Author: Brendan Coffey

Fr William Fennelly OSB

There is surprisingly little in common between St John’s Gospel and the other three. Apart, of course, from the bare facts of Jesus’s life, notably his crucifixion, there are very few stories from his biography that all four agree on. But today’s tale of the ‘cleansing of the temple’ is such a one, and all four Gospels see this incident as closely related to Jesus’s death. This is not simply because Jesus was only making himself a nuisance and causing a fuss – even a potentially explosive fuss at the
biggest event in the Jewish year – but because by his actions Jesus was seen to be making a claim about himself, one that was absolutely unacceptable to the religious authorities of Jerusalem.

This is very obvious in the account that we read today. ‘What sign do you have to show us for doing this?’, he is asked. In other words, ‘Who do you think you are?, and why should we believe you?’ Now Jesus gives an answer, but it’s a cryptic one, which is naturally enough misunderstood, at least until the resurrection, when the sign is fulfilled. But in fact what he has done is itself the sign that justifies his action, if
we recognise the point of his saying about making the temple a ‘house of trade’.

Naturally we take this to mean that Jesus is against selling things and changing money in the temple. We may ask ourselves whether he would express equal displeasure at copies of Catholic newspapers and related products for sale in the back of so many Churches. But this misses the point. Without the sellers of animals for sacrifice, animals that were guaranteed to be acceptable according to the Law of Moses, there could be no sacrifices. Without the money changers, taking the
unacceptable Roman coins and converting them into the acceptable which was shekels, no-one could offer money to the treasury or pay the temple tax that every Jew took pride in paying. In other words, Jesus is not just trying to get rid of a few corrupt practices that have crept in to stain something he basically approves of; no, he is trying to put a stop to the whole thing.

And this is because Jesus brings, in his own person, the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah – in fact the very last verse of his prophesying, which says that ‘there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord on that day’. On what day? On the day of the Lord, when the Lord shows himself to be King over all the earth, when all the nations of the earth will be gathered into one, and when ‘living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem’. On the day of the Lord, the temple is no longer needed, because the whole world is sanctified by the presence of the Lord.

Jesus claims to be the one who brings in this day of the Lord. Indeed, when he is nailed to the cross, Pilate will truly (though he does not mean to be truthful) proclaim that here is the Lord enthroned as King. From that Crucified King living waters will indeed flow out from Jerusalem to bring life to the whole world, on the day when zeal
for God’s house does indeed consume him.

What is this zeal? On the one hand, it is the misplaced zeal of those trying to protect the status quo, the present arrangements which are working out very nicely. Thank you very much, for the temple authorities, and they’ll not encourage anyone who threatens their fragile authority. Or perhaps they are not so cynical: after all, the temple was a great institution, it was after all the place where God had chosen to make his dwelling among humanity and invite his chosen people to celebrate his mercy by participating in the sacrifices established by Moses. All of that, important though it was, was but a sign pointing towards its fulfilment, the astonishing fulfilment that came in the person of Christ. Perhaps we are all guilty, from time to time, of loving the outward signs more than the inward reality.

But more importantly, the ‘zeal for your house’ that consumed Jesus is also Christ’s love for God’s true house, which is the whole world, and which is every human heart that welcomes his Spirit of truth and love.
On the Cross Jesus died for love of us, as zeal for our hearts consumed him. The challenge is very radical for us. Today, will we decide to accept that life-giving love, and if we do, are we willing to accept the sometimes very inconvenient consequences of such a profound change? This renewed religious consciousness does not just arise out of our own selves; it is simultaneously the call of God addressed to us. And it is the working, the operation, of God welling up from the bottomless depths of our soul. Only if God is alive in us, will he be alive in the church.

Fr Denis Hooper OSB

LAST WEEK WE HAD ONE OF THE SHORTEST GOSPELS OF THE YEAR. THIS WEEK WE HAVE ONE OF THE LONGEST PASSAGES. TODAY’S GOSPEL IS ABOUT THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. TO BE TRANSFIGURED IS
TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO SOMETHING MORE BEAUTIFUL.

