no' and was composed by the Irish poet, W.B.Yeats:

Come play with me;
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I'd a gun
To strike you dead?
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.

I always think that such gentle poems are best.



N.B.
Both pictures came from Wikimedia Commons

Seasonal Change

I was riding my bike to school yesterday morning when something caught my eye - a dark yellow leaf lay on the grass.
Then, as I rode along the avenue another yellow leaf came drifting down. This tells me that Autumn really is on the way and so I got my camera and took a photo!
I don't know about you but I love Autumn.
I love the colours that the leaves change too. I like the gradual growing coldness in the air and the thought that the winter duvet will be making an appearance before too long. I really do love the wind when it swirls the fallen leaves around about.
The onset of Autumn makes you think of comfort food made from all the home grown fruits that are now ripening in the various orchards around about: Soon I shall make apple pies flavoured with lemon and served with hot custard. All sorts of pies and their kin come to mind: Raspberry and apple pie, blackberry and apple pie, gooseberry tart, hazelnut cake, bramble jam, raspberries tarts served with whipped cream . . . the list is endless!!!
Such lovely food to make and scent the apartment with!
Then there are walks in the park and bike riding in the countryside. Collecting conkers and watching the geese fly overhead as they travel south for the winter.
(Sometimes they stop to rest by the Rhine in huge flocks and people go down to look at them.)
Autumn also tells me that Christmas is not too far away and while I know it is not the most important of our Christian celebrations (Easter holds that place) it is my favourite because I love the Christ Child so much!!!

Well I think that is enough thinking about the joys of Autumn! We are still technically in Summer and as they tell us that we will be in the high 20s (Celsius) by the weekend I guess she has decided that she will stay around for a while yet. . .

Cooking with Dittersdorf

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf that is.
It has been such a lovely morning - fitting for the Lord's Day!
I got up early and made a nice loaf of bread to go with the cold lamb that we have in the fridge.
Then after breakfast I gave my mother a call as she has been trying to beat a particularly nasty virus over the past two weeks. When I rang I found my sister and four year old niece were present, helping out as Henry (the cat) has been particularly unhelpful. It was so nice to catch up with them all and Mum seems to be getting better.
As I put the phone down I reflected that autumn is just around the corner and in fact there is a nip in the air today that let's us know the summer is soon going to pack her bags and head south. . . so I decided to make some muffins.
When I cook I like to play music. I choose a composer and then tell AGA who is going to be helping me in the kitchen for that day! Sometimes Vivaldi comes over or perhaps Boyce, Handel or even grumpy old CPE Bach. Tallis has been know to stop by too but his music is more for reflection that cooking. . .
Today however it was Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf and so I made cranberry and orange muffins to some flouncy, rollicking, toe tapping Sinfonias and in this photo you can see the results!
Now I am off to prepare lunch which will be cold lamb, fetta, and basil sandwiches followed by one of the new muffins and a nice cup of tea . . .

Thank you Lord God for all the wonderful benefits that flow from your most gracious bounty!

Tough (blogging) times

It has been tough going trying to write my blog in the past weeks as I have needed to concentrate on getting into a study routine. When you have not undertaken serious studies for 'many' years it takes times to regulate your life to integrate a new regime. . .
Now I think I have it all under control (or at least I think that I do!) so now i am return to my other loves which include writing my blog!
Today I was having my breakfast and admiring the yellow chrysanthemums in the window box so I took a couple of photos to share with you!

The Feast of the Assumption

The Feast of the Assumption is one of the most beautiful of our feast days. I have a day book of meditations from Pope John XXIII. This is what he wrote about the Feast of the Assumption while Cardinal Patriarch of Venice:

This doctrine about the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary being preserved by the Holy Trinity from all corruption, and immediately transfigured and spiritualised, does not merely represent a truth of faith; it exalts the eternal values of the spiritual world, with its intrinsic needs and irrepressible aspirations.
It renews our hope of a happier future.
It restores our faith in a more perfect justice which will re-establish the order disturbed by sin.
These are thoughts inspired by faith, and if we encourage them they will direct our steps to our heavenly Father's home, and help us to overcome the trials and uncertainties of our daily struggle.
The Dogma of the Assumption teaches us:

1. Earthly life is not an end in itself; its end is in heaven. Youth passes away, dreams and projects fail; the evening comes with its disillusionment and wistful regrets; but the Christian can never give away to melancholy.

