Joyful Presentation Day across communities

A snapshot of reflections from a number of communities of Presentation Sisters in England:

Moston:

We gathered each evening for The Novena in front of a display of Our Lady. We found the novena very reflective and prayerful. The weekly Mass said in the convent by Fr Starkie, and attended by a number of parishioners was a sung Mass to celebrate the feast of The Presentation. Tea, coffee and freshly baked scones ( made by Srs  Gabriel and Cecilia )  were served in the dining  room. A relaxed time was enjoyed by all. 

Shirebrook:

We celebrated with Year 3 children at Mass - one of whom invited us to renew our Vowsl having given them a small packet of sweets, they reminded Sr Susan that she had promised them chocolate-  so she and Sr Mary went over to school and gave every child a chocolate!! The Associates joined us for coffee after Mass and then we went to a garden for lunch.  We had a zoom prayer in the evening and a little more celebrating-  a great day and we were pleasantly tired….

Swindon:

We came together in the morning of Presentation Day with greetings of great joy and an air of celebration. Before lunch we had our refurbished grotto blessed by our PP. This was donated by a brother of one of our sisters. In the evening we had prayer and novena. As it is November we  remembered our families, deceased members of the congregation, our Associates, Friends of Nano and co-workers.  Hence our mixed sacred space. Our celebration continued into late evening.

St Augustine’s Nottingham:

It was a fairly relaxed day and in the afternoon we went out for a celebration meal.  We came together at 7.00pm to pray  the final prayer in the Novena booklet & share our overview of the Novena.  It was lovely for the first time since lockdown that we had Associates & parishioners join us for the Novena. We had a little soiree on Monday night for them at end of Novena. 

Livesey Street:

We had a lovely Presentation Day.  It mainly centred around Mass in our Chapel at 5pm concelebrated by our Parish Priest Fr. Paul Daly assisted by Bishop Emeritus Terence Brain and Fr Moses Agada, Assistant Priest; also present with us was Seminarian Theo Sharrock who is residing in the Priest's house and Chaplain in St Matthew's School. We had a homily on the significance of the Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple,  renewed our Vows and sang many hymns to Our Lady.

Mass was followed by a delicious celebratory meal, eight of us present, where we had good conversation covering many topics which went on for quite a while!

The Novena that day was uplifting and thought provoking and it enhanced our day. It was a good Presentation day which we all enjoyed.