03 Mar February 2025 Digest
Welcome to another month of news from Mucknell Abbey. As I write, the sun is beaming down on a beautiful late-winter afternoon. The promise of spring is in the air, and it’s certainly good to have a change from the somewhat gloomy weather that characterised the first half of the month. Read on to find out what’s been going on…
Community Retreat
The month began with a week of community retreat, and it was a great joy to welcome Br. James SSJE to lead us through. Those of you who’ve been reading here for a while may remember that in May 2022, Br. Jonny and Br. Michaël spent a week with the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) in Boston, USA; following this visit Br. Stuart went over to lead the brothers in their community retreat, so Br. James coming to us is a bit like the return fixture! Over the six days of our retreat, he led us through a consideration of different characters from the Gospel according to John: Nicodemus, the boy with his lunch, the woman at the well, the mother of Jesus, Martha of Bethany and the beloved disciple. Each day Br. James gave us a number of questions to reflect on; one of the ones that continues to resonate with me is, “how are you today being born again of God?”
Estate Days
Hot on the heels of our retreat came 4 days of Estate work. We welcomed back some familiar faces, including Tim Vick to work his tree surgery magic – mostly chopping things down – and also Leah, our former alongsider, who threw herself into the work with her typical gusto. Although we didn’t get rained on very much at all, the ground was fairly saturated and so turned very quickly to mud when we spent any significant time in one place or using one route. The tractor, ably driven by Br. Stuart and Br. Ian, got stuck at various points, necessitating some creative route finding to drag the pollarded willow and coppiced hazel up to the orchard. The glum weather made it a bit tricky to get photos that weren’t just mud, but we did manage a few between us:
I also had fun playing with taking some close-up photos, noticing the odd beauty of the various lichens and mosses growing on some of our trees:
Fundraising appeal
We have just launched a new fundraising appeal, The Roundhouse Project. We are planning to add a 1 to 1 / small group space to the Abbey, in the form of a small rotunda, which will be on the lawn to the right of the main entrance. Follow the link above to find out more, and to consider supporting us financially in this new venture.
Rocky’s Roamings
Well! We seem to have suddenly acquired a different cat! We’ve had Rocky about a year now, and it seems like some switch has finally flicked in his brain that we are his people and that we are nice. He’s been around in the building a whole lot more, invariably meowing piteously for attention, or coming up to people to rub against their legs and say hello. As various people have said with varying degrees of astonishment, “I saw Rocky today, and he didn’t run away!”. He’s started popping in to our community sitting room of an evening to say hello, such that we’ve moved his scratching post there to persuade him not to sharpen his claws on the rug or the furniture. (It seems to be working.) He spends quite a lot of time down in the basement, either curled up on Stuart’s chair, or even sat on his lap watching him working at his computer. He also pops into the laundry room if he spots someone he recognises. He still occasionally skitters away if something startles him, but is by and large becoming much more of a house cat, which is delightful. Whether this will last as the weather improves is anyone’s guess, but we’re enjoying it for now.
And finally…
As I write, with Ash Wednesday just round the corner, we are considering our personal Lent rules. We have a set of corporate observances, which this year are inviting us to attend to God in all things – scripture, creation, the daily round of domestic work, to name but a few. We also prepare a set of individual observances, generally looking at a spiritual discipline to engage with, something to take up and something to give up. We each select a ‘Lent book’; this does not have to have a lenten theme, but rather takes up the suggestion in chapter 48 of Benedict’s Rule, where he writes, “During this time of Lent each one is to receive a book from the library, and is to read the whole of it straight through.” In his chapter on the “Observance of Lent”, Benedict reminds us that the aim of our disciplines during this time is to enable us to “look forward to the holy feast of Easter with the joy of spiritual longing”. I pray that we may all know this joy as Lent begins, pointing as it does to the glory of the resurrection.