I lent a book “Wayfaring” by Margaret Silf to a seminarian
staying at the priests' house. I met him in church the other day and
he returned it, because he was going away for two or three weeks and
thought that he might not see me before I return to the
UK. I have been trying to read this book for some years and always get so far and get distracted. This year however it seems that it keeps returning to me, maybe I will persevere. Margaret talks about an agate stone which looks like any stone on a beach until you turn it over. It has been sliced and polished to reveal something very beautiful inside. The journey she takes you on in the book is to help the reader to recognise the beauty that is hidden deep within ourselves. I have found on my Ignatian retreats that in getting closer to God I also discover a lot about the real me. If we believe that God dwells inside us in a very real sense then of course it is natural that the two cannot be totally separated. When I read my other book entitled “Belief” it is sad to see that many of the people interviewed have rejected the idea of a personal God that we can get to know to some extent. It seems to me that they are missing out on a very important aspect of being human. It is possible of course that I am deluding myself, but am I worse off for finding a deep peace and joy from the delusion?
I talked with Charles for some hours yesterday. For the past couple
of years he has been out of town and I have missed our discussions
about the world and all its issues!! We covered everything from the
latest problems with his projects to politics, the economy and the
missing Malatsian plane! He fed me with sump and by 14 hrs I
departed.
The day had been unusually cool and cloudy but finished with glorous
sunshine. Teddy popped around for a chat and it was good to catch up.
He has been very busy with the organisation of the bishops
consecration and has hardly had a chnce to catch his breath during
the past week or two. We agreed to meet at the hospital today to see
if there was any progress that could be made with the stores
database.
I found Teddy at the hospital but made little progress in respect of
the stores system I used the opportunity to meet Sr. Joyce who is
standing in for the Admiin Manager while she is on leave.
Chris
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