to the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Well, greetings to everyone. In this final address, we shall reflect upon the challenging of God and others, as we consider the story of our sister, the Blessed Virgin Mary. I wish to share something of our unfolding story. I've already spoken at the beginning of our retreat about how 12 Anglican sisters became Catholic nuns. Today, I'd like to share something about how our journey has continued, how our physical journey of trying to find a building to live in impacted upon our spiritual journey of creating a spiritual home for a new community, and how the corporate journey has affected each sister's personal story. Finally, I shall seek to draw out of this all our experience of God's charitable grace and blessing through the charitable fellowship of others.

[01:05]

Shortly before we were received as Catholics, I warned the whole community that each sister wanting to be received as a Catholic had to be prepared to walk down a drive with just what she could carry in a bag in her hand, leaving anything else behind, without any guarantee for the future, just going forward in time and faith, in accordance with her conscience. Hope doesn't want it, let's call it, and we retreated into the Catholic Church on the 1st of January 2013. The morning after our reception, we made our reunion as Catholics for the first and last time till the convent became so dense as to be our spiritual home. After that, the twelve of us, with our essential personal possessions, ordered a coach and set off. We had no money, no home, we left with no financial settlement from our previous community, Lone Diamonds, with the strong conviction that becoming Catholic, with our response to our Lord's consulting call, could follow me. We arrived at 16 years and we arrived on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is a little island close to the mainland of England. It's part of England, but you have to know what a ferry is, or what is a hovercraft, and you have to know what a hovercraft is to get there. So we went on the ferry and we arrived at 16 years. We were supposed to be there for six weeks, but it turned into eight months.

[02:10]

And basically, after we left, we were told to come back. So we were stuck there, because we were trying to go home. There were times when we wondered whether we were being forced to remain with those sisters. We loved them and felt they were only love for us. And it's our corporate discernment for us that got us co-ordinated to continue our journey elsewhere. But where and how would it be possible? Despite the fact that we had no money, we wished to acquire digital technology. In faith, I and another sister found the estate agent's particulars and visited its promising possibilities. We and others traced perfectly for homes. The answer to all our prayers came in the following way. An American, a native visitor from a national denomination down in Tennessee, was on route to the Global Identity Institute in Birmingham, the first homage in John Stanley Newman. She was studying there, doing a PhD, which is the United States of Learning, and we've come to know her and her community. So she came to give us up on the Isle of Wight for a couple of nights, staying outside the enclosure, because on the Isle of Wight they have paper in the enclosure, so even for other religions they couldn't come into the enclosure. as soon as you get to Maryville, go to the chapel, get on your knees, and beg the Lethal Joy of Henry Newland to join us at home.

[03:15]

She would be very requested. That same night, she emailed me to say that as she left the chapel, she bumped into one of her supervisors, and she said, where have you been? And she said, Guardians visited the Colonial families on the Isle of Wight. And this supervisor said, How do I know? There's convents allowed to be booked or held up the road. So she emailed me with the details. I chatted down with Sister Superior. This was Wednesday evening. And by Friday evening, I'd spoken to Sister Superior on the phone. She told me that they had already moved into the Presbytery of Gotham Roads because the community grows smaller. So it was just realism that was based there. The rest of us went back to the main convents in Ireland, because there were Irish nuns. Or they would sort it around the country, but it was just preset there. They were convents. So they'd moved into the Presbytery of Gotham Roads, and that's why they were going to be held in the convents. But she told me she had already managed the cemetery, and that I was about to remove all the furniture and fake items that they could not take with them. How soon do we need to leave, I asked, and she said, as soon as possible. So, the next morning, I was in the first hovercraft that left the Isle of Wight, accompanied by another sister, and we raced to Birmingham to clear the convents.

