A Journey into the Abbey

I recently watched an incredible DVD borrowed from the local library called "The Abbey" (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/theabbey/). It is a 3 part "reality style" documentary put together by the ABC a few years ago.

It follows 5 ordinary Australian women who spend 33 days and nights living in a Benedictine Abbey (http://www.jamberooabbey.org.au/html/home.htm). Of the 5, who were varying in age, there were 3 "lapsed Catholics" (or who had some background of faith), one lady who was "searching" through all kinds of religions and practices, and the youngest of the group didn't believe in God at all.

My interest was sparked a while ago after reading a review on the series. The result was an incredibly humbling and emotional experience as I watched the interaction between the nuns and the "outsiders". On a number of occasions I just found myself thanking and praising God for the amazing events that unfolded during that month in the lives of these 5 women.

The nuns openly welcomed these ladies into the midst of their sacred daily practices (which requires prayer 5 times a day starting at 4.30am, and a lot of silence used to reflect and allow them to "go deeper" with God).

"You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest awhile." Mark 6.31

They very lovingly listened to each of the women talk about their life experiences (good and bad) in groups and in one-on-one sessions, not once showing any sign of judgement or taking offence, even though the ladies were quite upfront with their opinions on varying topics. These Benedictine nuns plain and simply shared God's love with the women and had the most profound (but simple) timely statements to offer them in the midst of their struggles.

Sister Hilda was one of the nuns who walked the journey with them, and it was amazing the wisdom she shared. Some of Sister Hilda's Pearls of Wisdom - http://www.abc.net.au/tv/theabbey/pearls.htm

I have to admit, my idea of nuns up till now has been that they are quite "religious" more than "spiritual" and I felt that locking themselves away from the world would surely make them unable to relate to your everyday person. How wrong I was!

I was struck by how "in tune" with God these nuns were and it was completely obvious they were His vessels being used to reveal His heart to the 5 visitors at the precise place they were each at along their searching or spiritual journey. It was evident that each of the 5 women were impacted (some more than others) on a spiritual level during their time there, even though the strict practices of the nuns weren't always followed by them.

By the end of their time in the Abbey, one lady had made a decision to follow God, another was working through issues and heading that direction, two were getting their lives back on track, and the one that didn't believe in God, had started to see things differently.

I don't know what happened to those women afterwards but certainly during their time at the Abbey, there was no denying that God's presence was very real in the midst of their experience.

I'm so glad I chose to watch this series. On completion, there was such an excitement in my spirit and an absolute wonder as I had seen God's love shown over and over to these 5 Aussie ladies, and in turn watched them slowly respond to it!

Morning Devotions

I've just gone back to reading a morning bible story to my daughter at the breakfast table. It's something I did when she was younger but with the way our lives have been over the last year, it unfortunately went by the wayside.

At the moment, I'm using a great book called "The Jesus Storybook Bible" by Sally Lloyd-Jones which is fantastic for her age group.

A few days ago I was reading the story of Abraham and Isaac to her, and the end of the story reads...

I can't explain what it is about this simple statement that almost reduced me to tears in that moment. Perhaps it just displays the incredible trust and love Jesus has for the Father - even when He was facing certain death - knowing He needed to be that sacrifice for the world.

Even now as I'm writing this, it's still profoundly impacting me... Perhaps I needed the reminder. Ah, the beauty of a simple faith, looking through a child's eyes.

My daughter continually amazes me with her statements of simple faith - "Jesus is in my heart Mummy"; "Jesus will look after me Mummy"; "Jesus is always with me Mummy"; "God loves everyone Mummy"; and then the questions - "Mummy why doesn't everyone love God?" - well it's like this baby...

The Break

Well our little girl has her first "break". It's only a green stick fracture (really it's a very tiny crack in her wrist on the xray) but it's enough to put her in a cast for 4 weeks.

She was supposed to be having a rest in her bedroom, when I heard a loud bang followed by tears. She'd fallen off a tiny table (not even 30cm high) and landed on her arm.

On initial inspection, she was saying "I can't move my arm" but about 5 minutes later, she'd stopped crying and could move arm and hand so I nearly didn't go to the doctor, but thought I should check - just in case...

I was very surprised when he said it was fractured and she would need a cast. I really expected the xray to show nothing and thought I would be written off as another case of the "over protective mother" who runs off to the doctor needlessly.

We'll here she is within hours of having the cast on - looking quite pleased with herself! Of course, we had to ring all the rellies to let them know what had happened.

A few hours into the night though and she was in tears saying, "I don't want my green stick fracture!"

These photos were taken a few days later - she had just been jumping off her slide so clearly she hasn't learnt her lesson from all this.

Being the little daredevil she is, I'm certain we're in for years of heart stopping moments, but hopefully this will be the only one requiring a cast and sling.

Seal Kisses

D loves the seal show at Underwater World so usually as we leave, we need to go past the seal statue at the Wharf so she can give it a kiss.

Just to show how much she's grown lately, this photo below was taken in October last year...

And this was March this year...

A Nice Outing

This year we bought Underwater World annual passes (given that it's so close to home) and it's such a perfect little outing to do with our 3 year old.

The great thing is that we can go for just an hour or as long as we want. Great for a rainy day when you're going stir crazy and need to get out of the house.

I recently took her for a visit while the Easter holidays were on. She really enjoys walking through the tunnel underneath to see all the fish and sharks. She's just learnt about "schools of fish" so she spent the whole time saying, "There's another school, and another...". We always take time to say "hi" to the otters (even though they're nearly always sleeping) and her favourite thing of all is the seal show, and this time there was a brand new one so she was in her element.

And when it was time to leave, there was a huge inflatable Dora and Diego jumping castle with built in car, slide, etc at the Wharf. She also got to ride on a little "boat" and posed in front of the shark and crocodile statues.

All up, it was a great morning!