Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 6th September
Abbot Paul • September 5, 2022
Message from Fr Paul for Tuesday, 6th September 2022
Yesterday, I had to go down to my mother’s in order to take her for her Covid booster some 25 miles away from home. Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic and none of the promised thunderstorms and heavy flooding promised by the weather forecasters. However, when we arrived at the vaccination venue at 1.15 for a 1.30 appointment, we found it closed. I knocked and eventually an assistant opened up, glanced my mother’s six-page invitation in English and Welsh and apologised. She wondered why my mother’s appointment should be bang in the middle of the staff lunch break. The manager promptly arrived and immediately vaccinated my mum. Being Wales, both members of staff were the epitome of politeness, kindness and efficiency. We then went home, where a delicious lunch was prepared in no time at all. I met heavy traffic, a rainstorm and an accident on the way back to Belmont to make up for the easy journey going down.
I wonder whether the new Prime Minister will follow the example of Jesus before she chooses her cabinet. In today’s Gospel, (Lk 6: 12-19), we read how Jesus chose the twelve apostles. “Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.” All four evangelists, and Luke in particular, emphasise the importance that Jesus placed on prayer. Here he spends the whole night alone with his heavenly Father in communion of heart and mind. Only then does he summon his disciples and from them pick out twelve who are to be called ‘apostles,’ men who will be sent out by Jesus to proclaim the Good News that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand and has come in the person of Jesus Christ, whom they know to be the Christ, the Messiah and Saviour of the world.
“He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.” Having chosen his apostles, together they come down from the hills to find a large gathering of disciples and people who have come from all over to hear him speak and to be cured of all manner of ailments and diseases. He healed through a divine power that people felt coming into them, just as he felt it go out of him. It was with the touch of God that Jesus healed the sick and transformed the lives of those around him. Let us, then, place our lives in his hands and trust in him, today and always.
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.
