Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 16th November 2022
Abbot Paul • November 15, 2022
You will be pleased to hear that our retreat is going well. I just wish we could switch off our computers and mobile phones for the week and be allowed a real retreat in peace and quiet. Perhaps, that’s too much to hope for. Today we keep the feast of St Gertrude the Great, born on the feast of the Epiphany in 1256. She entered the monastery school at Helfta in Germany at the age of four and joined the monastic community at the age of ten. She received a thorough education and it was only at the age of 25 that she started receiving visions. She became one of the great mystics of the 13th century, dying in the year 1302. She produced numerous writings, not all of which survive, but she is a true teacher of the art of contemplative prayer and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to this day. We ask for her prayers as we, too, walk the path of Christian discipleship.
At a solemn Mass, the feast of St Basil and St Gregory, Br Alban makes his promises as a claustral oblate.
Belmont Abbey Organ is the second largest organ in the County of Herefordshire. It has 3 manuals (keyboards) and 54 stops and is second only to the organ of Hereford Cathedral (4 Manuals and 67 stops) - Belmont has the largest organ in our Catholic Diocese.