Welcome!

In our life here at Ty Mam Duw, we have over the years, and in different ways accompanied quite a number of people on their journey of faith into the Catholic Church. Many of our Sisters are also converts to Catholicism - though mostly not from the Church of England.

We want to express our deep gladness at the generous response of our Father in Faith, Pope Benedict XVI to recent petitions from members of the Anglican Communion that has culminated the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, of 4 November 2009.

To friends in the Church of England, known and unknown to us, who are considering making this step of faith we want to express a heartfelt and loving welcome.

Thank you for your trust in the Lord and in his Word, may He reward you! We are with you in prayer on your journey.

In the words of our Holy Mother Clare:
May the Lord be with you, and may you be with him always and in every place


The Church is a Mother who has many children from all walks of life. They look to her for guidance, which gives them a sense of belonging. As they enjoy her motherly protection, their journey through life with all its joy and pain ends in the finality of heaven

TMD on YouTube!

Here we are at last!
We hope!!!

We would like to thank a friend from XT3 - Christ for the Third Millennium - Bernadette Bevans of Our Lady's Dowry Productions for her technical mastery; but this is still definitely us as we see ourselves!

http://www.youtube.com/user/yourlittlesisters

The Year for Priests 1

Powerless and joyful

At heart, a priest is a poor; he cannot bless himself, baptize, absolve, marry or ordain himself. The power to celebrate the Eucharist is given him as a pure gift, but - even if he should be the only person present - he says the Eucharist for and on behalf of the whole Church. He is like bread; he is there to be eaten by others, his life and his time do not belong to him, he is there for others, as a servant. This is a challenge; it can be pure joy part of the time and pure drudgery for the rest. It is not about power or privilege; it is about servanthood.

To have a Year for Priests, drawn out of the image of the great evangelist St Paul in to the icon of the humble Parish priest St John Marie Vianney is a moving gesture at a time when the conduct of a few has dragged the ideal of Priesthood through the mire and when fear and a diminished identity tempt even the finest priests. We think that it is a magnificent idea of our Father, Benedict XVI - and we get to pray for him, too. A friend from Vatican Radio was staying in the guest quarters, and being contacted by Father Lombardi, remarked, casually, “They pray for the Holy Father three times a day here!” And Father Lombardi replied. “I’ll tell him!”

Living prayer

We, the little sisters, wanted to be part of this special year. For the Great Jubilee of the Millennium in 2000 we had offered the prayer for the Jubilee Indulgence, each day of the year, for people who had asked us to do so. This was not just a few words said, in someone else’s name for a spiritual end which, though apparently benevolent was not particularly well expressed or even clear, it was something that we were very concretely involved in. It felt, as one of the Sisters said at the time like going out for a walk with a baby in a pram, but as the year progressed it seemed that the baby got heavier and heavier and the road was all uphill and by the end we felt like the character out of The Mission who is hauling the symbols of his past crimes up a mountain, sliding in the mud. But they weren’t our crimes (already settled!) - but those of others who could not carry them. It was a life-changing experience in intercessory prayer. We began to take the Gift of Mercy very seriously - as part of our own history with the Portiuncula Indulgence and, like Luther as something too precious too be sold. It is worth bearing in mind that Luther kicked off his religious rebellion on the subject of indulgences, not because he thought they were useless, but because he thought, unlike an unholy Dominican called Tetzel, that they were more that money could buy!

At the root of prayer for others is our Lord’s word that what ever we agree to ask in his name we will receive. We want to do this for our Priests.

The Gift of Mercy and Love

For the Year for Priests, through the ministry of our Father, Benedict XVI we are offered the possibility of a great grace and blessing in prayer which we might claim for ourselves, or, if we wish, offer for another and perhaps, very specially, offer on behalf of a priest. That is what your little sisters at Ty Mam Duw are doing.

This gift of mercy, through prayer, is a Plenary Indulgence for the healing of the wounds that result from lovelessness and sin - or to use more formal language - the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin.

We may receive the Plenary Indulgence if we have recently availed ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, attend the Holy Eucharist and offer prayers to Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest, for the priests of the Church, that he may make them completely holy and form them in accordance with His Heart. We are invited to offer, as a gift in prayer, the work which we may have done on that day, and to remember the Holy Father’s intentions before the Lord.

The Gift of Mercy may be received on the following days: the beginning of the Year for Priests; 19 June 2009, the end; 19 June 2010, the feast day of St John Marie Vianney; 4th August 2009 (it is his 150th anniversary!) and on the first Thursday of each month.

The Year for Priests 2

FOREVER PRIESTS

Having done banners for the year of the Eucharist and the Year of St Paul, we wanted to have something in the front hall for the year of priests. Our reflections together resolved them selves into this wall hanging

In the Old Covenant, before Aaron and his sons are consecrated as priests, Moses washes them with water (Leviticus 8:6). There may be an echo of this ritual in Christ’s washing of his disciples feet at the last supper, before his High Priestly Prayer (John 17:17-19) in which he asks the Father; as you have sent me so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself so that they may be consecrated in truth.

In this picture, a silk painting, made by the Sisters of Ty Mam Duw, water pours from the wounded hands of Christ the High Priest, over a priest consecrated by the Church. He looks up, experiencing this gift of renewal with joy and thanksgiving.

The priest is no longer young, yet between him and his Master, Jesus, there is a certain resemblance.

Looking at the priest’s face, it would be quite hard to imagine him as a father of four, or even as a bank clark or a bus conductor. The Sacrament he has received and a life dedicated to the service of the People of God has marked his kind, rather vulnerable face with humility and pain, innocence and joy, self-forgetfulness and prayer. Especially prayer.

Under the waters of God’s love the priest is surprised by the happiness that comes to those who live with the Lord who makes all things new.

The Year for Priests 3

Prayer and reflection

In our front hall we have left a pile of leaflets with the information and meditations in these three section. We invite our visitors - and you:

Please take a leaflet and pray for our priests, this can be our way of fulfilling Jesus’ command to love one another.
Round the dome of St Peter’s visible in letters a metre high are the words: Feed my sheep and invisibly nine miles high are the words: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Love is the debt we owe each other, we who are all alike poor, limited, sinful, human beings.
In our Church there are hundreds of thousands of priests loyally loving the Lord and his people only 0.02% of them have ever been involved in the abuse of children. Holy and sinful, our priests need our prayers.
If you have prayed for your priest here, why not send him a post card to say so?

You are a priest forever
a priest like Melchisedek of old.
Feed my people with my body and blood,
show them my face by your life.

There is no greater love
than to lay down one’s life
for another.

Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
Forgive and bring to repentance
those who who have disfigured my face
by the abuse of my little ones.

Father, consecrate them in the truth,
your Word is truth.
TMD

Lord, fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit
him whom you have deigned to raise to the rank of the priesthood,
that he may be worthy to stand without reproach before your altar,
to proclaim the Gospel of your kingdom,
to fulfill the ministry of your word of truth,
to offer you spiritual gifts and sacrifices,
to renew your people by baptism;
so that he may go out to meet our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,
your only Son, on the day of his second coming,
and may receive from your vast goodness
the recompense for a faithful administration of his ordination.
Amen.
Byzantine Liturgy

The priest continues the work of redemption on earth. If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die not of fright but of love. The Priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.
St John Marie Vianney

If I were at the same time to meet some saint coming down from heaven and any poor little priest, I would first pay my respects to the priest and proceed to kiss his hands first. I would say, '’Oh, just a moment, St. Lawrence, because this person's hands handle the Word of Life and possess something that is more than human.’ These hands have touched my Lord, and no matter what they be like, they could not soil him or lessen his power and goodness. To honor the Lord, honor his minister. He can be bad for himself, but for me he is good.
St Francis of Assisi

The Cure of Ars’ example naturally leads me to point out that there are sectors of cooperation which need to be opened ever more fully to the lay faithful. Priests and laity together make up the one priestly people and in virtue of their ministry priests live in the midst of the lay faithful, that they may lead everyone to the unity of charity, loving one another with mutual affection; and outdoing one another in sharing honour.
Benedict XVI Letter proclaiming Year of Priests

Pentecost

Come Holy Spirit!
We celebrated a rather early vigil for the birthday of the Church beginning at 7 pm and it was beautiful to feel the sunset merge into darkness and the light of the seven candles in the sanctuary increase as night fell. The order of the readings and beautifully apt psalms is from the Pontifical Liturgy for the Pentecost Vigil. The dance (photographed here at the rehearsal) followed the reading from Genesis which prefaced the celebration and included two long pauses for Adoration.

It came as a wonderful spiritual journey between a hectic week of gardening - and getting the beans planted and the netting up - and a hectic week of disorder while new lighting is being installed in choir and we are singing the Office in Ephesus and having Mass in the grille parlour! As Clare said we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth....

Vigil 2009

The Pentecost Vigil is the continuation of the great Vigil of Easter. Having concluded the Rosary in the light of the Paschal Candle, Music (it was the 3rd movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony) begins. Seven sisters light candles before the altar and lectern. There is a short pause for reflection between the reading and the prayer.

Prologue
A reading from the book of Genesis
Gen 1:1-5

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Prayer
Let us pray,
Lord God,
we are the wonder of your new creation.
Through baptism,
your Spirit hovers over our chaos
and makes us new creatures
reformed in your love.
We receive your light and lordship
as the eternal Day of your Son breaks into our life
through his Living Spirit,
Amen

Litany of the Holy Spirit

As the dancers retire, Dear Mother comes forward to expose the Living Presence of the Lord who gives us his Spirit in the Blessed Sacrament

Mother
Let us praise the Father+
in his mercy
and the Son by his passion
and the Holy Spirit
the fountain of peace and sweetness and love
Amen, Amen without recall.

