My dear Friends
Just to let you know that i will be off the air from tomorrow, Tuesday 13th November 2012 until Friday 23rd November, as I will be going to Glasgow.(See previous blogs.) I am really looking forward to this break, seeing my family and taking a little rest, as it has been an extraordinary year. Last year, 2011 was one of the most difficult years I have had in a long time and I suffered from ill health and a kind of lassitude. Only on december 11th and on my 60th birthday did I suddenly take on a new lease of life!
This year I have given two Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation and a talk with music, published two Newsletters for Friends of The Little Sisters of Joy and been on wonderful trip to Amsterdam.
But if we look back to 1998, also a watershed year and my trip to Rome, I want to tell you a little tale. I was there on 1st November, All Saints Day and attended Mass(but not in St Peters in the Vatican) near to the Vatican square. I discovered that there was also to be a wedding! A man struck up with a rather poor rendition of Ave Marie, the bride's father looked as if he should be wearing a toga and, all, in all, it had a touch of the bizarre. I melted among the wedding guests without a suitable wedding garment.
Reeling from this experience, I staggered out to St Peters Square. suddenly I heard a voice coming through a microphone. I thought to myself that i recognised the voice and when I looked up at the window, there was the Pope! John Paul II blessed us in Polish and everyone clapped. There were two curtains, one on either side of the Pope. He stepped back...and was gone.
Recounting this story to a little Catholic girl called Rosie the following week at Mass in cambridge, Rosie asked: 'Is he invisible?'
See you when I return
Shalom from Gila
Just to let you know that i will be off the air from tomorrow, Tuesday 13th November 2012 until Friday 23rd November, as I will be going to Glasgow.(See previous blogs.) I am really looking forward to this break, seeing my family and taking a little rest, as it has been an extraordinary year. Last year, 2011 was one of the most difficult years I have had in a long time and I suffered from ill health and a kind of lassitude. Only on december 11th and on my 60th birthday did I suddenly take on a new lease of life!
This year I have given two Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation and a talk with music, published two Newsletters for Friends of The Little Sisters of Joy and been on wonderful trip to Amsterdam.
But if we look back to 1998, also a watershed year and my trip to Rome, I want to tell you a little tale. I was there on 1st November, All Saints Day and attended Mass(but not in St Peters in the Vatican) near to the Vatican square. I discovered that there was also to be a wedding! A man struck up with a rather poor rendition of Ave Marie, the bride's father looked as if he should be wearing a toga and, all, in all, it had a touch of the bizarre. I melted among the wedding guests without a suitable wedding garment.
Reeling from this experience, I staggered out to St Peters Square. suddenly I heard a voice coming through a microphone. I thought to myself that i recognised the voice and when I looked up at the window, there was the Pope! John Paul II blessed us in Polish and everyone clapped. There were two curtains, one on either side of the Pope. He stepped back...and was gone.
Recounting this story to a little Catholic girl called Rosie the following week at Mass in cambridge, Rosie asked: 'Is he invisible?'
See you when I return
Shalom from Gila
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