Clareway

Emerald Choir Dates and details

2011-08-06T02:53:00.000-07:00

The Emerald Community Singers of Montserrat

Performing
Sunday 14 August 7.30 pm
at the Hall of OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY, JUBILEE ROAD, BUCKLEY Flintshire CH7 2EH Concert to begin 7.30 Entry £6 In honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, Buckley and the Poor Clare Colettines, Hawarden who are hosting the choir.

Monday 15 August 7.00 pm
at ST ANTHONY'S, SCOTLAND ROAD, LIVERPOOL
There is no charge at the door as this concert is in the Church, but a contribution would be gratefully received.

THE EMERALD SINGERS are friends of Ty Mam Duw and will be giving a private concert for the little sisters as well as the two public listings above. We came to know them through the father of one of our Sisters who was working on the reconstruction on Montserrat after the volcanic eruptions.

From the 15 mile long Caribbean island that has seven active volcanos, the Emerald Community Singers of Montserrat were founded forty years ago. The Montserratian, Caribbean and Gospel music that the group performs has mostly come out of the beautiful islands in the Caribbean Sea but also reflects the Irish heritage of Montserrat (the first European settlers on the island were Irish).

Their repertoire of Gospel and folk pieces includes songs about the volcanic eruption of the Soufriere Hills that ravaged Montserrat in 1995 and made more than half of it dangerously uninhabitable. But has not stopped them singing - it strengthened their community service and love of music,

The 24 strong group has toured Britain, the USA, Central America, South America and the wider Caribbean region, They have appeared at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, at the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Houses of Parliament in London and at a variety of music festivals in the Americas and Britain. After their spell in England & Wales they will be touring in Ireland.

Emerald Choir press release

2011-08-06T02:50:00.000-07:00

EMERALD COMMUNITY SINGERS PRESS RELEASE

The tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat is one of the few remaining British Overseas Territories left in the world and has a population of just 5000. Particularly beautiful , it has stunning coastlines and mountain ranges. It is the home of the Soufriere Hills Volcano which has been erupting for over 16 years giving residents and visitors alike spectacular views of the eruption.

It is also the home of the longest established Caribbean folk group, The Emerald Community Singers. (Emerald because the first European settlers in Montserrat were Irish , fleeing the reign of Oliver Cromwell). The well travelled group is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and to celebrate this important milestone they are touring England, Wales and Ireland. They will appear in Liverpool on Monday 15 August at 7.00 pm at St. Anthony's Scotland Road, Liverpool

The 25 strong group's repertoire of Gospel and Folk Songs includes over 1000 pieces and they will present a selection of these at the Liverpool Concert.

The Caribbean group’s manager, Richard Aspin hails from Lancashire but has lived in Montserrat for nearly 40 years. He served as the "The voice of the volcano" in the earlier days of the eruption bringing information through the airways to both local and international radio and TV audiences. He told reporters "They were very difficult times as there had been no volcanic eruptions on the island in recorded history and people did not know what to expect. Around 60% of the island was destroyed and the population dropped drastically as folks moved away." Mr Aspin added "Montserratians are a resilient lot and we are re-developing the north of the island in style with a new capital city at Little Bay."

He pointed out that the eruption had led to a cultural awakening with music, prose, painting and photography all produced with a volcanic theme. "It was difficult for the group to keep performing during the eruption but we managed it and are now moving from strength to strength" said Mr Aspin.

This will be a great chance for Liverpool residents to witness a slice of Caribbean life in all its colour

Lent at Ty Mam Duw 2011

2011-04-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to be baptised? This Lent we did what the Church suggests all those not baptised as adults should do, we made a journey through the course of Christian Initiation for Adults. It is fascinating. We followed the preparations taking place in Churches and Cathedrals around the country with the Catecheses and Scrutinies of the rite. It centres around the gospels of the Samaritan Woman, the Blind Man and Lazarus; these were presented a dramatized monologues - and we include the texts in the following sections.

TMD's Lent banner, above, depicted the three gospels, all of them images of Baptism.
On the left, the Samaritan Woman, dimunitive in stature, but powerful in personality, clasps her water jar to her.
On the right, Christ gazes through the eyes of the blind man.
In the centre, the Lord raises Lazarus out of the waters of death.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well

2011-04-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

John 4:5-42 Third Sunday of Lent

Everyone’s talking about him now: you can feel a real excitement, a real freshness in the air. They’ve nearly all been down to the well to listen to him. That’s something already, him being a Jew and all.

I would have offered him some water if he hadn’t been a Jew. It was so hot and stuffy - but you know how it is.
But he looked straight at me and asked me for a drink. To be honest, I was a bit taken aback. Before I had time to say anything, he said if I’d known him I would have asked him for a drink. Even if he had been a Samaritan I wouldn’t have asked him for a drink. I pointed out that he didn’t have a bucket anyway. So how could he have given me water?

But there was something in his eyes! As if he wanted to do something for me. He carried on. He said that the water he would give would be better than well water, that whoever drank it wouldn’t get thirsty again.

It sounded bizarre. In normal circumstances I would have laughed and made a joke and thought the man was a crazy. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t help but be curious. There was something drawing me in. There was something in his voice that riveted me.
He talked about living water, that he would give, that would be inside you, like a spring - I could almost feel something happening inside me as he said it.

It sounded fantastic, unbelievable, but I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe.
Calmly I heard myself ask him for some of his water. ‘Sir,’ I said, ‘give me some of that water.’ I didn’t feel calm, I was kind of shaking all over.

And then he said, ‘Go and get your husband and come back ...’

He knew I’d had five husbands; mind you, that’s common enough knowledge around here. But he knew all about me.
It flashed through my mind that perhaps he was a fortune teller . . . but no . . . it wasn’t like that.
It was as though he were telling me he knew not just about me, but that he knew me, he knew me in a way that nobody else knew me, not even my husbands, not even myself.

(Sigh.)

Then I thought, well, perhaps he’s a prophet. I thought I’d ask him about worshipping God. He didn’t seem to be bothered about Jerusalem, he was more interested in truth and spirit. Then I told him I believed in the Messiah and that he would come to us. I thought that he would say that the Messiah was for the Jews. Then he said he was the Messiah.

Just like that. I looked straight into gis eyes and it seemed like he looked straight into all that was inside me. I wanted to run: I did run. I forgot my water jar; it’s still by the well now. I ran into the city. I told them all to come and see him.
It was strange, really: they didn’t laugh at me. As soon as I said, ‘Can he be the Christ?’ they looked at each other, and without saying anything started to make their way down to the well.

Lots of them are still there. Some of them have come back: they say he is going to stay with us for a while - they think he’s the Messiah too.
So the Messiah has come to Samaria. who would have thought that I’d ever speak to the Messiah? I mean, me!!

The Man Born Blind

2011-04-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

John 9:1-41 The Fourth Sunday of Lent

I was born blind - never saw a thing, just darkness, darkness, and more darkness, and that’s how it was till I met Jesus. I was sitting in my usual place begging, when I heard all this commotion - There seemed to be a lot of excitement about something, and people were shouting things like, ‘That’s Him!’ and ‘Get out of my way, can’t you! I want him to heal my gammy leg!’

Then, right beside me, a voice said, ‘Rabbi, look at that blind beggar - Is he like that because of his sins, or did his mum and dad do something wrong and he’s paying for it? Honestly! The cheek of it, no thought for my feelings at all. But then this other voice, a quiet, kind sort of voice, said, ‘His blindness has nothing to do with his sin - In fact, God is going to use it to show his healing power. As long as it is day I must do the works of Him who sent me . Night is coming, when no one can work - while I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Deep, isn’t it? Well, I didn’t have a clue what he was on about - but then, wow! I could see this bloke meant business. He came and sat down on the ground right next to me. He spat on the ground and I could hear him making a muddy sort of concoction, which he rubbed over my eyes. Then he told me to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. Don’t forget that I hadn’t said a word to him - I never once asked for healing; it was given to me, free and gratis.

Anyway, I shoved off and went and did as I had been told. Pow! As soon as the water touched my eyes, I could see - just like that! I just wandered about in a kind of daze, until I noticed some people looking at me and whispering. One of them sort of sidled up and asked, ‘Aren’t you that blind fellow who used to sit begging by the side of the road? If not, you must be his twin!’ I said I certainly was that blind fellow who used to sit begging by the side of the road. They were just blown and asked, ‘How can you see? What happened to you?’ I answered, ‘A bloke called Jesus made some mud and rubbed it on my eyes and told me to wash in the pool of Siloam, so I did, and now I can see! Satisfied?’

They didn’t look too overjoyed, and asked, ‘Where’s this fellow gone?’ ‘I dunno,’ I replied. ‘What’s it to you, anyway?’ There’s no satisfying some people and they insisted on hauling me off to the ecclesiastical top nobs, the Pharisees. I might add that all this hoo-ha was due to the fact that it was the Sabbath and on the Sabbath (according to them) you can’t blink your eye, let alone be given your sight back.

Anyway, I was hauled up in front of these stuffed shirts and they put me through the whole caboodle. ‘How did I get my sight back?’ ‘Did I know it was the Sabbath/’ ‘Did I realise that no one who came from God would ever, ever, ever work a miracle on the Sabbath?’ (They were a bit divided on this last; some of them thought it might be taking things a bit too far.) I answered as civilly as I could manage. - Then off we went again.

‘You say he cured you of your blindness.’
‘Yes, I did say that.’
‘Well, what is your opinion of Him?’ (You notice, they never use his name.) I told them that in my opinion he was a prophet. But then, would you believe it? They refused to believe that I really had been blind! Thought I was shamming - just to get money or something! Or at least, they pretended to think this.

Anyway, they sent for my mum and dad and began the third degree with them. ‘Is this your son?’
‘Yes, he’s our son.’
‘You say that he was born blind?’
‘Yes, he was born blind.’
‘Well then, how can he see?’

My parents didn’t want any trouble and passed the buck on to me - they were scared stiff.
‘We know he is our son and we know he was born blind but we don’t know how he can now see or the man who healed him.’ (Very important, this last statement. They didn’t want anything to do with Jesus - it meant trouble.) ‘Our son is old enough, ask him; he can answer for himself.’ From this you can see that I was still pretty young, twenty maybe.
Anyway, my parents were allowed to go, and they began with me all over again.
‘Promise to tell us the truth.’ What did they think I’d been telling them?

‘We know that the man who healed you is a sinner.’ (Now they were at least admitting that there had been a healing.)
I was getting really fed up with all this, so I just said, ‘Please yourselves, all I know is that once I was blind and now I can see.’
‘What did he do to you? How did he make you see?’

It was obvious to me that if I could now see, they definitely could not hear, so I said, ‘I’ve told you are least three times and you don’t believe a word I say. Why do you want it all again? Maybe you’d like to be his disciples.’
That put the cat among the pigeons! The BBC accents disappeared. They called me every name under the sun and ended up, ‘You can be one of that fellow’s disciples. We are the followers of Moses - as for that fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.’ (Too true!)

I wasn’t scared of these phonies. I could see right through them, so I gave as good as I got and said, right in their faces, ‘Well, that’s really strange: you don’t know where he comes from and yet he was able to heal me of my blindness and we know that God doesn’t listen to sinners - only to those who do what is right. This man couldn’t do anything unless God was with him. That did it! Then they really yelled at me! ‘You desiccated skunk!’ (See what I mean about being called names.)
‘You’re a no good, ignorant so and so - get out of our sight!’ I got out. I didn’t need telling twice! Phew! What a hell hole!

