A favourite part of a Friends’ weekend at St Beuno’s is, as Tim calls it, ‘The state of the Nation address.’ He was standing in for Ruth at the last weekend in September as she enjoys her sabbatical and he was doing a very good job.
Otherwise known as ‘A year in the life of this retreat house,’ this session is always part of our Saturday mornings. Tim started with a short history lesson, reminding us of the farsightedness of the Jesuits who bought this land so many centuries ago, back in the 1660s, well before building started on the house in 1847. And, maybe of greater importance to us, this is a house where prayer has taken place, every single day, since then. The Jesuits were in the area before then of course, since 1581, when they had charge of the shrine at Holywell and where they also ran the inn, this being a significant pilgrimage route throughout the Middle Ages.
And then moving swiftly forward, Tim presented on our last year. Many of you will remember the beautiful oak tree which stood outside Capel y Coed until it was felled about 4 years ago. The tree had been planted in 1849 by Jan Roothaan, the Fr General of the Jesuits at that time, and was known as the Roothaan oak. The wood had been allowed to season before a local carpenter, Pete (the husband of Sheila in the office) was asked to make furniture for the Rock Chapel, and oh my goodness, what an amazing job he has done. Benches and an altar have been made, with no screws or nails. They are so beautiful and so tactile that it is tricky to know whether to sit on them - or just stroke them! Apparently, Pete prayed throughout the process for guidance, to try to get it ‘just right.’
On a much sadder note, you will also know by now that June saw the sad death of Fr Rory Geoghegan SJ, creator of many of the sculptures that we have in the house and gardens here. He will be sadly missed by so many.
Our cat, Pushkin, also died this year. Part of so many retreatants’ private time, Pushkin had become the face of St Beuno’s over her 18 years, to be found either curled up on a chapel chair, or more irritatingly, in the middle of the corridor near the conference rooms where you often fell over her, particularly if you were deep in prayer - or desperate for a cuppa! Her ashes have been buried in the garden. And no, there is no plan to replace her.
Tim went on to tell us about movements on the staff; priests leaving and being replaced and new team members being welcomed. But we still need a new head chef, so prayers are asked for in that direction, please, particularly given the importance of food to the retreatants!
St Beuno’s continues to be a very popular retreat venue and the numbers presented by Tim were really encouraging. All cottages are now back in use, which has helped the overall booking figures. In the last year we have had 2211 guests of whom 1408 have completed an IGR. A record number have completed the Spiritual Exercises, 130 over the year, with the biggest individual group of 26 here this summer for the Full Spiritual Exercises over 30 days. Themed retreats saw 353 guests this year, with another 88 individuals coming for training courses. We had 15 team members during the year (full- and part-time), supported by an incredible 95 guest directors. We were all so heartened to hear of these successes and are asked to pray for all of them. God is definitely hard at work here! Hard copies of the programme are now available, so you are invited to help distribute a few locally. Spreading the word to churches and other local groups would be really useful.
The building of the Friends’ Prayer room, which many of you contributed towards, is moving ever closer. The mains power supply is now available up on the terrace and the plans were put out for tender. Unfortunately, the prices quoted are far higher than the amount we raised so the architect has been asked what can be done for 100K. This will happen!
We had such a blessed weekend. We were a small group of just eight, led by Tim and Fr Tom. Discussions were held and secrets were shared as trust in each other grew over the weekend. Our social session on Saturday evening was of our own making. Someone showed glorious nature photographs, another had us singing guiding songs, whilst someone else chose a haunting Scottish island number. Fr Tom completed the act with his guitar but the one who brought the house down and provided hilarity long into the Sunday however was undoubtedly the lady who tried to do a memory game with us. Carrots seemed to be the answer, randomly, while we were all in search of aubergines and celery. I know, it looks ridiculous on paper! It descended into chaos, as the best things often do and as Max Boyce might have said, ‘You just had to be there!’
So looking forward to our next gathering, and with very grateful thanks to al the team for making it such a successful event.