» The last few days have seen the resident community very stretched. With Frs Abbot, Alban and Oliver all away, and some of the remaining brethren with ongoing illness or absent from things for other reasons, there has been quite a strain on the liturgy and other community activities. Please keep that in mind if you are seeking something from the community at this time: we might not be able to respond quickly. On the upside, despite the stress, the morale of the faithful remnant has been high. Small mercies.
» On Tuesday Fr Hugh drove to Bury St Edmunds and back to attend the launch of the first ever complete history of the monastery at Bury St Edmunds, of which Douai is the successor community. It was one of the great monasteries of England, and brought prosperity to East Anglia, not least through its custody of the tomb of St Edmund. The Reformation and the despoiling and suppression of the monastery by Henry VIII led to a social welfare disaster in the region and saw the city which had grown up around the monastery and its sainted royal's tomb decline to an impoverished provinicial backwater. The author of the book, Dr Francis Young, as inlcuded a brief chapter on our community as the legacy of the great abbey. We will review the book in the next Douai Magazine. It is priced at £19.99 but is still avalaible from publishers Lasse Press at the pre-order price of £16. It is an accessible read for such a scholarly book.