What I did on holiday

Got back from two weeks in Cornwall on Saturday. It was a complete break, we went to church once and I read the bible a few times but it was quite relaxed. We also had no interweb access and it was actually quite refreshing, so today I am starting to catch up with my blog roll but it's slow going and I didn't go to Greenbelt either so feel slightly out of the loop on that one.

We did make it to Truro cathedral, which is a stunning building with some wonderful art and a wonderful sense of calm about it. Particularly amazing as it's only 125 years old yet feels as ancient as many older cathedrals.

I also went out running along the coastal path from Mullion Cove (where we stayed, which was lovely thank you...). Half way through our stay I headed for St Winwalloe, the Church of the Storms at Gunwalloe. It was just a destination, reckoned to be about an hours running there and back. It was early so the beaches were almost deserted, but the waves were crashing onto beach. So as I stepped inside the church, there was an immediate sense of calm.

There was a card at the back with daily prayers, for Monday, the day I arrived was this:

God has created me
to do him some definite service:
he has committed some work to me
which he has not committed to another.
I have my mission –
I may never know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for his purposes:
as necessary in my place
as an Archangel in his.
I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for nothing.
I shall do good, I shall do his work;
I shall be an angel of peace,
a preacher of truth in my own place.
Deign to fulfil your high purposes in me.
I am here to serve you, to be yours,
to be your instrument.                                                                   (Cardinal John Henry Newman)

It sounds a little self-centred as I read it back, but the heart, soul and sentiment are there. It's a very personal prayer and a calling always begins as something personal. So at that time, in that place, it spoke to me. I was away from my routine and this reminded me of how I feel when I'm looking for my path. It often feels like whichever way I turn, the path seems to lead to same place.

I headed there again a few days later, watching storms move in across from the Lizard. The same sense of peace was present again in the tiny church. Then on the return run, a downpour of horizontal rain hit me and I was soaked in seconds. The wind so strong that the rain felt like needles. Well suffice to say, I did feel alive by the time I got back to the cottage. A great holiday!

Comments

  1. Eric Kyte30 October 2011 at 00:42

    Thank you for reminding me of that wonderful prayer of Newman's. I wonder if it is Self or God centered? He seems to express it all in terms of certainty of God's purposes rather than his own light?

    thank you for your honest sharings

    ReplyDelete

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