It's interesting the way things work out.

Writing my talk for tomorrow on 'helping those in need' - with action, giving and prayer. Broke off to go and say evening prayer at church - which was disrupted by the plausible homeless chap wanting food and not really knowing what to do with himself. One's immediate reaction - oh no, how can I deal with this and get on with all the stuff that needs to be done, like writing a talk on 'helping those in need'...

Penny drops, someone gets a bag of food, and an old sleeping bag, and some emergency accommodation and food numbers, and some telephoning change and some cigarettes. Who knows how it will end? He may be a druggie, or he may be a person who wants to be sorted. He may turn up at church tomorrow morning, we may never see him again.

But at least we tried to help. That is what we are supposed to be here for...

Interesting adverts on this blog site right now!!!

Blogging again, in passing...

Busy time, lots of personal challenges, but lots of fun...

I'll blog for real in a day or so, fill in on some more details...

Just passing right now...

Bye-bye!

That's what I'm doing!

It's been a long time without much blogging - New Wine (big Christian festival, which we could unpack the theology etc. of for hours and only get to skimming the surface), holidays, time back in Gloucester but not at work (that was goooood - a chance to do some stuff and spend time with kids and try and think about stuff).

Looking forward to work starting again tomorrow - back into the thick of parish ministry, funerals, services, visits, praying, trying to make sense of it all and me in the middle of it. Fantastic stuff!

Highlight of my first five weeks in the job of 'Assistant Curate'?

Impossible to pick one. Visit to the undertaker's? Fantastic experience, a real eye-opener. Taking my first communion-by-extension? Deeply strange but very affirming. Funeral visits? Humbling and terrifying (thanks for being there, God!). The people in the parish and the church? Too much to try and unpack.

But I read a fascinating book on holiday - The Miracle Detective by Randall Sullivan. It's about the Catholic Church and miracles and visions. Partly interesting from a factual point of view - I knew so little about Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje (which I'd not even heard of). Mainly interesting because his agnostic/lapsed starting point can feel very familiar - and he discovered God's love as the key to it all, in a personal sense, via a journey that removed the need for black and white answers in a grey world where 'good fruits' can be found in surprising places!

I'll not read it again, but it was a very astute set of (out-of-control) observations drawing in some very wise and very spiritual people. Recommended.