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 the late Archbishop of Leicester, Virgin Mary. I will share something of our unfolding story. I have already spoken at the beginning of our retreat about how the 12 Anglican Sisters became Catholic nuns. Today, I would like to explain 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 blessings through the charitable fellowship of others.

[01:03]

Shortly before we were received as Catholic, I warned to the whole community that each sister wanting to be received as a Catholic had to be prepared to walk down a slide 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 blind faith, in accordance with her conscience. Both those wanted, 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, in a convent, which until then had been our spiritual home. After mass, 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, no diamonds, just the firm conviction that becoming Catholic was our response to our multiple children's calls to follow me. We arrived at the Phoenix Abbey ride on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is a small island close to the mainland of England. It's part of England, but you have to know how to ferry, or what do you call it, hovercars? You use the name of hovercars to get there. So we went on the ferry, and we arrived at the Phoenix. We were supposed to be there for six weeks, but it turned into eight months.

[02:08]

Basically, after we left, we were told we can't come back, so we were stuck there until we could find a new home. There were times when we wondered whether we would be forced to remain with our sisters. We loved them, and felt they were only love for us. And it's our corporate discernment 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, with little prior to the apology, in faith, I and another sister found the estate agent's particulars and visitors' promising possibilities. We and others traced perfectly for a home. The answer to all our prayers came in the following way. An American religion teacher from a national religion down in Tennessee was on route to Fairbanks Institute in Birmingham, the first homage in terms of standing women. She was studying there during her PhD, which would be my distance learning, and we come to know her and her community. So she came to visit us on the Isle of Wight for a couple of nights, staying outside the enclosure, because on the Isle of Wight they have paper enclosure, so even for other religions they couldn't come into the enclosure. As I waved her off, my last words took over, as soon as you get to Marydale, go into the chapel, get on your knees, and beg Blessed Joy Henry Newman to join us at home.

[03:13]

She begged and requested. That same night, she emailed me to say that as she left the chapel, she bumped into one of the supervisors, and he said, where have you been? And she says, well, I've been visiting the colonists' lounge on the Isle of Wight. And this old supervisor said, don't we know? There's colonists allowed to drop their mail up the road. So she gave out the English details, I chatted down with Mr. Superior, this was Wednesday evening, and by Friday evening I'd spoken to Mr. Superior on the phone. She told me that they had already moved into the placentary of Brothel Road, because the community was growing smaller, so it was just me and them that were going to stay, and the rest stepped on back to their main convent in Ireland, because they were Irish nuns, or they were searching around the country, but there were just three left there in the convent. So they moved into the placentary of Brothel Road, and that's when we went to sell the convent. But she told me she was already moving to the pledgatory, and someone was about to remove all the furniture and fakes as 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 on the first hovercraft that they had laid out right, accompanied by another sister, and we raced to Birmingham to see the condoms. Two Christian clinicians showed it around, and explained that the colony had been privately sold to them 50 years before, but they now needed to sell it because their figures were too old to carry on there, and the elderly people were in care homes, who had lived in the area anyway.

[04:25]

They had desperately not wanted it to be sold to developers, and could not imagine that any other religious community would come forward to buy it. We don't want to try and use the tie in the eye of the white. If we were going to get back that night, we had just over an hour to view the continent and to set off on our return journey. When we knew it was arriving, we knew it was the right place. It's perfect, we said to a clearly delighted Sister Superior. Very good, she said. She's beaming. What we have now is too fit with connecting ourselves. She... I said, I was convinced that the Lord wants us here. He will provide what we need. Her expression didn't change. There was one more minute of faith, of greed, but nothing changed with it at all. As soon as it appeared, I was entertained and comfortable as rock, rag, sateen equipment. She said, oh, I'll get rid of all that before you come. I mean, like, stop. Leave everything. If you don't have anything, everything you don't need, just leave. I mean everything. Then we'll deal with it. And that's exactly what happened. They left us a fully furnished convent, because they didn't need anything. And for me to have to worry about faith, Cheap, anything, it was all there. This little kiddy had explained that it was on a Friday, no it's Saturday.

