In the Cathedral today we had the pleasure to listen to The Revd Kirsty Borthwick who is the College Chaplain at Christ Church, with pastoral responsibility for the undergraduates, other students and staff. Almost every college in Oxford has a chaplain and Christ Church is no exception, despite all the many other priests in the Cathedral. The Revd Borthwick spoke to us about St Martin of Tours who famously showed compassion to a beggar by cutting his military cloak in half in order that the beggar might shelter from the bad weather. The cloak represented St Martin’s status as a high-ranking soldier and so its destruction was an important symbol of his putting compassion before status. In order to illustrate this story she asked me to pass over my gown – which I did willingly, not knowing the story she was about to use it to illustrate. I have to confess I grew nervous about the implications of the story as she began to tell it, my gown firmly in her hands. Fortunately for me she handed it back in tact, before I had to make a decision about whether I could manage without it or indeed have to wear only half of it in the future. It is always easier to approve of these parables or illustrations from the lives of saints if one is not called to make the same sacrifice oneself!