Prayer and good company

What a strange moment. I arrived at St Mary's Monastery, a Roman Catholic Redemptorist community, a little before noon and rang the doorbell. A Sister came to the door, took one look at me and asked, "Episcopalian?" And I thought, you can tell just by looking? 

It turned out the Scottish Episcopal Institute, the ministry training body of the Episcopal Church, was holding a week long residential and she assumed I was part of the event. Having cleared up the confusion I was invited in and asked whether I wanted to join the community for mass or the Institute for midday prayer. Since one was following the other and both were on offer, I went to everything. A feast of prayer. 

Afterwards they also invited me to lunch: simple but excellent fare with some great company from the ministry students. It was wonderful to meet them and hear about their experiences of church life and plans for the future. An unexpected blessing! 

///cute.horses.local