Extended period of quiet prayer

Song: Veni Sancte Spiritus

Ist Reading

A reading from the book of Genesis
Gen 11:1-9

The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
While the people were migrating in the east,
they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another,
"Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire."
They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth."
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower
that the people had built.
Then the Lord said: "If now, while they are one people,
all speaking the same language,
they have started to do this,
nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.
Let us then go down there and confuse their language,
so that one will not understand what another says."
Thus the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel,
because there the Lord confused the speech of all the world.
It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God


Prayer
Let us pray,
Father of Mercy,
let your Spirit be our communion.
Do not let us unite, only to build towers of destruction
but teach us your language of truth and peace.
Through Christ our Lord

Psalm 33

Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just; *
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.

Give thanks to the Lord upon the lyre *
with a ten-stringed harp sing him songs.
O sing him a song that is new, *
play loudly with all your skill.

For the word of the Lord is faithful *
and all his works to be trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right *
and fills the earth with his love.

By his word the heavens were made, *
by the breath of his mouth all the stars.
He collects the waves of the ocean; *
he stores up the depths of the sea.

Let all the earth fear the Lord, *
all who live in the world revere him.
He spoke; and it came to be. *
He commanded; it sprang into being.

He frustrates the designs of the nations, *
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever, *
the plans of his heart from age to age.

They are happy, whose God is the Lord, *
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth, *
he sees all the children of men.

Our soul is waiting for the Lord. *
The Lord is our help and our shield.
In him do our hearts find joy. *
We trust in his holy name.

May your love be upon us, O Lord, *
as we place all our hope in you.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now and will be for ever. Amen

2nd Reading

A reading from the book of Exodus
Ex 19:3-8,16-20

Israel encamped before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Prayer
Let us pray,
O Lord our God,
you show your steadfast love
to the thousands who love you
and keep your commandments
and to the millions who cannot face the simplicity of your love
and do not keep your living word.
We worship you in Spirit and truth;
make us your witnesses
through Christ our Lord.
Amen

Psalm 103

My soul, give thanks to the Lord, *
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord *
and never forget all his blessings.

It is he who forgives all your guilt, *
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave, *
who crowns you with love and compassion,
who fills your life with good things, *
renewing your youth like an eagle’s.

The Lord does deeds of justice, *
gives judgment for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses *
and his deeds to Israel’s sons.


The Lord is compassion and love, *
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end; *
he will not be angry for ever. *
He does not treat us according to our sins *
nor repay us according to our faults.

For as the heavens are high above the earth *
so strong is his love for those who fear him.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now and will be for ever. Amen


Third reading
A reading from the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezek 37:1-14

(With music Copeland: Fanfare for the common man)

The hand of the Lord came upon me,
and he led me out in the spirit of the Lord
and set me in the center of the plain,
which was now filled with bones.
He made me walk among the bones in every direction
so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.
How dry they were!
He asked me:
Son of man, can these bones come to life?
I answered, "Lord God, you alone know that."
Then he said to me:
Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:
Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.
I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,
cover you with skin, and put spirit in you
so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord.
I, Ezekiel, prophesied as I had been told,
and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;
it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.
I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,
and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then the Lord said to me:
Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God:
From the four winds come, O spirit,
and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.
I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;
they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.
Then he said to me:
Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They have been saying,
"Our bones are dried up,
our hope is lost, and we are cut off."
Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the Lord.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Prayer
Let us pray,
Father of all compassion,
breathe into the dead bones of our transgression
new life and joy.
Create in us a new heart
and fill us with your Holy Spirit.
Through Christ our Lord
Amen.

Psalm 51: 3-4, 8-9, 12-13

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. *
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt *
and cleanse me from my sin.

Make me hear rejoicing and gladness, *
that the bones you have crushed may revive.
From my sins turn away your face *
and blot out all my guilt.

A pure heart create for me, O God, *
put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, *
nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

Give me again the joy of your help; *
with a spirit of fervour sustain me,
that I may teach transgressors your ways *
and sinners may return to you.

Give praise to the Father Almighty
to his Son Jesus Christ the Lord
to the Spirit who dwells in our hearts
For ever and ever Amen


4th reading
A reading from the Prophet Joel
Joel 3:1-5

Thus says the Lord:
"I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men see visions.
Even on the slaves, men and women,
will I pour out my spirit in those days.
I will display portents in heaven and on earth,
blood and fire and columns of smoke.
The sun will be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood,
before the day of the Lord dawns,
that great and terrible day.
All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved,
for on Mount Zion there will be some who have escaped,
as the Lord has said,
and in Jerusalem some survivors whom the Lord will call.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Prayer
Let us pray
Father of Might and Splendour,
The grace of living in your Son’s Spirit
is a gift for the end times.
It is only in the Spirit that we can call upon his name and be saved.
Grant us constancy and trust,
You who live and reign for ever.
Amen.

Psalm 104
Send forth your spirit......

Gospel
Accompanied by the assistants and versicularians Dear Mother goes to the head of the choir where all bow to the Altar. They make their way to the Sanctuary lectern.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you Lord
Jn 7:37-39

On the last and greatest day of the feast,
Jesus stood up and exclaimed,
"Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.
As Scripture says:
Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me."
He said this in reference to the Spirit
that those who came to believe in him were to receive.
There was, of course, no Spirit yet,
because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

This is the Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Mother and her assistants return to their stalls.
Schola Nun Bitten wir der Heiligan Geist (13 century)
An extended period of silent prayer follows.

Reminder of our confirmation


Mother
My dear sisters, let us pray to God our Father, that he will renew in our hearts the awareness of the Holy Spirit which we received at Pentecost.

All pray briefly in silence.

Mother
All-powerful God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by water and the Holy Spirit
you freed us from sin
and gave us new life.
Re-awaken the presence of your Holy Spirit in our hearts
to lead and guide us.
Renew in us the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of right judgment and courage,
the spirit of knowledge and reverence.
Fill us anew with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

In silence Dear Mother places her hands over the head of the sister next to her and prays quietly for a moment. She then says:

Mother
Sr N, remember you are sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Peace be with you.

Sister
And also with you.

The Sister in turn places her hands on the head of the next sister and prays in the same way.

During the second part of the Song that follows, the Blessed Sacrament is reposed
WYD o8 Receive the Power

Sister Seraphina's Solemn Profession May 2 2009

This is the day the Lord has made, Alleluia!
We vow to "Observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, by living in obedience without property and in chastity", We proclaim the Word with our lives.......

The Rite of Solemn Profession in the Poor Clare Colettine Tradition

For your interest, we thought we would give the full text of our Colettine Rite of Solemn Profession. The footnotes do not come up in the text but the sources are mainly from the Ritual of St Colette, included in the Constitutions Of Gebeunc of 1487, and from the writings of St Clare and St Francis from the early thirteenth century. The beautiful prayer of the Consecration of the newly professed Sister is from the 1970 Rite of Religious Profession and was composed by Fr Ignatio Maria Calabuig Adan, who amongst other gifts to the Church, wrote Marialis cultus for Paul VI. Although those who have helped to create the restored liturgy of the Church worked anonymously whilst they lived, Father Ignatio is now celebrating the Liturgy of the Angels personaly.....!

A beautiful touch of the Lord!

The bush from which the thorns of our Sister's crown were picked was in flower at the time and the leaves and flowers are as real as the thorns. For those of a nervous disposition, who were not there it see it, it was placed on her dear head very gently!!!!

The Rite of Solemn Profession
The Proper texts for the Mass of Religious Profession are used.

The Sister who is to make her Solemn and Perpetual Profession of Vows takes her place behind the cross-bearer and before the clergy in the entrance procession. She is escorted through the public chapel to the Choir grille of the sanctuary by her father, or other near relative or friend. She is then seated in a place in the choir from which she is visible to those beyond the grille.

After the homily, Mother Abbess comes forward. The Sister, who is to profess her vows, publicly witnesses to her free choice to do so.

Examination
Mother
Sister N of N.

Sister
Lord, you have called me by my name.28
Behold, I come to do your holy will.29

Mother
Dear daughter, what do you desire?

Sister
One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I seek,
to dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life.30

Mother
Have you pondered well and really understood
what you wish to commit yourself to do?31

Sister
I have, with the grace of God.

Mother
Have you the courage to trust in God completely, that he will provide for all your needs, especially that he will give you the grace to live out faithfully what you desire to promise to him?32

Sister
I have, with the grace of God.

Mother
You have put your hand to the plough
and from this day forward there can be no looking back.
Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests
but the Son of Man, your Spouse, had nowhere to lay His head. 33
Are you prepared to follow Him completely until the end?

Sister
I am, with the grace of God.

Mother
What you hold now, may you hold forever.
What you promise now, may you never abandon,
but with swift pace, light step and unswerving feet
go forward, securely, joyfully, swiftly and prudently
on the path of happiness,
so that you may offer your vows to the Most High
in that perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.34

All stand.

Celebrant
May God who has begun this good work in you
bring it to fulfilment before the day of Christ Jesus. 35

Litany

Dear friends in Christ,
let us now pray to the Father of all good gifts,
uniting ourselves with the prayer of all the saints
that His handmaid who seeks to serve Him with the whole desire of her heart
may be strengthened in His service36
and that He may bestow on her those gifts for which she longs.

Deacon
Let us kneel.

The Sister who makes her profession of Solemn Vows prostrates before the altar, while the chantresses sing the Litany of the Franciscan saints, which is to include her own patron. The congregation join in the responses.

