Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 15th March 2023

This evening I’ll be leaving Peru to fly back to the U.K. via Paris. I must confess that, after two happy weeks, it’s difficult to up sticks and go back as though it were the easiest thing in the world. It’s not. How can I put it? It’s like constant tampering with an open wound. Some of my readers will understand what I am trying to say, others not. This has happened all my life, of course, since I was a small boy: all those long holidays in Italy and then having to go back to Wales. It’s difficult, and can be heartbreaking many times over, to belong to two or more places and groups of people. This time it’s been a particular joy to renew old friendships and make new ones. Yesterday I finished the novel I was reading and started a new one. Novels help my sanity! I also ate all the fruit l safely could, but don’t tell my diabetes nurse, as she’ll never forgive me. I thought you’d like to see Fr Alex preaching at the Conventual Mass, so I’ll include that among my photographs today.

For today’s Gospel we return to Matthew, (Mt 5: 17-19), and the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus explains to his disciples his attitude to the Law and the Prophets. He says, “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.” He asks us not to infringe or break the commandments, but to keep them and teach others to do the same. It all sounds very simple, but are we prepared to do what he requires of us. It’s not always easy being a Christian, is it?