Work and prayer

After Morning Prayer and breakfast in College, I went straight down to the CBS office for the Steering Group meeting we've been preparing for all week. We covered a decent amount of ground and I came away with a couple of assignments. Now that the accounts side of the operation is set up and in good hands, I'm free to take on new tasks that will enhance our role as a crime reduction organisation. It's a lengthy painstaking task, like building and then furnishing a house. 

All the essentials are running well, so now we're 'building capacity' as bureaucratic jargon calls it. In our case that concerns data gathering and sharing which relates specifically to the area served by CBS RadioNet. Procedures are quite straightforward, but when those involved in security and crime reduction are constantly busy and under pressure, reporting and gathering information is the challenge, and that's what I have to work on in the coming weeks. 

It's something of a contrast to the other half of my life doing pastoral work with seminarians, but I find the contrast stimulating, and enjoy the switch between sanctuary and workplace. I cope well as long as I can get enough sleep and exercise - so I'm thankful for all those stairs I have to climb every day. With the Steering Group meeting to prepare for, this week has been busier than usual, commuting daily between my two offices, in order to fit everything in that needed to be accomplished, and without panic. 

A couple of times this week it has disrupted my personal prayer routine, and I've found myself reading the Daily Office from my smartphone app at the bus stop or on the bus into town. I've done this often, at leisure (and usually from the Breviary) while travelling long distance with hours to wait, or in the air, on bus or train trips. This was the first occasion I could recall doing this on the move during a working day. I can't say I'd recommend it as a regular practice, but I found the contrast between the familiar words of Psalms and prayers against the backdrop of a routine bus journey int town was stimulating and refreshing.

Generally the buses are fairly quiet and it's not hard to sit and meditate on a journey, when not needing to plan one's next move. Many of the Psalms it seems to me are rooted in everyday experience and emotion even though they were written two and a half thousand years ago. Many Psalms come from an urban setting with all the challenges of people living together not always in harmony often in conflict using and abusing each other. The appeals they make to God for sustenance and protection, their flashes of anger, resentment and despair, are part of our real life experience still. Perhaps out in the traffic with a deadline to meet is a good place to connect with them, in sharp contrast to tranquil reflection in the sanctuary.

After the meeting, I returned to College, but missed two of the four buses which go through Llandaff and had to wait in the cold an extra ten minutes, and be late for lunch. Fortunately, traffic on the road was light and the bus made few stops, so I just about made up for lost time. After a meeting with a student I went home to a quiet house, Clare being in Kenilworth taking part in Rhiannon's ninth birthday party. Both she and Kath sent me photos of the part while it was going on, and after supper I called to sing her Happy Birthday, and hear about the freezing cold outing to a farm she'd enjoyed with her friends, parents and grandma. This was one visit I just couldn't fit it - such a shame. Here she is with her friends at their farmhouse birthday tea.