Be Still And Know

John 15:1-2 NLT    'I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.'   Last year I decided to train for my Trinity Certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I wanted to have something that I might trade with as I grew older, that would also be recognised internationally and enable me to live outside the UK if necessary. It was also a deepening response to my call to walk the way of a contemplative. God does not expect his people to live off charity, but to be able to meet their own immediate needs. Living on the edge of Southampton, there were many foreign language speakers, and I could arrange tutoring around the Oratory.    In determining if I should train, I had to consider the value of the course to what God wanted for the Oratory and my life of prayer. I knew life would be disturbed by the training and teaching. I was fairly comfo