2003 November Newsletter
TIDINGS of TY MAM DUW 2003
Once again the year, which began as a blank book of 365 pages, is coming to its final chapter, its history traced by the finger of God, with designs in light or darkness, according to the world’s and our own response to His loving plan. So ‘Tidings’ time is here, a welcome occasion to send our loving greetings to our friends far and wide, to all the members of our ‘extended family’ who have shared their joys and sorrows with us in the last twelve months and supported us in so many ways.
By right our annual account needs to begin in November 2002, shortly after the last ‘Tidings’ went to press. In that month we were visited by a couple working in Central Asia, who spoke very movingly of the Christian witness they and their family are trying to share with the people among whom they are living, not an easy commitment at a time of world tension with war clouds looming over Iraq.
Advent activities
Our Advent Carol service was as always well attended. The Annunciation was acted out, with Sr Yolanda taking the part of the Angel Gabriel. She had impressive floor-to-ceiling wings of white muslin sweeping upwards. Several strands of small white fairy lights had been attached to her pinions, and she had to move slowly and gracefully so as not to become embroiled with the electric flexes or tangle the overhead linen threads suspending the wings. The effect was extremely lovely. A number of the scripture passages were illustrated by slides of delicately tinted paintings by Sr Elizabeth on the birth of Our Lord and the coming of the shepherds and wise men to adore him. The Magnificat was danced as were several of the songs. The whole service was much appreciated, especially by several people who told us that they had not heard the Nativity story since they were children.
At the beginning of Advent, we each draw at random the name of another Sister to be our ‘star partner’ for the season. The idea is that we pray each day especially for her, try to give her an extra helping hand where possible, and perhaps decorate her cell door or workplace with pictures or Advent quotations - all without revealing who we are! We also make a small present for our ‘star partner’ and leave it by her refectory place on Christmas Day. Much fun ensues in unwrapping the gifts at dinner and trying to discover the identity of the giver! Advent also brings with it the feast of St Barbara on 4 December, on which day we are given our ‘Barbara branches’ - twigs cut from trees such as forsythia, chestnut and willow, which with the addition of a little warm water each day, can be coaxed into leaf and sometimes into flower by Christmas, at a time when the outdoors world is bleak and bare.
We had a wide variety of Advent sharings and reflections, as part of our own spiritual preparation for Christmas. One enriching event was a Vespers sharing, incorporating psalms of thanksgiving sung at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, and prepared by Sr Juliana and Sr Elizabeth. They had put their heads together, and found all the information they could on the subject by reading the scriptural accounts of its building, and commentaries on the relevant passages. The result was a very impressive scale model, with a lift-off roof, which showed the Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant within it. They had fired the great laver, and its twelve bronze oxen, from clay and gilded it. (The original is said to have held 10,000 gallons of water for the priests’ ritual ablutions). They also slotted in scale models of the great standing pillars by the Temple doors, as well as the three storeys of rooms for the priests, which were built on the supporting buttresses. The resulting impressive structure had pride of place on display in the cloister for the rest of Advent.
Christmas creativity
Then there was the usual teeming artistic chaos in the making of cribs, which fill the house with extra light and colour during Christmastide Sr Damian and Sr Agatha had created a ‘herbal crib’, forming figures from strips of colourful wool with the help of weaving sticks. In their enthusiasm they had lugged indoors a number of cross-sections of a large silver birch that had been felled recently, and these provided a natural setting. One of the branches was made into a tree by the crib and adorned with stars and lights (and herbal tea-bags!).
The refectory crib, made by Sr Beatrix and Sr Pia was ingeniously created using dried flowers and leaves as the main medium. These had been assembled to form a collage of the nativity, which covered one entire end wall. The figures of a three-dimensional crib scene were also adorned with dried flowers, and the Christ child was shown lying in the heart of a rose, a traditional symbol of Our Lady.
A crib in the cloister courtyard comprised large home-made pottery figures. Old CD-Roms, which had been given in, hung from the clematis trellis, flashing multicoloured lights in all directions as they swung in the wind and caught the sunlight. Dear Mother and Sr Joanna had also constructed a large ‘children’s crib’ in the cloister, with the Child Jesus happily adrift in a boat in a paddle-pool filled with genuine water and surrounded by bright lights and colourful toys.
