Downside Vocation

22/03/2022

If you are thinking of a vocation to priesthood or religious life, then have a look at this offer from Buckfast Abbey. You have nothing to lose, and lots to gain!

We are offering a rare opportunity for 12 Men to join us for Holy Week Vocations Discernment Retreat. Click here to find out more and to apply https://www.buckfast.org.uk/vocationsretreat

28/10/2021

Don't forget that we also upload our daily Mass (most days) and the link is found on our Downside Abbey page, or via our website (Listen to the Homily)...

The Monks of Downside Abbey sing the Gregorian Chant Mass for the Feast of SS Simon and Jude. Recorded live at Downside Abbey on 28 October 2021.

28/10/2021

For an update on the Monastic Community's news, click on the link...

It has been fourteen months since St Gregory’s voted to leave Stratton-on-the-Fosse and during this period we have continued to pray, discern and discuss what sort of move we should make. Since the easing of restrictions, we have also been able to visit and share in the life of other monasteries. ...

11/10/2021

The Mass from today... We start reading the Letter of Paul to the Romans, probably the most comprehensive synthesis of his theology and one of the more complex of his letters...

The Monks of Downside Abbey sing the plainchant Mass for Monday in the 28th Week of the Year. Recorded live at Downside Abbey on 11 October 2021.

09/07/2021

You will have noticed that we don't publish so much on this page now, but we still upload regularly on our Downside Abbey page, so please follow us there as well!
You will find periodic news of the community and the soundtrack of the daily Mass (usually).

The Monks of Downside Abbey sing the plainchant Mass for Friday in the 14th Week of the Year. Recorded live at Downside Abbey on 9 July 2021.

06/08/2020

Today Dom John was instituted as a Lector at Downside Abbey. This is the one of the small steps on the way to ordination, and gives Dom John a role as reader and catechist in the Church. You can hear the Mass with the Prior's homily here:

The Monks of Downside Abbey sing the plainchant Mass for the Feast of the Transfiguration. Recorded live at Downside Abbey on 6 August 2020.

27/05/2020

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St Augustine of Canterbury at Downside Abbey. He is the patron of the English Benedictine Congregation, of which we are a member, and with a cohort of monks from the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, he brought Roman Christianity to England in 597 AD. He left the comfort of his monastery in Rome, along with Roman food and sunshine, for the wilds of northern Europe. They didn't get too far before Augustine was sent back to Pope St Gregory the Great (also Abbot of St Andrew's) to say that it was all too difficult and an impossible task. Nonetheless, St Gregory sent him back and the rest, as they say, is history.

Responding to a vocation is not always easy, and there may be obstacles on the way, whether real or imagined. But we need to persevere and power through if we believe that God may truly have called us to follow him as a priest, monk or nun. If we are called, he will give us the grace we need to answer that call, and to live the life to which he calls us.

So be courageous, and step out in faith to follow Christ, wherever he may lead!

25/05/2020

Too young to consider becoming a monk, nun or priest? Just look to the example of St Bede, whose feast is today! He entered the Benedictine monastery at Monkwearmouth at the age of about 7 and apart from a transfer to the foundation at Jarrow, he never left the monastery!

Of course we don’t accept child oblates any more, and he would have been given to the monastery by his parents. But young people can have great clarity about their vocation and the way of life they wish to try. We need to encourage vocations, not put people off!

19/05/2020

What questions should we ask ourselves when considering a vocation? How can we discern where our vocation might lie? This video with the Vocation Director from Downside Abbey gives some ideas.

09/05/2020

Some thoughts about the definition of a vocation as distinct from a job, by a Benedictine Monk of Downside Abbey in Somerset, UK

04/05/2020

Maybe you are wondering what life at Downside Abbey is like... This slow documentary from the BBC, designed to be like a retreat, gives an idea. But the monks tend to laugh and smile more than you see on the film!

Series which goes in search of inner peace in three monasteries around Britain.

23/04/2020

At Downside Abbey we usually eat in silence and one of the monks reads a book to us. Having had ‘talking meals’ for Easter Week, we have now resumed this, and also we continue with the book we were reading before Easter. It is called “Truly Seeking God” by Bernard Bonowitz, OCSO, Abbot of the Trappist Monastery of Nossa Senhora do Novo Mundo in Brazil. It is a brilliant presentation of monastic life, going through the different stages from the period as an aspirant, through novitiate, temporary vows, ordination to old age. He is a Trappist, writing from that perspective, so not all the details would be the same in a Benedictine community, but the principles are certainly common to us all.
He even manages to include many nuggets of wisdom for those who are not monks (actual or aspiring) and suggests ways in which monastic wisdom and practice can be applied to everyday life.
Definitely worth reading. We have nearly finished... but I won’t tell you what the next book is!
Find out more about life at Downside Abbey at www.downsideabbey.co.uk