2005 October, Newsletter
Tidings from Ty Mam Duw 2005
With the nights beginning to draw in and November round the corner, it is ‘Tidings’ time again, always one of grace as we pause to reflect on the events here during the past year. Our loving greetings go out to all our friends far and near, as we compile this newsletter to share with you something of our own lives, as you have shared your own joys and sorrows with us. On the world scene there has indeed been much darkness with overwhelming natural disasters, and added to these the incidence in terrorism and violence, together with the sufferings of the poor and oppressed in so many countries. As Poor Clares, sisters in God’s great family from which no one is excluded, we have continued to enfold all these in our prayers - and especially too the many ordinary people who have become living channels of God’s love and mercy in these tragic situations. The Pattaya Orphanage in Thailand, which does wonderful work for abandoned and disabled children, somehow managed to take in a further 300 orphans in the wake of the tsunami, and we were glad to hear that Praew and Samyot, the two children we are sponsoring there, are doing well.
The theme of our 2004 Advent carol service was the coming of the three Magi with their gifts of gold, incense and myrrh - traditionally from somewhere near present-day Iraq. Into this was woven the legend of the fourth king, who discovered the face of Christ in the needy and despairing whom he helped on his way, though he himself never reached Bethlehem. The theme of the need to make a choice to use our own gifts of faith, hope and love to help others was stressed with slides of the Iraq conflict. These were combined with a moving background tape of testimonies of those caught up in it. These ranged from an Iraqi prisoner in Abu Gharib jail, to a young British soldier tormented by the death of a 12 year old boy whom he mistook for a suicide bomber, and ended with the witness of Margaret Hassan, the courageous relief worker abducted and -apparently - killed by extremists. Then came a meditation on the Eucharist, and on the Magi finding Jesus, the Bread of Life, at Bethlehem, ‘the house of bread’. Three Sisters with oriental head-dresses, carrying fans performed a star dance, and led the Magi, singing, to the tabernacle. There all expressed their worship in a simple song accompanied by sign-language.
In the days leading up to Christmas, we accompanied Our Lady on her journey to Bethlehem. Each evening we went in procession with coloured lanterns from one Sister’s cell to another, carrying a picture of Our Lady and her Child on a tray decorated with a cloth, flowers and a votive light.
The Sister receiving Our Lady had chosen the hymn or carol for the procession and stood by her cell door, ready to greet her with a prayer of welcome. It was heart-warming to fall asleep at night watching the reassuring flicker of the votive light with its rays reflected by the gleaming golden frame of the picture. This year we used a very lovely old icon, given by a friend. As we all longed to be blessed by Mary’s presence and that of her unborn Child, we started early enough in Advent for every Sister to have a turn!
Our shared Advent reflections took many forms, including a talk by Sr Joanna, based partly on Frank Sheed’s masterpiece “Theology and Sanity” and illustrated with epidiascope pictures.
Sr Pia translated a short Advent story, which she had discovered in a German magazine. (It was originally written by Agatha Christi of ‘Hercule Poirot’ fame!). Sr Elizabeth produced a brief outline of the dramatic and enigmatic Book of Revelation, illustrated with her own inimitable art.
This year we were given an exceptionally stately Christmas tree, to shelter the many-scened crib in the sanctuary of our chapel. Both Marianne and Sr Damian are now old hands at high-rise decorations, and fearlessly balance on ladders perched precariously on tables to put lights and stars on top branches!
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady was spent quietly before the Blessed Sacrament as a time of prayer and reflection. Since the opening of the International Year of the Eucharist in October we have been trying to play our small part in it by having an extra 15-20 minutes of Exposition in the small hours of the morning after the Night Office. The Eucharist also had a prominent role in our Advent reflections, which returned constantly to the symbol of the pelican. In the Middle Ages this was often associated with Christ, as in legend it is said to feed its young with blood from its heart. Sr Agatha and Sr Damian had made a pottery pelican with feathery wings.