Another cloister crib, made by two of our Tolkien fans included several hobbits in its nativity scene and more than a score of angels. We had all enjoyed the video of the first part of the film, and though it was not till September that we were able to see ‘The Two Towers’, it was well worth waiting for! Sr Ruth, who is from New Zealand, and hails it as “God’s own country” is especially delighted that it should have been chosen as the setting for ‘Middle Earth’. You would almost think she was personally responsible for the beauty of the scenery! The crib had a poster with a quote from Henry Vaughan, “I saw Eternity the other night as a great ring of pure and endless light” and featured Christ as the Light of the World, and the Lord of the greatest Ring of them all.
Our Christmas Vigil was on the theme of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. The Visitation was mimed in Oriental fashion to a background of Eastern music, and during the account of the Nativity Dear Mother came forward with the Bambino and placed him in the manger in front of the altar. There was a sung version of the Litany of Loreto, and indeed the rosary prayers were largely sung to tunes we had written over the years. Then followed the midnight mass celebrated by Fr Peter Fleetwood. At the end of the mass he gave a rosary, blessed by Pope John Paul and received from him the week before at a private audience, to the only one among us who has a December birthday. She was thrilled at such an unexpected and timely gift!
Christmas ‘coffee days’
Recreational activities during our three weeks of Christmas took many forms - from working together on several large and very lovely jigsaws given by friends, to listening to audiocassettes of Anthony Trollope’s ‘Barchester’ books and watching a DVD of Bach’s ‘Brandenburg Concerto, which showed pictures of the Emperor Friedrich’s 18th century palace of ‘Sans Souci’ built to rival Versailles. We were also invited to take part in two quizzes, one based on Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ and the other on general Catholic knowledge - both with prizes for all entrants.
Early January brought us a fascinating two days under the direction of Sr Juliana and Sr Yolanda in visiting the land of Canaan in the time of Joshua. They really brought the book of Joshua - one of the less read parts of holy scripture - vividly alive for us. Talks by our two honorary ‘scripture professors’ unravelled some of the complex questions surrounding the date in which the Israelites’ invasion of the land promised to them by God actually took place. They also furnished additional background on the Egyptian society in which Joshua would have grown up in the days before the Exodus, and on the life of the people during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the dramatic experience of the Lord at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Law which was to shape their future as
God’s covenant people.
We learned several songs taken from texts of the book of Joshua, and a line-dance with flags to the words of ‘A hand on the banner of the Lord.’ Dinner was such as befitted the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, and refreshments of figs and dates and raisin cakes were handed round at regular intervals in the course of the day. We spent several hours on a fascinating board game devised by our Sisters. They had made exquisite little pottery figures of Israelites, which we moved along a series of squares, landing on texts recalling specific incidents in the Israelite conquest of Canaan, which brought either blessings or curses. Each of us had a small map of Canaan, with places marked with dots, on which from time to time we were required to fill in place names for areas allotted to particular tribes, cities of refuge, or towns involved in the warfare - their names were readily available from a large map our Sisters had drawn for the purpose. By the time the day was over we all had the position of Ai and Gibeon - and of course Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down - inscribed on our hearts. Some questions involved drawing lots in the form of coloured marbles denoting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ - on the Urim or Thummin principle - from an embroidered cloth bag. At the end of the game, on the second day, when we all reached the finishing post, the Sister with the most blessings left, after balancing blessings against curses, was declared the winner .
On the second evening we had a special Vespers to commemorate our activities. It began with a small brazier burning on the steps of the antechoir, into which we were required to cast our curses, together with a pinch of incense, and so relieve ourselves of any such spiritual encumbrances before entering the Promised Land. This was situated in the choir, where the map was laid on the floor, with a length of blue muslin denoting the River Jordan, over which we crossed. We each lit votive lights from a large candle which Sr Damian had carried at the head of our procession into choir, and these lights were placed in a heart-shape around the map of the Promised Land. We then each read one of the prayers or promises of God to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as recorded in the Book of Genesis, which would have formed part of the Israelites’ pre-Exodus spiritual heritage. The map was then placed on the altar, and we had a time of quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, praying above all that a new way might be opened for peace in the Holy Land. The sequence “A hand upon the banner of the Lord”, was danced with flags of the seven colours of the rainbow, which were then left at the foot of the altar, and the service concluded with the traditional Levitical blessing from Numbers 6:6. This was one which St Francis especially loved, and wrote out for Brother Leo when he was in deep distress.
On the feast of the Epiphany, we each dressed as characters from the Nativity account in the gospel and processed to the choir singing carols, blessing each of the main rooms of the monastery as we went, and taking with us all the cards and letters we had received at Christmas to lay at the manger. In the evening we went carol-singing, with the frost crunching underfoot, and the stars brilliant in a clear sky overhead.
