I will defeat my name, my names are on, but I will be loved, or not, I believe in heaven. His love should fill the earth to the brim, and it will give us a lot of sustenance, and it will be a pretty invulnerable substance, for his name sucks, and it will lead us not into temptation, but it will rid us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Well, greetings to everyone. In this final address, we shall reflect upon the charity of God and others, as we consider the story of the sisters of the Virgin Mary. I will share something of our unfolding story. I will read a quotation at the beginning of our retreat, about how God and inconsistent became Catholic nuns. Today, I would 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 person'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.

[01:01]

Shortly before we were received as Catholics, I warned to the whole community that each person wanting to be received as a Catholic had to be prepared to walk down this line with such what you can carry in a vague inner hand, leaving anything else behind, without any guarantee for the future, just going forward in blind faith, in accordance with their conscience. Both don't want it, let's call it, and we retreated into the Catholic Church on the 1st of January 2013. The morning after our reflection, we made our reunion as Catholics, for the first and last time, did the convent become too dense 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 the financial settlement from our previous community, Lone Diamonds, with the firm conviction that becoming Catholic, with our response to our Lord's consulting call, could follow need. We arrived at 16 years as we arrived on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is a small island, so much so that the mainland of England is part of England, that you have to go on a ferry, or what's it called, a hovercart? We used to name a hovercart to get there. So, we went on a ferry, and we arrived at 16 years. We were supposed to be there for six weeks, but it turned into eight months.

[02:07]

Basically, after we left, we were told we can't come back. So we were stuck there, so we had to find a new home. There were times when we wondered whether we would be in court to remain with those sisters. We loved them and felt they were only love for us. And it's our public 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, with little prior to the apology, in faith, I and my sister found the estate agent's particulars and visitors promising possibilities. We and others traced perfectly to our homes. The answer to all our prayers came in the following way. An American religious visitor from a national religion down in Tennessee was on route to the Fairbanks Institute in Birmingham, the first homage in John Stanley Newman. She was studying there, doing a PhD, which is religious learning, and we've 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 had paper enclosure, so even other religious people couldn't come into the enclosure. because she came to stay in a guest house in Pudlard Light. As I waved her off, my last words to her were, as soon as you get to Maryville, go into the chapel, get on your knees, and beg Lester George Henry Newland to join us at home.

[03:12]

She readily requested. That same night, she emailed me to say that as she left the chapel, she bumped into one of her supervisors, and he said, where have you been? And she said, well, I didn't think that you could call me at times on the Isle of Wight. And this supervisor said, How would I know? Those convents are allowed to be booked with mail up the road. So she gave me the 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 Presbytery of Notting Road, because the community was growing smaller, so it was just reason that we were going to stay there the rest of that month. Back to the main convent in Ireland, which had Irish nuns, or it was sorted around the country, but it was just re-led there, in the convent. So they'd moved into the Presbytery of Notting Road, and that's why they were ready to sell the convent. But she probably said when she noticed the pedigree, a fellow was about to remove all the furniture and fakes as items that they could not take with them. How soon do we need to view, I asked, and she said, as soon as possible. So, the next morning, I'm doing the first holocaust that left the Isle of Wight, accompanied by another sister, and we race to Birmingham to do the condoms. Two times superior shows us around, and explains that the condom had been privately sold to them 15 years before, but they now needed to sell it because their sisters are too old to carry on there, and the elders need to bring care home, because they didn't need it anyway.

[04:24]

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 kindness of the tide in the Isle of Wight, even when they got back that night, they had just over an hour to view the convent and to set off on their own journey. With a minute of arriving, we knew it was the right place. It's perfect, we said to a clearly delighted Sister Superior. Very good, she said. She'd been in, but we had no money to pay for it with the next day after. I said, I've got the consent that the Lord wants us here. He will provide what we need. Her expression didn't change. This mighty woman of faith agreed. I didn't change her at all. As this was just killing it, I was entertained and comfortable as much. Ragged, sexy, and privileged. She said, oh, I'll get rid of all that before you come. And I went, 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. The next night, I fully furnished our recondite, because I didn't need anything. And so we didn't have to worry about faith. She, anything, it was all there. This little girl explained that the property would soon be on the open market in two days' time, on a Monday.

