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WHO CAN KNOW

The Very Reverend June Osborne, Dean (Monday 10th January 2005)

There isn’t usually much competition between Paul and me for the books we read. He prefers biographies and non-fiction, I would always choose to put my head into a good novel. But last month we were both reading the same book, at the same time, which had its complications!

‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ is a bestseller in the United States and catalogues the conversations between a university teacher and one of his previous students during the last days of his degenerative illness. Whilst there is much in it about dying well, the chief message is about what it takes to live well. It’s a commentary on the spiritual bankruptcy of a status-conscious, materialistic society. There’s also a strong theme of how we individually need spiritual resources in order to face the difficult, even tragic events of our life.

Who can know what 2005 will bring for us, either personally or in the life of the Cathedral? We can plan and direct our lives but ‘events’ will also be part of the landscape of this year ahead. The author of Psalm 91 describes those events in two different ways. They are ‘arrows that fly by day’, foreseeable threats which we can see coming because we know ourselves to be in the heat of some kind of battle. Or they are like ‘pestilence that stalks in darkness’, things which come upon us without warning. Like a deadly sickness which creeps up on us unawares. But the psalmist also says that in all kinds of threat, seen and unseen, the protection of the Lord of our refuge, will shelter and deliver us.

In Salisbury most of us enjoy well-protected lives and I certainly believe the Cathedral’s life is well-protected by those who work tirelessly on its behalf. But planning for the future always has to involve us in being prepared for the unexpected. Will the unexpected challenges of this year find us spiritually ready or do we put our trust in things which in our days of need will prove singularly useless?

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