To a funeral in Hampshire yesterday. Anthony Kirke RIP produced a little Carmelite calendar every year with the feasts of the OCD saints. He wasn’t himself a Carmelite but his widow Judith has been a member of the Order for many years. In fact she was one of my two mentors in Carmel in my early years of formation. She has always been a resolutely positive person and she taught me to treasure a marvellously simple expression when painful and difficult things are happening to me – “Alleluia anyway!” Later I supplemented this with another phrase that I have found extremely helpful – “The Adorable Providence”. God is in everything that happens to me whether it seems good or bad, and God is adorable. Recently I have been pondering a third similar expression – “A Severe Mercy” – which is the title of a book I have just been rereading. It tells the remarkable story of Sheldon and Davy, an atheist American couple who encountered C S Lewis while Sheldon was pursuing studies in Oxford after World War II: he helped them on their way to Christian faith in the Anglican church. Davy died in the 50s but Sheldon lived on to become a Catholic in 1981.
Intercessions:
Bernard - operation
Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer
Siena, Elara – sick children
Rosemarie – very seriously ill
Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated
RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)
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