Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday - 1st February 2024
Abbot Paul • January 31, 2024
Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of driving up to Leominster, as I do several times a week, to celebrate Mass in the church there dedicated to St Ethelbert. It’s a very prayerful church in which to celebrate Mass and the congregation is very devout. Then I had the joy of welcoming a close friend to advise me on how best to adapt the presbytery for my use when I move there at the beginning of May on my retirement as abbot, a date I now look forward to with a joyful and loving heart. God has been so good to me in so many ways, true friendship being one of his greatest gifts. I wonder if you know that old English proverb: A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
​Today’s Gospel passage from Mark, (Mk 6: 7-13), tells of the first time that Jesus sent the Twelve to preach the Good News and heal the sick. “Jesus made a tour round the villages, teaching. Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits.” So great were the needs that Jesus decided that the time had come for the Twelve, his chosen Apostles, to share in his ministry. He didn’t send them alone but in pairs, so that they could give each other support and encouragement. He gives them authority, the authority that he himself had received from his heavenly Father. Before they set off, he gives them strict instructions as to how they should behave. “And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’” These regulations are strict indeed. I can’t imagine missionaries today accepting such stringent rules, but these were other times: life was much harder and people expected to put up with hardship. He is teaching them to rely on Divine Providence and to trust in God to provide for their needs through the generosity hospitality of the people they would preach to and heal.
​Mark’s final comment is interesting. “So, they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.” It’s not the Good News they preach but repentance, yet, when you think of it, surely that is the Good News. We repent so that God might forgive us in Christ. That is precisely what the Gospel and the Christian faith are all about, repentance and forgiveness. Interesting, too, is the separation between casting out devils and healing the sick. Rather, the Apostles use oil, which is the sign of God’s mercy and love. This is the origin of the Sacrament of Anointing. Perhaps we would do well to receive this holy anointing more frequently. When I lived in Peru, our ministry to the sick included a monthly service of Anointing, when the sick would be brought to church by family members to be anointed. I remember one dear lady, who said to me one day, “Father, you’ve kept me alive so for long with your anointing, it’s time now for me to die and be with my parents. Just bless me with holy water.” I obeyed her command. That very afternoon she died. May she rest in peace. Her name was Doña Eufemia Torres, a great lady.
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.
Archbishop Mark O'Toole, of Cardiff-Menevia presided at the Requiem Mass for Bishop Mark, while Abbot Brendan conducted his burial. Cardinal Vincent Nichols preached a homily full of warmth and affection for Bishop Mark which is reproduced below.
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.
Our brethren in Peru were delighted with the election of Pope Leo.
