The 8th Abbot of Ampleforth Fr Cuthbert Madden is currently visiting St Austin's Parish. (Follow the link to read a biography of our relatively new "Surgeon Abbot" and to learn more about how Abbots are "made")
On Sunday 10 May, Fr Cuthbert took the 9:30 mass and gave a rather serious sermon that wove together the epistle story about how Barnabas took "the stranger" Paul under his wing - and the community found a friend; and the Gospel in which Jesus tells the parable about the vine-dresser who knows what is good wood that will bear fruit, and that which is not, and is cut away. All rather appropriate for a visiting Surgeon that the parish had not met before ...
Sadly, the parish may have got the message but missed the hint, and there was only tea and cake at the subsequent Eat Greet and Play breakfast bash. Nevertheless, the Abbot cannot consider himself "a stranger" in the parish any more, and the excellent photographs tell the story of a happy event, at which the "fruit of the parish" said "hi!" - rather noisily! Next time Fr Cuthbert comes, there will no doubt be another portrait to add to the wonderful "Collection of Fathers" drawn by the children. [The one of Fr Theo is my favourite, and you can see that smile (captured perfectly) in the adjacent pictures. Well done Celeste ...]
Fr Cuthbert is most welcome, as it says on the cake. We wish him a happy and trouble free "reign" (if that is what Abbots do?). He can rest assured that he will be in our hearts and in our prayers, and will be most welcome whenever he chooses to come to St Austin's.