Berenike (whom I recently had the great pleasure of meeting for the first time) has tagged me for a meme where you have to name seven things you really like. What follows is a fairly random selection; I’ve excluded anything that I listed in the favourite things meme that was around a few months ago – except for cats, which can never be left off such a list. Anyone reading this is welcome to regard themselves as tagged...
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau – I’m not Welsh (well, only a little), and I’m not a massive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqtIlaHIqrs&feature=related
Icons – to be honest, I prefer Eastern (Catholic/Orthodox) religious art to Western, certainly from the sixteenth century onwards
Durham Cathedral – dominating the skyline around where I live, it’s glorious even as it is now, but how much more glorious must it have been before the iconoclasts destroyed all that wonderful pre-Reformation art (see previous entry) and the monastic and liturgical life that went with it…
The Sea – especially at dawn or at dusk
Cricket – as I remember it from boyhood days rather than as it is now
Catholic blogs – okay, so there are some pretty bilious bloggers and commenters out there, but there are also a lot of genuinely lovely people in the Catholic blogosphere
Cats – “How we behave towards cats here below determines our status in heaven” (Robert A. Heinlein)
7 comments:
What a lovely list. I wish the cats quote was part of the deposit of faith, then I'd be sorted :)
I met Berenike yesterday in her whistle-stop tour, and it turns out we were all at Friday Mass at the cathedral! So we've almost met...
Yes, cats......They already have that look here on earth,that almost prefigures the moments just before one's own personal Judgment day.At least,that's the disdainful look they often give to me.As if they truly see the inside of your heart and it's mixed motives and know what's coming if one doesn't shape up.
They should be placed outside the confessional,to encourage thorough examinations of conscience.
I love the sea too,the wilder the sound of waves,the more at peace I am!(I don't mean being in such a storm by the way,just watching and listening).
Thanks to both of you for your comments. I think living with cats is definitely good for one's humility :-)
Better late than never, I suppose and 6 out of 7 "Tagged" items is better than none (hmm cricket well let's leave that one aside for the time being.
Rugby and Wales - truly marvellous.
Icons - Beautiful works of art. We have a framed lithographic print of Our Lady of Succour (been in the family for years) and I've only noticed that the Infant Christ's sandle is dangling from his foot
Durham Cathedral - awesome, wonderful, prayerful and inspiring.
The Sea, really wonderful to hear the waves wash over the stones and pebbles and draw back.
Catholic Blogs - some Sensible and some not so sensible and finally as the previous comments seem to be following a "feline" theme, to share this poem I found on the internet, sums it all up.
Pax
VM
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THE GENESIS CAT
(W Girt)
The Lord looked down upon His world, created fresh and new,
With soaring, shining mountain tops and gleaming seas of blue.
The lordly lions roaming free with tigers golden bright,
All very grand, magnificent, but somehow, not quite right.
He stroked His beard and mused awhile and thought of this and that,
'All these are far too big,' he said, 'I'll make a smaller cat;
To edge towards the fire at night, out of the chilly wind,
An independent animal, but needing human kind;
With fur so soft and warm to touch, but brimming full of guile,
With pansy-faced wee kittens to make the children smile.'
All that was very long ago, but still the cat's with us,
Aloof and condescending, but loving all the fuss.
You'll never, ever own a cat, as all cat lovers know,
He'll curl himself around your heart and never let you go.
Victoria - many thanks for your comment, and for the wonderful cat-poem.
Ach, you're a sea man, not a mountains man. A beautiful relationship over before it started :-D
I am quite with you on Durham Cathedral, it is splendid even in its plundered state. I'm afraid I've never been able to get beyond "it's like rounders, isn't it?" stage of understanding cricket. And if it wasn't for blogs, I wouldn't have met your good self, which was such a happy and cheering way to begin my trip. Thank you so much for coming all the way up to Newcastle.
Berenike - it was a pleasure meeting you. My experience of mountains is very limited, sadly; given the opportunity, I'm sure I could be a mountains man as much as a sea man :-D
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