Today I had a long awaited opportunity to visit the grave of #SimoneWeil. Finding her writings, and her life, both extra-extraordinary, lit up my late teens. Her response to #GeorgeHerbert’s Love, & her living Easter at Solesmes struck loud chords…1/
I knew what I was looking for from photos @RedRector but I hoped 4 a few clues at the Cemetery. An Office? No. Plot number map? No. Chapel? No. Time was short, & I actually had no idea where the ‘Catholic bit’ was: & how big was it? There were tall angels evrywhre so no help. 2/
Some sixth sense or a guiding angel took me to the right area…then a look at the plot number on GMaps confirmed how close I was. The flat memorial is inconspicuous, but the colour of the lovingly kept primulas stood out. 3/
Moving to see how short was her life, how deep was her influence, how long she has been physically dead. But her searing insights, engagement & spectacular kites, live on with a wonderful intensity. And now today her #Affliction insights are, literally, crucial for us. 4/
Her Christian writings & her biography show her as a friend of the Holy Spirit. We do well to give her prescient & pregnant words the *attention* she saw as foundational 2 a life of faith. She stood at the gateway into the church as a witness. I sang the #SalveRegina for her. 5/
Rest in peace, & rise in glory. Simone Weil’s ability 2 awaken faith & the asking of questions in all kinds of people is typified by #PattiSmith’s moving pilgrimage 2 #BybrookCemetery in 2017. Hers is a unique voice, a pure, deep & energising message. 6/ bit.ly/3XxNo52

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More from @shotwithspirit

Nov 24
Sad to miss Rev Dr David Scott’s funeral today in his beloved Lake District. A train load going from Winchester I could not join with. So I sat & re-read his wonderful contribution to our #AugustineBaker conference in 2000 in #Abergavenny. His waspish…1/ ImageImageImage
…sinuous, intrigued & intriguing lilt on every page. I miss the twinkle in his eye, & that timbre in his voice that made him one of the best of readers. It’s not fully present on these SoundClouds (he needed the audience?) but his poems are brilliant…2/ bit.ly/3XnyJJI
A Long Way From Bread & Skelling Michael are 2 of my favourites…#RowanWilliams’ quote gets him well in this obituary. 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 16
On the 33rd anniversary of the murder of the #UCA #Jesuits of #ElSalvador & their mother & daughter companions, I treasure the unforgettable @RomeroTrust pilgrimage that took us there, & the people we met. #SanRomero, pray for us all. 1/
Our visit to #UCA in 2017 was only our 2nd & 3rd days in #SanSalvador, staying @ the beautifully located #CentroLoyola. We met wonderful people everywhere who welcomed us with open arms. They asked that we might share their story with others when we returned home. @RomeroTrust 2/
We were able 2 see the rose garden where 4 of the #Jesuits were shot dead. 2 more & the #Ramos mother & daughter were shot inside. Poignantly, the gardener #Obdullo was their husband & father. He found the bodies at dawn. The women had stayed over 2 be safer from govt violence 3/
Read 10 tweets
May 26, 2021
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. Our 1st Year football team somehow ended up with 7 confessin
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 Bob Ombres OP, a great influence on many of us, in a very quThe CVG was a great regular commitment, with a weekly family
Read 10 tweets
May 25, 2021
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. From 'Somewhere Else', one of the poems in Thirst (2001, Thr
Read 11 tweets
May 24, 2021
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. Fortunately we were blessed with the right one as 'eldest'!
Read 14 tweets
Apr 6, 2021
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

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