They invited us to add a spoonful of oats to the bowl which formed its nest, as a token of any extra act of charity performed for Christ present in our Sisters, during Advent.
At the end of Advent they gathered all the accumulated oats and turned them into oatmeal bread, so we all benefited physically as well as spiritually from our preparations!
We spent a very exciting two days putting up cribs with all sorts of themes and settings in the choir, round the cloister and in the main rooms, and on Christmas Eve followed Dear Mother in procession singing carols, as she blessed each one with holy water and said an appropriate prayer.
The Christmas Vigil was simple and very lovely, basically a combination of the psalms and canticles of Christmas Matins, interspersed with carols which echoed the themes of the psalms. Sr Amata had written music for the Messianic canticle in Isaiah chapter 40, “Comfort ye, my people”. During the Te Deum two Sisters dancing and carrying joss sticks, with another lifting high the Bambino, moved slowly and gracefully up the choir and placed the Christchild in the manger before the altar.
Fr. Paschal OFMCap celebrated the beautiful midnight mass that followed. Afterwards we kept watch at the crib with carols, music and spontaneous prayers for all who had asked us to remember them there. Then at 4 am we danced along the cloister to a welcome breakfast animated by much talk and laughter. Our holly trees had not been so thickly laden with bright red clusters of berries for many a year, but this did not herald a hard winter. We had a token ‘white’ Christmas but not even enough snow for a mini-snowman.
During Christmastide we each take it in turns to share reflections on the themes of our respective cribs. That of Dear Mother and Sr Joanna was in a glorious setting. Its sparkling scene of golden trees and lights served to remind us of the new Paradise which we are now able to reach through the saving birth of Christ. Dear Mother spoke of the need to keep our eyes fixed on it as the final goal of our earthly life. As St Augustine put it; “We are wanderers with no permanent home on earth; that is in Heaven, and we do not know when we shall hear the call, ‘Come, set out for home’.”
On New Year’s Eve Sr Amata and Sr Ruth shared some reflections about their crib. Its setting was the cloister garden of our mother-house, the Notting Hill Monastery, copied from a drawing of it made in 1878. This occasioned much reminiscing by the those among us who had originally entered there. The theme was the three great Franciscan devotions - to Christ in the manger, on the cross and in the Eucharist. Saint Francis and Saint Clare, representing Our Lady and St Joseph, had been lovingly and painstakingly ‘painted’ on the computer by Sr Amata, and at the end we sang a carol composed by one of the first Notting Hill novices in 1859.
We began the New Year with a very lovely vigil based on Pope John Paul’s New Year message for the World Day of Peace. It contained a litany we had compiled of people through the ages who had forgiven those who had harmed them and worked for peace and reconciliation. These ranged from St Francis of Assisi, who blessed his father when he was cursed by him, and Saint Clare who did not resort to weapons but to the saving power of the Eucharist when threatened by Saracen soldiers. And in our own days there was the Trappist monk in Algeria, who wrote to his unknown future assassin months before his death: “For this life lost, I give thanks to God. In this thanks I include you, my last-minute friend, who will not know what he is doing. I commend you to God, whose face I see in yours; and may we find each other, happy Good Thieves in Paradise, if God wills.” Included too was Chris Carrier, who, as a ten year old was abused, knifed, and shot in the head by a disturbed alcoholic. As an adult he searched for the man, helped, visited and forgave him, and was the only person at his bedside when he died.
The popping of local fireworks ushered in 2005 just as Mgr Peter Fleetwood reached the consecration at holy mass - especially propitious timing in this Year of the Eucharist.
The refectory crib combined the motifs of crib, cross and Eucharist. Sr Damian and Sr Agatha had fashioned a large central pelican out of material with five wounds in its breast, each betokening a major problem challenging the Church today. Reflections on these were followed by spontaneous prayer on related issues, and the singing of the invocation: ‘By thy birth, ... By thy sorrowful passion .. By thy glorious resurrection, have mercy on us and on the whole world.’
