Opportunities...

It's been awhile since I last 'spoke' here. Then I had a few things to mumble about from the insights gain at my priestly retreat about two weeks ago.

Well, much have happened since then and it's the usual grind of things that becomes the mainstay of the day. Nonetheless, there are occasions where a window opens to allow something interesting to drop in and captures one's attention. I sometimes call this opportunity ;-)

I caught the astronomy bug by accident when I chanced a conversation with another priest friend who is already a long-time amateur in star gazing and astronomy. We had an engaging talk on stars and planets and Carl Sagan's Cosmos episodes (I was a Sagan fan in my teens and especially when that series was showing) that it led to the idea of me wanting to purchase a telescope. Well, one thing led to another and now I am awaiting for my first deep-space telescope to arrive from the US of A within 3 weeks time! :-)

The whole concept and interest in this are simply mind-boggling! I have been spending some time out to scope (pardon the pun!) out the potential sites around the area outside the presbytery which I can use later to put that telescope to good use. This engagement in this field of astronomy has gotten my interest up to the point that it is a natural high against all 'bleeagh' that I can encounter over the course of my ministry (and even as I write this, there are many... :-P ).

So, even as I complain quietly about my own frailties and those that make life difficult upon others, the telescope opens up the window that will bring the heavens closer to my backyard! With that, one can certainly feel so, so small and why the psalmist says that the heavens proclaim the glory of God. He probably saw the night skies with his naked eye (there were no street lights or other ambient lighting to spoil the view) and saw eternity...

(Celestron C80ED-RGT, with German equatorial computerised GoTo mount)