I was to serve at an ordination but seem to have missed the rehearsal! I had my black cassock on and was following Fr Michael down a dark corridor when we suddenly confronted by a cardinal in pink. We all prostrated on the carpet because the cardinal was so terrifying and like a wolf.
Next we were in Brentwood cathedral or at least a modern building downstairs crowding into a sacristy. I was given a long pink cassock with a hood and my immediate thought was do I wear the hood. More and more people crowded into a line in a room as the music started above us with me at the end. The cardinal turned to me and turned out to be friendly. There was a dash to put on the pink cassock over my black one and when we reached our places there was an elderly lady kneeling on her stool without any shoes on so I did the same but kept my shoes on! The lady then passed out from the heat so we all tried to help her. Next a sort of circus unfolded with floats and dancers to show off the glories of the diocese. This included acrobats jumping over us! We never got the actual ordination as I woke up.Maybe this was a response to The Tablet's article about an Australian bishop Mark Coleridge that "Time may be up for 'chatty' worship".
"Where once our churches were places of silence for the sake of prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, the custom has arisen in recent years for people to talk freely in the churches, certainly before and after Mass. The same is true of the sacristy. The sign of Peace is not a hearty 'G'day' to the world: it is a ritual action, expressing something different and deeper".
