Hyning 50th/Chapel 40th 19th September 2024
1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 4:19-24
Many many moons ago, in the far off days of my youth, I served a seven year sentence, with time off for good conduct, as a day boy at the East Road Penitentiary, better known locally as the Boys’ Grammar, and in more refined circles as the Royal Grammar School, Lancaster. Oddly enough, the Bishop also did time, a little later, at the same penal establishment.
In my day, though not, I suspect, in the Bishop’s, Saturday meant school until twenty past twelve, but on one Saturday, shortly before the October break, we would be given a lesson-free morning, as we were marched down the hill, under the watchful eye of the warders (aka prefects, with tassels on their caps) to the Town Hall for Speech Day. There, the Chairman of Governors made his annual public appearance.
The Chairman in question was a certain Earl Peel, whose sobriquet indicated, not that he was a Jazz musician like Duke Ellington or Count Basie, but that he was a peer of the realm—and he lived here (not here in this chapel, but here in this house). Some of you, in past years, may have used Lady Peel’s bathroom, a magnificent chamber containing everything you could wish for—apart from hot water! You will be pleased to know that, since the recent renovations, though the magnificent accoutrements are no more, hot water is abundant.
Others may have attended Lady Peel’s Garden Parties. As a devoted Catholic, the Countess would open the grounds annually to raise money for the missions.
In 1974, the Peel family left Hyning which, with the help of Pamela, known to many of you from her years of service in reception, was purchased by the Bernardine Cistercians of Esquermes, who are now celebrating fifty years of making this place a home from home for thousands of visitors who have come here in search of peace, tranquility, and an awareness of the presence of God as they enjoyed the prayerful and cheerful hospitality of the Sisters.
My first visit took place in the summer of 1977, when as a young priest, one year ordained, I came here for a private retreat. The community then comprised four Sisters, in the persons of Sr. Mary Lawrence, Sr. Mary John, Sr. Mary Cecilia, and Sr. Mary Nivard. The chapel was a room in the main house, and the monastery wing had not yet been built.
Over the years which followed, I visited many times. On three or four occasions, I brought sixth formers from Upholland College for weekend retreats, the lads sleeping, if I remember correctly, in the undercroft beneath what has since become the chapel. In 1984, I brought a carload of what were then known as Third Year Remedial pupils—the term “Special Educational Needs” not yet having been coined, from Our Lady’s High School, Lancaster, who caused Sr. Mary Philippa more stress in an hour than the Upholland lads had given her predecessors in a series of weekends.
I should add that, by way of compensation. Our Lady’s provided the Bernardines with Sr. Michaela, and as Fr. Stephen Talbutt was also a pupil, a couple of years below Sr. Michaela, I feel that Holy Mother Church has fared reasonably well by the school. If you take into account the Burns brothers, Fathers Peter, Jim, and David, the latest score is East Road Penitentiary 2 Our Lady’s 5.
So much for the past: what of the present? We have heard Solomon ask, at the dedication of his Temple “Will God really live with human beings on the earth?” We know the answer to that question: God has lived, does live, and will live with human beings on the earth. He has lived with us as the man, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity present in our all too human flesh, who continues and will continue to live with us. He lives with us now in His Eucharistic presence, in His word proclaimed, and in human beings, created in the image and likeness of God.
“If anyone loves me” He has told us “My Father will love them, and we shall come to them and make our home with them”. The living God is present on the altar, in the tabernacle, but also in the people who love Him and serve Him: in the community which lives and serves here, and in those who come here to seek Him and to be drawn more closely to Him, echoing constantly the prayer of Solomon: “Hear the entreaty of your people as they pray in this place. From heaven where your dwelling is, hear—and as you hear, forgive”.
God lives with us because we are, as St. Peter has told us, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God”. We come together today to exercise our priesthood—our common priesthood as baptised believers, and the ministerial priesthood of the ordained—to sing the praises of God, to praise Him particularly for His presence in this place, and for the blessing which this place and this community have been for so many over the past half century, and which they continue, and will continue, to be.
And like the woman of Samaria, we are called to worship in spirit and truth. The story of the encounter of Jesus with this woman is a real joy, and I would encourage you to read it in full. She is no better than she ought to be—indeed, she may even be rather worse than she ought to be, as Jesus reminds her that she has had five husbands, and is now living “tally” or, as it is sometimes said “over the brush”—yet it is to her that He reveals His identity as the Messiah: “I who speak to you—I am He!”
Far be it from me to inquire into the household arrangements of anyone here, but if we are honest, we shall have to admit that WE are no better than we ought to be, whatever role the brush may have in our house. We are sinners, and if we think that we are not, that may be the greatest sin of all, yet to us also Jesus constantly reveals Himself. May this place continue to be a place in which He reveals Himself in the decades which lie ahead.
