31 Dec December 2024 Digest
Merry Christmas! As I write, we are still very much in the midst of our Christmas celebrations, holding on to the joy and wonder of the incarnation, God with us. We have had much to celebrate this month; as well as Christmas we also had the joy of my (Sr. Jessica’s) Profession in Life Vows on 14th December – read on to find out more!
Advent Anticipation
I remember well my first year here at Mucknell; I’d arrived in August, and come the end of November, was just about starting to feel vaguely comfortable with the liturgical round…at which point Advent burst onto the scene, and what felt like all the music changed completely! I did not greet this change with great enthusiasm at first, but over the past 7 years I have, along with many others, come to love many of the features of Advent here: the music, the candles, the sense of gentle yet persistent expectation and longing. This year was no exception, as we spent the weeks leading up to Christmas looking forward to Christ’s coming among us, attentive for the signs of God’s presence in the world.
The practical work of the monastery has also still continued; Br. Jonny had an entertaining time one morning cleaning off one of our flat roofs, ably assisted by Sr. Alison handing him a whole variety of tools and buckets:
Solemn Profession
It was a great delight to welcome a real range of guests to the Abbey on December 14th: the sun shone brightly for us all. We had guests from the communities at Tymawr (SSC),, Fairacres (SLG), Salisbury (OSB), Brownshill (Bernadine Cistercians), Plaistow (SSF) and Mirfield (CR), as well as my parents, my sister, her husband, and their 3 children, along with a good group of my university friends, friends of the Community and others who’ve been part of my journey to this point. It was also great to have our Visitor, the Rt. Rev’d Anne Hollinghurst, with us; having lost her voice she was unable to preside, but Ven. Rob Jones very ably and kindly took her place. The Rev’d Sue Lepp preached; Sue was the curate in the parish I came to the monastery from, and we have remained firm friends ever since, walking together on our journeys with God.
There had obviously been a lot of work going on behind the scenes, both practical and spiritual, in preparation for my Solemn Profession, but on the day itself the butterflies gave way to joy and celebration, and an attitude of, “let’s do this!”. At lunch after the service, I was given the opportunity to say a few words, but there were only really two that counted: thank you. To all the people who’d cleaned and cooked, photocopied, moved furniture, organised parking. To all those present, and more than a few who weren’t, for their unstinting love and support. To my dad for taking such lovely photos (click through to view the whole gallery):
Christmas Celebrations
Of course, after the excitement of a profession, and the anticipation of Advent, Christmas did come to us! We keep the Octave of Christmas (i.e. from 25th December to 1st January) as community holiday, with opportunities to invite friends to lunch here, or go out with them for a day. This year we’ve had some delicious meals together, watched a film with supper (The Imitation Game, about Alan Turing and his codebreaking work at Bletchley Park), had some interesting discussions, and above all, celebrated Christ’s incarnation, God’s coming among us.
Our crib scene this year was created by Michael, our Alongsider (this task traditionally falls to the “youngest” in Community), and Christmas day lunch was cooked by Br. Stuart, who created a true feast for us all! Rocky the cat has not been forgotten either; he has enjoyed some of the left-overs from various meals, and still seems to be happily doing his thing out on the estate.
And finally…
On Christmas morning, Sr. Alison shared a poem by Angier Brock called Advent Moon; I felt the last verse was particularly beautiful, and serves as an appropriate sign off:
Let the coming of the One
who kindles fires of hope,
whose faithfulness runs far beyond our sight,
be like the coming of a child.
Let there be milk, forgiveness, quiet arms.
Come quickly, Love, our dearest deep
and sweetest dawning.
Come fill us with your light.