Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 27th November
Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 27th November 2021
No doubt you will be keen to know how Toby is getting on. I think we might be getting into a new rhythm of life. At 11.30 yesterday morning he was coaxed into the lift with dried salmon strips and stayed upstairs with me until 4 in the afternoon, when we eventually got him back in the lift to go out for a very short walk. After that he remained downstairs in the monastic parlour. He is enjoying his meals and taking his medication, but refusing to go out through the front door, insisting on one of the back doors in the kitchen yard. I’m not quite sure how things will be after the operation, which should be one day next week. On Sunday he will be ten years’ old.
Today we come to the end of the Liturgical Year and our reading of Luke on weekdays. However, tomorrow, the First Sunday in Advent, we enter into Year C, the Year of Luke, in reading our Sunday Gospel, but let’s see now what Jesus tells his disciples today, as we conclude our weekday reading of Luke, (Lk 21: 34-36).
“Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.”
Jesus invites us today, as he did his disciples of old, to be watchful and to banish from our lives all that will coarsen our hearts. In other words, we are to avoid sin and seek after holiness. We must be ready for Christ’s Coming in glory, when he will judge us for what we did in our lives. We are to pray at all times, staying awake, not just physically but spiritually. If we do that, then we can “stand with confidence before the Son of Man.” How wonderful to hear those words from the lips of Jesus at the final Mass of the year.
I remind those who live nearby that this evening at 7.30 we hold our Advent Carol Service to be sung by Academia Musica, to which you are cordially invited. Obviously, face coverings are mandatory.
