Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 16th December 2023
Abbot Paul • December 16, 2023
So the Second Week of Advent comes to an end and we prepare to set out on the final eight days marked by the Great O Antiphons. Unusually, tomorrow Gaudete Sunday coincides with O Sapientia, so there will be a lot to think about and pray for. The horrific situation in Gaza surely can’t go on for much longer. Can there be anything left to bomb? How can we just stand by and see what is happening there? I just can’t get my head around the desire for war, destruction and death, but I realise that Hamas started this and have led Israel into a trap which seems to have no way out other than total destruction and revenge. In what is left of Advent, let us step up our prayers for peace and that somehow a solution might be found to bring about a just peace and lasting coexistence between Israel and Palestine.
It’s so late tonight, after my exhausting day in Lima, that I won’t write anymore. Please forgive me. I’ll add a few photographs of the church of Santo Domingo, including the tombs of St Rose of Lima and St Martin de Porres, where I prayed for all my readers.
It was wonderful to see so many people at the annual torchlight procession in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We also enjoyed an evening of wonderful magic and music with Fr Dominic and friends... all in a good cause.
At a solemn Mass, the feast of St Basil and St Gregory, Br Alban makes his promises as a claustral oblate.
