Varied focus

Mixed sort of week. My voice slowly came back in first few days - and I seem to have managed to stave off a cold. Newbie Fr Tomy is getting his feet under the parish table as it were. Monday we met with Rob Coyne, chaplain at Corpus Christi High School, and are paying the school a visit a week today. I was up there on Wednesday for a Full Governors' Meeting. I'm the only priest on the Governors there, which surprised me when I first came here, as the four High Schools I'd previously been involved in - Mary Immaculate, Lugwardine, St Richard Gwyn, St Illtyd's - all had more than one priest governor. I know it's not an easy task, but well, Corpus is a community of over 1,000 Catholics, and I think it's part of our pastoral ministry to have a say in the welfare of that community.

On Tuesday Fr Tomy came with me to meet the folks at the local GPs that I attend. I'm still not finished with my ankle from earlier on this year - though I don't see the nurses so often now. They're trying a honey dressing thing to try and budge the last bit of ulcer. No, not the sort of dressing you put on salad! So, anyway, when I had a bad throat, I was tempted to "lick my wounds", haha.

Bernadette Charles' Requiem on Wednesday was a good celebration. Someone observed that my homily was more like a meditation, with me thinking my way through it. I thought it was a very good comment, actually. Husband Peter was very well supported by the Christ the KIng 8.30 congregation and others. Another nice observer said that it was a day for the parish priest to be proud of his parishioners - and vice versa. Great people!

Today I eventually got round to getting a replacement for the reading glasses that I left on the plane coming back from Krakow. Optician asked why I have been on different pairs of specs instead of varifocals, so I'm going to try 'em. Anyway, next week I'll get my new specs and we'll see (I hope)...