I am very lucky in my job in that I get to see some wonderful sights as I go around the country.

Recently, while working around North Yorkshire, I passed by the remains of what was a Cistercian Priory at Rosedale Abbey near Pickering.

Places like this and other abbeys, particularly those in Yorkshire and Northumbria, are and have always been a welcome resting place for the weary traveller, though now of course they are predominately uninhabited. These places exude an air of tranquillity and calm that is almost tangible.

My wife and I like to visit such sites while holidaying in an around Yorkshire and Northumbria. The likes of Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, the abbey on Holy Island (Lindisfarne), and our favourite, Whitby Abbey, never fail to delight.

The peace and calm of these places, even centuries after they were established, bear testimony to the monks and nuns gentle and caring Christian witness and mission.

Throughout the Church year, there is regular observance of those who went before us in Christian witness, whose lives were a celebration of the Holy Spirit at work in the world. Some of these people, specifically monks and nuns, recently and soon to come are: Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, St Francis of Assisi, Frideswide, Abbess of Oxford, and many others.

In a world that is often full of stress and anxiety, it is a comfort to remember the likes of Hildegard, Francis, Frideswide, and those others, whose calm and caring lifestyles can teach us a great deal about how to live a meaningful and worthy Christian way of life.

Our world may now seem separated from the lives of these people, yet a visit to their places of Christian work and witness can help to rekindle a true spirit of what it is to be just one of God's community here on earth, loving, caring, and helping the ordinary to become extraordinary people in God's eyes.

Brian Stabler

Licensed Lay Minister St George's Church in the Beacon Team