[05:30]

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 tax price. This wonderful Facebook sister agreed to do just that. She told me substantively, the night we spoke on the phone that Friday, I told the other sisters we were coming to you tomorrow morning, but I said to them, it's only fair that they should really 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 buy their content. Eventually, after learning her mind up without sleep, when she got two times to carry on, she told the Lord, Jesus, I'm going now, take up your shoes, and she went off to bed. And she now described the whole thing as a miracle of faith. The next day, when we arrived, 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. So she cancelled the half-day accompany, stopped the estate agent, and waited. Within a couple of days, we had confirmed that a benefactor for Washington and Maine had known us, had heard of our plight, and decided to buy the convent, allowing us to live there, paying rent.

[06:32]

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 the Bride Sisters, allowing us to come and live with them for eight months. But now, it was time for us to depart. But I'll never let the Sisters take up the story of our departure from Bride. I promise. The reality of our departure gradually grew, as did the pile of luggage that we had to carry at the bottom of the main stairs. While the day performed, it was perhaps a good thing that it had arrived earlier than expected, as the practicalities of loading, deloading and ticking and rounding up systems took charge of those very final minutes. The coach driver was our alternate and was brought up to the Isle of Wight, who wanted all those ones to go. Did he remember us? He certainly did. And he also had serious notice of getting the coach stuck, and has kept him 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 two communities gathered together for the last time to say farewell, aware as in God we were now united forever by the bond 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 Cumberland Cove."

[07:35]

Seven months so far, he's largely upholding the coach, being a wiser tasker than Holmes, and the first thing he 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. His hollywood has been praised in the past year, and he seems to turn it up or have never been emcee. In recent years, he's been adapted to the elderly religion. so there were handrails and walk-in showers suitable for the needs of our more elderly sisters already in faith. The sisters had left their pets, sheets and furniture, so we had a fully functioning commode, and our kind sisters on the Isle of Wight had arranged for a delivering food so that we would not need to worry about a first few meals. We truly felt God's forgiveness and charitable fellowship which was demonstrated once again. Over the next few months, technology was pushing us to bring down physical and spiritual groups. There were then 12 of us, and our only regular income was 8 basic old-age pensions that the Lords provided. Remember, I may stop there, when I say the Lords provided, there's a more complicated story behind this. What actually happened was, um, In England, if you pay your National Insurance contributions, you may come to an old age and be entitled to a great pension. But, around the time of the Great Stammer, so that each of the 8 Christians who were of that age were eligible for their pensions, and the idea was that we must pool our pensions, and we thought we could start with our Ministry of Profitality, Lady Death, our Britain Retreat, etc., so we could earn our livings.

[08:46]

But the problem was, there was a hold-up between our dictionary and our pensions from our Anglican community. So initially, we were literally left without any money. So, we actually bought a boat from our Anglican friends in Cornwall, and we said to them, where are we left? Where are we left? They were actually going to leave us to leave without a penny. And I said, the economist has died, and we don't actually have any money to pay for a coffin. And we haven't had much of what is our entitlement, our pension. Anyway, so I paid them to give us £3,000 to roll them up, to cover the bottom of the coffin, etc. But we had £3,000 initially, that was eight months ago. But after that, for some reason, they couldn't seem to sort out any of our money. It went on and on and on. So, the amount we were living on was getting smaller and smaller. And I overheard some of the other sisters one day comparing how much weight they were losing. They were breaking down ladle spoons for the elderly sisters. At that point, a lot of British young ladies pretended to be loud to our elderly and said, Dear Father, the sisters are hungry. I was never reply. I got a reply three weeks later, saying I'm sorry to hear the sisters are hungry. But right then I took an action. I went to the parish street and to the praetory and being able to say something.

