TUESDAY

Having been inspired by an unexpected kiss on the cheek from wonderful Dominican friar at the Greenbelt festival, spend first few weeks of September trying to emulate the Dominican practise of study, prayer and preaching. Succeed in studiously ignoring husband’s facetious comments about whether I’m ever going to wash my face again and select a concise translation of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae that’s been lurking on my bookshelves for several years, as suitable bed-time reading for a reformed character.

WEDNESDAY

Article in newspaper says thinking is good for your health, which must explain why I’m feeling remarkably bright despite having to struggle to get my brain around Aquinas’s scholarly arguments about the nature of God, the universe and everything.

THURSDAY

Accept invitation to join Widecombe school children for a day at Heatree activity centre. Spend the morning doing archery and the afternoon in team building exercises and the low assault course. Slightly concerned as I’m the oldest and heaviest in the group, especially when it comes to “posting “people through a rope spider’s web. Fortunately the rest of the group decide that one person will have to crawl underneath, so get to prostrate myself on the ground rather than risk anyone having to lift me up. (One has to be grateful for small mercies.) Having to negotiate the maze blind-fold and on hands and knees, guided only by the shouted instructions from the children outside, was another interesting and humbling experience! Come home tired but relieved to have hit a few bull’s-eyes and survived the day without falling off ropes and tree stumps into the rather unwholesome looking mud beneath. All that thinking obviously paid off - mind over matter worked for a change.

SATURDAY

Time to focus on the prayer side of things. Go to diocesan Prayer School day on the theme of The Tree of Life. End up meditating on seeds and drawing pictures of the sort of tree that would most accurately symbolize my current spiritual frame of mind. A bit of a challenge at first, but ultimately surprisingly enlightening. Come home and stick wax crayon works of art in journal for future reference.

SUNDAY

Try to integrate experiences into sermons. Throw in the names of Thomas Aquinas and Timothy Radcliffe for good measure, and manage to work the tree bit into harvest, by telling the story of the man who planted acorns. Interestingly, there is a series of bible texts that refer to the importance of engaging both heart and mind in everything we do – keeping body and soul together – not saying one thing and doing another. A salutary reminder to me, as I realise that the Summa has mysteriously found its way back onto the bookshelves with the bookmark still only a fraction of the way through, that the hardest thing in the world is to actually practise what you preach!

Copyright © 2006 Corynne Cooper.

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