At the end of the litany the Celebrant alone rises and says, with hands joined:

Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,
Give to our Sister the grace
to do for your sake what she knows you want
and to always want what pleases you,
so that, purified and enlightened and set on fire
with the love of the Holy Spirit
she may follow, until death,
in the footsteps of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by your grace alone may come to you Most High,
who live and reign and are glorified
in perfect Trinity and undivided unity,
God for ever and ever.37
Amen.

Deacon
Let us stand.

The Sister rises and returns to her place. Mother Abbess is now joined by the two witnesses, the Vicaress and the Novice Mistress.

Mother
In preparation for the vows which you are about to pronounce,
I invite you now to renounce all moral and actual right to own anything under heaven, 38
in the covenant with Lady Poverty
granted to our Holy Mother Clare by Pope Innocent III.39

Sister
Since I desire to belong wholly to the Lord,
I now renounce, once and for all,
the power of owning anything under heaven,
that I may in every way
cling to the footprints of Him
who became for us the Way, the Truth and the Life,

He whose left hand is under my head
to support the weakness of my flesh,
who feeds the birds of heaven,
and clothes the lilies of the fields,
will feed and clothe me, and provide all my needs
until that day when His right hand embraces me
and I behold Him in heaven.
Amen.

Profession


Mother
Be faithful unto death, most dear one,
to what you are about to promise
and you will be crowned by Christ with the wreath of eternal life.
Our labour here below is short, the glory is infinite.40

The Sisters kneel and the Celebrant and congregation remain standing.

Sister
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I, little Sister N of N.
wish to follow the life and poverty of our most high Lord Jesus Christ,
and to persevere to the end.
And I vow to God, before the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and I promise you, dear Mother,
to observe for the whole time of my life
the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by living in obedience, without property and in chastity,
in the form of life which the blessed Francis gave to our Blessed Mother Clare
and Pope Innocent IV confirmed,
And I vow to observe enclosure,41
after the example of our Holy Mother Colette.42

Mother
I receive these vows on behalf of the Church and the Order.

What you have vowed to God render to Him faithfully
and he shall reward you.
Look up to heaven, dear one, which beckons us on,
and take up your cross and follow Christ
who walks ahead of us.
For whatever tribulations we may have here
we shall enter through Him into His glory.43

The Vow Card and the Renunciation of Property is then signed by the Sister and her signature is attested to, both on the Vow Card and in the Book of Professions by the Abbess, Vicaress, Novice Mistress and the Celebrant, while the choir sing:

Be faithful unto death
and I will give you the crown of life.44

Solemn Blessing and Consecration of the Professed

Celebrant
Lord God,
Creator of the world and Father of mankind,
we honour you with praise and thanksgiving,
for you chose a people from the stock of Abraham
and consecrated them to yourself,
calling them by your Name.
While they wandered in the wilderness
your word gave them comfort
and your right hand protection.
When they were poor and despised
you united them to yourself in a covenant of love.
When they strayed from your friendship
your mercy led them back to the right way.
When they sought you,
your Fatherly care looked after them
until they came to dwell in a land of freedom.

But above all, we thank you, Father,
for revealing the knowledge of truth
through your son Jesus Christ, our brother.

When He took his place at your right hand,
He sent his Holy Spirit to call countless disciples
to follow the evangelical counsels
and consecrate their lives
to the glory of your name and the salvation of humankind.

Today it is right
that your House should echo with a new song of thanksgiving
for this Sister of ours
who has listened to your voice
and made herself over to your holy service.

Lord, send the gift of the Holy Spirit upon your handmaid
who has left all things for your sake.

Father, may her life reveaI the face of Christ, your son,
so that all who see her may come to know
that He is always present in your Church.
We pray that in freedom of heart
she may free from care the hearts of others;
in helping the afflicted,
may she bring comfort to Christ
suffering in His sisters and brothers;
may she look upon this world and see it ruled by His wisdom.
May the gift she makes of herself
hasten the coming of His kingdom,
and make her one at last with your saints in heaven.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.45
Amen

The Insignia of Profession
The Blessing of the ring

Celebrant
Lord of eternal faithfulness
bless this ring +
the symbol of your covenant
with your sister and bride, N of N.

As a circle has no beginning or end,
so too, your love is endless and complete.

Fashioned in silver,
it is a sign of the poverty you have chosen for your bride.
May she wear it in trust until the day she is united to you in heaven.

As she places the ring on the Sister's finger Mother Abbess says:

I espouse you to Jesus Christ
the Son of the most high Father
who will protect you.46
Receive the ring of faith,47
the seal of the Holy Spirit,
that you may be called the spouse of Christ.
Love Him totally who gave Himself totally for your love.48

The Choir sing

You have chosen with your whole heart and soul
a life of holy poverty and want.
Thus you have taken a Spouse
who will keep you unblemished in His love;
our Lord Jesus Christ.49

The Crown of Thorns

Mother
Receive, dearest sister,
the crown which your spouse, the only begotten Son of God, offers you,
that you may deserve to share in His passion on earth
and in His glory in heaven.

As the crown of thorns is placed on the sisters head the choir sing:

If you suffer with Him you shall reign with Him
If you weep with Him you shall rejoice with Him,
if you die with Him on the cross of tribulation
you shall possess a home in heaven
amid the splendour of the saints,
and your name shall be called glorious.50

Mother Abbess now leads Sister to the Celebrant and then to the community so that they may exchange the Sign of Peace.

The Commendation
The celebrant stands and addressing the Abbess says:

Mother,
take this spouse of Jesus Christ
under your care and direction,
and consider in what manner you may keep her dedicated
and present her spotless to God,
knowing that you must render an account
before the tribunal of her spouse, the future Judge.51
Amen.

The rite fittingly concludes with the Prayers of the Faithful which invoke the Spirit on the Church and commend the newly professed and her community to the care of the Lord. During the Offertory Song, the newly professed Sister and her Novitiate companions may bring the gifts for the eucharistic sacrifice to the altar.

When the prayer after communion has been said Mother Abbess comes forward and presents the Sister with a candle.

Mother
Receive this lighted candle,
may you be a lofty candlestick of holiness in the house of the Lord52
all the days of you life,
and may we, together, one family in love,
reflect the fire of love that Christ came to enkindle on earth.
Amen

The Celebrant blesses the newly professed.

Celebrant
May the Father almighty make you firm in faith,
innocent in the midst of evil,
and wise in the pursuit of goodness.
Amen.

May the Lord Jesus, whom you follow,
enable you to live out the mystery
of His death and resurrection in your own life.
Amen.

May the fire of the Holy Spirit
cleanse your hearts from all sin
and set them on fire with His love.
Amen.53


The celebrant then blesses the community and the congregation

May almighty God, the Father, and the Son + and the Holy Spirit
bless all of you who have taken part in this celebration.
Amen.54

Join us for St Colette - in the Spirit

St Colette was an extraordinary woman and one of the few 14th century men and women for whom the work of the Holy Spirit was a daily reality. She ends nearly all her surviving letter by invoking the Holy Spirit on the recipient. Because the concept of a Novena - a prayer for nine days - is uniquely bound up with the Church's nine days of prayer before Pentecost, we thought that we might make a novena on the nine days before Colette's feast, using the prayers of her chaplet. For those who live nearby we will pray this Novena after daily Mass at 8.15 am.



THE COLETTE NOVENA
The Chaplet of St Colette

The hymn at the end of Holy Mass will be the beginning of the Novena prayers. We start by announcing the mystery and this is followed by a short reading from scripture. We then sing the Chaplet of St Colette, listen to a reading from her writings and say the final prayer together.

I
The Annunciation of the Lord
Luke 1:35-38
The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born of you will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

Chaplet for the Joyful Mysteries

Blessed be the hour
in which our Lord Jesus Christ,
God and Man was born.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit
by whom he was conceived.
Blessed be the glorious Virgin Mary
of whom the Incarnate Word was born.
May the Lord hear our prayers
through the intercession
of the glorious Virgin Mary
and in memory
of that most sacred hour
in which the Incarnate Word was born,
that all our desires may be accomplished
for your glory and our salvation.
O good Jesus!
O Jesus our Redeemer,
do not abandon us as our sins deserve,
but hear our humble prayer
and grant what we ask
through the intercession
of the most blessed Virgin Mary
and for the glory of your Holy Name.
Amen.

As God pleases*
As God wills x 10

Let us praise the Father in his mercy
and the Son by his passion
and the Holy Spirit
the fountain of peace and sweetness and love.
Amen, amen without recall!

From the Testament of St Colette

With all the angels praise God, glorify him, in him and through him, and through all his creatures in heaven and on earth: exalt him above all for his inestimable favour in creating man in the image of the Creator, and for the sovereign gift of the sacred Incarnation of our God, who is so good that, after having created all things for our sake, he himself became truly man and our loving Brother, so as to restore all by his glorious death and his passion.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,
Father,
may the Spirit overshadow our hearts
and fill our lives with the presence
of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through the intercession of St Colette,
we place before you
all those who long to conceive new life.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen

II
The Birth of our Lord
Luke 2: 7
Mary gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Chaplet for the Joyful Mysteries (see above)

From the Testament of St Colette

O Holy Poverty, finery of our redemption, precious jewel, certain sign of salvation. It is to poverty that the King gives the Kingdom of Heaven, in full possession, lastingly and without end. After the example of Jesus Christ who had nowhere to lay his head.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,
God our Father and King
We give you thanks
that your Son became one with our poverty.
Through the prayers of St Colette
we bring you all expectant mothers,
may the child they carry be surrounded
by love and come to the Kingdom of heaven
and unending joy
through Christ our Lord.
Amen

III
The Epiphany of Christ in his Baptism
Matt 3:16-17
When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and behold, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Chaplet for the Joyful Mysteries

From the Testament of St Colette

O infinite good! O Bounty without measure! O ingratitude which forgets so great a gift! Praise him, exalt him with full voice for the great gift received in holy Baptism, that of knowing complete innocence and becoming temples of the Blessed Holy Spirit

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,
Loving Father,
We give you thanks
for your wonderful generosity
in making us your beloved children.
Through the prayers of St Colette,
protect the life of every child
now in the womb.
Through Christ our Lord
Amen.