Then this bloke came up to me. I knew at once it was him, and he just said straight out, without even introducing himself, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’
‘Who is he?’ I asked. ‘Just tell me, so that I can believe in him.’
He said, ‘You already know Him. He is talking to you.’
I answered, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and knelt down before him.

Lazarus

2011-04-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

John 11:1-45 Fifth Sunday of Lent

The last thing I saw was Martha looking disquieted and Mary in tears.

Typical, really.

Everyone loved Martha. and Mary, her sister, and Lazarus, her brother. In that order, Even Jesus. Martha’s brother - that’s me.
I was so interested in the sight of them - Martha, put out, and Mary upsetting herself - that I did not notice that I had stopped breathing. Breathing: the biggest thing in existence, and in the end it just gets turned off.

I remembered nearly drowning in Gennesaret the summer Mother died and we were all packed off to the poor relations in Capernaum. It was a big business nearly drowning; every time my head came up I was too surprised to breathe, and I was back down under the blurry waters, my lungs burning, my eyes bulging. Then somebody grabbed my hair and dragged me out. ...
Martha was still looking put out, just as put out as she had three minutes ago, but the picture was fading like the painting on an old temple I’d seen in Egypt as a child. Then she leant over and closed my eyes.

And I thought, with a good deal of surprise and interest; “I’m dead!”

It wasn’t what I had expected at all. I mean, nobody really expects to die, do they? And Martha had sent for Jesus. And she knew yanking me out of a series of heart attacks (the old system never really got over the drowning business up on the big lake) was an obolsworth to him. She had faith. Not as a suicidal assent to a series of irrational fallacies, but that calm sort of bow of the head to an absolute concrete reality...

I was dead. And Martha had just shut my eyes, but it was not dark: it was pleasantly light. I wasn’t exactly hovering in the air looking down on my own body. But I was even more conscious of saying goodbye to it than I was of the bowed heads of my sisters, my aunt,the physician and the servants and my priestly kin. Eleazar, that’s what ‘Lazarus’ is short for. The zeal of Eleazar, son of Aaron. I could hear the slightly sonorous voice of Uncle Simon, who’d been a leper till Jesus cured him. Uncle Sim - now there was a funnyosity! Jesus healed him and he never came back to say thanks. I’m not even sure why he felt he had to be in at my deathbed.

I am dead, The brain, which I thought begot this sort of ceaseless rambling, ought to be curling up and drying out. I see the Greeks are right - well, fairly right - memory, intellect and will are faculties of the soul - and you don’t see with your eyes: you see through them! There weren’t any eyes to get in my way. I could see everything. Or as one says when one is alive - ‘I can see it all now.’ Now I could see it all Everything at once, the stars and the islands at the end of the world and the things on Martha’s mind, and that rather nice Greek girl who lived down the road, whose hair had an alluring way of escaping from her veil. And the high priest, my fifth cousin twice removed, sacrificing the evening lamb on the altar with majestic ceremony and absolute atheism. The home of the seas, the place of the ice, the souls of the just, like sparks.

I couldn’t quite see the thing that was bearing down on me from the rear. At first I thought it was Martha. It had what one might call a strong moral character. When it laid its hand on what would have been my shoulder if I had one, I realised I knew it even better than Martha. Not it. he. Ninety feet high and uncompromising, I thought of it as my conscience. But that was because I’d had Greek tutors. It was an angel. We didn’t exactly chat. At least, not to begin with. But he was friendly and purposeful. We were going somewhere or everywhere. Finally I asked, “What’s happening?”

“Well,” said the angel - he sounded a bit like me, but I suppose the wing is on the other sandal and on earth I sounded a bit like him - “You are dead.” “Yes,” I admitted. “I guessed. Bright lad, our Latzy. Got it in one!”
“Don’t be flippant,” he replied austerely. “Small responses are out of place in eternity. Stick to joy, awe, ecstasy and bliss; they are much more fun.”
“Ahh,” I said, not knowing what to say.
“Flippancy is vain. Like that small moustache you grew on earth to impress people.”
“Yes,” I admitted, “but it didn’t really impress anyone, you know.”
“Good,” he said. “You are now progressing in the direction of truth.”
“It is all coming back tome,” I said, rather uncomfortably.
“It does,” he said.
The thing that was absent from his voice, if it was a voice, was sympathy. He was kind and compassionate, but you could tell that he’d never made a fool of himself in his life. If he’d been alive.
“I’m dead,” I mused. “Time is over.”

“You are prone,” said my Angel with his consistent lack of sympathy, "to confuse Divine Revelation with Greek Thought. Time is not so much over as moved to one side. In eternity there are seven dimensions. The first three, on which those in the world you just left are modelled, are the same; height, width, and depth, but they are not arbitrary in their true operation here. You are moving into the four eternal dimensions: Love, which is the motive power of eternity; will, which is the absolutised dimension of choice - and ‘coronay’ shall we call it? - the freedom to interact, which is like a crown of many points of light. You could even call it simultaneity, the one thing that cannot happen in time” He paused while I took it all in. I found I could (just) understand what he was saying.

“That’s, er, only six dimensions according to me ..?”
“Well, of course!” he said with his usual want of sympathy. “Who do you think the Final Dimension is?”
“Ahh,” I said, trying to think. “Ahem. Where is He?”
“Here. In Him we now live and move and have our being, as somebody you haven’t met yet, called Paul, is going to say shortly (quoting Epimenides, who’s around here somewhere).”
“I, umm, like this! All these seen and unseen things coming together. It’s going to be infinite fun. But somehow I had expected to see ... well, .. Him, you know. Sitting on a throne of light. Possibly with a pair of scales of the Book of Life, or something.”
“He doesn’t do scales,” my Angel said, unsympathetic as ever. “Or books, He’s the Word. When you’re ready, he will call you.”
“Ohh.” I had this kind of tickly feeling all over (like you get when you’re only a soul). “Ohh. You mean, I’ve been ... judged and it’s okay. You mean I’m In!!! I’m In!!!”

Then it came, The Voice. The Voice of the Word.
“Lazarus.”

Just that, not (I mean, not) Martha’s brother.
“Lazarus.”

There was this strong rush of light.
“Lazarus!” I’ll go anywhere and do anything for that voice.

“Come out!”

“What did you say?” I whispered. “Come out? I’ve only just got In!” And then it began. The thing I principally noticed was the cold. It was terrible. I was unskinned in an ice sheet. There was a kind of flash of burning heat. Like I was still in an ice sheet but my veins were full of alcohol. Then I was uncomfortable all over and I itched like hell. I’d have started scratching, but I was tied up like a mummy. As sensation returned with a vengeance I shifted upright and hit my head on the empty tomb slab above. It hurt! But it wasn’t half so uncomfortable as some of they other things they’d done to me! I shuffled off the edge. I couldn’t get my arms out and I had to circumnavigate uncle Besa’s skull on the floor. It was a bit close in the cave and I could only shuffle out into the light with my ankles tied. Honestly! What did they want to tie up my ankles for? I bet Mary did it. She was always fussy about feet!

The Voice.
The Voice. Well, at least I was now under no illusions about to whom it belonged.

The Voice said, “Unbind him and let him go.”

(Pause.)

The cloth came off over my face. I looked Martha in the eye. Jesus loved Martha. Everyone adored her; even me. But I was not going to take my sandals off when I went in; not for any amount of Persian rugs. And this time I would grow a beard!
I felt a sensation somewhere about my left shoulder. He was still unsympathetic. But he approved.

I tried thinking about the Greek girl - they were trying to untie my ankles. The answer was ‘No’ - and I knew it. I’d been In and now I was only on Leave of Absence. No girls, Greek or otherwise. I could just see myself as Archbishop of Marseilles, with Martha organising famine relief and Mary founding contemplative monasteries....

Mr Jennings

2011-04-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Nearly thirty years ago, Mr Jennings came to mend the gate and he and his sons and grandsons after him have helped our community since with gates, walls, roofs and other calamities.
He rests in peace with the Lord after a long life of service.

The Lord was a builder; he built salvation on the wood of the cross and he built the Church on the rock of St Peter, Christ was a carpenter whose hands held a hammer - as well as the universe - and he knows our prayers by heart

We give thanks for the Church, whose doors are always open.
Remember us O Lord in your Kingdom

We give thanks for the life of our Mr Jennings, who was always just ‘Mister Jennings’: a man of quiet, personal dignity and kindness.

We give thanks for Mr Jennings vocation as a father and teacher, who made hard things easy for his children and apprentices.

We give thanks for Mr Jennings who was ungettable on Saturdays, as that was his day for Mrs Jennings. We ask the Lord to comfort her and give her peace and faith in his merciful love.

We give God thanks for Mr Jennings faithful service of our community here; there is hardly a slate or brick or beam that he has not seen to, or supervised his sons and grandsons so doing.

We give thanks for Mr Jennings faith, his unvarying reverence to the Lord’s presence in this house and his gift of the great cross in the sisters’ cemetery. He loved to hear the sisters sing as he worked - and he loved to hear their laughter in the distance at recreation.

We give thanks for our many memories of Christ’s servant, Tom, because, for us, your little sisters, the are all happy - and joy is the first gift of the Kingdom.

We place our friend under the patronage of our glorious mother St Colette as he travels into eternity and we turn to Mary, Mother of all the Living, asking that she may present Tom to her Son: Hail Mary

Let us pray
Lord Jesus,
to live is to love
and to have loved well is holiness,
as you are the Resurrection and the Life,
grant eternal life to your servant Tom Jennings
and comfort and peace to his family and friends.
You who live and reign forever
Amen.

The Photo shows Mr Jennings at the shutter in the chapel

Mother of Millions - St Colette

2011-03-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

This year's feast of St Colette brought a wonderful congregation! Even in the front row were two mothers with babies - one of whom, called Colette (it is quite amazing how this name is becoming popular!) solemnly ate a picture card of her patron saint, with no ill effect, during the course of the blessing.

We had put an ad in Catholic Life (they were very generous and mostly donated the space) - but in point of fact the yearly increasing congregation mainly hears about it by word of mouth.

It is an occasion of great grace for us, too, for we are spiritual mothers. One of our shares in Mother Colette's concern for the young has been to pray for the orphanage for the handicapped run by Bishop Jia of Zhending in China and we sang the song made by our sisters about their plight after communion.

Haizi

2011-03-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Haizi is mandarin for child and/or children. We made this song for our beloved Bishop Jia for whom we pray daily. Please pray for him and the hundred handicapped orphans, for whom he cares, and for the faithful Catholic Church in China.

If the embeded Youtube above should come up clipped on your browser, just go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV3QTBcjngY

Mother of Millions

This song is dedicated to the Catholic Bishop of Zhengding, China, Julius Jia Zhiguo, who, twenty years ago found an abandoned handicapped baby on his door step. In between prison and re-education camp, and usually under house arrest with 24 hour surveillance, he has cared for the hundred or so handicapped orphans that followed the first with the aid of a community of religious sisters. The Chinese authorities now demand that the Bishop should sign over the children or spend the rest of his life - he is 75 - in re-education camp.

The Mother of Millions of the refrain is St Colette, the Poor Clare patron saint of children. Haizi is mandarin for child. The words and music were created by the little sisters of the Poor Clare Colettine Community of Ty Mam Duw Wales, who also sing it on this track.

If you want to know more about Bishop Jia and his children please visit
http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/
http://www.asianews.it/

Haizi, Haizi
In the dawn, upon the doorstep,
lies a naked new born child
with a torn and twisted shoulder
and an unsuspecting smile.

