Should send an email to belle. Something about remorse not guilt. Something about the normality and lack of associations of Bonnevaux to my drinking past - easy to remember not to drink on Naxos, or with the children, or Pol, or with Johnny and Ingrid, or when I was at Sweffling. Here, surrounded by Grenouilles drinking wine, moderately, smoking, moderately, generally behaving moderately, in a civilised sort of way, and no bad memories (yet) of my own, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Until I have a drink of course, at which point it immediately becomes a problem, for me. So I shall stop, for today. For 7 days. Then we'll see.
We had mass in the chapel at 6pm and more rain. My causeway flooded. I re-arranged the pews in a more sensible fashion, but we didn't have many guests. Brigitte is looking after Gerard who's recovering from his stents and has gone back into hospital. Corinne came from 80 kms away, but only Jean Claude and Jacqueline from Poitiers (they live near the living hell of Auchan, Poitiers Sud, so it's not far for them). It was very nice, all in French, including Laurence's welcome and sermon - about Elizabeth and Mary meeting (The Feast of the Visitation?) which was appropriate for the chapel, with the stained glass of Mary and baby Jesus, and the statue (which I tried and failed to shift - weighs a tonne and a half) of Elizabeth and John.
I decided Bonnevaux is being given an extensive baptism, full immersion, and a confirmation by the tornado - definitely the Holy Spirit checking us out, and weeding out all the dead wood. Jean Christophe collected 3 bin loads yesterday and today, and has been trimming the fallen linden, and so far has barely made a mark.
supper with laurence - talked about patrick barry john main, basil, ambrose, placid
his 'received' opinions - on brexit, trump, corbyn, my reading the Spectator. I pointed out I was also a signed up member of Momentum and made a point of turning up to meetings with my Speccy under my arm, 'to provoke debate'. Buddha would probably not approve - a lot of stuff in the Rule and commentary about what you shouldn't talk about - or laugh at - everything, basically, apart from the weather.
Talking to Laurence about Benedict's Dharma and Patrick Barry's translation of the Rule. He said PB knew John Main, and that John Main had been invited by Basil Hume to give a retreat to the monks at Ampleforth. Then Basil went to Westminster and Rome, but Ambrose, the new Abbot, repeated the invitation. JM wrote a letter to LF making a joke about the vows (of stability, so the Abbot goes off to Westminster, and something about obedience and conversion of manners and rude references to the wilds of North Yorkshire, but it lost something in the re-telling). And Laurence knew Placid as well and visited New Norcia. Wheels turning full circles. Why did I choose Benedict as my confirmation saint, at Welbury Park, 52 years ago?
Laurent (French) and Valentina (Italian, from Florence), both Buddhists, so didn't come to mass, mates of Laurence's. We talked about the chaos and hell of Italy - Valentina very pissed off with Beppe Grillo and 5 Star (they're children making a virtue of their ignorance and incompetence, being outwitted by the Lega), and with Berlusconi who she blames for Italy's failure to go anywhere for the last 20 years.
Laurent very interested in Benedict's Dharma and the Rule. He's taking two years off to study the Buddhist texts. He's doing something for WCCM.
Kathy got very passionate about the Canadian First Nations, and Pope Francis' refusal to apologise to them for the way they were treated by the Church Missions (esp. because he has apologised to the Irish for the abuse scandal). [The smoke alarm's just gone off and I'm not even smoking]. Kathy wants to organise a WCCM Conference of Reconciliation for the First Nations. She's dead busy, making lists of improvements, and doing stuff all the time. She went off for a private meeting with Andrew before mass, probably to report on my appalling food safety habits - she kept asking me if she could throw stuff out, in the end I only let her chuck the salmon mousse from Saturday - I tasted it and would have eaten it if there was nothing else, but it is fish and did have a slightly dodgy taste. Saved everything else.
Delyth cooked Laurence shepherd's pie - his favourite - (actually hachette parmentier, or pate chinois if you're French Canadian - Laurence started googling factoids on his iphone, he even said mass off it; neeed it for the French liturgy and readings - but she claimed you can't mash new potatoes, so we just had them sliced). I got out the Brown Sauce for Andrew and I and we had fun explaining the delicacy to Laurent and Valentina. Laurent tried it, and said it was nice, like a chutney. But then he also likes Marmite.