[04:16]

The Prince of Tyria shows it around and explains that the convent had been privately built for them 50 years before, but they now needed to sell it because their figures are too old to carry on there and the elders used to bring care homes, so they just didn't need it anyway. They had desperately not wanted it to be sold to developers, but could not imagine that any other religious community would come forward to buy it. Because of the prices that's high in the Isle of Wight, if we were to get back that night, we had just over an hour to view the convent and to set off on our own journey. When we knew it was arriving, we knew it was the right place. It's perfect," we said to her, clearly delighted that it was superior. Very good," she said. She beamed. But we had no knowledge of it, was the next thing I said. She? I said up. But we're convinced that if the Lord wants us here, he will provide what we need. Her expression didn't change. This mighty woman of faith agreed. Nothing changed with us at all. As this was his career, I was entertained and comfortable as much, but I accepted it, but then she said, oh, I'll get well and all that before you come. And I'm like, stop. Leave everything. If you don't have anything, everything you don't need, just leave. I mean everything. No one will deal with it. And that's exactly what happened.

[05:17]

The next night, I was fully furnished. I was confident that they didn't need anything, and so I didn't have to worry about things. She, anything, it was all there. This little period explained, this was on a Friday, no it's Saturday, this little period explained that the property was to go on the open market in two days' time, on a Monday. Well, I was staying on two mornings. But I asked her to contact the estate agent and to tell them not to put it on the open market. I said, don't give us time to raise the purchase price. This wonderful faith-filled sister agreed to do just that. She told me subsequently, the night we spoke on the phone that Friday, I told the other sisters we were coming to you tomorrow morning, and I said to them, it's only prayer that faith really helps out, but I'm going to keep an all-night prayer vigil, you're welcome to join me. And the other sisters were too exhausted, but this little period stayed up most of the night, praying that we would agree to buy them fair content. Eventually, after loading the night up without sleep, when she felt too tired to carry on, she told the Lord, Jesus, I'm going now, take up your dues, and she went off to bed. And she now described the whole thing as a miracle of fate. The next day, while we were alive, we were uncritical in our desire to purchase it, although we didn't have any money.

[06:18]

But I told her the Lord will provide it, or the Lord will, and she agreed. So she cancelled the house for their economy, stopped the estate agent, and we waited. And in a couple of days, we had confirmed that the benefactor, who wanted to remain anonymous, had heard of our plight, and decided to buy the convent, allowing us to make their paying rent. And it conceded a miracle. And that's the first recall from a charitable fellowship. We have come to appreciate the meaning of childhood friendship through God's grace and blessings, and we've experienced it through those bride sisters, and I wanted to come and live with them for eight months, but now it was time for us to depart. But I'll let one of the sisters take up a story about departure from marriage. I've paused. The reality of our departure gradually grew, as did the pile of luggage that we left here at the bottom of the main fair. While the day performed, it was perhaps a good thing that the sun shone out earlier than expected, as the practicalities of loading, belongings, antiques, and rounding up systems took charge of those very final minutes. The coach driver was our old friend, who was ported to the Isle of Wight, who wanted all of us once to go. Did you remember us? He certainly did. And he also had vivid memories of visiting the coach stop, and attempting to bring us up the Abbey Drive.

[07:21]

Thankfully this time all was well, as the coach had been brought to the back entrance and loaded there. The two communities gathered together for the last time to face their will, aware as in God, we were now united forever by the bonds of love and prayer that had been forged between us. Once again, we were off on a journey of faith across the water, to what was to become Ireland's own." Seven or so hours after I was in the coach, we arrived at our student homes, and the first thing we did was to go to chapel for a brief time of prayer and thanksgiving to God for his provision in bringing us to this place. This hollywood has been crazy for 15 years, and it seems that trouble has never been empty. In recent years, it has been adapted for elderly religion. so there were handbells and walk-in showers suitable for the needs of our more elderly sisters already in faith. The sisters had kept their beds, sheets and furniture so we had a fully functioning cupboard and our kind sisters on the island's right had arranged for a delivery of food so that we would not need to worry about the first few meals. We truly felt God's goodness and charitable fellowship which was dedicated once again. Over the next few months, we started the process of breaking down physical and spiritual roots. There were then 12 of us, and our only regular income was 8 basic old-age pensions that the Lords provided.

