Thought for the Week

St Aelred of Rievaulx was a 12th century English monk who wrote a great deal on human friendship. He seems to have been an exceptional person himself who had a real gift for both making friends and keeping them.

Aelred had risen to great heights in the court of King David of Scotland, but after visiting the monastery of Rievaulx in Yorkshire at the age of 22 he turned aside from his stellar rise in the King’s service.

Apparently he was captivated by the beauty of the place and also the simplicity of the monastic life.

He abandoned the court and spent the rest of his life in the Abbey, eventually as Abbot.

We have both books and recorded conversations containing his advice on friendship. Friendship, he says, is about finding a lasting bond with another person, it’s about sharing things in life with them.

To have a friend is to find support and care and sharing of the burdens of life with another.

Genuine friendship, he states, doesn’t lead you to offend others or to have evil desires in your heart. A true friend, Aelred tells us, is one who is loyal, discreet and patient.

Aelred says perceptively that in life a person may only find several true friends and perhaps only one.

In Cambuslang these days many of us are saying farewell to a person who has been a good and true friend to us – Neil Glover, minister at Flemington Hallside.

All that Aelred says about friendship could easily be said about Neil, who, as it turns out, is like Aelred and easily makes friends and keeps them. Friendship is a real gift in life. It is a gift to be treasured, a gift to savour and a gift that makes you thankful for those who are your friends. Father Paul Morton St Brides Parish Church