JESUS’ TRANSFIGURATION SHOWS SOMETHING INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL AND IT IS A MANIFESTATION OF HIS GLORY. IT IS A PROMISE OF THE GLORY TO COME
IT IS AN AFFIRMATION THAT HE IS INDEED THE SON OF GOD AND THERE IS AN INSTRUCTION FROM GOD TO LISTEN TO GOD’S SON

JUST BEFORE THE TRANSFIGURATION IN MARK’S GOSPEL, JESUS TOLD HIS DESCIPLES THAT HE WILL SUFFER GREATLY. HE TOLD THEM THAT HE WOULD BE PUT TO DEATH THIS MUST HAVE THROWN HIS FRIENDS INTO CRISIS:

• THEIR HOPES FOR A STRONG MESSIAH WERE DASHED
• THEIR DREAMS WERE SHATTERED
• THEY WERE ASHAMED THAT JESUS THEIR LORD WOULD BE PUT TO DEATH LIKE A COMMON CRIMINAL

IT’S NO WONDER THEN THAT PETER WANTS TO MAKE THIS MOMENT OF TRANSFIGURATION LAST LONGER, TO DWELL ON THIS WONDERFUL SIGHT OF JESUS TALKING WITH MOSES AND ELIJAH THE DANGER FOR THE DESCIPLES AND INDEED FOR US IS THAT WE WANT THE MOMENT OF GLORY AND WE DON’T WANT THE CROSS – TO WHICH WE ARE JOURNING TO IN THESE WEEKS OF LENT WE ALL PREFER MOMENTS OF TRANSFIGURATION IN OUR LIVES. WE WANT TO ESCAPE TO THE PEACE OF THE MOUNTAIN AND AWAY FROM THE PAIN OF THE WORLD BELOW. AND WHO WOULD BLAME US?

SOME OF US ESCAPE THE PAIN OF THE WORLD THROUGH A MYRIAD OF DRUGS, AND ALCOHOL AND OTHER EXCESSIVE OBSESSIONS. SOME OF US JUST CAN’T FACE THE HARSH REALITIES OF THIS WORLD BUT AS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SAYS, “YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE”

PSALM 139 PUTS IT IN SIMILAR WORDS:
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER HIS TRANSFIGURATION JESUS WILL COME DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN AND SET OUT FOR JERUSALEM AND HIS CERTAIN DEATH JESUS’ OBEDIENCE TO THIS REALITY IS FORESHADOWED IN TODAY’S FIRST READING, WITH ABRAHAM PREPARED TO SACRIFICE HIS ONLY SON WHOM HE LOVED IN THE END, THE SACRIFICE WAS NOT NECESSARY AS ABRAHAM WAS FOUND TO FEAR
GOD.

ABRAHAM’S OBEDIENCE WAS REWARDED WITH BLESSINGS ON HIM AND HIS DESCENDANTS
SAINT PAUL IN THE SECOND READING REMINDS US THAT GOD DID NOT SPARE HIS SON, BUT RATHER GAVE HIM UP TO BENEFIT US ALL – WITH THE REWARD FOR CHRIST’S
OBEDIENCE BEING OUR SALVATION AS WE STAND IN THE GLORY OF THE TRANSFIGURED CHRIST TODAY, WE ARE AWARE OF THE NEED OF TRANSFORMATION IN OUR LIVES AND IN OUR WORLD TODAY THE LENTEN SEASON IS GIVEN TO US AS A TIME FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION WHERE WE SEEK TO REMOVE WHATEVER COMES BETWEEN US AND A DEEPER
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AT THE SAME TIME, OUR WORLD IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF TRANSFORMATION
ACCORDING TO GOD’S PLAN IF EVER THERE WAS A TIME FOR TRANSFORMATION IT IS SURELY NOW:

