Day 3...#OfGodAndMe ...mainly Uni...1st summer at a US Camp, 2nd stopped by illness. A low point, but also growth in faith...a direction was there...& heading far away...
..if you really want, you can reach notes on most images with @get_altText as a reply to that tweet...
18. It was the Year of Three Popes, and I finished up working In Edinburgh for those weeks, interwoven with the Festival programme. Cambridge came as a shock. It took a while to see beyond the preciousness of College & Chaplaincy life, but I found good friends & faith grew.
19. A brilliant young friar, BobOP, was our college chaplain, & turned out 2 be an OB of my school. His informal Eucharists in student rooms were pivotal 4 my growth. The Children’s Visiting Gp created by Assist.Chaplain was faith in action, visiting families with ‘special’ kids
20. In retrospect, the biggest faith-developing moment was seeing a student after mass, sitting still & entirely lost in prayer. Kerry Leeper had more effect on me than any talk (tho’ Michael Ramsay was very good!) & inspired me to take prayer seriously, & seek to pray more.
21.Memorable retreats: one from college to Hemingford Grey; another with Ian Petit to Buckden Towers, where we nearly died of exposure. Then at Easter 1980 (2nd year) I went to Worth Abbey for the Triduum: this was completely new. I loved the psalms, & wanted to keep going there
22. ...so began a deepening fascination 4 contemplation & monastic prayer: the desert & those who pointed the way for us. Simone Weil was a new guide. In my 3rd year I found I was 2 doors down from Merton’s flat: his Contemplative Prayer read my mind & heart..I read @ Daily Mass
23. My roommate pal for 2 years switched from Classics 2 Theology, so I had a vicarious education in esp. StPaul & Hinduism.Standout experiences were the annual Dante Lectures; R.S.Thomas entrancing a theatre-full & Seamus Heaney doing an intimate reading, his wife in front row.
24. I might've seen it coming, but 1 day, walking across Market Square...the word ‘monk’ went off in my head; Not me, surely? I’m nowhere near those guys...but it wouldn’t go away. Novice Master & Abbot were patient & wise: you’ve been shown a glimpse. Is this what u want & need?
25. The advice was to do something else first. India beckoned. My roommate’s brother’s friend had been to St Stephen’s College, Delhi teaching English & directing Shakespeare. Sounded great, but word came back that the Principal wouldn’t have a Catholic at any price...#OfGodAndMe
Thank you for getting this far...tomorrow, despite the rejection, we go to India & back, with snakes & lows & highs... #OfGodAndMe
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