10 October 2022 A Bit of This, and a Bit of that Dear and gentle reader:  I find October to usually be a very busy month.  I'm in the habit of taking my annual retreat in October, which I have done, (yes, it was good, but I'm so glad to be back home with my cats).  It's also the month in which we parish priests are pelted with petty duties from the diocese - the annual "Mass Attendance Count", various pro-life organisation requests for money, scrambling for volunteers (which, if you're in a rural parish is hard to do, since it's harvest time), and add on top of it all the continuous irritating stream of emails from the diocese concerning the bishop's pet programme, and the Eucharistic "revival" (what are we, Pentecostals?).  Unfortunately, it is also the month in which our annual Priests Assembly Days occurs.  Few things irk me more than having to endure the pious blather of my brethren, most of whom seem to be unable to talk about anything ...