Feast of St Benedict

Abbot Brendan Thomas • March 21, 2025

Abbot Brendan's homily for the Passing, the "Transitus" of St Benedict

St Benedict's Chapel

 

Perhaps my favourite corner of this church is St Benedict’s chapel, looking particularly lovely today with candles and flowers. Behind the altar St Benedict looks down on us holding his Rule. It looks to be a large volume, but in truth is Rule is “little rule for beginners” just seventy-three short chapters. Yet it has had an enormous influence. It has shaped civilization, made saints of sinners, and daily invites us to listen to the voice of God, a Father who loves us, and daily sing his praises. It is a Rule that guides us still with that quality that St Gregory the Great identified: discretion. It is wise and humane. Benedict is still a sure guide.

 

Either side of Benedict above the altar is a diptych, two panels showing the beginning and end of the Saint’s monastic life.

 

On the left we see Benedict in his narrow cave of Subiaco where he first learnt to seek God. You can still visit the Sacro Speco, the Holy Cave. Benedict chose a narrow cave, in a narrow valley as the place to go into himself. The path is narrow at the beginning he tells us in his Rule. We need a degree of asceticism, restriction, of narrowness in order to fully flourish. We need solitude and silence to more fully know ourselves. There is a basket of bread, let down by a rope – pasta had not yet been invented. But Benedict seems more intent on the Word of God he holds in his hand. Man does not live by bread alone. “What page, what passage of the Old and New Testaments is not the truest guide to human life.” (RB:73)


Momento Mori

 

Alongside him is a skull. Many artist have shown saints with skulls, but it is not to be something gruesome but a momento mori, a simple way of reminding us that Benedict taught us to “keep death daily before our eyes” (RB 4:47). Not as a threat, but as a truth. He calls death to mind so that we may live rightly, so that when our own transitus comes, we are not caught unprepared. “Run while you have the light of life, that the darkness of death may not overtake you.” (RB Prol. 13)

 

His Rule is not just about how to live, but how to die—how to die daily to self, and how to live well so that we might die well, in communion with our brethren, in communion with God.

 

The Death of St Benedict


The other panel shows Benedict at the moment of his passing. St Gregory the Great describes it beautifully in his dialogues:

 

As the illness grew worse every day, he asked his disciples to carry I him into the oratory. There he strengthened himself for his departure by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord. While the hands of his disciples held up his weak limbs, he stood with his hands raised to heaven and breathed his last breath amidst words of prayer.

 

It is an image of perfect communion. What a glorious end to a life lived well. Benedict is at one with God, receiving Christ in the Eucharist. Benedict is at one with his brethren, supported by them as he knew we always needed to be. It is like Aaron and Hur holding up the arms of Moses as he prayed. We join monasteries or go to church because we know we cannot go it alone we need the support of others. We need others to carry us when we are weak, and we rely on the strength of others.

 

That image is an icon of our monastic life. Isn’t that what our monastic life is about: supporting each other to sing the praises of God? Is not our communion with each other so that we may be brought into full and perfect communion with our gracious God? And doesn’t the grace of God help us to love each other?

 

And yet, even in this, he stands as a monk before God. He dies standing, supported by his brothers, but still on his own feet, still lifting his hands in prayer. He does not shrink from death but faces it in the posture of a man who has spent his life seeking God. This is a powerful image. We are called to meet the Lord not with reluctance, not clinging to this world, but standing, ready, with hands uplifted in prayer.

 

Today as celebrate the Transitus—the Passing of Benedict from this world to the next, we are not just remembering his death, rather it is feast of fulfilment, drawing life from the Paschal Mystery of Christ who constantly draws us from death to life.

 

Benedict’s Rule is about life—life in abundance, life shaped by community, stability, conversion. But it is a life that is always moving toward God. And so, in a sense, Benedict’s whole monastic life was already a passing over, a daily transitus of self-will, of personal ambition, of attachment to anything that is not Christ.

 

St Benedict, keep us on the path of life, help us to run along with path of life with the delight of love.

