December 3 2017 First Sunday of Advent Cycle B. St James Church in St Andrews, Fife My earliest memories of Church liturgy are of the early days in response to Vatican II. I still had some of the classic moments of a Catholic upbringing. For instance I can remember being eight years old and cycling my bike over to the Parish Church in Cabinteely every morning for a week when it was my duty to serve the early mass. A lot of basic knowledge was lost though, such as a real awareness of the liturgical year. It is only in later years that I've settled into the rhythm and think of this as the beginning of the year. This makes three new years for me; the calendar year, the university year and the liturgical. St Pauls Church in Cambridge Mass. did advent best of any churches I've attended, but I think that is really because they had a really fabulous Advent wreath, made from ivy and moss, that hung horizontally in the middle of the nave. In the half light with the multi-coloured cand...
Feast of Christ the King. Final Sunday of the Liturgical Year. Cycle A November 26 2017 People have been known to ask me why I go to Church, I am too polite to reply that I find it hard to believe that anyone can get through the week without it. For all that, I miss Mass too often, so this blog is going to be my way of trying to get me to do the least that can be asked of any Catholic, to turn up. A word of warning, I am far too prone to express my own ideas without conditioning them, so be aware that I am a terrible Catholic and while I will try my best to avoid heresy, or even heterodoxy, I'm sure I will lapse into it. If you want to know what Catholicism teaches you need to look up the Catechism . St Andrews Cathedral in Dundee has its civic and university Mass on Christ the King, so the bishop gets to walk the tightrope of proclaiming the Kingdom while respecting the division of Church and State and the autonomy of the university in front of MPs, MSPs, the Principals, the P...