Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday - 25th May 2024

Dear friends, today we keep the feast of St Bede the Venerable, the great English saint, theologian, historian and Benedictine monk. He entered the monastery at Jarrow and Wearmouth at the age of seven and died on this day in the year 735. Although there are special readings selected for his feast, I will simply stick with the Gospel reading of the day. In the Orthodox Church his feast is kept on 27th May. As you know I’m in Greece at the moment visiting friends. Yesterday, with my friend Vasilis, we visited the old city of Thessaloniki and the old market, where we bought incense for our monks in Peru, olives and olive oil, baklava, Greek delight, fruit and cheese. We then had a lazy lunch, washed down with ample amounts of tsipourou, the Greek version of grappa or eau de vie.

Our Gospel passage comes from Mark, (Mk 10: 13-16), and sees Jesus welcoming little children and insisting that his disciples do the same. They are to be cherished and treated with respect. In fact, he recommends that we all become as little children if we wish to enter the kingdom of heaven. “Anyone who does not enter the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” These are powerful words and sum up the life of St Bede. May we follow his example.