Message of Abbot Paul - Monday 20th June
Abbot Paul • June 19, 2022
Yesterday we were blessed to celebrate First Holy Communions at Belmont, seven delightful youngsters, who had faithfully completed the course. It was a joy to welcome them into the fellowship of communicants, where they join their parents, families and friends. The church was filled to overflowing with thirty guests coming from Poland alone. Afterwards there was a party for the first communicants in the parish centre. I’m deeply grateful to our catechists and to those who helped in any way.
Also yesterday the monastic community travelled down to Cardiff to sing Vespers at the Cathedral to welcome Archbishop Mark O’Toole to the Archdiocese and to bid farewell to Archbishop George Stack. Vespers was sung in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and ended with Benediction. You can watch the service on the cathedral website. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there because of the first communions and then travelling down to South Wales to visit my mother, who today returns home from respite care. I will be accompanying her. Archbishop Mark is being enthroned today. Do keep him in your prayers as he is also being installed as Bishop of Menevia on Thursday.
Today in England we keep the feast of our first saint and martyr, St Alban, to whom in Wales we add Saints Julius and Aaron, also martyrs. May we, like them, bear witness to Christ by valiantly living our faith in a spirit of martyrdom. Our Gospel passage for today follows our reading of Mathew’s Sermon on the Mount, (Mt 7: 1-5), where Jesus asks his disciples not to judge others. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” And why? Because we often exaggerate others’ faults, yet do not recognise our own. We can be quite hypocritical when it comes to judging or criticising others. Jesus says, “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?” Lord, may we take your words to heart and stop looking too closely at others’ faults. Surely our own faults are enough to cope with!
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Good Shepherd, Good Priest “I will seek the lost and bring back the strayed; I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” Those words, spoken by the Lord God through the prophet Ezekiel, describe the heart of God, the Good Shepherd — but they also describe the life and ministry of a good monk and priest. They could well be written of Fr Stephen’s years of service as a pastor in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford, and Weobley. In each of those places, he shared in the Shepherd’s work: seeking out the lost, binding up the wounded, strengthening the weary, and leading God’s people with quiet faithfulness. And like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came close to his people, Fr Stephen did not serve from a distance. He knew his people; he was among them. He shared their sorrows and their joys, their hopes and their disappointments. He bore their burdens with prayer and patience he brought the joy of the Gospel and the grace of the Sacraments. His mission amongst us is complete. He has served God’s good purpose. So today we ask Christ the Good Shepherd to take Stephen on his sacred shoulders and carry him home to the house of the Father. Bind up his wounds, give him eternal rest and lead him at last to the green pastures and still waters of eternal life.