Sunday 3rd November - on saints, and shoeboxes, and so on

Yesterday was All Soul's Day, and the day before was All Saint's Day.

I wondered what today would be; Hello Wikipedia!

November[edit]

• 1 ALL SAINTS' DAY
• 2 Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day)
• 3 Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher of the Faith, 1600
• 3 Martin of Porres, Friar, 1639
• 6 Leonard, Hermit, 6th century
• 6 William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher of the Faith, 1944
• 7 Willibrord of York, Bishop, Apostle of Frisia, 739
• 8 The Saints and Martyrs of England
• 9 Margery Kempe, Mystic, c.1440
• 10 Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher of the Faith, 461
• 11 Martin, Bishop of Tours, c.397
• 13 Charles Simeon, Priest, Evangelical Divine, 1836
• 14 Samuel Seabury, first Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
• 16 Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
• 16 Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
• 17 Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
• 18 Elizabeth of Hungary, Princess of Thuringia, Philanthropist, 1231
• 19 Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
• 19 Mechthild, Béguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, 1280
• 20 Edmund, King of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
• 20 Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
• 22 Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
• 23 Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
• 25 Catherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
• 25 Isaac Watts, Hymn Writer, 1748
• 29 DAY OF INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING FOR THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE CHURCH
• 30 Andrew the Apostle

So Today is shared between Richard Hooker, an important theologian and Brother Martin of Porres, a Peruvian monk 

                                   

                                                             and Martin of Porres

You can read up all about them (in wikipedia).  What is known of Hooker (according to wikipedia) is mostly gleaned from Izaak Walton's biography. Wasn't Izaak Walton the one who wrote a book about fishing?    Ah, I see he wrote short biographies as well

    

(Not to be confused with J R Hartley who also 'wrote about fishing'.)

Wikipedia gives lots of information about Hooker, and in the middle of it suddenly states;

"Walton is described by Christopher Morris as an "unreliable gossip" who "generally moulded his subjects to fit a ready-made pattern,"

which rather ruins it. Who is Christopher Morris? Google informs me that he is a satirist, writer, director, actor. That doesn't sound like someone who would have an interest in sixteenth century Protestant theology. 

Here's the wikipedia summary for Brother Martin. I include it for the list of miracles attributed to him in the final sentence.

Martin de Porres Velázquez, O.P. (9 December 1579 – 3 November 1639), was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, and all those seeking racial harmony.

He was noted for his work on behalf of the poor, establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and abstaining from meat. Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and an ability to communicate with animals.

Enough rambling on and on - blame wikipedia and google. It's like trying to look up a word in the dictionary - one thing leads to another. Every time. You are safe from saints for another few days. 

I came home from church this morning chilled through and through. The heating was not working and I actually went and fetched a blanket from the car and stayed wrapped up. One man simply took note of the temperature and went home again. However before he went he had a go at the controls, pressing the buttons in some magic combination, so by the time the service ended the church was heating up a bit.

We didn't have any trouble with the hymns today, probably because I wasn't playing the organ. Although the tune for 'Fight the Good Fight' was a lesser known one, most of us still knew it. I emerged from my blanket to play the piano while people came up to receive communion ('Here is Bread, here is wine' by Graham Kendrick, if you were curious.)

It was 'make-Christmas-shoe-boxes for Roumania' day at church. If I had any doubts about whether this activity had real value, it was dispelled by the video showing how the recipients are living, in Roumania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and somewhere else. It looked like scenes from the nineteen-thirties and before. I know that there are places in this country where there is extreme poverty, but this is on a different scale. More like Indian slums, but with snow. Truly shocking. I added my hats to the stack, and also some notebooks, and a kazoo. I wonder if anyone there knows how to play a kazoo? 

The great pots of puree experiment is still in progress. Prising the vegetables out of the metal bun tray is a mugs game. We did manage, but it involved lots of hot water, tapping, prising and splattering of bits of carrot puree everywhere. We are going to try silicone moulds   Anyway it is a week before we make the round trip again.

                                        

 Meanwhile I have another vat of rice pudding on the go, and it is time to give it a stir, and then I shall return to my new knitting project, and try and clear the dining room table ready for theory lessons tomorrow afternoon.

Have a good week!