Sr Seraphina treated us to a delightful crib sharing in the noviciate. The setting of her crib was a children’s party under a sunny tropical sky, the figures being large cloth dolls. We were each given a conical hat to wear inscribed ‘Happy Birthday, Jesus!’ and a star badge with a Christmas quote on it, to fit us to be participants. In the background was a large hammock strung between two palm trees. She told us that the hammock represented our dear Mother Mary, there to support and enfold us in her love, and the trees represented fatherhood and St Joseph, sturdy, sheltering, supporting, and providing nourishment and oxygen to sustain life.
Sr Elizabeth and Sr Juliana produced an hilarious Christmastide recreation set in one of the Catacombs. The owner, St Pringilia, had become charlady in the Emperor’s palace. By the end of the play everyone seemed to be chasing everyone else round in the darkness of her catacomb -
Saints Peter and Paul were there searching for each other, with the Praetorian guard brandishing swords and hard on their heels. Not only Mrs Pringle but two Roman soldiers (both in love with the same Christian girl, who wasn’t sure whether she wanted to be martyred or not), ended up being baptised, along with the Emperor himself.
More amiable than Nero, he chuntered to himself from beginning to end whilst fleeing from his formidable wife Herculea. He exited along with the rest to the strains of the Hallelujah chorus in the direction of the Colosseum, to be thrown to the lions as a Christian!
The next day Sr Coletta shared a reflection on her crib, which showed Our Lady standing lovingly and protectively behind her toddler son. The background setting mingled holly, ivy and bamboo from our garden, with modern glossy decorations, and expressed our Sister’s experience of life in both rural and urban areas in the Philippines. We ended by singing the Magnificat, united with Our Lady in thanksgiving for God’s blessings.
Our Christmas also featured an excursion abroad (Ty Mam Duw style) to the island of Montserrat under the guidance of Sr Yolanda and Sr Juliana. Our ‘virtual reality’ outing was introduced by Caribbean songs and a very real and delicious dinner of Caribbean food, which they had prepared. A friend living on the island, which exploded into public consciousness with the eruption of its volcano some years back, supplied the background information and some of the edibles and décor. Our Sisters had created a 3-D map of the island and gave us a talk on volcanos in general and the Montserrat one in particular, complete with slides. They taught us several Caribbean dances and related the island’s chequered history. We were invited to take part in an hilarious home-made game they had devised, in which we raced baby cardboard turtles down a beach into the sea before they could be picked off by hovering vultures or caught for soup. (Some of us have lived at very close quarters for several decades, but there is nothing quite like such games for bringing out unsuspected traits in people’s character!)
At the end of our happy three weeks of Christmas, we spent a busy four days, taking down decorations and packing everything away.
Unfortunately a large tree on adjoining property came down in high winds during the festive season and damaged our enclosure wall. It also landed on some recently planted gooseberry bushes, but mercifully they survived to bear fruit in the summer.
On the Feast of the Presentation we were united with the Church throughout the world in thanksgiving for the gift of religious life in its many forms. A number of Sisters from active Orders in the Diocese came for the service at which Bishop Regan presided.
We managed yet another ‘overseas’ trip before Lent, this time to the United States. Sr Beatrix and Sr Pia, spent many hours assembling all the relevant information - as well as providing us with American fare for our journey. We boarded our (invisible) Boeing 747, and were furnished with refreshments by our charming air hostess, Morning Star. The pilot gave us an introduction to the great country we were to visit, and on landing we were ushered to the chapter room
There our guides had made a very large map of America, with the state boundaries marked out. They then gave us each 3 or 4 labelled cut-out figures of individual states on coloured card, inscribed with basic information.
This was followed by a long and fascinating talk in several stages on the history of the United States. As each State came into its own, its cut-out figure was added to the map. After some time Sam Stripe (Sr Beatrix) gave us a break from history, by talking about American football, beside which even rugby seems genteel! We were then invited to take part in a game ourselves - to our relief of a considerably less perilous nature, not requiring padded armour for sheer survival! Instead it was ‘blow football’ with a small football field marked out on a table,The aim was for the teams to propel a ping-pong ball into the appropriate goal by blowing through straws. For all that, the excitement generated by the opposing ‘Stars’ and ‘Stripes’ would have done justice to a full-scale match!
