Message of Abbot Paul - Monday 23rd October 2023
Abbot Paul • October 23, 2023
Today our annual retreat begins, just five days of silence and prayer. During these days, I will keep my message very short, so that my inner peace isn’t disturbed. I ask for your understanding and your prayers for the entire community in this country which will be on retreat together. I’ll attach a photograph of our grapes, ready to harvest. I thought you might like to see them.
Our Gospel reading today comes from Luke, (Lk 12: 13-21, and presents us with the teaching of Jesus on wealth and money. It all begins when a man in the crowd says to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.” To this Jesus replies, “My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims”’ He then goes on to say to his disciples and to others listening to him, “Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.” There is no doubt that Jesus sees the love of and attachment to wealth and money to be highly dangerous for the soul and for the good of men and women. How easily we sell our souls to possessions. Now this sin can affect the poor as well as the rich. We can become possessed by what we possess, and that needn’t be much!
He then shares a parable with his listeners, one that is easy to understand. “There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, ‘What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?’ So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.” This parable leads us to examine our own way of life and our motives for managing wealth and security. Am I storing up treasure in heaven, a store of goodness and virtue in the sight of God, or am I obsessed with material wealth and wellbeing? Worse still, am I a slave to material things, or do I simply use them as and when necessary for the common good, rather than for my ego or self-satisfaction? Jesus gives us a lot to think about today.
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We are sad to announce that Fr Stephen died on Monday 21st October 2055. He was 94. He died peacefully in hospital, having recently fractured his shoulder. He was a beloved member of the monastic community, who had settled back at Belmont after many years on Belmont parishes, including in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford and Weobley. He will be much missed. His Requiem Mass will be at Belmont on Wednesday, 5th November at 11.30am followed by burial in the monastic cemetery. The Reception of his Body into the Abbey Church will take place on Tuesday, 4th November, at 5.45pm.
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