Quinquagesima Valentine

The Anglican church calendar for the Sunday before Lent or Quinquagesima Sunday makes no mention of it being Saint Valentine's Day today. The old Roman calendar remembers a martyr of the early Christian era whose feast coincides with a pagan celebration of romantic love and desire, and that's what persists in contemporary social custom, thanks to commercial marketing as much as anything else. The Revised Common Lectionary theme is about Christ's Transfiguration. The old Church in Wales 1984 Prayer Book readings which I used when reading through the day's Eucharist focus on Jesus foretelling his passion, and is accompanied by 1 Corinthians 13, extolling self-giving sacrificial love rather than romance. This suits me better - love that endures in hope and trust, despite the odds. What the world needs right now. 

I woke up to the news that the US Senate voted not to impeach Trump, which putting on record personal and video testimony of the frightful events of January 6th and all that led up to it. Trump is already out of his self-imposed silence declaring he will run for president again. President Biden's administration is going to need all that the power of that love which endures in hope and trust over the next three years. Will the truth prevail? Will lies and duplicity in public life be defeated? We can only pray that good-will not ill-will prevails.

I cooked lunch again today and then walked up to Llandaff Cathedral, something I haven't done since the current lock-down started. I was delighted to find that it was open for private prayer, so I donned a mask went in and spent ten minutes savouring the atmosphere and praying. It's a place with memories going back sixty years for me. When I got back, I listened to Evensong from Clare College Cambridge on the BBC Sounds app. It's broadcast at three o'clock, but I'm never ready to listen to it at that time, so catch-up is much appreciated.

I found another French crimmie to watch on Walter Presents, called 'The Red Shadows'. It was set on the Cote d'Azure to the west of Marseilles, just like the last series I watched. The story-line is also a mix of family drama and flic movie, and even features some of the same actors, thought not in the same roles, thankfully. An audience winning formula or what? I wonder. Later on, another episode of 'Finding Alice', which I'm watching more out of curiosity about its handling of bereavement, rather than eager interest. Its pace now makes it border on the dull.