Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Feast of the Assumption

...is one of the few that we are still allowed to celebrate properly, on its correct day.

DEAR BISHOPS
PLEASE MAY WE HAVE OUR FEAST-DAYS BACK??

SOON??

I went to a Vigil Mass at a local church, with bags packed and everything ready for the trip to the USA (where I am taking part in EWTN's big summer festival).   The church was much fuller than I expected. YOU SEE, PEOPLE DO LIKE TO GO TO MASS ON A FEAST DAY.

Across the aisle, I saw a friend and as Mass ended, we had a whisper-chat. Others of his family were elsewhere in the church - teenagers (one of whom is my godson), small children, wife with new baby. Would I like to go back for supper?  I pondered - but only for a moment. I was already booked into a room at an hotel  Heathrow airport - but had no reason to arrive there early.  We had a glorious, hearty, talkative supper,  I wasn't the only guest - a couple of friends from Australia had also arrived, bringing a third with them. This is one of those wonderful families who love to welcome guests, and always seem to find room for one more around the large family table. A happy, happy evening.

Late, to the hotel.  It has wifi, so I picked up emails and bits of news. This morning, I was reading an amusing piece in the Daily Telegraph about children's names and how they reflect social class: all those Chardonnays and Jaydens contrasting with Jemimas and Olivers...

But the real news is in the bald fact that the second most popular name for boys born in Britain in 2012 was: Mohammed.

And so to EWTN, and the project of the New Evangelisation...

3 comments:

Malcolm said...

The root of the problem was that to many people saw a feast day as a "day of obligation", in other words, a bind.
As a child I always thought "feast day, ha ha, what feast?" My parents were observant and we would go. But there was never any attempt to mark a holy day in any way, except for Easter and Christmas, obviously.

Anonymous said...

'Our Lady in Harvest', according to Prof.Eamon Duffy, this popular celebration of the Feast of the Assumption was abolished in 1549. Could this now take the place of Lammas: the Loaf Mass, in addition to Rosary Rallies?

Crux Fidelis said...

There isn't a great deal of variety in Muslim forenames - hence the preponderance of Mohammeds.