IV
The Passion of Christ
Jn 12: 24-28
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour; Father, glorify your name."

Chaplet for the Mysteries of the Cross

Blessed be the hour
in which our Lord Jesus Christ
is our Passover
Blessed be the Holy Spirit
given to us from the Cross
Blessed be the glorious Virgin Mary
on whom the Incarnate Word bestows the Church
May the Lord hear our prayers
through the intercession
of the glorious Virgin Mary
and in memory
of that most sacred hour
in which we we behold Christ’s glory on the cross.
that all our desires may be accomplished
for your glory and our salvation.
O good Jesus!
O Jesus our Redeemer,
do not abandon us as our sins deserve,
but hear our humble prayer
and grant what we ask
through the intercession
of the most blessed Virgin Mary
and for the glory of your Holy Name.
Amen.

As God pleases*
As God wills x 10

Let us praise the Father in his mercy
and the Son by his passion
and the Holy Spirit
the fountain of peace and sweetness and love.
Amen, amen without recall!

From the Letters of St Colette

The straight and sound way which leads unfailingly without ever turning aside to the heavenly kingdom is one of tribulation and affliction, unjustly caused and borne with patience.
Take care to go from strength to strength in his most perfect love, remaining continually strong and virtuous in his most holy and worthy service. For to those who set out on this way is promised the kingdom.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,
Father, glorify your name in our lives,
in all whom we know and love
and in every human situation
in our world.
through Christ our Lord.
Amen

V
The Crucifixion
Jn 19:28-30
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst." A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Chaplet for the Mysteries of the Cross

From a letter of St Colette

May your heart be filled with the blessed passion of our Blessed Saviour. bear his pains and feel them like a true child of his. Follow him wherever he goes with ardent desire and trust in his love. Praise and thank him often.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,

Father of all good gifts,
you gave us your Holy Spirit
in the blood and water
flowing from your Son’s heart,
through the sacraments of the Church.
We praise and thank you
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

VI
The Laying in the tomb
Jn 19:40-41
They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.

Chaplet for the Mysteries of the Cross

From the Testament of St Colette

The Lord most willingly deigned to let himself be shut away in a sepulchre of stone. And as it pleased him to be enclosed for forty hours, you have your holy enclosure to maintain, in which you may well live for forty years, more or less, and in which you will die. O how precious is your sepulchre, into which enter devout souls in order to obtain their salvation.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,

Father of life,
The barren tomb, the place of death,
becomes the womb of eternal life.
Plant in our lives the beginning of
our resurrection in your Son
who lives and reigns forever and ever
Amen.

VII
The Resurrection
Luke 34:4b-8
Two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise."

Chaplet for the Glorious Mysteries

Blessed be the hour
in which our Lord Jesus Christ,
King and Judge will come
Blessed be the Holy Spirit
who prepares our hearts for his reign
Blessed be the glorious Virgin Mary
with whom the Incarnate Word will come again.
May the Lord hear our prayers
through the intercession
of the glorious Virgin Mary
in memory of that most sacred hour
in which heaven shall be opened to our eyes.
that all our desires may be accomplished
for your glory and our salvation.
O good Jesus!
O Jesus our Redeemer,
do not abandon us as our sins deserve,
but hear our humble prayer
and grant what we ask
through the intercession
of the most blessed Virgin Mary
and for the glory of your Holy Name.
Amen.


As God pleases*
As God wills x 10

Let us praise the Father in his mercy
and the Son by his passion
and the Holy Spirit
the fountain of peace and sweetness and love.
Amen, amen without recall!

From the Testament of St Colette

From the depths of this tomb, by carrying out the works required in accordance with our calling, our souls take flight, with the help of the three vows, soaring to the great celestial palace without difficulty, or hardly any, and without danger.
Such is the abundance and superabundance at the table of the wedding feast to which you now travel, that when a tiny part of the great and immeasurable joy and bounty of the Noble King and Spouse falls from it, it cannot but delight!

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,

Father of Light,
we give you glory and we praise you
that as the Paschal candle of Easter night
rises from the font,
so new life shines through us
showing the path to the kingdom of glory,
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

VIII
The Ascension of the Lord and his eternal Kingdom
Mk 16:17-19
He said, “These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.

Chaplet for the Glorious Mysteries

From a Letter of St Colette

Do nothing in the sight of his Sovereign Majesty and glorious presence which you would not do before anyone lesser or greater than you. Wherever we are, we are always present to him and he sees us clearly within and without and knows us better than we know ourselves.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,
Father of heaven,
We bring to you all who are sick;
all who live without hope and in fear.
May the kingdom continued to be proclaimed
and your Son’s healing ministry
remain visible in the Church
through the prayers of St Colette.
You who live and reign forever and ever,
Amen.

IX
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Luke 2: 16-21
This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

Chaplet for the Glorious Mysteries

From a letter of St. Colette

The blessed Holy Spirit will watch over you and keep you in his grace and finally lead you to the glory of paradise. Amen.

Pause for silent prayer

Let us pray,
God our Father,
you gave St Colette to the Church
as a witness to the gospel way of life.
Renew our lives and our world
in the pattern of your love.
As we acknowledge:
that there is no crown without a victory,
and no victory without a fight,
grant us to grow in the gifts of the Spirit
through Christ our Lord
Amen.

The Newman Banner

In the final image of his poem The Dream of Gerontius Newman depicts the soul under the flowing waters of a crystal stream awaiting new life. Curiously enough, C.S Lewis borrowed this image to describe the death of King Caspian at the end of The Voyage of the Dawntreader.

In this picture, Newman gazes into the water at his own risen reflection, his shroud unwrapping itself under the waters. The autumn trees behind him, reminiscent of the thicket of trees preceding Dante’s descent into hell with its shadowy gateway, have become a forest of angels spanned by a rainbow, “...and with the dawn these angel faces smile....” of the Pillar and the Cloud.

The portrait of Newman - deliberately shadowy on earth and particularly vivid in heaven - was worked from several photos of him in his middle years when the full impact of what seemed a life of almost relentless failure was born in upon him. Our artists printed the portraits - all full-face - onto transparantsies and superimposed them with the Millais portrait to capture the expression they were trying to define.

We unveiled this banner as part of last Advent's Carol Service and afterward someone whom we had never met before came up to the servery hatch in the hall and said to one of the Sisters who was pouring tea, "Thank you, it has helped to take away my fear of death."

As part of the meditation, the Sisters flipped the banner up the other way. If you do this you will be able to see that this life is the shadow and eternity is the reality.....

The picture is painted on silk and is intended to be hung with the earthy image at the top (as in the picture above). For the full impact, you need to start about 15 metres away from it from it and walk towards it slowly allowing the reflection to dissolve into the two separate images. It remained in the sanctuary for the length of Advent and was turned with the heavenly end up after the first week. It has the very healing message that this earth is only a shadow and the true reality is what we shall be in the eyes of God. As it said on Newman’s grave stone: Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem - from shadows and fantasy into truth.

The banner is now the property of the Birmingham Oratory.

Advent Carol Service: November 29 2008

Dr Newman's Christmas
This is not the entire text - or the music which included some new settings of Cardinal Newman's words. We quote from the introduction and some key sections from the narration!

Doctor Newman’s Christmas

Lead kindly light, the hymn whose words were written by John Henry Newman, has been sung on state occasions, at the funeral of an American president and even on the first manned space flight! Dr Newman began life in the Anglican Church and ended as a Roman Catholic Cardinal! He was a profound intellectual who simply argued himself into the faith.

The Church has made this servant of God, who died on the anniversary of St Clare in 1890, a Venerable, and, a few weeks ago, such relics as we have of him were moved into a place of public honour at the Birmingham Oratory, the usual preliminary of a beatification.

This came about, in part, because a severely crippled Deacon, the Rev Jack Sullivan, trying to rise in great pain from his hospital bed in Boston, USA, shouted out, “Cardinal Newman help me!” Deacon Sullivan stood up, walked down the ward without pain and dismissed himself from hospital two days later!

Cardinal Newman is not only the great theologian who wrote the Development of Christian Doctrine and the Grammar of Assent, he was a person who cared deeply for others.

The Songs and carols that we have chosen this evening are either written by Dr Newman or would have been amongst those popular Victorian Carols of his day.

Reader 1. It is the eve of the first Sunday of Advent.

2. As we journey towards Christmas we are invited to do two things.

1. To wait and remember.

2. We remember the Lord’s birth and we wait for his coming in glory.

1. We wait in joyful hope for time to cease.

2. We are not waiting for our friends or our enemies to drop a bomb.

1. Or for two galaxies to collide.

2. But for that absolute and arbitrary ending if time which the Word made flesh revealed to us.

1. Advent is the time of birth and death.

2. We began this celebration by visibly recalling the bridesmaids awaiting the return of the king.

1. Wake O wake with tidings thrilling.... the bridegroom comes. In Dr Newman’s own words:

N. The bridal train is sweeping by,—Angels are there,—the just made perfect are there,—little children, and holy teachers, and white-robed saints, and martyrs washed in blood; the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. She has already attired herself: while we have been sleeping, she has been robing; she has been adding jewel to jewel, and grace to grace; she has been gathering in her chosen ones, one by one, and has been exercising them in holiness, and purifying them for her Lord; and now her marriage hour is come. The holy Jerusalem is descending, and a loud voice proclaims, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!" but we, alas! are but dazzled with the blaze of light, and neither welcome the sound, nor obey it,—and all for what? what shall we have gained then? what will this world have then done for us?
Year passes after year silently; Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven!
And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but "blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching … He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants." May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.