• A LONG-RUNNING WAR IN UKRAINE – TWO YEARS YESTERDAY AND NO SIGN OF IT
  STOPPING
• WHILST TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE – MANY OF THEM INNOCENTS – HAVE
  BEEN KILLED OR INJURED IN THE HOLY LAND WHERE THE MAJORITY OF HOMES
  HAVE BEEN DESTROYED AND ACCESS TO FOOD, WATER AND HUMANITARIAN AID
  IS SCARCE
• AND IN ALL THIS INTERNATIONAL LAW SEEMS TO BE CONVENIENTLY FORGOTTEN

OUR EXPERIENCE OF THE MOUNTAIN TOP CALLS US TO SAFEGUARD THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AND TO SHARE IT IN THE HOPE OF TRANSFORMING OURSELVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US JUST AS JESUS COMES DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP TO MEET THE PAIN AND SUFFERING FOUND IN THE VALLEY BELOW, WE ALSO MUST GO DOWN WITH HIM AND

MAKE HIS LIGHT SHINE EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY IN THE DARKEST PLACES OF OUR WORLD WHERE CHAOS AND SUFFERING IS ALL AROUND AS WE WALK THROUGH LENT, WE OUGHT TO REMEMBER THAT THE GLORY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION POINTS TO THE GLORY OF THE CROSS ALTHOUGH THE JOURNEY ENDS AT CALVARY – THE DEATH OF JESUS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY. IT IS A NEW BEGINNING JESUS’ RESURRECTION IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. THE TRANSFIGURED
CHRIST WILL CONQUER AND TRANSFORM THE WORLD’S SUFFERING, SIN AND DEATH.

AND SO, LET US BE ENLIGHTENED BY THE TRANSFIGURED CHRIST AND TAKE HOPE FROM WHAT WE HAVE HEARD IN TODAY’S GOSPEL, CONFIDENT THAT CHRIST COMES TO TRANSFIGURE US AND THE WORLD AROUND US.
AMEN.

Fr Jarek Kurek OSB

It struck me, at the outset of this New Year 2024, how eagerly people got down to make their New Year’s resolutions. Something embedded deep down seeking change, seeking renewal, causing a resolution to form in heart and mind.

Now Lent has begun, a new season indeed, a most important time in our Christian life. So, what change are we seeking, what renewal, and what resolution are we making in our hearts and minds?

It has been, I think, not difficult to grasp this newness and renewal listening to the gospel today. Jesus prompts his listeners to repentance, to conversion, to perform a change in their hearts and minds.

The Greek word for this change is metanoia – it is to leave behind our old ways of being and thinking and embrace a new existence, which Jesus continuously points us towards in his teaching.

What does it actually mean? What are we to do? How are we to be?
I think a reflection on the following words of Jesus should help us a lot: ‘If anyone wants to become my follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’.

Now, in our modern minds, the cross doesn’t strike any positive notes! But, if we looked at the ancient tradition of the church, also in Ireland, we will find a different idea, and, I think, quite inspiring. So what do the medieval monks say about taking up the cross? They suggest that, yes, there is a necessity to abstain from food and reject vices, but taking up Jesus’s cross leads to following Jesus in his good thoughts; this was their understanding of the metanoia, our conversion.

Let me divide this path of conversion into three parts – body, mind and Jesus. First, there is the cross of our body, abstaining from food and so on, fast we all know.

What comes next is the reality, I believe, less known to us… the cross of our mind. Now what could that ‘mental cross’ be?  Let me give you at least two aspects of it. The first of this mental cross is a fast of the mind, that is fasting in our thoughts from gossip, envy, lust after
vengeance etc. This is what the tradition regarded as the true and sanctifying fast, the fast which can bring a profound transformation to our spiritual life. But there is another side of this mental cross that we are supposed to carry, that is compassion. Compassion for all people and all creatures. It is our Christian task to be with others, to be for them, to share their infirmities, to help them in sickness, both of body and mind. But there is a caveat: we are guided by the wise monks of the past – with compassion for the person but with opposition to their vices. Since, they say, if ‘we rashly pardon faults we may appear to be no longer sharing in their sufferings through charity, but be yielding through indifference’. Truly food for thought…

Lastly, the final step in this path of conversion is following Jesus in our ‘good thoughts’. The preceding steps should transform the working of our bodies and minds, and so prepare us for a new approach to our spiritual life. With the old, bad habits and thoughts gone, we are ready to make our Lenten preparations different, new indeed.

