In The Presence of The Angels

October 10, 2015 | Reflections from some of the nuns

The Farm

In the liturgy it has been the time for celebrating the angels – Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and our own guardian angels. From time to time people and creatures come into our lives and into the shared part of the earth that is home for us. They come as friends, companions and as guardians. Birdie Durante has been one of those gifts for us here on the Abbey Farm. Birdie came to live in our Figtree Hermitage in 2013 and now she is moving on. With creativity and energy she has helped shape ‘The Farm’ and nudge this aging gardener past the ‘15 years in the garden complacency’. The garden is flourishing. It is stunningly beautiful and the soil so healthy.

Birdie has given of her passion for caring for the earth, for producing no waste, for reusing and recycling all resources. Her presence is one of gentleness. Her struggle is for healing. All of us at ‘The Farm’ will really miss her.

I sometimes wonder about what sort of presence I am in the world, what sort of presence I am on the earth. It is the question, isn’t it that we all need to be asking ourselves as the earth continues to labour from our excessive and greedy existence. I hope that you are feeling so disturbed by what is happening to our earth that you are actively changing your ways of seeing, being and cooperating as a creature of this earth. Every one of us matters and every action we take matters. I am offering this challenge to you this week to open your eyes and look again at the beauty that surrounds your life; to give thanks for it; to love it as a fellow creature and to actively be its guardian, its protector.

I wish so much that you, my readers, could share this beautiful bit of earth that has been entrusted to us.

Here are some photos.

I hope you have a week of full of gratefulness and action.

God bless
Sr Mechtild of Jamberoo.