Coronatide, Downloads, and other news
» The resident community continue placidly enough in the intensified monastic enclosure brought on by Covid-19. The closure of the monastery has removed the market for our poultry's eggs, so these are now being distributed in Newbury by the Abbot's brother, John.
» The EBC superiors met via Zoom on 6 May to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the monasteries of the congregation and what this might mean for the congregation's future.
» Abbot Geoffrey reports:
We are asking God's mercy in the light of the virus, praying in alternate weeks to our patron, St Edmund, King and Martyr, who is invoked against pandemics on account of his intercession to God to end the plague in Toulouse where his relics are enshrined. In the other week, we sing the Latin hymn Stella coeli exstirparvit (O star of heaven destroy the plague of death). In a recent sermon, I reminded the community of the need to ask the saints to intercede with God to put an end the virus. Shortly before the virus appeared the eyes of Our Lady in her statue in the cloister began to weep. May she and all the saints intercede on our behalf and those we know.
» Professor Stpehn Bullivant, in conjunction with Bishop Barron's Word on Fire ministry, has released a very readable eBook, Catholicism in the Time of Coronavirus, examining the actual and potential effects of the pandemic on the Church. It can be freely downloaded by clicking here.
» Lastly, given the closure of the monastery to public access for an indeterminate period, we realise that many who would nornally procure a copy of our annual, The Douai Magazine, are unable to do so. In the meantime, a digital copy can be downloaded by clicking here.