Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 23rd July
Abbot Paul • July 23, 2022
Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 23rd July 2022
What a busy weekend this is turning out to be with so much to do and in such difficult climatic circumstances. Herefordshire suffers from the misfortune of being a large bowl crisscrossed by rivers and surrounded by hills, which we tend to call mountains. The humidity is high, so the atmosphere is muggy and debilitating, especially if you have a lot to do and you’re racing against the clock to get it all done. It all feels particularly heavy, having just returned from Buckfast Abbey and the more agreeable Devon climate. What I miss most of all this the delicious breeze that made even the hottest days agreeable. At least we humans don’t have to cope with a thick woolly coat like Toby and his friends. He tells me he needs another visit to his groomer. I’d better do what he says.
Today we keep the feast of St Bridget of Sweden, one of the many patron saints of Europe. It’s interesting to note that one of the communities of Benedictine nuns that came into the English Congregation at General Chapter was Mariavall in Sweden, a truly delightful and observant community. Bridget born in 1303, was married to Ulf, a nobleman with whom she had eight children. In 1330, she was invited to the royal court to be lady-in-waiting to the Queen, but had no stomach for the indecent life of the royal court. On a pilgrimage to St James at Compostela, she and Ulf decided that they would both spend the rest of the lives in prayer and contemplation in a monastery. He died in 1344, but Bridget lived on for another thirty years and founded many monasteries that came to form the Order that took her name, Bridgettine. Often these were double monasteries. In 1350 she travelled to Rome for the Holy Year, and spent the rest of her life there caring for the poor and the sick, denouncing the excesses of the aristocracy, and, like St Catherine of Siena, robustly telling the Pope to return to Rome from Avignon. She had many mystical visions, which alarmed her because she feared that they might be the work of the Devil; but a learned Cistercian monk reassured her, and she subsequently dictated and published the revelations she received, which were partially devotional and partly prophetic. These can still be read to our spiritual advantage today. Exhausted by her labours and the toll taken on her by her visions, she died in the year 1373. May she pray for us today.
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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.
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