SUNDAY

We have a new priest at Market Rasen, Father Robert, and I am delighted to see a bit of Latin back. I never know why we have discarded Latin for the unchanging parts of the Mass.

“The word of God is something alone and active; it cuts like any double-edged sword, but more finely. It can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow. It can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)

I feel this is a point from the separateness of our real presence, our soul, from our mind and body. The soul can lie dormant under the weight of mind and body or we can deliberately create it, be part of it, and know that we are thereby separate from mind and body.

Jesus says today “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” (Mark 10:17-30)

Why does he say this? Is he articulating his separateness from God?

But it gives us all hope that, if he can say that, there is hope for us.

MONDAY

I went to a meeting of all the cathedral deans of England at the House of Lords, all struggling to maintain their buildings. In the time I have been associated with Lincoln, great steps have been taken to restore it as a site of pilgrimage – not least with the new statue of the Virgin Mary (even though she does have a slight squint!).

TUESDAY

I start the chairing of the Trade Union Bill which will keep me occupied for the next three weeks.

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth the work of His hands.”

WEDNESDAY

“For the submissive who refused to take truth for their guide and took depravity instead, there will be anger and fury.” (Romans 2:1-11)

This is the key: submission. To fate, to one’s soul.

Cardinal Mercier’s prayer comes to mind: Let me be submissive to that you require of me.

But this is surely not just a quiet submissiveness to fate. It is a determination to separate ones true self, one’s soul from an external form.

THURSDAY – St Teresa of Avila

Strange to think she was almost an exact contemporary of Mary Tudor, just a year older, if that. British history would have been very different if they had died in the same year as well as being born in the same year: 1515 and 1582. But St Teresa’s memorial is infinitely more lasting because of its spirit.

FRIDAY

The psalm today is number 31:

“You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.”

At one level this can be seen as God-centric; nothing wrong in that. But in another sense it is also looking into our soul – looking beyond body and mind into the soul brings joy and salvation now, not just at some future date.

But the Gospel reading is certainly God-centric:

“Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight.” (Luke 12:1-7)

So some sort of New Age mysticism is not enough. We cannot connect to our soul as our own. We are counted.

SATURDAY 17 October – St Ignatius of Antioch

He was only the second bishop of Antioch after Peter. Thrown to the lions – what a man of courage. He described his guards as leopards: the kinder you were to them the nicer they became.