As we approach the start of a new liturgical year with Advent, it seemed a good moment to update you all on news from Boarbank.
A Year of Celebration
If we had to pick one highlight of the year so far, surely for any Augustinian it has to be the election of our Augustinian brother, Cardinal Robert Prevost, to the papacy. We are close to the Friars in England, several of whom know him well, so the Vatican suddenly seems much nearer – almost part of the family! I’m sure you are all keeping Pope Leo XIV in your prayers – as you can be sure that we are. We were very moved when Deacon Stephen Bamber, a good friend of the Community, was chosen to act as Deacon for the Papal Mass to proclaim St John Henry Newman as a Doctor of the Church.
Pope Leo’s election was particularly appropriate in the Jubilee Year under the theme, Pilgrims of Hope. Maria, our singing teacher, taught us the Jubilee hymn, which we hope to be brave enough to sing in public eventually! As most of our residents would not have been able to travel to the nearest ‘Holy Door’, Sr Francis arranged with the Bishop for our own chapel door to count as a Holy Door for the purpose of one dedicated service, in which very many of our residents took part.
The Jubilee Year has also coincided with our Diocesan Centenary. In September, four of our Sisters joined a large group of Religious from across the Diocese for the Centenary Pilgrimage to the shrine at Cleator Moor, where the Religious led sung Evening Prayer. A month later, several of our Sisters were able to participate in either Solemn Vespers or Mass at Lancaster Cathedral with the Papal Nuncio, as the culmination of the Centenary celebrations. Three of the Sisters were also very grateful to be able to join the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Walsingham, led by Bishop Paul.
We are grateful that Jo and Cecilia, our two postulants, are continuing their journey with us.
Sr Teresina joined a group of other newer Sisters from our Communities in Europe and Africa for a two-week tour ‘in the steps of our forebears’, in places closely associated with the Augustinians of the Mercy of Jesus in Normandy and Brittany.
Three of the Sisters were blessed to attend a live meeting of the group of Religious Caring for the Sick, who meet regularly on Zoom. We were warmly hosted by the Community of Douai, and a particular highlight was a tour of their excellent library and archive.
We greatly enjoyed welcoming first Sr Little Rose, then Sr Tessin, of the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament in Lea Town near Preston, to share our Community life for a few weeks’ experience of English living, gardening and cooking. A planned return visit involving a curry meal is in the pipeline!
Sr Eileen and Sr Margaret A. went to Malestroit for a very interesting meeting of the Prioresses’ Assembly. The animator was our friend Dr Karen Groves, who led excellent sessions on interpersonal communication, negotiating the challenge of a bilingual audience with apparent ease.
Guest House and Residential Groups
One major piece of news – the arrival of the new COFFEE MACHINE! Breakfasts have become a very happy occasion for coffee-lovers.
The Guest House is finally returning to normal after COVID – it has been lovely to have it full of life and to welcome old friends and new. We have hosted groups including two visits from a strings chamber music group, a memorial weekend for our friend Rosemary Mitchell, a former colleague of Sr Margaret A.’s at Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds, a retreat for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and our regular group of students from Durham University Chaplaincy.
It has been really good also to be able to run a full programme of our own events. We began with a Crafts & Arts weekend, where people brought their own projects to work on together. Our regular birdwatching retreat, Two Wings & Some Prayers, again gave us a bird list of 100 species, along with lovely visits to Leighton Moss, Hay Bridge and Hodbarrow reserves. Many thanks to Margaret Phillips for her expert guidance. We continued the nature theme with two Celebrating Creation events, on the theme ‘The Joy of Limits’. This included indoor and outdoor activities, such as tree-planting, collecting apples and visiting a local cider producer, and releasing harvest mice in our own grounds as part of a conservation project. Many thanks to John Paul de Quay for his help in organising and giving talks, and to the artist Cat Coulson, Revd John Swales, and Chris Knowles for their input.
In the summer we ran our regular Thinking Faith week; we called it ‘Why Leo?’, an opportunity to find out more about our new Pope and his background. As well as our regular Thinking Faith Chaplain, who along with Sr Margaret A. gave talks about Augustine and his Rule, as well as Leo XIII and Catholic Social Teaching, we were blessed by the presence of a friend of both Pope Leo’s and ours, Augustinian Friar Fr Ian Wilson. We followed up the Augustinian theme with a few days in August studying Augustine’s Confessions. Finally, we repeated in July our introductory weekend for liturgical Latin, Our Lady in Latin, and followed it up with Magnificat! in October. Many thanks indeed to Alison Samuels, our superb Latin teacher, and her husband Bob, who provided sessions on the musical settings of the texts we were studying.
Our last residential this year, the Hope in Health weekend in early December, is open to anyone involved in supporting the sick, whether as professionals, volunteers, family members or friends.
Finally, we have continued our Thinking Faith Zoom retreat weekends in Advent and Lent. The next one, on December 12th and 13th, will be on the theme ‘Christmas with the Shepherd’’.
All our residentials provide an opportunity to relax, ponder, pray, make friends and take part in our regular Mass and Sung Office, in the lovely surroundings of Boarbank. For more, see www.boarbankhall.org.uk/whats-on/
Nursing Home
Warm congratulations to Elizabeth, Virginia and all the Staff in Marymount for retaining the Gold Standard Framework Award at Platinum Level. Elizabeth and Virginia were invited to Birmingham to the Awards Ceremony. Our excellent care for people at the end of life is particularly valuable, and poignant, at a time when there are political pressures to make changes that could jeopardise the relationship of trust that makes such care possible. We are very grateful indeed to those MPs and Peers who have been working so hard to ensure that the law continues to give full protection to vulnerable people nearing the end of their life.
Green Boarbank
The gardens have been looking lovelier than every this year, benefitting from the expert planning, planting and pruning of recent years, as well as the weather, which encouraged more butterflies than we have seen for some time, and a bumper crop of fruit. Our ecological projects continue, with the release of a couple of batches of rare harvest mice into our orchard, and the extension of the grove on the top field to include apples, crab apples and damsons. Finally, many thanks to the kitchen and garden teams for their excellent collaboration, which has enabled us to provide more home-grown food than ever this year. New acquisitions include a loganberry and a miniature kiwi fruit bush, so watch this space!
Requiescant in Pace
We were very sorry to hear of the death of Sr Laura of our house in Ince Blundell, on ?1st November. Several other people very important to us have died this year, including Sr Silvana’s mother, Angela Duffy, in July, and long-term residents of the Nursing Home Angela Jones, Sr Anne-Thérèse Harding, Pat Rogers and Bernard Metcalfe.
Wedding Bells!
Finally, on a very happy note, we congratulate Andrea and Mel on their wedding in May, which four of the Sisters were very blessed to attend. Meanwhile, Peter and Jeney came to us, convalidating their marriage in Boarbank Chapel, which also enabled Jeney’s brother Tarchin to accompany her down the aisle. We pray that God will bless both our couples with joy, happiness and peace during all of their lives together.
