Message of Abbot Paul - Monday 19th June 2023

Today the Church remembers St Romuald, the 10th & 11th century Italian Benedictine, who founded one of the first break away monastic orders based on the Rule of St Benedict. He was born in Ravenna in the year 951 and died at Val di Castro, near Fabriano, on this day in the year 1027. He founded monasteries with an eremitical lifestyle in many places, the most important of which was at Camaldoli, not far from Arezzo in Tuscany. His reformed family of monks and nuns became known as the Camaldolese and they exist to this day, one of the loveliest expressions of the Benedictine vocation, combining both the coenobitic and the eremitical forms of life.

 

​We continue reading Matthew and we are still in the Sermon on the Mount, (Mt 5: 38-42). Speaking with his disciples, Jesus is reviewing commandments and famous sayings from the Old Testament. “You have learnt how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.” For Jesus, life is all about generosity and self-giving, exemplified in the sacrifice of the cross, which takes its origin from the Incarnation, where the Son of God emptied himself taking on the condition of a suffering servant. Here he gives several practical examples of self-giving, expressing the desire that his disciples should behave in the same way as their master. Lord, make us generous and non-judgemental, giving without counting the cost, turning no one away from our door or from our heart.