We also spent a memorable ‘herbal day’ under the auspices of Sr Damian and Sr Agatha, our chief herbalists. They shared with us some of the insights and knowledge of herbal medicine and the medicinal qualities of various common plants, which they had gained during the past months of making herbal remedies. Later they treated us to an hilarious entertainment in the infirmary on the theme of two herbalist ‘quacks’ with glib tongues, out to make a fortune the quick way through the ‘gift of the gab’ and imaginative ‘treatments’ of doubtful value. In the evening we celebrated an informal ‘herbal Vespers’ in Ephesus, at the conclusion of which each of us was given a small bottle of ‘Our Lady’s Blessed Oil’ . This had been made by our Sisters from the basketful of home-grown herbs blessed during holy mass on the feast of the Assumption last August.
Our Christmastide grand finale was a party featuring a roll-call of saints A-Z - eccentric or imaginary, mythical and mystical. From St Augustine, followed by his faithful friend Alypius, taking down every pearl of wisdom from his mouth, to St Jerome, fulminating in a way utterly non-politically correct about the evil of women, and eventually exiting meekly to put out the cat at St Paula’s orders. There was also St Francis Borgia, who did much to redeem the bad name of the rest of his family, and St Teresa of Avila dancing with her castanets at recreation to amuse her Sisters. As well as St ‘I’ - the average person still on the slow upwards path to sanctity, and St Dyfrig, paddling out to Bardsey Island in a coracle, only to find a number of other Celtic saints waiting there in the hope of eventually being buried there with him. It was altogether a thoroughly enjoyable end to a very lovely Christmas.
In early spring our little wood was a place filled with gentle beauty with its carpet of snowdrops, and some weeks later the daffodils were fully in flower, and the bees could be seen leaving their hives in great numbers, and coming home with full pollen-bags. Our new dogs learned the hard way that it is most unwise to poke one’s nose into the entrance of a beehive! They tend to get excitable at the sight of anyone showing their hair or not wearing a habit, and later in the year took some time to get used to the newcomers in our midst. These they eventually accepted, though perhaps with a twinge of disappointment that our new Sisters were not burglars as they first supposed! Millie has lengthened into her full size as a dachshund, and Dollie has grown upwards, very leggy and bouncy, full of high spirits, with a lovable disposition. Very much like ‘Tigger’ in ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’, she tends to rush around in the garden in a dozen directions at once, investigating every molehill, elusive squirrel-scent, and anything that moves. We can well believe the scientist, specialising in tools of surveillance against terrorism, who admitted that his crew had not yet come up with anything half as effective as a dog’s nose! (A trained dog can reliably detect the slightest trace of a specific chemical - sometimes from a distance of many feet - even if the scent is masked by other pungent odours). Millie tends to proceed at a more leisurely pace, though she can achieve an impressive speed on her short legs in pursuit of a squirrel. But what she really likes is extra fuss. She is generally only too glad on occasions to be given a ride in the capacious pocket of Sr Coletta’s garden apron, from which vantage point she is mistress of all she surveys!
Springtime
Our last ‘festal fling’ before Lent was a day spent with ‘The Lord of the Rings”. A friend in New Zealand had sent us an enthralling book about the making of the film. We felt that it was very much like the creative chaos of our crib-making, but on a much vaster scale - with people being challenged to make unusual objects out of the most unlikely materials! Sr Joanna gave us a fascinating and enjoyable epidiascope presentation, based on the pictures and text of the book. She had also cooked food for dinner, worthy of Bilbo’s party, comprising “Rosie Cotton’s jam-tarts’ and ‘Farmer Maggot’s mushrooms’ etc. which we enjoyed as we watched “The Fellowship of the Ring” again, this time even more aware of the immense creativity and enthusiasm that had gone into the making of it.
Lent
In February we had spent a prayer morning with Exposition, in solidarity with the various rallies in many places throughout the world protesting at the possibility of war on Iraq, a morally questionable undertaking, involving a country in which half the population is under 15. Once war had broken out, we had the Veneration of the Cross every day for all caught up in it, and continue to add an extra prayer for those who have died through violence to our daily Office for the Dead.
