Smasher Lagru

Today I celebrated the solemnities of SS. Nereus and Achilleus and a bit of St Pancras, not because I have particular devotion to these early Christian martyrs, but because I came out of the presbytery house without changing over to volume three of the breviary.  And then you have to get your slide rule out to figure out which week in the psalter you're supposed to be on - so I opted for Sunday Week One which I can almost recite from memory and these very important saints. 

And actually Nereus and Achilleus are great saints, soldiers who placed God before duty.  I was thinking of them when reading about the situation in Burma - there's an army that needs to turn its back on the generals.

As for Pancras, he was only 14 when martyred.  St Augustine of Canterbury dedicated his first church to Pancras and his relics were presented as a gift to the king of Northumberland. 

So maybe forgetting to change volumes was one of those Godincidences.

Fr Dan Handler, the local curate, tells me, for some reason he doesn't fully understand, that volume three has always been his favourite volume of the Office.

I am renowned for my empathy and can feel things, even from the touch of a book so I can tell him why - It's the one you use when you're on your holidays, the one least scarred by memories of Maynooth or Rome or Wexford or the Wing.  It's the one you read on the beach, or walking in the hills, or sitting in a cafe in Paris or Madrid, or doing your hour in a dark church in Italy or a bright church in America.