” Difficulties break some men but make others.
No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of the sinner
who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope he will rise in the end.”
– Nelson Mandela
I’m driving inland to the center of the South Island of New Zealand with my brother Mark. He’s pointing out the vineyards that have been popping up all over during the last 20 years producing some of the world’s best pinot noir.
Mark tells me that the soil isn’t good and the temperatures are very hot in summer and very cold in winter. This means the vines have to struggle and their leaves often look tatty. Counter-intuitively these factors produce the best grapes, as most of the nutrients go the fruit and not to the leaves.
So if you feel like your leaves aren’t green and bushy: don’t worry, God is probably producing wonderful fruit in your life!
About Fr Simon Devereux LC
FR SIMON was born on February 4, 1979, in Dunedin, New Zealand, the seventh son of Marie and Michael Devereux. He entered the novitiate of the Legionaries of Christ in Cheshire, Connecticut, on September 15, 1997. After his novitiate and year of humanities in Cheshire, he studied a bachelor’s in Philosophy at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome from 2000 to 2002 and from 2005 to 2007, a licentiate in Philosophy. In between, he worked as a youth minister in Quebec, Canada, and he made his perpetual profession in Rome on October 4, 2005. In 2010 he completed a three-year bachelor’s degree in Theology and was ordained on Christmas Eve of the same year with 60 of his brother Legionaries by Card. Velasio di Paolis. Two of his brothers are also Legionary priests. Fr Simon is now based at the Legion of Christ seminary in Cheshire, Connecticut.
