Candlemas at St Mary Magdalen, Brighton

Good News from Fr Ray:

There will be a Missa Cantata and procession for the Feast of Candlemas, at 7.30pm.

Our Lady of Consolation

A reminder that there is a Mass at noon on 29th January at West Grinstead.

All things slippery

It's very disturbing when I read articles written by people who seem to to abhor being human so much that they want to separate birth and death from life itself. Wouldn't they rather just upload consciousnesses to androids, and have done with it? Especially galling seems to be the pesky type of person who would rather conceive naturally, and die when supposed to, rather than when it's expedient for the medics and convenient for the family. 

So when I read today of the artificial womb to which all women should be entitled, because pregnancy doesn't half get in the way of 'who you are', I felt slightly queasy. Actually, more than slightly.

Now, if the 'artificial womb' was some kind of incubator for the extremely premature, I'd have sympathy. I might be all for it. But not as a vanity project for people who believe that pregnancy is beneath them, some sort of disease they are better off without.

   

More Human Than Human

I've read Brave New World, seen Gattaca, and Logan's Run, think Bladerunner is absolutely one of the best movies ever made, and even marvelled at the geometric pregnancy (don't ask) in Farscape, but the thought of anyone being grown to order in a perspex box in faux amniotic fluid just turns me over. And that is the bottom line, artificial wombs make artificial people grown to order. They'll have 'best before' dates as well.

Perhaps there'll be a catalogue, "Yeah, no. 312, please, yeah, that's the caucasian male, green eyes, black hair, IQ 145, and make that to go."

The arguments are always made from the point of view that the foetus is parasitic aggressor, so I was relieved to find this article that challenges the popular view that, as a woman, you're really doing the cells a favour letting them gestate in you. The article concludes:

“Long post postpartum, we mothers continue to carry our children, at least in a sense. Our babies become part of us, just as we are a part of them. The barriers have broken down; the lines are no longer fixed.”

Now you won't get that from a menu baby.

Why...

...am I not surprised? What are the incentives, I wonder? Buy one, get one free?

The final instalment...

"Men and Women Are Different"

"Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" Discuss.
"Equality does not equal 'sameness'" Discuss.

In the past "men discovered their masculinity in the Church"

More on Masculinity from The Vortex...

OK, this will separate the...

...men from the boys. Like him or loathe him, he's always thought provoking. Enjoy!

A couple of things

I've been a tad busy recently, so haven't done much reading in the press or anywhere else for that matter, but at the weekend, and this morning, a couple of things caught my eye.

The first thing was a Facebook post about a blog promoting the restoration of Holy Communion on the tongue. Since I try to mainly assist at the usus antiquior whenever possible, it's hard not to be acutely aware of How Different Things Can Be in the ordinary form Mass. And not in a good way. I shall never forget the sight of the pudding basin on the flower stand, used for incinerating  incense. As I sincerely believe kneeling and on the tongue is the way to receive Our Lord, have a look at the blog, and see what you think.






Euthanasia. Such a soft and sinuous word for murder/suicide.

Lots about that, negative and positive, in the press at the moment. And another interesting twist is a government proposal for all the irritating and useless old folk who have the audacity to live, to want to live, and worse, stay in their own homes. It would seem they might be, er, 'encouraged' to downsize.  Downsize to where, exactly? Or is the underlying thought: displace, depress, die off?







I like to keep up with LifeSiteNews too, it's great to see what's going on in the pro-life movement in other places, notably the States. If you know me, you'll know I really don't like sport. Apart from Wimbledon, I think watching paint dry is preferable to pretty much any sport, so I shall be avoiding the telly like mad this Olympic year. So I surprised myself by reading an article called Hating Tim Tebow, oddly enough about an American footballer called Tim Tebow. American football, that's girly rugby, isn't it? Have a read and be inspired.

Following on from sport, here's an intro to a new week long Michael Voris/Vortex series of talks.

Don't we live in Interesting Times..?

Mass on January 29th

A reminder of the Mass at Our Lady of Consolation at noon.

All regular Masses can be found on the sidebar.

January News

In addition to the Epiphany Mass at Lewes and the regular Masses on the sidebar: 

There will be a Mass at St Joseph's, Guildford, on 15th January at 3.00 pm.

There will also be a Mass on 29th January, at 12.00 noon at Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead.

Locations of Masses can be found on the sidebar.

Well you could knock me down with a...

Francis Phillips in the Catholic Herald writes about an apparent turn around A Certain Supermarket seem to have taken regarding their charitable donations. I wonder how many of us evil people actually wrote to register concern?