In late March we heard of the death at the age of 92 of our old friend Archbishop Bruno Heim, the former papal Pro-Nuncio in Britain. For some years in his younger days he had been a secretary to the future Pope John XXIII. He had been instrumental in bringing about the renewal of Poor Clare life in our community in 1982. Another loss to God’s people on earth was the death in September of Fr Raymond Brennan, who had founded the Pattaya Orphanage in Thailand. We still receive regular updates on Wasan and Jiranat, the two children there whom we are sponsoring.
Holy Week
In preparation for Holy Week we had a special Passiontide Vespers arranged by Sr Juliana and Sr Yolanda in front of the big crucifix in the cloister. It centred round Christ’s crown of thorns, and began with a sung ‘Kyrie’ followed by a number of scriptural references to thorns, beginning with the passage in Genesis where they are seen as resulting from the Fall and man’s first sin of disobedience to God’s loving will. Later we each in turn adored our crucified Lord. Taking a flower and placing it within a crown of thorns, such as we each receive at our solemn profession, we asked that through our love we may plant flowers among the thorns of the world.
On Sunday, Monday and Wednesday of Holy Week, we followed an EWTN video of the very moving Way of the Cross enacted by young people in the streets of Toronto last year as part of World Youth Day. The setting of the paschal tableau this year was by the waters of Babylon, so linking it with the tragic drama unfolding these days in Iraq with the new Gulf War and its aftermath. Sr Juliana had curved the edges of two large sheets of lead and filled them with water to make pools, representing the Tigris and Euphrates, the two great rivers of Mesopotamia (which means “the land between the rivers”). We later discovered that the greenery in it, collected from our pond in the little wood, contained 3 tadpoles! Fortunately they did not change into frogs during their days indoors in our choir! The cross was formed from a sturdy curved branch of a cypress from our garden. At its foot lay a large crimson rose, made of material and lit from within, symbolising the blood of those caught up in the suffering and conflict, and also the redeeming love of Christ.
With the weather being so fine, we were able to make the Way of the Cross outdoors on Good Friday morning. Individual Sisters shared reflections on each of the events which comprised Our Lord’s path of suffering love carrying his cross to Calvary. We prayed that our own lesser sufferings, and those of the whole world, united with his, would also become in God’s plan, channels of redeeming love.
At the end of the day, when we commemorate the laying of Christ in his tomb, the crimson rose became the sepulchre for the chrysalis-like wrapped and shrouded figure of Our Lord.
Easter Vigil
Butterflies were definitely in this year as a symbol of the resurrection! There were a number on the large Easter candle, the lighting of which begins the long Vigil service, and later, to set the stage for the gospel of the resurrection, a large painted butterfly emerged from the chrysalis-like shroud in the sepulchre and flew heavenward, while several fluttered slowly down from the oratory at the back of our choir, picked out in the darkness by shimmering torches.
The story of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea in their escape from slavery in Egypt, was brought to life, with clever use of both slides and an ancient film strip projector, which gave the appearance of the movement of the fleeing people between gigantic poised waves. The reading from Isaiah Ch. 42 “Come to the waters, all who are thirsty” was sung by Sr Lucia to a very lovely Greek tune, and expressed by Sr Amata in dance.
After the vigil we remained in choir with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament till 3.15 am when we gathered for Easter breakfast in Ephesus, beginning by cracking dyed hard-boiled eggs one against the other, in a sort of paschal version of conkers, a custom in the Orthodox Church.
Our TMD garden
In April we had had a row of trees felled on a strip of land belonging to our property just beyond the enclosure wall. We have now had it properly fenced in, and are planning to plant gorse and suchlike to deter such of the local youth who used to climb the trees and perch on the enclosure wall at that point. We now have a wonderful view over the valley sloping down to Hawarden village with Chester and its environs in the distance.
Throughout May we were busy on and off in the garden, weather permitting, erecting our big netting cage over the entire vegetable patch to deter the ever voracious pigeons. We seem to spend more time and energy putting up overhead wires for support and stitching together the lengths of plastic netting, than in digging over the ground and sowing or planting out seedlings! However it is well worth the effort when harvest time comes, to know that much of it has not gone to feed the birds of the air!
And 2003 will be remembered as the year when we had a real summer, even by the most exacting standards! One day in the August heatwave, this area was recorded with the highest temperature in what was then a very hot Britain! We even thoughtfully made the dogs a paddling pool out of a large plastic tray to keep them from getting too hot in their long black coats! They have had to be confined to their spacious run on days when there have been workmen here, and yelps of frustration have generally heralded the appearance of a nonchalant neighbourhood cat nearby. One day we even spotted a wild rabbit which had discovered a loophole in our enclosure fence, and literally found itself in clover! Eventually we stopped the gap before it invited the rest of its tribe to found a Ty Mam Duw warren!