1. John Henry Newman was a great thinker, a profound theologian; the Lord’s birth as a man is what lifts up our hearts and draws us all from east to west to make the journey home to the City of God............


Reader 2. John Henry was not just a man of inner vision who saw the greatness of God.

1. And Christmas was not, for him only a time when Christ was born; Christmas marked the stages of his pilgrimage.

2. It was Christmas day 1848 when he returned from Rome after his ordination to the Catholic priesthood.

1. - and it was Christmas Day 1889 that he was able to say his last Mass before his death the following year.

2. But it was the Christmas of 1827 that became a turning point in his life. His beloved sister Mary, just nineteen, the very sight of whom brought spontaneous happiness to others, had a seizure at dinner on January 4th and died that night. Sixty years later, he still could not recall her death without weeping.

1. Mary was the member of his family most like Newman, he wrote that even to visit the countryside familiar to them both was to see her embodiment in every tree.

2. Mary’s death was followed by that of his closet friend Richard Hurrell Froude, of whom it has been said that had he lived, he and not Dr Newman would have been the greatest convert of the 19th century.

1. But Mary and Hurrell found themselves where “those whom the world looked up to, will be brought low, and those who were little esteemed, will be exalted.”

2. And Newman was left to reflect “what a veil and curtain this world is.”

1. It is a place of shadows, and Newman was beginning his pilgrimage out of the shadows into reality.

2. It is light that banishes the shadows and Newman began to learn that it was a kindly light or better that He - the Lord - was a kindly light.

1. In that light, the faces of Mary and Hurrell and all those he loved still shine........

1. Following the light of the Lord led Newman into a deeper knowledge of truth.

2. His great message as a scripture scholar and  a teacher is that truth has a home in each of us, it lives in our conscience.

1. And Newman’s conscience led him reluctantly.

2. Millimeter by millimeter.

1. To the gates of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

2. He was not troubled by the political goings on in Rome.

1. Or the human dynamics of the Church and its way of conducting its business on earth, which led a fellow Catholic, Hilare Belloc, to say “The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine - but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight!”

2.He was worried that she did not have enough saints.

1. (He was not always very observant,)

2. only the 20th century has had more saints than the 19th!

1. And that it had tampered with pristine purity of the early Church.

2. So he set out to write a book called “The Development of Doctrine.”

1. And having written it he so convinced himself, that he joined the Church.

2. - This is the Dr Newman of the encyclopedia.

1. It is part of his long life of suffering and pain for which the Church is in the process of trying to beatify him.

2. But through all this his love shines out, he loved children and ran a particularly kindly school.

1. He became part of the order of one of the most hilarious saints the faith ever produced, Philip Neri,

2. Who re-converted Rome in the 17th century with Palestrina, processions and picnics.

1. Dr Newman played the violin in a school orchestra and could be transported to heaven by Beethoven -

2. - It takes all sorts. -

1. Poor and sick people always found him at home.

2. 20 thousand letter writers got answers -

1. - and he didn’t even have  a laptop!

2. He mourned the loss of Charlie the Mower Pony! 

And wished ‘rest to his mane in the limbo of the quadrupeds.

1. Above all he was a friend, especially to the fathers and brothers of his community.

2. Even when British Cardinals found him a challenge he could write:

1. “Never was in such happiness as I am now…….I am surrounded by my dear friends.”

2. Years later when he went to Rome to receive his Cardinal's Hat, Leo the 13th asked after his community and how many had persevered, John Henry wept and Leo gently stroked his unruly white hair and begged him not to cry.

1. Dr Newman’s whole life was an Advent and its true and final Christmas was heaven......

1. Dr. Newman was a shy and affectionate man with a genius for friendship. A friendship that most deeply affected his life was with a woman....

2. who was also called Mary.

1. It did not start well.

2. She was one of his objections to the Catholic Church.

1. He thought we thought too highly of her.

2. May I share a story? One of our sisters was out begging and the kind benefactor who was driving her round, took her out to a crowded restaurant for lunch, and presently, a couple joined them who turned out to be a Presbyterians. They got on well and feeling encouraged, the man enquired, “I’ve never really known any Catholics to ask, but why do you people have statues and pictures of the Virgin Mary all over your churches?”
Our sister asked, “Do you have any photographs of your mother up at home?’
“Sure,” he replied. “She was a great woman.”
“Good,” Sister agreed. “But the Mother of God was before photography - so we have to do the best we can!”
“Is that all it is?” he asked incredulously.
“No,” she replied, “but it goes a long way! In John 19:27, Jesus did say she was our mother. But the thing is, she was His mother. Don’t you think that makes her quite a bit out of the ordinary?”

1. Doctor Newman thought so, too. To him she was more than a mother, she was a friend, and as Francis Bacon....

2. (Shakespeare’s contemporary, not the late artist of the same name)

1. ....said, “Friendship perfecteth man.”

2. Of Mary, Newman wrote:

N: “There was a divine music in all she said and did—in her mien, her air, her deportment, that charmed every true heart that came near her. Her innocence, her humility and modesty, her simplicity, sincerity, and truthfulness, her unselfishness, her unaffected interest in everyone who came to her, her purity—it was these qualities which made her so lovable; and were we to see her now, neither our first thought nor our second thought would be, what she could do for us with her Son (though she can do so much), but our first thought would be, "Oh, how beautiful!’”

2. With Mary’s friendship we pray her words as we listen to her magnificat, which is interspersed with carols that were composed or became popular during Newman’s life time.

1. The Magnificat is a miniature of the entire good news - it is the Christian way of life. We reflect in images and in song on tonight’s gospel.....

Intercessions

Our prayers take their inspiration from well known words of Dr Newman.

N: Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission.....We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; we are not here, that we may go to bed at night, and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat and drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when we are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. God sees every one of us; and has an end for each of us.
R1: Lord, show us each day your way for us

Response: Spirit of the Lord come and pray in us

N: Growth is the only evidence of life: to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often!
R1: Lord you came to give us life - to the full. Send us your Spirit and chage us into a new people of dynamic hope.

N: If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards.
R1: Give us courage, Lord, to believe and live your good news.

N: Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.
R1: We pray for those who cannot make up their mind about the truth; lead, Kindly Light!

N: The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.
R1: We thank you Lord for the gift of friendship - it is one of the treasures we can carry into Eternal Life

N: Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.
R1: Lord, give us the grace, tonight to set out on the pilgrimage of love to your Kingdom.

N: Christ is already in that place of peace, which is all in all. He is on the right hand of God. He is hidden in the brightness of the radiance which issues from the everlasting throne. He is in the very abyss of peace, where there is no voice of tumult or distress, but a deep stillness--stillness, that greatest and most awful of all goods which we can fancy; that most perfect of joys, the utter profound, ineffable tranquillity of the Divine Essence. He has entered into His rest. That is our home; here we are on a pilgrimage, and Christ calls us to His many mansions which He has prepared.

R1: Behold, O Lord, we come! hear us as we pray:

Our Father
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

DR NEWMAN’S NIGHT PRAYER

Prayer

May the Lord support us all the day long,
till the shades lengthen and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed,
and the fever of life is over,
and our work is done.
Then in His mercy
may He give us a safe lodging,
and a holy rest,
and peace at the last.
Amen.


Reader 1 In 1890 the bridal train swept by the Edgebaston Oratory, carrying Dr Newman along with the other little children, the holy teachers and the saints robed in white. And his body was laid to rest in the grave of his dear friend and fellow oratorian Ambrose St John. On the monument, as the Cardinal had requested were the words: “Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem: out of shadows and images into truth.......

The picture above is a study of Newman for a banner that was unfurled at the end of the service.

Mini Synod of the Word

To keep the Church company, we had our own Synod of the Word on November 2nd 2008.
Reading our Father Benedict XVI’s homilies and interventions in the refectory, sharing and discussing the initial presentation of Cardinal Ouellet and the moving testimonies of the Synod Fathers.

We enthroned the Word with Bishop Felemou, were in awe at the wonderful work of Archbishop Esua and the Holy People of God in the Cameroons. We looked into the mirror of the word with our Holy Mother St Clare in her words quoted back to us by Archbishop Damasceno Assis, kneaded the Word like bread with Sr Antonieta of the Daughters of St Paul

Like Latvian Bishop Justs we cannot forget the witness of Father Victors who spent ten years in prison for refusing to tread on the Holy Word of God..

With Bishop Virgilio David we remembered the humility of the Word who descended to the heart of our darkened world, as depicted in the painting by one of our sisters above.

We asked for the epiclesis of the Holy Spirit inspired by Patriarch Laham of our Antiochene brothers and sisters and, following their tradition, we placed the open bible over the head of each sister to pray for healing and grace.

With Cardinal Pell we try to spread the Word through XT3 of which our enclosed contemplative community is part. Inspired by the Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, we asked the Word to teach us and speak and act in us through humble service to others. With the Sudanese faithful we tried to express the Word without written words and our sisters told the stories of the Lord in drawings, drama and dance.

Then, with our beloved brother, Bishop Tagle of Imus Philippines, whom we had already encountered in videos of the Canadian Eucharistic Congress, we try to continue, daily, to listen to the Word and live it in our poverty.

