I have been reading Letters to a Friend, the correspondence between Rose Macaulay on her way back into the Church she had known as a child in trans-Atlantic correspondence in the 1950s with The Rev. John Hamilton Cowper Johnson, of the Society of St John the Evangelist. This one line amused me - it gave me a reason for the priesthood - as a reminder of what we all must do when the time is right as part of our priestly ministry (though for me not as an 'officer').
Dame Rose had been very recitent about seeing a priest. The letters grow on you. Here is what she writes about the first visit:
Fr. Wilkins was very kind and nice. He didn't say anything; practically nothing but the absolution. Perhaps this is his way. I expect he thinks people work out their own problems unaided, except for absolution when they work them out wrong.
1 comment:
That's very sweet. And who knows, she might be onto something there! Pastors are often faced with problems that they can't fix; that they can only absolve.
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