[08:25]

Remember, I won't stop there, when I say the Lords provided, a little more competently cowardly than I did. What actually happened was, in England, if you pay your national insurance contributions, when you come to your old age, you're entitled to a state pension. So, I found it to be a great stunner that the aid workers who were of that age were eligible for their pensions. And the idea was that we would pool our pensions, and we thought we could start with our Ministry of Profitology, pay for debt, do it in retreat, etc. during our livings. But the problem was that there was a hold-up between our debt-sharing arms pensions from our handicapped community. So initially, we were literally left without any money. So we actually borrowed from our handicapped families to come to them. When we left, they were actually going to leave us to leave without a penny. And I said, if I'm going to take the guide, I don't actually have any money to pay for coffins. And we have a charge of £29,000 for our pensions. Anyway, so they gave us £3,000, between 12 and up, to cover the cost of the coffin, etc. But we had £3,000 initially, that was a date long ago. But after that, for some reason, they couldn't seem to talk about sending us our money.

[09:27]

It went on and on and on. The amount we were living on was getting smaller and smaller. I overheard two of the elder sisters one day comparing how much weight they were losing, but we were trading our ladle spoons for the elderly sisters. At that point, a lot of British young lads pretended to be loud throughout ordering and said, Dear Father, the sisters are hungry. I couldn't reply. I got a reply three weeks later, very notoriously saying the sisters are hungry. But right then, I took an action. I'm going to the parish streets and to the praetory. I'm here to say something. Um, our money hasn't come through yet, and I'm having a bit of problems looking after the churches. What do you call the parish? But what have they taught? Um... Those people brought us food, and that coming up managed the first few weeks. Those first dates that were provided, that time provided. Members of the parish brought a stick of food, and it fully became a regular practice, that after a lunch club on a Tuesday, they had a fresh club for the elderly in the parish on Tuesdays. The leftover family would come to us for our Tuesday supper, and they always brought us more than one red chocolate, et cetera, almonds. And members of the parish kindly decided to provide us with arbitrary coconut sugar every week, and another one generally brought us the ingredients every week for our main Sunday dinner.

[10:28]

and that's what happens when we've got our own money coming through the parish they need to take care of us. In other words, the Lord talks after us through the local parish. The Monarchy Parish Requirements have been confirmed with how we might have a daily mass. Before we came, I discovered that although the parish church was only two doors along, the cost of a day's, a Monday to Saturday inclusive, daily parish mass was held in our convent chapel. But I sent a message that we would be very glad to continue that confidence. The parish then didn't think it would be like an ordinary day opening the parish church building during the week. and we didn't actually have a daily match, so it worked out beautifully. And that has been a great blessing, but there were other challenges. Within two months of our arrival, two of the younger, physically fit citizens separately discerned a call to other communities. One of the citizens that got was calling her passionate community on the Isle of Wight, which we only did for eight months. The other was one who originally called to a different Anglican community. Remember, it was a Catholic community, she was the one who joined us, which she felt drawn to a more active Catholic community. For we determined that it was right to let both systems test their standard of calling, but inevitably there were serious implications.

[11:30]

It meant that we were to limit our ten systems, with only myself and another system in those days, tension age. We did not have the trust that God would function or take care of the future. And confirmation for us, if only we needed it, came that, almost immediately, we heard from Rome that they were ready to be baptized properly, as a holy or commonest monastery of Benedictine spirituality within the Paschal Delirium. These usual processes take years, but they actually have it all in exactly one year. One year on, from the day we were received into the church as Catholics, we were treated as electors, and we were the electors community in the church. Brilliant. So, on the 3rd of January, exactly one year after we were received, we were doing a fit-up, and we reaffirmed our vows. Our vows had been rectified by those, but we re-pronounced them cognitively as Catholics, in Benedictine formulary, so that everybody would be able to see us and hear us doing that, and that was the next stage of our life. Now, one of the sisters, I looked at that way to see what age she's born, and she'd been living there for five to sixteen years, wrote an article to me at the time, just to explain how it'd been to her, and this is what she said, and wrote, When I was in my mid-fifties, I visited the wife of the sister in our infirmary, and I asked her, what advice would you give someone of my age about preparing for death?

