Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 9th July 2023
Abbot Paul • July 9, 2023
Early yesterday morning Toby and I came across a bush of ripe blackberries and, although it was only 8th July, I ate my first wild blackberries this year. Earlier in the week, we came across delicious wild strawberries in a wood not far from here and had our fill. I can’t help thinking how blessed we are to receive God’s gifts day after day through sight, smell and taste. The foraging season has most definitely begun. I always remember fondly how my grandmother and aunts in Italy would find the most delicious and nutritious food in the woods behind her house: fruits and berries of all sorts, nuts, salads leaves, asparagus, fungi, thistles, grasses and so on. How we would banquet all summer long and well into autumn and winter. My Welsh grandmother, too, was an old hand at foraging and, living near the sea, an expert user of the shrimp net. Do young people today live so close to nature and enjoy such healthy meals? I hope so, for there’s nothing like food found fresh in woods, hedgerows, dunes and beaches. One of my favourite little books, always at my bedside, is FOOD FOR FREE: THE FORAGER’S GUIDE by Richard Mabey. It’s well worth reading. Get a copy!
Our Gospel passage today comes from Matthew, (Mt 11: 25-30). Here Jesus prays to his heavenly Father in the presence of his hearers and then invites them to come to him, that he might lighten their burdens and forgive their sins, as well as reveal the Father’s face to them. He exclaims, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” As he prays, Jesus teaches us that he has come to reveal the Father to his disciples, to those who are humble and open their hearts to him, not to the learned and the clever, but to mere children. In and through Jesus, we can come to know the Father.
Jesus then invites us to come to him and exchange our burdens, the wounds of life and our sins, with his lighter yoke. If we are overburdened, which we probably are, then he will take our burdens and carry them for us. He invites us to offload our burdens onto him, for he will bear them for us as he bore the cross for us and shed his blood for us. In return he will give us his yoke which is easy and his burden which is light. What an exchange of gifts this is. God truly loves us.
Br Meinrad and Br Gildas attend a special service with the Benedictine community of St Paul's Outside the Walls with King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Honesty and Love Before God: Pharisee and Tax Collector; Pope and King - a homily by Abbot Brendan for the 30th Sunday of the Year.
We are sad to announce that Fr Stephen died on Monday 21st October 2055. He was 94. He died peacefully in hospital, having recently fractured his shoulder. He was a beloved member of the monastic community, who had settled back at Belmont after many years on Belmont parishes, including in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford and Weobley. He will be much missed. His Requiem Mass will be at Belmont on Wednesday, 5th November at 11.30am followed by burial in the monastic cemetery. The Reception of his Body into the Abbey Church will take place on Tuesday, 4th November, at 5.45pm.
With honoured guests we were delighted to open our doors again of our new guesthouse and conference centre: The Chapterhouse.
"A hymn to the human body." Abbot Brendan's Homily at the annual Mass celebrated at Rotherwas Chapel in Hereford that dates from the 1580s on the feast of the Assumption.
From Francis to Leo: A special event with Christopher Lamb of CNN in conversation with Austin Ivereigh who commentated for the BBC on the transition from Pope Francis to Pope Leo.
On 12th June an Ecumenical Service was held at Hereford Cathedral to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea.
