Dear Friends,
In the month of October we welcomed the ‘new-starters’ in year seven from Farnborough Hill to see the Abbey
Church and Crypt. The staff and students of Farnborough Hill enjoy much better views of the Abbey church
than we do, since they enjoy distant views of the church from their grounds. Given that they spend much of
their average week in the very house in which the Empress Eugénie lived, it is also fitting that the girls
should start their school lives with a lesson in the history of their buildings, a visit to the Empress’s
tomb, and a prayer for her soul.
Dom Alcuin was on his travels in October. He spent a day at Fairleigh School near Andover. Here he joined
Dom Anselm of Downside and some other religious in order to speak to groups of children about the religious
life and vocations in general. The questions posed by children are always much more of a challenge than
those posed by grown-ups. Later in the month he joined Sr Patricia Wright RCE at Farnborough Hill in the
even more challenging task of speaking to the lower sixth on a similar theme.
The Abbey Press expended its October energies on three projects. The first was preparation of cards and our
other products for the ‘Towards Advent’ gathering at the beginning of November in Westminster Cathedral
Hall.
The second was the preparation for the delivery and launch of our latest title: Looking again at the
Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger - the English translation of the the papers delivered at a liturgical
conference held at the French Abbey of Fontgombault in the presence of Cardinal Ratzinger in July 2001. The
book includes two significant papers and a homily by Cardinal Ratzinger, and several by French, Italian,
Spanish, American and even English scholars, discussing the recent reforms to and possible future forms of
the Sacred Liturgy. We are indebted to the Abbot of Fontgombault and to the individual contributors for
their permission to publish this important book.
The third October occupation was, of course, the printing of Christmas cards in vast quantities for our
shop and for our various private customers and retail outlets.
With every good wish,
Sincerely in the Lord,
rchived 
ews
