Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 14th March 2023

The days are rushing by quickly and the nights seem shorter than ever. I usually wake around 3am and spend time in personal prayer and sorting out emails before going down the church for Vigils. Today is my last full day in Peru, as, God willing, I will be leaving Lima on Wednesday evening. Yesterday our bishop was coming to see me, but at the last minute he was summoned to the Bishops’ Conference for an emergency meeting on the current political problems in Peru and the flood disaster in the north of the country. I was asked to visit a friend of the monastery and her son to pray with them. It was a delightful visit and, as you know by now, Peruvians take prayer very seriously, so it was also hard work. The lady has a wonderful collection of orchids, a particular passion of mine, so I hope to include a few photographs. I was so exhausted by the form of prayer, that also includes exorcism, that I slept all the way back to the monastery, a 90 minute journey.

Our Gospel today comes from Matthew, (Mt 18: 21-32), and is about forgiveness, which is not only one of the great themes of Lent, but one of the main tenets of the Christian faith. When Peter asks Jesus how many times he must forgive a brother who wrongs him, suggesting that seven times might be the right number, Jesus tells him, “Not seven, but seventy seven times.” This number can also be translated as “seventy times seven.” In other words, a disciple, a Christian, should be disposed always to forgive, even before he has been wronged. There is only one way for a Christian and that is to forgive “from the heart.”