Fresco depicting Sts Cyril and Methodius

SUNDAY 12th February – Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I go to Mass in Westminster Cathedral.

“He has set fire and water before you, put your hand to whichever you prefer”
Ecclesiasticus 15:16.

MONDAY 13th February

I was the speaker at a fundraiser at Brown’s Hotel for Westminster Cathedral. The 1901 prospectus for the choir school was read to us. A two guinea fee, a lot of money then, just to do the audition. The choir sang to us. Strange that Westminster Cathedral has a Latin Mass every day of the week apart from Sunday.

A long reading today about Cain and Abel,

… we seem to have learnt nothing.

TUESDAY 14th February – St Cyril & St Methodius

We are in Lincolnshire this week for half term.

I do a long walk from Tealby up past Bayons Manor and across the Caistor High Road, swinging around Kirmond le Mire and back to Stainton le Vale.

I am continuing my reading one by one of the Psalms in the village church. I am up to number 116 and that is today’s Psalm by chance.

Psalm 116
“Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news”.

WEDNESDAY 15th February

Some days are beautifully clear. From the top of the Wolds you can see for miles.

My mindfulness tutor has just sent me this poem by the twelfth century writer Jalaluddin Rumi:

“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.”

THURSDAY 16th February

Psalm 101
“The Lord looked down from heaven to earth”.

I did a long walk from Tealby starting at Bayons Manor and walked up to the Caistor High Road. I looked back at wonderful, rolling views from the Wolds leading to the distant blue valleys, then took Monty on the lead down the valley into Kirmond le Mire.

A good, tiring walk.

FRIDAY 17th February

Psalm 32
“Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own”.

More walking and surgeries. I visit East Barkwith Post Office to show solidarity with Post Office Banks as the leading banks serving rural areas.

SATURDAY 18th February

Psalm 144
“I will bless your name forever O Lord”.

We drive to Durham to see Theo. Before we leave we walk from Elvet Bridge up to Palace Green and down to see his lodgings for next year on the other side of the river. Always nice to skirt Palace Green and be faced with the magnificent north front of the mighty Cathedral, unmoving and unmoved, here for nearly a thousand years, majestic in its precission.

I could walk in Palace Green for hours contemplating its beauty and remembering that for two years I lived in Abbey House, staring at its vast bulk. The House is now the theology department of the university. I was on the top floor at the back, without the view of the Green.

We drive to Glasgow to see Nicky.