Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 23rd June 2023
Abbot Paul • June 22, 2023
Today I’ll be brief as yesterday was yet another day blessed with lengthy meetings and it’s past ten o’clock as I sit down to write. I hope you will forgive me. There comes a time each evening when my brain closes down, I no longer think straight and my fingers refuse to touch the keyboard.
We continue reading the Sermon on the Mount, so much of which we know by heart and has entered as proverbial into the English language. We are in the sixth chapter of Matthew, (Mt 6: 19-23).
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworms destroy them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
‘The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be all darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkness, what darkness that will be!’”
Let us consider what Jesus is teaching his disciples: whether or not our hearts are seeking after the things of this world, or after a real, deep and full relationship with God. Jesus is warning us to guard our hearts, and to follow the things of God and not be distracted by things that are only temporary. Think about the question, what do I consider valuable, or what do I value most? As today's Gospel tells us, what you consider valuable shows you where your heart is. Jesus is calling us to change our hearts from the temporary to the eternal. Will we have the courage to do that?
Br Meinrad and Br Gildas attend a special service with the Benedictine community of St Paul's Outside the Walls with King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Honesty and Love Before God: Pharisee and Tax Collector; Pope and King - a homily by Abbot Brendan for the 30th Sunday of the Year.
We are sad to announce that Fr Stephen died on Monday 21st October 2055. He was 94. He died peacefully in hospital, having recently fractured his shoulder. He was a beloved member of the monastic community, who had settled back at Belmont after many years on Belmont parishes, including in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford and Weobley. He will be much missed. His Requiem Mass will be at Belmont on Wednesday, 5th November at 11.30am followed by burial in the monastic cemetery. The Reception of his Body into the Abbey Church will take place on Tuesday, 4th November, at 5.45pm.
With honoured guests we were delighted to open our doors again of our new guesthouse and conference centre: The Chapterhouse.
"A hymn to the human body." Abbot Brendan's Homily at the annual Mass celebrated at Rotherwas Chapel in Hereford that dates from the 1580s on the feast of the Assumption.
From Francis to Leo: A special event with Christopher Lamb of CNN in conversation with Austin Ivereigh who commentated for the BBC on the transition from Pope Francis to Pope Leo.
On 12th June an Ecumenical Service was held at Hereford Cathedral to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea.
