At last! After years of listening to the annual sermon about how the Poles saved us all at the Battle of Vienna while the Hungarians did nothing, and having to slink out of the chapel after Mass while my Polish friends bask in the glow of national pride, we finally scored a sermon in which the Hungarians were the heroes! Turns out that between St John Capistrano, John Hunyadi, and a whole bunch of enthusiastic peasants, an invading Ottoman force of 70,000 (with a three-to-one advantage, not to mention all the military power; the peasants had, like, scythes) lost the Siege of Belgrade, which defeat kept the invaders at bay for a further 70 years. Furthermore, this victory was the reason that the feast of the Transfiguration became a feast of the universal calendar! Magyarország forever!

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So…I’ve just finished Season Five of Fringe. I didn’t love it. I mean, there were the Observers trying to hunt down the main characters…and they never checked the science lab??? 

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I was thinking during Mass how it is that sometimes one needs a conversation with Our Lord, and sometimes with a saint; how, knowing that you can go directly to God doesn’t stop you from needing to talk to your friends in the Church Triumphant at times. And suddenly I thought of a bracelet – a red jewel set in a golden chain – and of the link in the chain between the jewel and the next link (if that makes sense.) And I figured that being part of the Communion of Saints is like being that link. At times you look directly at the jewel on your right; the whole chain exists for the sake of that jewel. At other times you look at the links on your left; it’s right to do so, because you’re all part of the same thing; without them, you wouldn’t be that bracelet. And looking along that series of gold links takes you back to the jewel, anyway.

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I’ve written elsewhere about memory-loss, and offered suggestions for managing it. Okay, I’m obviously the last person in the world to discover the existence of ‘University Challenge’, but I have to say I’ve been finding it helpful as a memory-rebuilding exercise. So, on the off-chance that you too have a tertiary education (or the autodidactical equivalent of such) and are rebuilding a trauma-busted memory, try it!