Sunday, July 04, 2010

I rushed back...

...from Maryvale briefly midweek, to take some young people on a Catholic History walk in Chelsea. It was the end of a long hot day in London and they were tired, but they rallied and we had a happy time...they are a group from L'Aquila in Italy, where the parish is twinned with St Joseph's, New Malden, in a magnificent initiative which began following the L'Aquila earthquake. All praise to the organisers of all of this, and to the families hosting the young people on this summer's London trip. The young people were evidently enjoying themselves. I don't know how much they understood about St Thomas More and Henry VIII, but they seemed interested and it was rather lovely sitting in the evening sunlight by the church where he worshipped, and letting the story unfold around us...

Maryvale was absolutely delightful...a wonderful week. When I arrived back, very late at night after my London dash, there was a sense of coming home. Once our exams were over, there was a full week of lectures, and opportunities for study, talks with the course director, etc. The library is very good, and it was bliss to sit out on the cool lawns, reading. Excellent lectures from, among others, Fr Julian Green on the Trinity, Fr Robert Letellier on the Synoptic Gospels, and Prof Edward Hulme who gave us an introduction to in basic Arabic...

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