Haizi, Haizi
Child conceived without permission,
with no license to arrive,
with no Yuan to buy exemption,
with no leave to be alive.

Haizi, Haizi
You tell no one where you came from,
laid before the Bishop’s door
in your silent pain you whimper
like the hundred other more.

Mother of millions,
who carried no child of her own,
pray for the orphan, the wounded, the unborn;
take the child rejected
neglected and alone.

Haizi, Haizi
From the poor and humble Bishop
who spent twenty years in jail,
from the thirty little sisters.
from the shelter of the veil -

Haizi, Haizi
- they will take you. And your Bishop,
‘neath interrogation lamps,
still cant read the lies writ backwards
in Re-education Camps.

Mother of millions,
who carried no child of her own,
pray for the orphan, the wounded, the unborn;
take the child rejected,
neglected and alone.

One thing leads to another....

2011-03-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

TMD, through no fault of its own got slightly mixed up in Universal's search for Plainsong singing nuns.

Now, while we keep our hand in by singing Friday Compline, the daily Veni Sancte Spiritus, Missa de Angelis, Credo III, the Paternoster and the lyric Transitus of St Clare (and St Francis) etc in Latin plainchant, it is only as part of that universality an international Catholic community is bound to uphold. We did not volunteer for Universal's efforts and to this day are not quite sure why they asked to come and see us, but we sang some of our own music for them and provided a bit of variety in the BBC programme Nuns Aloud, broadcast 15 February 2011.

We also made some very kind friends that included, as well as the Universal and Thames Talkback crews, that artist with the still camera Venetia Dearden and the endearing terrestrial star-gazer Chrissy Iley.

This led by holy indirection to the making of a You Tube to make the sufferings of the Catholic Church in China better known - and especially the desperate position of Bishop Jia, see above.....

The Angel and the Atheists!

2010-11-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

From TMD's 2010 Carol Service for the First Sunday of Advent

... on the last verse of Angels we have heard from heaven, the angel ascends platform, singing.

Angelis
Do not be afraid.
Look!
I bring you news of tremendous joy
which every person will hear.
For a Saviour,
who is Christ the Lord
Is born this day
for you
in the City of David.
You will find a baby
wrapped in swathing bands
and lying in a manger.
And this will be a sign for you.

The three atheists come briskly onto the sanctuary. They wear dark glasses and university scarves Their banners say:

There’s probably no God.
Now, stop worrying and enjoy yourself.
(Atheist Bus Campaigns and the BHA)

Why believe in God?
Just be good for goodness sake.
(American Humanist Association).

The bad news is that
God does exist.
The good news is that
you don’t need him.
(Italian Union of Rational Atheists
and Agnostics)

Angelis
Can I help you?
The City of David is the first turn on your right.

Ovis
I don’t think you can help me, Sir or Madam. What are you?

Angelis
I’m an angel. That is, perfect will and pure intelligence.

Ovis
So far as I can remember there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. (Bertrand Russell)

Angelis
Whose intelligence?

Ovis
Human intelligence.

Angelis
(Peering into his face) Umm.
As it happens, the Lord does praise intelligence: he says the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. Though it’s not exactly a compliment, and he suggests his followers should be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves though there’s not much sign of them doing it.

Ovis
(Points to the banner) One can just be good for goodness sake.

Angelis
I haven’t seen much of that either.

Ovis
Come, come. Man would be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. (Albert Einstein)

Angelis
(Looking around) Man does seem to be in a poor way.

Ovis
The National Secular Society affirms that this life is the only one of which we have any knowledge, and human effort should be directed wholly towards its improvement, and that supernaturalism is based upon ignorance, and assails it as the historic enemy of progress.
(NSS Charter)

Angelis
How does you brain work?

Ovis
Very well thank you.

Angelis
Your thanks are not misplaced. But how does it work?

Ovis
I don’t know. Brains are not my subject.

Angelis
Yes I can see that. If you cannot explain your own intelligence how will you explain the intelligence of him who made you? (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses)

Ovis
A believer states everything must have a creator but fails to say how he was created. (The Atheist Blogger, 101 Atheist Quotes No. 60 source: Anon)

Angelis
By your own assertion you claim nothing has a creator; yet you do not seem able to explain how you yourself work.

Ovis
Are you talking about faith?

Angelis
Well, if you have no answer, let us by all means change the subject.

Ovis
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. (Richard Dawkins)

Angelis
Naturally stupid are all men who have not known God, who from the good things they can see, have failed to identify their creator.( Wisdom.13:1)

Ovis
There is no creator.

Angelis
Prove it.

Ovis
Can’t. I believe in evolution.

Angelis
Out of what did everything evolve?

Ovis
Matter

Angelis
Ah. Can you find any piece of matter anywhere in the universe whose precise appearance cannot be dated?

Ovis
Well, no. But knowledge is also evolving.

Angelis
It is increasing, we sincerely hope. But it will not change the date of carbon. There was a time when carbon was not. There was, provably by your own scientific accounting, a time of nothing. How could anything evolve out of nothing?

Ovis
But I believe all these things will - as science progresses - be explained. (Matthew Arnold)

Angelis
You are using a very awkward word, my friend. You believe; that is, you have faith. Now, good Mr Dawkins has said that faith is belief, in spite of, even because of the lack of evidence.

Ovis
Yes, yes! But he was talking about religious faith.

Angelis
Was he? But you just told me that faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence (another of Mr Dawkins’ one liners, by the way). Well, think! And evaluate the evidence.

Ovis
For creation, there is no evidence. (Sarcastically) The kindly God who lovingly fashioned each and every one of us and sprinkled the sky with shining stars .... is a myth of childhood, not anything that a sane, undeluded adult could believe in. (Daniel Dennett)

Angelis
Is he? Where’s your evidence? I’m sorry, my friend. If I may be permitted to quote good Mr Hitchins: What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof. May I dismiss your argument?

Ovis
No! Perhaps we could agree to differ.

Angelis
Yes? Perhaps you were right to put God may not exist, on your poster.

Ovis
Prove God!

Angelis
Certainly. Perhaps we could break for a carol first.

Ovis
(Enthusiastically) I actually love most of the genuine Christmas carols. I was once invited to King’s College Cambridge for their carols and I loved it. (Richard Dawkins quoted in the Mail, 23 December 2008)

Angelis
(Scepticaly) We might not quite equal Kings....

Angel ushers them off as we sing While Shepherds watch their flocks by night....
The Angel and 1st Atheist, without placard, return on last verse. They sit on platform.

Ovis
Okay. Prove God.

Angelis
Certainly. The Lord said to those who followed him, his apostles, at the last supper, “Believe in me, either because I speak with the Fathers authority or because of the evidence of the miracles I have done.’ (John 5:37-40)

Ovis
Possibly, but I don’t believe in the Bible.

Angelis
But you don’t have to believe in the Bible. It exists. It is a physical object.

Ovis
I don’t believe in its content. What about the cheating and the trickery, the violence and the massacres and the rest of the dark deeds of the Old Testament (Verbum Domini 42). And what about the Law...

Angelis
(Amazed) You object to the ten commandments? Come, come, you are not that bad. The first three may pass you by, but you don’t like theft, murder, adultery and envy and you are willing to do as you would be done by.

Ovis
What about an eye for an eye, and stoning people, and burnt offerings and not eating prawns and pigs, and all the unclean stuff.

Angelis
Scripture is the Word of God in the words of men (Dei verbum III), not a dictation test from on high. The Old Testament is governed by the New; that is, those commands which are explicitly endorsed by Christ, are valid for all. And those which are not, are not.
For example, Jesus remarked: “You have heard it said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, but I say, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’”

Ovis
I don’t notice any Christians doing it.

Angelis
I don’t notice many Christians doing it. But, personally, I only accept responsibility for Roman Catholic Christians.

Ovis
They’re the worst.

Angelis
That’s right. There is more of them than the rest, and Christ insisted on coming to save not the righteous but sinners (Matthew 9:13). As a devout Catholic, Hilaire Belloc said: “No merely human institution that conducted its affairs with such knavish imbecility would last a fortnight.” The Roman Catholic church is not a club for the nice and virtuous, but a hospital for the sick and disorderly.

Ovis
You take the words right out of my mouth.

Angelis
But no one can claim that the Gospels command war, murder, abuse, adultery or lies. If Christians do these things it is for their sins, not their principles.

Ovis
(Cautiously) I might, just, be prepared to concede that Christ was a good man.

Angelis
Don’t. He wasn’t. Read the Gospels. Try your teeth on: I am the way, the truth and the life; I an the resurrection; before Abraham was, I am. (John 14:6, 11:25 & 8:58) You have two choices: either he’s a nutter or he is .... God.

Ovis
You’re dodging. That’s faith. I don’t do faith.

Angelis
No. It’s a rational estimate. If the Lord was a mere human nutter even you would be able tell. Mental disturbance is fairly transparent.

Ovis
Has it occurred to you that the Gospels might lie.

Angelis
Why should they? Almost everyone who wrote them died a violent death which they could have avoided by renouncing their message. Do you really want proof?

Ovis
Yes.

Angelis
Hundreds of thousands of people have died because they would not deny that Christ is God; more of them in the last century than in the nineteen before. We are the witness to the truth that sets you free. To die for someone else proves that you love someone else more than yourself - that’s true life - and holiness.

As I started to say earlier, Christ said, “Either believe in me because I speak with the Father’s authority or because of the evidence of the miracles I have done”. And he added, “I tell you the truth. He who believes in me will also do the miracles that I do - and greater miracles than these, he will do!”

Ovis
Oh, miracles! (politely sneering). Paranormal phenomena have a habit of going away whenever they are tested under rigorous conditions. That’s why the seventy four thousands dollars reward of James Randi, offered to anyone who can demonstrate a miracle under proper scientific controls, is safe. (Richard Dawkins)

Angelis
In the last 30 years the Catholic Church beatified 1340 people and canonized 176 (give or take a saint). Unless they were martyred, there has to be a miracle each time. Look up some of them; a lot are in living memory.

Ovis
(Scoffing) For example?

Angelis
At the age of 22 Sr Catherine Capitani had varicose veins of the oesophagus, her stomach was an open mess and she was dying. Through the intercession of John XXIII she was completely cured. The doctors declared that there was no possible scientific explanation for the cure. Sr Catherine is alive and now in her fifties.

Gianna Mola was a doctor married to another doctor when they were told she would not survive the birth of their fourth child. She refused to have a termination. Their child was born and Gianna died of sceptic peritonitis a week later. The child, Gianna Emmanuela is still alive; she is also a doctor. However, Gianna Bereta Mola, is not merely a saint because she laid down her life for her child, but because God heard her prayer for Elizabeth Camparini who had a torn placenta and lost the amniotic fluid surrounding the child in her womb. The doctors said that the child could not live, but she carried it to birth. Mrs Camparini and her child are still very much alive.

The Australian nun Mary Mckillop was canonised a few weeks ago. Her prayer to God healed Veronica Hopson, then aged twenty three, of myeloblastic leukaemia. A mother of six, Veronica attended the canonization with Kathleen Evans, who was healed of inoperable lung and brain cancer. These are still alive. They were all in Rome last month

Juan José Barragan, a Mexican drug addict, after stabbing himself, leapt off the balcony of his mother’s flat and hit the ground thirty feet below, on his head. His mother, Esperanza, implored the help of Blessed Juan Diego. They took Juan José to Durango hospital where they still have the X-rays and medical reports. Three days later he rose from his bed, completely healed in body and mind. The doctors said it was unheard of, amazing and inconceivable. Mrs Barragan and Juan José are still alive.

