Clouds of doom...

I procrastinate...a lot. In fact, some of the work I am expected to complete is over a year out of date. I can't explain it, but finding the impetus to sit down and write something insufferably tedious is impossibly difficult for me under the present circumstances. I never had this trouble at Sixth Form, or at school, so why now, when matters hang by a thread and things are perilously important? My attention is so easily diverted from the important stuff to the fun stuff. I remember that roughly a year ago, my Latin teacher caught me translating one of the Propers from the day's Mass when I ought to have been revising Cicero. I have also a strong tendency to divert my attention away from meaningless stuff such as Inter-religious dialogue and Ecumenism towards Liturgy and Church History - you know, things that have a righteously exalted place in the discipline of Theology. But the Syllabus is different, and I expect that doing a degree in a Modernist institution comes with a price. I only pray God that I can find the inclination to cope with it, and get a First, or a high Second, if I am spared. (May I ask the prayers of my readers for this intention also?)

On a lighter note, after doing some work and checking my emails, I went into the Stacks today and was perusing Martinucci and an old 1884 Breviary. It was a massive tome! And I came out covered with the dust of it (marvellous!) I photocopied three pages from Martinucci, and after packing my things, went off to South Kensington. I decided to visit the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of All Saints and the Dormition (it's not far from the Oratory) for their ''Evening Service'' with Veneration of the Holy Cross. I forgot how long those things are. Two hours exactly! But it was pleasant enough; not as grand as the last time I was there (in November 2007 for Vespers and Akathist to the Mother of God, on the occasion of the visit of the ''Kursk'' Icon to the Theotokos) but I do admire Orthodox Liturgy. I didn't like the fact that half of it was in Church Slavonic and half in the English tongue - I would rather it were all in Church Slavonic, which seems to suit the chant better, but there we are, I don't experience enough of their Liturgy to care much. It seems strange to me that the Orthodox churches have no equivalent to a Master of Ceremonies. The ceremonies of a Divine Liturgy or Vespers all seem rather complex to me, and yet all seem to know what they're doing...On the train home, I read the pages of Martinucci. I wonder why I find Ecclesiastical Latin so much easier than Classical Latin? Maybe someone else can answer this for me!

I hope you're all enjoying my posts about The Silmarillion...