- in which we discover Craig Lodge, a Catholic House of Prayer deep in the heart of the Highlands with its own gun room! We also chat about the historical and contemporary significance of pilgrimage, the forgotten art of being ‘underwhelmed’, and Rich Dawson our resident minstrel knocks out another lovely song.
Dalmally’s most famous son is John Smith QC, the late, great politician whose sudden death made way for Tony Blair to lead the British Labour Party. It’s a little-known fact that this great man had cultivated the private discipline of stepping away from the frenzy of Westminster at least once a year for a solitary retreat on #Iona where he would spend time in prayer kneeling late into the night in its ancient abbey.
How I long for leaders like that.
Surveying the hysteria of contemporary culture and the crisis of leadership in the Church, I’m more convinced than ever that these ancient, quiet disciplines of prayer & pilgrimage, silence & solitude must urgently be rediscovered, not as peripheral but integral to any healthy, balanced life and particularly to any life deployed in the realm of public service.