Those dreaded 'Road Closed' signs

Yesterday afternoon I was on my way to the monthly meeting of my OCDS Community in Oxford, and just as I was about to exit my home town of Market Harborough, I was confronted by the dreaded all-too-common red ‘Road Closed’ signs.  They cut me off just a few hundred yards from a main road that would have had me out of town in seconds, let alone minutes.  Again, on my way home at 9 o’clock at night, just half an hour from Harborough, the dreaded signs confronted me at another point in an exactly similar position - yards from my road towards home.  It reminded me of my experience of becoming a Catholic.  At that time, whatever metaphorical road I tried to go down in my search for truth turned out to be a cul de sac - but with the addition of a sign saying ‘Not this way: go to Rome’.  They weren’t really cul de sacs, they were stages on my spiritual journey.  Later in life, as I tried various ways to go deeper into my Catholic faith, I found myself again settting out on roads that seemed to lead me nowhere - but in the end the road to Carmel opened up, and that was very definitely the road to somewhere.  ‘Seek, and you shall find’.’ Perseverance was a virtue St Teresa of Avila prized highly.

Intercessions:

Bernadtte - operation

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – very seriously ill

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

RIP Anthony Kirke, husband of Judith Kirke OCDS (distributors of the Carmelite Diary)

RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)