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Michael Woodward

26 May, 10 tweets, 4 min read

@get_altText

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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More from @shotwithspirit

Michael Woodward

@shotwithspirit

25 May

@get_altText

Day 2, #OfGodAndMe Moving towards adult life...
we continue with departure from London to Hampshire, 1970...

...if you really want, you can reach notes on some images with @get_altText as a reply to that tweet...

9.4th sister stayed with neighbours to finish her O Levels, so I was an only child, in a new town. A 17 mile Sponsored Walk for Oxfam showed me the geography, but I never quite took to Bournemouth. The stammer made reading round the class torture at times, altho’ I loved to read.

10.Another summer camp in Wales. But now news came that my Dad had suddenly died. For sound seeming reasons I was left at camp & not brought home 4 his funeral; but it was not a good call, & wouldn’t happen now. When I came home I felt I couldn’t talk of him as it upset my Mum.

Read 11 tweets

Michael Woodward

@shotwithspirit

24 May

1. I walked the day we moved from leafy Strawberry Hill to Woodford in 1960, for my dad’s work. I was youngest by 5 years. With 4 sisters, I was destined 2b named Charlotte, & everyone was shocked. Fortunately I was baptised Michael Anthony, sharing Padua’s feastday. #OfGodAndMe

2. It was a ‘mixed marriage’: so Catholic schooling. I lived the slow impact of Vat2. Our churches were Franciscans at Woodford Green & a brand new church of Blessed Anne Line a walk away; my school was solid. I adored Midnight Mass, the words of hymns, but much else was a blur.

3.I loved my sisters & felt truly enfolded in family. We did homework together. If they weren’t quite ready 2 go out, I took their boyfriends into the garden for football & cricket, & got them proper sweaty. The eldest was married & gone 2 NZ in 1967. She had been my second mum.

Read 14 tweets

Michael Woodward

@shotwithspirit

6 Apr

A few more days to catch Christine Jensen Hogan’s intriguing play about #ThomasMerton & #AnneBradstreet, ‘Un Pas de Deux, Un Pas de Dieu’... Just 35’, “very amusing and touching, it brought tears to our eyes”... English Version, YouTube Link 1/
bit.ly/3rBId35

Also available is a version with #Spanish subtitles, provided by Fernando Beltrán Llavador from his 2000 translation of the play, published in Spain...2/ Spanish Subtitles Version, YouTube Link
bit.ly/31Mf1Mb

Also, catch the scintillating Panel contributions from Professor Carmen Manuel & Dr Gary Hall, with some great questions also. Well worth a listen... Panel Discussion 3/3
bit.ly/3umxTh1

Read 4 tweets

Michael Woodward

@shotwithspirit

11 Jul 20

Happy Solemnity of #StBenedict. Many artists have been inspired by #StGregory's account of Benedict of Norcia's eventful life. Here are a few highlights from a lovely German series that pulls off the trick of telling a narrative in a single frame. Here is Farewell to the World 1/

Maurus Walks On Water 2/

The Goths were often up to no good... Here is The Discovered Ruse #SaintBenedict 3/

Read 12 tweets

Michael Woodward

@shotwithspirit

10 Jul 20

Today we celebrate the Feast of #StBenedict. A reading from the #Prologue of the #Rule. Benedict wrote it as a guide for the communities that he grew to be responsible for when he became the focus for people who wanted to live a different kind of life...1/
bit.ly/3iQb7JA

in response to the decadence so prevalent in Rome that he was moved to abandon his studies, and live in a (very well chosen) cave for three years. The locals around Subiaco grew to admire him, and some wanted to join him;..2/

@LCStBen

..his example and way of life has had that effect ever since on men and women who have chosen to follow his example, both within organised communities the world over and, more recently, among people living ordinary lives in very varied circumstances. @LCStBen @opencloister 3/

Read 5 tweets

Michael Woodward

@shotwithspirit

24 Mar 20

#OTD #OscarRomero Arbishop of #SanSalvador was celebrating Mass in chapel of the hospital where he lived. a warm day. From the altar, he saw an assassin line him up thru the open door. Romero didn't flinch to protect others. His clothing shows the sweat 1/ bit.ly/39c7oA5

@RomeroTrust

In 2018, I was fortunate to travel with @RomeroTrust on pilgrimage to beautiful #ElSalvador to explore #Romero's life & legacy. Armed guards outside most shops reminded us of the gang scourge. But the beauty & dignity of those we met was unforgettable. 2/ bit.ly/39aWJWc

Those who knew Romero: the sister of a murdered priest, Fr Octavio Ortiz, who lost 5 brothers in the war; the young lawyer who worked with Romero on cases of the disappeared. In every village, Romero's memory is revered as the priest who stood with them in crisis & death. 3/

Read 8 tweets

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