October 24

This week we are having a prayer and garden week. The weather has been good some of the days. I took advantage of the sun to create an Autumn gallery for you!

Guesthouse reopens tomorrow!

Just in case people were worried. The guesthouse reopens tomorrow. Public Mass continues as normal.

Guest house news

Several of the community have been struck down with Covid! If there any any booking enquiries, it may be a few days before you receive a reply. Apologies if there is a delay in answering the phone or the door! We will close from Thurs. pm onwards for a few days. The flute retreat will go ahead so please do not worry. There is still public Mass in the Chapel.

Mass for the 40th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church and the 50th jubilee of the founding of Hyning.

On the 19th of September, Bishop Paul Swarbrick, Bishop of Lancaster, celebrated the Mass for the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Hyning Monastery and 40 years of the Dedication of the Church. Fr. Anthony Keefe, our chaplain, gave the homily. There were several priests, religious sisters, consecrated persons and deacons of the diocese, family, friends, former students and staff of our former schools in England. Some of the sisters and priests were there for the original blessing in 1984 and Sr. Michelle Marie, one of the 4 foundresses were also able to be here. We were also pleased to welcome our sisters from La Plaine in France and from Brownshill.

Open Afternoons

Coming up this weekend….Hyning Open Afternoons

Hyning Open Days

Help needed for Hyning Open days 24th -26th August. Sr. Mary Stella is asking for help before the 23rd of August in the garden. Anytime between 10 am - 12 pm or 1:30 - 4 pm on the 20th, 21st, 22nd August. Lunch, or refreshments provided. Some areas of help include: sweeping paths, weeding, mowing or edging (not sure what that is but she'll tell you)! if you are more of an indoor person, people are also needed to help serve teas on the actual 3 days between 1 - 4pm, wash up or just be around to help with the teddy bear nun hunt etc. Or if you like baking help needed on the 23rd August etc. Please contact Sr. Mary Stella or Sr. Michaela if you able to help in anyway. srmichaelabsc@yahoo.co.uk or srstella@yahoo.com

Fr. Michael McKenna RIP

For those who remember our former chaplain Fr. Michael McKenna, just to let you know that he died last weekend, aged 80. RIP Fr. Michael. This link takes you to the Mill Hill Missionary website and has news about his last few days. https://millhillmissionaries.com/father-michael-mckenna.../

July News

There is now a selection of photos taken during the OCSO Cistercian Region of the Isles organised by Sr. Sarah of Glencairn which took place at Hyning during the first week of July. Fr. Michael Casey from Tarrawarra Abbey in Australia led the course. The talks were excellent and well appreciated by the participants. It was lovely to be able to host the group and meet younger and not so young monastics on their journey. Some of the community and the group went to visit the Lake District on Monday 8th July. On the feast of St. Benedict on the 11th of July, we also enjoyed having our oblates to celebrate with us. Fr. Michael gave them a session after Mass. We were hoping to have a BBQ but had it indoor instead! #cistercian It was great to have a mixture of formation, prayer and fun during the course of the week.

Events coming up...

Sr. Marie Pia RIP

For our our guests who remembered Sr. Marie Pia, one of the french sisters who lived with us for a long time, she died peacefully in France this morning at the age of 96. She loved being a Bernardine and taught in her our schools in Goma and France. She spent many years serving in the Dining Room at Hyning and loved giving talks to the guests. She suffered from Alzheimers during the past 10 years but lived peacefully, waiting for the Lord to call her home. Now she's with the Lord she loved all her life. RIP.

April

Most of the Hyning community will be away from the 12th - 24th April at Brownshill for our annual retreat. Do not worry if you cannot get hold of people at this time. Please pray for us as we will for you.

Events in February

The Pope in his Message for Lent writes: Slow down, then, and pause! The contemplative dimension of life that Lent helps us to rediscover will release new energies. In the presence of God, we become brothers and sisters, more sensitive to one another: in place of threats and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travellers. This is God’s dream, the promised land to which we journey once we have left our slavery behind.

Several of our Lenten events have been focussed on giving time for prayer. Last weekend we held a Lent retreat which will be repeated this weekend. On Feb 22nd, we hosted a Day on The Cloud of Unknowing, led by Donna Worthington. It was a very rich day with times of reflection, silence, sharing and prayer. We look forward to the next day led by Donna on “The woman who anointed Jesus”. (April 3rd. Details on the programme page).

