Part Two Identity and Belonging I don’t think you could really say that I had any great teenage rebellion. I tried to do the ‘normal’ things of clubbing mid-week, largely because it was half the price of the weekend rates. More than once I put a sachet of hair dye back on the shelf at …
Author Archives: Turvey Nuns
Becoming the Body of Christ
Part One “What difference does it make if the bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Christ and we don’t?”― Godfrey Diekmann OSB I’ve spent the weekend riding the shockwaves of reactions to Traditionis Custodes. As you would expect, it’s a very mixed bag of responses with some very regrettable postings on both …
Real where is matters: Dolly Parton and St Benedict
To look at me, you probably wouldn’t guess that I am a huge Dolly Parton fan. You could be forgiven for imagining that Gregorian Chant might be more my thing. I grew up in a household where Radio’s Two Country Time show on a Sunday night was a much a marker of Sunday as going …
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A continuous Lent?
‘The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent. Since, few, however, have the strength for this, we urge the entire community during these days of Lent to make its manner of life most pure and to wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times.’ Rule of St Benedict Ch …
A hidden flame
Celebrating St Scholastica For many of the special feasts and solemnities in our calendar we are blessed with hymns written by members of our community. I often reflect that in these hymns we sing the theology of what it means to belong to the Benedictine Communities at Turvey. The feast of St Scholastica provides a …
Candlemas
Luke 2:22-40 Throughout the liturgical year there are some hymns which seem to draw together all that I hold dear in biblical imagery and incarnational theology. Hail to the Lord who comes is one of those hymns. This hymn helps me make an immediate connection between the Gospel scene of the presentation and my own …
With the Gospel for our guide…
‘Clothed then with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide, that we may deserve to see him who has called us to his kingdom.’ ( Prologue, Rule of St Benedict) I entered the monastery in 1993 and so have consciously lived the …
O Emmanuel
December 23rd Liturgy of the Word Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24Luke 1:57-66 O Emmanuel, king and lawgiverdesire of the nations, Saviour of all people.Come and set us free, Lord our God. O Emmanuel O come, O come, and be our God-with-usO long-sought With-ness for a world without,O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.Come to us Wisdom, …
O Rex Gentium
December 22nd Liturgy of the Word 1 Sam 1:24-28Luke 1:46-56 O King of all the nations,the only joy of every human heart;O keystone of the mighty arch of man,come and save the creatureyou fashioned out of dust. O Rex Gentium O King of our desire whom we despise,King of the nations never on the throne,Unfound …
O Oriens
December 21st Song of Songs 2:8-14Luke 1:39-45 O Radiant Dawn, splendour of eternal light,sun of justice;come, shine on thosewho dwell in darknessand the shadow of death. O Oriens First light and then first lines along the eastTo touch and brush a sheen of light on waterAs though behind the sky itself they tracedThe shift and …