Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 27th October 2023

Sadly, today our retreat comes to an end. We’re really supposed to have an eight-day retreat, but our pastoral work makes that almost impossible. So it is that we are reduced to five days, or rather three whole days with a half day on either side. As they say, we have to be thankful for small mercies. However, this retreat has been quite exceptional and the conferences given by our retreat giver, Abbot Xavier Perrin of Quarr, quite the best we have ever received. They have been based on the Sequence we sing at Mass on the feast of Pentecost, Veni, Sancte Spiritus – Come, Holy Spirit. We thank God for his gift to us of this retreat. Amen.

 

​Our Gospel passage today continues our reading of Luke, (Lk 12: 54-59), which sees Jesus addressing the crowds rather than his disciples. He talks to them about interpreting the signs of the times. “When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?” People have a pretty shrewd idea of what the weather’s going to be like by simply looking at the sky. How come they cannot see what’s happening around them, both in the country and in the wider world? What do we make of the present moment? How do we read and understand the times in which we live? He goes on to ask an important question: why can we often not judge for ourselves what is right? In every situation, Jesus asks us to make the right decision for ourselves, based on our conscience that has been informed by the Scriptures, the word of God and his own teaching, which for us includes the teaching of the Church. Jesus has given us the wisdom to do what is right. May we always ask him to guide us as we journey through life.