Summer message from Nuns at Minster Abbey

Dear Friends,

When we last emailed you our Sr John had just celebrated her amazing Platinum Jubilee of religious vows. Thank you to all of you who got in touch to congratulate Sr John; printed end to end the emails filled about 20 A4 pages. Sister John was very happy and so touched to receive all your kind messages.

Since the spring Sr John's health has unfortunately deteriorated greatly, but with the help of all the sisters and dedicated friends and carers - especially at night - she is able to continue to live at home with us.

Today I would like to invite you re-visit our website. On the homepage you will find links to a lovely collection of videos. Sister Aelred invited a number of the sisters and our Oblate Maud to share experiences of our summer at Minster with you.

The videos, enhanced by beautiful drone footage taken by our friend Nick, take you around the grounds, the gardens and orchards; you can also listen to Sr Mary Stephen reading some of her poems, and there are accounts of the celebration of St Mildred's Feast and of a special outing to West Malling where we spent a lovely day with our Anglican Benedictine Sisters at St Mary's Abbey. Other videos are currently in the making. We hope you will enjoy our summer with us!

Stop Press

We would like to share with you also a beautiful incident which happened just this week:

Some of you may know that at our final or solemn profession we receive a ring. This ring is engraved with the name of Jesus, a cross + and the profession name of the sister. Our Sister John unfortunately lost her ring almost 60 years ago while she was plucking and cleaning a chicken... Despite intensive searching it was never found.

However, a few days ago a friend of our community whose hobby is metal-detecting was quartering one of our fields, several hundred yards from the house and the farmyard. Right in the middle of the field his machine began to register a find, and six inches below the surface he discovered a golden ring, engraved Jesus + John Baptist.

You can imagine how delighted we all were and how grateful Sr John is to have the ring restored to her. This find is little short of miraculous and Sr John has said that it has been a great consolation to her, 'because I think it means that the Lord is still taking an interest in me'.

As we move into autumn, please be assured of our prayers for you and your loved ones

Mother Nikola and community.

Visit our Homepage here: https://minsterabbeynuns.org/