Tyburn Pt.1

I made it to the school holidays, after a very rewarding but stressful couple of weeks, where I wasn’t taking care of my body, and as a result my soul spiraled downward as well. To celebrate I used a Pak’n’save voucher I’d received ages ago to buy some fresh veggies and made myself a giant bowl of crispy noodle and chicken salad. That just shows how badly I’d been treating my body – the fact that I spent a voucher on veggies so I could treat myself with a salad…

Anyway…to recover from the term and calm my mind enough that I can actually relax over the school holidays, I made a last minute decision to go and stay at Tyburn Monastery in Ngakuru.

Tyburn Monastery Ngakuru
Tyburn Monastery, Ngakuru

I’m currently sitting by the fireplace, with a beautiful view out the window, and a Nun trying to fix the DVD player so I can watch a documentary on Tyburn Monasteries. In this beautiful location, so far away from anywhere that my sister got car sick as we took the windy/gravelly road here, I can’t help but unwind and relax. There are no distractions. But at the same time, I’m really struggling to relax because I feel like I need to be filling my time with productive things.

As I sat in the chapel reflecting before Terce, Mass and Adoration this morning, I realised that my reason for coming here was mainly selfish – I came to have a quiet space to find solutions to all my problems, to everything crowding my mind.  Which is fair enough. But here’s an excerpt from my journal this morning;

“I’ve come here with the mindset that everything needs to be solved. Nothing needs to be solved. Everything needs to be surrendered. Surrender is the solution. Because in surrendering I’m handing everything over to the Lord, trusting that He will take care of it in His own perfect time, in His own perfect way. ‘The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I shall want.’ So Lord, I start today surrendering all to you. It doesn’t come naturally. But it comes spiritually. It’s what my soul desires – surrender. Surrender is the solution. I surrender all to you, and trust that you will take care of it.”  

I still have another 48hrs or so here. I haven’t got any solutions to my problems yet. But I will continue to surrender, and see what happens when I let God be in control!

View from my room


(P.S. cows being herded over the field in the distance is actually so mesmerizing to watch! It’s like watching ants crawling along a surface except less disgusting cause they’re cows…bad analogy 😅)


Tyburn Sisters:

First thoughts

  • Spend so much of their time in prayer – Liturgy of the Hours 7 times a day, daily Mass, Rosary and Adoration 
  • Less time for your own personal expressions of prayer? Lots of traditional/very contemplative
  • Only 4 sisters here
  • I don’t think I could manage being so isolated! I strongly feel like my call involves reaching out and evangelizing those around me. And yes St Terese was patron Saint of Missionaries despite being a Carmelite Sister. I have no doubt these sisters are changing lives through their prayer. But I feel like God is calling me to be a more visible witness out there in the community, amongst the people.
  • MGL’s seem to me to have a great balance of contemplative and charismatic which I love. Mass, Adoration, Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, but also praise and worship, tongues, and personal prayer time.



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