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In March we welcomed a group of 50 or so Indonesian people who came for the day. They wanted to make the Stations of the Cross, but as they were too many to fit onto our bush walk safely, Mother Marilla kindly offered to make a Stations of the Cross for them in the Monastery garden. She made 14 wooden crosses, even rubbing them with ashes to give them a ‘not so new’ look and Rev.Fr.Pat blessed them before Holy Mass. Rev.Fr.Rafael, an Indian priest, led the Stations and then celebrated Holy Mass for the group which ranged from young to old. There were so many of them that they needed to use the nuns’ choir in the church as well.

Mr Hammond, who is in his 80s, has made all the bush walks on our property which so delight our guests and retreatants, is progressing very well with our new bush walk. He has cut down quite a few pine trees on the way too. Radiata pines are very acidic and their needles kill off the young native seedlings in the bush. Mr Hammond says he can cut down most of the pines except two, which our neighbour Murray has offered to help with, and then we will have another beautiful bush walk in our enclosure for retreatants to enjoy.

In May we sent our lambs to market. We usually sell them in January, but because we have had so much rain, and therefore plenty of grass, we were able to keep the lambs for longer than usual. They had nearly grown as big as the ewes and it was a bit of a rugby match trying to separate them from the flock so that they could be put on the truck. The driver of the truck was very nice and I learnt a new trick in getting animals to move. He had a plastic bottle in his hand filled with pebbles. The shaking of the bottle made such a racket that the lambs scrambled onto the ramp. Our lambs fetched a very good price as apparently there is a very high demand in New York at the moment for New Zealand prime lamb. Interestingly, there is also a high demand for New Zealand orchids.

Events

On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in June our Bishop Patrick Dunne celebrated Mass for us at 2.30pm and we had a Procession of the Holy Eucharist followed by Benediction. After the ceremonies all our guests came to Mamre for refreshments.

On Trinity Sunday our Oblates had a day of recollection and after the Office of None they renewed their Oblation before the Blessed Sacrament in the church.