In February too we had our annual mass in honour of St Colette, at which those present are blessed with her relic. About fifty people came for it, a number with small children and, thanks to the internet, we were able to include among the intercessions a prayer in thanksgiving for the safe arrival of a baby born a few hours before in America, and whose mother we had been entrusting to the intercession of St Colette.
The paschal tableau in choir, erected during Holy Week, was one of stark simplicity. The focal point was the upended stump and twisted spreading roots of a six foot tree from our garden, painted black. From one angle it resembled a contorted human form, shoulders hunched in sorrow or pain, with outspread arms ending in long twisted hands and fingers. Balanced on its outspread arms was a paper sculpture of the bridge between heaven and earth.
During the Veneration of the Cross at the Good Friday Service, several Sisters brought up pictures or symbols, representing the sufferings of our world today, and laid them at the foot of the cross. The day ended with the placing of a figure of the dead Christ in a dodecahedronal tomb under the blackened tree.
The Easter Vigil opens with the blessing outdoors of the holy fire from which the great paschal candle is lighted. All the intentions sent to us during the past twelve months, which we had typed out on slips of paper and prayed for individually, ascended to God with the flames of the Easter fire. In so doing we commended them to Our Lord’s victorious love and mercy as we celebrated His own triumph over hatred, sin and death.
The song of Moses “I will sing a song to Yahweh” (Exodus 15:1-18) after the Israelites’ dramatic crossing of the Red Sea, was danced by two groups of Sisters, one representing the Israelites and the other the routed Egyptians. The psalm “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good” was also interpreted by two groups, with a Sister carrying ‘butterfly chimes’ (given in providentially the week before!) weaving in and out of both sets of dancers. The sombre colouring of the paschal tableau had been transfigured by colourful lighting, of red, orange and gold. A mirror sphere shone myriad patterns of moving light on the sanctuary walls, and each of the composite faces of the dodecahedron comprising the tomb was pierced, as by an explosive force from within. Through the holes radiated a red glow - the fire of Christ’s new life and boundless love, which no force on earth or in the underworld could henceforth conquer or hold captive. The risen Lord stood on the bridge between heaven and earth
Among the figures in the Paschal tableau was one of Pope John Paul II representing St Peter. It had been carved in 1978, in the days of his full health and strength soon after he became Pope. For the past decade it had served as a special reminder for us to pray for him in thankfulness for his undaunted spirit which continued to the end to be a real witness to God’s power and a sign of encouragement and hope to many others in their suffering. A close friend and Claresharer from America was among those who spent hours praying beneath his window during his last day on earth, a moving experience, which we all shared in spirit. When news came of his death, we moved the figure of our dear John Paul the Great onto the bridge to heaven, where Our Lady could be seen presenting him to her Risen Son. We were deeply touched by the number of friends who, while not sharing our Catholic faith, yet wrote to express their condolences at his death - for us, as for so many others, he was not only a great Pope and a man of vision, but also someone we felt we knew personally, as a much-loved spiritual father in our Ty Mam Duw family.
During the following momentous days for the Church and the world, we were able to keep in touch with events through the Eternal Word Television Network. The funeral mass was unforgettable, with its mingling of sadness at his death and thankfulness and joy at his loving service and
gospel witness till the very end. This sadness and joy resonated yet more deeply
in our own community that week. Our dear Sr Modwena, whose cancer had degenerated was admitted to the Nightingale Hospice for further tests. We were deeply impressed by the loving care of the staff there. Two days later and she was found to have kidney failure. She was already too ill for us to bring her home to spend her last few days surrounded by her Poor Clare family, as is generally our hope when a Sister is dying. Dear Mother and Sr Agatha took it in turns to be with her. Canon Quigley came to anoint her, and Bishop Regan stopped in to say the rosary by her bedside with Dear Mother. She died peacefully at 11 pm, on 5 April, just when the Matins bell was ringing back here at Ty Mam Duw - it was her task for many years to ring it to wake us for the Night Office - which begins with the words “Light your lamps, for the Bridegroom is here. Go out to meet Christ the Lord.”
