on obeying your grandmother
As you know, our Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends believe in the intercession of saints. They ask the saints to petition Jesus on our behalf, much as we might ask a devout friend to put in a word for us. Whatever you think of that practice - and it's not something you should dismiss without hearing the arguments - here's something that tickled me.
A few years ago I asked an Orthodox bishop in Yorkshire why he'd dedicated his little monastery to St Anne, the mother of Mary.
'Do you ever disobey your mother?' he asked me.
'Sometimes,' I said.
'Do you ever disobey your grandmother?'
'No,' I said.
'That's why we dedicated the monastery to St Anne.'
It seems that even in heaven, the laws of family apply...
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John