Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 10th May 2023
Abbot Paul • May 9, 2023
This evening, at Belmont, we will welcome countless pilgrims for our annual May Precession in honour of Our Lady. It begins at 9.00pm and it might well be that you are planning to join us. We are delighted that Archbishop Mark O’Toole will be presiding at the celebration and preaching. It’s also a wonderful occasion to remember Br Bernard, who for so many years organised the May Procession and whose genius lay at the heart of its success. Now it is admirably organised by Fr Augustine, whom we all admire for his devotion to Our Lady and his organisational skills. May Our Lady pray for us all and strengthen our love for her Divine Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Our Gospel passage today comes from John, (Jn 15: 1-8), where Jesus uses another image for himself and his relationship with his disciples, that of the vine and the branches, the Parable of the True Vine.
“I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit
he prunes to make it bear even more.
You are pruned already,
by means of the word that I have spoken to you.
Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself,
but must remain part of the vine,
neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, with me in him,
bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers;
these branches are collected and thrown on the fire,
and they are burnt.
If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
you may ask what you will
and you shall get it.
It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit,
and then you will be my disciples.”
Jesus is the true vine because his Father is the vinedresser. Whether we are cut off and thrown away or simply pruned, it’s still painful to be a branch of the true vine, yet if we are pruned, then we can be assured of producing more and better fruit for the glory of our heavenly Father. However, this depends very much on remaining attached to the true vine, for apart from him we wither and die and can produce no fruit. But the Father wants us to bear fruit in abundance, which is why we are grafted onto Christ at Baptism and remain attached to him through faith, hope and love and the faithful reception of the Sacraments. Praised be Jesus Christ, the True Vine, who nurtures and nourishes his branches.
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