[Magdalen] Are we down?

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

That was probably James Pike's problem.  He just got some candles and tried
to use them on the altar, and Fr. Cummins (or his shade) kept coming and
blowing them out.
Paul Moore was a seminarian at the church under Pike at the time, and
affirmed that this happened.

All that was dwarfed (no insult to little people intended by this
terminology) by the event where a bat chased Pike out of the sanctuary.
Bats kept appearing from time to time.  I actually saw one make its
appearance when the death of a lady was announced. She had been a
parishioner back in the day who had been fond of Pike.

Still, who knows? Maybe a blessing of the candles might have placated
Cummins (he was low church, and saw absolutely no good coming out of any
(any) use of candles on the altar. Having been rector for fifty years, I
guess he felt he owned the place -- the fact that he now no longer had a
pulse notwithstanding.  I hear it's sometimes hard to let go....

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Sun, Feb 1, 2015 at 7:27 AM, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> We also bring our household supply of candles to be blessed.
>
> Marion, a pilgrim
> On 1/31/2015 5:11 PM, Roger Stokes wrote:
>
>> On 31/01/2015 21:28, Grace Cangialosi wrote:
>>
>>> OK, Scott, what is the blessing of the candles about?
>>>
>>
>> I'm not Scott but  traditionally at Candlemas candles (or a
>> representative sample of them) are blessed for use in church in the
>> following year - hence the title.  I am surprised that Ascension bless then
>> on the Eve rather than at Mass on the day, which is actually Monday this
>> year.  The name of the Feast with which some will be more familiar is
>> either the Purification of the BVM or the Presentation of Christ in the
>> Temple which is why it is 40 days after Christmas.
>>
>> Candles can also feature the next day, 3 February, which is the Feast of
>> St Blaise.  Those with a throat problem can have their throat blessed at
>> mass by the priest holding crossed candles in front of the person's
>> throat.  Neither event has any connection with furry rodents.
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>
>