[05:26]

This little kiddy explained that the property was due to go on the open market in two days' time, on a Monday. Well, that's the same Monday morning. But I asked her to contact the estate agent and tell them not to put it on the open market. I said, just give us time to raise the purchase price. This wonderful Playfield 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 view tomorrow morning, but I said to those, it's only fair that they should go and head out, but I'm going to keep an all-night prayer vigil, you're welcome to join me. But the other sisters were too exhausted, so this little period stayed up most of the night, praying that we would agree to ride at their conference. Eventually, after loading her mind up with her feet, when she felt too tired to carry on, she told the Lord, Jesus, I'm going now, get up to you, and she went off to bed. And she now described the whole thing as a miracle of fate. The next day, on the other hand, we were uncritical in our desire to purchase it, although we didn't have any money. But I told her the Lord was right, it was the Lord's will, and she agreed. But she cancelled the house plan accordingly, stopped the intake engines, and we waited. Within a couple of days, we had confirmed that the benefactor, the Washingtonian nobleman, had heard of our plight and decided to buy the condoms, allowing us to live there, paying rent.

[06:33]

And it was indeed a miracle. That was the first accomplishment of charitable fellowship. We had come to appreciate the meaning of charitable fellowship through God's grace and blessings, and we had experienced it through those bride sisters, allowing us to come and live with them for eight months, but now it was time for us to depart. The reality of our departure gradually grew as did the pile of luggage that we left sitting at the bottom of the main stairs. While the day performed, it was perhaps a good thing that the French arrived earlier than expected, as the practicalities of loading, the enormous antiques, and rounding up systems took charge of those really fine minutes. The coach driver was our old friend and was fortunate to be either white, or wanted, or was one to know. Did he remember us? He certainly did. And he also had serious memories of getting the coach stuck, and attempting to bring us up the Abbey Drive. Thankfully this time all was well, as the coach had been brought to the right entrance and loaded there. The truth in it is that they are together for the last time, to face their will, aware as in God, who were now united forever by the bonds of love and prayer that had been forged between us. Once again, we were asked on a journey of faith across the water to watch what should become our new home."

[07:37]

Seven or so hours after boarding the coach, we arrived at our new home, and the first thing we did was to go to chapel, complete our prayer and thanksgiving to God for his provision in bringing us to this place. This holiday had been plaguing us for 15 years, and indeed the chapel had never been empty. In recent years, it has been adapted for elderly religion, so there are hand-held and walking showers suitable for the needs of our more elderly sisters already in faith. The sisters are dressed up in red sheets and furniture, so they have a fully functioning cupboard, and are kind sisters on the Isle of Wight, and arranged for a delivery of food so that we would not need to worry about a thirsty meal. We truly felt God's goodness and charitable fellowship, which was demonstrated once again. Over the next few months, we started the project of putting down physical and spiritual roofs. There were then 12 of us, and our only regular income was 8 basic old age pensions that the Lords provided. Members of the top desk weren't able to manage the two more complicated salaries that 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, as Anglicans, we've always done that, so that each of the eight Christians who were of that age were eligible for their pensions.

[08:40]

And the idea was that we must pool our pensions, and we should be able to start with our Ministry of Public Policy, taking debt, doing retreats, etc., to earn our livings. But the problem was, there was a hold-up between our dictionary and our pensions. pensions from our Anglican community. So, traditionally, we were literally left without any money. So, we actually borrowed from our Anglican family and said to them, when we left, they were actually going to leave us to leave without a penny. And I said, if one of the sisters dies, I don't actually have any money to pay for coffins. Can we have a little bit of what is our entitlement, our pensions? Anyway, so they gave us £3,000 to do 12 of us. And that was what we covered the bottom of the coffin, etc. We had £3,000 initially, that was eight months ago. But after that, for some reason, it couldn't seem to short out any of our money. It went on and on and on. So, the longer we were living, obviously, the smaller and smaller. And I overheard two of the elder sisters one day comparing how much weight they were losing, because we were saving our maid's food for the elderly sisters. At that point, a lot of those young things pretended to be loud to our elderly and said, Dear Father, the sisters are hungry.

