Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Could it happen here?
I`m sure you will have seen the news about the German abbey of Mariawald, Germany`s only Cistercian abbey, which has decided to take advantage of Summorum Pontificum to return to the traditional Mass and way of life. I found this story encouraging. I wonder if it could happen in the UK? There seems to be some interest in the EF in Benedictine houses in England. Maybe this example will encourage others to follow suit.
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9 comments:
One would have thought that Pluscarden might be the obvious candidate to lead the way.
Having said that, I think I'm right in saying that Prinknash has a weekly EF Mass, and that it's currently the only monastery in the UK to do so.
I also seem to recall reading somewhere that three or four monks from Belmont, including the abbot, have celebrated the EF at one time or another.
Vatican 2 envisages the vernacular being used only where there is a good pastoral for doing so, and I must confess I can't really see the pastoral rationale for monasteries whose members have been trained to read Latin (most Benedictine monasteries already seem to sing Vespers in Latin) singing the office and celebrating Mass in the vernacular.
I`m not so sure about Pluscarden. I get the impression they are less than keen on the EF.
It could have happened at Farnborough, but the abbot keeps driving good people away!
There is an EF Mass at Prinknash at 1100 on Saturdays, and at 1500 on the first Sunday of every month.
A reminder for those who may be interested in attending: the monks are no longer in the modern abbey building; they have returned to the wonderful old St Peter's Grange.
What's happened at Farnborough? I've seen a couple of things on various blogs recently suggesting the community is diminishing, but that's not the impression one gets from elsewhere. I always thought it was a vibrant community which, whilst not being EF-minded, still said the OF in a dignified way and ad orientem. Is that not the case?
The resident monastic community at Farnborough now consists of only one priest (the abbot), one lay brother in solemn vows, and one junior monk. Postulants come and go. The number of vocations, including monks in vows, that have left in recent years is well into double figures. Clearly not all is well.
Anonymous - that is very sad. I thought Dom Alcuin Reid, OSB was a member of the Farnborough Community, but clearly I was wrong on that. Let us pray that they get some postulants who can stay the course and re-build that great Community.
Rev Alcuin Reid was a monk at Farnborough. A large amount of external pressure placed on the community - about the same time as the community started to head in a more traditional direction - has contributed to a decline in the number of members.
And so has the abbot himself - ask any of the dozen or so former members who have left in the past few years!
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