We are fortunate today to be able to stay in the parish and just to pop to the Priory church at Ewenny. We have a video from Philip and Sheila filmed at the flower festival just five years ago. This year the Priory, which is a stunning building, was to have celebrated its 900 year anniversary of its dedication. We hope that 2021 a year later because of Coronavirus we will together be able to celebrate this anniversary with many special events in our parish.
The Priory started out as a Benedictine monastery founded by Maurice de Londres and was built in the Twelfth Century, in 1141. It is quite unusual as it has military-style defences and is thought that it could be one of the finest fortified religious buildings in Britain. Over the many years, the priory has sustained damage, especially following Henry Vlll's Dissolution of the Monasteries, and was subsequently converted into a private house, which is still inhabited by its current owners, the Turberville family.
The Priory is also unusual as the Norman nave serves as the parish church. What would have been the Chancel is now in the hands of CADW as it is an ancient building, which along with the church welcomes many visitors.
I know some people in our parish haven't visited The Priory yet, but when things settle down and you feel safe, do make a trip of it as it is a stunning building, oozing with history, warmth and welcome. You won't be disappointed!
We are grateful to Philip and Sheila once again and I now have a number of wonderful things I shall share with you over the next Fridays from Philip and Sheila.
"Jesus set before me the book of nature. I understood how all the flowers he created are beautiful, how the splendour of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. If seems to me that if a little flower could speak, it would tell simply what God has done for it without trying to hide its blessings or say, under the pretext of a false humility, that it is not beautiful or without perfume, that the sun has taken away its splendour and the storm has broken its stem when it knows that all this untrue. "
St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 - 1897)
Blessing:
May the fragrance of the flowers
and of the blossom on the trees fill your hearts
with the sweetness of God's love.
May the rays of the shining sun make you aware
of the healing given through our Lord Jesus Christ.
May the wind as it blows remind you of the power of the
Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives:
And may the blessing of the three-in-one God,
the God who created and upholds us, keep you and all those whom you love,
now and for evermore. Amen.
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