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A quiet evening reading from Tanquerey’s The Spiritual Life, first published in 1923:

“[The Psalter] is the most excellent of Prayer-books wherein we find in a language that always lives and never grows old, the most beautiful expressions of admiration, adoration, filial reverence, gratitude and love, together with the most ardent supplications, midst situations the most varied and trying […] To read and reread them, to ponder them and make their sentiments our own is surely a highly sanctifying occupation.” (Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology)

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A beautiful prayer about vocation by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, often attributed to St Óscar Romero:

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In the years leading up to my conversion, I gradually became fascinated by Thomas á Kempis’s devotional text, The Imitation of Christ. I encountered it first in the letters of the young Samuel Beckett, and next in the interviews of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, and then in all kinds of other unexpected places. Among them, this 1877 letter from Vincent Van Gogh to his beloved brother, Theo:

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Corresponding from distant Paris, Fr Huvelin offers spiritual advice to St Charles de Foucauld as he works as a gardener in Nazareth:

“Nourish yourself on the Psalms, which give such vivid expression to the feelings that feed the soul united to God or in search of him.” (13 May 1897, qtd. in Jean-Jacques Antier, Charles de Foucauld)

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Holy Thursday

On Holy Thursday, we visit St Peter’s Square and enter St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. We spend time in prayer at the Altar of the Crucifixion of Saint Peter; at the Chapel of the Sacrament; and at the Tomb of Saint Peter the Apostle underneath the Main Altar (Saint Peter’s Baldachin).

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Saturday afternoon. Revisiting Merton, Newman, and this from Madeleine Delbrêl:

“We are not lacking silence. We already have it. / If we lack silence, it is because we have not learned how to keep it. / All the noises that surround us make much less din than we ourselves do. / The real noise is the echo that things have in us. / It is not speaking that necessarily breaks the silence. / Silence is the place of the word of God, and if we confine ourselves to repeating this word, then we can speak without ceasing to be silent.” (The Dazzling Light of God, trans. Mary Dudro Gordon)

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“All good things have come unto me, since I no longer sought them for myself.” (St John of the Cross)
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I am delighted to say that today I accepted a role as Head of Religious Education and Chaplaincy Coordinator at St David’s Catholic College. I joined the college as a pastoral tutor four years ago this month, after a religious conversion prompted me to seek out a new career in the service of my local community. I am so grateful for my colleagues, for my students, and for the grace of faith which has brought me this far. I look forward to tomorrow with a renewed sense of excitement and purpose. Deo gratias.
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Solemnity of St John of the Cross, 14 December 2023

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“Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” (Jn 6:12)

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In late August, Jenn and I attended the Green Man Festival in Wales, UK. While representing the Fashion Department of the University of South Wales, Jenn, her colleague Emma, and several of their students facilitated upcycling workshops with industry partners Hiut Denim and the Sustainable Studio.

It was my first time at the festival, and so I was surprised to find myself carrying a Guest Pass, chatting with ITV Wales News presenters, and visiting the behind-the-scenes Press Tent for the recording of a podcast.

The workshops were a great success, with festival goers of all ages dropping by to give new life to old garments, and create personal DIY zines from mainstream magazines, in a space that offered opportunities to reflect, to experiment, and to play.

Since the Green Man Festival trades on that mysterious alchemy where mud is transformed into music and memory, it was fitting to see so many discarded and forgotten objects tailored for a bright future.