The month of June is always very full liturgically  with Solemnities Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, John the Baptist, St Peter & Paul all following each other with Pentecost Sunday this year opening the month and closing Eastertide.  Our liturgies have been very rich, we are blessed with a united group of voices that adds to the prayerfulness of the occasion.
Amidst these great days we had a visit from Fr Raphael from Mozambique who was on his way to Ireland to participate in the 50th Eucharistic Congress. He met the sisters in the parlour and gave us a very inspiring picture of Parish life in his country. His Parish consists of 11 thousand parishioners scattered over a 250 mile radius – and we think we are short of priests here in Europe!  Brenda Abbott is hoping to raise £20.000 for Father by cycling through his Parish in September. All proceeds go to this project . Brenda and her husband Ray cover all their flights and expenses from their own pocket. All proceeds from the sale of our dvd ‘Never Lose Hope’ go to this worthwhile project.
We celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a cloister party, not having a street at hand!  We all stood outside in the rain on the Tuesday to

catch a glimpse of the world war 2 aeroplanes and were rewarded  as the flypast flew directly over the monastery. Mass was offered for Her Majesty.

Our beautiful old monastery is beginning to groan and show more cracks than usual. Our subsidence monitoring has been extended for another 6 months. Hopefully the end of the house will have not dropped off by the time they reach an agreement of what they are going to do. Last week saw the choir roof leaking badly, the Divine Office was accompanied  by a steady drip. Central Roofers came to our rescue and replaced the offending slates.
At the request of Archbishop Vincent Nichols  we are having daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in union with the Eucharitsic Congress in Dublin.