It calls us always to the more of life: to more peace, more humility, more serenity, more study, more prayer, more openness, more service of the other, more community of heart, more richness of soul, more immersion in the tradition & the wisdom it has handed on to us. It invites us to come to learn, too, how less is also more: how less competition means more peace, less jealousy means more contentment, less need for things means more satisfaction, less self-centredness means more happiness, & less corrosive personal ambition leaves more room for the loving presence of God. This is a Rule, a spirituality, a lifestyle in which up is down, & low is high, & nothing is everything. Welcome to the joys that come to the spirit the less we plague the soul with things. Welcome to the real riches that life has to offer. To those seekers who find in their souls a Monastery of the Heart, the possibility of happiness is unbounded, the promise of fulfilment is eternal.    (the end of the book.)                                    
​                                                                                                                    The Monastery of the Heart by Joan Chittister OSB.
 
Two stalwarts of St Hilda’s Parish have died in recent days; Eileen Kirk & Judith Gubbins. Judith died on Monday evening in hospital in Hull after major heart surgery. We were glad to have sent her a card just 10 days ago which many of you signed. She has done tremendous work for the Parish & Village, particularly during the inter-regnum between Rev Sue Bond & Rev Catherine Reid. She presided with me at our Joint Schools Remembrance Service last November, & it was indeed fitting that she should cross the threshold into eternal life during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
        “In Christ we are already united. Unity isn’t something we create but something we discover .. that we are already
          one in Christ. It is this discovery that changes attitudes.”    
Veronica Borrett (John’s Mother) died peacefully at home early last Thursday morning. Her Requiem Mass will be at St Bernadette’s in Nunthorpe on Sat 10th Feb at 9am.
Please keep these three disciples very much in your thoughts & prayers at this time.   
 
Along with St Hilda’s Parish & the local Patients Forum, we are making good progress towards the establishment of a Dementia Hub, which will provide help & advice for Dementia sufferers & their carer’s, probably with a monthly gathering for tea & a chat, with additional opportunities for carers to meet for mutual support & encouragement. The success of the initiative will be grounded on the cooperation of as many of us as possible in the Village & surroundings. There will be a recruitment meeting in the Village Hall on Mon 12th Feb at 7pm to explain in more detail our first proposals & to seek your advice & experience. To try to encourage as many as possible to get involved, & to meet the increasing need, we are making a mail drop to each house in Ampleforth & local villages which will give first details. We would like volunteers please, from both Churches, to put a card through each letter box next week either on Mon or Tues 5th or 6th Feb, which should involve about 90 minutes work. If you can help please put your name on the list at the back of Church together with a contact telephone number & Louise Seymour, our coordinator, will be in touch with you.       
                                                                                                  With love & prayers, Fr Bede.