Late Summer 2025

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS

Late Summer 2025

Wise men and women are always learning,

always listening for fresh insights.

Proverbs 18:15

Greetings,

Learning … listening for fresh insights …loving new pencil sets!

Even if our school days – or uni. days – are long past, this time of year is evocative. Back-to-school hopes and fears never totally fade. Treat yourself to some remembering. Say a prayer for the student who struggled, ring a cherished classmate, forgive the teacher who gave you an “F”, celebrate those “A’s”!

Education has been one of my greatest blessings (mostly).

Having wanted to be a nurse since I was four years old, I applied to 5 out of the 7 London teaching hospitals. (The remainder were too posh for me.) My first day at the Royal Free counts as one of the happiest in my life. I was actually addressed as Nurse Bennett! And was chosen to help the Chaplain with morning prayers. God was already working on my next career.

When it came to theological training, I was equally diligent about finding the right place to study. My favourite was BU but they required the GRE’s and I knew I couldn’t pass a graduate-level maths test, so I settled for Harvard. Yes, Harvard is for people who can’t get into BU – so let’s protect it!

God, I guess, had a lot to do with where I ended up. I had the privilege of studying with the G.O.A.T. Baptist preacher – Peter Gomes. I also had the pleasure of meeting students from all cultures and faith traditions. Multi-faith and multicultural connections are brilliant reminders of God’s love for all and presence within all.

Weston Jesuit School of Theology came next. (I loved Cambridge and searched out a way of lingering.) My first day was September 11th, 2001. The School President, Bob Manning (Father Robert Manning, SJ, but he hated titles!), wheeled a little TV into the lobby and students and faculty gathered round to watch the horror unfold. At noon, we all met for worship. I was grateful to be among pray-ers.

When classes resumed, one of my first assignments was to go for a walk and see what I noticed. Every person from that course still remembers where they walked and what they noticed! Noticing trains our ears and eyes to observe like God does – with appreciation, and concern, and love.

Learning – whether it’s how to notice, how to negotiate, or how to knit – is the way we become. The way we best fulfil our Creator’s hopes for us. God didn’t simply install a chip and send us off on our own. He longs for us to learn and grow, to dream and develop, to think new thoughts – including about God.

In a class or in church, curling up with a book, or connecting to the internet, discover new and wonderful stuff about our world and its amazing Creator! With God beside us, every day is a “school day”.

And remember, she never gives out “F’s”!

Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete … so also you must be complete.i

Matthew 5:48 C.E.B.

May this special time of year encourage and inspire you.

Deepest Blessings,

Brenda

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i Teleioi (Gk.) self- actualized, perfectly oneself