Golden Jubilee Celebrations

Bishop Mark & Fr Lawrence July 2008

Fr Lawrence had a quiet celebration with the community at Belmont on 2nd July. At the morning Mass he spoke of the his ordination at Monte Cassino, St Benedict's own monastery. In the evening the community had a festive evening recreation in the Calefactory.

Bishop Mark (left) came to preside at the the Sunday Mass at Belmont on 13th July, but the day before had a more public celebration in his diocese, at the Cathedral in Swansea. He joined the community for lunch afterwards and the community sang, as it had for Fr Lawrence, "Ad multos annos vivat" - may he live for many more years!

Bishop Mark says:

"Fifty years ago Archbishop Michael McGrath came to Belmont Abbey, to me, Brother Mark, a young monk of Belmont. It was actually a very memorable day for the Archbishop personally, not so much because of the fact that he was ordaining me, as that it was actually the Golden Anniversary of his own priestly ordination.

"No stretch of the imagination could, on that day, have made me think that on the Golden Jubilee of my ordination I would myself be a Bishop. Monks' minds tend very much to focus on their monastery, even when they are priests; and, for many years, that was indeed my horizon; teaching in the school, and being a member of the Belmont Community. I was, of course, ordained in the full pre-Vatican II Liturgy, and celebrated the Tridentine Mass until the late sixties when the New Rite came into force. As with all of us, this rite was a major change in my priestly life, and one to which all of us had to become accustomed; we had to learn to pray the Mass in English. It took some years for the richness of the Liturgy in the vernacular to become more real, and therefore more in tune with the Council Fathers' vision in their Document on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, both for the faithful, and indeed for many of us priests.

"Since my ordination, my ministry has taken me to many places. ‘Join the Monastery and see the world' is not a common expression; but, for me, it certainly has a ring of truth. After my teaching career at Belmont, with some fifteen and a half years as its Headmaster, I was sent to Peru, to build Belmont's new monastery. Three memorable and experience-filled years later, Abbot Alan brought me back to Belmont as his Prior, on the day of his election. Seven years later, I was myself elected, as the tenth Abbot of Belmont. Almost eight years later, hoping for a quiet life in retirement, I had to start an entirely new phase of my life.

"The last eight years, as Bishop of Menevia, have given me a great admiration and respect for secular priests and the priestly vocation. I am particularly grateful to all the priests of Menevia who accepted a foreigner, and one of such a different background to that of their own, with the greatest kindness and warmth.

"I thank God for his many gifts to me over the last fifty years. He has given me the immense privilege to serve his beloved people. I ask you all to keep me in your prayers, as I will pray for you. Bishops have their difficult moments. My life, these last eight years, has not been without its moments of trial - there are times when only God has the solution to problems; the difficult bit for us is to acknowledge that fact; but, believe me, age does help. However, what I can truthfully say is that the faithful of Menevia have been a joy and a great consolation to me; and I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart."