Epiphany thoughts

Due to the reorganization of the Liturgical Calendar today is not the Epiphany, but I will have to wait until Sunday to celebrate this by participating at Mass. I seem to remember that Epiphany came early last year. At its heart the Catholic Church in England & Wales does not wish its flock to go astray and most of the former Holy Days of Obligation have been shifted to Sundays. This makes memories difficult: thus I have a distinct memory of travelling back to Uppermill on a North Western Road Car Bristol low bridge double decker from Mass in Mossley in the early 1950s; that is before the Catholic Church moved into Ladcastle Hall above Dobcross Halt and Mass was celebrated just down the road by Father Buckley or Father O'Hanlon. Both of whom were Sacred Heart Missionaries.

My dear wife of umpteen years is aware of the need to take down the tinsel and holly on Twelfth Night; was taken to Saddleworth when we first moved to Wrenthorpe, but has still to appreciate the joy which I experience when attending Mass and the sense of loss when that is not possible as today when the Arctic conditions in the Norfolk Alps precluded venturing over to Cromer.

I am trying to reduce a vast mountain of paper to save her or our children some of the work following our demise and I measure my success by the fullness of the green bin. A recent find was Pope Benedict's homily given in Westminster Cathedral which states, so obviously to his flock, the centrality of the Mass and the significance of the building in which it is celebrated: in this case the huge Crucifix above the Altar.

Readers looking for my thoughts on trains will have to content themselves with the reference to Dobcross Halt,