Limoncello testing

Concerned readers will be glad to hear that the 'quality control' testing of Fr. Dan's limoncello was a great success. I can report that his limoncello (original version) is better than anything you can buy in the shops - it has a natural green/yellow colour, none of that artificial horrid yellow colouring. It is also almost syrupy - as he said, no-one should worry about becoming an alcoholic drinking his limoncello, they should worry about diabetes! I tried the grapefruit, which most people don't like - it is quite sharp and might make a nice drink between courses if you are having a particularly rich meal. The lemon/orange mix is very good - next stop - lime/lemon mix! Our limoncello session was needed after a difficult Personnel meeting - things are getting very serious in our diocese with the priest shortage. More and more priests are having to take two or even three parishes. As Pope Benedict said in one of his books, the crisis of the priesthood is really a crisis of the family, and the real reason for the vocation shortage is contraception, not celibacy. Yesterday was Confirmation - exceedingly hot Church - it was 81c outside. The sound system sort of blew up during the Mass, which was invigorating. Music was bouncy-bouncy - at some point the "we-we" hymns will have to be banned - "we are many parts....we are Christ's body....we are so important....we are the center of the liturgy...!" George Weigel wrote a column a while back in which he made the point that, for the first time in Christian history, we now sing hymns to ourselves!! The liturgy has become dangerously unbalanced - anthropocentic, not theocentric - which is really what Sacramentum Caritatis is all about. I do hope priests will start to use Sacramentum Caritatis as a sort of template for renewing the liturgy in their parishes - but it will be very hard work, given the fact that we have three generations who have been moulded in the anthropocentic model.