[09:49]

Our money hasn't come through yet, and I'm having a bit of problems looking after the children. We need to call the parish. So what happened was, um, various people brought us food, and that coming up, that is the first few weeks. So, um, first day, they were all provided, baptised, provided. Members of the parish brought us different foods, and it slowly became a regular practice. There was also a lunch club on Tuesday. They had a fish club for the elderly in the parish on Tuesday. They let those families come to us. our Tuesday suppers, and they're always good enough with more than one red chopper, etc. And then there's a charity, kindly decided to provide us with a two-week copy of Sugar Every Week, and another one generally brought us the ingredients every week, but they funded us. And that's what's happened, so we've got our own money coming through, because the charity has taken good care of us. In other words, the Lord talks after us through the local parish. But in two months of our arrival, two of the younger, physically fit citizens separately disowned a quarter of the community.

[11:06]

One of the citizens, God, was calling her back to the community on the Isle of Wight, where she only lived for eight months. The other was the one who had originally come from a different Anglican community. Remember when I said community, she was the one who joined us, where she felt drawn to a more active Catholic community. But we determined it was right to let both sisters take their sentence accordingly, but eventually there were serious implications. It meant that we were to be limited to ten sisters, with only myself and another sister in those days' pension age. We didn't have the trust that God would function or take care of the future. A confirmation for us in any immediate came that, almost immediately, we heard from Rome that they were ready to erect us properly as a solid autonomous monastery of Benedictine spirituality within the Thessaloniki area. These usual processes take years, but they actually can be born in exactly one year. One year on, from the day we were received into the Church as Catholics, we were treated with erections, and we were there for the next six years in the Church. Brilliant. So, on the 3rd of January, exactly one year after we were received, we were fed up, and we reaffirmed our vows. Our vows had been recognised by those, but we re-pronounced those cognitively as Catholics, in very six-year formularies, so that everybody would be able to see us and hear us doing that, and that would be the next stage of our life.

[12:13]

Now, one of the sisters, at about the weight of two and eighty-four, and she'd been with me for five to sixteen years, wrote an article to me at the time to explain how it had been for her, and this is what she said, and wrote, When I was in my mid-sixties, 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, Have to let him go. In viewing 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, including myself, were more than fit to give. 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 tooing 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. If the decay of one be challenged after another, and of learning in ways not immediately potentially, God is working in my life, and asking me to trust him.

[13:17]

So I find myself thinking that if this image leads from God to this stage of my life, I will watch it come, and it is not enough to accept it, I must learn to embrace it, and that in itself is the next challenge." Tues 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 80s 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 hospitalized for the broken hip. And these three sisters were all in their 80s, but they still all felt they were living in great old days. As one of them explains, 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 in old age, a nobody, petrified and forgotten. She confided to her priest who visited her, I think when you have lost everything, you have been as well as I have. Such a wonderful new life, how interesting it is. I think about her work and admire and hope that it grows to passion.

[14:21]

We've said all is patiently unknown, there's no guarantee to the future. Do we regret it? No. No sister has regretted the selection of Tilton. We gave up as a youthful, historic complex with a 24-hour staff dictionary, and we have given it a purpose-built complex. We look on to each other with additional support from the National Health. We have to leave behind our anti-Jewish 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 are all God's 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 spiritual and sensual needs. By the bride's aunt providing us 12 strangers with a home for 8 months, by the anonymous benefactor who purchased our monastery and now just rents 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 landlord that there's a scientist wanting to sell the land for joining our convent. But our landlord is not moving us out, but warned us that as the adjacent houses being built to be developed for a smaller extension of state, it will come right up to the boundaries of our property, we're likely to be in for hundreds of years of noisely building work.

[15:32]

Further, this very major property is going to gain stuff that previously had quietly passed so far will be no longer. Sooner or later, that step now is the time to move. But while we haven't found the right property to move to, and there's an issue about local funds on what we're just getting on with trying to find where we're supposed to be, but we feel that there is shelter or grace available for every challenge, and that even our challenges can build upon us a shelter of blessings. But sister, one of the two sisters in there, you can remember the two of the other ones, one did transfer to right, she transferred to the other end, and she had to go to a game position, and started to win every game, but she picked up some vowels, 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 M's, and then started to make a difference later in her life, and now she's come back. So she has come back, and we've got her back in open arms, and she's fully one of us. again etc. and life carries on. We do feel that God is kind enough on us. We feel that since John Henry has been looking after us, and then we feel a little bit of frustration, which is something that I knew would be all right. Shortly after we arrived, I mean, we hadn't got on very much money etc.

