The collected works….

Through all my years of reading, I have fallen in love with certain authors.  So, when I come across Omnibus Volumes sporting ‘The Collected Works of…’, I promptly grab them off the library shelf and indulge in a read fest.  Reading and re-reading favourites is a joy-filled event for the bookworm, as any bookworm will tell you!  I have cried my way umpteen times through Little Women, chuckled as heartily through all of Durrell and Herriot and sat terrified (despite knowing the outcome) through tomes of Crime and Horror – a genre that has just too many favourite authors to list here. Right now, I am indulging in PD James, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie from the past and look forward to the new acquaintance of Jonathan Kellerman and Carol Higgins Clark. 

That’s the beauty of the printed word.  It is there, to visit and re-visit.  It allows you to look forward to new friends in the offing and to keep up acquaintance with old.  One need never lose touch.

Which is why I am sad.

In the past week, we have enjoyed a series of Masses for the blessing of our homes in the Easter season.  This means that we have also enjoyed a series of sermons which have been instructive, inspirational and practical.  Sermons that are sadly transient because they are spoken and are alive for that time span only (perhaps a little longer till memory fades).  The homilies were delivered by different priests, each drawing on personal experience, adding their own touch of humour and sharing their interpretation of a topic. Each was unique.  Each was a treasure.  

One tech-savvy priest blogs his sermons, shares them on Facebook and they are there for all to visit; saved in e-format with the option to print.  They can be returned to whenever the heart demands and they can be shared across time and space, for the love of the Word of God is timeless and is relevant to all people without exception.  Social Media take a bow!

Now, if only we could persuade all our priests to preserve their preaching as well – a sort of ‘Collected Work of Best Sermons’!  

And here’s a thought to wrap up this blog – the printed message in my morning paper: living on earth might be expensive, but we get to travel around the sun for free!  

Now, isn’t that something!