I can turn myself around but not the photo!

Good day folks. One of my sons took this photo of me today, in front of my artwork called Creation. In the photo I am wearing a crucifix given to me on a retreat to a monastery in Scotland. The order has been awarded the medal on the crucifix after some monks were told to leave there monastery in somewhere like Morocco. They stayed, and were all beheaded. The Pope gave the order a medal for their crucifix! My crucifix was given to me whilst I was their, by a former monk who had left the order, but visited on retreats.

Like me he had a chequered past, having spent time in Barlinie prison for being a bit of a gangster. It just goes to show that like Paul on his way to Damascos, we can any of us get the oppotunity to change. For some of us it is at the foot of the cross.

In an interview for the BBC in 1986 Cardinal Hume spoke of how important the crucifix in his chapel at Archbishop`s House:

I like that because sometimes in the morning when you`re tired and have

a lot of worries in your head it`s not easy to get the head up to God, so you

have to pray with your eyes. Sometimes I just sit and look at the cross and

say to myself: A lot of people I meet or who write letters to me are suffering

terribly at this moment. So, looking at the cross, I think of all those people

sharing that passion, sharing the agony of our Lord. And if God became

man - as indeed he did - he came to share a lot of what we all have to live

and undergo and gives it meaning and purpose, and makes it holy. I find

that very powerful and when people say to me: "I`m very worried",

or "I`ve lost my husband", or "There`s been a terrible tragedy in our family

- please pray for me", I say "yes, I`ll do it tomorrow morning". So sitting in

the chapel, looking at the crucifix, I remember that person.`

So now I am able to look upon my crucifix and think well of my beloved Tracy who in dying gave

me a brain injury. Thanks to Gods we had six years together and some of them the most wonderfull in my life.

My brothers I bid you good day and leave you with a saying from Lao Tzu.

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.

Peace and love from your brother Peter.