Our Lady of Mt Pinatubo

Low Mass yesterday was offered in honour, not of St Timothy (he was reduced to a commemoration), but of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage (who is venerated under that title at some place in the Philippines that sounded awfully like Pinatubo, tho' it is only my sense of humour that gave Our Blessed Lady that title), by reason of a significant group of devotees desiring Mass on her feast, after making their customary novena; they even supplied a rather nice statue of the Virgin under said title to stand by the pulpit for the novena and Mass [the image is of a like statue, thanks to www.flickr.com].

After starting out quite pleasant in the morning [as when I popped into the other Pro., St Joachim's, temporarily such while the actual cathedral lies gutted for wreckavation, for confession earlier], by 12.10pm it was fearfully hot in the Pro., as I can testify from my serving at Benediction after Mass! Aaron, the regular server, had to head back to work after Mass, so George and I went to the sacristy after Communion to vest, and thereafter recapitulated our roles at Benediction yesterday. Thankfully it was not a holy hour, just O salutaris hostia, Sub tuum and Litany of Loreto (in English!), Prayer for the Conversion of Australia, Tantum ergo with versicle and collect, the actual Benediction, then the Divine Praises, Adoremus in aeternum with Ps 116, and a final Marian hymn. Even with the two portable air-conditioners blasting air from the sides of the sanctuary like demented robots, my forehead was running with perspiration.


I forgot to mention that at Mass itself Fr Rowe preached - which he only ever does on Sundays and Feasts - and reminded us, among other quotations, that St Thomas Aquinas writes that "Mary is full of grace, not just for herself, but for all men", and hence we should invoke her at all times for temporal and spiritual wants, especially to receive the grace of conversion from sin, for Innocent III states that "if through our sins we are plunged into night and cannot behold the Sun, then ought we turn to the Moon, that is, Our Lady".


He told me as we walked down the street afterward that he'd cut the sermon short, it was so hot [over 37° C], tho' it hadn't been as bad as it was on St Stephen's Day, when the temperature outside was 44° C, and inside the Pro. it had been like an oven. We were all very glad to accept one lady's invitation to come join her for a festal lunch at Miss Mauds, that Swedish hotel and blessedly air-conditioned restaurant curiously situated in Perth, W.A., a few blocks down the road from the Pro. Yours truly decided on the smorgasbord...