FoA - Clare Priory - Formation and History
At a Parish in Council meeting in December 1999 it was agreed Clare Priory would form its own local group of Friends of Augustine. The first meeting of the Friends was March 23rd 2000.
Following the spirit of the meetings held in Rome, (16th - 21st July 1999), and the subsequent meeting held in Clare in the same year, it was agreed at the first meeting the Clare group would:
Study Augustine in various ways - history, teachings and writings, principles and basis of his thoughts and life.
Become familiar with the prayer life of Augustine and to learn about prayer for our own lives.
To pray upon, reflect upon and study scripture.
Experience a close encounter with God
Learn to speak in prayer from our hearts; "our inner self"
To find ways to grow - tapes, CD's and books etc.
Activities:
The year 2000 continued with talks on various aspects of Augustine’s life, given by members of the Priory Community. Then after the Augustinian Spirituality weekend at Hinsley Hall, Leeds, 1st to 3rd September 2000, a collection of talks was circulated and different Friends presented their understanding of the talks at the following monthly meetings. These meeting are held in the Library at Clare Priory on the last Thursday of each month commencing at 07.30 pm.
In 2003, we had from Hinsley Hall a collection of documents entitled "Ideas for Reflection and Discussion" and these then formed the basis of (the then) current monthly meetings.
In January 2004 a prayer group started, (meeting on the first and third Thursdays of each month), to pray, in particular for the sick in our Parish, for the local Prison, for our community and our Augustinian Order. Quiet contemplative prayer to find God within us is encouraged.
At the end of May, 2004, we joined the National pilgrimage of the Friends to San Gimignano staying at the Convento de S. Agostino.
In 2005 we read and reflected upon Augustine’s Homilies on the First Letter of John. The version we are using is a translation by John Leinenweber OSB.
By the end of January 2006 we had completed studying St Augustine's Homilies on St John's First Letter after 9 meetings. It was studied in depth and the command to Love our Neighbour was brought home to us. This should be the "norm" but there is much prejudice around us to influence us otherwise and an inbuilt preference for one's own preservation. We still need to move from being self-centred to God centred.
Following St John’s Letters and after a Lenten break we studied the Rule of St Augustine. Read it here on this web site.
May 2006 saw the success of the second Pilgrimage to San Gimignano. 22 parishioners and two Priests from Clare spent a week at the Convento. We had day trips to Florence and our Augustinian Sisters at Lecceto.
In July 2006 two lay members from our group went with Fr Bernard Rolls, Prior and with other representatives from our Province to Rome for a St Augustinian Laity conference, ( read more). This conference had major proposals on the way forward for laity and has been discussed in our monthly meetings since. At our last meeting we set up study groups on various ways forward.
Since the 2nd International Laity Conference in Rome 2006 we have held the following National Conferences:
June 2007 at Clare Priory
January 2008 at Boarbank Hall in Cumbria.
September 2008 at Clare Priory
January 2009 at Boarbank Hall
October 2009 at Boarbank Hall
April 2010 at Clare Priory
Our next National meeting is to be at Clare Priory 18th - 20th June 2010
We continued our studies of St Augustine, his view of The Lord's Prayer, his life; including a "time-line", Fr Ben O'Rourke's new book on Augustine.
Following the National Meeting at Boarbank Hall in January 2009 and Deacon Nigel Bavidge's talks we are once again studied "The Rule" with a deeper insight and how we may live closer to it in our daily lives. This we "completed" at the end of April 2009 and in May commenced studying Pope Benedict's talks at his General Audiences in Rome in early 2008, this took us through to the end of summer..
In September 2009 we welcomed Fr Peter Jones OSA from the "Centre for Augustinian Spirituality" - Greystones - New South Wales, AUSTRALIA. Fr Peter is one of two Friars specifically linked to the Lay friends of St Augustine in Australia. We had an excellent opportunity to "compare notes and experiences".
With input from our Dutch "friends" at the October 2009 National meeting, our Clare October meeting led us to agreeing to have a "Meeting Booklet" and a "Prayer Booklet" such that not only would it make us consider where we are and our way forward but would enable us to have tangible "material" for those outside Clare as well as our own Parishioners. These were finally agreed/completed at our March 2010 meeting and will be available for the National Meeting at Clare this April.
The January 2010 Clare meeting was led by Paul Bethell who talked on 'The Spiritual Legacy of St. Augustine' by T von Bavel.
The March Clare meeting was led by Ian Harding who presented a talk on Augustinian Interiority, a compilation from several, (mainly) Augustinian sources.
Our April meeting discussed the April National meeting and confirmed the contents of our "Starter Pack" for distribution to interested individuals and groups.
May 2010; Paul Bethel presented "Communion of Life in Augustine".
