Unearthing St Francis

Not for the first time, I find myself thwarted in an attempt to do an assembly at the local primary school. This time, they gave me the wrong time, so I turned up an hour after the assembly had happened. In the past I have turned up only to be told that on one occassion the children had all gone to the theatre and on another they were having their photographs taken instead.

I wonder whether people realise that doing a school assembly is one of the very hardest things a priest has to do and demands more thought that anything else I ever do, including preaching and speaking at political meetings.

Today I had unearthed St Francis from his place under the apple tree to take him in so that I could talk to the children about him. (This being the week in which his Feast Day falls). I was so Franciscan about the whole thing too – plucking off the earwigs and slugs and placing them carefully back into the garden just as the saint himself would have done.

I didn’t preach to the slugs, but I did consider it.