Reepham Benefice

I reckon it must be about 15 years ago that I came upon a book that has had a significant effect in my life and I return to it again and again. This Sunrise of Wonder, by Michael Maine. He died 3 ½ years ago. In his life he had been Vicar of Great St Mary’s in Cambridge. He was a well known religious broadcast and her was finally Dean of Westminster Abbey. Several times I heard him speak. He was simply economic, inspiring and a great communicator. He had grace. Michael Maine was one of the fewer men to be afflicted by the cruel disease ME. As many of us know this is often cruelly debilitating. Michael developed it in the mid 1990’s; he had to spend a year off work and resting. And this coincided with the birth of his first grandchild. He took himself to Switzerland and there, as he rested, he wrote. He wrote letters to the grandchildren yet to be born. Letters in which he painted and poured out his greatest hopes for their lives. Quite simply what Michael Maine longed for, for his grandchildren, is that they would and could be grasped and captivated by a sense of wonder! That they would have the gift that carried them that caused them to draw in their breath...

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