This year's Music for Midsummer is scheduled for Tuesday, 30 June and promises to be a wonderful evening, with weather to match. If you haven't yet got a ticket, there are still some which will be available at the door. Come and hear Jubilate! under their director Simon Whalley and some fine actors give us The Music of Shakespeare in word and song. Afterwards we shall meet in the gardens of Hendred House (adjoining the church) for wine and canapés as the shadows lengthen over the grass and the swallows wheel overhead. Very English, very enjoyable and an excellent way of helping our work for the blind and visually impaired, about which we shall say something during the evening. The community retreat continues until 5 July but an exception will be made for the concert: the nuns will be allowed to speak! (podcast resumes next week.)

Already (5.00 a.m.) our prayerline is humming with requests to pray for the repose of the soul of Michael Jackson. Perhaps people will be more generous in death than they sometimes were in life to someone who was clearly both hugely talented and deeply troubled. No doubt the media will have a brief "Wacko Jacko" feeding frenzy which will tend to eclipse the real grief of his family and friends. Let us hope that his family will be given the space they need to come to terms with the shock of his death, and that those who had something against him will be able to forgive and let go. We all face death: surely none of us would want to enter that good night with unresolved quarrels or conflicts, or some kind of "unfinished business" hanging over us. Catholics customarily pray for the grace of a happy death, one in which we are at peace with God and others. We also believe that we can help with our prayers those who have already died; so let us pray today for Michael Jackson and all to whom death has come suddenly. Requiescant in pace. May they rest in peace. Amen.

At this time of year we celebrate three feasts that are great favourites with the community. Yesterday we had SS Thomas More and John Fisher, today we have St Etheldreda and All Holy English Nuns, while tomorrow we have the Birthday of St John the Baptist. More and Fisher were great Englishmen with whom we have a number of connections that make them not-so-distant figures. At Hendred House over the way you can see More's drinking cup and Fisher's cane, with which he walked to the block, while we look to a nearer connection through D. Gertrude More, disciple of Fr Baker and a worthy great-great-grandaughter of the martyr. As English nuns,we have no difficulty in identifying with our predecessors when, for example, we read about changing into night shoes in the Regularis Concordia and quietly note our own custom today, though none of us is wearing a hairshirt under a purple tunic, nor is the prioress's veil edged with gold as some of those found at Shaftesbury were. John the Baptist is the most monastic of saints, the most joyful, the most attractive because the closest to Christ. No doubt I'll write more about him tomorrow. Meanwhile, on the principle that one should taste and see that the Lord is good, I'll mention that we tend to associate these feasts with different foods. For More and Fisher fried eggs (More loved them, apparently); for English nuns a bowl of cherries, the first of the season; and for St John the Baptist, the first new potatoes of the year and honey at supper. No locusts, and no strong drink, but plenty of good cheer all the same.

Early this morning, soon after the sun had risen, we were chanting that line from Psalm 71, "May his name be blessed for ever/ And endure like the sun." When I was younger, I used often to pass Stonehenge. Indeed, I am old enough to remember being able to go right up to the standing stones and touch them though sadly I never saw the midsummer sun rise over the plain (I did once manage the winter solstice, but that's not quite the same). Stonehenge, Avebury, and other ancient sites give one an impressive sense of the sun — one needs little imagination to understand the role it plays in many religions. But the sun in the psalms as an image of Israel's God-King has a peculiar brightness and warmth about it. The Shepherd of Israel shines from his cherubim throne and beams a blessing on all creation. Today is the day of the sun and of the Lord: let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Yesterday was the second liturgical anniversary of this blog which began on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, 15 June 2007. It's interesting to see how things have developed. As we have neither time nor interest in "moderating" comments, we decided early on to leave the blog as just an open diary of our lives. We soon realised that many people really value interaction and feel a bit "short-changed" by our policy, despite an impressive number of email responses, to which we do try to reply faithfully. Digitalnun keeps promising to change the blog engine in order to improve the format, but in a small community such as ours the urgent is always driving out the important so we look like having to wait a bit longer. A Facebook site is under construction; the Benedictine Forum was launched in March to provide a more open environment for discussion, but support from other communities has been a little slow in materialising. Perhaps the day of the forum or bulletin board is already over. The latest chuntering from on high (where said Digitalnun's lair is) is all about using Moodle to provide an interactive web course on the Rule of St Benedict. There is a distinctly enthusiastic humming under the wimple. Possibly another community with greater resources will pip us to the post, but that doesn't matter. It would be best as a collaborative effort but sometimes one just has to do a little pioneering in order to inspire others to act. We value silence and seclusion as great helps in the life of prayer and are therefore highly selective about the activities in which we engage; but in order to share with others what we can of monastic life and values while preserving the peace of the cloister, there is really only one way to go. If the U.K. is to become "Digital Britain", we'll try to do our bit to make sure it includes "Digital Benedictinism".