[12:36]

She thought for a moment and then said, perhaps it's letting go. In living watches, we've all had to let go of so much that belonged to our personal, as well as our shared past. I certainly had to let go of things in work and many personal contacts. For all of us, the condoms that did our homes, for some of us, excluding myself, were more than simply gears, which was only through letting go of the old life that a new life became possible for us. I knew that having to let go was an unavoidable aspect of getting old. I used to think that in the onset of one's age, there would be a gradual progression from to-ing to being. In fact, it was not gradual for me. There was a sudden and lasting loss of mobility, bringing with it the loss of independence. It was the occasion of one challenge after another, and of learning in ways not immediately clear to me. God was working in my life and asking me to trust Him. So I find myself thinking that if this is indeed the real God for this stage of my life, I will always come, And it's not enough to accept it, I must learn to embrace it, and that in itself is the next challenge." She is not the only sister who had to embrace the challenges that faced us in those months.

[13:38]

Shortly before Christmas that year, that first year, a sister in her eighties was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy, followed by a course of daily radiotherapy for weeks. Another sister spent three weeks in hospital over Christmas that year, the car play year. Another sister was hospitalised with a broken hip. And these three sisters were all in their eighties, but they still all felt they were living in great old days. As one of them explained, I quote, I read recently about a founder of a religious community in the 19th century, who after a wonderfully strenuous and interesting life, found herself an old age, a nobody, so deprived and forgotten. She confided to a priest who visited her, I think that you have lost everything you have in the world as I have. Such a wonderful new life comes into you. I think about her work and admire and hope that it grows to passion. We said all is patiently unknown, there's no guarantee for the future. Did we regret it? No. No sister has regretted the steps she has taken. We gave up as a youthful historic convent with a 24-hour staffed infirmary, and we have given it a purpose-built convent. We look on to each other with a genuine support from the National Health.

[14:41]

We have indeed behind our aunties and sisters. We have been given Catholic sisters and brothers who have, by their love and affection, shown us what it means to be part of a Catholic, worldwide family. We have truly come home in the Church. We have all lost friends. It is furthered who our true friends really are. We have been shown the most extraordinary charity, by God in calling us into his church, and by providing us with all our financial and temporal needs, by the Right Hand providing us 12 strangers in the home for 8 months, by the Honourable Fence Actor who purchased our monastery and now just rented it, by the local parish providing us with food and donations to keep us going, But we are living in challenging times. Just before Christmas, last Christmas, we were told by our landlords that the scientists wanted to sell the land for joining our convent. But our landlord is not moving us out, but warned us that if the adjacent land is being sold to developers for a small residential estate, which will come right up to the boundaries of our property, we're likely to be in for 20 years of mindlessly building work. Further, the very nature of property is worse against us, but fairly and quietly, perhaps, so far, will be no longer. So we're advised that now is the time to move.

[15:44]

But while we haven't found the right property to move to, and with the new issue of outlying the fund, on what we're just getting on with trying to find where we're supposed to be, but we feel that there is a charitable grace available for every challenge, and that even our challenges can bear upon us a shower of blessings. But Trista, one of the two sisters who left, if you remember the two of the other ones, wanted to transfer to Ryde. She transferred to Ryde and then she had to go to a game position and start all over again, but she came from Ryde and she's very happy there. The second sister has come from another community, she entered to a more active community and started off with Tent and then started to make the biggest mistake of her life and asked to come back. So she has come back and we've got her to go back to Lebanon and she's fully one of us. again, etc. and life carries on. We do feel that Dr. Tan is quite nice. We talked to Dr. Henry, who's been looking after us, and I mentioned to him that this administration, which little did I know, was going to be all right. Shortly after we arrived, I mean, we hadn't got very much money, etc., and we were being very careful, one of the patients just kicked to me and said, Mother, we don't actually have enough bread to go to one morning's breakfast. I didn't quite know what we were going to do, so I thought we were just going to have to go out on the road and buy some bread.

