An afternoon with my spiritual director

Malcolm woke up this morning to a phone call from his mother's neighbour to tell him that his Mum had fallen out of bed in the early morning and had been rushed off to hospital in Preston.  After a few frantic phone calls, Malcolm set off for Preston leaving me here in Liverpool to take myself off to church and attend the lunch with Chris and his family on my own.  I had Malcolm's Mum put on the prayer list when I arrived at Christ Church.  The service was a Parish Eucharist led by Lynn, the curate who is to be ordained as a full priest in Liverpool Cathedral in two weeks time but the Eucharist itself was presided over by David, a retired priest who also preached this morning.  Chris was not in church as he was teaching cricket at Mossley Hill but Kathryn was there.  The church was not as full as usual - probably due to it being a bank holiday weekend. After a coffee and a chat with David and Tinho,  I went back to Malcolm's bumping into David Parry, the incumbent, with whom I had a brief chat.  He wished me well for the Selection Conference and said he would pray for me.  Such lovely people here.  I drove over to Chris and Kathryn's and had a typical roast beef lunch with them, two of their sons (the eldest Matthew is at Durham University) and another parishioner, Irene.  It was a most pleasant occasion and was followed by my three hour chat with Chris in his capacity as my spiritual director.  We went through the interview questions for my Selection Conference and I came away feeling very positive about the whole thing.  I drove into Liverpool city centre and spent an hour wandering around Albert Dock before returning to Malcolm's.  Malcolm arrived back from Preston at 9 p.m. and we then walked round to Lark Lane for a light Chinese meal and brought each other up to date on the day's events.  Back at his flat, we discussed his mother and her situation before going to bed at around midnight.  I did manage to speak to Mum on the phone this evening (her line was engaged for a long time) to confirm that I would see her tomorrow afternoon.