Because, if we catch the novelty of how to take up the cross, the cross of our bodies and minds,  then instead of sorrow, or perhaps some flatness in our spiritual life, we will be able to truly remain spiritually alive, in Christ.

Through the days of this Lent try to make an attempt to renew your Christian life, make it your determined resolution and soon you will benefit from this blessed effort.

And finally using the words of St Benedict let me say this to you ‘now with the joy of spiritual desire wait for Holy Easter’.

Abbot Brendan OSB

For the first time since 1945, Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday coincide. It will only happen once more this century and that will be in 2029. Perhaps this unusual occurrence is provoking us to consider what true love looks like. It certainly takes a bit more than a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers.

And so, this year, the feast day of our commercial obsession with love and romance is being subverted by a stark reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

In all our relationships, we would do well to remember the brevity of human life. In our relationship with God, Lent can be that hibernation period where we can fall in love all over again. God responds to the sin that keeps us from him by wooing us away from other, lesser gods and back to the real lover of our souls.

The ashes imposed on our foreheads are a sign of our repentance. We are not supposed to display our fasting and repentance in a pious way, but we’re also not supposed to just wash them off.

Those ashes will be a mark and reminder, as deep and personal as any piece of jewellery or bunch of flowers. These ashes show that we are loved, and that our beloved’s commitment to us is constant and true, even when we are not. They show us that divine Love is not just about feelings or sentiments, but about death to everything that hinders it. They say to us, ‘What do you plan to do between the time you receive these ashes and the time you become them?’

This is why we need Ash Wednesday this Valentine’s Day. We will fast from unwarranted judgments about ourselves and about others. We will give up self-hate. We will give up impatience with others. We will give up fear of strangers and hatred of our enemies. We will give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, shelter to the homeless. We will visit the sick and imprisoned. We will bury the dead with honour. We will give instruction to the ignorant, counsel to the doubting, comfort to the sorrowful, gentle reproof to the erring. We will forgive those who’ve wronged us, and bear with those who trouble and annoy us. We will pray for everyone and everything.

This Ash Wednesday I can decide to make a real gesture of love from the ashes of my life. This is our Lenten programme and unlike Valentine’s Day, it lasts, not one, but forty days.

Fr Columba McCann OSB

‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean!’ I imagine that many of us have said something similar in our prayers, asking for health, either for ourselves or for our loved ones. Sometimes God answers through natural healing, or through medical intervention, or sometimes in ways that still defy our understanding.

Sometimes it appears as if God hasn’t listened at all. At least we don’t get what we want. It could be that God’s plan of therapy for us or for others is much bigger and more ambitious. It could be that the work God is doing with us is so big that the reality of physical sickness or its absence pale into the shade. But that can be very hard for us to see or accept.

All the people healed by Jesus in the gospel accounts eventually died. It means that his healings were ultimately about something more than simple biological recovery. St John’s gospel in fact refers to them as signs. But signs of what? What are they pointing to? One example of this was when they brought a paralysed man to Jesus. Jesus responded with compassion, not because of his paralysis, but because of something bigger. His first words to him were, ’Your sins are forgiven.’ It was only when people began to grumble about Jesus forgiving sins that he also told the man to get up and walk. The healing of paralysis confirmed his message of forgiveness. The physical healing was a sign of a much deeper healing, healing a problem that, deep down, was more distressing than physical paralysis for all its difficult challenges.

