Nicholas King SJ

Saturday and Liz was at retreat at Nazareth House in Hammersmith - she ended up doing cross-stitch! I went to St Mary Moorfields for the monthly Carmelite session. I was early so went into Cardinal Hume garden next to the church. Also put out posters for the Cardinal Tauran event. Mass at 11.30 for St Justin the martyr. Isobel  had a couple of disasters on the organ - she says I make her nervous which I said is not good as playing with lots of organists present can make me anxious! Martin sang and Fr Nicholas King celebrated. he has a most engaging way of reading and preaching the Gospel. He is lecturer in New Testament studies at Oxford and grew up in Natal and Pretoria! He spotted my faint accent. He gave us an overview of Catholic Biblical activity up to Dei Verbum and then a marvellous liturgical explanation of the Emmaus story. After a break we did lectio divina on the story. I'm not sure that they went so well as Nicholas had unpacked a lot of it already and the prayers at the end didn't really happen. Martin asked me to do a session on interfaith. Nice lunch. Saw Fr Peter - he had earlier asked me to play a couple of Sundays but of course I can;t do that. To Tate Britain for tea - galleries have been rehung so only saw a couple of Constables! Walked to the cathedral and it was warmer.Vespers and Mass for Corpus Christi with Fr Alexander. Home to furious email activity with Gemma and Dominic. Basically Gemma is not giving in about "Behold the Lamb of God"being suitable as an Agnus Dei which it clearly is NOT. I commented on this before. Why don't people get training in liturgy and read GIRM? I wish I had not pointed out that a Lamb of God had not been chosen. Helena quite rightly moved it to the start of communion last Thursday but to keep the peace I have reluctantly agreed. However I have pointed out that this makes me equally reluctant to offer my occasional services next year. It is not worth the hassle! Woke at 3 a.m. worrying over it which is pointless. Dominic clearly needs a lot of guidance and I rather think Rocco's policy of deferring to the liturgy team is not a good one. What happens when somebody gets it wrong? And Gemma is clearly wrong on this one and she is doing her forceful woman bit. I would not like to be in her class although they say she is nice!