Sister Placid Wilson R.I.P
We ask you to remember our Sr Placid Wilson who died peacefully on October 19, this year, 2007.
Born Edna Lockyer Wilson, our Sr Placid was born September 19, 1914 in Maesteg Wales, the first child and only daughter of Edward and Mary. Clyde, her only brother was younger by five years.
The Wilson family came to Australia when Edna was around 13 and settled in Sydney, where Edna completed her schooling, later working in the office at McDowells department store.
It was during this time, that friendship brought Edna into contact with Catholicism, and under instruction from Fr Smith MSC, she was received into the Church at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Kensington on the eve of Pentecost, a day she remembered with deep gratitude and delight throughout her life. Her desire to enter the Monastery dated from this moment, and after waiting the specified time, Edna joined the community at Subiaco in April 1939, receiving the name Sister Placid, and how it suited her “Placid by name and placid by nature” many said of her.
Responding to the strong warm guidance of Mother Mary Joseph as Prioress, Placid knew that she was loved and accepted in the community, and in December 1944 made her Solemn Profession…simple, uncomplicated and contented she became a reliable community member.
Throughout her entire life Placid remained this simple, calm, peaceful, reliable person who approached and carried out all her tasks in a measured, mindful and unhurried way. What she did was always well done, with no haste, no stress and no short-cuts. She loved her work, and loved be working, be it propagating, planting and caring for trees from Subiaco, to Pennant Hills and to Lammermoor, or merely raking the grass; her beautiful hand embroidery on Mass Vestments we still use today; or her work on the candles from the Emu Park/Lammermoor days until the day before she died…she was so present to it all.
In the difficult post Vatican II, Sr Placid as Prioress at Pennant Hills quietly and gently, with the community, rode the storms of ‘renewal’ with deep faith in God, accepting the inevitability of change, heart open to the challenge and risk of it all, and allowing the Spirit to lead the way forward. This openness brought the community through the Chapter of Renewal and the revision of our Constitutions, even making community members available to work for whatever calls were being made on us, both inside and outside the monastery. New links were forged with the Poor Clares, Tyburn and the Carmelites and the establishment of the Benedictine Union of Australia and New Zealand was begun.
With this same open spirit Sr Placid accepted the challenge of Bishop Wallace to make a foundation in the Rockhampton Diocese, herself joining that community when her term of office expired, and in a new and different way gave herself to God in the people of the Capricorn Coast whom she loved and in fact all of Queensland…the joy of her week was the reading of the Catholic Leader, she knew what was happening in every area and prayed particularly for the school children and the spread through their ranks of the practice of meditation.
Sr Placid’s great genius for friendship influenced many people over the years, both men and women, she loved them all, and in her ageing, regretted that her capacity for writing letters had dwindled but she was always anxious for news of them and full of concern if any were struggling. Her love was a gift, loyal and unconditional.
How beautiful these last years have been, since her return to our Jamberoo community, and how quickly and how truly she became part of our lives on every level, she was totally present to us in her active interest and participation in every detail of our personal lives and in our life as community.
Those of us who’ve known Placid a long time cherish the mystery and the memory of who she was, and grieve the loss. Those who have known her only a few years have felt that the gift of her being with us was all too short and feel a double loss in that. Not only the community, but our oblates and friends who come to share Eucharist and liturgy with us miss the brilliant smile and twinkling eyes that lit up the moment for them.
In her childhood Edna learned the song “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam”, she remembered it often and sang it to us with great and humble glee. We have returned our ‘sunbeam’ to her Maker and source of all light ….calling to mind the words of St.Paul….
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
We with unveiled faces
reflecting the brightness of the Lord,
all grow brighter and brighter
as we are changed into the image that we reflect…
2 Cor 3:18
Sr. Placid was 93 years old at the time of hear death
and in the 67 th year of her Profession.
Mother Mary Gertrude Barnes,
Blessed and Installed as our new Abbess
On December 16th 2006, Mother Mary Gertrud Barnes OSB was blessed and offically installed as Abbess of our Abbey by Bishop Peter Ingham. Mother Mary was chosen by the Community to succeed Mother Benedicta Philips, the first Abbess, who died on August 24th 2006.
Having celebrated 30 years in monastic life and 25 years of Solemn Monastic Mary Barnes osb on November 16th 2006, we are blessed that our new Abbess has travelled with us for so long, and brings a great deal of experience to her new role of service. She previously served the community as Novice Mistress, Infirmarian, Sub-Prioress and founder and manager of our Craft Department. Mother Mary was one of the nuns who spent two years assisting Mother Benedicta in looking for property to relocate the Abbey from Pennant Hills. When we moved to our beautiful site here in Jamberoo, she worked closely with Mother Benedicta and Sister Elizabeth on the building of the Abbey.
Our New Abbess,
Mother Mary Gertrud Barnes
Mother Mary received the symbols of her office: the Rule of St Benedict, the key and seal of the Abbey, her ring, her pectoral cross, and her pastoral staff. She chose as her motto: Listen. This is the first word in the Rule of St Benedict.
In her first sharing with us as a community after her election, Mother Mary focused on the words of Pope Paul VI:
.... listen to one another
.... love one another
.... pray for one another.She then added a fourth task, in the true spirit of St Benedict:
... serve one another.
Symbols of Service
Chosen as symbols for the ceremony were the Book of the Benedictine Rule, a lighted oil lamp, and a basin and towel. The Rule is the guide for our life in community; the lamp represents the light that is Christ, with whom we walk; and the basin and towel signify the service of washing the feet of others in humble and loving service.
Mother Benedicta Philips
Mother Abbess Benedicta Philips died suddenly just after 9.00 a.m. on August 24th. She was 69 years of age. Having suffered chronic ill-health for many years, her death was the result not of that chronic illness but rather what our doctor described as a “massive clot on both lungs”. Because of this, she would not have suffered in death as she did in life
Mother Benedicta entered our community on February 10th, 1976. She was clothed in the monstic habit on June 20th, 1976 and made her Solemn Monastic Profession on August 31st, 1978. She was elected Prioress on September 27th, 1980 and on November 10th, 1982, was elected the first Abbess, after our monastery had been raised to the status of an abbey early in that year. She was blessed as Abbess on January 29th, 1983.
She led us through the period of our re-location from Pennant Hills to Jamberoo in 1988-89 and after that continued as spiritual mother, teacher, wise physician and shepherd, in the spirit of St Benedict, until the end of her life. On September 27th this year she would have completed 26 years in Office.
She wanted to be remembered for one thing only – how much she loved the community she shepherded through, with and in Christ. And this is how we remember her.