On another occasion, when Jesus was criticised for mixing with sinners, he compared himself to a doctor. It’s the sick who need the doctor! That’s good news for us. What about today’s reading? The man had some kind of skin problem. Leprosy was a catch-all word referring to a whole wide range of skin diseases. A major outcome of this was isolation, in case of contagion. Remember Covid 19 lockdown! Part of Jesus’s healing project is to bring us out of isolation. That’s why he gathers us here in one place. Being with one another here is part of our deep healing. Even if we find that, at times, we find ourselves getting irritated by what we see when we gather together. It’s part of his formula.

A woman once went to a funeral. When it came to the sign of peace she shook hands with a stranger beside her, and he began to cry. In a whisper she asked the man if we were a close friend of the deceased. ‘No,’ he said, ‘but this is the first time that anyone has physically touched me in many, many years.’ The Lord gathers us and brings us out of isolation. He brings us here to speak to our hearts, and so we
can respond in kind. Being a leper back then didn’t just bring social isolation. It also brought a condition of ritual impurity: you weren’t allowed to take part in religious events. To make matters worse, many people believed that being a leper was a punishment from God, a sign that you were a great sinner.

Most of us, if we are honest, would admit that, really, there is much at work inside us that gets in the way of living in partnership with God, gets in the way of our being fully alive. We need healing. So our attitude towards Jesus could well imitate that of the leper, who knelt before Jesus: if you are willing, you can heal me. Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. And
Jesus will reply: of course I want to heal you! This is my body given for you; this is the covenant in my blood for the forgiveness of your sins.
Jesus could have healed the leper just with a word. Instead, he did the one thing that he knew would really speak to the leper: he reached out and touched him. He knows too that we are not disembodied spirits, so he reaches out to us not only with his word but with something that goes into our hands, our mouths, our bodies. This is my body given for you. Be healed!

Fr Anthony Keane OSB

EVERYONE IS LOOKING FOR YOU.

In today’s gospel, from the first chapter of Mark, we find Jesus
welcomed and celebrated as the hope and delight of the peoples,, the
EXPECTATIO GENTIUM. For he teaches with authority, and among
his listeners the effect is one of welcome affirmation and liberation. It
is indeed no wonder that these wonders should occur. That nature
should be stilled and be thrilled at the presence of its Creator. That
everyone should be delighted at his summons to wholeness and
fullness of life. For he lovingly restores to us the perfection of the
divine image in which we are made, saying: ‘I say to you, you are
Gods, and all of you children of the Most High’. For those weighed
down by guilt for past sins, He is the Lamb who is proclaimed at the
sacrifice of the Mass: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who
takes away the sins of the world. He would share with us the ecstasy
of the Trinity and its creative power to share life and make it
complete.
All seems lovely and bright, but dark clouds begin to appear, first as
mere specks that then proceed to gather and ominously darken. This
happens because the leaders of the people regressively wish to stay
asleep and stay in power. It happens because the oppressed
regressively wish to regress into a quiet impersonal state of existence.
It happens too because the explosive force of Christ’s presence among
us needs to be contained and properly packed to have its full effect.
The terrifying opposition to Christ’s coming is itself part of the plan
and only serves to amplify its message.
Finally, Christ calls disciples. Are there among us some who would
choose the fullness of life which He so kindly offers?

Fr Abbot Brendan OSB

The Temple in Jerusalem was a very busy place. A great many people were coming and going about their business. Priests and Levites were taking their turn to be on duty and many other devout people and pilgrims were scurrying about anxious to encounter the God of Israel. In all of their haste and business, none of them noticed Jesus. The child Jesus was like all the others, a first-born son, of simple unremarkable parents.

Only two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, were alert enough to notice him. Led by the Spirit they were able to find the fulfilment of their long awaited watchfulness. The prophetic attitude of these two elderly people contains the entire Old Covenant. When they saw him, they just knew! That is what is so remarkable. His light was visible to their well trained eyes.

