The Bishop visits ~ and wonderful news!

On Thursday evening our own Bishop Hugh arrived at Our Lady and Saint Joseph kirk and celebrated a votive mass with those of us that could make it out at 7pm. (We made sure and wear the kids out and give them a late nap so that they would not behave like wee monsters!)

We filled the night air with beautiful hymns and listened with delight to the scripture readings. Every mass is a new adventure now that I'm attempting to re-train my brain to say, "And with your spirit" ~ much more in line with the Latin but I think I need a bit more coffee some days...

Bishop Hugh gave a wonderful and quite thought-provoking homily from the old testament reading of Haggai. Meanwhile myself and Erlend did our best to manage three very energetic toddlers that were engaged in a variety of occupations such as: fighting (always a good one for church!!), engaging in discussion at the tops of wee lungs, and flinging toys in every direction. At one point while standing up for prayer Erlend was startled to find that Benji, usually so silent in his arms, had begun to tap dance on the back of the pew in front of them. Of course! What better way to welcome the Bishop? (I quickly pulled The Boy's shoes off and tossed them aside only to have wee Inga amuse herself by smacking them against the seat of our pew and laughing hysterically. It never ends. Half of the time I end up in a fit of laughter because of these kids, my howls of glee muffled by a stuffed toy crammed agasint my mouth...)

After mass ended the Bishop gave us a wonderful announcement that was music to our collective ears: our dear Father Peter Kelly has been appointed the parish priest of Orkney!! And so for however long now we will have a resident priest here with us in Orkney every single day of the week ~ during all of the holidays and the holy feast days and so forth and so on!! ("Dear God, please send us a resident priest" ~check!)

After a beautiful mass with Fr. Peter Kelly, the Bishop, and his Vicar General celebrating together up at the alter we gathered together in the back room of the kirk house for a buffet tea. People went all out and we found ourselves engaged in a feast! Me being me I had engaged in all manner of plans for what I would cook for the buffet and then at precisely 6:45pm realized that I had FORGOTTEN to do any of said cooking. And I'm not exactly sure how much of the muffins and cakes made it into the kids' stomachs considering that our section of the carpet was lovingly coated in a thick layer of crumbs??

We have met with Bishop Hugh down at Pluscarden Abbey and it was so different to see him in the garb of a bishop and no longer wearing his white wool Benedictine habit! He is a lovely man! But then again I haven't met a Bishop that wasn't lovely. God bless our clergy! :-)

As the buffet (feast?) dwindled to a close I stood by with the kirk vacuum while trying not to look conspicuous. I didn't want to fire that puppy up and inturrupt our new Bishop as he socialized with the final few visitors. And I certainly didn't want to rush anyone out of the door buuuuut the kids, now crashing from their sugar high, were starting to dig at their eyes and their little halos were beginning to droop as wee horns began to emerge: Benji was standing there, glazed eyed and drooling. Elspeth was running around the room in hysterical circles shrieking and laughing while Inga was engaged in the arch-back-and-wither-to-the-floor precursor to a nuclear meltdown. Seeing as how it was 9pm I wasn't exactly surprised but I bribed her into a peaceful draw by stuffing her with some more goodies. Humiliating disaster thwarted...

Finally I saw my chance and set about vacuuming the crumb-laden floor. I ended up chasing the poor Vicar General from place to place as he took refuge in the latest crumb spots while I cleaned those that he had just swiftly vacated. And so instead of a cheerful goodbye chat with our new Bishop (who had to navigate the baracade I created against the door when I piled chairs out of the way of the vacuum) I was busy waging war on the messy carpet and Erlend was busy changing diapers on squirming kids. But even still, it was a lovely evening and we headed home in high spirits!

Of course all three kids napped on the way home and woke up at the farm filled with renewed energy, ready to continue the party!

God love you!