Lost whale pays visit to House of Parliament - Saint Brendan

And now for something a bit out of the ordinary:

Apparently a 18 foot bottle-nosed whale has appeared in the Thames river in London.

It has been drawing enormous crowds of observers, most of them schoolchildren or business people on their lunch break.

Of course, I hope the whale makes it back safely to open water, but at the same time I love these little inclusions of nature into our work-a-day world...

And just to keep this mildly Catholic-related, the "patron saint" of whales is Brendan the Navigator, an Irish saint who legend has it was sailing the open seas once with some of his brother monks and wished to be able to celebrate Mass somewhere on Easter. Lo and behold, they come upon an island, and only after they had celebrated Mass and attempted to light a fire did they realize that the island was actually the back of an enormous whale!

Here is a prayer ascribed to St. Brendan before sailing the Atlantic Ocean (like so many Irish after him!):

Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home?

Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea?

Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy, without silver, without a horse,without fame, without honor?

Shall I throw myself wholly upon You,without sword and shield, without food and drink,without a bed to lie on?

Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?

Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness,tears streaming down my cheeks?

Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?

Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?

Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?

O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?

O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?