The 48 hours solid parish work since returning from a short break has been a good deal more tiring than the two days before walking 22 miles of the Severn Way with good friends.
I'm sorry not to reflect here that often recently. Being so easily tired has been a major factor in not doing so and, much more seriously, in leading me to announce to these parishes that I'll retire after the summer, so great transitions are before me. And, as if to push that message home to me, while I was away briefly, my father's remaining close friend (the man who we asked to give the address at his funeral exactly 26 years ago) died aged 94, and the wife of my one Mullins nephew gave birth to a first Mullins in the next generation.
Sunday's Gospel did drive home to me that Jesus' command to love wasn't a general appeal ('let's all be much nicer, please') but is situated in the coming of night as Judas goes out to betray him ('you really need to do this - even, especially, in these depths, this love will be the only way to keep afloat').