At her requiem Mass, Canon Quigley spoke of Sr Modwena’s welcoming smile in her days as portress and as sacristan, and of her pilgrimage of faith, through which she was led into the Catholic Church and later came to realise that God had called her to serve Him in our Poor Clare way of life. Taking our cue from the requiem of the Holy Father, we sang the Litany of the Saints as we processed out to our small cemetery to lay her to rest with all the older Sisters with whom she had shared so many years in God’s service.
We celebrated our Dear Mother’s feast the following week with a two-part presentation in choir of all 20 mysteries of the rosary. Each was illustrated in some form by several Sisters, with slides, Tai-Chi and dance, readings, poetry or song.
Sr Seraphina starred as the angel of the resurrection, sweeping on to the sanctuary and removing the long black mourning veil shrouding Our Lady’s face as she meets her Son risen from the dead.
In the Philippines and other parts of the world, the
event is represented by the meeting of two statues carried in procession. We gather that the honour of being the angel who removes Our Lady’s veil is generally given to a small child, who is suspended at an appropriate point from the ceiling. We settled for scaffolding!
Like the Church throughout the world we prayed long and earnestly for the Cardinals gathered for the conclave, especially after seeing them filing solemnly into the Sistine Chapel. When news came just a couple of days later that the famous white smoke had been sighted, we all gathered excitedly in the community room. With bated breath we tuned in to the live telecast from the Vatican to await the appearance of our new Holy Father on the balcony and his first ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing. Great was the general jubilation among us at the announcement of “Ementissimus Josephus ..” We ourselves felt no need to wait for the surname before cheering!
Despite the drama of such great events, we still had to attend to more humdrum needs on our home front. The changeable spring weather notwithstanding, we finished erecting the netting cage over our large vegetable patch and planted out our runner French beans.
In no time they thrust down roots enthusiastically into the ground and were reaching for the nearest supporting strings.
By the end of the season we had to forcibly deter them from growing through the roof of the cage! We were also kept busy planting out lettuce and carrots, clearing weeds from paths and flower beds, and planting out flower seedlings. We were delighted to have a pair of blackbirds and one of grey wagtails (which despite their drab name sport a yellow breast) nesting in the cloister courtyard. There they were able to rear their families successfully out of reach of our dogs. This year we had two fledgling crows in the main garden, anxiously watched over by the parents (and by us!) Until the fledglings were airborne, the dogs were confined to their spacious run, and only allowed out on a lead for daily walks round the garden.
Millie our small dachshund normally looks a picture of ladylike charm, but on sight of one of the baby crows startled us all by screaming with frustration at her inability to get at it!
We celebrated the great feast of the Body and Blood of Christ in this special Year of the Eucharist, by having Exposition from the end of holy mass till 4.30 pm. It was a joy shared by a number of people who popped in during the day to unite their prayer with ours before the Lord for the Church and the world. At the end of October we had three similar days, as we know it is often difficult for people to visit their parish churches outside the times for holy mass.
Here in Wales we rejoiced in an exceptionally lovely summer with bright sunshiny days and intermittent heavy downpours - combining to make ideal growing weather. The flowering shrubs and climbers, from clematis and hydrangeas, lilac and buddleia, to the roses and the large old rhododendron bushes have seldom looked so lovely, as did the forty or so hanging baskets, which grace the cloister garden and the area outside the novitiate. The large stone statue of St Francis at the end of the vegetable garden was up to its knees in geraniums and French marigolds and other colourful blooms, lovingly tended by Sr Coletta, who delights in bedecking the several shrines in the cloister with bright home-grown bouquets.
