In the post...

...comes the magazine of St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde, Isle of Wight. I have a wonderful friend who is among the nuns at St C's, and her accompanying letter is so full of encouragement, quietly wise comments, and joy.

The magazine is joyful, too - there's a splendid account of the life of one of the oldest nuns, Sister M. Rose:"She never thought of herself as old. Still attending Christmas Midnight Mass in her eighties, she was asked if she would like to have her post-Mass hot chocolate in the infirmary, rather than the refectory, as it was nearer to her cell. 'It's very kind of you, but let's wait until I am old.' She had a common-sense approach to life, spiced with humour. After a refectory book had been full of some martyr's persecution and torture she commented 'And we grumble if we get a pimple.' "

The convent is on the hill on the outskirts of Ryde, overlooking the Solent with its white-whipped waves, and beyond is all the glorious island, with the lovely beaches at Ventnor and Sandown, and the castle at Carisbrick, and enchanting lanes and fields and tea-shops with cream teas and its own little railway.

I had written to Sister E. to beg for prayers for a priest I have mentioned previously in this Blog, who is in prison. He has now been granted an appeal. Please, please join your prayers to those of the sisters and others who are praying for him.