Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 3rd February 2023

What a joy it was yesterday to celebrate the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. For Toby and me it began as usual with our early morning walk, as I said the Rosary and Toby interacted with the army of robins who accompany us every morning on this walk. I presume that they are protecting their territory from the canine predator, but as they see him every day and know him to be peace-loving and friendly, perhaps it’s just a game. What is certain, as the temperature rises, is that the birdsong is more joyful and robust. How can such small creatures create such a loud and beautiful concerto? What a privilege it is to walk among them and hear them sing each morning and how do others manage to sleep through it?

 

Two saints are remembered in our Calendar today: St Blaise, the 3rd/4th century Armenian bishop and martyr, whose intercession is invoked for the blessing of throats, and St Ansgar or Oscar, the 9th century Benedictine Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, who is known as the “Apostle of the North”, as he received the mandate to take the Christian faith into Scandinavia. Let us pray today for the Church in Armenia and for the large Armenian diaspora throughout the world and for the Church in Scandinavian countries. These are probably areas of the world we rarely remember to pray for. Many of the relics of St Blaise are to be found in Dubrovnik in Croatia, a city well worth visiting.

 

Our Gospel passage from Mark today, (Mk 6: 14-29), recounts the death of John the Baptist at the hands of King Herod, a weak man, who to save face before his courtiers and army officers after making a rash promise when drunk to the daughter of his unlawful wife, Herodius, had him beheaded. It’s a tragic tale and one that gives us much to think about our world today and the horrendous things that take place in the name of politics and for the sake of power and image. It was clear that one day John would die a martyr, but this was not the way to go. We pray that God will raise up in the world today men and women of the integrity and faith of John the Baptist and rid the world of those people who are not worthy of its beauty and fragility, those whose delight is only to destroy what is good and given us by God