Halfway through my studies my colleagues and I were sent to different parishes for five months practise. All the parishes were carefully selected to provide the best quality pastoral work except one. That one had a problem; a young priest had become ill and had had to be released from all his duties. So, the parish needed somebody to take…
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Many years ago I was preparing to take a driving test. After a few months of learning and practising I passed the test. The examiner congratulated me and said: “now you are ready to learn how to drive”. That was a very clear message: I passed the test, but I still would have to improve my driving skills. I’ve taken…
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Three Wise men had a great desire to find the Messiah, but they didn’t know much about him. What they did know led them to Jerusalem and then they had to look for more information. They had this great desire but too little knowledge. The Wise men started to ask about the Messiah and caused great embarrassment among the people,…
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For the last few days many people travelled for just one purpose: to meet their loved ones for Christmas. The desire of spending Christmas together was overwhelming and gave people courage to overcome many obstacles made by the bad weather. Some of them spent long hours in long traffic jams, some of them waited for cancelled flights or trains. Some…
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I want to tell you a story that happened many years ago when I was a student. My seminary was in a former Cistercian monastery, which laid beautifully and stunningly among meadows, forests and hills. Although it laid on a main road it was quite hard to get there or to leave the place. I was part of a retreat…