On Sunday I visited an old friend Father Des in Liverpool. I had first met Father Des when working in a children's project in Romania for two weeks. During this time we became very close and to a point depended on one another to get through what proved to be a very challenging fortnight for many reasons. At the time there wasn't much good food about which bothered us both being rather keen on our tucker. Our accommodation was basic too. Our mattresses had bugs and the showers were so cold it took a good hour for your head to recover from the pain afterwards. We were also having to work with 12 other strangers which brought pressures of its own. You might say we were thrown into some sort of early reality TV show but without the cameras and a vote as to whom should be thrown out at the end of the first week.
I arrived at the Bishop Eton Redemptionist church unannounced and the poor fellow looked quite shocked to see me but warmly welcomed my nephew and I in for tea and biscuits and a good reminisce about times gone by together among many excitable kids.
Father Des used to do the services in Romania and they were beautifully done even in the eyes of someone who had seen far too many of them at school for his liking. He struck me at our first meeting as a deeply humane man and still does. There should be far more people like him in the world. It would make this "reality" thing far more easy to endure....
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