...where, as always it was a joy to arrive and to go up the drive and past the wide lawn, and plunge into warmth and friendship when barely through the front door. I had come straight from the lovely family who had hosted me for the Ordinariate meeting the night before...and found the team at Maryvale busy with a mailing to Ordinariate people!
Our weekends of lectures for the BA Divinity course are always excellent...this time we were tackling St John's Gospel, and also Moral Theology...
Brigettine nuns bustling about, a lecture hall with people gathering and swapping news as things begin, the chapel with the candles glowing. There have been new carpets put down since I first started coming to Maryvale a couple of years ago, and there is a fine Papal flag in the hall as a memory of the Holy Father's visit to Birmingham, and a sense of gentle glee over being able to say "Blessed John Henry Newman"...but the old house still has that indefinable scent of Old England, a vague feeling of the faithful from centuries past joining in the prayers in the chapel, the strange and agreeable tilt of the old stairs, the sense of being a guest in an old, old home...
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3 comments:
Dear Auntie Joanna, Your descriptions of Maryvale (setting, lectures, and assigned reading) are so good that I feel happily transported from gray days here in NY. I, too, was an adult student in college & graduate school and, like you, value the privilege.
Weather-wise, January seems interminable with ice and snowstorms hitting 2 or 3 times a week.It's the snowiest January ever in NYC! Cold temperatures have prevented our usual "January thaw" from giving us a melting reprieve. Emergency Rooms are busy with those who have slipped on the ice (how is your injury?) or attempted too much snow shoveling. Since most of our snow falls in February, stay tuned! Prayers in our parish today (Sunday) centered on peace in the Middle East. of course.
Sheila A. Waters, Bronxville, NY
Your are performing a fantastic job. Make sure you keep on posting. Many thanks
Sounds wonderful and puts me in mind of the 'England' I remember from my early childhood at Reedham Park school in Surrey.
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