By: Caroline D

Caroline D — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:55:54 +0000

thanks for this Ken. Really helpful. In our group at the moment – as ever – it has emerged that there is a pain in each of their lives, and this pain has been the key in their seeking God, and each gave testimony in response to this particular Gospel ‘Who do you say I am’… One said that in the wake of the death of her child, she wanted to hold on to that word ‘happy man’ (Jesus speaking to Peter) – and as you said of your friend John, her eyes too sparkled, through her tears, a smile broke, saying she knew this wasnt the end of the story. Another spoke of the ‘Rock’ that had held him during his struggles was the love of his partner. I could go on. We are in sacred territory here. And then the following night I was privileged to watch a group of Catholic Primary School children from across the area joining forces with the musicians from a local college, performing Brundibar by the Czech composerHans Krasa – Krasa was deported to the Nazi concentration campt at Terezin… which became the temporary home to a large number of musicians, composers, writers and artists awaiting transportation to the gas chambers. In this cramped, disease-ridden place, they created a rich cultural life – above all music – and they performed this opera in the camp with all the children there…. it didnt save their lives, but it did help them bear the horrors of their incarceration, and one survivor said ‘the beauty of music and art bloomed in that real life hell..’. On the face of it a simple children’s tale, they sing about freedom and defeating bullies,….with huge symbolism… ending with a little trumph of resistance and affirmation of mutuality. I suppose what I am trying to say is that often people who come knocking on the door have pain as part of their journey, and they seek, and hopefully find in our messiness in the CHurch a mutuality, and an expression of the will to live, to rise again!

Comments on: “Take up you Cross and Follow me”

By: Caroline D