Christmas Crackers 9: Another friar's passion

I was first taken into the hills by my father when I was a young boy and I have loved being there ever since. As a family, we used to holiday in Ayrshire and then on the Isle of Arran which gave great opportunities growing up to enjoy this and gain the skills in walking and climbing on different terrain, taking the right equipment, map reading, interpreting the weather, and so on which mean I am still alive now without too many mishaps. School trips to Snowdonia and the Lake District stretched me further – with some walks we did probably now ruled out by health and safety considerations!

I studied in Italy for 6 years and walked with friends there. I then lived in Scotland and completed my Munros in six years (the 280 or so separate mountains and hills over 3,000 feet ) and did half of the Corbetts (hills between 2,500 – 3,000 ft) before joining the Dominicans. I am not sure how much chance I will get to go into the mountains from here on in but one can live in hope and with fond and grateful memories.

To those with some knowledge of the terms I am happiest walking and scrambling and prefer not to dangle very much: scrambling means using just about any part of your body to help you get over rough or rocky, often steep, terrain: dangling requires the use of ropes. I am very happy walking on my own and very often do, but enjoy good company as well. I find being in the hills is good exercise for body and relaxation for the mind. I love nature and being away from the city and everything man-made. I like the sense of solitude and the outer and inner space being on a hill gives, allowing the mental clutter of life to fall into a clearer perspective. It is amazing how often a problem or decision resolves itself without attention while I am out walking! I love the views, especially from the peaks, and the peace and sense of communion with creation. To be honest, hill walking points me to and brings me closer to God. For all this I am most grateful.

Friars’ Passions 11 – A Pilgrim’s Progress

From the time, as a teenager, that I joined a walking team attached to my cadet squadron, I have nurtured a great love of the outdoors coupled with a real enjoyment of the physical challenges it can pose. Whilst almost obsessive about walking and hiking as a youth, in latter years my enjoyment from this pursuit is derived less and less from the sense of the distance achieved and more from the beauty of that which I discover en route. At least, that is what I tell myself if I have to keep stopping. Having done a great deal of walking both here and abroad I find the real lure is the time it forces you to set aside to think and to pray. If you are out for a long hike it is almost impossible not to pray, to start to think about all that makes up our lives, to work through problems and difficulties or simply give thanks for the time away from all the distractions of modern life and the quiet beauty of our surroundings.

My most memorable trip, just before I entered novitiate, gave me the chance to do just that. I took two weeks off from work and walked the last 200 mile stretch of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela with a good friend (who was also about to take a plunge in life and get married), and it was perhaps one of the most testing and rewarding experiences of my life. With all we needed strapped to our backs we set off for two weeks into some of the most breathtaking scenery I’ve come across, met some wonderful people and enjoyed many both prayerful and hilarious moments! The utter simplicity of our daily, pilgrim existence was remarkably comforting. We slept in refugios (huts with bunk beds), ate the wonderful local food and walked - simple and cathartic. I remember one moment as I sat on a mountain looking at the clouds driving through the valley beneath me and feeling utterly at peace, utterly calm. In those sort of extraordinary moments it is much easier to feel closer to God and although the challenge is to appreciate and give thanks for his presence wherever we find ourselves, it is those sorts of moments that can provide forceful yet sublime reminders of His great presence. Immersing ourselves in the beauty of Creation can give us the courage we need for the road ahead. If it is answers you are looking for, as St Jerome advised in the 4th century, solvitur ambulando – and he was right!

Friars' Passions - 10 Laudate Dominum, Omnes Gentes

Languages have fascinated me ever since I was a child: I always enjoyed discovering new words in English, as well as studying various foreign languages at school, and my parents still tell the story of the time when, aged 10, I spent most of my pocket money during a family holiday to Wales on a Welsh-English dictionary! The ways in which different languages work and express various ideas provides a fascinating insight into different ways of thinking about the same concept, while of course being able to speak a foreign language also creates huge opportunities for discovering different cultures through literature and conversation with speakers of that language.

Pursuing my interest in languages, I studied French and Russian at university before joining the Order. I have been able to continue my academic study of languages, since we have to learn Latin, New Testament Greek and Hebrew as part of our training. However, knowledge of languages can also play a further and deeper role in my Dominican life: it improves, I hope, my ability to preach, both by giving an insight into different ways of thinking and of explaining things, and also by increasing the number of people with whom I can communicate.

