A Way that I went - Miserere Mei Deus

Ireland was once the ‘Island of Saints and Scholars’ and educated the children of the European elite in their monasteries and other places of learning. Their missionaries went all over Europe and their work can be evidenced in many of the cities of Europe. The names of the saints are legion and there has been a tradition of educating young men and women for centuries ever since. Ireland’s educators went all over the world and the Redemptorist order brought the messages of Christianity far and wide. I had the opportunity to be a missionary in that traditional sense and this is about how it went. No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. The saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.This is a short story about my journey towards the priesthood in the Redemptorist religious order. It is the story of part of and aspects of that journey, my journey the ups and downs the doubts, the love of the solitude I found there at certain stages in the journey and the reasons why I felt I had to withdraw and discontinue the journey...