[09:42]

I couldn't reply. I got a reply three weeks later, saying I'm sorry to hear the sisters are hungry, but why didn't I take an action? I'm going to the parish street, into the clay quarry. I'm being asked to say something. My husband hasn't come through yet, and I'm having a bit of problems looking after the tissues. What do you call the parish? What have they taught? various people brought us food, and that coming up managed the first few weeks. So on Thursday, the Lord provided, that time provided, members of the parish brought us bits of food, and it only became a regular captive, but after a lunch club on a Tuesday, they had a special club for the elderly in the parish on Tuesdays. They let those families come to us for our Tuesday supper, and they always brought us more than one red chocolate, et cetera. And members of the parish kindly decided to provide us with a retreat coffee and sugar every week, and another one generally brought us the ingredients every week for our main Sunday dinner. And that's what happened, so we got our own money coming through, the parish basically took care of us. In other words, the Lord looked after us through the Lord's Parish. My spiritual priority has been to discern how we might have a daily mass. Before we came, I discovered that although the parish church was only two doors along, the trust of the deans had not meant to facilitate inclusive, but daily parish mass was held in our convent chapel.

[10:47]

But I sent a message that we would be very glad to continue that custom. The parish then didn't need to keep light and orderly opening of the parish church buildings during the week, and we would actually have a daily mass, 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 the call to our communities. One of the citizens that got was calling her passionate community on the Isle of Wight, which only lasted for 8 months. The other was one who had originally come from a different Anglican community. Remember there was a Catholic community she got to come on and joined us, which she felt drawn to a more active Catholic community. It would be determined that it was right to let both sisters test their sense of calling, but inevitably there were serious implications. It meant that we were a community of ten sisters, with only myself and another sister in those very tension age. We didn't have the trust that God would sometimes take care of the future. A confirmation for us in the immediate came that, almost immediately, we heard from them that they were ready to be baptized properly as a fully autonomous, monastery of benedictine spirituality within the Paschal Delirium. The usual process takes years, but they've actually done it all in exactly one year.

[11:51]

One year on, from the day we were received into the church as Catholics, we were treated erected, and we were the elective 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 recognised by those, but we re-pronounced those topics as Catholics, in Ben 16 formulary, so that everybody would be able to see us and hear us doing that, and that would be the next stage of our life. Now, one of the sisters, at that point she was 84, and she'd been with me for about 15 years, wrote an article to me at the time to explain how it had been for her, and this is what she said, and I quote. When I was in my mid-fifties, I visited the wife of the sister in our infirmary, and I asked her what advice would she give someone of my age about preparing for death. She paused for a moment and then said, practice letting go. In leaving Watsons, 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 the interesting work and many personal contacts. For all of us, the condoms that did our homes, for some of us, including myself, were more than fit to give.

[12:52]

It 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 with the onset of old age, there would be a gradual progression from doing to being. In fact, it was not gradual for me. There was a tremendous 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, for I was just working in my life and asking me to trust Him. So I find myself thinking that if this is indeed the way for a bit of God to this stage of my life, I will always be calm, and it is not enough to accept it, I must learn to embrace it, and that in itself is the next challenge." King is not the only sister who had to embrace the challenges that faced us in those months. 24 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 for heart failure. 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 a great old age.

[13:56]

As one of them exclaimed, I quote, I read recently about a founder of a religious community in the 19th century, who after a wonderfully strenuous and influential life, found herself an old age, a nobody, horrified 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 goes to passion. We said all is patiently unknown, there's no guarantee for the future. Do we regret it? No. No sister has regretted this section in token. We gave up a beautiful historic convent with a 24-hour staff dictionary, and we have given it a perfect built convent. We look on to each other with additional support from the National Health. We have to leave behind our Anglican sisters. We have been given Catholic sisters and brothers who have, by their dance and affection, shown what it means to be part of a Catholic worldwide family. We have truly come home in the church. We are all God's friends. We too are brothers, though our true friends really are. We have been shown the most extraordinary charity, by God incorporating us into his Church, and by providing us with all our spiritual and temporal needs, by the Right Hand providing us to our strangers when the bones are eight months, by the Illuminati benefactor who nurtures our monastery and now just invented it, by the Local Christ providing us with food and donations to keep us going,

[15:14]

But we are living in challenging times. Just before Quidditch, last Christmas, we were told by our landlord 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 down-dune of our property, we're likely to be in for 20 years of noisy building work. Further, the very nature of property is quite against us, but credibly and quietly planned so far will be no longer. But on the other side, that said, now is the time to move. But while we haven't found the right property to move to, and there's a little issue about land to 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 share of the blessings. But sister, one of the two sisters who left, if you remember the two of the other ones, one she transferred to right, she transferred to the left, and she had a total game position, started all over again, but she came to Slough and Bowles, and she's very happy there. The second sister, who comes from a more active community, she went to a more active community, and started off in a tent, and then started to make the biggest mistake of her life, and asked to come back.

