I am amazed at the colourful bloom of roses that has appeared in our front garden. Amazed because I did nothing to encourage them – no fertilising, no watering, no examining for green fly.
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They just showed up on their own, maybe wanting to reproach me.
I can’t help comparing their achievement with all the work that has gone into preparing for the Family and Mission Open Day on 1 July in Dalgan (click on link for details) . There the equivalent of fertilising, watering and attention to detail has gone on for months and I hope that that the outcome turns out as good.
The Open Day is part of the Columban Centenary Year celebrations and it has brought a lot of people together to prepare for a variety of events ranging from an outdoor Mass with Archbishop Dermot Martin, to a Pudsy’s corner for children, an area to meet Columban co-worker from abroad, media shows, food-stalls and an open air concert with performers from at least three continents.
Some of our AITECE teachers will be there to share their experiences of teaching in China and encourage others to following in their footsteps.
The Chinese Catholic Community from Dublin will also be present with dances and songs and prepared to talk about the Church in their homeland.
Committees and sub-committees and sub-sub-committees have being meeting regularly for the past few months to put all this together and it should be a colourful and exciting sight.
Here back home, I look at the display of roses in our front garden and wonder how they produced their show all on their own. Next year I must be nicer to them or, better still, set up a committee to do the fertilising, watering and fly spraying.