Resting Scouts

The Scouts did wonderfully well. Almost all walked all the way and we impressed all aleng the way by our simging of polyphony and songs about bears. The boys were a credit to the school.

We sang Spanish songs with such pain of the soul that even the angels wept, and then transformed the song into a paean of praise to packets of biscuits.

Will he never die?

Last year on the Chartres Pilgrimage I posted this picture of a dead Scout:

Imagine my dismay to find that not only did he not die last year (in fact I have a sneaking suspicion that he sits next to me at breakfast) but also that he seemed to die again this year.

We shall have to monitor the developments...

Chartres Pilgrimage

The pilgrimage is also a wonderful place to catch up with old friends. Here are some parishioners from St George's Warminster.

Counterfeit Bossuet

This is him!!

I met him. Fr Kimtis. Nice chap with very stylish glasses. See him at Counterfeit Bossuet.

Tiredness

Gathering at the Pilgrimage

And there were Americans and Australians.

La bouf

Off to Chartres

Most of the preparation is done. Booklets made. Shoes ready. Little shoe horn well attached. So here we go! Tomorrow!

War

Mr Leach (games master) trying to referee warring factions

It does not take much in the life of our school to bring about competative spirit. Indeed as I write I have just come back from our 'little walk' (something of a route march today) where there was a flaming row going on about the fact the red doesn't occur as often in nature as green does.

Hockey - or death?

I know it's all a bit obtuse until you realise that Red is the colour of Rochejaquelein and green the colour of Cathelineau, two of our houses. If one could claim that God Himself prefered their house colour, well the battle would almost be won. With God on you side...

Why does God hate the colour red?

So the inter-house hockey match was always going to be fraught with dangers. Divide boys into houses and then give them weapons.

Use a boy as a flag day

But no one died. No one was even greviously injured. There was a serious amount of shouting and words were said and dark curses muttered that will reverberate through the corridors of history. But on the whole it was fine!

Dead Fish at the seaside

Sables d'Olonne

I had been asked to say Mass on the feast of the Ascension at Sables D'Olonne. It seemed a good idea to take the whole school with us and then take them all to the beach.

Boy buried in sand

As you can see the boys wrote messages on the sand. In this case it was "introibo ad altare Dei".

And at lunch one of the boys found a dead mackerel in a bush and put it on a stick to show me. Of course it did not stop eating his sandwich at the same time. I think that bacteria are too scared of boys to invade their bodies.

Boy with dead mackerel eating a sandwich

On my gosh!!!

Fr Bede Rowe - looking surprised

...the blog of Fr. Bede Rowe, a Chaplain at a school in Italy.  Tells of his travels and life abroad.

not bad even though I'm not in Italy!

A Venetian Day

Venice is not too far from Lake Garda and so proved to be a perfect day trip. I remember that the last time I was there they demand cash for going into the churches if it is a tourist visit. Now when I'm there myself with resplendent roman collar there is no problem but I thought it a little much accompanied by a lady of a certain age.

So shops and tourist stuff if was. And a very fine day. Very fine indeed.

Storo

A little way from us down a mountain pass (how the heck do lorries manage it?! Poor Morris is finding at all very hot under the bonnet) is a small place called Storo. Not much here though I have just have a rather nice sandwich in a bar where there are slot machines.

But the place seems to be made of rickety wooden structures with odd things hanging from balconies. Nice enough.

The Cathedral at Trent

First the little church at the end of the street, Santa Trinita is where the opening procession of the Council started.

The Cathedral is a nice affair with knotted stone pillars and a pair of strange staircases going I assume somewhere.

The high altar is fine too. Nice baldacchino.

That was a Council

You can't come to the north of Lake Garda and not go to Trent. There is not much there of Council fame, but I feel that my Catholic batteries have been restored - that my orthodoxy has been renewed - that my zeal for truth and clear definition has been blown into a burning flame.

Strange, when I go to the Vatican I always think of stamps. Especially if I go twice!!!