The organist librarian

A good day. Servers mini retreat with Fr Andrew Gallagher. I took flowers and a card to the New Zealand memorial at Hyde Park Corner and a moving sight - people in tears. Meanwhile a huge demo against racism passed by. To the House of Illustration for the first time North of King's Cross. I liked the early work of Sister Corita Kent, Ludwig Bemelmans' nuns and Journeys drawn: illustration from the Refugee Crisis. All in all a very pleasing small gallery. I returned to the cathedral for an excellent servers training session with Paul Moynihan. Fr Daniel celebrated Mass and the choir from Woldingham school sang well.

Spent the morning preparing a Powerpoint on St Thomas More and the Catenians for presentation to Year 7 at John Fisher school on Friday. Great birthday party for Ciaran and James at Wasps rugby club, Acton. Bruce took photos.  Silver medals for over 10 years service at the cathedral.3 enrolled. Paul had written to Liz so good thing I wrote to him. I started Jan 2005 and enrolled Dec 2005. Liz before that. Martin Plunkett at smoke vespers. Mayfeld school choir sang Mawby. Programme on Christie's.

After work to armed police reference group. This was interesting although I can't say much. Movement to ban non-firing weapons which people convert to guns makes sense. It was a long meeting. Liz was at wine tasting serving with other servers and got home at 2 a.m.! I returned home to do the programme for Friday at the parish church. The practice on the 10th went well although they were very chatty. The girls want to join guides so I suggested a Wednesday practice for them which may cause problems. Sat 11th July Liz was up late waiting for Claire to get in touch from Stansted airport. I guessed rightly that Claire had her dates wrong and spoke to Ann who confirmed she would arrive early Sunday morning. I had changed my Saturday. I did the blog and August music list. To servers mass at 2.30 and Archbishop Vincent gave an excellent homily - simple and clear. The Gunnersbury school choir were good. To M & S for tea and Kingsley at Mass. 2 new servers. I returned home and Liz to Bo...

Monday 30 lengths and my right leg twinging. I went to tai chi and that helped. David joined the class so Tony went over the moves more slowly which helped. Left at 6 to get to first rehearsal and explanation from Paul. We are first acolytes leading the clergy of the diocese in from either side and consecration torches. Home early and caught up on Channel 4 programme on male beauty. Tuesday 40 lengths. Did lots of posters including book sale and reading group. Saw Zia about training and IIP. Left at 6 and this was a long rehearsal. The servers are in the Blessed Sacrament chapel which means we can see nothing and there is no TV monitor. The BBC were there and Thomas and Paul went over several things twice. The new MacMillan antiphons were sung by the boys. The beautiful consecration torches (black wood and silver) borrowed from the Oratory are quite heavy and tall. The actual move up into the sanctuary doesn't feel right at the moment. We are doing a fan movement and we might be be...

A very early start but we were able to park at the cathedral. Coach set off at 7. 3 hours in a not very comfortable coach. This was the national gathering of Catholic altar servers to mark the centenary of the Society of St Stephen. It was a glorious day and we all wore badges saying "I serve at the altar of God". The horrendous rides like Oblivion are not for me but we did enjoy Hex, Charlie and the chocolate factory (boat ride and glass elevator), teacups and got very wet on the rapids. Soon dried off in the sun. Liz went on the Blade, runaway train and Beastie but my back won't stand that. The ruined house (Pugin) was interesting. We arrived back tired but happy and gave Nerone a lift to Streatham. It was good that Philip and his parents came - he serves with us on Saturday nights and is 10.

And so the greatest week of the year begins! We spent Saturday rehearsing for the Holy Week ceremonies at the cathedral. We began with an excellent talk by Father Slawomir aimed at the youngsters about the Triduum liturgy. After a shared lunch, Deacon Peter gave a fine talk about our role aimed more at the adults. See Peter Simpson's excellent blog http://revprs.blogspot.com for some fine stations of the Cross. There was quite a lot of waiting around and I felt that the day started too early and was too long for some people. Also there was a missed opportunity to go through some general aspects of our serving like processing, acting together on stands and sits, and clarification of some aspects. An obvious point is where to sit on the sanctuary. I find it much better to sit in the stalls as I can hear there and I am not on top of the heating ducts which can be like a sauna at times! The 6 p.m. Palm Sunday Mass is shown on the cathedral blog. See http://westminstercathedral.blogspot...