Monastery Days

Great day with members of https://youngcatholicadultnetwork.uk/ It's great to be inspired by the faith of so many young people. The aim of the Monastery days is to help young people share their faith, explore the Scriptures and spend time in prayer and adoration. Next day is March 27th at Hyning. For more info click the link here Monastery Days

Sr. Marie Cecile

Many of you will be meeting her in person but here she is, our newest member and our youngest!

News and events

Last week we welcomed Sr. Marie Cecile from our house in Goma as part of our community. (Picture to follow soon). Over the past two weeks we welcomed our Mother General, Sr. Elizabeth Mary and her assistant Sr. Felicite, for our Regular Visit. We took the opportunity to hear about the other communities and to share our thoughts on community life at Hyning.

The guesthouse is now fully operational and we have had a series of residential and day groups staying. October is very full indeed and we are enjoying meeting new and old groups again.

There are a series of events on our programme page coming up including the Woman at the Well evening on the 9th October and the Christmas Card making Day on the 10th. October. There are still spaces on both events.

Vocation weekend

Events to consider coming up...

YouCan Video

YouCan days

This is an updated poster about an initiative inviting young people to engage in the Gospels regularly and to visit monasteries who are hosting the reflections across the country. Contact details on the poster. or contact Hyning for more details etc.

Article by Sr Michaela

Discovering the Treasure

On Saturday, the 1st of July, the #nunsof twitter (and one #bruvoftwitter) held a conference in London.  The theme was “Discovering Treasure: Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Religious Life”.  The conference was a response to a desire of the group, which meets monthly on Zoom, to explore the topic of the ‘treasure of social media’.  Various different communities were represented on the day including members of the Daughters of Charity who hosted the day at their Provincial House in Mill Hill, from Assumptionists, Benedictines, Carmelites, Cistercian, Sacred Heart congregations etc, and a member of the Anglican Benedictine community at Mucknell Abbey. Several others also attended on Zoom from across Northern Ireland and England. 

Sr. Therese Tighe of the Daughters of Charity opened the day by welcoming us to the Daughters of Charity’s Provincial House and Sr. Judith, a Benedictine from Turvey Abbey led the introductions.  Sr. Michaela, a Bernardine Cistercian from Hyning in Lancashire led the prayer session and introduced the speaker for the morning session. This was led by Sr Therese Wilkinson OCD, of the Carmelites of Thicket Priory in Yorkshire.  The theme of her talk was “Tweeting the Treasure: Sharing Religious Charism through Twitter”.  This was followed by breakout Groups, questions, and feedback.  The excellent presentation helped us to understand how to use Twitter more effectively to evangelise online and how to engage with others.  Her account has over 20,000 followers and makes the Carmelite presence visible on the social platform. 

This was followed by lunch and time together before the afternoon session. This session looked at “Mission and Making a Difference, one tweet at a time”, led by Sr Silvana Dallanegra, RSCJ and was followed by a two-way question time / discussion between members of the group in the room and those online. 

Sr. Silvana explained the way she uses social media in her work for Caritas Westminster and how to use social media, Twitter in particular, to communicate effectively in today’s church and world.

The plenary session was led by Sr. Maria Robb, DC, and involved feedback from the day, ideas for next year and possible venues.

The day was greatly appreciated by members of the group who enjoyed sharing and engagement on various levels.  We appreciated the hospitality of the Daughters of Charity and their generous contributions towards the day.  We also enjoyed sharing each other’s culinary gifts including cakes baked in North Lancashire and chocolate hearts made in Turvey Abbey in Bedfordshire.  We were also grateful for all the organisation and technical expertise of Sr. Maureen and Sr. Rita of the Daughters of Charity.  It was also a joy for some of us to meet in real time after meeting online on Zoom only.

The day was a real discovery of the ‘treasure’ of social media but also of the great joy of the discovery of the ‘treasure’ of religious life alive in each sister and brother.  As Pope Francis has said in the past, social media can “help us to better connect, rediscover, and assist one another”.  This is certainly the case with the #nuns and #bruvs of twitter.