A guest on the road to Emmaus

We have prayed daily for Archbishop Pius in the years in which the Church in Zimbabwe has carried the cross of unearned hatred, torture, slander and lies in an unceasing effort to live the Gospel of mercy and peace.

We feel that the Archbishop making the long hike to our off-the-beaten-track community is an expression of gratitude to all the contemplative women and men who share in prayer the cross and resurrection of the Lord’s love for his Holy people in Zimbabwe and through out Africa. We are deeply conscious that this is his last pilgrimage before returning to his homeland.


We invited friends from CAFOD and some of the local communities working for justice and peace were able to be present. We all have different moments of vividness. Frau Marianne had taken Mother Damian to collect the Archbishop from Chester station. Her car - working perfectly on the outward journey - manifested every red light on the return home and refused to proceed at more than 10kph bucking like a bronco in the dark, on the crowded rush hour roads. Sr Agatha and Sr Maria who get up before the community at five conscious of His Grace already up and praying in the Extern Chapel. At the Homily of the mass the Archbishop talking of the vertical and horizontal of the cross and stretching his arms out to explain what he meant. Diving in to his pocked to get his pocket Bible. (Owning a pocket Bible is a sure indication of belonging to what John Paul II and Benedict XVI have called the Civilization of Love! You are so excited by the Word of God, you cant be without it.)
“...I love passionate people. I’m a passionate person myself!”
“...I have been asked not to speak on political issues: in Zimbabwe the Gospel itself is a political issue....”
“In 1997 £1 sterling was worth Ten Zimbabwean Dollars now it is worth 10,000 million Dollars.....Four million people have left Zimbabwe.... even 50 years ago we had ambulances now we have wheelbarrows. I out of every 4 adults is HIV (I am not HIV! It is one of the slanders uttered against me!!!!!!) There are 38,thousand child heads of families and over a million orphans. Life expectancy is now 37 for men 34 for women, their is 95% unemployment...... I could go on for a whole day!”
“...I wake up in the middle of the night and I know I cannot stay here, living comfortably in a cloud castle. I am well fed - in Zimbabwe hundreds of people are dying, now.”
“ ...I am not permitted to speak; but I can be there. Even if all I can do is be there and die.”
“...but if we do not speak the stones will cry out.”
“...I have always loved St John of the Cross. I believe with him, that your life is the most important to the Church and I want to make it increasingly my own. In the 28th stanza of the Spiritual Canticle, St John of the Cross says:
‘An instant of pure love is more precious in the eyes of God and the soul, and more profitable to the Church, than all other good works together, though it may seem as if nothing were done....When the soul, then, in any degree possesses the spirit of solitary love, we must not interfere with it. We should inflict a grievous wrong upon it, and upon the Church also, if we were to occupy it, were it only for a moment, in exterior or active duties, however important they might be. When God Himself adjures all not to waken it from its love, who shall venture to do so, and be blameless? In a word, it is for this love that we are all created. Let those men of zeal, who think by their preaching and exterior works to convert the world, consider that they would be much more edifying to the Church, and more pleasing to God (not to mention the good example they would give!) if they would spend at least one half their time in prayer, even though they may have not attained to the state of unitive love. Certainly they would do more, and with less trouble, by one single good work than by a thousand: because of the merit of their prayer, and the spiritual strength it supplies.’
“When I was in the seminary I thought how great it would be to get to the Spiritual Marriage........Its uphill work and I am still struggling and I am sixty years old!”

“Whilst I have been here I have made a retreat with the Benedictines at Ampleforth and I was with the Carthusians at Parkminster for twelve (?) days. Ahhhhh! It was enough!”
“I do not think I will be able to return to Britain - but we will be pilgrims together....”

We sang vespers with the Archbishop and at the end Mother took the veil of St Colette and blessed him with it. As on St Colette’s feast, for gentlemen and children we simply place the veil round their shoulders. As Mother did this we sang Holy Mother’s blessing. You can see this in the Photo. You can also see Our Lady from the Shrine Chapel. I suppose in out hearts we wanted to surround His Grace with all good protection!
Archbishop Pius had blessed us all at the end of Exposition after Midday Prayer and Mother Damian took him round choir after Vespers to say good bye to each sister. He came to Mother Francesca and took her hands, knowing her to be our Abbess Emerita he asked, “How long did you bear the burden, Mother?” (meaning how long had you been in office) and beloved Mother answered 21 years. He kissed her hands.

His Grace told us a little about his own mother - who is now 90 and how she became a Catholic for his sake when he went to the seminary. (She had been a Methodist)..........
It was very hard to part. Please join us daily in praying for Zimbabwe and for His Grace for the Bishops of Zimbabwe and for their elected and unelected government.

Autumn

As the leaves are falling, we are beset by ambiguous feelings.  The year is coming to an end and life is slowly dying down, maybe this is the time for stocktaking.  If this were the end, where would it leave us? It can be a very melancholic and depressing awareness, that our days are counted and perhaps there is not much time left to achieve what we are aiming at. But autumn is also the time of plenty, the earth has given of its fruit and it is a time of thanksgiving.  Not only have we gathered the fruits of the earth in our own lives; the fruits of charity and patience. Maybe, when we look at the trees, we discover that underneath the falling leaves there are tiny buds, the sign of hidden, but certain, new life.

Mother Damian's Silver Jubilee

Photo
The Kiss of peace from the Jubilee service
(Yes, we are singing, My Peace I Leave You....!)

From Mother Damian's Jubilee service

The Renewal of Vows

Mother Vicaress
Mother Mary Damian of the Incarnate Word.

Jubilarian
Lord, you have called me by my name.

Mother Vicaress
The Lord has called you
and set you apart.
The Lord is your light and your shield
and he is your Saviour.
Gaze on him,
consider him,
contemplate him
and participate in his life
that in you he may make all things new.

Choir
(as the candle bearers come forward and surround the Jubilarian)

Light your lamps for the Bridegroom is here:
go out to meet Christ the Lord

Mother Vicaress
Look up to heaven, dear one,
and take up the cross and follow Christ
who walks ahead of us.
For whatever tribulations
may come our way here below,
we shall enter through him into his glory.
At all times
pray and watch
and carry out the work
you have so faithfully begun.

Jubilarian

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

I, little Sister Mary Damian of the Incarnate Word
wish to follow the life and poverty of our Most High Lord
Jesus Christ
and to persevere to the end,
and I vow to God, before the Blessed Virgin Mary
and I promise you, dear Mother,
to observe, for the whole time of my life
the most Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
by living in obedience,
without property,
and in chastity,
in the form of life which the Blessed Francis gave
to our Blessed Mother Clare
and Pope Innocent IV confirmed,
after the example of our Holy Mother Colette.
And I vow to observe enclosure.

Mother Vicaress
And I, on the part of God the Almighty,
if you are faithful to what you have promised,
promise you life everlasting.

The Crown

The Celebrant comes forward to bless the crown.

Celebrant
Bless, O Lord, this crown of flowers +
May it be for you, Mother,
a reminder of the Lord’s years of fidelity to you
and a pledge of that crown graven with holiness
that awaits you on the last day
if you go forward joyfully and swiftly
on the path of perfect poverty
in persuit of that perfection
to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.
Amen.

The Celebrant retires to his place.

Mother Vicaress
(holding up the crown)

Be faithful, beloved, unto death
to him to whom you have promised yourself
for you shall be crowned by him
with the garland of life.
Our labour here is short,
our reward everlasting.
The greater the promise,
the greater is the merit
and the greater the salvation
which will be given us as a pure gift
by the Father in his mercy,
by the Son in his passion,
and by the Holy Spirit the fountain of peace,
of sweetness, of love and of all consolation.

Choir (as Mother Vicaress crowns the Jubilarian)
If you suffer with him you shall reign with him,
if you weep with him you shall rejoice with him,
if you die with him on the cross of tribulation
you shall possess a home in heaven
amid the splendour of the saints, and your name shall be called glorious.

Jubilarian Behold, the handmaid of the Lord,
let it be done to me as you have said.

Sr Elizabeth's Ruby Jubilee!

The Photos show
1 The entrance of the Mass - Mother and Sr Elizabeth crossing the sanctuary. Father Gareth by the shutter to the dining room, where the overflow congregation were seated.

2 Party supper in Garden. Cooks off shot!!!!

3 Sr Elizabeth with some of her community presents.

And and excerpt from the service

The Prayer of Thanksgiving

The Celebrant comes forward to pray.

Father, we thank you for your faithful love,
we praise you for your covenant of steadfast love and faithfulness with your handmaid

Forty is the number of the covenant.
Noah was saved by you, Lord, for forty days in the ark of protection.
for forty years you cared for your chosen people
in the wilderness
and you brought them to the fruitful land
of your faithful promise.
For forty days and nights Moses prayed on the mountain
and you, Father, revealed your commandments to him.
For forty days the elders were on the mountain in your presence,
eating and drinking before you.
Isaac was forty years old when he received his bride of the covenant
and Joshua was forty years old when Moses chose him out of all Israel.
For forty years the land had peace after Gideon arose to judgment.
Jonah preached repentance for forty days and was heeded.
David reigned for forty years and God promised him a house.

When your Word was revealed in your most holy Son, Jesus,
he fasted forty days and nights
before beginning his public ministry
and after his glorious death and resurrection
showed himself to his disciples for forty days.
You, Father, are our protector and redeemer,
you are the author of life and freedom;
bless your handmaid who has served you these forty years.
You have supported her in her poverty from the riches of your hand.
And surrounded by your love,
even a thousand years seems like a watch in the night.

