Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 31st March 2023
Abbot Paul • March 30, 2023
This coming Sunday we will be celebrating Palm Sunday as Holy Week begins. In the U.K. it all tends to be rather minimal and low key, very sad really. So my thoughts turn towards Peru and other Latin American countries, where I spent so many exhausting but happy years celebrating Holy Week and Easter, or to Greece, where I spent several Holy Weeks and Easters as a student. Today, the Friday before Palm Sunday, the first of the great nine processions of Holy Week takes place, that of the Dolorosa, the Sorrowful Mother of Our Lord. The procession begins after an evening Mass, accompanied by a band, through the streets of Tambogrande and not end until daybreak. Then at dawn on Easter Sunday there is the procession of the Risen Christ, known as Los Encuentros, following on from the Easter Vigil that begins at 3am. The town’s entire population always seemed to be present at everything. This year Byzantine Easter is a week later than our Western Easter, so I will have the joy of celebrating Holy Week a second time, in Greece via YouTube. I fear I’m a glutton for Liturgy and popular religion when it comes to Holy Week and Easter. How I wish I could be back in Peru today, but I’ll have to make do with vivid memories and what can be found live on the Internet, although the six-hour time difference makes it difficult. Please forgive my bouts of nostalgia, but I find Holy Week a particularly bleak week to cope with in the U.K.
​Our Gospel for today comes once more from John, (Jn 10: 31-42), and although we’ve moved on a couple of chapters, the religious authorities are still fetching stones with which to stone Jesus. He asks them, “I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?” But they reply, “We are not stoning you for doing a good work but for blasphemy: you are only a man and you claim to be God.” You will remember that yesterday Jesus used the Holy Name of God and applied it to himself. I AM, the name God gave to Moses at the burning bush. “Before Abraham was, I AM” Jesus argues from scripture, where in the psalms we find written, “You are gods and sons of the Most High.” (Ps 82: 6) Jesus retorts, “You say to someone the Father has consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because he says, ‘I am the son of God.’” He wants them to believe in his works, if not in him. Yet his final statement is even stronger than his first. “You will know for sure that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” If only they would take notice of his works, they too would come to this conclusion. They want to arrest him, so yet again he eludes them. He goes back to where John had been baptising, on the far side of the Jordan. For a short while, the situation calms down and Jesus is at peace. People there even come to believe in him in contrast to the religious leaders in Jerusalem. But things are coming to a head.
A homily by Abbot Brendan at a special Easter Mass for Pope Francis, attended by Catholics from across the Deanery.
Pope Francis RIP Pope 2013-2025 Born 1936, Died 2025 We are deeply saddened at the passing of Pope Francis. As the successor of St Peter he has been a spiritual father and shepherd to the church in our day, challenging us, and calling as to reach out to those on the peripheries. He was the first Jesuit Pope, but took the name Francis after the Poor Man of Assisi who modelled for him a closeness to the poor, a concern for those on the margins of society and a care for all of creation In his preaching Pope Francis always spoke of the joy of the Gospel and encouraged us to reflect the joy of our faith in our lives. He showed the compassion of Jesus to everyone. He worked tirelessly for the unity of the church and travelled even to non-Christian countries promoting a message of peace. He has left a great legacy. With the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio with the community over Easter we were able to express our closeness to the Holy Father in his final suffering. There will be a special Mass at Belmont this Thursday 24th April at 11am to pray for Pope Francis as he makes his final journey to the house of the Father. On the day of his funeral, the Office of the Dead will be sung, and Mass that day will be a Requiem. May the angels lead him into paradise; may the martyrs receive him at his arrival and lead him to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive him and with Lazarus, the poor man grant him eternal rest." (The In Paradisum, words from the Funeral Liturgy)
We were were honoured and delighted to be joined by the Apostolic Nuncio to celebrate Easter. His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía is the representative of the Holy See in Great Britain, and therefore of the Holy Father. His presence on Easter Sunday morning brought us more consciously in communion with Pope Francis, the successor of St Peter, as we heard the Gospel story of Peter running to the tomb. His patron saint is St Michael, so afterwards, at a festive lunch we were able to present him with some Belmont cufflinks with the monastery coat of arms - very similar to his as Archbishop. We were able to pray for him and his work in this country.
