Just a Catholic Dad – On The Road

Well, I’ve test run my Just a Catholic Dad mobile recording rig (!) and it works; the quality leaves something to be desired when compared to the Study-o, but you can’t have everything.  Hopefully, then, we can have Just a Catholic Dad 18 done over the next few days!

Man Flu! Man Flu! (Yeuch Alert)

Yeuch. I woke up this morning with gummy eyes. What am I? Three?

Just a Catholic Dad 18 – On The Road

Tomorrow afternoon I am mostly going to attempt to record part of the next Just A Catholic Dad at work on my breaks  in a mobile stylee – snotty nose and coughy phlegm permitting.  Wish me luck!

What IS the point?

What is the point of a Non-drowsy all-in-one cold cure? If I feel so cruddy that I feel the need to take a concentrated syrup of chemicals, I want to be knocked out and not wake up until this sore throat, annoying sneezing and snotty nose has well and truly gone; or until Caitie has passed her next cold on to me and we start all over…..

Special Days

When I was younger and single, my idea of a good trip to the pub was to arrive with friends at a country pub with good real ale and drink steadily, or more accurately, less and less steadily, from 8PM or so until the pub closed.  Nowadays, that doesn’t really appeal, partly because most of my friends are scattered far and wide and we all have lives and families of our own, partly because my job precludes it most days, but also because hangovers are no longer the minor headache inconveniences that I remember from my twenties, but full blown head-cracking, mind-numbing agony!

My favourite trips to the pub are like those we had today.  It was a rainy, grey day, so our plans for a day out in the Autumn sunshine were put on hold and we decided instead to go along to the pub in our neighbouring village of Farley, The Hook and Glove, for a pub lunch.  Nicki, Caitie and I arrived to find a small, quaint and sadly quiet pub with Wadworth 6X on tap – for me obviously – and a fine menu containing such great staples as local fresh cut ham, egg and chips; steak and ale pie (made with the deeply marvellous Summer Lightining ale from the local brewery) and fish pie and peas.  We had a lovely meal for three in a small pub with the wind and rain darkening the day outside and it reminded me yet again that this is what being a family is all about.  Do I miss the old drinking days?  Not ever.

The Touch of God

I have never had a problem believing in God.  Even in my wilderness years away from the Church, God was always there in the background.  Sometimes, however, He seems to take a step forward, and there have been times in my life when I believe that I have felt the touch of God, often where a coincidence has seemed too much so to be just that.  One such occasion was that on the Sunday that I returned to the Church after twenty years away, the Gospel Reading was the parable of the Prodigal Son, and as I sat alone in the pew that day hearing those words, I knew that my Father was taking me in His arms and welcoming back to his family. I remember physically holding my face in my hands as the tears came. 

The day I returned to the Church, I was made welcome by a couple named Barbara and Barry; an elderly couple with the slowly increasing health problems to be expected of their age. Barbara is a warm, gentle lady who has treated Caitie and I as we were part of her family, and I love her for it.  Barry, a kindly, soft-spoken man with his grey Santa Claus beard is one of the most moving Lectors I have ever heard; his voice has a tremulousness and timbre to it that brings out the power and love of God’s Word as he speaks.

A few years ago, they lost a grown-up son.  His name was Dickon; he was a father and a poet and he died young. They assembled a collection of his poetry into a book and gave me a copy which I keep at home.  This week they lost another son, Tim. To a heart attack.

As I walked with Caitie to Mass this morning, the lady who writes the Lectors’ Roster asked me to step in and cover the 2nd Reading, which I happily agreed to.  Only a few minutes later I heard about Tim’s death. 

I’m a good public speaker and I strive to be a good Lector;  it’s not a boast, it’s just a talent given to me by God and I am truly grateful for it and when I step up to the lectern, I pray that the Holy Spirit will use the voice he gave me to do his will and spread His Word.  The 2nd Reading today happened to be one of the most haunting and beautiful in Scripture, from St Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy;

‘My time is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing.’  

As I read the words from the lectern, I knew how powerful and deeply emotional they were, but only afterwards did their relevance and poignancy really strike me.   I have found in my life that sometimes God’s words touch us just when we need them and He, like a loving father, says the words which we so need to hear and which reach directly to our souls.  For Barry and Barbara, I can’t think of a Scripture reading which could, with such perfect timing, reach out to them, and I am honoured and humbled that I, by sheer circumstance or Divine Will, was able to stand and read it for my friends. He was reaching out to some of his children in desperate pain.  It was the Touch of God.

Just A Catholic Dad 18 – Temporarily lost in the Cybervoid

Thinking about it, that’s a good title for the next JACD…if I can somehow engineer the content to fit!  Sorry for no JACD 18 this week, but all my bumpers (and just about everything else) are lost in the cybervoid due to my Network Drive imploding!  I’m slowly retrieveng everything, but due to time I’m nor going to get the chance to record this week.  School vacation next week is also going to place a spanner in the works, so please bear with me.

In the meantime, if you have any feedback, I would dearly love to read/hear/eat it (prizes to the first who figures out how to do that one!).  Please leave a comment here or contact me at feedback@justacatholicdad.com.

God Bless

Sean & Caitie

Just A Catholic Dad 17: Apple Fishing!

Hi Guys – it’s Apple Fishing Day!  In this JACD, I talk about apple fishing, a pope with attitude, Youth Mass and getting the most from your Libsyn.  Oh, and I have some FEEEEDBACK! 

End music is by Sharmane and available through www.musicalley.com

God Bless

Sean

justacatholicdad.libsyn.com/rss

Christmas *IS* A Cumin’ In…

Oh what a joy it was to stagger into the kitchen in my pre-pint of tea fuddle to turn on the local radio and hear not one but two Christmas advertisements. Thank you Poulton’s Park, but we will not be bringing our daughter to you for her Santa experience (‘book a slot two months in advance, cost includes rides’), nor will we be frequenting IKEA, whose Oh-So-Jolly Swedes and their wacky sense of humour think that parodying early Christmas ads in their own Christmas ad will somehow endear them to us. FLASH: It doesn’t.

Just A Catholic Dad 16: Please Slow Down!

  justacatholicdad.libsyn.com/rss

Hi Guys, here we are again, scrabbling through poorly daughter, incontinent kittens and a general lack of calm to bring you Just A Catholic Dad 16 – Please Slow Down! Hope you enjoy!

Thanks once again for downloading and sticking along for the ride.

End music: Queen of Apostles by Nancy Krebs, available through www.musicalley.com

Please send your thoughts and comments to ‘feedback@justacatholicdad.com.

God Bless

Sean