“Songs of Praise”
At the end of March we were visited by a BBC television crew, taking some shots of the community and the monastery for a programme in the ‘Songs of Praise’ series. They were so charmed by the daffodils in the garden, that they used them (minus nuns!) as a background for the opening sequence of another ‘Songs of Praise’ shown on Mother’s Day! The programme made here was shown in early June. We were inundated with e-mails the next day from friends and well-wishers, all very appreciative of it, and similar letters continued to arrive by ‘snail-mail’ during the following week. It is a joy to know it has touched so many hearts and given people renewed hope and faith in God’s loving care for us all, despite the muddle the human race continues to make of the world He has given us.
Ven. Margaret Sinclair
In mid-June we again had a TV crew with us, this time from Edinburgh, to make a film for the ‘Eikon’ series about Margaret Sinclair (Ven. Sr Mary Francis of the Five Wounds), who entered the Poor Clare monastery at Notting Hill as an extern in the 1920’s, and died of TB when still a young professed Sister. There is a long-standing tradition of devotion to her, especially in Scotland, where she won the hearts of all who knew her in life by the love of God she radiated as an ordinary working girl despite the hardship of her surroundings, and the hope she brought to others in similar situations. At the time of his visit to Scotland in 1982 Pope John Paul II spoke warmly of her and of his hopes that she would eventually be recognised as a saint of our days. In October one of Cardinal O’Brien’s first public engagements was presiding at the ceremony to mark the transfer of her mortal remains to St Patrick’s Church, where she so often worshipped as a girl. A great-nephew of Margaret Sinclair wrote to us, saying how much he had appreciated the ‘Eikon’ production. It had included a brief recorded memory of her by Sr Pacifica, an old Sister of ours who died a few years ago, and had been her contemporary in the noviciate. (In fact she had received the Poor Clare habit at the same ceremony at which Sr Mary Francis made her first vows.) The programme also showed shots of our Poor Clare life today. We were amused at a couple that had been reproduced in sepia and the film speeded up, to make it look like an old film set in the times of Sr Mary Francis!
Fruit for the future
In July we spent a strenuous but highly satisfying two days hard at it digging up 200 old blackcurrant bushes, which had developed surprisingly tough and tenacious roots in the last 15 years . We stripped such fruit as they had still managed to produce, and together with the first fruit on several hundred new bushes planted elsewhere in the garden, we were able to make a reasonable quantity of delicious jam. Next year the newer ones should be well established and we hope for a good crop.
A new look to our sanctuary
Shortly before she went into retreat for her solemn profession early in August, Sr Yolanda together with Sr Juliana completed a large hangdown in silk painting for the sanctuary, based on the San Damiano crucifix. It has now replaced the tapestry one, made for the blessing of our new chapel in 1986, but which had become affected by candle smoke and suchlike and faded somewhat over the years. The new design shows Sts Francis, Clare and Colette, embracing the feet of the crucified and risen Lord, with a group of Poor Clares gazing upwards in the small bottom panel. As in the tapestry version, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove enfolds the figure of Christ in its flame-tinted pinions. The shrines of the Portiuncula, Schoenstatt and our own house of Ty Mam Duw are depicted on the side of the cross, next to Mary and John, and the hand of the Father reaching down in welcome to the ascending Christ is given greater emphasis.
Sr Yolanda’s solemn profession
Our ‘Sr Bride’ as she was known in the weeks leading up to her final vows, had a rather penitential retreat, as she was laid low by a virus for much of the week, and in no condition to sit out peacefully in the garden, and fulfil the other plans she had made for that time. Not that there was much sunshine. The skies turned grey, and the rains came down. However, by the end of the week Sr Yolanda was on her feet again and all set for her great day, which dawned with resplendent sunshine. Her former parish priest, Fr Francis Press was the chief celebrant at the mass. He preached a very lovely sermon on the theme of hands raised in prayer, and used in service, and on the words ‘Behold, hold, enfold’ which express the riches of St Clare’s spirituality. Sister then prostrated before the altar, in a gesture of self-offering, while we sang a shortened form of the Franciscan Litany of the Saints She then made her vows in Dear Mother’s hands, receiving the ring of espousal to Christ. Afterwards the crown of flowers she had been wearing was exchanged for a crown of entwined thorns, still studded with a few flowers in token of the resurrection blessings yet to come from her Lord after sharing in His sufferings. Then several Sisters expressed in dance the song, “I will never be the same again” in celebration of her definitive commitment to the gospel form of life as envisaged by Saints Francis and Clare.
