rchived ews

January MMVI

Dear Friends,

A Happy New Year to you! This first Laudetur of 2006 finds the the community more than doubled in number since last year. We are, at present, ten resident monks and this has clearly made an impression on many of you since the generosity shown us by friends and benefactors has likewise increased greatly this Christmas. We are very grateful for the support you show us, and grateful most of all for the help of your prayers.

At present we are working on a number of new titles in the Abbey Press. We have collaborated with the nuns of Tyburn to update Dom Bede Camm’s history of their foundress, Adele Garnier. Bede Camm was a great friend of Farnborough and of Tyburn and is remembered for the great number of books dedicated to English Catholic History and the lives of the English martyrs. Tyburn is an astonishing place, and a visit to the Crypt of the Martyrs there is a must for any English Catholic. Just along from Marble Arch, opposite Hyde Park, a community of Benedictine nuns prays day and night before the Blessed Sacrament, very near to the spot where more than a hundred Catholic priests gave their lives for the faith. The Reformation in England had a particularly sinister streak in that it attempted the systematic eradication of the Catholic Priesthood. How necessary are the prayers of the nuns in our own day, a time in which the priesthood and our priests stand in such need of prayerful support. Although we hear so much of religious houses closing these days, Tyburn spends much of its energy opening new monasteries. Recent years have seen foundations springing up in Ecuador and Colombia, as well as monastic presences from Tyburn assisting established old world monasteries. This year will see the opening of yet another Tyburn monastery, this time in the Eternal City of Rome. Our edition of Bede Camm’s book should be available in June. It has photographs and up-to-date information about the community, its life and history.

Our other titles are a collaboration with the Solesmes nuns at St Cecilia’s Abbey on the Isle of Wight. They are three works of Dom Guéranger. On the Immaculate Conception is published for the first time in English. Our editions of On the Mass, and On the Religious Life should serve to ensure that Dom Guéranger’s spiritual writings are available to a wide readership. His works on the liturgy are already well known.

Sincerely in the Lord,

For further information or comments please contact info@farnboroughabbey.org