[16:46]

So I said to her, I'll pick up her, either you or I will go out and get us some bread. We'll be shocked if it opens. During supper, the doorbell sounded. It was a parishioner, for we didn't know, who brought us a carrier bag for the shopping that she thought we might need. And in the bag was two loaves of bread. And that one alone, I thought, you know what? The Lord didn't count upon us to get us any single bite, but when we wanted, He would send it. And we truly felt at that moment that we were experiencing once again, charity expenditure with this kind parishioner. We have confidence in the future, because we have confidence in our loving God, whose charity towards His children disarms us. The subject of this retreat has been the quest for the benefiting understanding of peace. So to do this, we've looked attentively at five specific areas, using a rule of synthesis as a framework, the life and writings of Saint John Hevino Lutz as our guide. And those areas were, 1. Rhyme and Formality, at the beginning, 2. Spiritual Transparency, holiness, heart sensitivity, prayer, love fond, the love of God, and love for labour, and charity fellowship, the charity of God and others.

[17:48]

He's used women, but no less helpful himself as a saint, and that's precisely why we can relate to him, because seeing which ordinary he struggles with life's challenges as we do. In going to all these early sainthoods he has followed, I have nothing but the saints about me, as anyone knows, and it is a severe and solitary multiplication to be brought next door to one. I may have a high view of many things, but it is the consequence of education and of the peculiar path of the internet that this is a very different thing from being what I admire. I have no tendency to be a saint. It is a sad thing to say. Saints are not literary men. They do not love the Catholics. They do not love tales. I may be well enough in my own way, but it is not the high rise. It is an ugly thing to wrap the saints' shoes. They think that it is a saintly thing, usually dragging their feathers. The aim of our spiritual journey has been to draw closer to God. So let me invite you for the last time to give your listening to Him. And in a way, these words sum up the whole retreat. Put yourself then, my dear child, into the hands of your loving Father and Redeemer, who knows and loves you better than you know or love yourself.

[18:59]

He has appointed every action of your life. He created you, has made you, and has marked down the going way and tower that He will take you to Himself. He learns all your thoughts, and deals with you in all your slumber, more than any creature can deal, and accepts and makes note of your prayers, even before you make them. He will never fail you, and he will give you what you seek to do. And as he tries you, and seems to withdraw himself from you, and afflicts you, still trust in him. For at length you will see how good and gracious he is, and how well he will provide for you. Be courageous and generous, and give him your heart, and you will never repent of the sacrifice. Amen. In the final comics, or books? Maybe we all die in the last life, and the... we die twice, and so on, or at least twice.

[20:05]

No, it's... it's a... you know, it's... yes, yes, yes. Maybe I'll do a little bit of... [...] a But if you start off and look at the games, the first thing that happens is you end up with this. One little bit of work. One little problem in my life. I can go back to where the Gatorhead story came from. All I can think of is, who made it? The game is letting go. You think about school kids, listen, they can't listen unless you let go. I was thinking, how can I tell this whole story of you letting go? I need to start making up my own kind of way. The other thing I was wondering, I'm not a fishing or mountain person, but did I wash and shower? Oh, right.

[21:06]

No, it's basically, the shower is actually tucked away in that arm. You pull the door open, and you just walk through to it. There's no step or anything. It's brilliant for people who come and talk about bees or whatever. They don't have to step over anything. They just walk in, and they just pull the door. I know he described something, but he didn't know what he was describing, hopefully. I don't know. In fact, when you first talked to me, I was in my table of handcuffs, and I was going to make more descriptions. And I happened to be reading a book, and I said, Peter, on his column, where he goes into his book, and he mentions, apparently, the same master, you know, the confessional handcuffs, or anything, and I had to speak, because it was a lot to do for him. So, it was certainly another way to end it, but it's almost endless. Going out, but not fishing. I'm a fisherman. I've been doing this for years. We're going out at noon. It's the worst time to go. But they go out anyway. It's crazy, but they don't go out. Abundance, good point.

[22:14]

It's available for people to learn. That would be amazing.

[22:23]

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