I had hoped to first blog about the amazing few days I just spent in Dresden during the Deutscher Envangelischer Kirchentag, but that will have to wait. This morning, the 6th June 2011, Fr. David Waite died in his sleep at Aylesford Priory, Kent.
The interview process to join the Carmelites has meant I have visited Aylesford three times this year, each for a couple of days at a time. On these occasions I had the pleasure of getting to know David, even if through just a few conversations in the community room. Everyone who spoke to me about David at this time always said how much he was at peace with the cancer which eventually killed him, and how much they admired him for it. The last time we spoke, a couple of weeks ago just after I had been accepted into the novitiate, I asked him cheerfully how he was. He replied, equally cheerfully, "I'm just taking each day as it comes."
At the age of twenty two those are not easy words to hear or to accept. I doubt they were any easier for him to say at the age of sixty four. I can only pray I may have that kind of acceptance and comfort in God's love if I am ever in the same situation. If you do, pray also for the Carmelites and the community at Aylesford, who have now lost two of their brothers in less than a month. A family is grieving.
For a short obituary go to the news page of the British Province of Carmelites
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