We thank you for all you have given
to your handmaid,
and the gift you have made of her to her covenant family
and to the whole Church.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The candle bearers place their lights before the altar and return to their places...

The Lost Clareshare!

Due to circumstances beyond our control (as the BBC used to say when it was very young and people often fell over the cables!) this Clareshare, describing amongst other things, Sr Elizabeth's epic Jubilee, never reached its destination. Here it is for posterity

Clareshare for July 2008

Peace and goodness was the greeting an old pilgrim gave to people as he walked through Assisi. This was at the time of St Francis’ birth and people remembered the old man afterwards as a sort of herald to Francis. Peace is not created by the absence of war, but it might be achieved by the absence of recrimination. In one of John Paul II’s last world peace messages there was a definition of peace that forms part of our sisters’ daily prayers: There is no peace without justice and no justice without forgiveness.

It is worth sitting and taking these four words: peace, goodness, justice, forgiveness and looking at them, praying them and using them as a mirror for one’s own life.

Racing time!

The one thing we have in common with Oscar Wilde and Leonardo da Vinci is a lack of consistency in output! Clareshares appear irregularly not because there is nothing to put into them, but because we live to fast to write about it!

June was devoted to preparing for and living through Sr Elizabeth’s Ruby Jubilee. Those of you who have visited Ty Mam Duw for Retreats and Franciscan Prayer Days will know Sr Elizabeth from behind the servery shutter. She is also our Vicaress in her free moments! After a week spent in retreat Sister emerged to the glory of her Jubilee Mass and there followed the week of a lifetime, not only for Sr Elizabeth. But for all of us.

Gloria in excelsis Deo

For the celebratory Mass, Sister sat on her throne-like choir stall in the centre of choir and after the Homily, Mother Damian came froward and Sister renewed her vows, first made forty years ago when she was 19. Sr Elizabeth is a convert to Catholicism and was baptized and entered when she was 17. She chose for her jubilee card our Lord’s words to St Paul: My grace is sufficient for you. It is true!

As we said Amen! Mother Lifted up her jubilee crown and said in the words of St Clare and St Colette:
Be faithful, beloved, unto death
to him to whom you have promised yourself
for you shall be crowned by him
with the garland of life.
Our labour here is short,
our reward everlasting.
The greater the promise,
the greater is the merit
and the greater the salvation
which will be given us as a pure gift
by the Father in his mercy,
by the Son in his passion,
and by the Holy Spirit the fountain of peace, of sweetness, of love and of all consolation

It was more like an anticipation of the Parousia, than a jubilee! Sister was surrounded with candle bearers carrying between them 40 candles on steel and glass stands decorated with flowers as the choir sang Clare’s words:
If you suffer with him you shall reign with him,
If you weep with him you shall rejoice with him,
if you die with him on the cross of tribulation
you shall possess a home in heaven
amid the splendour of the saints
and your name shall be called glorious!

Brighter even than the reflected earthly glory of lights and flowers was the loveliest of all the gifts for Sister’s Jubilee, an exquisite Monstrance for the reservation of the the precious body of the Lord under the form of bread, that we call the Most Blessed Sacrament.

This was the gift of Father Gareth Jones, celebrant at the Mass and was one of the two replicas of the incredibly lovely Oak of Mamre Monstrance made for the Sanctuary of Lourdes. This was but one of the many gifts for Sister. Not only did each Sister make Sr Elizabeth a present, but every guest, whether they knew our Sister or not seemed to have brought her a gift, from a Rose tree really called Sister Elizabeth to a pop up Narnia book! Not to mention a Papal Blessing!

Narnia

C.S.Lewis writing are amongst Sr Elizabeth’s favorites and along with the archeology of St Peter’s, a liturgy workshop, special vespers and a barbecue, there was a Narnia game and Lewis’s Last Battle as a musical, whose libretto, songs and costumes were all home produced!
it took sister a week to recover and she then gave a thank you supper and presented each member of the community with a hand-crafted Missal cover.

WYD SYD

We do not watch TV, but since being given the facility to see EWTN we have always tried to follow the Holy Father’s principal adventures, which have included the two previous World Youth Days. But Sydney was special! Through our invited involvement in XT3 we already knew a lot of people who would be there. It was thrilling to see Papa sail into Barangaroo, but even more stunning to think you would be getting the excited accounts of friends on the boat with him.

As well as preparing edited video’s of Youth day, Mother and Sr Yolanda collated material from the Quebec Eucharistic Congress. We have seen the Eucharistic Procession through the Streets of Quebec and look forward to listening to some of the talks and liturgies in preparation for Mother Damian’s retreat for her Silver Jubilee in August. Mother organized Sr Elizabeth’s Jubilee and Sr Elizabeth will repay the compliment by organizing Mother’s!

The Portiuncula

But before that happens, we will be keeping the feast of Our Lady of the Angels, the Portiuncula. This year we will keep it on the eve of the day, Friday 1st August at 6.30 pm.
You are so welcome to join us at this joyful Franciscan family occasion. St Mary of the Angels, was the first Church St Francis had. Here the Franciscans started out and Clare received the habit. The prayers for the Assisi Pardon, the Plenary Indulgence of the Portiuncula and the celebration of Holy Mass will be preceded from 5.30pm by an hour of prayer and chants, during which the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available

Of late, Indulgences ­ a misleading name for a great idea ­ have been making a gentle return to fashion and our father, Benedict XVI, has given them for a number of occasions, including most recently World Youth Day. If Luther could take such a profound objection to their maladministration, their rightful observance might be worth a second glance.

In St Francis' day, to obtain a plenary Indulgence - the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin - one had to make a lengthy pilgrimage or go on crusade. Francis wanted this beautiful spiritual gift to be available to the poor and the least, and he persuaded Pope Honorius III to grant it to his little Church of Our Lady of the Angels on the day of its consecration. The gift was subsequently extended to all Franciscan Churches. You can ask this gift for yourself, or you may offer it for someone you know is in need - living or dead.

The Assisi Pardon is a gift of the Holy Father, so we are asked to remember his intentions in our prayers. We pray the Creed, the our Father and a prayer to the Mother of God. We need to have received the Sacrament of Reconciliation, reasonably close to the time and to have received the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Some of you would have to catch a boat to get here, but that need not stop you sending your prayer intentions (first name only, please) and one of us will offer the prayer for you!

Regular highlights

If you live nearby, we have Adoration with midday prayer every Thursday from 12.00 to 1.00 pm. The size of the public congregation varies, but it makes a beautiful and restful midday oasis, full of that peace and goodness we are all longing for. Come if you can!
Vespers is at 4.30 daily and visitors are always welcome.

Mountain of tears

Pray for Zimbabwe. It is now the desert in the heart of Southern Africa. We have a friend and Claresharer in Zim, Cathy, who sends out a news sheet: this is not the political scene, but everyday events
“The ruination of ordinary lives and the suffering that people are enduring is utterly heartbreaking. Everyday holds tears and trauma and the most common phrase in our lives is: "We are in God's hands.".... This morning, as I write this letter, hundreds upon hundreds of people are crowded outside banks across the country desperately trying to withdraw their own money. This is because most shops no longer accept cheques and the Governor of the Reserve Bank has limited daily withdrawals per person to one hundred billion dollars. With one hundred billion dollars you can, today only, buy just three single blood pressure tablets. Or, today only, you can buy one copy of a local weekly newspaper and two small green onions. In my home town, even if you had the money, there is almost no food left to buy.”......

April 2008

Some of you have asked for a picture of the Sisters. 
Here is one taken April 2008 with Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, who came to give us a day of recollection.

CHRISTMAS 2007

The crib grows every year!


The Baptism of the Lord - John the Baptist on the river Jordon
With Joshua crossing the Jordan on the right and the dancers at the wedding of Cana behind him.

 Elijah - Old Testament type of John the Baptist, here seen being taken up into heaven on a fiery chariot and leaving his cloak to Elisha.
 On the next platform is Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise, with below them the Old Testament Trinity. Below Elijah is Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

Advent 2007

Mair Mam Duw
Mary Mother of God
Waiting under the porch to welcome visitors

1st December 2007

2007 CAROL SERVICE
Or part of it!

Reader 1 Welcome! Blessed be the hour! It is the eve of the first Sunday of Advent. We have come together to celebrate time. That is why we bless this evergreen wreath with its four candles, so that we can count the time to Christmas and, symbolically, so that we can remind ourselves that time is just that - temporal; it will come to an end.

If you concentrate and listen now you will hear the clock ticking in our choir (pause). Time is passing, and one day it will end: in glory and life - real life - will begin when time will stop pushing us around!

Reader 2 On the front gate it says ‘Poor Clare Colettines! Some of you come here for the feast of St Colette. St Colette was very much concerned with time and absolutely possessed by life. her motto was : ‘My sisters remember death. You cannot remember death if you are not alive! And you cannot live on this earth without time. And time has no meaning without eternity.

Colette wrote the prayer Blessed be the hour, that you have read in your program. This is how she came to do so.

Narrator Colette was a hermit to whom God gave a vision of the huge waste of human energy in war, greed and exploitation; in brutality, manipulation and broken relationships at every level of society. She saw her world; the 14th century of the hundred years war, the Avignon papacy, serfdom and the sale of men and states. But misery is the same in every age. It is always rooted in turning from the challenge of happiness and love that God offers us freely, to the the world of buying, possessing and defending our false illusions. It is turning from the civilisation of life to the culture of death.

To the 23 year old who saw all this, God did not say ‘start a revolution’ or ‘begin a war with a more worthy objective’. He said: go and reform the Franciscan Order - Go and reform the Poor Clares; remodel them on the Good news. And she did! Never think that one person can make no difference - or he might call you to do what Colette did!

