I decided this Lent that I would, as discipline and (I hoped) joy, try to do something about all 14 of the traditional Works of Mercy in honour of the Jubilee. Although in his papal bull for the Year of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis explicitly says that one way of performing acts of mercy is to support charities and political campaigns that provide appropriate services, I wanted to make these acts physical and actual. Being, in global terms, a very rich person, sending off a series of donations was not enough; I wanted to commit my time and my imagination as well. In his handy “Pilgrimage Companion” to the Year of Mercy, Cardinal Nichols assures us “there is no shortage of opportunity”, though in fact it turned out that living in considerable solitude and silence made things a little more complicated.

My adventures in practical mercy turned out somewhat unexpectedly.

I decided that the most useful thing I could do about Feeding the Hungry was to increase my giving to the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund. I now wish I had copied my niece who once “fasted” by living on £7 for a week to raise awareness of and sympathy for the 1.4 billion people worldwide who do so without choice. (I spend more than £7 a day on my cigarettes alone. Oh dear.)