‘I know that she always acted with generosity and forgave from her heart the debts of her debtors. Will you also forgive her her sins, if in the many years of her life after baptism she did anything wrong? .... Mercy triumphs over judgement: your words are truth and you have promised mercy to those who show mercy to others; it is your gift that they have shown mercy and thus you will be merciful to those to whom you have shown mercy; you will have pity on those to whom you have shown pity. I believe that you had already granted this before I asked, but accept, Lord, my prayer of thanks.’ (St Augustine, on the death of his mother, Confessions 9.13)
Sr Imelda Gorman RIP
April - May 2011 News
Amid the sadness, this has also
been a time
of new beginnings for the Community. We were delighted to welcome
Florence Suimin
as a postulant and Sr Josephine to begin time with us with a view to
possible permanent transfer from
her Community of Poor Clare Sisters. Florence is originally from
Malaysia, and
has worked as a nurse in Newcastle for some years. Sr Josephine came
from
Zambia to join the Poor Clares, originally in Darlington and then in
Woodchester, fourteen
years ago.
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| Sr Josephine and Florence |
Fr Dixie celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his priesthood on 27th May, with the Community, family and close friends. We offer him our congratulations - ad multos annos!
Sr Silvana began her novitiate on 31st May, the Feast of the Visitation of Our Lady.
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Our international dimension came into focus when Sr Anne Marie presented to the Community a lovely set of pictures taken during their recent visit to South Africa. The two Sisters also attended a Marymount Music Night on an international theme, at which the French, Zambian and Malaysian contingent joined in loudly with ‘My bonnie lies over the ocean’!
A joint meeting of the Councils
of the three
English houses reinforced also our extended Community links in this
country.
This was soon followed by the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the
founding of
our sister house at Ince Blundell - both Communities being founded by
Park House
which also later founded the Community in Shuwa, Nigeria, now an
autonomous
community too.The celebration was a great occasion which
four of our Sisters attended along with about 300 family and friends of
the
Sisters at Ince and the chief celebrant was Bishop Vincent Malone. He
was
joined by many of the priests who live at Ince. Congratulations to our
Sisters
for the wonderful work they have done and continue to do in caring
particularly
for sick and retired priests.
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We
offer our very warm thanks to Sr Marie Claude and Sr Anne Marie, and
our
prayers and good wishes especially at what will be a demanding time for
them,
as the Generalate will very soon move, with the whole Community, from
Bonneuil
to Morlaix.
On 24th May Sr Margaret spoke to a conference in Chester on ‘Animals as Medical Subjects’, focussing on the theme of compassion.
Once again, despite the efforts of the rain, the Annual Coffee Morning was a great success, with friends old and new joining us from near and far. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet up even briefly with so many lovely people. We especially enjoyed seeing the younger additions, including Ruby, Eliza, Maisie, Amaru, Bobby and Suniver. The total raised so far is over £12,000. A VERY BIG THANK YOU to all our very hard-working volunteers, to all those who gave things to sell, and to all who generously spent their money or gave donations. Thank you also to Fr Peter, Silvana and Sr Michael for the pictures. This event brings home even more than usual quite what a team event Boarbank is! We couldn’t do it without all those who help us before, during and after the event.
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Future Events
Our first Freedom and Hope week for all those who work with prisoners begins on 6th June. There are still a couple of places for any last-minute bookings! Thinking Faith, the week for Catholic students and young professionals in July, is pretty well full already this year, which we are very pleased about. We are still taking bookings for Thinking Scripture, from 10th-17th September, on the Psalms, and for the Health and Salvation week on Ethical Dilemmas from 14th-19th November (for more on both of these see the Events page. For more information or bookings, please contact Sr Margaret@Boarbank
Previous
News Pages
February 2011
January 2011
November / December 2010
July / August / September 2010
December 2008