And so to bed. It was Andrew's turn, but Delyth did all the washing up with a bit of help from Kathy, in about 5 minutes. I should have paid closer attention.
We had mass in the chapel at 6pm and more rain. My causeway flooded. I re-arranged the pews in a more sensible fashion, but we didn't have many guests. Brigitte is looking after Gerard who's recovering from his stents and has gone back into hospital. Corinne came from 80 kms away, but only Jean Claude and Jacqueline from Poitiers (they live near the living hell of Auchan, Poitiers Sud, so it's not far for them). It was very nice, all in French, including Laurence's welcome and sermon - about Elizabeth and Mary meeting (The Feast of the Visitation?) which was appropriate for the chapel, with the stained glass of Mary and baby Jesus, and the statue (which I tried and failed to shift - weighs a tonne and a half) of Elizabeth and John.
I decided Bonnevaux is being given an extensive baptism, full immersion, and a confirmation by the tornado - definitely the Holy Spirit checking us out, and weeding out all the dead wood. Jean Christophe collected 3 bin loads yesterday and today, and has been trimming the fallen linden, and so far has barely made a mark.
supper with laurence - talked about patrick barry john main, basil, ambrose, placid
his 'received' opinions - on brexit, trump, corbyn, my reading the Spectator. I pointed out I was also a signed up member of Momentum and made a point of turning up to meetings with my Speccy under my arm, 'to provoke debate'. Buddha would probably not approve - a lot of stuff in the Rule and commentary about what you shouldn't talk about - or laugh at - everything, basically, apart from the weather.
Talking to Laurence about Benedict's Dharma and Patrick Barry's translation of the Rule. He said PB knew John Main, and that John Main had been invited by Basil Hume to give a retreat to the monks at Ampleforth. Then Basil went to Westminster and Rome, but Ambrose, the new Abbot, repeated the invitation. JM wrote a letter to LF making a joke about the vows (of stability, so the Abbot goes off to Westminster, and something about obedience and conversion of manners and rude references to the wilds of North Yorkshire, but it lost something in the re-telling). And Laurence knew Placid as well and visited New Norcia. Wheels turning full circles. Why did I choose Benedict as my confirmation saint, at Welbury Park, 52 years ago?
Laurent (French) and Valentina (Italian, from Florence), both Buddhists, so didn't come to mass, mates of Laurence's. We talked about the chaos and hell of Italy - Valentina very pissed off with Beppe Grillo and 5 Star (they're children making a virtue of their ignorance and incompetence, being outwitted by the Lega), and with Berlusconi who she blames for Italy's failure to go anywhere for the last 20 years.
Laurent very interested in Benedict's Dharma and the Rule. He's taking two years off to study the Buddhist texts. He's doing something for WCCM.
Kathy got very passionate about the Canadian First Nations, and Pope Francis' refusal to apologise to them for the way they were treated by the Church Missions (esp. because he has apologised to the Irish for the abuse scandal). [The smoke alarm's just gone off and I'm not even smoking]. Kathy wants to organise a WCCM Conference of Reconciliation for the First Nations. She's dead busy, making lists of improvements, and doing stuff all the time. She went off for a private meeting with Andrew before mass, probably to report on my appalling food safety habits - she kept asking me if she could throw stuff out, in the end I only let her chuck the salmon mousse from Saturday - I tasted it and would have eaten it if there was nothing else, but it is fish and did have a slightly dodgy taste. Saved everything else.
Delyth cooked Laurence shepherd's pie - his favourite - (actually hachette parmentier, or pate chinois if you're French Canadian - Laurence started googling factoids on his iphone, he even said mass off it; neeed it for the French liturgy and readings - but she claimed you can't mash new potatoes, so we just had them sliced). I got out the Brown Sauce for Andrew and I and we had fun explaining the delicacy to Laurent and Valentina. Laurent tried it, and said it was nice, like a chutney. But then he also likes Marmite.
And so to bed. It was Andrew's turn, but Delyth did all the washing up with a bit of help from Kathy, in about 5 minutes. I should have paid closer attention.
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