30 Jun June 2025 Digest

Welcome back to June here at Mucknell Abbey. First things first – Rocky (our cat) has returned; see below for more, and some pictures of him. We’re enjoying all that the summer has to offer, especially the produce from the kitchen garden. So far we’ve had raspberries, strawberries, cherries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, lettuce, cucumber and the first few tomatoes from the greenhouse. Read on to find out what else we’ve been getting up to!

A new balcony

One of the lesser-known features of the monastery is the balcony that we have attached to our sitting room in the Community building. Unfortunately this has been out of bounds for a couple of years as we discovered that the wood was, shall we say, not in the greatest condition. After getting a professional survey done, we turned to the lovely people at Hemming Carpentry and Construction to replace the balcony, which they did over four days this month, just in time for the summer sun. We’re very grateful to them for a job well done, As you’ll see from the first photo below, the state of the wood they took out shows why the replacement was necessary!

Visits and Visitors

The month has also been full of comings and goings; Sr. Alison attended the Novice Guardians Conference, hosted by the Sisters of the Love of God in Oxford, and Michael, our Alongsider, went to the Novice Conference at Hilfield Friary. I had the great joy of joining with the sisters of the Society of the Sacred Cross at Tymawr Convent, along with many other guests, for Sr. Joanna Ruth’s profession in Life Vows. It was great to catch up with the small group of us who have journeyed together as novices and 1st professed. Here at Mucknell, we welcomed Abbot Brendan and a couple of his brothers from Belmont Abbey for tea and Vespers on Trinity Sunday. It was a delight to share something of our lives and traditions with one another, and to pray together too.

We’ve also said farewell this month to two longer term guests. Fr. Stephen, from Barnes in London, spent three months of sabbatical time with us in order to learn how to paint icons with Br. Michaël. Fr Stephen has previously studied iconography and now wanted to encounter the practical reality. Here’s a picture of him and Br. Michaël along with the two icons he completed during his time here. (The icon in the background is of Maximilian Kolbe, Br. Michaël’s current work-in-progress.)

We also welcomed Sarah, who hails from Hamilton in Canada, for 5 weeks of sabbatical; she had heard of us through her friend and housemate Erin, who had previously visited here as part of the Community of St. Anselm. Erin managed to drop by for a day during Sarah’s stay, and it was lovely to catch up on what she’s been up to too. As Sarah left us only a few days ago, she’ll share more about her time here in next month’s blog.

Kitchen Garden update

This month has been all about soft fruit in the kitchen garden – as mentioned above, we’ve been harvesting cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants, along with lettuce and the first offerings of the greenhouse tomato and cucumber plants. Some of the soft fruit is eaten fresh, but most goes into the freezer, from where it will re-emerge either to become a dessert, or to be made into jam. Here’s one morning’s work picking cherries:

We’ve also seen a grass snake around the garden a few times recently. We sometimes find eggs (long since hatched out) in our compost heaps, but it’s not that often that we see the snakes themselves. This time, thanks to Jem (one of our guests) and their eagle eye, we managed to get a photo of a grass snake in our lettuce patch:

Rocky Returns!

The cat came back! We noticed around the middle of the month that the cat biscuits we’d been faithfully leaving down in the utility room were being eaten again, after a good 5 weeks of not having been. Then on the 18th, Rocky appeared in Br. Stuart’s room (which is on the ground floor, and often has an open window), full of life and demanding food! That morning he managed to get breakfast out of at least three different people, as we were all so pleased and surprised to see him back. Since then, he has been very much in evidence around the monastery, seemingly none the worse for his adventures – although he is definitely a bit slimmer! As to where he might have been, we have no idea. Perhaps away on retreat? Or simply lost? Whatever he’s been up to, it’s good to have him back. here’s a few photos I took one evening last week while getting the laundry in:

And finally…

At the moment, we’re reading through the book of Job at Office of Readings each morning. It’s a unique and sometimes challenging book, centring as it does on one man’s apparently unjust suffering. Yet (spoiler alert!) the book offers no easy, concise or satisfying answers to the questions raised by Job and his companions, or indeed perhaps by us as we bear witness to so much suffering and seeming chaos in our world today. What Job does give us, though, is an example of continuing, relentless, in bringing these things before God. In dragging them into the light of God’s presence, and in holding the agony of those who cannot themselves bear to do so. This is, for me, part of what we are doing as we pray the Office day by day, cycling through the psalms that show us pretty much every conceivable emotion, from utter joy and delight, to the deepest of despair, and everywhere in between. In praying these psalms, we carry the world to God, and, somehow, God to the world. It’s a mystery, and it is one of the things that holds me in my place in the Oratory. Be assured then, that whatever your situation, you are in our prayers, and be assured too that your own prayers, however you may offer them, are both precious and acceptable to God.