- it’s like an episode of #Survivor without the bikinis and a bit more, um, God. In this plodcast we make a difficult decision, I crack perhaps the worst joke of all time, and Charlie Kang becomes an actual troll.
Day 7: Loch Lomond (West Highland Way)
- in which God speaks through a bunkhouse window, a sad announcement must be made, and we reflect on the significance of #FathersDay
Day 6: St Joseph's Cell
- a shorter one today in which we discover a hermitage in the hills and reflect upon solitude as “the place of the great struggle and the great encounter.” Apologies for embarrassing outtakes at the end…
Day 5: Calum Macfarlane-Barrow
- in which Calum Macfarlane-Barrow a 91 year-old former poacher turned huntsman, farmer and artist, explains the potency of ‘body prayer’, and how pilgrimage has changed the entire trajectory of his life.
Day 4: Glen Orchy (Conan's Way)
- 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.
Day 3: Road of the Kings (Conan's Way)
In which we (finally) think a bit about St Aidan himself, and unexpectedly get into ‘Breath Prayer’
DAY 2: Isle of Mull (Conan's Way)
in which Charlie Kang and Rich Dawson actually CHEAT (and we get eaten by midges)