First Week

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a blessed first week here at Lanherne in Cornwall. Since my computer is not cooperating with the photos I'll have to save those for next week. But it has been a very pretty weekend here: sun shining and high's in the upper 60's--quite different from August in Texas!

I am due into the chapel in about 10 minutes and then am off to a family's home for dinner, but will due my best to update you on this past week. It was certainly a full one! Many logistical things to learn: figuring out how the washer and dryer work, how to drive in a busy tourist town (Trulo) and shop for household items, how the sacristy functions here, ironing my own shirts, and even dealing with faulty fire alarms. We had the fire alarm system, which is loud enough to wake the dead, go off a few times during the night--which causes quite a commotion in a cloistered Carmel!  Finally, with the permission of the Bishop's secretary, the sisters disabled the whole system by unscrewing and removing all the detector's from the ceiling in each part of the monastery.

For a first week in a new assignment it had a surprising amount of peace, silence, and even time for study. Each morning I am blessed to have 5:15AM - 6:15AM silent prayer before the tabernacle with the sisters (who of course are in their own cloistered section behind the grill), then I pray parts of the Divine Office and offer the Holy Sacrifice at 7:30AM. Then thanksgiving, breakfast at 8:30, and then work and study begins for the day.

It felt great to get out and run the local hills a few days this week--almost nothing but hills here so that should help me get in shape. I also began to meet some of the locals. For example a local farmer came by to bring me a very nice gift of fresh meats from animals on his farm (which I passed on to the sisters who thankfully are cooking for me), and expressed his hope that he could share again in part of the monastery's bountiful crop of apples that it expected this fall. I guess I'll need to get used to negotiating these types of exchanges...

Various other items included looking into the cemetery attached to the monastery and it's upkeep--there are thankfully some incredibly generous faithful here who take care of the vast grounds outside the cloister, which look beautiful--receiving a call from a lady looking for a traditional baptism for her 4 month old grandson, calling the local pastor to get together for tea, and so on.

For the first time in 7 months, I am also getting settled in knowing I am not going to have to pack a few weeks later and head somewhere else. A very nice blessing.

I think of you all, my dear friends and family, in the different parts of the world where you are. This morning as I chanted the Mass again, using some of the settings we used to use at the Mission in Texas, it brought to mind so clearly so many of you. And whenever I chant morning Terce (by myself normally), I always picture and can almost hear the young men of the Servers of the Immaculate, chanting beside me. I pray that you all had a blessed Sunday. Please don't stop praying for me here!

With fatherly love and prayers,

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Anthony Pillari