Another rant

Through the kindness of Fr. Ivan Moody, who posted the above YouTube clip on Facebook this afternoon, I have been listening to and greatly enjoying the above album from Harmonia Mundi. Not only does it have the whole Missa Viri Galilaei of Palestrina, but also the chant propers of the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The album closes with a motet by Palestrina based on the chant Introit of the Feast, ‘Viri Galilaei’.

I suppose that I should be happy with this, and the fact that this evening I shall be helping to sing and to serve the Feast today, according to the Byzantine use of the Russian Orthodox service.

But I am saddened to consider that for most of my sixty-four years, and quite likely for the remainder of my life, most of us, myself included, have been and will continue to be deprived of the liturgical and spiritual treasures of the West.

Aftermath; and some progress

It has now been three weeks since I had my little ‘incident’ requiring emergency admission into the local hospital and a colonoscopy. The good news is that I do not appear to have colo-rectal cancer. The bad news…

Last Week

The Invalid wakes up in terror
To feel his toes becoming numb,
The doctor’s made another error--
What unknown symptoms are to come?

From The Fatal Lozenge, by Edward Gorey

The whole wretched mess began last Thursday, at about 12:30 noon, when I had a sudden need to go to the bathroom. When I wiped, I found that the toilet tissue was soaked in bright red blood.  “That’s odd,” I thought to myself: “That hasn’t happened before.”

At 2 p.m., I had a sudden need to go again to the bathroom, but this time, it was the toilet bowl which was filled with bright red blood.