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Back Cover
Lisa is an attractive Roman Catholic Sister visiting Australia. Due to circumstances
she stays with Mark whom she meets in Saint Vincent de Paul. Delays in completing
an orphanage means time together. While the novel reads like ‘boy meets girl’, it
is a ‘tale in the spirit’. Other novels by the same author use Jewish Life in the
Spirit, or Islamic, even Buddhism has an equivalent, as the basis of a story. This
tale is put together by a Roman Catholic Life in the Spirit group. In Roman Catholic
Life in the Spirit the New Testament is accepted as a ‘tale in the spirit’ and not
as the church teaches. Guided by the spirit, as is believed, two people who accept
a tradition of a Faith Marriage have to build their life afresh in the spirit. ‘A
marriage in heaven’. That means inventing how they met, what they did together, and
how they fell in love – as if it happened in true life. From the beginning Mark is
a challenge to Lisa. His understanding of the Hebrew God is not like that of the
church or theologians or biblical scholars. At the same time, he is aware of the
importance to individuals of believing in a certain way. In advanced Jewish Life
in the Spirit Mark is considered as the ‘Holy Spirit’ or ‘Spirit of Truth’. That
depth of the mystery doesn’t work in Christian Life in the Spirit. In the tale Mark
is a man, Lisa a woman.
Man of Sense; Woman of Faith
A Sunday afternoon nap. Pleasure. Sleep elusive. A drowsy state with vivid memories of places. Mostly Catholic settings: a Catholic, or was it Anglican?, Primary School; a room, a desk, a white piece of paper with a red rose. Mark let his mind wander through these memories, delighted at the effects: a church, a pew, a white piece of paper with a red rose; another church and a white paper with a red rose; a hospital bed, white sheets, on these a red rose. More and more, white and a red rose, but the locations seemed more than his own memory. From different parts of the world? In some settings a sense of Canada? Or was it India? Someone’s memories blending with his? How?
A burden made this indulgence no so pleasant. He rarely caught the train. The last time he had, at 4 o’clock in the morning, he saw a woman who reminded him of his mother. She, he concluded, was homeless. By her side bags on a trolley. One bag stuffed with old newspapers which he guessed she used as the basis of a bed. How he wished there was something he could do for her. He wouldn’t let his late mother sleep on the streets. Why should he accept this particular person being homeless? What could he do? Offer her a room in his house? The soul was willing but the flesh protested with practical considerations. What did he know about her? She could have a violent personality and murder him in his sleep.
A sigh from his spirit “What is God’s plan for me?”
This was most unusual. Mark never thought in those terms. The faint images began to overlap and combine and in his mind’s eye a dim vision: the back of a Man in a black cape standing on a hill. A golden line from the back of his head to the ground. The imagery high quality cartoon-like. With these a faint flow from the spirit …. (end of extract)
Chapter 1 A Red Rose
“Hi Gertrude. A red rose? For you?” Mark walked past four women waiting. One with a baby. A smile toward them as he came to the high end of the Reception area desk. Gertrude was sitting behind her desk. The desk had a high top at one end. On the top end a red rose on white paper. Fresh. Lovely. In full bloom.
This was Wednesday. The one day a week he volunteered as a counselor. This was the title of volunteers. None had welfare or psychology degrees. None were professional counselors. This Saint Vincent de Paul, known as Vinnies, didn’t want professionals. Professional counselors ‘looked down’ on those who needed assistance. Professionals were paid to pretend to care. Vinnies wanted volunteers who worked for no money because they cared about people.
It had been a dreadful week with continual heavy rain. On this October morning the downpour relentless. The telephone at the Reception silent. Unusual for the first day of the month on which electricity vouchers came. The telephone would ring non-stop as clients inquired if the vouchers were available. If so, a client would find their way to this Saint Vincent de Paul center. This was important to clients. Electricity costs often large. There was a limited number of vouchers. These went fast. The typical client who needed such vouchers was a mother with children. In the last months of winter and early spring temperatures could be low. The usual accommodation such mothers had were thin-walled government housing with no insulation. Heating had to be maintained for the children. The electricity bills in those months could be high. What made this worse was the new generation which played online computer games instead of outside activity. A mother with four children might receive a bill for over $1000! Mark’s bills rarely over $200….(end of extract)