2 The soul has pre-eminient and irrefutable rights over the body, and for its sake we must learn how to control our passions, renounce the seductive pleasures of the world and even, sometimes, make heroic decisions.

3. Humble submission to God is the secret of true happiness and peace.

The Feast of the Assumption, so understood, kindles in our hearts those of holy enthusiasms which our religion is always capable of arousing in individuals and in peoples, and strengthens the resolve to renew our souls with the help of divine grace.
Finally, it restores hope, which turns bitterness and hardship of life into joy.

These words of Blessed John XXIII provide much to meditate on, so I thought that I would share them with you on this blog!


NB: The quotation comes from 'Days of Devotion - Daily Meditations from the Good Shepherd Pope John XXIII'

What?

I just realised that it has been over a week since I posted anything on my blog! But what with going back to school, plus my studies, the time has just flown by and already tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption!
My goodness there is a lot of reading to be done when you are at University!
At the moment I am researching the world of 'listening' and when you go into it you realise how important listening is in our daily lives.
We 'hear' lots of things but we don't really listen to them. They become background 'noise' that we pay little attention to.
Listening is different.
We hear, we pay attention, we understand what is being said and we remember it. We may also respond by word or action.
This got me thinking about our relationship with God
Do we actively listen to God or do we merely hear Him?
Do we actively listen when we attend Holy Mass or do we merely hear the Word, the Sermon, the prayers, the intercessions while our minds are elsewhere, dwelling on other matters?
How do we show that we have listened to God?

These are important things to think about.

Welcome to my Parish Church

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration so, as I still have one last day left of Holidays I went to Mass but unfortunately there was no Mass being said in our church. Our resident priest is away and the sign said that Mass was being said at St Lambertus in the neighbouring village of Kalkum but I had missed it by that time. So instead of going to Mass I prayed before the Blessed Sacrament and then I took some photos of our church to put on my blog.
Before I begin however I should tell you something about St Suidbertus or St Swibert as he is sometimes called. Like me he was born in England, but in the seventh century. He studied in Ireland and then back in England before becoming a missionary with St Willibrod who was attempting to convert the Frisians who lived in, I think, the area we now know as the Netherlands. Suidbert did a fair amount of good work in Kleves which is (sort of) just down the road from here and his congregation grew. It wasn't long before the Church hierarchy heard about it and he was recalled to England to be consecrated as a missionary bishop by the great St Wilfred. Then back he went to carry on as before.
After a while Suidbert thought he might like to do more elsewhere. He said goodbye to his flock and journeyed south and east, deep into the pagan lands of what is now North Rhine Westphalia but unfortunately this was at the same time as the vicious pagan Saxons were moving west. Suidbert's missionary work was going well but constant incursions by the Saxons led to its collapse and he was forced to move.
Meanwhile Pepin, the Frankish ruler held sway over a huge swathe of land that included part of the Rhine and hearing of Suidbert's troubles he gave Suidbertus an island on the Rhine to retire too. It was soon being called Suidbert's Island and it was here that Suidbert build his church and lived peacefully until he died in 713.
It is said by some that Suidbertus was the first person to be solemnly canonised by the Church, in 804 by Pope Leo III but I don't know if this is really so.
Anyway, Suidbert's Island later became a very important place because of its position and its association with the great saint. The village that grew up around the church was secure from attack by reason of its position on the island and, as always seems to happen, the eye of the secular world soon recognised a good site when they say it and built a castle there too - Barbarossa's Castle (built by the Holy Roman Emperor Freidrich Barbarossa - Frederick Redbeard). The village became a town and the town was soon being called Kaiserswerth which is where I now live and work!

Anyway, let's move on to the church (actually it is a basilica). It is a bit different these days to before it was bombed in 1945. Tomorrow I shall post some pictures from that time. . .



