Life at Colwich

PAX!

Hi, This is just a quick update of what we are doing today. It is the Feast of St. Scholastica the twin sister of St. Benedict and today (10th Feb) we have a day of prayer with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (or as its called nowadays Eucharistic Adoration), for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life in the Birmingham Diocese. Adoration lasts from after Mass till 5pm when we have Benediction.

 

 

Sorry if i’ve seemed to have been at a distance last week with answering comments etc but we’ve been busy moving furniture around, we’ve also had two groups one was Churches Together and there were 60 people. This was the climax of a week of Prayer for Christian Unity, as well as hosting this venue for Churches Together each year, they join us for midday office and we provide soup, coffee, tea and cake throughout the day, we also say a different prayer each day for the Octave after Vespers.  It is great that we are able to provide this space for people and its a great Apostolate. After all St. Benedict says ‘make hospitality your special care’.

I have now at long last been able to work out a program for our planned vocations week(s)……so are you ready to grab your coats, wellies and luggage and come and join us for a few days or a week ? If so this is what we have planned: time to pray the Divine Office with the community, a time of private prayer, a period of study together and discussion about the Holy Rule of Benedict, various talks on vocation to religious life, community life, our history, variety of different work – cooking, gardening, arts and crafts, jam making and not to forget of course cleaning – boring i know – well it is going to be spring after all ( hopefully) and it is all for the Lord ! …. and also there will be time to have fun……… At the moment we have the snow drops just starting to come out and that is the first sign. We are also speculating if the ducks will be back to see us on their annual visit this spring, the pond is ready and waiting their arrival!

Please let us know a.s.a.p if you wish to attend – there has been one enquiry so far. And if you’d like sometime in the near future i will try and write about my vocation i’d be grateful if you’d  let me know if you would like to hear about it……….

sr. d

New Beginnings

PAX!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for any unusual things that may be happening but i’m trying to find things out but don’t think i’m having much luck – still keep ploding on and i’ll find them. So, sorry if i’ve not relied to emails or comments, i’m clicking on buttons to see what happens! By the way ‘what is a Tag and how do i get these?’

New Beginnings – well its a new year to start with, and also there are a few changes like i’m trying to do this, but also a more significant change is that we are all busy bodies at the mo trying to do some spring cleaning in one of the guest houses as we are expecting a new chaplain. Yes, unfortunately we have to say ‘Goodbye’ to Fr. Edward who has been our chaplain for the last 15years and we thank him for what he has done for us and wish him well as he returns to his monastery. Change can be awkward sometimes but neccessary and we will welcome Fr. Luke at the weekend and look forward to him guiding us towards the Lord. So yes, we’re busy like bees and its fun as a few of us have worked together to get the house ready. It’s great to do this and not having a house of my own before i entered its been fun to try and arrange the furniture and making sure the neccessary provisions are available.

Chelsea Dog wanted to lend a hand but a line had to be drawn somewhere - she would have been good with the polishing because her tail never stops wagging but the things she would scatter around is unbelievable. Naturally the photo is chelsea taken last summer.

God bless you all, sr. davinax

Vocations Week!

Hello,

‘Jesus’ invites us to ‘come follow me’, we need to put out into the deep and follow him,its not easy at times but each day he also says, ‘Do not be afraid’. Putting our faith and trust in Jesus and Mary and letting them guide us is allowing us to let go of ourselves, although we do not know in what direction we may be treading. Be ready for the unexpected – Do not be afraid to follow Jesus more closely!

   I know you will be wondering if we are still going to hold the Vocations Week(s) in March and you will be glad to hear that we are. Just to confirm the dates these will be March 7th – 15th or March 29th – April 5th and running into Holy Week which is optional. If you’d like to join us in prayer, work and study in the day to day life in a Benedictine Community then please let us know a.s.a.p. due to limited accomodation and which week you prefer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We look forward to meeting up with you on one of these weeks.

Sorry if i’m a bit slow in picking up this blog but there’s lots to find out and what’s what , what places to ‘click on and what not to click on’ all i ask is that you are patient with me and hopefully help me out if i need it. I’m a complete beginner and don’t find this easy!

