‘My brothers, I urge you, please, by the Lord and his gentleness, to live gently and peaceably; and to allow the authorities to do their job in peace. They will have to give an account of themselves to God and to their superiors. Whenever you need to make some request, do so peaceably and respectfully. Don’t get involved with wrongdoers, or with people who turn violent in an extreme and tragic way. Don’t be eager to be involved in such things, or even in watching them. As far as you can, each of you in his own household and his own neighbourhood, whenever you are with anyone connected to you by ties of duty or love, warn them, persuade them, teach them, rebuke them’ (St Augustine, Sermon 302 on the feast of St Lawrence, preached after rioting in Hippo)
July - August 2011 News
The Community has been as busy
as ever,
although many of the Sisters have been able to take some holiday during
this
period. One shared highlight has been the film Of Gods
and Men, which we watched with great attention (most of us
more than once) and then discussed together. We would thoroughly
recommend it
to anyone interested in community life, inter-faith relations or the
true
meaning of the Christian faith.
We
have been very pleased to have Sr Céline, who is from a
community in China,
with us for a month. On her final evening she showed us pictures and
videos of
her Church and Community, which impressed us greatly with the
liveliness of the
liturgy and the deep social and religious commitment of the Christian
people in
China, where professing the faith is far from easy.
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On 1st August, Sr Anne, Sr Elizabeth, Sr Margaret, Sr Josephine, Sr Silvana and Florence had a day out visiting our two Liverpool houses, Ince Blundell and Park House. It was very interesting to be able to spend time with the two communities and see the work they do, and we are very grateful to them for their kind hospitality.
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On 5th June Sr Ildikó
and Sr Anne attended
the final profession of Sr Johanna at Hyning Hall, and on 16th July Sr
Margaret
went to Mount St Bernard for the ordination of Fr Erik Varden. We
congratulate
Sr Johanna and Fr Erik and thank their communities for their
hospitality. Sr
Margaret was also able to attend a conference in honour of her Ph.D.
supervisor
in Cambridge in early June. On the
22nd July, Sr Anne had the joy of being present at the
celebrations for the 60th Ordination anniversary of Fr David Milburn of
the
Hexham and Newcastle Diocese.
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| Sr Margaret in Cambridge |
Sr Anne with Mary Woodley |
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| Fr
Milburn
cutting
his
cake |
The Guest House has been busy
as usual at
this time of year. Among the guests were a group of college friends
enjoying
their annual reunion, which included Marie Lennox, an old friend of
Boarbank.
Our usual and very long-standing group of families came in the first
week of
August - their next generation began working at Boarbank, when Maddy
came for a
week’s work experience in Marymount. After saying goodbye to Hanna from
Germany, we picked up the French connection in the Guest House, with
Simon
Pierre and Anne-Gaëlle (the niece of one of our French Sisters, Sr
Jean Therese
of Thibermont). We are very grateful to our young Europeans for their
cheerful
dedication, and delighted by the progress they made in English (and in
one case
also in tennis!).
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| Hanna |
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| Simon Pierre and Anne-Gaëlle |
After a year and a half with us
in
Marymount, Sr Georgina has been able to return to her own Salesian
community at
Brettargh Holt. We were very pleased indeed that she has made such
progress,
and very grateful also for the time she spent with us. It was nice that
she was
able to return for a week’s holiday after not too long a gap to stop
everyone
missing her too much!
On 2nd June Grange Art Society
used the
grounds as inspiration for some of their work- we hope to see some
pieces
exhibited at the autumn exhibition in the Victoria Hall.
A Marymount Music Night on 7th
July on the
theme celebrating woodwind was attended by a roomful of patients and
guests.
Several of the Sisters have also enjoyed kind invitations to concerts
in
Grange. Two were part of the Grange Music Society’s regular programme:
on 8th
July the violinist Mathieu van Bellen and the pianist Omri Epstein gave
a
delightfully varied programme with great power and versatility, while
5th
August the young pianist Lara Melda, a winner of the BBC Young Musician
of the
Year, impressed especially with her interpretations of Rachmaninov,
Lizst and Chopin; on 4th August,
by the young Castalian Quartet treated us to Haydn, Britten and
Mendelssohn as
part of the Lake District Summer Music Festival. We were all very
grateful for
these musical feasts.
On 5th July a large group of
pupils from St
Mary’s School, Leyland came to visit and entertained the
Sisters,
guests
and
patients. Thanks to
them for their enthusiasm and talents freely shared.
On
Saturday
cars
and
floats from Allithwaite
Carnival drove through the grounds for us to enjoy. We
were
delighted
to
have this custom revived
after a few years’ absence - thanks to all who enabled this to happen
- children,
parents, organizers and drivers.
On 6th July Bishop Michael gave
a conference
on the New Missal to help us to understand the purpose of the changes
in
translation. We have recently begun to use the new translation, and are
still
tripping over our tongues, but making some progress!
On 5th and 6th July Sr Margaret
spoke to
Diocesan education conferences in Garstang and at the Rheged Centre, as
part of
the Diocese’s exploration of the question of Academy Schools.
The first of our Freedom and Hope weeks for all those working with and for prisoners took place on 6th-11th June. A very dedicated group of participants, mostly prison chaplains, joined us for prayer, reflection and relaxation. We very much hope to build on this event in future years, and would particularly like to involve a wider group of people who are engaged with prisoners, whether professionally or through voluntary support of any kind. If you know anyone who might be interested, please do encourage them to get in touch.
This was the seventh year that Thinking Faith has taken place and it goes from strength to strength! The Guest House was full from 23rd-29th July with a group of very committed Catholic students and young professionals, mostly in their late twenties or thirties, as well as our regular organisers. We quickly developed a community spirit, forged initially by walking across Morecambe Bay together, in lovely weather, which was just as well as the water was both deep and wide! The theme of the week was ‘faith and doubt’, which ranged over our usual variety of topics, from astrophysics to medieval poetry. For a fuller account, see the Thinking Faith page. |
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Fr Bede Moore, who had spent
his last few
months with us in Marymount, died on 14th June very shortly after a
visit to
Lourdes. Fr Bede, a monk of Belmont Abbey, had for many years been a
much loved
parish priest in Coniston and in Harrington, near his home town of
Workington
and was a faithful friend of the Community over many, many years. Two
of the
Sisters were able to attend his funeral Mass in Harrington.
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths, Monk of Ampleforth and former Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle also died on 14th June and two of the Sisters were able to attend the funeral Mass in St Mary’s, Leyland. May they rest in peace.
Future Events
We shall be celebrating the
Feast of St
Augustine on Sunday 28th August, with Sunday Mass at the usual time.
All are
most welcome to join us in honouring our patron saint.
We are still taking bookings for the Health and Salvation week on Ethical Dilemmas from 14th-19th November (for more see the Events page.} For more information or bookings, please contact Sr Margaret@Boarbank
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February 2011
January 2011
November / December 2010
July / August / September 2010
December 2008