In the New Forest....

...there is a wonderful community of Dominican sisters. Nearest station is Brockenhurst (an hour or so from London Waterloo) and Sister Hyancinthe met us there and drove us through glorious woods and meadows, with New Forest ponies and donkeys grazing ("they often go out on to the road - cause huge traffic delays and muddles"), to the big house (Edwardian? late Victorian?) with its fine new chapel. I was accompanying Fr Christopher Pearson of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and he concelebrated the Mass with the community's own chaplain, while birds added a chorus from the meadows beyond the wide clear windows and the sisters in their white habits filled the choir-stalls beneath the great oak beams of the roof. We were there to discuss plans for the annual John Paul Pilgrimage for the New Evangelisation - it's a walking pilgrimage from Bury St Edmunds to Walsingham. Find out more and book in! It lasts over 3 days - be prepared to do some good walking, as you cover 20 miles a day for the first two days, and then another 15 or so on the last lap to Walsingham. Find out more from the Sisters: contact them here. The pilgrimage begins with a Mass in the ruins of the old abbey at Bury St Edmunds...that would also be a wonderful event for a parish to attend as a day-trip...