He was on duty one night, and was walking in pitch blackness through the snow. He walked a bit further than he should have gone, and heard a voice calling, 'Go back. Go back.' He ignored it for a while, but then decided to return to (wherever he had to return to) The next morning he retraced his footprints, and found they stopped just before a really deep ravine. He eventually discovered that the 'Go back' was the call of a grouse, distorted in the night, but he liked to say it was his guardian angel keeping him safe.
So many people are killed in war, and it is still going on. As the song says, 'When will they ever learn.'
We owe so much to brave men and women, but the strange thing is - anyone with an ounce of patriotism says the same - and inevitably they will be people of opposing sides. We all think we're right. A German lady once told my husband, that in Germany they call people of her age, 'The Fatherless Generation. Tragedy on all sides.
I live in safety, and my children too. The grandchildren are too young to worry about, but in ten or so years they may be called to serve their country.
In the meantime, people are giving their lives to their families in lots of little ways every day. Wherever there is love there will be little acts of self-sacrifice.
My parish priest was chatting to me the other day, upset because more people don't come to weekday services. He was talking about being pessimistic over human nature, but optimistic about God's mercy. I think he needs to recognise that these non-weekday churchgoers are good people. They are working hard for their families, and when they get home they need to recuperate.
I said I was retired, but don't go to the evening Mass as the church is a twenty minute drive away, and it digs in to the evening. We have our main meal in the evening, and no way do I want to start cooking a meal at 7.30pm.
Right, I know this sounds pathetic, especially as I've been talking about the great sacrifices of people during the war, and maybe I'll rethink my stance, but my position at the moment is - I can (and do) pray at home. OK, it's not with the community, and a church needs a visible presence, but I get a lot out of meditating quietly on my own.
One day I'll have to write what I mean by meditating, as there are several different definitions.
In the meantime, a prayer for those killed in war.
'Eternal rest, give unto them, O Lord,
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen.'
