Saint Anne's Procession + more on life as a missionary in England.

High altar prepared for Mass for St. Anne's Feast Day.

Statue of St. Anne, decorated with flowers, to be carried in procession.

Statue ready to be carried.

Some of the hundreds of candles people carried in procession that night.

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week was spent mostly in the library at St. Paul's in Ottawa, Canada, doing research in preparation for the doctoral dissertation. Providentially, I was there when the patronal feast of the parish: the Parish of St. Clement - St. Anne, took place. It was a beautiful night of invoking St. Anne's intercession.

We celebrated a solemn High Mass, with Fr. Breton, FSSP, celebrant, Fr. Bizard, FSSP, I (spiritual director of their seminary in Europe) as deacon, and myself (thankfully having a minimal role) as subdeacon. Following the Mass the several hundred faithful in attendance lined up with lit candles, the scouts lifted the litter carrying St. Anne, and off we went... singing and processing around the neighborhood on a beautiful night. It was quite a nice way to invoke St. Anne's intercession, and was providential since she is also a patron of Lanherne monastery in England.

Having returned to England I am very happy to say that I will not have to travel for a while! It is good now to be able to delve more deeply into the prayer and work that is here, along with each day's unexpected events. For example today I stepped into the chapel at noon to pray and was greeted by a smiling young man in his mid-20's. We stepped outside to visit and wound up discussing his faith--he's a pentecostal who plays the drums and guitar each Sunday at his local church, but who comes regularly to Lanherne to pray quietly. He asked me "how I got saved"--so I talked about my baptism :), and my vocation, etc. At the end of the conversation he went back into the church to light a candle before the altar. Hopefully St. Anne will intercede for him...

Such events are part of the second row of my responsibilities for this coming year:

Second row reads: visitors, village, priest retreats.

Visitors

This involves people such as the young man who came by today. Almost every day people come to the monastery church to pray. Depending on the circumstances I take some time to talk with them, explain about the monastery, in some cases listen to their problems, etc. Some come to also ask for Confession (though that's more rare among the visitors), but many are non-Catholics or likely don't have much faith in anything, but are attracted by the quiet, historic monastery. I'll admit that I have much less time than I would like for this apostolate (and with the Bishop's agreement this second row is on the back burner for the moment), but it is still a regular part of apostolate here.

Village

I'm blessed to be in a largely friendly little village. Regretfully I also have to put this on the back burner. But it involves things such as going to the annual village festival, taking time to talk to neighbors, inviting someone over for tea, stopping at their house for tea, inviting them to come to the monastery for Mass, or prayer, etc. Trying to witness to the truth of the Faith. Regretfully time allows me to do very little at this point.

Priest Retreats

If priests request this, and only a handful did last year, then welcoming them here to make several day silent retreats. Hopefully, once the presbytery is fixed up, this apostolate can expand.

Well, I'd best get some dinner and then finish the evening's prayer and work. Blessed Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola!

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari