Community

I really enjoyed listening to Henry Morgan on Sunday. Still thinking about what he said, I read a great quote this morning by Abbot Christopher Jamison (he of the TV programme – The Monastery) He was writing about how difficult he found it when he first become a monk and realised how much time he now had to contemplate the things inside his head. He wrote:

“I had been led over the edge of my own competence to new territory where I had to learn from others how to move forwards. I had to admit that I could not handle my interior world on my own: I needed support and guidance. We are all instinctively afraid of the dark and I was afraid of my own darkness. But just as we can learn to overcome our fear of the physical dark so too skilful friends can help us to overcome our fear of the spiritual dark.”

I know I keep concluding this, but every time it is like a new revelation to me, that the people around us are amazing, and that we in our turn are part of that for others. It sometimes seems surprising that God gives us each other as the best way for us to grow like him, but at other times it sort of makes sense.