Message of Abbot Paul - Monday - 1st January 2024

​May I begin by wishing you a very Happy New Year, a year in which you and your loved ones will be blessed with good health, an increase in faith, hope and love and the opportunity to renew your lives as we look forward to the future in these uncertain times. On the first day of the year, we usually make a number of resolutions to help sort out our lives and put right and improve those aspects that need to change for the better, for our own good and for the good of those with whom we live and work. Above all, I wish you the joy of knowing God more fully and that you might find life even more fulfilling and rewarding.

​Our Gospel for today, the Octave of Christmas, Circumcision of Jesus and, as it’s now become, Mary, Mother of God, is taken from Luke (Lk 2: 16-21). It speaks of the shepherds’ visit to the stable at Bethlehem to adore the Christ Child lying in the manger. Luke emphasises the joy of the shepherds at what they see, as it confirms what they had been told by the angels, and of how they return to their flocks praising God and giving thanks for the birth of the Saviour. The shepherds, of course, represent each one of us. It is we who give thanks to God today and praise his name as we rejoice at the birth of Jesus. Luke tells us that Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Today she invites us to share in the riches of her heart as we contemplate her Son, God incarnate in the fragility of human flesh. The passage ends with the circumcision and naming of the child, “When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.” This will be the first prophetic shedding of the Blood of Christ, for on the Cross he will give up his life for the salvation of the world. Lord, as we thank you today for the gift of salvation, make our lives a sacrifice of praise to the glory of your name and for the good of our neighbour. Amen.