Yes okay the first picture was taken in winter but the trees obscure the same view in the summer . . .
This picture was taken from near the old castle. I live on the other side of the church, in the town. Kaiserswerth is in the archdiocese of Cologne (Koeln) and our archbishop is Cardinal Meisner.
We start our tour on that side, the town side, of the church. . .

So you are walking into the old market square and there is the front porch of the church



Here is the Crucifiion scene in the porchway.



Let's have a look at the notice board. Sorry I couldn't get the picture to be any bigger . . .



But I do see there is an exhibition on the Jesuit Priest Friedrich von Spee being held at he library in Koln Cathedral. He was born in Kaiserswerth and opponent of arbitrary witch burnings. Our apartment is in a lane off Friedrich von Spee Strasse, in the old town. I also see my shadow appearing reflected in the glass!



So, you walk in and after genuflecting you look back to see where all the beautiful music is coming from and see the massive organ loft! Complete with organ. This is played every Sunday Mass - I love it! The Organist always plays long twiddly lead up bits before we begin. It's fab!



Then you walk to your pew and turn back to look at the altar. It is a sublime space and so fitting for celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass.



After praying you might like to go and visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Exposition is the norm here.



Not all the old pews survived the bombing of 1945 so what they did was intersperse old with new. Very clever idea. That way you either sit in an old pew and rest your hymnal on a new pew or else you sit in a new pew and your hymnal and Missal has the honour of sitting on one of the old carved pews instead! This is a detail of one of the old ones.



From the Lady Chapel you can look across to the Altar and behind it in the glass case is the golden reliquary of st Suidbertus. It was made in the 13th century. I can't get a closer picture as the altar is off limits and with so many tourists going in and out you have to be careful.



Here is a picture taken of a picture of the last time St Suidbertus relics were paraded around the town. It happens only once every twenty five years. . . I hope I am here for the next time! Sorry about the light in the middle but the photo was at the back of the church, behind glass...



And here is the Lady Chapel itself. I prayed to Our Lady for the blogging community here today.



Here is the old Rood screen crucifixion scene. The bomb knocked this down and it was too expensive at the time for the people to reinstate it. Mind you it does look nice on the wall.



Here is a close up (ish) view of the statue of Our Lady. It is quite old. Someone came in here to pray so I had to move away so as not to disturb them.


Here is our Pope corner: Good old Papst Benedikt XVI!


Here is one of the two confessionals


Here are a couple of monuments at the back of the church. these were some of the very few to survive the bombing which also disclosed the old medieval charnel house!


Well I hope you enjoyed these pictures! They were taken on this very day! I love my parish church very much. It is a lovely place to come and worship God, so if you are ever in this part of Germany . . .

NB:
The picture of St Suidbertus came from this site, a wonderful Italian site on the saints.

An afternoon ride

After the Angelus bell sounded over Kaiserswerth, AGA came up with the brilliant suggestion of going out to lunch. We decided to ride our bikes over to Wittlaer which is the next village along from ours. So off we went.

Down the avenue . . .



Past the ruins of Barbarossa's Castle . . .



And along the lane to Wittlaer . . .



En route we went past the old custom's house



And arrived at Wittlaer to discover that the restaurant was closed on Tuesdays. . .



So we went next door to see the Church of St Remigius



But that was closed too!



However I did takes these photos through the grill



This Medieval Pieta was in the entry and I said a prayer here for the blogging community as well as lighting candles for my late father and grandmother.



So we said 'auf wiedersehn Wittlaer'



Road back along the Rhine



Past the Rhine entrance into Kaiserswerth . . .



. . . and the old ladies coming back form the ferry crossing



and had lunch in one of Kaiserswerth's restuarants instead!



(And very nice it was too I might add!)

And the answer is. . .

After writing my post yesterday I closed down the computer and came over all Martha-like so I did the ironing. Ironing is great therapy - especially if you iron sheets or tea towels - you don't really have to concentrate too much on what you are doing but you can think about all sorts of things. My thoughts were about my post and I was tempted to delete it but then I thought: 'that is the post I wrote and so it is going to stay as is.'

While ironing I prayed about my lack of prayer discipline. I asked God to help me. I remembered being told that even the desire to desire to pray is a gift from God in itself but I want more than that. I must move on from that state but how on earth could I rectify my serious problem?

