St Cuthbert – ‘A Saint for our Time’
The St Cuthbert’s House retreat started on Tuesday evening with a House Mass celebrated by Fr Francis. Fr Francis then introduced the film ‘Of Gods and Men’ which won a BAFTA for the best film not in the English Language 2011. It tells the moving story a group of Cistercian Monks living in the remote mountains of North Africa who decide to stay in their monastery despite the presence of an Islamic fundamentalist group who have massacred a group of foreign aid workers. The monks ,despite their bravery, were all beheaded. The leader of the community, in a letter, thanks his last minute friend: “This thank you which encompasses my entire life includes you, of course, friends of yesterday and today, and you too, friend of my last minute, who knew not what you were doing.” The film gave us much to reflect upon.
The following morning 60 students and 10 members of staff headed on pilgrimage to Holy Island in Northumberland to where our patron saint lived his life. We walked the ‘pilgrim’s way’ across the sand in bare feet despite the cold, stopping at intervals to say the Rosary. Once on the Island we gathered for Mass in St Aidan’s Church.
It was a day and a half of quiet reflection and togetherness in which we could leave our busy schedules behind, deepen our bonds with each other and listen to God’s call within our lives.