It feels like a long time since I last posted... but first I want to say a very grateful thank you to my friends for their guest reflections.
Life is full at the moment, to say the least, for most of us on the course I would guess, assignment deadlines for Easter, self assessment reports to write, Diocesan profiles to complete, Easter School preparation and normal week in week out course work... oh and also our regular jobs!
Am I writing this for a good moan, not really but it does help a little, my spiritual director got most of it last week! Formation is a word that seems to have a myriad of interpretations and connotations...
...but for us on the course it is all about our formation for ordained ministry and all that that does and doesn't entail.
Now formation does not occur only in training and when I was undergoing selection I can remember getting quite frustrated as my fifteen years or so of Christian journey seemed to count for Little (which was not actually true as I realised when I read my report recommending me for training), however, this whole process of formation is very intense during this training period. Everything seems so magnified, sharp, focused, surgical and incredibly intense at times!
I have spent most of the day writing an essay for the Easter deadline while my wife very kindly took the children off to friends for the day, to give me some peace and quiet.
I find the whole process of essays/assignments quite telling on reflection, there is
the reading/research part which means the excitement of entering new worlds etc,
then then gathering of the material for the essay, the strategic bit,
Then there is the actual physical writing which always seems to me to be going fairly badly until the essay is finished, it is only at this point that I can comprehend whether the objective of the essay has been achieved, how the whole has come together.
And that is the strange thing for me, I persevere writing the essay, having put the ground work in but not being entirely sure whether everything will come together...something akin to our journey of Faith, to our ongoing formation...
Then there is the proof reading bit, but given my spelling we won't go there...
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