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Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB Bishop Mark died peacefully on 9th May. Reception of Body and Mass of Remembrance Friday 30th May, 11am, St Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, Swansea Requiem Mass & Burial Thursday 5th June, 12 noon, Belmont Abbey John Peter Jabale was born on 16th October 1933 in Alexandria, Egypt of mainly European heritage. His father was Lebanese/French, and his mother British/Greek/French. He attended the Lycée Français in Alexandria until 1948, when he was sent to England, having expressed a desire to join the Navy. He enrolled at Belmont Abbey School and, upon leaving school, joined the Abbey, taking the religious name Mark. He was ordained to the priesthood on 13 July 1958. He was then sent to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he obtained a Licentiate in French Literature, writing his thesis on Joseph de Maistre, the French counter-revolutionary. He later completed a Diploma in Education at St Mary’s, Strawberry Hill, where he also played rugby for the University. From 1964, he taught sport and served as a housemaster at the school. In 1969, he was appointed Headmaster of Alderwasley School in Derbyshire, though he held that post for only half a term before being recalled to Belmont to serve as Headmaster there, a role he held—apart from a sabbatical—until 1983. From 1964 he was teaching sport and then was a housemaster in the School. In 1969 he was appointed Headmaster of Alderwasley School, Derbyshire, but filled that post for only half a term. He was called back to Belmont to be Headmaster where he served, apart from a sabbatical, until 1983. Fr Mark was a rowing coach of considerable repute. During his sabbatical in 1979, he assisted Dan Topolski in coaching the Oxford crew for the Boat Race. His greatest coaching triumph came when he led a lightweight coxless four to a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Yugoslavia — the only gold medal won by Great Britain that year. The following year, he was invited to coach for the Olympics, but he declined in order to remain committed to Belmont. He was a steward of Henley Royal Regatta and was responsible for setting up and programming its first computerised systems. He was ahead of may in seeing the potential of new technology. In 1983, he was sent to Peru to purchase land and build a new monastery, which included raising funds in the UK. The new monastery was blessed, and the first Mass was celebrated there by the Archbishop of Piura, Oscar Cantuarias Pastor, in June 1986 together with Abbot Jerome, Fr Paul, Fr Luke, Fr David as well as Fr Mark. Dom Mark returned to Belmont as Prior and was elected the 10th Abbot of Belmont in 1993. He later wrote: “My first and most painful task proved to be the overseeing of the closure of the school.” Together with the bursar, John Hubert, he negotiated with the local NHS for the 4 houses to be leased to them. In 2000, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Menevia by Pope John Paul II and was ordained bishop in St Joseph’s Cathedral, Swansea, on 7 December 2000. He succeeded Bishop Daniel Mullins as the 10th Bishop of Menevia on 12 June 2001. During his episcopate, he held several important offices: Chairman of the Department for Christian Life and Worship, Trustee and Visitator of the three foreign seminaries — the Venerable English College (Rome), the Beda College (Rome), and the Royal English College (Valladolid). He was also Bishop-in-Charge of on-going formation for diocesan priests. Upon reaching the age of 75, Bishop Jabale submitted his resignation to the Holy Father on 16 October 2008 and was succeeded by Bishop Tom Burns. He then moved to Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and was inducted as Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in March 2009, a post he held until 2014. At the age of 81, he retired to Hendon in London, where he celebrated daily Mass at a local convent, assisted in various parishes, and continued to help with confirmations in the diocese. In October 2019, he moved to Archbishop’s House, Westminster, for nine months. Finally, he returned to Belmont in 2020 as a much-cherished member of the community. He described himself as “very happy.” He remained there until his death in Hereford County Hospital on 9 May 2025, aged 91. He had been a monk of Belmont for 73 years, a priest for 67 years and a bishop for 24 years. Please pray for the eternal happiness of Rt. Rev. Dom Mark Jabalé 10th Bishop of Menevia 10th Abbot of Belmont who died 9th May 2025 in the 92nd year of his age, the 73rd year of his monastic life and the 67th year of his priesthood. May he rest in peace
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