Vocations Blog

An Island Experience: Course for Junior Professed of the Region of the Isles, 2010

17 May 2010

Course for Junior Professed of the Region of the Isles, 2010

This years’ course for the Junior professed and second year novices of the Cistercian Order’s Region of the Isles was held at the Abbey of Our Lady and St Samson on Caldey Island, from May 3rd to 11th.  It was enthusiastically attended by 15 participants from Caldey Abbey, Mount St Bernard and Hyning (England), Tautra (Norway) Portglenone (Northern Ireland), Roscrea, Mellifont and Glencairn (Eire). 
Dom Daniel, Abbot at Caldey, warmly welcomed everyone on the first evening, introduced the Dominican Orders’ provincial for England and Wales, Fr John Farrell OP as tutor and encouraged full participation and enjoyment of every aspect of the forthcoming week.

Timetable
Each day the participants attended two classes as well as the Divine Office with the community, which still left plenty of time to explore the cultural and natural assets of the Island as well as its deep sense of spirituality. Fortunately the weather remained good which encouraged exploration of the beaches, cliff tops, village, historic places of prayer etc.

Classes
The title of this years course was ‘Scripture, Liturgy and Christian Living’ each aspect of which are so integrally related in the Christian and monastic life. At the outset the focus was on idea of the constant presence of the Lord and from this came a twofold question:-

• Who is this One who is with us?
• And who are we who follow?

The exploration of this question covered a vast number of topics over six days of lectures and ultimately led to reflections on how we try to live our lives from baptismal, eucharistic and liturgical perspectives.

Celtic Pilgrimmage
Mid way through the course a boat to the mainland and coach were arranged to facilitate visiting places of historic and Celtic spiritual interest in Pembrokeshire. The first stop was to the ruins of the monastery at Harverford West where Br Gildas gave a brief talk on the significance of the ruins to be seen there. Then it was on to New Gael to see the site of possibly the oldest Celtic foundations of spirituality in Wales. Our ultimate destination was the city of St Davids where we saw the ruins of the ancient monastery and the present day cathedral where a reliquary containing the bones of St David is on view.

Exploring the Island
Sunday is a very special day on Caldey Island because there are no boats from the mainland and thus the natural beauty and tranquillity can be enjoyed by the monks and resident islanders. Having the afternoon free, this years participants took the opportunity to explore the cliff walks and were particularly delighted by the range of wild flowers seen in full bloom as well as a playful group of seals frolicking at Red Berry Cove.

Conclusion
All too soon it was time to leave Caldey and return home with very many happy memories of a truly blessed and invigorating experience.  A great number of friendships amongst the participants and community on Caldey were forged and renewed and the fruits of Fr John’s lectures will remain with us for a long time to come. Our debts of gratitude for all we have received during this wonderful time are many and so we wish to express our very deep appreciation to all who made this years course not just possible but a truly wonderful experience.

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