In July we welcomed two Poor Clare Abbesses from Germany, Mother Maria of Paderborn and Mother Ancilla of Munster, who stayed with us for a couple of days. We had a special Vespers while they were here and a very happy recreation in the cloister garden, to which each Sister contributed something in the way of song, music, dance or mime.
The following week some of us spent busy days swapping workrooms, a process during which all sorts of things one thought lost tend to turn up unexpectedly! Sr Damian and several enthusiastic helpers also repainted Dear Mother’s room for her, one with a lovely view of the garden.
On the feast of St Clare we were treated to a unique spiritual pilgrimage, a ‘journey of the mind into God’. It followed the itinerary mapped out by St Bonaventure in the 13th century in his book of that name, which also reflects the spirituality of St Clare. Dear Mother and Sr Juliana provided not only an introduction to each of the six “wings of the seraph” by which we are lifted up to God, but also slides, and music. We were even treated to a packed lunch and left free to find a quiet corner of the garden where we could enjoy it and reflect on our pilgrimage.
For Dear Mother’s profession anniversary in mid-August, several Sisters completed the first of a very lovely new series of silk-painted vestments for Mass here at Ty Mam Duw.
From 18 - 21 August we were thrilled to be able to watch much of the live coverage of the Holy Father’s visit to Cologne for World Youth Day. One moving high point was his memorable visit to the synagogue of Cologne, where he spoke of his desire to continue to build bridges between Catholics and Jews on the basis of our common heritage as children of Abraham our “father in faith” We were amused at one anecdote of ‘Papa Bene’ and his dinner with twelve young Catholics from all over the world. They were served omelettes while he was given trout. Apparently he asked if he too could have just an omelette, as he didn’t think he could manage to juggle four different languages and cope with fishbones at the same time!
We did not see the telecast of the all-night Vigil at Marienfeld with adoration there of the Blessed Sacrament - we had our own Office to sing at midnight in our choir! - but the next morning watched the closing mass at which over a million young people were present, including one from our parish. It was a tremendously joyful occasion, not only for all those present, but for the millions more, like us, who shared in the television coverage. We found it a real antidote to the darkness of so much of the world today and a beacon radiating faith and hope for the future.
September as usual saw us busy pruning our fruit bushes, and tidying up the vegetable garden and flower beds. We are especially grateful to all who brought us produce from their Harvest Festivals this year. And a heartfelt “God reward you” goes also to the many friends who have brought us gifts in kind throughout the year, and helped us in so many ways. Your ongoing kindness and support makes our life of prayer and praise in God’s service possible.
Towards the end of the month Dear Mother went into hospital for keyhole surgery on her knee. By way of consolation for her absence we watched a remarkable video,
“No Going Back: Confessions of a Catholic Priest”. In it Fr Don Calloway speaks passionately and movingly of God’s mercy in his life, of his conversion to the Catholic faith from a life of drugs and violence, and of his call to the priesthood. To our relief Dear Mother returned to us a day later and is progressing.
After a series of large retreat groups the items in our small shop had become depleted. So we spent several happily hectic weeks working together at tables set out in the cloister, decorating candles, painting pottery figures and plaques, dressing dolls, making and mounting cards, and creating all manner of things for our Autumn Fair in late October. Now that she is not engaged in gardening, our dear Marianne has taken up a crochet hook instead of a spade, and not only produced a number of shawls for the Fair, but also short woollen kerchiefs for us all - for which we duly sing praise to God when we get up for Matins in chilly weather!
And now, we not only look back and count the blessings of the twelve months with all their joys and sorrow, but also look forward to Advent. We will be preparing once more to welcome Christ in a new way into the world and into our lives to be our future and hope in the months ahead. And you can be sure that each of you whose lives have touched ours in 2005, will continue to be enfolded in our hearts before the Lord in the year ahead.
With loving prayers,
from your Poor Clare Sisters at Ty Mam Duw