24th Anniversary

I was baptized, confirmed and houselled on Pentecost Sunday, 1987.

Each year, I keep the anniversary on the feast day rather than the actual date (which was the 7th of June); and I pray the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to have mercy on me a sinner and fill me full of gifts and graces, that I may be saved.  What a backslider I've been!  Thank God for confession.

For all God's goodness, unmeritable and unrepayable, I say a heartfelt Gloria Patri; for that most precious gift of divine faith infused into my soul, whereby I cannot but believe, I repeat the Apostles' Creed; for all needful petitions, Kyrie eleïson, Pater and Ave.

I implore, too, the intercessions of St Joshua (my namesake), of St Stephen (my confirmation saint) and of St Sabbas (patron of this blog).

To-day I served Mass at my local parish (looking across from the north side of the sanctuary toward the southern, where the font stands in which I was made a Christian).  By order of the Bishops, the new translations of the Eucharistic Prayers have now come into use from this day onwards, so we were treated to the Roman Canon in a faithful, reverent version – and the sermon was all about the Canon too, as a gift of the Spirit itself, re-gifted us in this form!

Very kindly, Father made mention of this significance of this feast for me; of your charity, dear reader, I beg you to spare a pray for me.