01 May April 2026 Digest

Alleluia! Welcome back to Mucknell Abbey, as we continue our journey through the joys of Eastertide. As you’ll see below, the garden and estate are bursting with new life. One thing that (once again) isn’t bursting with new life is our boiler; it continues to prove problematic, breaking down several times in quick succession, and so we have decided to have it replaced. At least summer is a fairly sensible time of year to do this, so we can hopefully get teething problems ironed out before the winter. Read on to see what else we’ve been up to!

Easter Celebrations

Following the intensity of Holy Week, the Community and a good number of guests gathered outside the main entrance at 5:05 on Easter Morning, still in darkness, to begin our celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Easter Fire took a bit of persuading to light, but once it was ablaze all proceeded as beautifully as it usually does. The Oratory was transformed from the bareness of Holy Saturday to well over 50 candles and oil lamps shining brightly, each one a reflection of the new light that God has caused to rise in our hearts.

Following the glory of Easter Day itself, we then keep the following week, the Easter Octave, as Community holiday; we’re all still at the Abbey, but with various fun things going on, and chances to meet up with friends and family. This year, we enjoyed a Chinese takeaway, we watched the film Hamnet, a few went for a day out to Cirencester, some enjoyed a wine tasting game, and we (almost) all ate far too much chocolate.

On the Estate

Our 40 acres are very firmly in Spring mode now, as we see the grass growing, a whole variety of plants and trees blossoming and some of our usual wildlife returning. The swallows arrived a few weeks ago, and are busy swooping about acrobatically all over the place. It’s always amusing to watch the fledgings as they somewhat clumsily learn to swoop about. We’ve also caught sight of hares, deer, and all manner of birds that I won’t begin to pretend I can identify. One of my personal favourites are the pied wagtails, because they always seem to have so much character as they fly and hop around. As well as the smaller birds, we also have the geese nesting on the Hermitage pond once again; we’ll let you know how they get on.

With the grass growing up, we’ve also got Noah (our robot lawnmower) back on duty. Generally speaking the other residents of the Estate are unbothered by him. The birds worked out very quickly that he was no threat, and Rocky lost interest once he realised that Noah was no competition in terms of finding tasty snacks round the place. The deer, however, are much less sure. Br. Michaël was returning in the car one evening, and saw a family of deer gathered around Noah, following him as he carried on his way, obviously somewhat peturbed by this…thing. Noah seems not to have been scarred by the encounter:

In the Garden

The Kitchen Garden is also very definitely getting going. So far we have potatoes, tomatoes, sweet pepper, mangetout, cabbage and lettuce in the ground, and the carrot seed has been sown too. We’ve got seedlings of coriander, basil, sage and parsley doing their thing in the greenhouse, and have also sown courgette, squash and runner beans in the last few days. The cherry trees have set fruit, and the raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and rhubarb are all getting going too. Overall we’re cultivating a little less this year than last year, in the hope of being able to keep on top of what we do grow, and also have a bit more time for other jobs around the monastery.

Sermons

Br. Cassian has recently taken over uploading sermons to the website, which hopefully means they should actually make it online! Here’s a couple from recent weeks:

Easter 2: Sr. Jessica: “”We are receiving the outcome of our faith” – this is something which goes on being given to us, a truth and a trust in which we continue to stand, or sit, or lie, each day, so that the joy of the resurrection becomes something we carry with us always. 

Easter 4: Jem: “When we stray from God, or wander off in the direction of exciting distractions, God doesn’t leave us to it, or simply tell us to try harder, to do better next time….
God attracts us – reawakens our desire – a reawakening expressed by Anselm in the most famous bit of his prayer, “Let me seek you by desiring you, and desire you by seeking you; let me find you by loving you, and love you in finding you.” “

Rocky’s Ramblings

I have unfortunately failed to get a photo of Rocky in time for this month’s blog, but be assured that he continues to live his best life, unpeturbed by whatever might be going on in the monastery. Whether fast day or feast, he is always bang on time for breakfast and supper (or would he say we’re bang on time?…hard to be sure with a cat). He tends to spend his days snoozing in Br. Stuart’s room, and his nights out of doors, doing cat things. Watch this space to see whether we get a repeat of last year’s 6 week long absence – we hope not, as it was all rather nervewracking!

And finally…

I’ve been making more of an effort to get outside recently, and it’s given me a great opportunity to notice even the small changes that occur day by day as blossom comes out a little more, or some new flowers emerge. There’s also bigger changes too; I’ve noticed a lot more squirrels round the place this last year or so, presumably as our trees grow up and become a more interesting habitat for them. This all reminds me that nothing in nature is static, and that we too, therefore, may expect to find ourselves changing as we grow more and more into God. As we continue through this Easter season, may we all come to know more and more of the great love of God that calls us ever onwards. Amen.