A New Year

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St Benedict at Buckfast Abbey
St Benedict, from Buckfast Abbey

2018 had many highlights: following a momentous Easter I made a pilgrimage to all 22 Catholic diocesan cathedrals in the England and Wales province; I visited the Benedictine Belmont Abbey for three retreats; and loved my time in Walsingham (England’s “Nazareth”). My annual trip to India was split between the Punjab and Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry. It was amazing to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar and then to head South for the more familiar rhythm of peaceful ashram life and Mass by the Bay of Bengal.

As we move into 2019 I’m looking forward to teaching the continuing meditation courses at Vipassanā Fellowship while developing new courses for Contemplative Faith. I’m also beginning to work with a few new people on a personalised one-to-one basis.

Trips are planned to India, Italy and Israel this year as well as a couple of retreats here in the UK. Perhaps I shall meet some of you on the road 🙂

I hope your year will be peaceful and fruitful. May it bring many blessings.

Feast of St John the Evangelist

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I was born on the Feast of St John the Evangelist and have always felt close to this most beloved of saints. His gospel is the text that speaks most clearly to me and, unsurprisingly perhaps, it was his name I took on my reception into the Church. Given my spiritual links and frequent encounters with Indian forms of spirituality I was fascinated to read “The Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism” by Ravi Ravindra (Inner Traditions, Rochester VT, USA). Billed as “a landmark in interfaith dialogue” by Huston Smith it is a very rich reading of the gospel from a non-Christian thinker born in India.

O glorious Apostle, who, on account of thy virginal purity, wast so beloved by Jesus as to deserve to lay thy head upon His divine breast, and to be left, in His place, as son to His most holy Mother: I beg thee to inflame me with a most ardent love toward Jesus and Mary. Obtain for me from our Lord that I, too, with a heart purified from earthly afflictions, may be made worthy to be ever united to Jesus as a faithful disciple, and to Mary as a devoted son, both here on earth and eternally in heaven. Amen.
(Prayer as promulgated by Pope Leo XIII)