Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 15th September 2022
Abbot Paul • September 14, 2022
Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 15th September 2022
Today I will be travelling down to Peru, leaving Belmont at 3am, and for the very first time I won’t be driving myself and all my luggage to Birmingham Airport, but being taken there by a kind parishioner. As it’s two and a half years since I last visited, there have been many requests from the monastery shop to take out things for sale that cannot be found locally, e.g. 25 kilos of Ethiopian and Greek incense and a vast collection of medals of St Benedict of all shapes and sizes and many other things besides. I hope and pray customs are kind in Lima and let me go through as they usually did before Covid. I doubt it will be possible to send a message tomorrow, so for the first day since mid-March 2020, there will be no message on Friday. We can both take a break.
Yesterday evening I was watching the Lying in State of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and couldn’t help noticing the number of young people filing past, stopping for a moment and bowing in reverence. These past few days have been so poignantly moving that I find tears coming to my eyes whenever I think of her. She was far more than a queen, she was our mother and the linchpin that kept everything in place, the rock on which our lives were built.
Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, a feast originally kept as a preparation for Holy Week on the Friday before Palm Sunday. The short Gospel passage is taken from John, (Jn 19: 25-27). “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.” At this stage of his Passion, all his followers have run away in fear. Just three women remain, the three Marys, and standing near his mother he sees a young disciple who was particularly close to Jesus, traditionally believed to be John. Jesus commends his mother to his disciple and his disciple to his mother. The young man becomes the Virgin’s protector adopted son while she becomes his mother. Here that disciple also becomes a symbol of the whole Church of Christ. We pray that there will always be a place for Mary, the mother of the Lord, in our lives and in our homes. Amen.
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.
