Remembering life-long commitment

After a disturbed night, I couldn't get myself into gear to go to St German's to attend Mass, as I'd intended. I have to accept there there are going to be good and bad days on the way to recovery. To me, my body reactions seem arbitrary, but in perspective the healing process still seems positive. 

The painter returned this morning to complete finishing touches on the rear of the house. There are a few tiles on the roof to be fixed, and then the scaffolding comes down. Job done..

This afternoon I extended my walk up the Taff beyond Llandaff Weir to Llandaff North road bridge and back, thanks to footpaths on both sides of the river. Thankfully, Cardiff is blessed with routes to  take you away from the incessant stream of car traffic.

Recently, after supper and listening to the nightly edition of 'The Archers' on Radio 4, with nothing better to do, I've been watching episodes of 'Law and Order' on Five USA. Initially, it was an effort to make sense of American judicial procedures, rather different from ours, yet equally dedicated to pursuit of truth and doing justice by perpetrators and victims. What's starting to impress me now is the way different episodes introduce debate on contemporary moral issues, and the challenge we all face in discerning how to do the truth in every different situation in which we find ourselves today.

I had a message from Revd, Doreen this afternoon, celebrating her fiftieth anniversary of clothing as a Novice of the Community of the Holy Name, the start of working out her call to ministry. I recall when we met several years ago while I was on locum duty in Málaga, she told me that she first sensed a calling to priesthood as a child. It finally happened for her over forty years later.

Co-incidentally, I made a personal retreat before my diaconal ordination at the Convent of the Holy Name in Malvern Link around the time of her clothing. A CHN sister made my first traditional style alb for me and I wore it for both ordinations, and at services for the next twenty years until I was given my first all-in-one cassock-alb as a parting gift by Halesowen parishioners in 1992. 

Fifty years later and we're both still active in the adventure of voluntary ministry, still energised by that vision and sense of mission that inspired us half a century ago. Thank God, that's all I can say.