Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 24th March 2023
Abbot Paul • March 23, 2023
I apologise for the extreme brevity of today’s message, but there just wasn’t time yesterday to sit down and put a few words together. It was one thing after the other and the day had disappeared before I’d got down to doing all the things I was hoping to do. I’m sure you’ve all had days like that.
Our Gospel today is a shortened version of the first half of chapter 7 of John, (Jn 7: 1-2; 10; 25-30), in which Jesus leaves Galilee and goes alone to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles, so as not to draw attention to himself. Meanwhile, the people debate as to whether he will be coming or not and as to his identity. Is he or is he not the Messiah?
Even so, Jesus begins teaching in the Temple and this leads to further animosity on the part of the religious authorities. We read, “As Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out: ‘Yes, you know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: no, there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me.’ They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.” We find this phrase: “his time had not yet come.” In John, it is a phrase that occurs frequently, referring to his death and resurrection as his time. We first meet it at the wedding feast of Cana, when Mary his mother asks him to perform a miracle on behalf of the bride and groom, who have run out of wine. In John the miracles are prophetic signs of the coming ‘time’ of Christ, the coming of God’s kingdom, the dawning of salvation.
On the Commemoration of All Souls, Abbot Brendan reflects on the experience of death within a monastic community, the meaning of Purgatory, and St Benedict’s invitation never to lose hope in the mercy of God.
The Belmont community visit Dowlais, and remember the Benedictine Mission to South Wales as the country remembers the Aberfan disaster.
We welcomed the Knights and Dames from the Midlands and South Wales and thanked God for their mission and service.
A double celebration on the feast of St Michael and All Angels
A School of Love by the Wye: Abbot Brendan on the Cistercians on the Feast of the Holy Cross.
The Blessing of new Icons for the Churches in Stratford-upon-Avon, with inspiring talks by the Abbot Primate and Dr Rowan Williams.
“O Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory abides.”
