02 Jun May 2025 Digest
Greetings! Welcome to another month here in our little corner of Worcestershire. After a (fairly) quiet start to the month, the tempo has picked up over the last week or two with a whole series of birthdays and solemnities giving ample opportunity for celebration, and for cake. Read on to find out what else we’ve been up to!
Project Week
From the 12th to the 17th of May, we put aside some time to work on various ‘projects’, around the monastery, including things like pressure washing the courtyard (Br. Jonny), adding some new storage to the garden tool shed (Sr. Alison), sieving the garden compost heap (Michael), getting on with icons (Br. Michaël), getting the scaffolding tower out to give the oratory a really good clean (Br. Philip, ably assisted by Br. Stuart), and much else besides. I caught up on some jam and chutney making, a small part of which can be seen below. We ended the week with a day spent with Peter and Deborah from Acorn Leadership Development, who are helping us with some work to explore how we organise our life together as a community; this first full day was definitely fruitful, and we’re looking forward to carrying on working with them.
How does your garden grow?
The kitchen garden is really beginning to come to life – the tomatoes seem to grow several inches every time we turn our backs:
We’ve also got our first beans poking their heads up, lettuces looking beautiful, potatoes growing well, strawberries and blackcurrants starting to ripen, and raspberries not far behind. The cherry trees have a good looking crop on them, and we’ve organised ourselves enough to net them, so hopefully we’ll get to enjoy them! The herb spiral is also its usual exuberant self.
Recent Sermons
I’ve been more organised than usual in getting sermons online this month, so here’s the links for the last four weeks:
Sr. Jessica for Easter 3: “In Christ, we are raised to new life, not just in some unspecified future heaven, but here and now.”
Rev’d Michael, Alongsider, for Easter 4: “As we journey towards the Ascension and then to Pentecost, we are reminded of how Jesus lives in us and we in him.”
Br. Stuart for Easter 5: “It is so important and life-giving to train ourselves to be on the alert to the gift God is giving us in each fresh encounter.”
Sr. Jessica (again!) for Easter 6: “As disciples, then, we are those who “abide” in Jesus, in his love, and in his word, and we are those in whom God also abides.”
Rocky’s Ramblings
Unfortunately, there is very little that I can say about Rocky this month as we haven’t seen him at all for at least 3 weeks, and neither has our neighbour, Dave – Rocky, as you’ll remember, has something of a habit of popping in there to steal food. Obviously we’re somewhat concerned; for all that Rocky is very much his own cat, it’s unusual for him to completely disappear for this long. He is microchipped, so should anyone find him, he will hopefully make it back home to us. We’ll keep you posted…
And finally…
As we’re coming towards the end of Eastertide, I’m reminded of the way that I’ve heard Ordinary Time described as “green and growing time”; looking round our garden and grounds certainly provides plenty of ‘growing’ inspiration. I hope it reminds us too that there are as many different ways to grow and be beautiful as there are plants; I pray that we would all be able to trust God with our growth, and with the creation of something beautiful in our lives.