And many of us watched the beatification of John Henry Newman and saw an elderly deacon who was so excited he nearly forgot to take the book of the Gospels with him up to the lectern. That was Jack Sullivan whom John Henry healed of spinal stenosis ... Are you going somewhere?

Ovis
(Over shoulder, exiting) The National Secular Society asserts that supernaturalism is based on ignorance and assails it as the historic enemy of progress....

Angelis
What’s progress? (They turn to him and face him) What do you want to be when you are grown up, mm?

Ovis
Alive! (hastens off)

Angelis
(As they hasten off) You’re so right! And that brings us to the real theme of tonight’s celebration: Life.
(Exits)

The service continues with On Christmas night all Christians sing and ends, ultimately, with God rest ye merry gentlemen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TEXT: barring attributions, TMD 2010

2010 Tidings

2010-11-09T07:37:00.001-08:00

Tidings of Ty Mam Duw 2010

With Advent on the horizon once more and the beginning of a new Church year, it is time to take stock of the one now ending. Living as we do in the heart of the Church and praying for the whole world, we are always conscious of the need to take both its joys and sorrows to heart. And this year has certainly been a roller-coaster one in its heights and depths, as the Lord has continued to work His purpose out in love for the world His Son came to redeem.

Our Advent carol service was well attended and had a reflective contemplative dimension. It focussed mainly on the Gospel of the Annunciation, which was mimed during the singing of a carol on that theme, with Sr Elizabeth as the Angel Gabriel with large sweeping wings which were affixed by threads to the choir ceiling and Sr Amata as Our Lady.

The emphasis was on Lectio Divina, a way of reading the scriptures reflectively as prayer - one which we ourselves also expressed as Claritas Divina, “divine clarity” following a way formulated by St Clare in her letters to St Agnes of Prague. It may be summed up in three key words - Behold, hold, enfold - or as Clare expressed it - Gaze, consider, contemplate.
At the beginning of Advent Dear Mother gave us a reflection on being rooted in the word of God and following in the footsteps of the Lord. A ribbon path had been laid out on the refectory wall, to which we could attach footprints as we journeyed towards His coming at Christmas through acts of love and support for our Sisters. We were amused to discover on attaching footprints that they were all left feet, so presumably we were hopping our way to Bethlehem!

On the Feast of St Barbara, we were each given our “Barbara branches”, gathered from the garden. The aim is to coax them into leaf and maybe even flower by Christmas by giving them a bit of warm water each day. Dear Mother and Sr Elizabeth acted out an hilarious sketch of two women avidly reading the 4th century Nicomedia News and discussing its centre-page spread on the recent death of St Barbara, the young woman who had been reported to the authorities and ultimately executed by her own father for refusing to renounce her new-found Christian faith. (According to one version of the legend he was then struck down by lightning, which may be why she is traditionally invoked for protection against sudden death.)

One memorable and ingenious Advent sharing on the theme of preparation of the way of the Lord included a sketch acted out by Sr Elizabeth of someone hearing a knock at his front door, and though he hoped it was just the postman had a distinct idea that it might be God summoning him from this world. He felt less than ready for such an occasion, and wondered if perhaps he would get permission first to finish a job he had begun, or pack some reading to take with him in case there was any hold-up in his journey to his final destination!

With a long Advent of almost four weeks, we had plenty of time to erect our various cribs and put up lights and general decorations. One cloister crib, fashioned by Sr Beatrix and Sr Seraphina, featured a goodly number of colourful home-made angels. That in the refectory by Dear Mother, Sr Agatha and Becky, our postulant from New Zealand, was a pro-life one, stressing the need to welcome new life, especially children, into this wonderful world God has given us. Our beloved Mother Francesca and Sr Pia had constructed an ‘orchard’ in the cloister, as a place to gather to have coffee midmorning and share family and other news over the Christmas ‘coffee days’.

It was inspired by the lovely 20th century hymn, Jesus Christ, the apple tree, with very decorative collage trees laden with bright origami-style apples. One Christmastide evening we gathered there to share the sweetmeats hanging on it, while Mother Francesca explained how the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil had become specifically associated with an apple tree - all because the word malum, which can mean both apple tree and evil was used in the Vulgate version of the Genesis account.

Sr Amata and Sr Ruth had made a crib featuring a large collage tree, symbolising the kingdom of God, with the Incarnate Christ as the seed from which it springs, and by way of fruit the text in 36 languages of the Our Father, the fundamental prayer of all who have come to call on God as their Father through the saving power of Christ in every time and place.

With snow falling heavily two days before Christmas, the world looked like a traditional English Christmas scene the next morning, much to our delight, though our hearts went out to all on the roads, and especially to the train passengers stranded overnight in the Chunnel - a nightmarish scenario. Hawarden seems to be about the most sheltered place in Britain, and in the past twenty-five years or so, we have rarely had more than a couple of inches - though the annals of the thirties and forties tell of really heavy falls and snow on the ground for weeks.

Our Christmas Vigil began at 10 pm with the singing of the Matins Invitatory psalm interspersed with carols and ended with Midnight Mass celebrated by Canon Quigley. After a short break for refreshments, we returned to the choir for the singing of the Te Deum in similar fashion and had Exposition for a couple of hours, united in spirit with the shepherds who came to adore the Christchild that first night, and bringing our own offerings of music, poetry and prayer to the manger.

On Holy Innocents we gathered in the novitiate, where Sr Yolanda and Sr Ancilla had arranged games for us - ranging from pinning the tail on a picture of Millie (our miniature dachshund, whose pride in her tail makes up for her diminutive size and gives her an advantage over Dollie, our schnauzer, who possesses no such decorative adornment).
Our memories were all taxed by the game: I went to the market and I bought .. with each person in turn adding an item to the list. The articles bought ranged from a box of matches to a lorry and a pet giraffe, and we had a list of over 40 items, without anyone dropping out, before calling a halt to the shopping!

One recreation was acted out in the parlour, so that our dear Marianne, who helps us in so many ways, from taking sisters to the doctor or dentist, to providing lovely flowers for the chapel to the glory of God, and treats of the edible variety for first-class occasions, could also be present at it. It comprised a story translated by our dear Mother Francesca and Sr Pia, about a business executive, whose heart was touched by his secretary’s musing about past Christmases. On encountering a nameless couple, two poor political refugees, out on the streets and heading for the hospital as the birth of their child was imminent, he paid for a taxi for them, and later took responsibility for the further care of the young family, so finding his own life transformed and his former priorities overturned.

We spent one day spiritually united with all who were to take part in the annual Pro-Life March in Washington DC on 21 January. The day began with our each signing of a “Pro-Life petition” in Washington (our chapter room) and receiving a pro-life badge depicting an unborn child. We then went on our own march round the cloister behind a pro-life banner and a tapestry of Our Lady of Guadelupe which had been given in most providentially a few days before. Our progress was interspersed with quiet periods of reflection with the recital of a decade of the rosary at different parts of the Cloister. Afterwards we gathered in the novitiate for coffee and Dear Mother and Sr Agatha spoke about the origin of the Washington March and its increasing support over the years since its small beginnings. Later we assembled at the ‘soup kitchen” in the “Orchard”, after Sr Agatha spoke to us of the picture of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, adopted as the emblem of the pro-life movement, and of the significance of the way Our Lady is depicted in terms which would have been understandable to the Aztec Indians of those days.
In the afternoon we each earned our ticket to the “Rose Gala Dinner” by producing a song, reading or poem in highlighting the human worth of the unborn child, and later joined in Vespers in the refectory. The theme of the crib was unfolded, from its first beginnings as one inspired by the motto of an organisation in Colombia, Let the Children Live, which helps street children, and later extended to the equally important pro-life cause, working for the rights of unborn children and helping pregnant women in need. At the end of the crib sharing we were each presented with a home-made pottery figure of an unborn child at the age of 12 weeks from conception, and later enjoyed a video on St John Bosco and his work with the street children of his day.

Our annual celebratory Mass in honour of Saint Colette, took place in February, and was attended by mothers, babies and friends who had come to be blessed with her relic. We also gave thanks to God for all the “Colette babies”, who had arrived safely in the course of the year through her intercession.

Among our Christmastide highlights was one stage-managed by Sr Seraphina and Sr Beatrix. They had made an impressive computer printout of the facade of the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes and took us there on pilgrimage, as a group of small Poor Clare figures mounted on a cardboard base which was pulled along with strings. We sang the Lourdes hymn and others popular among pilgrims there and, as “we” approached, the church’s facade (mounted on a wooden cheese board) revolved to reveal the Lourdes Grotto, made of Fimo, with figures of Our Lady and Bernadette and a cluster of burning candles as on the large candlestick at the actual shrine. We also took part in spirit in the traditional torchlight procession, represented by a group of about fifty more home-made figures carrying banners and with votive lights burning beside them.

One especially fascinating recreation on 7 January was based by Sr Juliana and Sr Elizabeth on the life of Galileo. To their delight the date coincided with the 400th anniversary of the groundbreaking discovery, by means of the telescope he had invented, of the moons of Jupiter. The principle of a swinging pendulum, and the demonstration of the fact that light objects fall at the same rate as heavier ones, were duly demonstrated - the latter not by dropping cannonballs from the leaning Tower of Pisa, but by the dropping of a cabbage and a dried pea from the top of a stepladder.

In the afternoon we continued with Galileo’s story and his encounters with friends and enemies, until at the close of his life. When Galileo reached the end of his life, an angel, complete with cherubic wings, appeared to take him to heaven with a special detour via the planets, a treat permitted by the Almighty just to give him pleasure. In the evening we saw a video, Galileo’s Daughter, on the life of his much beloved Virginia (Sr Marie Céleste). She was a Poor Clare, and his greatest comfort and support throughout his controversial life, even taking upon herself the daily recitation of the penitential psalms, which he had been given as his penance by the Church court for his supposedly mistaken views!

February brought Dear Mother’s feastday for which we staged Water, Wind and Light, a meditation on Lourdes and Saint Bernadette, with the images of fire, light and water as the basic themes. It included several simple motets, with much of the script being read in dramatic form or as lines recited by a chorus, while some very lovely home-made collage-type slides were projected on the sanctuary wall in choir.
Several wooden mallets and a pile of bricks furnished the required sound effects when it came to recalling the Gospel episode of the paralysed man, whose friends broke through the roof of the house where Jesus was staying to lower him on his pallet at Christ’s feet.
The reflections ended with Bernadette’s death, with seven “last words” recalling those of Christ. The final slide, as we softly sang the Hail Mary, was of the incorrupt body of St Bernadette lying as if asleep in a glass casket in the convent chapel at Nevers, where she had spent the last decades of her life.

The following week our dear Sr Ancilla, who comes from the Philippines, took her first vows. As she is noted for her thorough cobwebbing of the cloister at regular intervals, the countdown calendar we made for the great day took the form of colourful smiling cardboard spiders suspended from the ceiling for her to bring down with her brush, each yielding up an appropriate quote by St Bonaventure on the religious life! The profession ceremony was as always a very lovely and moving occasion. Fr Gareth celebrated the semi-private Mass and preached on the first reading from the Song of Songs (8:6-8), speaking of Christ impressing His seal on the soul and conforming its image to himself. The next day we saw a video on the life of St Clare, and later a delightful finger-puppet dramatisation of the life of Saint Colette, written by Sr Elizabeth, as amusing as it was inspirational. Sr Yolanda and Becky had made the puppets, about thirty in all from colourful felt, with characters ranging from Colette and Fr Henri, to the townsfolk of Corbie, and the Cardinals affected with spotty pinkitis after opposing her reform! At one point the puppeteers had all their fingers occupied by the crowd of characters ‘on-stage’.

