What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Fireworks for the Feast of St John

    Today is the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist. (We only celebrate three birthdays in the church calendar – John the B, his cousin Jesus and Mary, Mother of Our Lord and Aunty of John the B).
    I’ve been on retreat for the last week – something I last did 2 years ago. It has been very good too, looking at wounded healers – Henri Nouwen, Brother Roger, Mychal Judge and John O’Donohoe.
    The town that I’ve been staying in goes rather large on celebrating the Eve of  the Feast of St John, so we got a firework display just before midnight, a big fire by the sea and the local population all turning up to dip their feet into the water at midnight.
    Anyway, here are a few firework photographs. It was a great retreat week and this was a rather spectacular conclusion.

    image

    image

    image

5 responses to “The Convent”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I really enjoyed the programme, looking forward to the next part.

    Couldn’t help grinning all the way through though thinking of you and a certain remark about convents and nuns from last year!

    Reply
  2. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    “wish more people did it”
    I tried to post a comment here, but it disappeared…

    anyway, I just said, be careful, because I’m scared I may get “itchy feet” again and want to reexamine looking at monastic life.

    I was disappointed by how rude two of the people were, but the sincerity of the lady who had been hurt by her family and was “afraid of God” was amazing stuff.

    Reply
  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Monastic Life
    I thought about monastic life at one point. However, when I went to a monastery to consider it more thoroughly I was stricken with a plague of boils and ended up being told to flee by a doctor. Notwithstanding my hesitation about the possibility of God meddling any more with humanity than by God’s becoming incarnate, there was no arguing with a plague of boils and I never went back.

    Reply
  4. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Hey, but I never got boils! And as I was saying to Fr Philip last week it was that very experience in the monastery that has left a mark on the rest of my life. I simply don’t want to play along with materialism to the same extent anymore…

    Reply
  5. Moyra Avatar
    Moyra

    It was certainly interesting watching from an insider’s point of view…

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Messiaen's Birthday

    Off to the chapel of Glasgow University last night for a concert to celebrate what would have been Messiaen’s 100 birthday. The first half was organ only. Firstly the eternal church shimmered into view and the disappeared again in Apparition de l’Eglise Eternelle. Then it was off to Bethelehem for the Christmas cycle La Nativité…

  • Oliver Postgate – RIP

    Hard to think of anyone who has brought as much innocent pleasure to my generation. [youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_l2AblgHy1w]

  • Apple Tree

    Last night’s Choral Evensong began with one of my favourites; a piece which gets sung quite a lot at this time of year and which is high on the list of Music Which Makes Me Cry. It was Elizabeth Poston’s carol Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. It is the weirdest thing. Most of the time…

  • I seem to have been spared

    It would appear that I am spared. The virus that laid me low last week has not beaten me. There seems to have been a lot of people who have been sick with various bugs over the last few weeks. It is good to be feeling better. I’ve been picking up work fairly gently over…