31 Dec December 2025 Digest

Merry Christmas! Welcome back to our monthly digest. At the end of November, we sat on the cusp of Advent, and as I write we are in the midst of our Christmas celebrations. As many of you will know, we keep Advent very fully, meaning that all our Christmas decorations go up in a flurry of excitement and activity on Christmas Eve: the tree, fairy lights and candles in the Oratory, and table decorations in the Refectory, as well as Christmas cards displayed anywhere there is space! Many, many mince pies are baked, then our liturgical celebrations begin with the 1st Vespers of Christmas in the evening of the 24th, followed by our short but very beautiful crib rite as we welcome God Incarnate among us once more. Read on for a peek into our celebrations.

Decorations and Deliciousness

The heart of our life is the Oratory, and it’s always a great joy to see it decorated and lit for Christmas. By tradition, the ‘youngest’ (i.e. newest) community members put the crib scene together, and this year Jem, our Alongsider, created a simple and beautiful crib for us:

The rest of the Oratory also looks lovely – this is the year of fairy lights!

Br. Michaël and I had fun decorating the Refectory:

We’ve also enjoyed a range of lovely meals and sweet treats over the Christmas period, and our heartfelt thanks are due to our many friends and family members who have contributed to our celebrations either by being with us in person, or by sending us gifts. We are very grateful for all that so many people contribute to our life here.

Books of the Year

As regular visitors to the Abbey know, we take our meals in silence, while listening to reading. Every year, we get through an electic range of books, and this year was no different. The Community have over the past couple of days been voting for their favourite reads of the year; in no particular order here are the top 5:

God’s Philosophers, by James Hannam; Toward Holy Ground, by Margaret Guenther; Politics on the Edge, by Rory Stewart; Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald and Winter King by Thomas Penn, Each front cover below links to a World of Books page where you can purchase the respective titles.

We’re often asked how we choose our mealtime reading, to which there is no simple answer! The most common method is for Abbot Thomas to put out a selection of 4 or 5 books he’s had his eye on, along with a ticklist for people to vote for all those they’d like to hear. Whichever gets the most votes is then (usually) read in Refectory. Sometimes we will read a book that someone has given us or has recommended, and it’s also possible for the Community to recommend books for Abbot Thomas’ shortlist. And then occasionally, Abbot Thomas will mandate the next book. We also sometimes read articles from the various journals to which we subscribe, especially if we finish a book a bit sooner than expected and don’t have another one ready. Over the year we aim to read a range of both books about spirituality or theology, and wider non-fiction, including history, politics, geography, travel, and other things besides.

Rocky’s Roamings

The festive season seems largely to have passed Rocky by, although he did enjoy some festive treats that just happened to fall into my basket while doing our supermarket order. He seems to be venturing around the building a bit more lately – I’ve come across him halfway up the stairs at quarter to six in the morning, and also curled up on a chair in the Community Room; he was quite startled when I turned the light on!

And finally…

As we’ve travelled through this Christmas season, the three words that have stood out to me are grace, truth, and love. In the Prologue to John’s gospel, we read that “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth“, and a few verses later that “[t]he law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” These two values, grace and truth, seem to me so important for our modern world, so often divided and overwhelmed by ‘fake news’, designed to divide us still further. The more that we can ourselves live in the grace and truth that we have received through Christ, the more we can extend these to all those around us. And all this, of course, out of the great love shown us by God Incarnate, who became like us that we might become like God.