The weather continued bitterly cold, and the pond in the cloister garden was frozen over most days till mid-March. One amusing sight as the ice was thinning was a large ungainly pigeon gingerly testing its weight on the surface! A few days later it was there in the water obviously relishing its much longed-for springtime bath! And the small magnolia tree outside the infirmary became a mass of shining white glory to lift the heart even on grey days.

We had a first-class flu-type cold doing the rounds for much of Lent. Our main chantresses lost their voices almost completely, so we were praising the Lord sotto voce, and for a week or so were reduced to reciting the Office rather than singing it. During the Lenten months as our response to the tragic unfolding of the extent of abuse cases and the failure of many in authority to deal with the pain this has brought to individuals and to the Church as a whole, we had extra Exposition regularly to enable us to hold the sorry situation in our hearts before the Lord, praying for His mercy and healing.

This year the backdrop for the Holy Week/Easter tableau in our choir was a representation of St Peter’s Basilica, with dark clouds looming over it, and featured a newly carved figure of Papa Bene in the role of St Peter. After the Good Friday service a shrouded figure of the dead Christ was placed in a bricked-in catacomb under the basilica. On Easter Day He was depicted in shining garments appearing to the holy women who had come to the tomb to anoint His body. The windows of the Basilica had been transformed to stained glass, their colours also suggesting the reflection of the bright dawn of the new day ushered in by the abiding hope and promise of the Resurrection. St Francis was there too, rebuilding the Church as Christ told him to, by recalling it to the gospel values he himself lived out so wholeheartedly - and Saints Clare and Colette had their place at ground level, supporting the scaffolding he was standing on!
A Sister who had worked in the Vatican was on retreat here in Eastertide. She was so struck by the figure of the Risen Christ holding out his arms to a figure of Papa Bene (alias St Peter), that she sent some photos to a friend in Rome, telling him to be sure to pass them on to the Pope, with an assurance of our loving prayer support in these troubled times.

In Easter week we went on a treasure hunt, with successive clues provided by Bible references. For instance, 1 Kings 21:2 about Ahab coveting Naboth’s vineyard for a vegetable garden, led us to the statue of St Francis which presides over the vegetable garden, where we found the next clue was Jeremiah 18:2: “go down to the
potter's house”. This took us to the pottery shed and ultimately to a chocolate rabbit each by way of a prize!

During May we had a retreat given by Fr Peter Burrows, who radiated a deep love for holy Scripture, with a fascinating approach and interpretation of much therein that tends to be overlooked in a superficial reading. His sheer enthusiasm was like a gale of fresh air, blowing away any cobwebs from parts of the Bible that one thought one knew. He gave us three 90 minute talks a day without any notes, which was quite a feat, and promised to come back some other time for a conference on the book of Ruth.

The following week Brother Parker, who for several years had been a guide in the catacombs, came to to speak about the early Roman martyrs and the other saints mentioned in the Roman canon of the Mass, which was made universal by Charlemagne in the 7th century and is still an option in use today. He used a computer to project illustrations of his talks on a screen, and also gave each of us an illustrated printout summary.

May is by tradition Our Lady’s month, so we ourselves had a novena celebration in her honour, masterminded by Sr Seraphina and based on a very lovely live one in the Philippines with processions of children, some dressed as angels and others in colourful long dresses, singing hymns in her honour. Sr Seraphina had made us a number of very lovely figures, about 8 inches high, of angels and other participants, which she moved back and forth in formation to give us a vivid impression of the celebration as a whole.
Several of them made a solemn entrance carrying letters forming the words AVE MARIA, recalling the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to Our Lady at the Annunciation, entrusting to her care our prayers for specific needs of God’s children throughout the world. Each evening of the Novena we honoured Our Lady under a different title, and we looked forward to her entrance near the end of the celebration dressed in the robes associated with the image of that name. Our celebration included hymns, a psalm, and scripture readings, and ended with us each bringing a flower to Our Lady, which we placed before her in a basket. Afterwards we ourselves took the collected posies in procession, while singing Ecce Ancilla Domini, laying some before each of the small shrines in her honour in the cloister and main rooms of our monastery.

In June Fr Gareth came to preside at our triennial community elections at which Mother Damian was returned for a second term. While he was here he went all over the house and garden blessing everything (including the crops and our dogs!) with holy water. As to our vegetables, it never pays to count your beans before you pick them!
This year their growth was slowed by rain and cold weather and many were irreparably attacked, early on, by the Bean Weevil,
and had to be replaced by some peas we still had in hand. But the remaining ones rallied and the peas also did well enough. It certainly was a good year for the soft fruit which suffered much less from the changeable weather. Sr Agatha’s blueberry bushes fruited, to her great delight, with lovely luscious berries, almost as big as grapes. . Our American e-mail friends tend to rhapsodise about their blueberry pies, and now we’ve actually tasted some of our own, we can better appreciate their enthusiasm!

Spells of wet and windy weather with sunshine episodes produced rainbows to lift the spirits, and also encouraged a bumper crop of mushrooms in various parts of the garden! We identified the two most impressive ones as giant puffballs (Langermannia gigantea) an edible variety, unlike the smaller kinds which are poisonous. They were both the size of a football, with firm pure-white flesh which could be sliced like meat, each furnishing a tasty meal for the whole community.
Our hearts were gladdened this year by a pair of robins and of swallows nesting under the eaves outside the kitchen and successfully raising their respective youngsters there. At one point two rabbits were spotted frolicking in the garden, but as far as we know simply strayed in from a nearby field and did not decide to settle for good. We also had a number of small squirrels of an enquiring disposition, including one which developed a taste for objects made of PVC, gnawing holes in the lids of a dustbin and hopper, as well as demolishing a rubber flap designed to prevent our low-lying dogs from straying under the enclosure gate. Now at the time of writing in late autumn, the moles are hard at it, raising several miniature mountains a day, presumably digging for all they are worth before the ground freezes solid!

August brought the lovely Feast of the Portiuncula, at which Fr Gareth preached on the theme of ‘indulgence’, as the overflowing mercy and love of God, also evident in the abundance of life and vitality in creation. He spoke of the Portiuncula indulgence as a ‘dynamic way of changing direction in life’, opening the heart through sacramental confession to the overwhelming love and mercy of God. In this we are supported too by Our Lady’s motherly love and care for all her children, and by the life and love of the whole Church down the ages, especially as manifest in the saints.

The Feast of our Holy Mother Saint Clare the following week began with a Holy Hour, during which we recalled her great love for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and her equally great love for the Church through thick and thin, despite all the storms of those tempestuous times.
It was also the 120th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Newman, who wrote in one of his well-known hymns, And I hold in veneration/ For the sake of [Christ] alone, / Holy Church, as his creation, / And her teachings as his own. So as we looked forward to the Holy Father’s visit to Britain we felt sure that both Saint Clare and Cardinal Newman would be be praying for its success.

On the Feast of the Assumption, several Sisters staged in tableau form in the cloister a meditation play based on readings from the New Testament, which highlighted Our Lady’s role in the life of her Divine Son. The way in which the different episodes of her life, such as the Marriage Feast at Cana and her standing under the Cross of her Son, were related to each other through the interweaving of the appropriate passages was very moving and thought-provoking. The account of the Annunciation was acted out in the original Greek version of St Luke’s Gospel.

For Dear Mother’s profession anniversary later that month we enjoyed a delightful (and instructive) recreation, written by Sr Elizabeth, with colourful felt finger-puppets made by Becky and Sr Yolanda, and manipulated by three puppeteers.
It comprised a potted history of Britain from 2600 BC till the Norman Conquest in 1066, introducing us to the first known settlers in the form of Neolithic man, the Britons, the Romans, the Picts, Angles, Vikings etc. Each new conquest was symbolised by two appropriately clad puppets advancing singing, We are the Britons (Romans / Picts / Angles, etc), Ho, Ho, Ho; We’re here to stay and not to go - until of course the next wave of arrivals came on the scene! Along the way we were also introduced to old friends from our childhood history lessons
- King Arthur, Alfred the Great, Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Edward the Confessor etc - and the play ended with the arrival of William of Normandy. (We have been promised a further episode in another 15 years or so!).

Our beloved Mother Francesca, has given us talks on a wide variety of subjects this year, from ones on the Reformation, giving the background issues which were likely to colour the Papal visit, to input on the various Orthodox Churches, as well as the Eastern and Uniate Catholic Churches. The Papal visit was of course a time of tremendous joy and inspiration for us, and for the millions who watched it world-wide, confounding the strident hostility expressed by some individuals and widely reported in the secular press in the weeks beforehand. We were glued to the TV for a good deal of the 4 days he was here, had armed ourselves with copies of the liturgy obtainable off the internet, and so were able to join in all the events with full voice as well as in spirit! The TV coverage of his speech in Westminster Hall, with all its historical and religious associations, was especially memorable, as was the ecumenical Vespers at Westminster Abbey. It was altogether an historic occasion for the country as a whole, and we hope and pray that it will inspire many to heed his urgent call to respect faith groups and ethical and moral values, if our society is not to become a spiritual wasteland.

For most of us, the most moving and impressive moment of the visit was the Vigil in Hyde Park and the complete silence and deep prayer for almost ten minutes of the 90,000 people present when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for adoration.
It was all the more moving as the event was within a stone’s throw or so from the site of the former Tyburn Gallows, where four to five hundred years ago so many Catholics, both priests and laity, gave their life for their loyalty to the Pope as the head of the Church, and for their love of the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament.

At Michaelmas we had a special celebration in the cloister in honour of the holy archangels. Sr Seraphina had designed and made colourful angel costumes complete with wings for the five Sisters who took part in it. The liturgy included mimed readings from the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation on the Archangels, whose office is to praise Him eternally and defend and intercede for His people. There followed a medley of Marian hymns, played by the group on tin whistles, which they had mastered in the preceding weeks, together with a very lovely Magnificat, composed by Sr Seraphina.
After it was sung, intercessions we had written on slips of paper and ceremonially burnt, rising up in smoke and mingling with the prayers of the angels in the presence of the Lord.

Several groups of Secular Franciscans were present for the celebration of the Transitus of Our Holy Father St Francis on the Eve of his Feast. It comprised the text of 13th century accounts of his passing from this world to eternity, with several of us reading the narration and the spoken parts, combining this with simple symbolic actions - such as the laying of a habit and cord before the altar to represent the dying Saint Francis, and then scattering it with rose petals when he entered into the glory of heaven. We had made small heart-shaped marzipan biscuits which we distributed to those present, and were glad there were enough over for us as well!

October also brought the universal joy at the safe rescue of the Chilean miners, and at the faith and courage which had sustained them in their darkest days.

The middle of the month also saw the Synod for the Churches of the Middle East, which took place in Rome. Sr Juliana treated us to a fascinating talk on the very different liturgical rites of the sundry Catholic Churches in those parts, and of the very difficult situations and problems they have to face, often ones of suspicion, hostility or outright persecution and violence. She illustrated her presentation with epidiascope pictures, and had also made us a loaf such as is used in the Eastern liturgy for holy Mass, marked with liturgical symbols including representations of the nine choirs of angels - this we later shared at collation.