Sr. Anne is in the same category please be patient with us both!

Happy New Year!

Hello again, its Sr. Davina here – Happy New Year everyone (if its not too late)! On 1st January it was my 17th anniversary of entrance - how time flies it only seems like yesterday. At the weekend we celebrated our Epiphany celebrations which meant that each member of the community had to ‘perform’ something, its like our own variety performance if you like to call it that, some read poetry, others did some music others still read comedy, and all went well even chelsea dog wanted a share of the action.

On a much sombre note, some of you may have heard of the recent plane crash in little haywood which happened on friday last week. Could i ask you to pray for the victims and their families. That incident very nearly happened in our enclosure, in fact it is only just over the enclosure wall, on the opposite side of the road next to the new houses. Our thoughts and prayers are with the relatives and we remembered them at our mass yesterday.        Thanks!

Well my studies are well underway  and i’ll have to get to it after the christmas break, i need to start thinking of my essay and i guess i’m going back to maryvale for the next study weekend alone!!!!!!!

Hello bloggers

I’m Sr Anne, you’ll have to put up with me from time to time in place of  Sr Marie-Therese who I know you will all be praying for as she follows her star to seek the Lord.

  ‘ may the Little Hand of Christ, bless your year; and the Great Heart of Christ, hold you near; and all blessed and happy things which the love of Jesus brings be upon you ’til another Yule is here’.

Goodbye and thanks.

Well bloggers, it’s the first day of the New Year and I pray that you will all have a very happy, healthy, prosperous and prayerful one.

This year could be the start of great new things for you and happy times. It is a time to walk forward into the future taking the best of the past with us and leaving the bad or not so good behind as a memory without carrying them as extra baggage on our journey.

I am about to walk into a new future very soon, one that never crossed my mind when I first began blogging with you and sharing some of my journey here and some of the life of this community. That’s because it is time for me to say goodbye. On Monday I am leaving this community as a novice and re entering at Tyburn in London.

This community is a wonderful one and I would really encourage some of you to come and see and get to know the sisters here. I care for the sisters very much and it is not easy to leave but after a lot of prayer and reflection I have decided that it is the right thing for me to do.

It is not this community that is wrong it is me. I realized that I wanted some things to change and that is not the right attitude. I feel called to a stricter, more austere life than is lived here. I am strong willed and I find it hard to give up that will without a lot of help and that is not the way here. Perhaps I am just not mature enough to be here, I don’t know. I am a child at heart and I hope I don’t lose that, but I do need to grow up to a certain extent and I don’t think I will here.  I find freedom in and grow with structure and rules and the ‘freedom’ that is here is too much, it just doesn’t work for me.

 I just want to give up more. I have loved blogging but deep inside I would like not to be able to go on line – it is too addictive and does distract me. Where I am going I won’t be able to go online, there are set times for writing letters and I will be enclosed in the city of London.

I would like to ask for your prayers as I don’t find it easy to be in the city – the dirt gives me hayfever – and I am not brave – so why am I joining a community dedicated to the martyrs? Only God knows that one. I will be on line here on Sunday until the afternoon so feel free to ask questions and if I can answer them I will.

This blog is going to carry on though I won’t be writing on it. Today and tomorrow I am showing Mother Anne ( novice mistress), Sr Davina ( zelatrix) and Sr Benedict ( does the main web site) how to work things here. I do hope that you will support them, encourage them and help them as much as you can. The good thing about having others is that you will see a different side to this community and hopefully some of you will come forward to find out more and perhaps enter. The vocations week(s) are still going on and will be an informative and fun time, especially if you come just before and over Holy Week.

So, as the cartoon says and I have said before – ‘that’s all folks’, goodbye, thanks a bunch and go with God. Please pray for me – from Monday I will be Adele again. It’s going to be difficult being bare headed even for a short time ( Tyburn postulants wear veils thankfully as my hair it like a tiolet brush right now), and I am going to miss the habit and loads of stuff. But I am walking boldly into the future with my hand in the hand of Christ. Walk boldly into yours too.

Sr Marie-Therese – aka Sr Adele.