The English Benedictine, Sebastian Moore, is a name that keeps popping up on my radar.
It started in the 1970s when I searched for a reference and finished up reading a very heavy-duty book. Then I came across the same author when I was in the seminary in the 1980s. He got further under my skin.
A couple of years ago I was attending a book launch in London when a robustly built old man was pointed out to me. ‘That’s Sebastian Moore. Would you like to meet him?’
I did meet him even though I’m sure he doesn’t remember a thing about it. I don’t get all that excited about meeting people but this was getting interesting.
The book launch, by an English Jesuit, was about a book that dealt with a theory of René Girard (b 1923) which I happen to believe in deeply.
I was happily sitting down when the next person who went the rostrum was René Girard. So in one sitting I met two very significant Catholic writers. It was a complete bonus.
Several years have passed since that book launch and I discovered, via the small print in the London Tablet, that Sebastian Moore had a new book out. So after six weeks of waiting it turned up from Pleroma.
It has turned out a very expensive book but I’m reading it avidly. I had been reading away merrily when Eckhart Tolle’s (b 1948) name cropped up in the text.
Now, Eckhart Tolle’s was a journey so much like my own, through sickness in my case, that I became even more fascinated.
Tolle’s books I found in the public book shop but they were recommended to me by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. I read three books of Eckhart Tolle and then had my stroke. I am convinced that his writing saved my life, or at least my sanity!
The thing about Sebastian Moore and Richard Rohr is that they both heard the theory of René Girard along with another person, Gil Baillie, just to make the deal more interesting.
Richard Rohr and Gil Baillie made an excellent CD on the subject. The odd thing is that I heard of Gil Baillie in 1997 and decided to buy his set of tapes. I had never heard of René Girard’s theory until I heard the tapes.
I think by now you’ve got the idea. I could go on including several more famous writers and another not nearly as famous whose book was written as an RE text for Year 13 in Northern Ireland.
It came into my hands in a curious way and has helped many a beginner on this path. It was a beginner’s guide to René Girard.
The point is this, God’s love is shown in many different ways, and this must be one of the most complex patterns of God’s love I’ve heard of.
Just the sheer complexity of how this theory, which is very Catholic in case you’re worried, has come across my path has me scratching my head.
Has God come across your path in similar way? I suspect God has. Maybe not through books but there will be a way.