MONDAY

It suddenly occurred to me that we spend too much time thinking on what we do not have, what we have missed out on, rather than what we are, what we have.

TUESDAY

The Gospel reading today is about people giving excuses for not coming to a wedding. How many times do we give a pathetic excuse for not doing something.

WEDNESDAY

So I was tempted to give an excuse not to spend a tiring evening speaking at Oxford University on faith and politics and missing an important meeting in London but thought I better not. In the end, only four students turned up.

Really, faith in politics, certainly Christian faith, is dying. To our great impoverishment. Yes, us four had a good conversation. There is always a lot of good talk about lost causes in Oxford.

I walked past Latimer and Radley’s memorial. What would they have preferred: a Catholic or an indifferent England?

THURSDAY

About thirty parliamentarians who had served in the TA or Regulars went to the Guards Chapel for a Remembrance Service. It is a moving place. When it was bombed in 1944 and over a hundred people killed, the candles kept burning on the altar.

FRIDAY

The Gospel reading was about the dishonest servant. Is the true meaning that one has in any way to prepare for and insure against the next life?

SATURDAY

At our oblates’ talk in the Abbey, Father Alexander was explaining the Beatitudes.

I have always thought the consolation for not having power is that it gave one the opportunity to speak one’s mind and be honest. But the Beatitudes also make plain that it is the lack of something, certainly riches, even life, that can be the great opportunity or blessing.

SUNDAY – THIRTY-SECOND WEEK

Market Rasen was packed for Remembrance Sunday. In the Anglican Church I cried again at the story told of the execution of a teenager at Auschwitz. Someone asks “Where is God in all this?” The neighbour answers “God is there in that noose.”