[16:16]

So she did come back, and we got her to go back to Logan Arms, and she's fully one of us again, et cetera, and life carries on. We do feel that Dr. Poundley looks on us, we feel that Dr. Henry is looking after us, I got a letter through the administration which hit on the note that I knew it was going to be alright. Shortly after the riot, I mean they hadn't got armed very much, 90% of them, they were being very careful. One of the officers said to me, he said, Mother, we don't actually have enough bread to go through our morning breakfast. I didn't know quite 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. So I said to her, I'll pick up her, either you or I will go out and get us some bread. We were shocked to hear that open. During supper, the doorbell sounded. It was a parishioner, for we didn't know, who brought us a carrier bag full of shopping that she bought with great need. And in the bag, had two loaves of bread. And that when we looked at it, I thought, you know what? The Lord has his hands upon us, we are going to be alright. When we leave from faith, we will find it. And we truly felt at that moment, that we were experiencing once again, charity fellowship with these kind parishioners. We have confidence in the future, because we have confidence in our loving God, whose charity towards his children is boundless.

[17:18]

The subject of this retreat is the quest for the benedictine understanding of faith. To do this, we've looked attentively at five specific areas, using the rule of St Benedict and the framework that life and writing from St John's Evening Lent have outlined. And those areas were rhymes from energy, at the beginning, then it's transparency, at the end, Harkin's Liturgy, Prayer, Lord Faunt, the Mother of God, and Dr. Weber, and charity scholarships, charity awards, and offers. He knew this to no end, but the New Year never saw himself as a saint, and that's precisely why we can relate to him, because he was ordinary. He struggled with life's challenges as we do. In coming to on his early sainthood, he has followed. I have nothing of a saint's authority as anyone owes, and it is a severe and solitary mortification 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 past of internet But 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.

[18:23]

They do not love the classics. They do not love tales. I may be well enough in my own way, but it is not for high-rises. It is an ugly thing to black the saint's shoes, if in Philips a saintly thought. You did blacking in heaven. The aim of our spiritual journey appears to draw closer to God, so let me invite you for the last time to clear your listening to me, 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 your dreamer, who knows and loves you better than you know or love yourself. He has appointed every action of your life. He created you, has made you, and has marked down the going way and hour when he will take you to himself. He knows all your thoughts, and feels for you in all your sadness more than any creature can feel, and accepts and makes note of your prayers, even before you make them. He will never fail you, and he will give you what is best for you. and that betrothed you, and pleased to betroth himself from you, and affix you, still trust in him.

[19:30]

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. And find clinics, or schools. Maybe we'll find a red light, or something. We wear flies, and so on, or at least cockroaches. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, [...] I couldn't help but think that if he's going to go off and look at the games, the first thing I'll have to do is hang him by the neck with this. Why not?

[20:32]

Don't worry. I'm not traveling. I ain't like it. I didn't move out of the way to work, so I gave her a head start. Now, what you think of this? You mean it. The game's letting go. You think, but my school kids, listen, they can't listen unless you let go. I was thinking, how can you tell me this whole story of you letting go? I need to start to meet Batman in real life anyway. The other thing I've found is, I've not got 15 minutes in person, but there's a Watson shower. Ah, thanks. No, so basically, the shower is actually tucked away behind us. You pull the door open, and you just walk through to it. There's no step or anything. Sort of on the toilet. It's brilliant for people who suffer from diabetes or whatever. They don't have to step over anything. You just, um, just walk in, and there's a door. I never described something, can you know what it is describing? No, I don't. And something I'll point you to is your first talk, you mentioned my favorite animal, now it's one of the most richer plants.

[21:33]

I have to be reading a book, it was Peter, in his poem, where he goes into himself and mentions, because he's a master, you know, he's a professional, and he hasn't taught anything, he doesn't have to speak, but a lot of people do for him. So, it's a circumstance in a lot of ways, and it's, it's the most endless. going out but not fishing. I've been doing this for years. We're going out at noon. It's the worst time to go. But you know what? Anyway, it's a great teacher's book. It helps a lot. And in fact, it's in abundance. There are 20 of them. It's available for people to read it. I'm not going to make this tank up just yet.

[22:24]

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