Slow News Week
Not surprisingly, given the UK-wide lockdown in response to Covid-19, there has been little news of note in the monastery this past week. The monastic liturgy continues to be celebrated, though with significant modifications to allow for the bishops' directives and the need for "social distancing". It so happens that our patron, St Edmund, King & Martyr, also the patron saint invoked against epidemics. Therefore, at the conclusion of midday prayer, the community alternates saying a prayer to St Edmund against the current pandemic on one day, with the singing of the Marian chant Stella caeli extirpsit on the other, thus invoking the two patrons of the abbey church.
Fr Benjamin has been given responsibility for doing the community's non-grocery shopping. Fr Gregory has provided rhubarb and Fr Gabriel eggs, to the kitchen. Meals are taken with "social distancing" measures in place, as they are also in calefactory.
Fr Boniface offers some reflections on today's gospel of the Raising of Lazarus.