FEATURE
A stitch in time‌
Lucy Shaw reports from the second Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat
Mass at the Sewing retreat
T
he first weekend of March this year saw the second Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat, held once again at the Carmelite Retreat Centre in Oxfordshire. St ThÊrèse of Lisieux, surely the bestknown of all Carmelite nuns, adored snow, and describes in her autobiography how, on the morning of the day she took Solemn Vows, she awoke to see a thick blanket of snow on the ground - a wedding gift from her heavenly Spouse. Both our retreats have been similarly blessed; and although it seems a remarkable indication of heavenly favour, it looked as though this year's fall might be sufficiently abundant to prevent the retreat happening at all. The snow, which had started falling during the week before, starting falling again on Friday afternoon, and the final approach to the Retreat Centre up a steep hill became impassible
42
to all but four-wheel-drive vehicles. However, the remarkable courage of the retreatants and the assistance of our heavenly Patrons defeated the weather, and we assembled without serious accident at the Priory for a weekend of sewing, spiritual conferences and, most importantly, traditional liturgy. I founded the Guild in 2010 because I became aware that there was a drastic shortage of people with the skills to repair vestments for the growing number of traditionally minded priests wanting to use and maintain them. I had very little experience of vestment mending myself at the time, and had been plunged in at the deep end with a beautiful nineteenth century watered silk chasuble covered in goldwork. I and my fellow Guild members have tackled a number of commissions since then, and working together has enabled us to develop our skills in a
way which would have been impossible otherwise. We have all been grateful, not only for the opportunities to learn new skills, but for the fellowship of other committed Catholics determined to serve the Church through thick and thin, which has brought us all many graces. The Retreat is a way of deepening this mutual endeavour, and also of bringing it to people who live too far away to participate in our local events and meetings, most of which take place in Oxford. I am constantly impressed by people's willingness to undertake the most mundane tasks when working for the good of the Church, and so it was this weekend. Retreatants re-stitched couched goldwork threads that had come loose on a preaching stole, replaced the clasp and gold braid of a cope, and patched damaged maniples. Enormous holes in a deep lace trim on an alb were repaired,
SUMMER 2018
