I know Lent is over...

...but the Crescat had a really moving post last Thursday which I just now discovered. It's a series of works illustrating Jesus' Passion from the Last Supper to the Resurrection.

I reveal my secret anagram

Now that my full name's been posted on the web, sabotaging future job prospects and jump-starting my FBI file (so comforting to know that waterboarding is not torture, it just feels like it!), it's time for me to reveal the shocking feature of my seemingly respectable name. As we know, anagrams contain all knowledge and insight. And it turns out that "Rachel Florence Gray" anagrams to...

Forge carnal lechery.

Yeah... what can I say? But! I have a confirmation name to add now! When I realized this I flew over to the Internet Anagram Server to learn my new true identity, as anagrammed from "Rachel Francis Florence Gray". There were a few false starts, such as:

A Farcical Corn Greenly Fresh
and
Freelancing Charcoal Fryers

which suggest that any summer barbeque I might put on would be of uneven quality. Also there was:

Frilly Fragrance Encroaches

an apparent reference to the unfortunate habit of wearing overwhelming flowery perfume in crowded enclosed spaces. And there's a prayerful variation:

Rosary Chancel Fern Cafe Girl

which makes me picture myself praying in church with lots of little tables and potted plants around. But anyway, then I found this, and recognized it at once as my true anagram name:

Archangels: Fiercer Falconry!

How cool is that? Falconry is a life-or-death sport in which your trained falcon takes to the skies to kill smaller prey and bring the bloody little corpse back to you. So what's even fiercer than a falcon? An ARCHANGEL, that's what, who will take to the skies to slaughter the principalities, the powers, the world rulers of this present darkness, and then deliver their bloody little corpses back to me! Or perhaps I shouldn't push the analogy quite that far....

Dinner at elBulli

An old college friend of mine has this step-by-step illustrated account of his dinner at elBulli, a famous restaurant in Spain. It's worth reading if you have twenty minutes to waste; every course is something you've never seen before.

http://foo.net/~blakej/elbulli/

Faithful to the end

Sometimes the deaths of holy people have the air of being deliberately willed. I was told a story of Father Bede Jarrett, the great Dominican provincial who died not very long ago, which illustrates that. I have been told that when he fell into his last illness, Father Bernard Delany went to see him, and said, "Well, Father, of course you know that you've got to get well; we can't possibly spare you." And about a fortnight later, when Father Bernard went to see him again, Father Bede said, "Oh, Father, I'm so dreadfully tired; do you think you could let me want to die after all, or must I go on under obedience wanting to live? " And he naturally said, "Oh, of course I never meant to put you under obedience." And Father Bede said, "Thank you so much," and died about half an hour afterwards.

From The Creed in Slow Motion, by Msgr Ronald Knox

New convert has questions

Some dude named John C. Wright joined the Catholic Church this last weekend and posted about it. Among his questions:

I have heard my whole life how corrupt and superstitious the Catholic Church is, so, now that I am in, where do I sign up? I'd like to start with Simony. Can I buy Church offices wholesale, and then sell them through retail outlets? What are the tax implications?

Now why didn't I think to ask stuff like that? He also wants to know where to put his confirmation name. Apparently it goes right after your baptismal name, which would make me Rachel Francis Florence Gray. Not bad.