The BBs and manly habits

I've been finding it difficult to get to sleep recently, and one night last week I was lying in my bed thinking about stuff (not the Four Last Things, I'm ashamed to say), and I started to remember my time in The Boys' Brigade.

I had joined The Boys' Brigade in primary school at the incentive of my best friend and many other boys in my class. It was actually quite an unusual situation to have so many Catholic boys in a Company (the most local division of the Boys' Brigade) as the movement is heavily linked to the Kirk*. Nevertheless, we all went along and wore the uniforms and practised marching and played football and other games. As a youth club, I think the ethos there was pretty good. There was a strong emphasis on prayer at the beginning and the end and a good balance of discipline, education, and fun.

Once I reached about 18 and had completed all the activities and badges, I became a warrant officer which meant I was basically like one of the staff. Both as a senior Boy (NCO) and as a warrant officer, I had to train the younger boys in drill and basic knowledge of the Boys' Brigade. Part of this was ten questions about the movement and its founder, Sir William Alexander Smith.

Now, I've gone through these questions so many times that I know most of them by heart. I have problems with remembering dates generally (except birthdays), so I've forgotten these. Anyway, out of these ten questions, one of them was usually the most difficult for boys to learn: what is called the Object of the Boys' Brigade.

When I thought about this last night, I couldn't help be struck by how Catholic the object sounded. Here it is in full:

The Object of the Boys' Brigade is the advancement of Christ's Kingdom among boys and the promotion of habits of obedience, reverence, discipline, self-respect, and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness.

 Most boys had great difficulty in remembering the four habits or remembering to say "of habits". We usually said remember ORDS.

I find the habits chosen by Sir Smith to be particularly interesting, as to him they are clearly the habits he most identifies with manliness. Nowadays, obedience and reverence are rarely mentioned as being worthwhile habits at all, let alone habits particularly conducive to Christian manliness.

While lying in bed thinking about this, I first came to the conclusion that though I do prize obedience, reverence, discipline and self-respect as good habits, and I think I am fairly obedient and reverent (maybe), I'm not particularly manly. But then I considered what I thought to be manly. Was it secular, worldly manliness or Christian manliness?
I know for a fact that I'm not manly in a secular way. Whether I am manly in a Christian sense is yet to be decided. All I know is that I do desire to be obedient, reverent, disciplined and self-respecting. I do strive for Christian manliness. Perhaps the Boys' Brigade achieved its goal in this respect.

* The presbyterian Church of Scotland is commonly referred to as the Kirk in Scotland. The similarity between the Scots word kirk and the German Kirche thrills me probably more than it should.

Goodness, are we into the Third Week after Easter already?
Pope Francis has now been Pope for just over a month. I'm now slowly getting used to this fact. Unlike the first few days and weeks where I read everything about what he was doing, saying, (wearing), I now no longer pay much attention. Rather like normal, I suppose. With Pope Benedict, I read what he was saying and doing only intermittently, too. I just can't keep up with it all. I imagine this is the case for most people.

There have been a number of happenings since my last post. Most notably, I went to the Eternal City for five days, which was a wonderful yet exhausting experience. More on that in a bit.
Secondly, it was the end of Lent and Easter, which is always rather intense.
Thirdly, it looks like I'm set to move out of my parents' place into a flat with two friends.

First, my trip to Rome.
For long and convoluted reasons, I was lucky to attend a Church conference held in Rome. This meant some brilliant privileges such as a tour of the crypt to see the tomb of St Peter, and prime seats at Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter's Square. Fantastic. The conference itself was very interesting, though the days were long (12 hours) and things often ran late. More on that soon as it develops (and I figure out whether I can give more info).

Second, Easter.
Since my parish shares a priest with another parish, it was our turn to have the Triduum. This meant being drafted in for serving, singing and a bunch of other stuff*. In one way, this turned out to be a blessing, as I will explain later. I served Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil (getting out the thurible for the Thursday and Saturday!), while serving on Friday seemed largely pointless. Finally, I imposed myself on everyone for the last time on Easter Sunday, where I sang the Sequence**. In Latin. The good thing is that many people complimented me on it. I'd volunteered myself for it so people didn't expect me to sing it (I'm not a cantor or singer at my parish). I think the element of surprise actually helped as it was refreshing.

Third, moving out.
This is partly related to the previous point. Despite the relative success of the Triduum, the whole experience shed light on where my parish is and how it is faring. And also on how little can actually be done without the PP being on board. Or even on the same page. Comments during the Easter Vigil highlighted his hermeneutic and it crushed my spirits completely. The joy of the feast got me through it but I couldn't cope with it afterwards. This is convenient. I'm moving out at the end of the month into civitatem ipsam. This means that I'll be leaving my parish too. Time to move on. There's some excellent news in this respect. But that's for another time ;-)

*oh, alright, I admit I volunteered myself for everything!
**I love the Easter sequence Victimae paschali laudes