Yesterday our magnolia tree was in full flower and we were blessed with the first butterfly of the year, a peacock butterfly absorbing the sunshine. We also had our first rhubarb.

Sister M. is teaching our postulant how to mend library books, having read this up on a website, and both are doing a good job. Periodically hammer blows are heard as they flatten the corners of hard-bound books. Some date back to 1841.

PALM SUNDAY

5th April. During my quiet hour this morning I was pondering the actual procession into Jerusalem. I began by wondering whether a donkey would have had secure footing walking on cloaks and assorted branches and greenery. The poor beast would have to pick his way very carefully - especially if the crowds were cheering and waving.

In Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus is always in control of his own destiny. So it was Jesus who found a young donkey for himself and mounted it. (John 12:12-16)

In Saint Matthew (21:1-11) Jesus sends two disciples to fetch a donkey and its colt. The disciples put their cloaks on their backs and "He took his seat on them". Quite extraordinary! The only way anyone can ride two beasts at the same time is like a circus rider - standing upright with one foot on each back. So, is there any theological significance in this strange statement? I think so. Matthew, throughout his Gospel, was showing how Jesus was fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures and introducing some new life - which came through the ‘mother.’ Hence the parent donkey and the colt - both need to stay in relationship....

In Saint Mark (11:7-10) also Jesus sent two disciples - as they had been sent out in pairs to prepare for the coming of the Lord to the villages in Palestine. The colt had not been ‘broken in’, so it was quite something that Jesus could mount it by himself. What is the significance in mounting a colt which had never been ridden? Was it that he inspired confidence not only in people, but also animals? Mark also gives the detail that the colt was found ‘near a door in an open street’. Was this only a memory or did that have significance, too.

"I am the door of the sheepfold" and other door imagery?

Saint Luke(19:28-38) says that the disciples threw their cloaks on the colt’s back and LIFTED Jesus on it. Is there any connection with being lifted up on the cross? And it was the disciples who spread their cloaks in the road. Was it the rainy season, with puddles and mud to splash both the colt and its rider?

Easter Week

Our garden is lush and green, full of bird-song and bumblebees. The enclosure remains a continual delight as more and more flowers bloom, and unexpected plants emerge. The magnolia looks like a tree of white candles, glowing with reflected light. The Peruvian mouse plants are raising their little curled ‘tails’ above the leaves, while radiant tulips take over from the daffodils. Yet among the freshness of new life there is the awareness of loss. One of my friends sent this verse in her Easter card:

They are all gone into the world of light!

And I alone sit lingering here;

Their very memory is fair and bright,

And my sad thoughts doth clear.

Henry Vaughan (1621-1695)

Our Liturgy over Easter was lovely but quite demanding, and now the House is pleasantly quiet as we all reflect and apply ourselves to our usual occupations. Our ‘new fire’ was blazing away in a stand outside at the beginning of the Vigil, leaping towards us, long before sunset. I even liked the incense, which we only use on Easter night, and as darkness fell a bird or two still chirped in the beech tree leaning over the Chapel.

18th April

Some books in recent years have a strong psychological bias, uniting scriptural imagery with the themes of bewilderment, darkness, wrestling with God, and human suffering. The scriptural writings themselves have inconclusive resolutions: there is no unreal ‘happy ending’. We are all given our mission, be it into our own depths or in initial period of ‘going out into the world’ - only to return bewildered and confused, uncertain about the real purpose of it all. The early Church Fathers wrote about the human condition in a similar vein. The Book of Jonah is humorous and educational, and has inspired many works of art and found its place in literature. The actual Hebrew word for Jonah means ‘dove’. He was sent on a mission to reconcile the pagans with God but anyone less ‘dove-like’ is hard to imagine. Moby Dick by Herman Melville has a wonderful sailor’s chaplain, Father Mapple, in it and his sermons seem to concentrate on the Book of Jonah: "Shipmates, this book is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sea-line sound! What pregnant lesson to us is this prophet!" Paul Murray’s book "A Journey with Jonah" is worth reading.

I have noticed recently that the colours in the garden are at their deepest and richest just before dawn. The garden ‘orchestra’ is playing a patchwork harmony of blue forget-me-nots, with deeper grape -hyacinth tones, and delicate chords of violets. Various shades of purple come from perennial wallflower chords, and from delicate azalea bushes. The variation on green is especially splendid, with sudden bursts of pink blossom, dancing white ballerinas, and pink leaves from shrubs. Lurking in the base are the buds of cornflowers, fragile new leaves, with the cymbal clash of tulips and dandelions to keep us awake! Gorgeous.

26th April

When walking in the garden with a friend we noticed tiny circular holes in an untrodden path. Each one had fine dust heaped around it. Suddenly, an insect started to emerge, very cautiously. I thought it might be a species of bumblebee, who usually take over the empty tunnels and burrows made by mice. But it was a wasp which emerged, just managing to get out through a hole the size of its torso. Absolutely fascinating. I hope nobody disturbs them or tries to kill them. They all have their own function in life.

Last Sunday, inspired by an article by the author who began "The Really Terrible Orchestra", we came to recreation with our own musical instruments. The most original but soundless one was made out of a saucepan with strings across the opening representing a guitar. A key-board was made from a series of drinking glasses tuned with water. Percussion is reasonably easy to provide but more melodious sounds are lacking ... except for the human voice. One Sister can whistle quite sweetly as a bird!

Then there was a 66th birthday, and we all drew small pictures incorporating that number. We had the eyes a cat, an owl, a woman, feet for a piano, a nun and wheels for a car, a caterpillar with feelers, and two nostrils in profile, as well as curls on a head and a Dutch sort of hat..... Most ingenious as well as fun during recreation on Sunday. It is just as well that the abbess began her professional life as a Junior School teacher in 1960!