Later I went back on line and was ambling around the blog world (as you do) when I came across the Pellagrinaggio blog spot for the first time and read this post
Having been on holidays for a while and not really paying much attention to the news either during that time or since returning, I was completely unaware that such a thing was going to happen. It shocked more than anything has done for quite some time. I was nearly in tears to think that such an offence was committed against Our Lord. It left me with a pain in my heart. I know He cannot be hurt by this but he can certainly be offended. I could not even think of the words to write to say how I feel about this most dreadful act. And then to read the terrible postings against some of those bloggers I hold dear - well it just made me feel so indignant that I decided to go off line and read instead.
And that is when I got the answer to my problem.
You know how sometimes you are in a book shop and you see a book and think "that sounds interesting, I'll buy that" and then you never actually get round to reading it for quite some time? That sometimes happens to me and so, feeling in the need to read something uplifting (and completely forgetting about my previous post) I took the book 'The Work of Our Redemption' by Clifford Howell SJ from the shelf. I bought it a few years ago in a second hand shop but never got around to reading it.
Well I started to read and voila! the answer to my previous post was there in black and white. Fr Howell wrote in the first chapter, entitled 'Why Worship':

"Let us start, then, by trying to see what it is all about. If we begin from the fact that man is God's creature, we see that man must take due notice of that fact and behave accordingly. But already we are dealing with every elements of 'religion'. That, after all, is what religion amounts to: 'taking due notice of God and behaving accordingly'.

There is a lot more of course but this blog post it is the key paragraph.

Taking due notice of God.

My prayers are a part of my taking due notice of God. If I forget to pray them I am not taking due notice of God.
I love God and I want to exhibit that fact to Him. It is not enough for me to merely say it although if I mean it then that is a good start. But I want to do more. I must do more. I will do more!

I have always wanted to do this, to take due notice of God (although not necessarily using those words) but the difference now is that I am going to do it!

Prayer versus Self

I am not very good at saying my prayers.
My intentions are always sincere but I am constantly falling down and having to say sorry to God for forgetting (when I am aware of it), or for getting so caught up in other things that it is only much later that I realise that I hadn't said, for example, my morning prayers, or the Angelus . . .
(I should remember the Angelus as our village church rings the Angelus bell every day but usually I do not hear it thanks to being occupied with other things)
At this rate I shan't be joining the sinful tax collector down at the very back of the Temple asking the Lord to be merciful to me, a poor sinner, instead I shall be out in the street trying to get in through the door like one of those foolish virgins who forgot to trim the lamp!
This may be rather facetious on my part but I am sure you know what I mean.
Anyway I had just finished lunch and was going to go on line to write a post for today when I realised that as per usual I forgot to say grace before and after lunch. It isn't that I am not thankful to God for his bounty and all the wonderful gifts he provided us with; it is just that I forget about Him and yet if the meal was prepared by my mother, a friend or by AGA I would not hesitate to say thank you to them, so why do I forget to say thank you to God?
I think the answer is a lack of awareness of God present in my everyday life. He is not some favourite relative who lives far away and who you remember to send a card to at Christmas and Easter. He is God. Our God. Loving. Omnipresent. Why can I not get that into my head? I guess my sense of God has been dulled by this materialistic, extreme noisy world in which we live and into which I am too quick to submerge myself.
Well I am going to do my best to change all that.
When to the horror of AGA I went through a stage of forgetting to turn the hob on the stove off (thank goodness we lived near the fire station) I made a small card which I placed on the wall nearby so that I would not forget. On it is written "Do NOT forget to turn the stove off!" Now I hardly ever forget.
What can my memory aid be to assist me in this much more important task? Should I be needing a memory aid?
Perhaps I need to concentrate on realising that God really is ever present. Practising God's presence not just in doing his Will towards other but in giving thanks to Him, through prayer during my waking moments. I really do need to go and dwell His courts, not just wander around the gardens every now and then before returning to the World.

Come Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle within them the fire of Thy love!

May I present. . .

Henry.
Henry is my mother's cat. British Red Short haired Tabby. He is ten years old and, as you can see, enjoys the occasional bowl of cat food. . .
He does not like having his picture taken...