Life

Our present home is an interesting Victorian building, originally the presbytery or priest's house, in the lovely and historic village of East Hendred, a few miles south of Oxford. The house is not ours but rented, which is why you will find more carpet and soft furnishings than is usual in a nuns' monastery. Both house and grounds are quiet, which is a great help to recollection.

We try to grow as much fruit and vegetables as we can and in the last few years, with the help of friends, have given the gardens a major makeover. From the terrace, we look across to Hendred House and the private chapel of the Eyston family, where Mass has been celebrated since 1256 and where we sometimes sing Vespers.

Although our lifestyle is frugal rather than ascetic (we don't get up at 3.00 a.m like the Cistercians, for example), we do have to earn a living. Fortunately, St Benedict saw a spiritual value in work and set aside definite times for it in the monastic timetable. Whatever we do is part of our search for God, so, whether in choir singing the praises of God, working for our living or carrying out some ordinary household task, we try to be ready to welcome Christ in whatever guise he may come to us.

All our work is carried out at the monastery, where we run a small design company, Veil Press Ltd (the 'Veil' of the title is a play on the Vale of White Horse, where we live). Veilpress provides printing and editorial services while Veilnet is the web design and hosting arm of the company.

We also run Veilaudio, formerly St Cecilia's Guild, a free audio book lending library service for the visually impaired. Other kinds of work may be undertaken if anyone with the appropriate talent or skill joins the community.

You can read more about all these in the Work section.

Making Community

It takes more than a shared house and shared work to make a community. It takes a shared ideal, a sense of common purpose and an abundance of grace to overcome the inevitable frictions, to say nothing of the shortcomings we all have as individuals. St Benedict rightly saw community life as a blessing, one we delight in sharing with others. Oblates, Associates, Friends, visitors and guests are all part of the monastery's larger community, the 'shared cloister' to which there are different degrees of belonging but to which all contribute something valuable, something no one else can.

Entrance to the monastery, built in 1865 as the presbytery or priest's house
The pots and planters are meant to be welcoming!

Then are they genuinely monks,


when they live by the work of their hands.


RB 48.8