[16:33]

and we were being very careful, one of the sisters came to me and said, Mother, we don't actually have enough bread to go to one morning's breakfast. I do know quite well what we're going to do, so we'll just have to go out on the road and buy some bread. So I said to her, I'll pick up her, I'll do what I would do well to get her some bread. She was shocked to hear the sentence. During the supper, the doorbell sounded. It was a parishioner, who 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 has had upon us the attention of right, so we need something to keep us from debt. And we truly felt at that moment that we were experiencing, once again, charity servitude with these kind parishioners. We have confidence in the future, because we have confidence in our loving God, whose charity towards his children disarms us. The purpose of this retreat has been the quest for the benediction and understanding of peace. To do this, we have looked attentively at five specific areas, using the rules and benedicts as a framework, and like the writings of Saint John of England as our guide. And those areas were, 1. Rhymes of energy, a good gimp.

[17:34]

Barrett's Transcendency, Holiness, Hark's Inquisitivity, Prayer, Lord Faunt, The Love of Thought, and The Doctrine of Vagour, and Challenging Spiritship, The Challenging Thoughts, and Others. I view this to be so, though, that we are yet to find help as a saint, but that's precisely why we can relate to him, because he was ordinary, he struggled with life's challenges as we do. In having to, on these early sainthoods, he has followed. I have nothing for the saints about me, as anyone knows, 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 what was a few years past with 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. They do not love the Catholics. They do not love tales. I may be well enough in my own way, but it is not a high line. It is an ugly thing to black the saint's shoes, to think that it is a patron saint. You live drunken in heaven. The aim of our first journey appears to be to approach it to God, so that we invite you for the last time to hear your Lord speaking to you, and in a way it is worth summing up the whole retreat retreat.

[18:44]

Put yourself then, my dear child, into the hands of your loving Father and Redeemer, who loves 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 doorway and tower, and He will take you day and night. He knows all your thoughts, and deals for you in all your sadness, 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 is best for you. and that betrothed you, and pleased to betroth himself from you, and afflict 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 retent of the fact of life. Amen. and find clues or clues.

[19:56]

Maybe we'll find a red light or something. A red light in some other way. Like exit, you know? Yes, yes. No. No, yeah. We have to come to the end. Make a purpose. I want to do it, yeah. Don't say that about yourself, dude. No, no, [...] no I couldn't help but think that if you struggle in all kinds of games, the first thing you have to do is hang your brain up with just one little bit of work. Not a lot of traveling, but anything. I couldn't move out of the way of the world, so I gave her a head start on what I think of as the game's way to go. When you think about school kids, listen, they can't listen unless you let go. I was thinking the whole time you were telling this whole story of you letting go. I need to start immediately, I'm not letting go of anything. The other thing I was wondering, I don't know if this is the right comparison, but there's a walk-in shower.

[21:00]

Ah, thanks. No, so basically, the shower is actually tucked away in the attic. You pull the door open, and you just walk through to it. There's no step or anything. Oh. Sort of, um, it's brilliant for, um, people who come in for their business or whatever, they don't have to step over anything. They just, um, just walk in, and they just walk through. I knew he described something, but I didn't know what he was describing. What for? I don't know. In some way or other, the first time we met each other, I gave her a handcuff, and I was going to give her a scripture, and I happened to be reading a book, and I said, Peter, in his poem, where Jesus goes into his boat, and he mentions, I'll tell you, he said, Master, you know, he's a fictional man, he hasn't taught anything, and I think he speaks to a lot of people. So, it's certainly another way to end it. It's a similar thing. Going out was not efficient, unefficient, and I've been doing this for years. We're going out. It's noon, the worst time to go. It's pretty deep, but it's helpful enough.

[22:03]

There's a bell for people to read it. I can't believe it. That is uncanny. Yes.

[22:22]

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