Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 4th October 2023

Today the Church keeps the feast of St Francis of Assisi, probably the most popular and best loved of all Christian saints and certainly my favourite. This is partly due to the fact that I spent so much of my childhood and youth in Umbria, land of saints, the land of Francis and Benedict, with my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. My memories are vivid treasures and many of them are connected with St Francis. I’ve written before about the ancient chapel on the farm land of my Zio Beniamino and Zia Annunziata on the bank of the River Chiascio less than a mile from the village of Valfrabbrica, where Francis often stopped to pray and spent the night when walking between Assisi and Gubbio. There was a stone there it was said he used as a pillow. I loved lying on the dirt floor with my head on that stone, running there after lunch to take my siesta. Zia Annunziata called me her little saint! Sadly, it takes more than using a stone for a pillow to become a saint, but I was a kid then, too young to understand. St Francis, pray for us today, that the lives of all Christians may be blessed by your joyful living of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Yesterday I traveled from Belmont to Thessaloniki, a wonderfully straightforward journey, thanks to Fr Alex, who kindly drove me to Birmingham Airport at 3am and Lufthansa, who flew me punctuality and comfortably from Birmingham to Thessaloniki via Munich. My plan for rest and relaxation with my friends has begun and I look forward to a week of just taking things easy.

Our Gospel passage today comes from Luke, (Lk 9: 57-62), three brief encounters between Jesus and aspiring disciples on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus reminds them, as he reminds us and as St Francis shows us so clearly, that a life of discipleship is no easy option, but a challenge and a true vocation. He concludes by telling the third would be disciple, “Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Words we should never forget.