Benedictine monks and nuns take vows of stability, obedience and conversatio morum. The Benedictine oblate promise also encompasses ‘stability’. You can read more about this much needed quality here in an article our oblate Mary Cockroft has contributed to the UK Oblates Team website: https://www.benedictine-oblates.net/thought-for-october-2026/
REQUIEM MASS OF DAME SHEILA KEARNEY (09.04.1937-31.08.2026) 22 September 2026, eve of the Autumn Equinox We were blessed with a beautiful autumn day for the celebration of the life of Dame Sheila Kearney, formerly of St Mary’s Abbey, Colwich, who died peacefully at Oulton Abbey Care Home on 31 August 2026. September sunshine, mercifully more […]
Introduction I have continued to read the Gospel of John, finishing it only this morning. Since I last wrote, much has happened, most notably my Solemn Profession, but also a scary medical incident and a thought-provoking community retreat. Life events influence and change us, but also lectio changes us. By virtue of my interaction with […]
Today, 1 September, is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, inaugurated by Pope Francis eleven years ago. The day ushers in the Season of Creation, or Creationtide, which runs until 4 October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. You can find Pope Leo’s message for this year’s Day of Prayer […]
Solemn Monastic Profession of Sr Thérèse Murphy Feast of St Maximilian Kolbe, 14 August 2026 The abbey church was full for this joyful occasion as family, friends and oblates joined the monastic community to witness the solemn profession of vows of Sr Thérèse, the culmination of three years of focussed preparation since her triennial vows […]
We are delighted to announce that on 14 August 2026, Feast of St Maximilian Kolbe, Sr Therese Murphy was consecrated to God by Solemn Monastic Profession of the Benedictine vows of stability, conversion of life and obedience. A fuller account will follow but we wanted to share the glad tidings and a photograph of the newly […]
Introduction After finishing the Gospel of Luke, I began this month by reading its companion volume, the Acts of the Apostles. However, with Solemn Profession rapidly approaching (it is this week) I turned to one of my favourite books of the Bible – the Gospel of John. For this post rather than give an overview […]
At Holborn, London on 9 August, 1641, Fr AUGUSTINE BAKER, Benedictine monk, priest, spiritual writer and prayer mentor of our foundresses. Born in Abergavenny, Wales on 9 December 1575 into a large family which had outwardly conformed to the state religion, at the age of about twenty-five David Baker was crossing a narrow bridge above […]
Traditionally, at Stanbrook, the junior nun who is approaching the time of making her solemn vows for life composes her own prayer which is distributed to family, friends and other monasteries throughout the world in order to ask their prayers. The prayer is traditionally translated into Latin which reflects the universality of the Church. The […]
Introduction I have continued to read the Gospel of Luke over the past month, and I am still studying this book, along with the Acts of the Apostles, in my Scripture class. While weighing up what to write for this post, I began mentally to list what themes are commonly attributed to Luke’s Gospel: prayer, […]
Oblate Pilgrimage to Ripon Cathedral On the eve of the Feast of St Benedict and at the height of the heatwave, a party of Stanbrook oblates set out for the cool interior of Ripon Cathedral. The main focus of our pilgrimage was to visit the crypt built by St Wilfrid (634-710) and dedicated in 672, […]
We are grateful to Adrienne Frazer who has sent in the following list of books: in her own words, ‘an eclectic selection that I love, the majority of which I’ve read many times’. Great Novels A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute Two adventures in one book with such positive main characters and romantic too. Milkman […]