with Anne Booth

27 June, 10 am to 3 pm

When the Saints go marching in, do we really want to be part of their number? In the Christian tradition we have the Saints, whose stories and images can become so familiar that they can feel like our heavenly friends and family, yet sometimes their extraordinary examples of holiness can be hard to reconcile with our own more ordinary lives. How can we be inspired without being demoralised, and how is God inviting us to live out our unique call to sainthood? This day will explore the stories of the saints and their spiritualities, and the wonderful but sometimes unhelpful mixture of fact and fiction which surrounds them. We will ponder the fact that they were real, imperfect, often difficult and fallible people, and, using the Gospels, poetry and the writings of Thomas Merton,  consider the part they can play in inspiring us to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds, and our neighbours as ourselves.

Anne is a married mum of four, with an MA in Children’s Literature and another in Creative Writing and a postgraduate diploma in Pastoral Theology from Heythrop College. She is an author of more than twenty-five books for children and two novels for adults, published by Penguin Harvill Secker, and believes in the power of storytelling, and the use of fiction to help our relationship with God. She is a passionate fan of Children’s Book illustration and, as well as working on future books, is currently studying part-time for an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin College, Cambridge.