Where have we been? What have we been doing?

Well in answer to the blog post title we have been plenty of places and doing plenty of things - except updating our blog!  Oops, sorry about that.  Now we shall fix that and bring you up to speed with all our goings on.  Hopefully over the next week we will get you all updated and back on track. 

Before Christmas we had our Advent Mission, the Open House Christmas Dinner, some community days out and a bit of fun.  We were off for 2 weeks over Christmas, much needed time for rest and relaxation.  We came back after Christmas refreshed and ready to go again - which is good since we haven't stopped since!!

Since Christmas we have had our Parish Christmas dinner, cookathon, our second assignment, and now a retreat.  Busy busy.  In the next few posts we will update about some of these events with some pictures also.

Jenny's Birthday Adventure

Lucky me, my birthday happened to fall on a Saturday this year and so we all decided to spend this particular community day by taking a pilgrimage to Walsingham! So last weekend, we fired up the minibus yet again and piled in for a fun-filled day...

My Classmates decorated for me!

First stop...Cambridge to pick up Fr. Matthew. Since we left at 6am we missed the traffic and had some time to enjoy an early morning coffee.

Father took for a us walk around Clare College and some of us had to have a closer look at the beautiful gardens.

Upon arriving back at our mode of transportation, we notice that something's not quite right.

Yep, it's a flat tyre... But luckily we have Fr. Matthew, Marcus and Ambrose on the job!

After a stop at a tyre shop and a quick loo break at Blackfriars, we were on the road again! This was definitely a memorable birthday. Thanks to my lovely community for taking it all in strides and keeping their joy, no matter what.

On the road again...

We've been putting a lot of miles on the mini-bus lately! One Saturday we went up to Reading with Fr. Alexander to see Mapledurham, which has a rich Catholic history. It hid many priests during the Reformation and even housed priests from Douai, France during the French Revolution. Ambrose, Father's dog, even got to come along!

The next weekend we drove out to see the students at Fisher House, the Catholic Chaplaincy at Cambridge. The weather was beautiful and we were invited to join the students for Mass and lunch on the terrace. Anthony, who's a graduate from Cambridge, along with his sister, a current student, gave us an insiders tour of this amazing university. Thanks also to all the students who managed to get us into the different colleges!

The next day we again piled into that poor mini-bus and drove it all the way up to Birmingham for the day. There we popped in at the University of Birmingham's Newman House to talk about the school. We also got a tour of the Maryvale Institute since our Catechism course is through them and stayed to say evening prayer with the Bridgettine Sisters. Luckily, with the bank holiday, the traffic wasn't too bad on the drive home that night.

With all this traveling, we were happy to leave the mini-bus parked in Soho Square for our last Saturday outing and just remain in London for the Pentecost Festival.

A day out in the country

Every saturday, we have a community outing day where we can visit anywhere from churches and monastries, to ice rinks and parks. Yesterday, we went to visit two great friends of the school in Ascot. Anne and Dan Hill are a married couple originally from America. Their house is right in the middle of the countryside with a beautifully big garden! We took with us Fr Alexander's new puppy, Ambrose, who couldn't believe his luck when he found himself surrounded with so much grass!

Anne showed us true hospitality, and demonstrated the importance of how the table should be layed; making sure no one is left alone at the end of the table. Edna and Allen also made homemade choc chip cookies for everyone - the true American way which were very delicious!

Dan told us some amazing stories about his encounters with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. Since he met her in 1992, he has built a number of orphanages for the Missionaries of Charity. Anne and Dan have a deep trust in the power of the Holy Spirit and it has clearly affected their whole lives. They are a truly inspirational couple to meet.