Like a Child...

"Faith strips the mask from the world and reveals God in everything. It makes nothing impossible and renders meaningless such words as anxiety, danger, and fear, so that the believer goes through life calmly and peacefully, with profound joy - like a child, hand in hand with his mother." -Charles de Foucauld

Journeying toward the shores of Heaven....

" That same evening, when the sun appeared to be sinking into the vast stretch of the waters beyond a golden path of light, I went with you to sit upon a lonely rock. I gazed for ages on this path of light, and you said it was the image of the path to Heaven when grace lights up the way.
Then I thought of my heart as a tiny ship with white and graceful sails gliding down the middle of a path of gold, and I resolved that I would never sail it out of sight of Jesus, so that it might voyage
swiftly and in peace toward the shores of Heaven."

Something beautifully apt for a blog named "Sailing by Starlight" from Saint Therese's "Story of a Soul"

John Bradburne.... "Vagabond of God"

"God's love within you is your native land.
So search none other, never more depart.
For you are homeless save God keeps your heart."
(JRB)

I learned a little about John Bradburne when a wonderful priest called father David who works with orphans in Zimbabwe, as part of an organisation called Mother of Peace, came to visit our church some time ago.
This Holy man has a truly humbling and inspiring story I would love to share.

John, who described himself as a Strange Vagabond of God, was a layman and a member of the Third Order of St Francis.
He lived a life of poverty that seemed almost directionless to many, until he found his true vocation, caring for lepers in Zimbabwe.

Many of his patients needed considerable care which John Bradburne gave them with unstinting devotion, until his murder in 1979 at the end of the war for Independence.
After Bradburne
was shot, the local people wanted to hide the body for fear of reprisals
from white security forces. As they were carrying it away, they heard a
choir singing, dropped the body, and ran. However, when they turned back
they saw a strange white bird, with three beams of light ascending
heavenward, hovering over the body. The villagers fled in fright.

Since his death there have been many signs of John's close friendship with Jesus.


Here is his story...