I sent the below message to my teaching colleagues in school this evening, braced as we are for the arrival of “those-who-shall-not-be-named” (i.e. OFSTED, national school inspectors) sometime between now and Easter. For those of you who live outside of Britain their job is to monitor and ensure high standards in all schools… the problem is that they keep moving the goalposts. Anyway, enough of that. Here’s what I said: I think that the attached video teaching is for us right now, to help us not lose sight of who we are and why we are here in a Catholic school. It's too late for the weekend just gone, but try to take on board its message of "wasting time for God" over the coming weeks, despite the pressures that we are all under. Even if you are not a believer yourself, give yourself some time alone with your thoughts, if you can… even just a few minutes. The video teaching is by one of my favourite bands, Tenth Avenue North, and it accompanies a song of ...
Last Sunday, I went with confrères to a 17th century chapel near my new home of Châteaulin, the chapel of Notre Dame de Kerluan, for it’s annual “Pardon” (Breton equivalent of the ancient Irish “Pattern” days) which coincided with the inauguration of beautiful new stained glass windows by local artist (and former teaching colleague of some of my French confrères) Jean-François Chaussepied (www.chaussepied.com). The Mass and inauguration were led by the Bishop of Quimper, Mgr. Laurent Dognin, in the presence of the Mayor of Châteaulin, Mme. Gaëlle Nicolas. *** Dimanche dernier, je suis allé avec des confrères dans une chapelle du 17ème siècle près de ma nouvelle communauté à Châteaulin, la chapelle Notre Dame de Kerluan, pour son « Pardon » annuel (équivalent breton des « Pattern days » en Irlande autrefois) qui co...
Over the past few months I have become much more aware of the beauty of the Grail translation of the Psalms that we use in Morning and Evening Prayer (Divine Office) - I will write more about this in the near future - and I am also finding that this has rubbed off on my attitude to the other prayers in the Office. For example, the following hymn that we prayed just over a week ago. The words struck me as if I was discovering them anew, and this after having prayed (or simply recited?) them at least once a month for about 25 years. The optimism of the imagery struck me most forcefully and I love the idea of God hearing our prayer "before we call", i.e. as the paslmist says elsewhere "before ever a word was on my lips... you knew me through and through" (I paraphrase). See what you think yourselves... Morning Prayer of Sunday, week 3 Transcendent God in whom we live, The Resurrection and the Light, We sing for you a morning hymn To end the si...
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