01 Dec November 2025 Digest

Welcome back to Mucknell Abbey for another look at what we’ve been up to over the past month. We’ve spent a fair amount of it trying to keep warm! As anyone who’s visited recently will have heard (possibly at some length) we’ve been having problems with our main biomass boiler. The part which takes the woodchip from the woodchip store to the boiler broke, only 2 or 3 days after a delivery of some 9 tonnes of woodchip. Which then had to be moved to access the forementioned part. This was managed with some paid help (thank you Ted), and once the part needed was confirmed, there then followed a wait of several weeks while it was made in and shipped from Austria. In the interim we prioritised our back up boiler for hot water, and used a wonderful variety of plug-in heaters around the building. By the 20th, Chapel was down to about 15 degrees, and the Chapter Room 8 degrees. Which at least kept our morning meetings nice and brisk. Since then, we have had the new part fitted, a fresh delivery of woodchip, and we are all much warmer and happier. That aside, read on to see what else has been occupying us in the last few weeks.

A New Novice…

It was a great joy to clothe our Alongsider, Michael, as Br. Cassian on All Saints Day, November 1st. We’re all gradually getting used to the name change, and Br. Cassian is getting used to his habit. He continues to keep a close eye on Noah (our robot lawnmower), and to be an enthusiastic participant in kitchen garden and estate work. Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to explore his ongoing vocation.

…and a new Cook

As well as a new novice, we also have a new cook. You may have seen the job advert for a cook on our website recently; following discussions earlier this year about our (limited) time and energy, we decided to explore appointing a cook to take some of the load off the Community. We are delighted to now have Rosemarie with us. She started on the 11th November, and is getting used to all our ways and foibles, and cooking us some lovely lunches and suppers along the way. She’s worked in a variety of different settings as a cook, and so brings with her a wealth of experience. She works Monday to Friday, cooking our lunch and leaving suppers prepared. She has also taken on bread baking, which again will free up the Community a little.

Estate Week

It wouldn’t be November without an Estate Week; this year we were joined by a lovely group of guests who came along eager to get stuck in. The main work for the week was pollarding, dragging (with the tractor) and then chipping willow, as well as beginning some landscaping work around the Roundhouse. This latter was made rather more challenging because the lawn is reinforced with plastic grills so it can be used for parking. These do, however, get somewhat in the way of digging holes. Various methods were tried for the their removal; I’m not sure that any one proved vastly effective, but the job got done.

Willow work:

Roundhouse Landscaping:

And, of course, the obligatory group photo:

Rocky’s Ramblings

Rocky has mostly continued in his usual routine this month, although I did get a couple of pictures earlier in the month when he, for unknown reasons, stopped for a little lie down on the stairs in the Community block:

Truly, there is no explaining cats.

And finally…

As I’m sure I’ve said in previous Novembers, one of the things I truly love about the Monastery’s liturgical round is Advent. While Christmas trees and all the trimmings have been on sale for several weeks already, there is no tinsel to be found here, not yet. We lit the first of our Advent candles on the evening of Saturday 29th, and began again our journey towards the incarnation, the coming of God in human form, when the Word is born a wordless child. It’s a special and beautiful time of the year, with some wonderful music.

As Christmas draws near, we sing a series of 7 antiphons to the Magnificat at Vespers, known as the ‘O Antiphons’ or the ‘Great Os’. Each of them invites us to reflect on a different aspect of Christ, drawn from Scipture: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonaï, O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Daystar), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) and O Emmanuel.

If you’re unfamiliar with the O Antiphons (or even if you’re very familiar with them), I highly recommend Malcolm Guite’s set of sonnets, one for each antiphon, which can be found on his blog: https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/tag/advent-antiphons/. Whatever leads us through this Advent, I hope and pray that we might each find time to pause and to reflect on this greatest of all gifts, and to give thanks. Amen.