Saturday 7 January 2012

Tyburn Ngakuru, Rotorua: The Story .....

In April 2008, Bishop Denis Browne of Hamilton diocese wrote to the Mother General inviting The Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of Montmartre from Tyburn Monastery to set up new foundations in the Diocese.  As a result the Tyburn Monastery in Ngakuru, Rotorua, New Zealand was 'born' in May 2009.


It sits on a 16 hectares picturesque site amidst the rolling hills of Ngakuru over looking one of Lake Ohakuri's arms.


 Here, the nuns worked laboriuosly to set up a wonderful monastery with the generous donations and help of the people of Rotorua, of New Zealand and even from far away in London.  Life in the beginning was hard for them as they had to live in the garage while their quarters were being built.

Today, the site boasts of a beautiful chapel, a 90-year-old former parish church for Taneatua Catholics, ...


... retreat wing, chaplain's house, Stations of the Cross - Calvary Hill, ...


... Rosary Garden ...


and the nuns' convent and novitiate wing, and lots and lots of beautiful roses and flowers....


Tyburn Ngakuru is an enchanting place created by the Tyburn nuns for our solace, reflection and rejuvenation of our life and faith.  A place that allows us to converse with God in peace and harmony, to listen to what He has to say to us, to pray, simply to be with God.

Mary of Ngakuru






Tyburn Monastery: The Story .....


Mother Mary of St. Peter, MARIE ADELE GARNIER was born in 1838 in Burgundy France, where she lived with her family - father, three sisters and one brother. For many years she taught as a governess and was greatly loved and esteemed by both parents and children.
 

From her youth she felt deeply the love of Christ touching her heart, drawing her to surrender herself totally to him, especially through the Eucharistic Sacrifice.  Holy Mass was the SUN of her life. Hence her devotion to the Eucharistic Christ became the centre of her spiritual life.
 

Marie-Adele loved Christ with such ardent love that she wasdrawn to establish Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in order to express fully her desire to offer the Sacred Heart of Jesus an unceasing homage of love and reparation. 
 

Thus, the Eucharist, the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the love of Christ, and the Sacred Heart, symbol of the love human and divine of Christ for his Father and   for all humanity, could never be separated in
the soul of Marie Adele. Hence Marie Adele sought to live this eucharistic life as a solitary at Montmartre in Paris. Her health failed and she was obliged to abandon this way of life. Several years later the Sacred Heart of Jesus called her to establish a religious family consecrated to the worship and praise of the Holy Trinity through liturgical prayer and eucharistic adoration in the contemplative life. She founded her Congregation - the ADORERS OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS, OF MONTMARTRE, in 1898 at Montmartre, Paris, with the cordial approbation of Cardinal Richard, Archbishop of Paris. The aim of her Congregation - to glorify the Most Blessed Trinity, finds practical expression as follows :
 

i) the daily participation in the Holy Mass;

ii) the choral celebration of the Divine Office;

iii) the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the Monstrance;

iv) daily prayer for the Holy Father, the Church, the country & for the entire human family.
 

Mother Marie Adele Garnier established this form of contemplative life within the monastic tradition of the Church under the Rule of St. Benedict.
 

In 1901 the young community fled to England on account of the laws of France against religious Orders. The Foundress settled her new community at TYBURN in London, at the famous site of the martyrdom of more than 100 Catholic Reformation Martyrs. This monastery is now the Mother House of her Congregation which has monasteries in England Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and in Peru, Ecuador and in Colombia.
 

Mother Marie Adele Garnier died at Tyburn in the year 1924 renowned for holiness and virtue She is honoured and remembered especially for her heroic love of God and neighbour, her spirit of prayer, divine contemplation, rich mystical and spiritual doctrine, humility, obedience, patience, simplicity & purity of heart, and above all for her spirit of total "self-abandon" to the Holy Will of God, which she declared to be her unique good.
 

"The Father is seeking ADORERS in spirit and in truth" John 4:23

Mother Marie Adele Garnier is famed for favours regarding babies, families, property, financial matters, priests and spiritual needs. If you receive, as a response to your prayer. any material or spiritual favour through the intercession of Mother Marie Adele Garnier, (Mother Mary of St Peter). Kindly inform any of the monasteries of her Congregation.


In 2011 a DVD about the Tyburn Nuns was launched.  This can be purchased from any Catholic bookshops or online direct from their website: http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/home/index.html