Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing

June 9, 2015 | Reflections from some of the nuns

The Farm

This is the prayer that arises in my heart each morning as I enter the Abbey “Farm” and encounter the sunflowers who are like our garden angels (guardian angels) watching over us as we work, pray and play. Summer has been a wonderful blend of heat and rain and thus many blessings for our earth.

Recently I visited a property not more than 2 hours away and I felt distressed at the parchedness of the earth.  The greenness that surrounds us here at the Abbey is so overwhelmingly beautiful and uplifting. May we never take for granted the goodness and the blessings that surround every one of us in our daily life. They are there if we open our eyes and look beyond our troubles.

Since October the garden has had a whole new makeover. Using permaculture techniques and raised beds the soil is now rich and healthy and abounding in worm activity. The harvest of summer has been abundant. Every day there are many vegies on the dinner table from the Abbey farm.  We have had a continuous summer salad bar, tomatoes, garlic, shallots, beans, beetroot, silver beet, potatoes, corn, cucumbers, chilies, kale and herbs.

The orchard also produces a daily supply of fruit. At the moment the harvest is figs, pears, nashi pears and let us not forget the over abundance of the blackberry vines. At a guess I’d say we already about 50 kilos of blackberries in the freezer waiting for me to make blackberry jam and sauce….and there is more to come!

Each day is full of new life and the chitter chatter of little beaks.  This is Robbie and her 10 little cheekies and Peggie with her 3 hungry dots.

We have planted new and exciting plants like 4 bananas trees, 3 avocados, ginger and arrowroot, a paw paw, sweet potato and peanuts and lots, lots more.

The summer is nearly over and so preparation is underway for autumn beds and planting. To grow a new season of veggies means renewing and feeding the soil. It is not enough to take for granted what was done for last season. It is very like our own lives isn’t it? What was good for us in our spiritual life yesterday may not be enough to nourish us for today. We need to be fed with good things and renewed, and to put our roots down deep in the soil of our daily life.

Not only is autumn upon us but so too is Lent.  May you find ways in this time of autumn and this time of Lent to nourish your deepest longings.

Let us pray for one another and for our nation at this time.

Sr Mechtild of Jamberoo Abbey