Our feast today contains the fundamental symbol of light. This light comes from Christ, as in an icon, and shines upon Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna. We are asked to express this light as philokalia, love of Divine beauty, where our mind becomes absorbed in the awareness of God as a living presence. For this reason a lighted candle was entrusted to each one of us at our baptism.

This feast also contains prophecy as a gift of the Holy Spirit. In contemplating the Child Jesus, Simeon and Anna foresee his destiny of death and Resurrection for the salvation of all peoples and they proclaim this mystery as universal salvation. True prophecy is born of God, from friendship with him, from attentive listening to his word in the different circumstances of history.

Finally, this feast reveals to us the wisdom of Simeon and Anna. The wisdom of a life completely dedicated to the search for God’s Face, for his light, for his signs, for his will. This is a life of listening to the Word and living it.

The Holy Spirit illumines the Word with new light opening up new pathways for us to follow in our own lives as Christians. Do not be blind to this light. Do not let it pass you by in the hustle and bustle of ordinary life. Become wise like Simeon and Anna, attuned to the Word of God, so that when that Word approaches, you will just know.

This feast invites us to see the world in the light of Christ, to become a prophetic people rooted in the Word that gives us wisdom.

Fr Henry O’Shea OSB

Despite the fashionable mockery heaped by many populists from the
right or left of the political spectrum on those they classify as so-called
experts, most of us are prepared to accept the authority of at least
some experts.

In many cases, we can immediately recognise some benefit to
ourselves. The knowledge or skill of, for example, a doctor or a
mechanic may be of use to us. In these situations, the knowledge the
other person possesses can be power – but in most cases we can choose
whether or not to avail ourselves of that knowledge or skill. More or
less consciously, we believe that in these cases our freedom, our space,
is not invaded.

Many of us, though, have difficulty with an authority which we know
or imagine to be claiming to have the right to tell us how to behave,
how to run our lives. Our experience of the abuse of such authority in
public life, in the Church, in school or even in our families, can make
us allergic to claims of such authority and its exercise. And so we are
entitled to ask, is there such a thing as legitimate authority?

In today’s gospel Jesus is recognised as one who speaks with authority.
Is his the authority of the technical expert? Is his an authority that
invades our space, that limits our freedom? Is his the authority of a

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life-giving self-sacrifice or the self-seeking authority of the death-
dealer?

The scribes in to-day’s gospel are the officially accredited teachers of
the scriptures in the synagogue. Their knowledge is power – and they
know it and use it. Those who are surprised to hear Jesus preach as he
did in the synagogue immediately recognise the difference between
him and their usual teachers. Spontaneoulsy they grasp the difference
between professional peddlars and interpretors of an inherited, stale
and almost academic, tradition and a person who is speaking from
inside his own being. They immediately recognise the difference
between the dealers in death and the giver of life.

Jesus’s teaching flows out from who and what he was and is. Who and
what Jesus was then and still is now, is recognised and shouted out by
one of his listeners. A man possessed by an unclean spirit cries out– ‘I
know who you are – you are the holy one of God’. Jesus shows himself
to be a new way of knowing God a new way of talking about and
talking to God, a new way of living God.

Regardless of how we today might understand and describe what is
meant by an unclean spirit, the intuition and recognition displayed by
this spirit are not mistaken. The unclean spirit calls out, ‘what do you
want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?’. Jesus’

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reply, ‘be quiet, come out of him’, destroys the death-dealing unclean
spirit and returns his life to the possessed man.

Up to the time of his crucifixion, Jesus, the life-giving teacher, will go
on to destroy many more dealers of death until with his resurrection
he destroys death itself. Every day, every moment, he offers us, he
challenges us, to choose between life – that is himself – and death –
that is slavery to the cynical, hopeless, despair of the unclean spirit.
When we choose life, his resurrection gives us the hope that the choice
is the right one. The holy one of God gives us the strength to live out
that right choice.