Friars' Passions - 9 Wanderlust

Travelling has been a part of my life since I was 10 years old. From that age, I began to sing in a cathedral choir in Germany, sometimes every weekend. Over the course of several years, we would often go on extended trips touring throughout Germany. It was sometimes very exhausting – but it was wonderful to see so many different parts of my country: from the Alps to the seaside, through the former “German Democratic Republic” and along the Rhine. But I realise now, looking back, that the most important thing was not to see lovely and interesting places, but to meet people in those places, and to be there with friends. It forms you as a group to have such common experiences, good or even bad. And after my time in school, I continued to travel throughout Europe. It was not the fancy destinations which attracted me, but to go to nice places with friends, to spend time together – on which to think back and say “do you remember...?!”

Needless to say the possibilities of travel have changed since I joined the Order. As a religious I have not only the duties of a student but I am part of a community with responsibilities therein. I cannot do or not do whatever and whenever I want, but I have to be considerate of my brethren and need, of course, the permission of my superiors. And I am also a bit less “flexible” in terms of money. On the other hand, even in the Order, many opportunities to travel do arise, and I have met a lot of people from all over the world. It was often not a holiday in the strict sense, e.g., an international Dominican study week in Dubrovnik, a pilgrimage to Calaruega (Spain), the birthplace of St Dominic, a journey with the studentate to Bologna, where St Dominic is buried, but also proper "holidays" with brothers in Salamanca or hiking in the Tatra Mountains. In all these places we have not simply been tourists, but were Dominicans, with Dominicans.

And even if we are separated by language and nationality, it becomes always apparent, that we are one Order. An older brother once told me: “we are suffering from Babel’s confusion of tongues.” Possibly we can help a little bit to overcome the fragmentation of the world and come to the unity to which we are called by God. That may sound too sophisticated, but it is very simple: it means to accept and cultivate friendship when it is given to us.

Friars' Passions - 8 Cricket

My interest in Cricket started during my teenage years. Growing up in rural Wales, the sport of preference was Rugby, so I had little opportunity to play Cricket. My interest grew from watching England playing test matches on the television. As many people will know, cricket is a very complicated game, and test matches are played over a five day period. There is a lot to learn before gaining an idea of what is going on. As I learned about the rules, the various techniques and so on, I became fascinated by the game.

There are several things that I love about it. The first thing is that within a five day game, there are lots of little battles that go on: the contest between the bowler and the batsman and the little psychological games that go on between the two, the strategies and planning by the fielding side to get a particular batsman out, and so on. I have learned to appreciate the great skills of a bowler at the top of his game, and to see the beauty of the perfect shot played by a batsman. I also love the various statistics that come with the game, which are indicators of the strengths and weakness of particular players and teams. It is an analyst's paradise! Cricket is not always a high octane, fast paced game, though there are moments of great excitement. However there is an underlying subtlety that is part of its charm for me. Underneath the seemingly sedate pace, there is much strategy and planning, and the team who plans well, holds its nerve, has patience and executes its plans with skill usually comes out on top.

It may sound strange, but I do find similarities between cricket and the Christian life. Living a good Christian life is not always a source of instant gratification. Developing the virtues that make us good followers of Christ does not neccessarily give us much of a buzz or adrenaline rush most of the time. But it does open our eyes to that subtle beauty that is the life with Christ. The more we strive to live in Christ, and to learn about God and what he has done for us through Christ, the more we see a whole range of possibilities opened to us. Through perseverance, we come to see how being a Christian brings us a deep and subtle joy.

Friars' Passions - 5 An enduring interest in History

'What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.' So the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us with something of a weary tone. One of my interests over the years has been the study of history. I particularly like the biographies of people who over the centuries have had the courage to live out their principles and struggle towards their vision, sometimes against great odds. I believe that to understand our past with all it achievements and victories, setbacks and defeats, joys and horrors, we must seek to understand better the people who were involved in shaping those moments with all their motivations, dreams and ideas.

Although our world has changed beyond recognition in the last two decades, I think we can be sure that human nature has not changed. There is nothing new under the sun. Therefore a study of history and its characters will help us understand better our world as it is today and make us wiser is trying to avoid the mistakes of our past. It can give us a fascinating insight into human nature in all its complexity. It should also give each of us the knowledge that, with God’s help, and if only in a small way, one person can make a real difference for the better in the lives of others. In the words of the great Irishman Edmund Burke, 'nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little'.