Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 9th August

Message from Fr Paul for Tuesday, 9th August 2022

 It’s a great joy to have a friend of mine come and stay a few days at Belmont. Sr Mary Kavanagh SND and worked together with me for twenty years in Peru. There’s a lot of news to share and many people to be remembered, both in conversation and in prayer. On 6th August 1981, Fr Luke, Fr David and I arrived in Lima from Cochabamba, Bolivia, where we had spent months perfecting our Spanish at the Maryknoll Institute of Languages. It was not until 20th that we arrived in Tambogrande, where we were to set up our first monastic home, due to all the paperwork that had to be completed before we could settle down as residents in the country. The Sisters of Notre Dame were a great example to us in the thoroughly professional way they set about their missionary, educational and catechetical work and we learned a great deal from them.

 Today we keep the feast of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), the virgin martyr who lost her life together with her sister Rosa on this day in 1942 at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Although born into a Jewish family, she became an agnostic in her teens and dedicated her life to the study of philosophy. Reading the works of St Teresa of Avila and through the power of the Cross of Jesus, she was drawn towards the Catholic faith. Once she became a Catholic, she entered a Carmelite monastery and became a nun, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. All her writings are well worth reading. You might well have read, for example, The Science of the Cross. She is one of the patron saints of Europe and, hopefully, one day will be declared a Doctor of the Church. 

The Gospel reading for the feast is taken from Matthew, (Mt 25: 1-13), the famous parable of the Ten Virgins or Bridesmaids, a parable we know well. It’s a memorable tale with a clear message, that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must be awake and prepared. The saddest words in the Bible are those of the bridegroom when the five foolish bridesmaids return to the wedding hall late and crying out, “Lord, Lord, open the door for us.” His reply from within the locked door is, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.” Jesus warns us to “stay awake,” or we too will hear the voice of the Lord say the same words to us. The choice is ours. It really is up to us to be ready for the Lord’s coming and the inauguration of his kingdom. We know that St Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa made the right decision and are counted among the wise virgins, but will we be, that’s the question for us today?