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB

The Mass is a place of encounter. We, the baptised are called by the Holy Spirit to celebrate together the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. At the Mass we encounter and listen to the Word of God which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our paths. This light is necessary as we so often find ourselves in dark places either due to our own actions, those of others, or sometimes by chance. The Word shines a light in our darkness that the dark cannot overcome.

The readings today provide an indication of the illuminating power of the Word of God in various situations. First up is Jonah who has been commanded to go to Nineveh and proclaim: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed”. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, a nation that is foremost among Israel’s enemies. This wicked city is unlikely to respond to a Jewish prophet. Jonah didn’t want to go there but finally accepts the Lord’s command. He is fearful that what the Lord says will not happen, and that he and the Lord will be shamed. The people of the city from the greatest to the least repent, fast and pray, so that the Lord changes his mind. The physical city of Nineveh is not destroyed and so Jonah is in one sense proved right. However the wickedness of the city is no more, so in a more real sense, the preaching of God’s word has destroyed the old Nineveh and something new and wonderful emerges. Might this transforming word have something to say to us in Ireland? Might this word have something to say to us at Glenstal, monastery and school, that we might be transformed? Might we have the courage to recognise failings and be open to new possibilities?

St Paul relativises all human possessions and relationships. The kingdom is coming. Possessions and concern for status will only weigh us down. God is calling us his children to take our places in the Kingdom. God calls us for who we are, not for what we have. Today, there is a real need to reconnect with who we are and who God wants us to become. God’s word has been sown in our hearts and knows us better that we know ourselves. The Word knows our deepest desires for life and happiness and so is best placed to guide us. This is why St Benedict places so much emphasis on listening to the Word in his Rule – monks are to spend about a third of the waking hours of each day reading and listening. The Word of the Lord calls out daily to each of us but how often do we listen?

Jesus proclaims the Good News to the people of Galilee, a word that is also spoken to us: “The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.” Now is the time, near is the kingdom, best is this Good News for us all. Much like the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, and James and John, we have doubts, personal failings and weaknesses, but God’s word works in and through us. We have only to take up the invitation, to let the word perform its surgery on our hardened hearts and so make them hearts for love. The unlikely transformation of Nineveh, the greatest of sin, and of the all too ordinary fishermen with their weaknesses, should encourage us.

We may be in dark places, we may have personal failings, but God’s word lightens the darkest places and strengthens the weakest parts of ourselves. Let us open our eyes to the divine light and listen to the voice of the Lord, whose Word is the best compass for navigating our personal journeys, who guides our hearts to choose the way of life and happiness and who ultimately will bring us to our true harbour, life with the Trinity in eternity.

On Saturday 10th February 2024, you have the chance to learn about the Psalms’ enduring spiritual power through talks and guided readings by the monks of Glenstal Abbey.

The monastic day is punctuated by the praying of the Psalms which, over time, are intended to penetrate every thought, word, and deed of the monk. During this day of talks, the monks will seek to share the treasures of the Psalms and to reveal their enduring spiritual nourishment for every stage of life.

Columba McCann OSB will explore some of the many ways in which the Psalms function in the liturgy, whilst Pádraig McIntyre OSB will share some personal readings of the Psalms. Starting with Columba of Iona, Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB will explore how the Psalms shaped the spirituality, theology and art of medieval Irish Christians. Simon Sleeman OSB will explore the Psalms in dialogue with contemporary scholars.

• 9.45am – Registration
• 10am – ‘O God, we ponder your love within your temple: Psalms in the Liturgy’ with Columba McCann OSB
• 10.45am – Morning Coffee
• 11.05am – ‘The Psalms: My Prayer’ with Pádraig McIntyre OSB
• 12.10pm – Mass
• 1pm – Lunch
• 2.15pm – ‘The Psalms in the Irish Tradition’ with Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB
• 3.30pm – ‘Praying with Open Eyes’ with Simon Sleeman OSB

Taking place Saturday 10th February 2024 from 9.45am to 4.30pm. Cost €70.

For more information and enquiries please contact events@glenstal.com or call 061 621005.