I'm just a chapter away from submitting the book... but it feels rather daunting.
It was easy to say: "One day I'd like to write a book" and not difficult to tell people that I was writing a book, I quite liked that bit! But now I'm just a couple of days away from sending in my draft and its scary.
Anyway all this writing has meant I've been doing an awful lot of reading, some very tasty contemporary lives of the saints and some modern bio's as well as general background historic stuff. However I've plowed through so many books with long words over the last few months that I'm looking forward now to picking up 'My Booky Wook' by Russell Brand!
Just occasionally though i read something which staggers me and then uplifts me and makes the whole writing process so much easier. It gives me validity and tells me I might be on the right track. Yesterday I was reading a modern biography of Saint Francis called Reluctant Saint by Donald Spoto, its a cracking read and i'd certainly recommend it (although I probably enjoyed Paul Sabatier's The Road To Assisi more.) Whilst summing up St Francis' life he wrote this little gem, its kinda long so please bear with it:
'The true mark of holiness is the character of a life that gives to others, that extends beyond the narrow frontiers of itself, its own comforts and concerns - a life that furthers the humanizing process. Whether one uses the specific vocabulary of religion or not, this is the core: living close to God - a habit of being that (at least according to the great Hebrew prophets of old and the insistent message of Jesus of Nazareth) is seen concretely in loving service, a hunger for peace and justice and an active longing for concord among nations, groups and individuals.
The Hebrew prophets provided fair signs of Holiness: "Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow... Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God" Jesus summed it up as love of God made evident in love of neighbor - and the habit of forgiveness as the required standard of our love of God and of Gods embrace of us. By forgiveness we do not mean that something wicked is forgotten. much less that it is not so wicked after all; forgiveness means the refusal to seek vengeance, to wish or to wreak pain, suffering or death on the offending enemy. Godliness in other words is about peace in all its ramifications.'
