Saint Catherine of Siena

Thursday 29th April, 2021

Another extraordinary day. Sun, sleet and snow to begin with! I walked to Mass and remembered it was the Feast of St Catherine of Siena, a Patron of Europe. Of course Brexit came to mind but I dismissed my angers! I was asked to read and it was the first letter of St John. If anyone claims he has no sin he is a liar. It has made me think again and again and mull over during the day the idea as to what is sin. Do the Commandments define the rules by which one has to live? If you break them you sin. Is it sinful to break social laws? Is the definition of sin within traditions of religion or custom or family or personal beliefs and decisions?

Pondering this I had a breakfast picnic with my artist friend overlooking Wormit Bay. The huge mud flats, the wader birds, the flight over our heads of a lone swan, the sudden sun bursts over the Perth hills, the green luminosity of the Tay made creation so real. We pondered the idea of wrong. Sadly her brother in law has been dashed to hospital and may be dying so she was distracted. She lent me her telephone for me to ring an old friend who has severe dementia. She had been telephoning a friend for weeks at a place I lived in ten years ago. I rang and she was pleased to hear from me but so muddled and confused. She is the most lovely, generous and exciting and feisty person....hard to accept what is happening.

Thence back home via the Community Centre and some sourdough bread.

I wrote three letters including to my friend with dementia...I hope her family will read it and be able to use it to explain what is happening about my movements.

Then my landlady's daughter came and we set to with planting potatoes in special bags. It was quite hard work but somehow very rewarding. The old soil we placed as top up in pots on the patio and down by the sea wall and then refilled the bags with new compost. We discovered a few potatoes and three carrots!

Then for a walk. I took my litter grabber and went on the walk over the hills and via the private park. It was chillier than I had expected so I walked fast. I passed men tree felling and was saddened to see six mighty beech trees had been cut down. I took some of the small branches which have lovely bright green buds. They look superb in vases but I would prefer them on the trees. Two bags of litter were collected and I returned via the Private Park but caught no sight of the six ducklings whole lives I fear for as gulls and herons circle.

Back home I put on my laundry.

I also picked up Rod Dreher's 'The Benedict Option'. I was lent it yesterday and have been captivated by it. He believes Christians are under siege. He believes we are in the post Christian Era and of late have been deeply wounded by the sexual and technological revolutions. I am still going through it but he quotes Alasdair MacIntyre's 'After Virtue', a work I greatly admire. MacIntyre argues we are governed by 'emotivism', that moral choices are as each individual feels as right. Barbarism is not only at the gate but has taken over. Dreher sees St Benedict of Norcia as a prophet of his time and ours. We need to set up true Christian communities and await the passing of this barbaric age. So there is some connection with my pondering of sin. I am riveted and will need to concentrate, ponder and pray. Certainly I sense that our Christian values in the West have been discarded and traduced by consumerism and materialism and the individualism one sees all a round and even in oneself.

There are absolutes. Love is The Absolute. Christianity is the way to understand love fully, I believe. Not easy, in fact a way of suffering and self denial and few of us enjoy that!

Now for a short siesta then back to Dreher.