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Tymawr, Wales
A Contemplative Community
I began at Tymawr as an Alongsider. The Alongside programme is open to any who want to spend some time with the community, to deepen their own journey of prayer. I was so surprised to find myself in a Convent but couldn’t deny that I was experiencing a deep sense of belonging, of having “come home”. I was struck by the rooted steadiness of the sisters and their transparency of heart. There was a lack of manipulation and a sense that all were accepted for who they were, rather than what they could give: a very healing experience. The heart of the monastic life is the call to stand before God as one is and to remain there, letting the light of God illuminate and heal; not only for one’s own good but on behalf of others in their need. It’s not easy to face ourselves as we are, and it’s only because God’s love invites us to do so that we are able to. As one experiences God’s extraordinary welcome and acceptance within, so our own hearts become places of God’s compassionate welcome for others.
It has been an ongoing challenge and joy to adjust to being a member of the community rather than simply an individual in the world. There is a sense of belonging, of being part of something bigger than one’s self and of shared responsibility. There is a process of learning to depend on one another and on God, but it takes a long time for the self to yield to being a part of something corporate.
When I arrived I was the youngest by 15 years and most in the community were much older. Although it could be lonely having no one else my age, it did give me the space to find myself at a deeper level. My family thought it was extraordinary that I would want to be with women of my grandparents’ age and of such different life experience. The commitment we share, the covenant established between the community members and God, goes much deeper though. It is rooted in Christ and rests on God, not on the affinities between individuals.
Our monastic day is built around the fourfold Office which is said/sung in Chapel and the daily Eucharist at midday. Our guests and visitors are welcome to all the services. The contemplative dimension is as much the underlying approach to the day, as the time spent in prayer. It is above all the desire to keep God at the centre of everything we do and by this help others to enter into the space created for God in our midst. Keeping periods of relative silence, returning to the Chapel at intervals for services and having times to be alone, all support this focus on God. These elements also hold us through the inevitable ups and downs of community life. Meeting frequently to recite and listen together to God’s Word in Chapel places us in the presence of the healing and forgiving love of God and gives a deeper perspective to our preoccupations and tensions.
There is a sense in which one takes a step back from the world by entering a Contemplative Community. This is not in order to separate oneself from others and their concerns, but so as to respond as fully as one is able to God’s call to engage through focusing the whole of one’s life on God. All life is bound together and is held and embraced by God, who invites us in the ways chosen for each one of us to join in this work of reconciliation in love.
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