The same week our Dear Mother and Sr Yolanda had ventured as far north as Scotland to attend a meeting at Perth of the Association of British Contemplatives on our behalf. On their way home they passed through Edinburgh, the city where the Pope had first touched down on British soil, but even more important for us as the childhood home of Venerable Margaret Sinclair (Sr Mary Francis of the Five Wounds). She had become an extern Sister in our motherhouse of Notting Hill in 1924, dying of TB the following year, nine months after taking her first vows.
Sr Pacifica, one the extern Sisters who had come on the foundation to Wales, had been in the novitiate with her. Her own clothing ceremony was combined with the one at which Sr Mary Francis was professed, and she occasionally shared memories of her with us.

After the excitement of the Papal Visit, we had come more or less down to earth again and had spent the next four weeks preparing for our Autumn Fair, baking, making jam, pickles, pottery, soft toys, arts and crafts of all sorts. Despite cold weather and even a short hailstorm, which meant less people venturing out than last year, it went very happily and a good time was had by all. We would like to thank all those who helped towards it, by sending us materials to make items to sell, contributing bric-a-brac and miscellaneous items for the jumble department, or by manning the various stalls.

We also deeply appreciated being able to share your joys and sorrows and hold them before the Lord, as a result of your letters, whether E-mail or “snail-mail”. The ongoing support given to our community in so many ways, spiritual as well as material, and especially the generosity of local schools and churches who brought us produce from their Harvest Festivals has warmed our hearts and encouraged us in our vocation.

You can be sure that we will be encircling you with our prayers this Christmas and as the New Year unfolds, asking Our Lord to guide and protect you, that the words of the following lovely 6th century prayer from Spain may be fulfilled in your life and in all those whom you hold in your hearts:

O Lord Christ, who art both Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end,
and whose years shall not fail;
grant us so to pass through the coming year with faithful hearts,
that in all things we may please thee and glorify thy name.
Mozarabic Liturgy

With loving prayers for you,
one and all,
from
your little Sisters at Ty Mam Duw

Poor Clare Colettine Community
Upper Aston Hall Lane, Hawarden, Deeside CH5 3EN North Wales G.B.
Tel [++44] [0]1244 531029
E-mail community@poorclarestmd.org
Website http://www.poorclarestmd.org

Recent Work....

2010-11-09T05:12:00.000-08:00

TMD Icons of St Peter and St Paul for St Oswald's Church Coppull, Chorley, Liverpool Diocese

Recent work....

2010-11-09T03:55:00.000-08:00

Holidays over we got back to work finishing vestments....

Papal Visit Live

2010-11-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

In this Papal visit, there is no official place for Contemplative Nuns, special attention is being, rightly given to those who are teachers. Since there was no where we could go together we decided to stay at home and watch it on EWTN. As Mother said, we’ve had a straight rush with harvesting, in rapid succession, peas, beans, soft fruit, apples and plums we will sit and watch with sandwiches! so here we are! We were struck by the graciousness of the Queen and the unassuming gentleness of our Father. The Queen thanked him for receiving so many other members of her family; we could not help thinking of the Duchess of Kent, Lord Nicholas Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, Lady Marina-Charlotte....

Sound bytes that struck us

I have come to you as a herald of Peace. Benedict XVI

Live in respect and mutual love. Benedict XVI

There is only one thing that lasts; the love of the Lord for each one of you. Benedict XVI

Education in respectful and affectionate trust. Benedict XVI

If we had nothing in common we could not communicate and if we had everything in common we would have nothing to say. Lord Jonathan Sachs

Listen to the music between the notes. Lord Jonathan Sachs.

We created you from peoples and tribes that you may know oneanother. Dr Khalid Azzam (quoting the Quaran)

No two snowflakes are alike, but all are sixfold. Dr Khalid Azzam

It is He who is seeking us who places the longing for himself in our hearts. Benedict XVI

The dialogue of life involves us in simply living beside each other. Benedict XVI

The Catholic church follows a path of engagement and dialogue. Benedict XVI

It is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart. Archbishop Rowan Williams quoting Pusey.

Unity will only come about in answer to prayer. Benedict XVI

The Church is called to be inclusive, but never at the expense of truth. Benedict XVI

Robust debate and sheer intolerance, a difficult past and a turbulent present, may not be a barrier to an enlightened future. Faith is not a relic, either in political discourse or in modern society.
John Bercow (Pa smiled at this, with appreciative amusement)

Time is always short. Helene Hayman, Speaker of the House of Lords.

Obedience to the word of God because it is a true word. Benedict XVI

THERE IS NO AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH THAT IS NOT THE AUTHORITY OF SERVICE. Benedict XVI

Lifting up our own bodies as a sacrifce, completing in our flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. In our flesh He continues to be in agony until the end of the world. Benedict XVI quoting Pascal

You are a priestly people called to consecrate the life and work of the world. Benedict XVI

I ask each of you, first and foremost, to look into your own heart. Think of all the love that your heart was made to receive, and all the love it is meant to give. After all, we were made for love. This is what the Bible means when it says that we are made in the image and likeness of God: we were made to know the God of love, the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to find our supreme fulfilment in that divine love that knows no beginning or end.

Every day we have to choose to love. Benedict XVI

THE FRUIT OF THE CROSS IS THE CIVILIZATION OF LOVE. Benedict XVI

Not what are my entitlements, but what are my responsibilities, not what can I do for myself, but what can I do for others. Faith is part of the fabric of the country. Mr Cameron

Preparing the Way

2010-11-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

The Papal Visit I

John Henry Newman, like many of your little sisters at TMD, became a Catholic after long prayer and thought. He was not born into it. Nobody made him do it.

The Roman Catholic Church in Britain in the nineteenth Century had its own very real struggles and it hardly knew what to do with a humble intellectual genius who loved the Church - except to put him to the test. Newman is a saint of the heart. He was a wonderful friend, a marvelous teacher, a transcendent theologian and a lover of life. In beatifying him, the church accepts with humility that he was only gradually understood.

This community - as those who attended the 2008 Carol Service will know - has a great love for Cardinal Newman, for nothing that Church or state could do to him shook his love for Christ and his body in this world. A month before the visit started we began daily readings from Newman’s writings after Holy Mass and the Official biography for the beatification in the refectory.

Meanwhile, in the throes of desperately trying to finish overdue vestment and icon orders we were asked by a local parish to do a banner for the Hyde Park Vigil.

In the fortnight immediately preceding the Holy Father’s visit to this country, we began to pray the prayer for the Visit at the end of mass.

We also, in the daily intentions kept in our prayers the leading secularists, whom the Vatican press office described with wry amusement as ‘noisy but marginalised’. If we love God and unite ourselves with his will, all these people and many more like them will discovers the truth and come to see God face to face .... and heart to heart.

A week with the Word

2010-05-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Something wonderful happened to us!

Religious people are required by Church Law to have a six day retreat once a year. Well, we have more retreat days than that; our life is prayer - and our greatest prayer is our togetherness. So we really like to give ourselves a retreat!

A kind friend suggested Father Peter Burrows - and we had the most incredible week. He is a theologian of Sacred Scripture who has something outstanding to share and can communicate it. But more than that!!!!!!!! He was where we are and we loved him!

We quote from the Amazon page for his book “Jonah the reluctant Missionary”,

Peter Burrows is a retired priest of the Diocese of Plymouth living and working with the Society of African Missions in London. Born in Los Angeles, California, he studied theology at Harvard, and received a Ph.D. in Rabbinic and Biblical Literature from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has a post-graduate degree in Marriage, Family and Child Therapy and was licensed to practice as a Marriage, Family and Child Therapist by the State of California, working for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as a Family Therapist. He has lectured in Scripture and Psychology at seminaries, colleges and universities and in many parishes and synagogues throughout the United States and Britain.

He also lectures at Allen Hall and is an SMA Father.

This picture is him, though its not a good one! If you ever get the chance to hear him, take it and enjoy it!!!!!

Easter 2010

2010-05-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

When we celebrate the Easter Vigil at TMD we are trying to do what the Church did from the start: to spend this night in vigil. It is not just the Church! We are doing something that goes back perhaps thirty five centuries. So like all vigilantes we are trying to stay awake - not shorten our prayers!

The Lord seems to create different themes each year. This year it was the Church in her pain and humiliation at this time and the sufferings of the Successor of St Peter.

During the mission of John Paul II to the Church, the figure of Peter in our Easter garden was that of the Pope. After he went home to our Father’s house, we could not immediately replace him with a sculpture of our Father Benedict XVI. But this year, we did so. The scenes of the passion and resurrection took place in front of St Peter’s and Christ rose from his grave in the catacombs of the Basilica.

Of the nine readings of the Vigil, the Prophet Baruch seemed to capture our minds and we turned it into a conversation. You will have to imagine the Prophet standing in the midst of the choir with his interpreter beside him....

A reading from the prophet Baruch.
Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life:

Are you listening to what God is saying to you?

How is it, Israel,
that you are in the land of your foes,
grown old in a foreign land,

Have you got enough time - to spend it clinging to the things of this world?

grown old in a foreign land,
defiled with the dead,
accounted with those destined for the netherworld?

Are you seeking death or life?

You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!

Are you really listening to what God is saying to you?

Had you walked in the way of God,
you would have dwelt in enduring peace.

Is there a deep desire to be obedient to the Lord in the centre of your heart?

Learn where prudence is,
where strength, where understanding;

Are you learning the ways of God or is self getting in the way?

that you may know also
where are length of days, and life,

Are you using God’s time well?

that you may know also
where light of the eyes, and peace.

Do you know how much God loves you?

Who has found the place of wisdom,
who has entered into her treasuries?

Have you entered into the pearl of great price?

The One who knows all things knows her;
he has probed her by his knowledge
The One who established the earth for all time,
and filled it with four-footed beasts;

Do you marvel daily at the Lord of creation and all he has made for us?

he who dismisses the light, and it departs,
calls it, and it obeys him trembling;

Are you a light that he can use to illumine the darkness?

before whom the stars at their posts
shine and rejoice;
when he calls them, they answer, “Here we are!”

When God calls do you say immediately ‘Here I am’?

when he calls them, they answer, “Here we are!”
shining with joy for their Maker.

Are you a person filled with the joy of the Lord?

Such is our God;
no other is to be compared to him:

When did you last shout for sheer praise for the knowledge of God’s existence!?

He has traced out the whole way of understanding,
and has given her to Jacob, his servant,
to Israel, his beloved son.

Has God confided in you his plans for peace and justice?

Since then she has appeared on earth,
and moved among people.

Are you a witness to God’s plan of salvation?

She is the book of the precepts of God,
the law that endures forever;

Are you living the law of love?

all who cling to her will live,
but those will die who forsake her.

Are you prepared to give life to others?

Turn, O Jacob, and receive her:
walk by her light toward splendor.

When you learn the ways of God do you put them into practice?

Give not your glory to another,
your privileges to an alien race.

Do you know just how privileged you are?

Blessed are we, O Israel;
for what pleases God is known to us!

God is here present among us. In the radiance of the Lord make your way to light, to wisdom, to truth. As God pleases, as God wills!!

This is the Word of the Lord.

How to do - February 2010

2010-03-22T03:09:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Mother Damian's feastday, which (it is rather like the Queen's birthday) we have transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes, we wanted to do a presentation on the life of St Bernadette. For those who like to follow our adventures - and for anyone who would like to share it with their community or prayer group we have put the script of this play for voices below.

