Finding Happiness

Hi All,
My eldest reckons the book written by this guy is worth reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIi_NQ-e070

Regards
Derek

Hi Derek,

If it reflects in any way the series I watched on BBC a few years, it should be good. That series was about six men from all walks of life who were put together to come to terms with their lives. When they couldn't deal with themselves on a personal level, or with each other as a group, they could only fall back on the advice and wisdom from the monks and the abbot. Great stuff!

Regards,
Brendan.

Hi Brendan,
We enjoyed the program five years ago as well.
The abbot seems a well put together spiritual man...totally against my prejudices!

Not like some of these C of E vicars who are very like the eccentric C of E clergymen portrayed in films and plays. I know of one who is brilliant but very like the 'send up' model.

My daughter and I are planning on going on a weekend retreat when time permits...we've been meaning to for a couple of years...and we must find the time
Regards
Derek

Hi Derek,

This is the infamous C of E rector Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice, who assumed that he could not be refused in marriage and bit off more than he could chew with Eliza Bennett.



The letter he wrote to Eliza's father on the fall from grace of Eliza's sister tells us all we need to know about him. Needless to say, she turned him down!

``MY DEAR SIR,

I feel myself called upon by our relationship, and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from Hertfordshire. Be assured, my dear Sir, that Mrs. Collins and myself sincerely sympathise with you, and all your respectable family, in your present distress, which must be of the bitterest kind, because proceeding from a cause which no time can remove. No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortune; or that may comfort you, under a circumstance that must be of all others most afflicting to a parent's mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence, though at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity at so early an age. Howsoever that may be, you are grievously to be pitied, in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family. And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect with augmented satisfaction on a certain event of last November, for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace. Let me advise you then, my dear Sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever, and leave her to reap the fruits of her own heinous offence.

I am, dear Sir, &c. &c.''

Regards,
Brendan.