200th Anniversary.

Today is the 200th anniversary of the death of one of our Prioresses – Mother Teresa Joseph Johnson. She was elected at the beginning of the French Revolution (our community was in Paris at the time ), and brought our community through imprisonment and near starvation and back home to England. Sixteen sisters survived those terrible times, including lay sisters and a postulant.

At this time the sisters had to carry their vows with them so we are fortunate to have Mother Teresa’s vows – written on vellum – and some of the letters she wrote. Sr Benedict, our archivist, has been showing some of these precious things to us at recreation and they are wonderful to see.

We are very aware that without our brave sisters we would not be here today to carry on our life and traditions and would not be writing to you today.

May they rest in peace.

Photo’s

As you can see we now have some pictures of Sr Mary Magdalen on the day of her clothing – 15th August, Feast of the Assumption. We discovered that our friend Margaret had put them on for us and will let us know how to do it ourselves. We are so pleased to share them with you and now there will be more of us and of our life as we go along. Thankyou everyone for your prayers and support and thankyou again Margaret for doing this for us. Some pictures are a little dark, it is amazing how different they look when printed out to when they are on the screen, oh well, at least they are there. Joan has been here for the day and it has been lovely to see her again. We are all looking forward to her spending more time with us over our retreat and doing her aspirancy. Please keep her in your prayers as she discerns her way forward.

pictures from sisters clothing

just click on the picutres to enlange.

Miraculous picture!

Amazingly we logged on this morning to find this wonderful picture of Sr Mary Magdalen. We have no idea how it got there as we didn’t put it on. We have been trying for weeks to do this with no luck, we think a kind friend may have done it for us or perhaps you are all praying very hard. Keep praying we want more!

Patron Saint of the Internet

Dear friends

Can anyone tell us who the patron saint of the internet is. I am sure there must be one and we feel  that he or she might  be a great help to us.

 Thanks  Sister Mary Magdalen

Teresa’s clothing

Yesterday on the Feast of the Assumtion I was clothed in the Benedictine habit and received a new name. From now on I shall be called Sister Mary Magdalen.

I received many beautiful cards and present, kind wishes and prayers. The local parish has shown great interest and gave me a beautiful pink rose bush called the Mary rose. I am still deciding where I shall plant it.

We took many pictures and are still working on getting them onto the blog. A kind friend has sent us some software to help but we still have a lot to learn. So please pray that we will be successfull.

It was a very joyous occasion  for the whole community and we had home-made cream doughnuts in the afternoon to celebrate.

I look rather conspicuous in my white veil.  I caught sight of my reflection downstairs this morning in the glass section of a door and wondered who it was for a moment!

Now everything goes back to normal and the usual tasks have to be performed. At the top of our list at the moment is the picking and preserving of fruit as everything in the garden is rapidly ripening.

from Sister Mary Magdalen

Secular Carmelites.

Last week we had a  lovely group of secular Carmelites staying with us for a few days. They joined us for office each day and it was great to have them praying with us. We hope they had a peaceful and fruitful time and that we see them again before too long.

Thanks.

Thanks for all your lovely comments and prayers, please keep them coming. We are glad you like the photo’s, and have lots more to put on site, they will appear when we have mastered ( or at least tried to )  the technique of actually getting them on.