Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 25th May 2023
Abbot Paul • May 24, 2023
It would not be an exaggeration to say that St Bede the Venerable is the greatest, most important and most widely read Englishman who ever lived. He died on 26th May in the year 735, aged 61 or 62 and had been a Benedictine monk of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow for most of his life. In fact, once he entered the monastery at the age of seven, he never left it, but received and nurtured his education and learning in the library and among his brethren. He is greatly admired as both an historian and theologian, his writing in both fields being read as enthusiastically today as at the time it was produced. He was also a skilled linguist and translator, translating scripture and the writings of the Fathers into Anglo-Saxon. His homilies and commentaries on the Scriptures are as fresh and readable today as when they were written and his is the famous Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Do read all about him and read his writings. He is a saint truly worth knowing and venerating.
I’ll just say a few words about the concluding verses of the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, with which John concludes the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, (Jn 17: 20-26). Our Lord extends his prayer to include those who are not yet his disciples.
“Holy Father,
I pray not only for these,
but for those also
who through their words will believe in me.
May they all be one.
Father, may they be one in us,
as you are in me and I am in you,
so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.”
Like the disciples and apostles of Jesus, we are also called and chosen to share our faith and bring others into the fold of the Good Shepherd. Jesus wants the whole world to know that he is its Saviour.
“I have given them the glory you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me,
may they be so completely one
that the world will realise that it was you who sent me
and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.”
Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples, which can only be brought about by the glory he shares with them and the unity they share with Christ and through the Spirit in the Father. In fact, the closer we are united with Christ, the closer we will be united with each other.
“I have made your name known to them
and will continue to make it known,
so that the love with which you loved me may be in them,
and so that I may be in them.”
The name of God that Jesus made known to us is, of course, love. God is love and Christ has shared the Father’s love for the Son in the Spirit with each one of us who has accepted Jesus into our lives as Lord and Saviour. He is not only God-with-us but God-in-us.
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Monday 1st to Thursday 4th December 2025. Our first Advent retreat in our newly opened guesthouse
Good Shepherd, Good Priest “I will seek the lost and bring back the strayed; I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” Those words, spoken by the Lord God through the prophet Ezekiel, describe the heart of God, the Good Shepherd — but they also describe the life and ministry of a good monk and priest. They could well be written of Fr Stephen’s years of service as a pastor in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford, and Weobley. In each of those places, he shared in the Shepherd’s work: seeking out the lost, binding up the wounded, strengthening the weary, and leading God’s people with quiet faithfulness. And like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came close to his people, Fr Stephen did not serve from a distance. He knew his people; he was among them. He shared their sorrows and their joys, their hopes and their disappointments. He bore their burdens with prayer and patience he brought the joy of the Gospel and the grace of the Sacraments. His mission amongst us is complete. He has served God’s good purpose. So today we ask Christ the Good Shepherd to take Stephen on his sacred shoulders and carry him home to the house of the Father. Bind up his wounds, give him eternal rest and lead him at last to the green pastures and still waters of eternal life.
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