06/05/2024

More 85th Birthday Musings

I cannot but view the world though the optic of an ageing priest who, having survived his first five years on this planet in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, aged 15, fell in love with God and committed himself to helping the Creator make the world around him a better place.

Life was not obliged to turn out as I had hoped. Instead of becoming a Jesuit, I joined Opus Dei. Maturing spiritually as the years passed , I was obliged to leave it.

As diocesan priest I had hoped to develop SPEC not just in the UK but Czechia. However, thanks to the decisions of Cardinal Cormac, this dream became impossible.

Then, thanks to the pressures brought in by safeguarding, the dream of developing parish sports clubs to attract young people to the church and its liturgical life, hit a brick wall.

So, now, up-beat, I write for the Universe Catholic Weekly, share my musings on life on my website and care for the community based in the chapel of the Religious of the Assumption at Kensington Square - as well as caring for a 91 year old with dementia.

Life is good, very good, though not as I had imagined it would be for me.

As the jest puts it "if you want to make God grin, tell him your plans."

 I had hoped, and carrying on hoping, to carry out God's will for me. Hitherto, God has treated me very gently. For this, I am hugely grateful. Whether my life ends more like that of God's incarnate Son, or more like the mother of Jesus, only time will tell.

Currently, I am not troubled by the magnitude of the challenges facing The Church. It has passed through worst times in its history and recovered. All I can do, is to do all I can and having done my best, leave the rest to God.

I am an honorary member of half a dozen loving famines, and have been drenched in beautifully heart-warming birthday wishes, I look joyfully at the future, rejoicing in God's love for me.