Stories of the Street - Forty five

Father James has just finished saying the morning Mass and is hurrying down the road to buy something to eat for his lunch before going off to the local hospital to do a shift there as one of the chaplains.

He bumps into a group of young lads and says sorry in an absent minded, distracted way. He is thinking about his homily and how he missed out an important part of it. This didn’t invalidate what he said but it would have been much better to have given the whole of the homily. Somehow he just left it out. Perhaps his mind is going or maybe God let that bit slip out of his thoughts for some reason? He is thinking about this when he recognises the voice of one of the young men.

Father James looks up from his shoes to see the face of the young man in question.

“Hello Father.”

“Hello Philip how’s your mother these days. I have not seen her for a while.”

“She’s fine. Working hard at that design company in the old cinema building.”

“Really? Well that’s good. She has a fine mind, you know. Was top of her class at school. Your grandfather should have let her go to university, but that was a while back. So stubborn, he just wouldn’t listen!”

The young man nods, not quite sure what to say.

“And how are your studies doing? I’m not so involved with the school since they moved to that new site by the canal.”

“Fine Father; doing my A levels this year at Sixth Form College.”

“And which university are you thinking of going to. Have you thought of that yet?”

Philip blushes. “I’m thinking of doing English but I haven’t decided where yet.”

“Well now, that’s good. I read English at Cambridge many years ago. If I hadn’t gone into the priesthood I would, no doubt, still be teaching it today.”

“You were a teacher?” Philip asks, quite surprised.

“Not really. I was an academic for a while – I still have a few contacts; old friends around the place. Let me know when you are deciding on your university applications and I’ll see what I can do to help.”

“Thanks.” Blurts Philip, not really knowing what he should say.

Father James just shrugs and says, “It was what I was going to say in Mass today. You can never change something that has already happened – like your mother not going to university straight from school. But you can learn from the experience and try to do better the next time. Tell your mother I would love to see her again sometime – she can always pop in for a coffee ….. or something stronger!”

As he turns away he adds, “Oh, and the invitation is there for you and your friends, too!”

They watch as he picks up speed, already thinking of his lunch and when he needs to leave to get to the hospital in time.