Our News

Our Chapel Not Open to the Public At Present

In accordance with the Coronavirus guidelines, our Chapel is not open to the public for daily Mass or the Divine Office.  While these circumstances last know that you and all you care for are lovingly prayed for.

Honouring Mary in May

There is an age old tradition in the Catholic world of honouring Mary in a special way during the month of May. The most common expression is to bring flowers to the Church, to lay them before the statue or image of Mary and to offer prayers to her.  St Therese, the Little Flower mentioned in her autobiography, the Story of A Soul, something about how when she was too little to join the May devotions, she would stay at home and carry out her devotions with the maid – she made an altar according to her taste and offered flowers and prayers to Mary.   In our community, we also have a lovely devotion during the month of May to show our love for the Mother of God.  After Vespers, we light a candle before an image of Mary.  A Sister reads to the community something about Mary – like an excerpt from a book, a poem – of her choice.  Then we sing a hymn, again of her choice. Finally, the presider ends the devotion with a short invocation to Mary.  We take turns each day in doing this.

Mary, Mother of Carmel, pray for us!

Mary, Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May, pray for us!

A Glimpse of our Life During Lockdown

Online shopping and home delivery are something we, as a community, have been using even before the present Covid-19 period.  They have proved very useful to us, who have embraced enclosure as part of our life. Our consumption of every day goods – food items, household supplies, toiletries - is big. Big enough for us to order wholesale.

With the government’s implementation of a lockdown, we are lucky that most of our suppliers continued to deliver to us.  Just a few stopped and one of them was our bread supplier.  Somebody has said that even in a bad situation, there is always a positive side.  This lockdown is no exception.  We could not allow the situation to result in us not having bread for breakfast!  Several sisters are now baking bread for the community.  Each one has her own recipe and bread preference which means we have a wider selection of bread now.

I love the smell of bread just out of the oven!  My mouth waters just to think of it!