Carols and Ampleforth - Fisher House events.

Sr Ann Catherine writes:

The end of term at Fisher House was both holy and hectic! Because students leave Cambridge so early in December, we tend to “telescope” Advent and Christmas a little, and it has become a tradition to sing carols in the Market Square to the Christmas shoppers before adjourning to the chaplaincy for mulled wine and mince pies. We do this to raise money for the SVP, a wonderful cause of course, but this year it felt particularly as though something else was going on too. Several of us remarked on how long people stayed to listen to us singing, seemingly rather moved by the familiar words and music: a tiny but genuine example of the new evangelization in practice at the heart of a very secular consumer frenzy.

A day or two later, a small group of us went up to Ampleforth Abbey for our annual Advent retreat: in theory an opportunity to recharge spiritual batteries, in practice exhausting, as we combined getting up for the beautiful monastic office of matins with staying up to all hours to discuss life, the universe and everything. But that’s chaplaincy life at its glorious best!

#apostolate