Our celebrations within the community continued for a few days. We gathered one morning for coffee with our new Bride while she opened the various little presents we had made her. We were delighted to find there were also surprise presents for us in the form of small home-made hardback copies of the collected writings of St Clare, charmingly illustrated by Sr Elizabeth with pastel cartoons.
Harvest time
In harvest time we rejoiced in the gathering in of our French beans, brassica and mammoth onions, all of which help us provide for the groups that come for day retreats. We are also very grateful to the local churches and schools which brought us varied produce from their own Harvest Festivals.
Our beekeepers accomplished the tricky task of moving our three hives to a new site on the former blackcurrant patch. In the past 10 years the trees where they used to be had grown so much that they no longer got much sunshine. As a rule, hives can only be moved three feet or three miles - anything in between tends to confuse the bees. Though a number of bees flew back to their old site, they had basically returned to their respective communities by the next evening. Rainy weather which had set in also discouraged them from venturing outdoors as much as usual. We are hoping next year to establish a camomile lawn around the beehives, as well as lavender plants. Our herbalists were delighted this year in managing to distil some rose oil for use in various herbal preparations, and also produced some rose honey, which proved as delicious as its name suggests.
Golden Jubilee
In late September we had the joyful privilege of hosting a family celebration for the golden jubilee of ordination of Archbishop Ward. About 60 people were present, mostly his relatives and close friends. He himself was the main celebrant, with Bishop Roche, the new auxiliary in Leeds, and several priests of our Wrexham diocese concelebrating. Later we had a special Vespers for the occasion in honour of Our Lady, Queen of the Seraphic Order. It was composed of appropriate psalms and readings and a mimed sequence ending with a tableau of Our Lady crushing the serpent’s head beneath her foot and surrounded by angels holding votive lights.
Autumn Pilgrimage
Our dear Marianne had the joy that week of a pilgrimage with a friend to Rome, Loreto, San Giovanni Rotondo and Assisi. Assisi was the highlight. Although the Holy Father was not well and the general audience they had been going to attend was cancelled, they were fortunate to be within a few feet of him at Castel Gandolfo, when he was being helped into a car to return to Rome. We were glad to learn from Zenit, the Vatican web-site, that reports of our dear Holy Father’s imminent demise were grossly exaggerated, and by means of EWTN were able to share in the joy of his silver Papal jubilee and the beatification of his dear friend, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Internet apostolate
It must be admitted that modern technology can be a source of great blessings, as we have experienced through the e-mail, which every day brings us prayer intentions from people throughout the world in great need of healing for themselves and those they love. Our number of ‘Clare-sharers’ (people who wish to share in some way in their own homes in our daily round of prayer and praise, and who receive regular news of our community) continues to grow. Through the internet we are also able to gather news of the Church, and of events throughout the world which call for prayer.
And now, as 2003 comes to an end, with all its darkness and light, we once again would like to say a heartfelt ‘God reward you’ to all who have helped us so much in the past year - by bringing us jam-jars, spare wool or material, old candles, wood offcuts and other articles for recycling, as well as jumble to sell - and to those who helped to make our Autumn Fair such a success. As well as to the many round the world who have kept us in their prayers, or had holy mass offered for our community. You will be pleased to hear that our three newcomers are settling in well. They are all blessed with a bump of humour, which goes a long way in adapting to our Poor Clare life at Ty Mam Duw! And now they are looking forward to their first Christmas as members of our family.
And you can be sure that we are enfolding you all in our hearts, particularly those for whom it will be the first Christmas since the loss of a loved one. May the Lord be with each and every one of you at this turning of the year to strengthen, guide and uphold you, and may you be with him, day by day, now and in the coming year.
With loving prayers,
from
your Poor Clare Sisters at Ty Mam Duw
People sometimes ask: what can I do to help you sisters? Well - there is something and anyone can do it - share with others about our way of life!
In a world of darkness, we try to live the mystery of light.
In a world of suspicion we try to witness to our trust in God by a life of poverty, obedience, and enclosure.
And in a culture of death, we want to be a culture of life.
If people want to know more, you can always recommend them to our website:
http://www.poorclarestmd.org
and if you would like to share in our life by praying for the needs of the world we also have a bi-monthly online newsletter called Clareshare which passes on special prayer intentions and some news of our community