Hail Holy Simplicity!
All we did was seat the community at the back of the Choir to read the voice parts and have two projectors, one with standard slides of Lourdes and Bernadette and the other with magnificent abstracts of water, wind, fire etc (atcheived by splashing glass paints on clear slide frames!) slightly over-lapping on the wall. And a couple of people in charge of wind and water sound effects!

It requires a minimum of ten voices and during it we sang the Vidi aquam ('I saw water flowing', from the Easter liturgy), the Hail Mary and the Kyrie (of the Mass) You could use any settings of these common texts or simply say them. If you would like our settings just send an SAE!
__________________________________________________

Water, Wind and Light

An oratorio for spoken and sung voices on the commission of Saint Bernadette.
It begins on the Easter Sunday morning before Bernadette’s death.

Bernadette
Voice 1
Voice 2 (the child)
Voice 3
Voice 4 (the accuser)
Voice 6
Voice 7
Voice 8
Mary

Chorus
I I saw water flowing.....

Voice 1
To the thirsty I will give water, as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Bernadette
When I dream it is as if I am always running downhill through a series of arched doorways, that the wind blows open before me. The wind is warm on my face, like the warmth of a candle flame if you brush your finger through it.

Sound of rushing air.

Bernadette
They tell me there is a cave in the side of Calvary under the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At Easter the Greek Patriarch comes out of it with the Holy Fire and the faithful light their candles from it, and, drunk with joy, they pass their hands through it and run the candle flame over their bare arms, sick people pass a fire over their ailments and some are healed. People wait outside with carriages and the Holy Fire is carried to the boats and taken to Greece and Russia and the flame runs like a wind over the face of the earth....
At Easter if you saw the world before dawn it would be a great procession of lights…. Light and water…. And arched doorways blowing open.

Voice 1
Who are you ?

Bernadette
Soeur Marie Bernarde

Voice 2
Where were you born ?

Bernadette
Lourdes. (She coughs)

Voice 3
Why are coughing?

Bernadette
Because I have a lung disease.

Voice 4
What is the first question in the Bible?

Bernadette
(Indignantly) That isn’t in the catechism.

Voice 4
None of these questions are in the catechism. What is the first question in the Bible?

Bernadette
The first question in the Bible is, Did God really say….?

Voice 3
(Interrupting) How did you get lung disease ?

Bernadette
When I was ten there was cholera, it left me with asthma and weakness of the heart, after the cholera came famine and we all but died, after the famine came the Cachot.

Sound of wind blowing

Voice 5
(Surprised) Can you hear something?

Bernadette
Yes, yes !

Voice 4
Just answer me one question, Mademoiselle Soubirous, why did God choose you?

Bernadette
Because he could not find anyone more unsuitable.

The Chorus, as they speak, reposition themselves to one side. The profile of the Grotto appears on the wall behind them.

Chorus
Suddenly from heaven,
there came the sound like the ru>>>>>>>sh of a powerful wind.
divided tongues of fire resting on you,
Tell us! What did you see ?

Bernadette
A rose bush on the edge of the niche was swaying in the wind, it was the only thing that moved, everything else was still……I saw her.

Chorus
(Earnestly) A woman clothed with the sun,
the moon under her feet,
a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Bernadette
(Dismissively) No-No-No! She was a young girl, no taller than I, she might have been sixteen, she smiled. Sometimes she looked as though she were going to laugh

Voice 1
What did she say?

Bernadette
Nothing!

Voice 2
What did she look like?

Bernadette
Beautiful!..... she was so beautiful.

Voice 3
(With childlike awe)
Did she look like Our Lady of Puy?

Bernadette
(Amused) No little one.

Voice 5
Did she look like Notre Dame de Paris?

Voice 6
(Quickly now, they are all pressing Bernadette in their eagerness)
Notre Dame de La Salette?....

Voice 7
Our Lady of Montserrat ?....

Voice 8
The Mother of God of Mariazell?....

Voice 2
Of Vladimir?....

Voice 3
Of Rome?....

Bernadette
No, no, no and no, she was alive! When she went I couldn’t bear it.

Voice 4
(Derisively) You imagined it.

Bernadette
(Disgusted) Go away! You cannot imagine heaven!

Voice 4
You can try.

Bernadette
(Firmly) Vade retro……….

Voice 3
(Lingering on after the others have gone) Please what did she say to you?

Bernadette
She said, ‘I do not promise you happiness in this world’…..

Slight pause, sound of fountain

Bernadette
I can hear the sound of water.....

Group one (Voices 1-4)
Penitence, Penitence, Penitence!!!

Group two (Voices 5-8)
Repent and believe in the good news of God.

Voice 2
I baptise you with water.

Group two
Repent and believe in the good news of God

Voice 2
He who will come will baptise you with fire.

Group one
Penitence, Penitence, Penitence!!

Voice 2
Pray to God for sinners and kiss the ground.

Group two
Repent and believe in the good news of God

Voice 1
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Chorus
There was a man who was sent from God his name was John.

Voice 1
He came as a witness to bear testimony to the light.

Voice 5
From his fullness we have all received.

Chorus
(Whisper) Grace upon grace.
(moderately) Grace upon grace.
(shout) Grace upon grace!

Voice 3
(Odd and excited) I saw the Spirit descend like a dove, I heard the voice of the Father proclaim, I myself have seen and bear witness that this is the Son of God.

Chorus
Repent and believe in the good news of God.

The sound of wind is added to the sound of water

Bernadette
I can hear the sound of the wind!

Chorus
Listen toy the breath of God moving on the face of the waters.

Voice 2
Listen to the beat of your heart, listen to the pulse in your ears,
as God breathes life into your lungs.

Chorus
(Whisper strongly) Listen! hushhhhh!

Voice 6
I must turn aside and see this great sight,
the angel of God in a flame of fire,
in a burning bush
that is not consumed.

Chorus
(Whisper more gently) Listen! hushhhhh!

Voice 2
(Softly but commandingly) Moses!

Voice 6
Here I am.

Voice 2
Come no closer,
take off the sandals from your feet
for this is holy ground.

Voice 1
Kiss the ground.

Voice 3
Kiss the ground for sinners.

Chorus
I am who I am.

Voice 6 (With awe)
Let my people go!
Unbind my people and let them go!

Chorus
I am who I am.

Voice 2
Kiss the ground for sinners.

Chorus
I am who I am.

Voice 8
Which is greater,
to say that sins are forgiven or, ‘rise up and walk?’

Voice 5
I am who I am.....Hushhhh!

Bernadette’s smiles and claps her hands. During the song that follows the chorus hand each other glass bowls of water in the centre of which is a lighted candle, on the last refrain they go forward and place their bowls on the ground. Exeunt, except voice 4.

Voice 5
Spring up O well, sing to it, sing to it, sing to it.

Chorus
Spring up O well, sing to it, sing to it, sing to it.

Voice 5
Gather the people together, I will give them living water.

Chorus
Spring up O well, sing to it , sing to it, sing to it.

Voice 5
Go and drink at the spring and wash in it.

Chorus
Spring up O well, sing to it , sing to it, sing to it.

Bernadette
(Delighted) I can hear the sound of the wind and water, I can see the light!

Voice 4
(Somewhat mockingly) You saw her. You saw her eighteen times. One appointment you did not keep. Of the eighteen times you said, you saw her, eleven times she was silent……

Bernadette
No! Two of the times I said that she spoke, but it was a secret just for me.

Voice 4
What did she say to you?

Bernadette
If I told you, it would not be a secret.

Voice 4
Very well, nine times then; nine times she was silent. On some of these occasions you were there for nearly an hour. In silence. In silence? What did you do?

Bernadette
I prayed. She taught me to pray.

Voice 4
How?

Bernadette
(To herself; she has forgotten that voice 4 is external to her). She was heaven. The Grotto was heaven. The waters are not for me; I will never go back. But I am always there in the Grotto. You will find me in the Grotto. (Slight laugh) Even without permission, I can go to heaven.....

During bernadette’s last speach Voices 1,2,3, 4 and 6 come further back. They are now the paralysed boy and his four friends from the gospel, voice 5 is also the boy’s mother. Heavy banging from same area.

Bernadette
(Surprised) What’s that?

With appropriate noises.

Voice 2
Push!

Voice 1
I am pushing!!

Voice 2
Get the beam aside.

Voice 5
Give me an axe.

Several more crashing bangs and a couple of bricks falling.

Voice 6
You’ve got it! You’ve got it!

Voice 2
Well done lads! Now pull out the ends.

More indeterminate noises.

Voice 3
(moan of pain)

Voice 1
Careful, take it slowly.

Voice 3
(Anxious) I am going to slip off!!

Voice 2
No you are not. Close your eyes.

Pause.

Voice 5
Keep the other side straight.

Voice 6
Sorry!

A very slight thump.

Voice 2
If you take the front, I’ll take the back.

Voice 1
Right.

Voice 3
(Gives a sharp gasp of pain) Ah!

They are, so to speak, now confronting Bernadette.

Voice 1
(As if indicating the stretcher) He’s paralysed.....

Voice 6
.....Disseminated sclerosis, tubercular fistulas, blind, and hemiplegic.

Bernadette
I see.

Voice 1
(Briskly)He’s been to the baths.

Voice 2
He’s been to confession.

Voice 5
He’s been to Mass.

Voice 6
He’s been blessed at the Blessed Sacrament Procession.....

Voice 3
(Interupting) I want to go home.

Voice1
(In kindly exhortation) You have faith.

Voice 3
(miserably) I haven’t got any left.

Voice 2
That’s alright, love, we have faith, all four of us.

Voice 6
The medical bureau got his certificate, he’s been given up by science, and his mother has ordered his coffin. That’s right isn’t it?

Voice 5
Oh yes, I have ordered his coffin, Doctor.

Voice 1
(Turning to Bernadette) We haven’t any power in ourselves.

Voice 2
All we’ve got is faith, and we won’t go until he is cured.

Voice 3
(beginning to sob) I want to go home.

Bernadette
I am sorry.

Voice 5
Nothing to be sorry for dearie, we all just do what we’ve been told.

Voice 2
Look, Miss, what are you waiting for?

Bernadette
(Puzzled) What do you want me to do for you?

All five shout.
Pray!!!!!!!

Voice 2
Herself spent all that time teaching you to pray, the Bishop told you it was your assignment, what do you think we’ve come for?!

Bernadette
Oh! (The penny drops) Oh! Yes! Your sins are forgiven stand up and walk.

Voice 2
(As though trying to hand on to the stretcher) Steady! Wait for it!

Voice 3
(Ad lib) Ohh! I can stand! (Jumps up and down) I can stand! I can stand! Mamma Mary, I can stand!

Three jumps up and down, runs around the stage and runs off with a yell of joy! (returning queitly to take her seat)

Voice 2
(Pleased) Mmm! Ok; lets go down to the Grotto and give thanks, or do we go to the medical bureau first?

Voice 6
No. They’ll give him the once over, but they don’t want to see him for a year. The thing has to be instant, unmedicated and require no convalescence. I mean; who needs a months rest after a miracle?

Voice I starts saying the Our Father as she goes out of choir door

Voice 2 Well I never! Bit of alright that!

Voice 5 Wont his father be stunned!!!!!!!!

They quietly return to their seats

Voice 7
That was not a first class miracle. even if it is on front of the Basilica in mosaic. Insufficient medical evidence! In 150 years, in reality, here have probably been around twelve hundred cures. They have almost nothing in common. Some have happened outside Lourdes entirely, some on the train home. Some have been cured at the baths, or got off their stretchers to follow Our Lords living presence in the Blessed Sacrament round in procession. We are very particular; we require absolute proof that you had your infirmity before you were healed and absolute proof that you no longer have it. With X-rays and doctors reports. Every sort of illness has been cured here - except hysteria. But we only absolutely claim rather less 60 first class miracles.

