Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 25th June

Abbot Paul • June 24, 2022
Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 25th June 2022

 Today is Belmont Summer Fête Day: I ask you to pray for good weather and an enjoyable afternoon for all our guests. I am deeply grateful to our organisers and to all those to have worked so hard for months to prepare for this wonderful event. I am amazed at their enterprise, dedication and ability, not to mention their physical strength and spirit of perseverance and faith. It is one of the many ways in which we can show our love for God and our neighbour. It’s all done thinking of others. May the good Lord reward you all.

 On the Saturday after the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we keep the Memoria of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, quite an ancient devotion dating back to the days of St Anselm of Canterbury and St Bernard of Clairvaux, then practised by St Mechtilde, St Gertrude the Great and St Bridget of Sweden. It is based on the Infancy Narratives of Luke (chapters 1 & 2) and John’s description of Mary at the foot of the Cross, (Jn 19: 25-27). St Augustine of Hippo wrote that Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the cross; "she cooperated through charity in the work of our redemption." Pope St Leo the Great wrote that, “through faith and love she conceived her son spiritually, even before receiving him into her womb.” This is a feast with a sound scriptural basis and a long history of profound theological reflection.

Our Gospel reading today is proper to the commemoration and comes from Luke, (Lk 2: 41-51). It recounts the episode recorded of the Holy Family, when Jesus was twelve years’ old and they went down to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. It’s an account that focusses on many points, among them Mary questioning Jesus on why he had remained in Jerusalem when the pilgrims from Nazareth packed up and started going north for home. She tells him of Joseph and herself being worried when they discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them in the caravan and how they had been looking for him everywhere. She scolds him, “Why have to done this to us?” This episode reveals them to be a very normal family, yet it goes deeper and shows us Mary’s care for the prophetic utterances she had heard at his conception and birth. Luke comments: “Jesus then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.” At his birth, at his presentation in the temple and now we hear three times this phrase that Mary pondered and stored up these things in her heart, which is why the symbol of the Immaculate Heart is a heart pierced with the sword of sorrow, suffering and love. May Our Lady accompany us in our sorrows and our sufferings as well as in our joys and may she bring us all to God by her maternal intercession.


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Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB RIP Given at his funeral by Dom Alexander Kenyon Baby Jean Pierre (Mark) Jabale was born on October 16th, 1933, in Alexandria, Egypt. As he said, himself, his background could be considered “cosmopolitan”: his father was Lebanese / French and his Mother, British / Greek / French. He also reminded people that he wasn’t Egyptian. Through his mother, Arlette, he was related to St. Jean Vianney, so it was, perhaps, no surprise that he followed in his priestly footsteps. His father, Jean, was MD of Fiat and Simca cars Europe and, maybe surprisingly or not, he did love a car – not, however, Italian cars, but German; he loved his Audis. Perhaps we should begin today by remembering his mother and father, his brothers Christian and Paul and his nieces, here today, Aline and Nathalie and Isabelle and their families – they were so dear to him and he to them and I know they miss him enormously. Young Jean wanted to join the Navy and came to England, to Belmont Abbey school but the Lord had other ideas – he ended up joining the rather land locked monastery, our dear, late Fr. Raymund opining that he wouldn’t last a month. After a rather uninspiring course of priestly studies (his words, not mine) he studied for a Licentiate in French literature in Fribourg, then a Dip Ed at Strawberry Hill and played Rugby there – the Papist Witch Doctor as he was affectionately known. Teaching followed, at Belmont, Housemaster, acting Headmaster, then to Alderwasley, our prep school in Derbyshire as Headmaster, and then back to Belmont soon after as Headmaster. In 1983 he went to Peru to build our first monastery there only to realise there was little money. So, he returned to the UK to put in a stint of fundraising with his usual zeal and determination. With his mission accomplished he was asked by Abbot Alan to return to Belmont as his prior in 1986 – Peru remained close to his heart. In 1993 he was elected Abbot. In his time as Abbot, he had to preside over the closure of the school, necessary but no less painful for him. In 2000 he was appointed coadjutor Bishop of Menevia and succeeded Bishop Mullins in 2001. He retired as Ordinary in 2008 and “retired” to Chipping Norton as parish priest, then Hendon, saying Mass for the nuns and helping with confirmations. After a spell at Archbishop’s House, Westminster, living with his great friend Cardinal Nichols, he came home to Belmont – it was as though he had never been away and he loved being back in the monastery, particularly praying the Office with the community. That’s the list, of sorts, but it doesn’t really say “who” he was. I haven’t mentioned his outstanding contribution to rowing – the 1979 coxless, lightweight four gold medal at the world championships in Bled, which almost didn’t happen as, at the last minute, he was told there was no money to send the crew. He begged, cajoled and got them there – the video footage of the final is compelling. He transformed Henley Royal Regatta, writing a computer programme for the race results – he was well ahead of his time. He coached the Oxford Boat, ran the Heads of the River Schools Regatta, and more. What an achievement from someone who had never sat in a boat but learned on the job, as he said, “from books, mainly”. It was his determination, his commitment, his love of people and his drive to share what he had that is, perhaps, one of the key things to celebrate about him. And it was underpinned by his rock-solid faith – nothing overly pious, nothing showy, but a faith and a love of the Lord built on granite. Even his occasional lack of patience (sorry Mark) extended to that faith; ‘why won’t God call me?”. At the risk of being irreverent my response was always “would you want you?”. But God did want him, and he knew it. God had a purpose for his Apostle during his life and he now rests with Him in eternity. His purpose was, simply, to bring the joy of the Lord into the lives of others, in many and varied ways. A few weeks before Mark died, Pope Francis died. When the late Pope was seriously ill the son of friends of mine who entertained Mark and I to lunch regularly, was distraught at overhearing mum and dad say the Pope may die. He couldn’t stop crying. “But darling”, they said, “you don’t know the Pope, why so very sad?”. “We do know him” came the reply, “it’s Mark”. “No, Mark isn’t the Pope”. “Oh, so when the Pope does die will Mark be Pope then?”. Mark loved that one. When Mark himself did die said son would only be pacified by picking flowers from the garden and bringing them to church for him. He wanted to show how much Mark meant to him and wanted to give a little something back. That is the real biography – a man loved, respected, a man who shared what he had, above all his faith, a man who touched so many lives and made them better.  Rest in peace our dear friend.
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