All our dear Relatives, Friends, Benefactors and everyone else,
We are writing this in the second week of Advent in the hope that it might reach (at least) most of you before Christmas, and bring with it our loving greetings for a most blessed Christmas. We shall remember you all in our prayers over the Christmas season ( as we do all the year) and pray that our troubled world can begin, in 2012, to find its way forward into a more just and peaceful future. So we begin this letter with a picture of Our Lady standing in her Advent wreath because in the end, it is the Gift of Christ Jesus which she brought us that will be our path to peace.
We have a lot to share with you about our eighth year here in Hollington and have had to select highlights and leave out a huge amount as well! First of all, as many of you know, we are celebrating 800 anniversary of the beginning of the Poor Clare Order, when St Clare ran away on Palm Sunday night to join St Francis and his band of brothers. Since scholars are not sure if this happened in 1211 or 1212, we are celebrating from Palm Sunday last until Palm Sunday next! As part of this, our Federation organised a pilgrimage for Poor Clares to Assisi. In the event, we had sisters from the UK, USA, Ireland, Scotland and the Philippines. We visited every place connected with St Clare as well as the outstanding ‘Francis’ places, like La Verna where he received the stigmata. Everywhere we went, the friars were so welcoming and brotherly, giving us every treat in their power. The highlight for all of us was the day we spent at San Damiano, Clare’s own convent. We were welcomed to Mass before the tourists arrived, stayed on during the two hour lunch break when they were not there, and after they had gone in the evening, we had a healing service in the dormitory where Clare died. During the lunch break, the friars allowed us the unprecedented privilege of eating in Clare’s refectory. We talked about it together and agreed we wanted to do so in silence. Abbesses among us said grace before and after, and we sat eating our packed lunch, moved beyond words, expectant that any moment Clare would speak to us. In the sharing at the end of the day, many sisters told experiences that touched them deeply, and those who were there will never forget it. Back at the ranch, Sr Paul and Sr Marie V held the fort while Sr Clare Agnes and Sr Frances Teresa (who was part tour-guide) went to Italy. To make it easier for them, Miss P went into residential care for ten days where she charmed them into charging us half price and was very delighted to come home at the end.
During the year too, both Sr Paul and Sr Clare Agnes have had cataracts removed with fantastic results. Sr Paul is waiting for her second one, Sr CA is further on at the new glasses stage and is seeing well. Marie V and FT keep well and busy too, thank God.
On the ecumenical front, we have had a busy year too. Our contacts and friendship with the Servants With Jesus, have grown and we had a very helpful and happy meeting with them, and more to come. This is an Anglican group whose work and task is to pray for the people of East Sussex, so we are each engaged on the same task, which made it seem very right to seek ways of pooling our resources. We were also invited to the induction of our new local vicar, Luke Dean. Since the church is barely 100 yards away, we decided we would all accept and attended a very impr
essive ceremony in which Luke was taken to each area of the church and inducted into his task there. He even locked and unlocked the door and rang the church bells. The bishop gave an excellent homily and we were all made to feel most welcome. We did what we do for our own parish events and did not attend the social bit in the hall afterwards s this seems more fitting. Jane, the vicar’s wife was there with two delightful boys aged 4 and 6 (or so) who later made us a banana cake with chocolate chips in – the little boys favourite we suspect! They live just two doors down from us so are our new neighbours and we look forward to knowing them better.
When we came to this house (which belongs to the diocese) the front drive was not in tip top condition and by now it had become very unsafe with broken concrete and areas of mud. So after consulting neighbours who had done the same, we asked a local firm to redo it for us. We had no idea what a major moving of the earth it would entail, but the result is lovely, bricks in a pattern beautifully edged in black. It has transformed the front of the house and takes a good deal of living up to! It also has to be swept which was impossible with the old one, but looks so nice that it is worth it.
As always, something else then looked very tatty and next January we are going to have to get the patio redone along the back of the house. The young offenders doing their hours of community service had built it for us when we first came, and it has lasted very well, but now it is getting unsafe and it is obvious that something important underneath has sunk! The diocese (our landlords) agree that it is better to have it dealt with professionally than to do more amateur tinkering, and so this is what will happen. We will report next Christmas!
Space is running out, and we need room for a personal message! Also, to touch into the seriousness of Christmas, may we share a quotation from Richard Rohr ofm on Preparing for Christmas. He says
Jesus identified his own message with what he called the coming of the “reign of God” or the “kingdom of God,” whereas we have often settled for the sweet coming of a baby who asked little of us in terms of surrender, encounter, mutuality or any studying of the Scriptures or the actual teaching of Jesus. This is what I am inviting you to this Advent. But be forewarned: the Word of God confronts, converts, and consoles us—in that order. The suffering, injustice and devastation on this planet are too great now to settle for any infantile gospel or any infantile Jesus.
What a challenge to us all! In among the fairy lights and the family joy, let us pray for each other that we are ready for the Word when it becomes incarnate in our lives.
With love, grateful prayers and every Christmas blessing from
Srs Frances Teresa, Paul, Marie Veronica, Clare Agnes and Miss P.