Voice 6 has joined 7 as soon as she is out of her Hospitalité gillet

Voice 8
Most of the early miracles are not included because of the inadequacy of medical science in the nineteenth century. And many modern cures cannot be considered because when their doctors heard the word Lourdes they didn’t want to know.

Voice 5
Gerard Baillé is not really first class. His optic nerves had withered and died and his mother - carelessly - prayed that he would have enough sight to get a job, but he had to wear spectacles. We don’t accept spectacles (we are very hard to please). The mere fact that his optic nerves are still withered and dead, does not make any difference.

Voice 4 And there was Elie Auclair, he relapsed. Elie was a complete and bitter atheist. His hatred for a non-existing God was intensified by Pott’s disease, paralysis, huge open abscesses, and approaching death. His believing wife got him to Lourdes dying on a stretcher - and he went home dancing. But the knowledge of his own sins and his former hatred of God overwhelmed him, even though he knew that he was forgiven. His disease returned with horrific physical suffering and he lay on his death bed filled with peace and grace, after seven months of intolerable agony, he died smiling. He is not a miracle, he is a saint.

Voice 8
Marie Bailly had tubercular peritonitis and Henri Mieuzet had terminal enteritis. They were among the many healed people that became priests and nuns.

Voice 2
Catherine Latapie, the very first Lourdes cure dipped her withered hand in the spring after the 12th Apparition and was healed. She walked the nine miles to her home village and had a baby that same day. He too became a priest.

Voice 1
Justin Bohouhorts, the third Lourdes miracle, lived so long after his death certificate that he sat him up in the sanctuary by Pius XI at the canonization.

Bernadette
What canonization?

Pause. Voice 4 coughs politely.

Voice 1
And she did not promise you happiness on earth?

Bernadette
Oh! But I have had happiness on earth! Promised or not. I may have spent my life between Calvary and Tabor; but I have been so happy.

Chorus
Tabor, let us go in procession to Tabor and build a chapel.

Voice 2
Go forward in procession with branches.

Voice 3
Even to the altar.

Voice 4
Go forward in procession with candle even to the Shrine.

Voice 5
Even to the Shrine.

Voice 6
My vows I will fulfil .

Voice 8
Before those who fear Him.

Bernadette
One thing I have asked of he Lord this I seek to dwell in the house of the Lord!

Voice 1
Go out quickly!

Voice 2
To the streets and lanes of the city

Voice 3
And bring in the poor

Voice 4
The maimed.

Voice 5
The blind

Voice 6
The lame.

Chorus
Go out to the highways and hedgerows.....

Bernadette
She said, “Tell the priest, I want people to come in procession!”

Chorus
......That my house may be full.

Bernadette
(Wonderingly) I live in a glass cloister. (She lights her candle from one of the lights.)
It is as if our cloister was a stairway, I walk higher as I see your light, I am part of the procession, In the dark I walk through the archways of glass in a procession of love. Follow me.

Chorus
II Hail mary X3 Full of Grace X3 The Lord is with you X1

Voice 1
It is good to be here.

Chorus
(Each, randomly) It is good Lord to be here.

Voice 6
It is good Lord to be here.

Voice 2
Let us build three tents.

Chorus
It is good Lord to be here.

Voice 2
Tell the priests to build a chapel....

Chorus
It is good Lord to be here

Voice 2
I have prepared a place for my people.

Chorus
It is good Lord to be here.

Bernadette
(Dreamily) It is good Lord to be here. To be where you are; to walk with your people. To be before the altar of the Church that you have built.

Bernadette
I am here - but I am not. (She falls to her knees facing the platform) Heaven is not tomorrow and another place, heaven is here and now (to herself) I see now what you meant when you said I do not promise you happiness here but in heaven, heaven is always breaking through into earth.

II Hail Mary up to third Blessed art thou among women

Chorus
I saw the temple in heaven open
and the ark of the covenant was there.

Mary
I was poured out before the springs
Before the fountains of the deep
In the beginning I was made
The first of God’s created things.

Chorus
I saw her clothed with sun and crowned with stars
she had the moon be neath her feet

Mary
My robe is whiter than the snows
My face shines for you like the sun

Chorus
Then saw a new heaven and earth
The dwelling place of God is with men

Mary
All those who loved me I have loved,
to those who seek me I am there,
for those who thirst God gave to me,
a spring of everlasting life.
I am the Immaculate Conception

Chorus
I saw the Holy City New Jerusalem
Come down out of heaven from God
Jerusalem above is /free
And she is our Mother.

Bernadette
You’ve come ! O you’re come as you promised!

Mary
The great loneliness will soon be over.

By the Cross of Jesus, I stood. Take your place beside my son.

It helps to be very still,
As still as Massabielle.

On the Cross your will, at Gods invitation, has placed you where fighting and anger are irrelevant. Rest in his love and my nearness

Pause

Bernadette
Life is only the waiting room of heaven, I was made of nothing and God made this nothing, something great……(pause) ‘I give you the assignment of prayer,’ that is what he said.

Chorus softly

III Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy

The chorus return to the platform, Bernadette’s seven last words which follow are said with dramatic intensity and appropriate pauses. Voice 4, carries a large candle and Voice 7 has in her pocket a small glass cup.

Bernadette
My Jesus, how I love him

Chorus
III Lord have mercy

Bernadette
(Looking up calmly at Mary) I saw her, I saw her…..

Chorus
(Not looking at Mary, whom they cannot see)
II Hail mary X3 Full of Grace X3 The Lord is with you X1

Bernadette
But she was so beautiful, I long to see her again.

Pause – drum crescendo

Bernadette
(According to ability, gives a loud cry or groan of agony)

Chorus
III Lord have mercy

Bernadette
(Quickly) My God! My God….

Chorus
III Lord have mercy

Bernadette
Pray for me a poor sinner….
This is repeated randomly several times, including during the singing of the Kyrie.

Chorus
III Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy (Softly)

Longer pause

Bernadette
(In a voice faintly hoarse, but triumphant) I thirst!!!

Voice 7 takes a glass, dips it in one of the bowls of water and helps Bernadette take a sip.

Chorus
I I saw Water Flowing soft and slow

Chorus
To the thirsty I will give water as a gift
From the streams of everlasting life

Long pause: Bernadette is dead.

Chorus begin softly and swelling out
II Hail Mary in its entirety

____________________________________
If you do use this would you like to acknowledge Ty Mam Duw in the Programme Notes - and do let us know how you got on!

Christmas 2009

2010-03-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

We has a very blest Christmas. For those who would like to visit our crib (at any time of the year) it, too, is on Youtube. There is a embedded link on the website on the page Christmas @ TMD - with a full account of the biblical scenes - and the non-biblical scenes which we omitted for want of space.

Once again we would like to thank Bernadette Bevans for her kindness and expertise. Incidentally as well as the film work of
Mary's Dowry productions, Bernadette is a superb musician and her music CD's are lovely!

Come along to Bethlehem is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc3ajk8sAWs

And Bernadette's professional website is at

www.marysdowryproductions.org

Advent 2009......!

2010-03-22T02:37:00.000-07:00

Behold I stand at the door and knock....
Rev. 3:20

In Advent we take it in turns to present an evening sharing after Vespers in Ephesus. It was a season of outstanding sharings, but we felt that his one carried of all prizes! We though you might like to share it. it is a dramatic meditation on the second coming, if not at the end of time, at least at the end of Sr E's time.....

Thunderous rap on the door, Sr E leaps up

It’s The Call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I, er, wasn’t expecting this. I mean its a bit sooner than I’d expected!

Have I got everything I need? Should I pack something? Perhaps a bible .... and a pair of secateurs, in case. Well you never know. I could take a torch; it might be dark, I’d like to see where I am going. Perhaps I could take a bit of light reading in case there is a long queue... and there’s my crochet, I only started it a year ago and I did quite a lot while waiting at the dentists last week.

There’s rather a lot of things I ought still to finish. I really wanted to clean the dog pen before Christmas. of course, if I am not going to be here for Christmas... but I mustn’t be selfish.

And then - is it Him? Perhaps its only the milkman?

It is a bit soon. I would have really liked another 40 years or so. That would make me a hundred. We’re very long lived in our family. Grandmama was terribly old; she never let on about her age, but I’m sure she must have been over a hundred when she went !

I’m not so sure I want to go any way. Perhaps I’ll stay at home after all. I’d really like to clean our cell window; you can hardly see through It. I cleaned it a bout 2 years ago.... And I ought to tidy Jericho’s and the dog pen needs strimming, too. If I have to go, I had better leave instructions as to how to work the strimmer. Though somebody might know....

Perhaps two and two don’t make four after all. I know it has been a popular idea down the ages, but perhaps they make five. Perhaps I’m taking too many things fro granted.

What shall I say to him, if it is Him. I need the Dictionary of Useful Phrases for Special Occasions, I could take that, too. Let me look. (rustle of pages)
How nice to see you - well, I could not really say that.
I do hope you are feeling well....Well I suppose He always does.
I assure you of my most earnest felicitations..........?
Does this umberella belong to you? No?
Are you staying long? (It is more a case of will I be staying long?)
Would you like a cup of tea????????????

Will He ask me when I last went to confession?? When did I last go to confession? It’s not as long as 40 years? Wheres the little book with the examination of conscience in?

Have you paid a just wage to your employees (if any) ?!

Have you been kind to your father/mother/sister/brother/dog? Well, er?

Have you paid the milkman, grocer, greengrocer and dustman since last year. No.
Are you habitually unpunctual, untidy and unavailable........?

Oh dear.

Please turn to page 5003 for the next section: On the Qualitative Use and Misuse of the Ten Commandments.....

Perhaps tomorrow....................?

Welcome!

2009-11-13T06:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-16T02:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T03:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T03:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T03:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-01-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-29T02:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T08:20:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

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

1st December 2007

2008-09-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

 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

2008-09-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

  Typical scenes from reorganising the Library  

29th June 2007

2008-09-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Clareway

Emerald Choir Dates and details

Emerald Choir press release

Lent at Ty Mam Duw 2011

The Samaritan Woman at the Well

The Man Born Blind

Lazarus

Mr Jennings

Mother of Millions - St Colette

Haizi

One thing leads to another....

The Angel and the Atheists!

2010 Tidings

Recent Work....

Recent work....

Papal Visit Live

Preparing the Way

A week with the Word

Easter 2010

How to do - February 2010

Christmas 2009

Advent 2009......!

Welcome!

TMD on YouTube!

The Year for Priests 1

The Year for Priests 2

The Year for Priests 3

Pentecost

Sister Seraphina's Solemn Profession May 2 2009

The Rite of Solemn Profession in the Poor Clare Colettine Tradition

Join us for St Colette - in the Spirit

The Newman Banner

Advent Carol Service: November 29 2008

Mini Synod of the Word

A guest on the road to Emmaus

Autumn

Mother Damian's Silver Jubilee

Sr Elizabeth's Ruby Jubilee!

The Lost Clareshare!

April 2008

CHRISTMAS 2007

Advent 2007

1st December 2007

1st December 2007

15 August 2007

11th August 2007

￼ ￼28 July 2007

15 June or thereabouts 2007

29th June 2007

10 July 2007

28 July 2007