All Kind and Manner of Times.

'cracks and splits and reforms again....'

I will miss the serenity of this place when I move on next year.

Saint Benedict.

And his Sister, Saint Scholastica.

When I returned from my trip over the moors yesterday I went straight into Manchester to my theological college on the way to which I saw the sign in the first picture above. It made me smile, so when the lights turned red I took a picture of it, for it may make you smile as well and that would be good, wouldn't it. I spent a little while sitting in the courtyard saying my evening office in the evening sun, which was wonderful.

We found out this morning that a local man, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community who has been a great friend to St Hilda's and to whom I hope we have also been a friend, was stabbed to death outside a local shop on Sunday morning. He was a talented musician and would sometimes accompany the organ on his Stradivarius for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. The Church was just in the process of arranging a concert with him for the latter part of the year. From such small things does faith and love sprout eternal springs of the waters of life. His name has not yet been released on earth, but it is known in Heaven, for it is surely written on the wall with the names of the elect. Pray for him, a faithful man of God, friend to many and foe of none. Pray also for his family as well as for his attackers for to do so would be to honour his memory in the way he would have wished. I hope that this is a case of mistaken identity and that it is not further evidence of the decline of our city and way of life.

I thought that I might also show you the relics which are customarily on our Altar all year round, apart from Lent, Advent and certain other days. They come from St Benedict's, Ardwick and are relics of Saint Benedict and St Scholastica, his Sister. We are pleased to have custody of them and pleased to remember that great Church when we say the Sunday Mass. The scroll behind reads 'A light to lighten the Gentiles' which seemed fitting today, in particular.