It is near Christmas in one of the Poor Clare communities that Colette founded. There is a wall round the monastery and the the city. Outside the wall is a Burgundian army - the same army that sold Colette’s friend and contemporary, Joan of Arc, to the English. Colette has no side, she has founded monasteries in all camps. The defenders on the walls are alert for any movement out on the plain of Moulins and wary of any treacherous sign from inside.

That Poor Clare Colettines get up to pray in the middle of the night, is well known. They are better known for falling asleep at the wrong time than waking up to soon! But it does happen. What has woken the sister whose duty it is to ring the bell is hard to say, but convinced that she has overslept she runs down to the church without looking at a single clock and starts ringing the great bell (bell rung fervently) Unfortunately, it is nine in the evening . Unfortunately, to the defenders on the wall this is not a joke. Soldiers with spears and naked swords in their hands are running, shouting, down to Colette’s Monastery. They think she is signalling to the enemy. They think the enemy will be pouring over the wall. Colette and the sisters come to the great Door Colette raises her hand, unavailingly, to explain. Then, suddenly all the bells in the city begin to chime the hour ....nine, ten eleven, twelve. It is midnight, the Midnight of Christ’s birth. Colette kneels and begins to pray. The sisters and the crowd repeat her prayer after her.

Blessed be the hour
in which our Lord Jesus Christ,
God and Man was born.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit
by whom he was conceived.

Blessed be the glorious Virgin Mary
of whom the Incarnate Word was born.
    
May the Lord hear our prayers
through the intercession
of the glorious Virgin Mary

and in memory
of that most sacred hour
in which the Incarnate Word was born,

That all our desires may be accomplished
for your glory and our salvation.
O good Jesus!
O Jesus our Redeemer,
do not abandon us as our sins deserve,
but hear our humble prayer
and grant what we ask
through the intercession
of the most blessed Virgin Mary
and for the glory of your Holy Name.
Amen.

Reader 1 Blessed be the hour. The poet who wrote the second chapter of Genesis describes creation as a living thing

Reader 2 “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up -- for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground, then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

Reader 1 In the beginning God created Time
and then he created Life

Reader 2 St Augustine said that, “The distinction between eternity and time is that without motion and change there is no time and in eternity there is no change.... Thus the world was not created in time but with time”.

Reader 1 Some sixteen hundred years later and, fortuitously, just 100 years ago, Einstein came to the same general conclusion. As he put it in his inimitable way: where v multiplied by t is the co-ordinate speed at co-ordinate time, t, and x, y and z are orthogonal spatial co-ordinates, Time, therefore, equals the sum of: the square root of 1, minus t, multiplied by v squared, divided by c squared, multiplied by d multiplied by t, which is the same as saying that time equals the sum of the square root of 1, minus 1 divided by c squared, multiplied by, dx divided by dt squared plus dy divided by dt squared plus dz divided by dt, squared, all multiplied by d multiplied by t. If you know what I mean.


Reader 1 (these were slide cues)
Time and life.
An hourglass galaxy
and the first two cells of the human mammal
The highly theoretical agglomeration of particles on earth’s orbit
and a three day old foetus

Blessed be the hour when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens
Blessed be the hour the first lichen adhered to the tepid rock crust
Blessed be the hour when life came into being
Blessed be the hour I was conceived
Blessed be the hour I was born

Reader 1 Blessed be the hour in which the Incarnate Word was born
What is the Incarnate Word?

Reader 2 “In the beginning was the Word.....and all things were made through him” (Jn1:1-3)
All things were made through Jesus, through the Word
Without Jesus, without the Word we wouldn’t even be here, neither would Mt Everest, orchids, sunny spells or plastic dustbin lids.

The world created through the Word “tells of the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1) .
We are part of that created world, not only that, we are made in the image and likens of God, we too “tell of the glory of God” by our sheer existence.

If you have a conversation through an interpreter, the interpreter illumines, makes clear what would otherwise be beyond your reach.
Jesus is our interpreter, through whom we are given the created world, which helps us to understand God more.
Through Jesus, the Word, we are given an invitation to enter into dialogue with God and creation.

This invitation reaches greater depths when Jesus, the Word, becomes human like us. .
Through Jesus Christ the person and his mission and life on earth God’s plan for his creation is revealed in a unique way - through his words and actions he lives God’s will.

The prophets long ago, spoke of God’s will, God spoke through them to his people.
Jesus lives God’s will. Jesus is God’s word.
The apostles through their witness proclaim God’s will by pointing to Jesus.
Both the prophets and the apostles speak God’s word.

These words are united to Jesus - the Word - in sacred scripture - written under divine inspiration - the bible is the Word of God.
The scriptures bear witness throughout (New and Old Testament) to Jesus the Word.

This witness, this continuation of God’s will carries on in the Church. The Church proclaims the Word - and lives it - this will ultimately lead to the fulfilment of God’s plan for creation.

God’s revelation through Jesus and creation when preached in the Church can truly be called the Word and will draw us to God.
And its all in scripture! St Paul’s letter to the Romans Chapter 1.

“The sacred writings contain preliminary reports by the prophets on God’s Son. His descent from David roots him in history, his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master. Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ! And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah.” ..........

1st December 2007


Recent Publications

Read Saint Paul
 
Letter to the Philippians
 


Read up for the Year of St Paul!
This is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
Excerpts from his letter to the Philippians in the Message translation - with cartoon illustrations.  Straight of the local press:

Also now available:
 
• Clare the Bright Light Saint
• Round the Clock with St Colette
£ 1.00 each plus p+p

15 August 2007

Song of Songs
 


A community day of recollection on the Song of Song - at the end we sang it! The work of our musicians and artists: all holding residential Labour Certificates, see below!

11th August 2007

Feast of  Saint Clare

Our Annual retreat with Mother Damian and Sr Agatha on the saving meaning of work - at the end we all received this magnificent Certificate of Employment!

 28 July 2007

Springs of Water bless the Lord

On our arrival here in Hawarden, we were treated to a conducted tour through the cloister. As the building had been erected in the days when wood was cheap and plentiful, understandably and sensibly the door frames had been constructed out of beautiful pinewood, showing a pale and dark grain in their finish. Imagine our surprise that midway, each door frame sported a rather protruding, sometimes rusty nail. To us, having learned the value of wood it almost seemed like an act of vandalism, which naturally prompted us to ask - why the nail? But before any answer could be offered to us we came to a door which not only had a nail but a Holy Water stoup suspended from it - light began to dawn.

This was the evidence for a beautiful old custom, much cherished, to help the Holy Souls in purgatory by blessing ones self with Holy Water on entering and leaving a room. Probably not many will remember this custom now, but perhaps it would be worth our while to reflect on the meaning of taking Holy Water.

From time immemorial Catholics have taken Holy Water on entering a Church, reminding themselves of their baptism. By making the sign of the cross and calling on the Holy name of the Blessed Trinity they prepared themselves having been cleansed in this mini-baptism to appear before the Real Presence of the Lord, which just leaves one with the question, should one - or should one not - take Holy Water before leaving the Church?

15 June or thereabouts 2007



Typical scenes from reorganising the Library 


29th June 2007

29 June

Saint Paul (and Peter)

It was announced that the Holy Father, Benedict XVI was going to have a “Year of St Paul”. Well, it figures! As the Lord has had His Great Jubilee, St Paul and all the other Apostles will have their millenniums of birth coming up.

We took the announcement at face value, and artists sketched feverishly to produce a banner of St Paul striding purposely along with scrolls tucked in his belt and an avalanche of flame falling down from heaven. The flames suggest the descent of the Holy Spirit and Paul's well known text our God is a consuming fire. He is wearing the sandals of the Gospel of Peace and the two scrolls next to his heart indicate the old and new testaments

The artists working on this were living like II Corinthians - sleepless and dinnerless - to get it finished for the feast of St Peter and Paul, 29th June. They were still feverishly sewing the lining fifteen minutes before the opening of Vespers.
Our celebration began in that room in our house called Ephesus and we processed to choir, banner unfurled, singing a new St Paul hymn (slightly rap!).
The banner was run up the choir wall to a fanfare of flutes. We were sublimely conscious that at that very moment our father, Benedict XVI, in the Basilica of St Paul-Outside-the-Walls in Rome, was announcing the Year of St Paul.... Well. He was. He announced that it will begin next year, 2008, on this day!
The following Monday we hauled our banner down, amid muffled laughter, and put it away for twelve months!

10 July 2007

Take one three times a day!

This medication contains a basic teaching of Holy Mother Church, a description thereof and an application.

The best kept mystery

Many years ago I was commissioned by my Novice Mistress to impart some useful bits of information to my fellow postulant, newly received into the Church. Without any further hesitation I suggested we would talk about the Hail Mary.  "No!"  She said, rather firmly, "Tell me about the Blessed Trinity."  I heaved a heavy sigh and said  "It is a mystery."  "Yes?", came the rejoinder "And it is such a well kept mystery that no one ever seems to talk about it."  Stung by this rather shrewd observation I launched forth beginning with the procession from the Father which we call the Son..... or if you like the Father has an idea of himself..... it was plain to see that my listener was bored.  After some prodigious yawning, she looked at me and said  "What does it all mean to you?"  

Never, ever have I felt so exposed and challenged!  I became aware that I had never given it one thought - that my listener had put a finger on the right spot; which is to say: that a truth never reflected on remains unreal.  I tried a few feeble explanations to no avail.  We should have stuck to the Hail Mary!

And the lesson to be learned: make three times a day, a conscious effort to give glory to the Father, glory to the Son and glory to the Holy Spirit,  because praising God is our mission here on earth.